– At least three of the games– Final Fantasy II, Final Fantasy VI and Final Fantasy XII focus on groups of rebels who are attempted to topple an evil Empire. Final Fantasy VII also shows this plot to some degree, except that it’s an evil corporation. Of all of these, the influence is perhaps most striking in Final Fantasy XII, which focuses on the story of Vaan (Luke Skywalker, though thankfully he doesn’t have a father in the Empire), an orphaned boy who dreams of taking to the sky and who often seeks advice from Old Dalan (Yoda.) Along the way he encounters Balthier (Han Solo– fighter pilot type and somewhat shady individual who has a heavily modified ship, the Millennium Falcon… sorry Strahl) and Princess Ashelia Ba’nargan "Ashe" Dalmasca (Princess Leia) of the Insurgence ("Amalia": Resistance!), who together with others fight to topple the Archadian Empire. Balthier’s father is Cidolfus Demen Bunansa (Darth Vader, very loosely.) Vayne Solidor (okay, admittedly no Palpatine) slays his own father, Emperor Gramis.
Penelo, Fran, Basch, Larsa, Al-Cid Margrace, Lord Reddas/Judge Zecht and Judge Bergan/Noah– these I can’t fit into the Star Wars mold, though if anyone else wants to try, they’re welcome to it.
– Since Final Fantasy VI, Biggs and Wedge are recurring characters in the games. Biggs Darklighter and Wedge Antilles were Rebel pilots in the original Star Wars film (Episode IV: A New Hope.) Biggs was killed in space combat, but Wedge Antilles survived and has since risen to some status in the New Republic / Galactic Alliance in the Star Wars Extended Universe saga. In the FF games, Biggs and Wedge have appeared in varying forms, but were most prominent as part of well, a rebel group named AVALANCHE in Final Fantasy VII. Many were also entertained by the antics of Biggs and Wedge in FFVIII.
– In Final Fantasy IX, Necron uses the words "Fear leads to anger… anger leads to hate… hate leads to suffering…" These were Yoda’s insightful and predictive words to Anakin Skywalker (later Darth Vader) in Episode I: The Phantom Menace.
That’s all I can think of for now, though if anyone else knows of any others, overt or covert, post them here. Curiously, I only know of one Star Trek
reference within the FF series, and that’s in IX when one of the people who you ask about the potion tells you "Dammit, Jim! I’m a doctor, not a miracle worker!"
However, for those who can’t be bothered looking, here’s the full section from the above link, including some that you haven’t mentioned Agent:
Star Wars References
The entire series has had snippets of references to Star Wars, including the names of Biggs and Wedge which are used in nearly every Final Fantasy game and then some. Biggs Darklighter and Wedge Antilles are the names of Luke Skywalker’s wingmen in his run on the Death Star in Episode IV: A New Hope. They show up in the following roles in the following Final Fantasies:
# FF6: Vicks and Wedge are two imperial soldiers in MagiTek armor who accompany Terra in the beginning of the game. (NOTE: Vicks is a mistranslation of Biggs which translates as Bi-G-Gu-Su. The B and V are interchangeable in Japanese)
# FF7: Two minor members of AVALANCHE, under Barret’s tutelage. Killed in the plate drop.
# FF8: A captain and subordinate of the Galbadian Army, who continually get demoted with all their screw-ups.
# FF10/X-2: Two separate NPC’s who double as recruitable Blitzball players.
# FF12: The guards at Nalbina Town are named Deweg and Gibbs.
FF4:
# The name of Baron’s airship force is called the Red Wings, Luke’s squadron from Episode IV: A New Hope.
# The second airship that the party commandeers is named the Falcon, possibly after the Millennium Falcon.
FF6:
# The scene where Locke rescues Celes from South Figaro.
FF7:
# Nanaki (Red XIII’s real name) is an anagram of Anakin (Skywalker). (sent by Snesman)
# Red XIII itself is probably a dig at Luke Skywalker’s Red squadron from the first Star Wars (Luke was Red Five).
FF7: Before Crisis:
# Tierce, Kyneugh, and Kanos, three of the Ravens, are named after minor characters in Star Wars.
FF8:
# Piet is the name of one of the executors on the space station taking care of Adel’s Tomb. Admiral Piett was one of the imperial officers of the Empire in Episode V and VI.
# Nida is a minor character of FF8 who eventually becomes the pilot of mobile garden. Lorth Needa was a minor officer in The Empire Strikes Back, then became Captain.
# Martine, the headmaster of Galbadia Garden was called Dodonna in Japan. General Dodonna is the character who briefs the rebel alliance on the attack on the Death Star in Episode IV: A New Hope.
# In the Star Wars expanded universe, there is a planet known as Onderon (featured in the game Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords). Onderon is unique because its largest moon, Dxun, orbits so close to the planet at times that their atmospheres mix together and create a tunnel of air between the two. Dxun is filled with many vicious beasts, which take advantage of the tunnel of air to migrate down to the planet and terrorize the natives. It all bears too much resemblance to the "Lunar Cry" in FF8, where monsters all flood down to the planet, to be a coincidence. In addition, the tomb of the great dark Jedi Freedon Nadd is located on Dxun. This is similar to the fact that the Sorceress Adel’s tomb orbits the planet in FF8. (sent by Shigmiya64)
FF9:
# Part of Necron’s speech at the very end of the game is: "Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering." These words were originally spoken by Yoda in Episode I: The Phantom Menace.
