The Final Fantasy series lives on as one of the most beloved Japanese role-playing series in the genre. What initially started as a last-ditch effort by the original company, Squaresoft, to save their failing video game business, became one of the most inspiring, revolutionary, and influential games to ever be created.
Over the years and across over fifteen games, the series became been known for its fair share of mysteries and easter eggs hidden throughout their worlds. In this list, well be taking a look at five mysteries across the Final Fantasy series that took years to solve and five that were never explained.
10 Unsolved: Who Is Laguna Loire?
If you’ve played Final Fantasy VIII, then you’re already familiar with the titular protagonist, Squall Leonhart. But, in the same vein, you probably wondered what the deal was with Laguna Loire, a temporary playable character that’s used primarily during flashbacks at multiple points in the story.
Since the game’s inception, there have been rumors and theories floating around on the internet from Laguna being the actual main character, to him being Squall’s father, to the whole story just being a fever dream of Squall’s. Laguna remains a mystery in the series and it looks like that will never be solved.
9 Solved: Phoenix Down Is The Feather Of Phoenix Summon.
The ever-famous Phoenix Down of the Final Fantasy franchise, the popular revival item from the series has a somewhat confusing past. Numerous theories circulated over the years about what exactly the item was: a potion, a food, an elixir of some sort, or something entirely different?
Until recently, the answer remained shrouded in mystery, but it turns out that the item, in reality, is the feather of the legendary phoenix summon. The “Down” in the item, is suggestive of the down feathers of a bird, an obvious clue that should have given away the answer to this mystery years ago.
8 Unsolved: Who Was Sir Fratley?
When it comes to Final Fantasy IX, the iteration remains rife with easter eggs and mysteries, some even discovered 17 years after its release. One of those mysteries remains Sir Fratley, a legendary Burmecian Dragon Knight and sweetheart of Freya Crescent.
Sir Fratley leaves the kingdom in a quest to make peace with neighboring nations to ensure the safety of Burmecia, with Freya later following in his footsteps, embarking on a journey to find him. Years later, during the siege of Cleyra, he returns and saves the party, explaining that he has no memories of his past and suffers from amnesia. Without a spin-off, remake, or continuation insight, we may never know his enigmatic backstory and how he came to lose his memory.
7 Solved: Why Is There A Cid In Every Game?
Some fans may be unaware, but, to this day, there exists a Cid in every Final Fantasy game ever produced. Many wondered why this was the case, from Cid’s appearing as main party members to bad guys and even supporting characters. But the answer to this question was very simple: tradition.
After the first two interactions reached commercial success and included Cid characters, the creators thought they should keep the tradition going. It has also been said that all of the Cid characters tend to fit into a specific personality archetype, which makes the character creation process much easier for the writers.
6 Unsolved: The Existence Of Tidus
The last mainline Final Fantasy game to be produced by the team at Squaresoft remains chock-full of mysteries and surprises. If you’ve yet to play the game, then some of this may come as a spoiler, but the main character, Tidus, has an interesting origin story. From the beginning, we understand that he is a visitor from the past, being brought to the future by Sin. But, by the end of the story, it turns out that he is actually the Star Wars equivalent of a force ghost, a spirit manifestation of pyreflies from the past.
But the strange part remains that it’s possible he can be brought back from the dead, even though throughout the story we are repeatedly told that it’s impossible to resurrect anyone from the farplane. The whole situation remains a very confusing mystery to this day.
5 Solved: BlitzBall Champion
With every Final Fantasy, there’s a new side game or gimmick introduced for the player to sink endless hours into playing. The new game for Final Fantasy X was Blitzball, an increasingly frustrating version of underwater soccer. There is even a whole segment of the game that you’re required to play in a Blitzball tournament, which, because of its difficulty, left a lot of fans with a bad taste in their mouth.
But, years later it was discovered, that you can easily win the infamous game, against the Luca Goers, by getting an early lead and then hiding behind the goalie. If discovered sooner, this revelation would have saved the community thousands of dollars in broken controllers.
4 Unsolved: Auron’s Backstory
Since we are on the topic of Final Fantasy X, it would be a good time to mention the muscle of the game, Auron. Much like Tidus, he comes from the same timeline… but also the future, which makes him Final Fantasy’s version of The Terminator.
His backstory remains an enigma to this day with little information on his journey with Jecht and Braska, how he came to Spira and what exactly he was doing in Zanarkand. All we know is that he suffered the same fate as Tidus, disappearing into a cloud of pyreflies, never to be seen again.
3 Solved: Final Fantasy 9 Secret Ending
The series kind of pioneered the secret ending phenomenon we know and love today where one must meet a list of certain in-game requirements in order to unlock an ending that was otherwise not known to exist.
In Final FantasyIX, if you have Cinna’s hammer in your inventory, which is the final prize from Queen Stella during the Stellazzio coins sidequest, then you can view the secret ending. After the final boss fight, an extra scene shows as an additional part of the “I Want to Be Your Canary” play where Baku, as King Leo, will actually execute Blank.
2 Unsolved: What Happened To Kuja?
Kuja is the main antagonist of Final Fantasy IX until the appearance of Necron at the very end of the game. Throughout the entry, he appears at crucial moments to wreak havoc on the party with his immense power. But, after Zidane saves him during your final encounter in the Lifa Tree, his existence is never mentioned again. He is one of the only major villains of the mainline games to have a brief backstory and no resolution in his character arch. We see Zidane escape the Lifa Tree does that mean that Kuja escaped, as well?
1 Solved: Kefka The Easiest Boss Fight
Kefka; the single most popular and powerful villain in the Final Fantasy franchise not named Sepiroth turns out to be one of the easiest bosses in the series. When using Setzer’s Slots ability, it can be manipulated to kill high-level enemies that would have otherwise taken a long time to defeat.
You can influence the Slots by using the Echo Screen item, as this will force the game to use Setzer’s Joker Doom ability, which will destroy all of the enemies on the battlefield. If you manage to level your team up to a 90 or higher, you can even use this method to beat the final boss, Kefka, in a single hit.
NEXT: 10 Best Final Fantasy Games Of The Decade, Ranked
