Final Fantasy (video game) Development

Final Fantasy was developed during Square's brush with bankruptcy in 1987, and in a display of gallows humor, director Hironobu Sakaguchi declared that his "final" game would be a "fantasy" role-playing game; hence the title. When Sakaguchi was asked what type of game he wanted to make, he replied "I don't think I have what it takes to make a good action game. I think I'm better at telling a story." Sakaguchi's concept was a game with a large world map to explore and an engaging story.Sakaguchi took an in-development ROM of the game to Japanese magazine Family Computer, but it would not review it. Video game magazine Famitsu, however, gave the game extensive coverage. The development team was composed of seven people, while the other team at Square had about twenty. Sakaguchi stated that if the game did not sell, he would quit making video games and return to college to make up a year. Only 200,000 copies were to be shipped, but Sakaguchi pleaded with the company to make 400,000 to help spawn a sequel, and it agreed.
The game's characters and title logo were designed by Yoshitaka Amano, and the scenario was written by freelance writer Kenji Terada. Iranian-American freelance programmer Nasir Gebelli, who was living in Japan at the time, worked as the programmer for the game. Among the other developers were Hiromichi Tanaka, Koichi Ishii, and Kazuko Shibuya. Following the successful North American localization of Dragon Quest, Nintendo of America translated Final Fantasy into English and published it in North America in 1990. The North American version of Final Fantasy was met with modest success, partly due to Nintendo's then-aggressive marketing tactics. No version of the game was marketed in the PAL region until Final Fantasy Origins in 2003.
The music for Final Fantasy was composed by Nobuo Uematsu, and was his 16th video game music composition. The soundtrack album was released together with the score of Final Fantasy II in 1989. Some of the game's tracks became mainstays to the Final Fantasy series: the "Prelude", the arpeggio played on the title screen; the "Opening Theme", which is played when the party crosses the bridge early in the game and later referred to as the Final Fantasy theme; and the "Victory Fanfare", which is played after every victorious battle. The opening motif of the battle theme has also been reused a number of times in the series.