Tactics:
# Luke Skywalker and Indiana Jones (well, Luke and Indy) demonstrate battle techniques in the tutorial. (sent by Mark Rosa)
# There is a more-than-coincidental resemblance of Orlandeau to Obi-Wan Kenobi.
And there is probably much more that lies buried. 😉
# Tierce, Kyneugh, and Kanos, three of the Ravens, are named after minor characters in Star Wars.
They named a Final Fantasy character after Kir Kanos? That is totally awesome! /starswarsgeek
Edit – Agent0042 – Have you read any other books by Matthew Stover? He is seriously one of my favorite authors. His Star Wars novels are excellent, but definitely make sure to check out his Caine series (Heroes Die, Blade of Tyshalle) for some truly dark gritty awesome stories. Blade of Tyshalle is definitely one of my top favorite books of all time.
I really enjoyed the Republic Commando novels. The characters not being superman jedi made the characters much more relatable and interesting.
Also, those that are looking for something different might enjoy Drew Karpyshyn’s Old Republic / Darth Bane novels.
What I’m still waiting for is for someone to write Yoda’s story. Dude’s what, over 700 years old? Where’s his origin story?
jeepjockey03: You like Karen Traviss’ novels? I can’t stand them, because she’s got this thing about making clones morally better than Jedi or something like that. Or a thing about clones in general.
Shatterpoint is a very interesting ability to me. I like how he portrayed in the Episode III novelization and I like that it hasn’t been forgotten in the more recent novels that have come out.
Spoiler Alert
After building up the young Solo children and all the young members of the New Jedi Order, they lamely ignore all of that and have Luke Skywalker come in and irritatingly clean everyone’s mess up by having a rather anticlimactic duel with their supreme leader. Talk about a deus ex machina…
As well, in FFXI there is also a zone called The Den of Rancor, which could possibly allude to the Rancor monster that Jabba the Hutt kept under his palace for disposing of prisoners in Episode VI, Return of the Jedi. The fact that in FFXI the Den is located under the Temple of Uggalepih, and is full of nasty monsters such as Tonberries (there is even a BCNM section in the Den called ‘the Sacrifical Chamber’) seems like too much of a coincidence to me. 😉
Or maybe I’m just clutching at straws here.
Re: Stover — One thing I like about him is his portrayal of Palpatine. He really had a handle on the character.
In fact, three of the airships in FFIII are named after real-world vessels – the Invincible is a supply ship in the British Royal Navy, the Nautilus is a US submarine (appropriately enough), and the Enterprise is an aircraft carrier (as well as a NASA Space Shuttle), which is also where Gene Roddenberry got the name for the eponymous Star Trek vessel from in the first place.
Fran = Chewbacca.
Basch is sort of similar to Obi-Wan Kenobi. He’s a veteran knight from an order wiped out by the Empire, a knight with strong regrets about what he was unable to prevent, who has been in "exile" (AKA prison) since the Empire’s rise. And he’s got a beard when you first get him.
Reddas I’ve seen compared to Lando Calrissian, but he’s only a little bit similar. He is the leader of Balfonheim, an isolated city over which the Empire has no jurisdiction and is keen to avoid Imperial attention. He also switches sides, which arguably is what Lando does. Though Reddas has an entirely different personality from Lando, because Lando’s personality seems to have been transplanted onto…
Al-Cid. He comes into the story, and what’s the first thing he does? He starts hitting on the princess.
The Judge Magisters in general occupy the space in Archadian Empire which Darth Vader occupies in the Galactic Empire. Gabranth occupies the same space as Vader in the plot. Gabranth/Vader is the "dragon" to Vayne’s/Palpatine’s "big bad." They are the recurring face villains. It also seems pretty obvious to me that Gabranth’s design is heavily inspired by Vader’s armor. The Theme of the Empire in FFXI is also clearly supposed to be evocative of The Imperial March in Star Wars.
As for Penelo and Larsa, beats me.
I’ve just remembered two more FF references to Lucas’s cash cow:
In FFVIII, when Squall is being tortured by Seifer at the D-District Prison, Seifer mentions that Galbadia will destroy Garden, and "after that, the SeeD Hunt will begin", in retaliation for SeeD’s botched assassination attempt on Edea.
This is eerily similar to the Jedi Purge in Episode III, where following Mace Windu’s botched attempt to arrest Palpatine following his unmasking as Darth Sidious, Palpatine intiates ‘Order 66’, declaring the Jedi as enemies of state, and causing Jedi to be hunted down and exterminated.
Unlike in FFVIII though, where Seifer’s threat never actually came to fruition, apart from the missile attack on Trabia Garden, the Jedi Purge actually succeeded, bringing the Order to practical extinction before Luke rebuilds it twenty or so years later.
Although FFVIII predates SW Episode III by a good six to seven years, the Jedi Purge had been referred to long before then though, way back in 1977 at the start of the original trilogy. So the reference still stands. 🙂
A second reference is found in FFXI’s storyline: where El’dnarche and Kam’lanaut, the Zilart Princes, are secretly manipulating world events, such as being the real masterminds behind the Crystal War, turning Raogrimm against his will into the Shadowlord and using him to enslave the beastmen to launch an assault against the three nations, while at the same under their guise as the dukes of Jeuno they rallied the nations to fight the beastmen under the Alliance of Altana, thus starting the Crystal War.
This is very similar to the to the events leading up to, during and after, the Clone Wars in the SW prequels, where Palpatine under his guise of Darth Sidious manipulates the Trade Federation into attacking Naboo, and after using the Confederacy to unleash an assault against the Republic, while under his guise of Chancellor rallying the Republic and the Jedi behind him to fight back, thus starting the Clone Wars.
The reasons for doing so though were different in each case though – for the Zilart it was all a means to an end, to continue their blasphemous quest to open the gateway to Paradise (which ultimately guarantees their destruction), where as in Palpatine’s case, it was for him to to gain executive power to allow the Sith to assume complete control of the galaxy, a reoccurring theme throughout the SW expanded universe.
But I digress. 🙂