Final Fantasy 4 was nearly skipped so the JRPG series could beat Dragon Quest

Final Fantasy series leads Takashi Tokita and Yoshinori Kitase claim that Square Enix considered skipping Final Fantasy 4 as a promotional stunt. If the company had decided to go directly to FF5, the multi-entry JRPG series' fifth entry would've launched before Dragon Quest's.

In an interview on Final Fantasy's official website, Final Fantasy 4 lead Tokita reveals that Square Enix considered calling the series' fourth entry Final Fantasy 5 in order to surpass the company's most popular JRPG series, Dragon Quest. Originally launching one year before Final Fantasy's first entry, Dragon Quest continues to hold the title of Square Enix's longest running series.

Tokita began his first principal position at Square Enix working as lead game designer on Final Fantasy 4. As he had previously worked on the JRPG's third entry, he saw the move to development on the SNES from the NES as an opportunity to catch up to Dragon Quest.

"In the NES era, Dragon Quest was released before Final Fantasy," Tokita explains. "So it felt like we were constantly trying to catch up. But FF was released for the SNES first, and while that came with its own pressures, it was also a chance to pull ahead since both series were tied with four titles each."

This advantage apparently led to company higher-ups discussing how to make the most of the situation. "Now that I think about it, wasn't there talk of skipping 4 and making 5 instead?" Kitase asks. "There was," Tokita confirms. "The CEO at the time stated that we would skip 4 and go straight to 5 to beat Dragon Quest. Talk about an innovative approach."

If Square Enix had gone through with the idea it wouldn't have been the only time it went with an unconventional numbering strategy for the series. In North America, Final Fantasy 4 was infamously labelled as the series' second entry, while six had the honor of being American players' Final Fantasy 3.

Despite the confusing unconventional numbering causes, Kitase believes it would have been "kind of a brilliant idea." "Game development was certainly changing," Tokita adds. "But the way games were being promoted was changing as well."

Final Fantasy 10 leaned into the fantasy genre after devs "learned that The Lord of the Rings was in production" and thought it would be "the next big global trend."

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