#4hol

Square-Enix is no stranger to development shifts and changes. Sometimes their games can influence other games; The nature of game development means that a concept or idea that went unused in one game can be reworked into another. And then, of course, there are games that include key staff members on them. Thus, it is unsurprising that there are numerous games that can be considered follows ups to certain Final Fantasy games. For example: Final Fantasy III has:

Final Fantasy IV

The most clear case is Final Fantasy IV as the second sequel to III, IV’s primary form of influence is in its jobs; Most of which were in III in some fashion and those that were different would grow into their “traditional” forms here. Dragoon, Bard and Summoner, are some of the jobs introduced in the previous game

Interestingly: FFV is probably the clear cut case for a game that would be influenced by III... but I have yet to see interviews that actually state that specifically. It clearly is, what with the return of the job system, some of the job designs, such as Krile’s White Mage getup being inspired by the Devout. Heck Bartz’s Blue Mage outfit is reused from Dark Knight’s intended design. But at the time of this writing, I haven’t seen an interview directly confirming it.

Secret of Mana

And speaking of FFIV

One that may not be as expected is Secret of Mana: The second in the Mana/”Seiken Densetsu” series. Released for the SNES, it was the first game in the aforementioned series to be disconnected from Final Fantasy, as the first game was titled “Final Fantasy Gaiden: Seiken Densetsu” (or “Final Fantasy Adventure” in the west).

But not entirely.

Secret of Mana was originally intended to be Final Fantasy IV before blooming into its own project: a massive game targeting the SNES’ CD add-on (which ended up getting canned). Eventually however, the project got split into two different projects: The game’s code name and some of its ideas were reused for Chrono Trigger, while the game itself was condensed and eventually turned into Secret of Mana.

Hiromichi Tanaka, a key member of the original Final Fantasy III dev team who was also an executive producer and director of the remake, initially worked on FFIV, but when the project shifted, he went with the Mana team (hence him only having a “special thanks” credit in the final version of IV). Secret of Mana would also use the proposed battle system for the original SNES IV, being a seamless overhead system. Tanaka has said that Secret of Mana always felt like a sequel to III to him as a result. It should be noted that Koichi Ishii, the graphical artist of the original III was also heavily involved with Secret of Mana (and the Mana series in general).

Final Fantasy XI

And speaking of Tanaka and Ishii

Final Fantasy XI is an MMO based on the series (y’know, before That Other One). It is notable for being the first game since the original Final Fantasy III to have both Koichi Ishii and Hiromichi Tanaka involved with the Final Fantasy games, having worked on the Mana series in the meantime. Ishii in particular feels that XI is close to the view in his head of what he envisioned the Final Fantasy he wanted to make.

As for III, Tanaka credits it with being a major influence. In particular, the job system in XI is said to have been born out of a reflection of III’s job system and how to improve it. In an interview, Tanaka also acknowledges that FFIII and FFXI have similar “worldviews”, citing how they were originally most heavily involved with I-III as the reason. In a twist of recursive fate, he also reveals that an intention was to reuse models for the Final Fantasy III remake; While it didn’t pan out and new models needed to be made, the remake does still have a complete list of XI weapons in the code, presumably a remnant of this idea.

Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light

And speaking of the FFIII remake

Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light was the third Final Fantasy title produced under Tomoya Asano, but the first and last original one. More notable are the directors: Hiroaki Yabuta was a planner on both of the previous 3D remakes while Takashi Tokita is a co-director; Tokita has a long, storied history with SE, having worked on games like Live A Live, Chrono Cross and Final Fantasy Dimensions. For the focus on our topic, however, he has largely worked on everything directly FFIV-related (so original game, After Years, and the 3D remakes of both).

The 4 Heroes of Light proper harkens back to the Famicom-era FF games. While there are cutscenes, they aren’t elaborate and the plot is told in a somewhat loose manner compared to the SNES-era FF games (sort of somewhere between FF2 and FF3). The party dynamics are also reminiscent of the FF3 unused text where the Warriors of Light were somewhat dysfunctional, although the dysfunction here is to such an extent that the party splits shortly after the first real dungeon and doesn’t get back together until the end of act 1. There are nods to both games (and various other ones) scattered throughout the game.

4 Heroes of Light might be somewhat obscure now, but has had a significant legacy. The game’s sequel turned into its own IP, Bravely Default. The game also established Team Asano’s gameplay quirk of Boost: having the player manage a resource they can build up over turns, a system that would be utilized in both Bravely (with turns themselves) and Octopath Traveler (with boost points). Bravely itself includes nods to 4 Heroes of Light (The Adventurer returning and bosses returning as optional bosses, complete with a remixed medley of 4HOL’s battle and boss themes) and to a lesser extent, FF3 (the Water Crystal chapter has some nods, Tiz gets an Onion Knight outfit, some of the jobs are inspired by FF3′s takes, etc)

hey look

Brandt, Aire, Yunita and Jusqua were featured in Bravely Default Praying Brage, a web browser game that ran from 2012 to 2019.

This is another explicit connect between Bravely Default and Final Fantasy: the 4 Heroes of Light, understandable as the former was originally (and, in some ways, still is) a sequel to the latter.

Let us take a moment to appreciate this underappreciated design for Chaos from Final Fantasy: 4 Heroes of Light; Rather than the usual demon or other variants, this design incorporates a clock into each design (the face in the first form, the shoulders of the second and, well, do I have to explain the third?) and the third design just looks awesome. The first form’s snazzy appearance isn’t too bad either.