The darker aspects of the Final Fantasy series tended to either be censored during localization or stuck in the games that never saw an international release.

Final Fantasy II opened with fleeing refugees being run down by armored knights, while Final Fantasy V included the deaths of countless citizens as two worlds were merged into one. We had to wait until the 32-bit era before we could legally buy those games.

Final Fantasy IV VI (released as II & III in America) had their darker story elements, but these were heavily toned down in the localization process. It wasn't until the release of Final Fantasy VII that the series was finally free to tell the kinds of adult stories that the creators had been wanting to tell since the first Final Fantasy.

 Even the post-VII Final Fantasy titles had their fair share of censorship and localization changes, in order to tone down the content of the games.

The Final Fantasy series has had many darker elements that were planned during the pre-production stage of each game's development but were later scrapped when work on the game actually began.

We are here today to look at the dark secrets of the Final Fantasy series, from the original fate of Vincent's lost love to the concept art for Aerith that seems to be missing some clothes.

Here are the 15 Crazy Secrets You Didn’t Know About Final Fantasy!

The Original Fate Of Lucrecia

Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII is obsessed with the creature known as Jenova, whom he refers to as his mother. Sephiroth's real mother is a woman named Lucrecia Crescent, who agreed to partake in the experiments that led to the creation of Sephiroth, as she allowed her unborn child to be injected with Jenova cells.

In the lore of Final Fantasy VII, Lucrecia was on board with the whole experiment, which included being impregnated by Hojo.

She would later come to regret this decision, due to what Sephiroth became.

The Final Fantasy VII Ultimania Omega guide revealed that Lucrecia was originally planned to be an unwilling participant in the experiments that created Sephiroth. This would have included Hojo drugging her so that she could carry the baby to term.

The Censored Scene In Japan

Penelo Final Fantasy XII

The vast majority of the censorship that has occurred in the Final Fantasy series has happened during the localization process of the international versions of the games. The North American releases have been hit the hardest by this, with things like crosses and bare skin being covered or removed.

Final Fantasy XII is one of the few games in the series that was censored in Japan, but not in the international versions. There was a scene cut from the Japanese version of the game where Penelo is held captive by Ba'Gamnan and his gang. Akitoshi Kawazu has admitted that this cut was due to a criminal case that was in the press in Japan at the time.

Akitoshi Kawazu was likely referring to the case of a criminal, named Tsutomu Miyazaki, who had kidnapped and ended the lives of four women in Japan. His case was in the news at the time of Final Fantasy XII's release as his death sentence was about to be upheld.

Terra's Dummied Dialogue

Terra Branford from Final Fantasy VI

Terra Branford is being mind-controlled throughout the opening scenes of Final Fantasy VI. She is an unwilling participant in the death of the soldiers of Narshe, which is something that haunts her throughout the rest of the game.

The reason why Terra was being controlled was due to a magitek item, known as a slave crown, which was placed on her head.

The slave crown removes the free will of anyone who wears it, which turned Terra into a servant of Kefka.

Fans have found unused dialogue files within Final Fantasy VI that were meant to appear during the flashback sequence where Kefka puts the slave crown on Terra's head. She was originally begging him not to come any closer, which Kefka ignored. This scene was likely cut to tone down the implications of assault.

Gilligan's XIIIsland

Final Fantasy VII ended with the audience wondering whether humanity had been wiped out by the Meteor crashing into Midgar. The final scene of the game is set five-hundred-years after the battle with Sephiroth and it shows the ruins of Midgar, with Red XIII and his children running across the empty plains outside of it.

This scene proves that Red XIII has a much longer lifespan than the other playable characters in Final Fantasy VII (save for possibly Vincent) and he will outlive them all.

Red XIII's despair over seeing his friends dying is actually explored in One the Way to a Smile: Case of Red XIII, which is part of a novella series that chronicles the events before Advent Children. Red XIII feels a growing void inside of him, over the fear of losing everyone he loves.

It's actually hard to take Red XIII's feelings of loss seriously, as he names his internal void Gilligan.

No Provocative Selphies!

One of the spells that your party can Draw in Final Fantasy VIII is called Scan. This spell can be cast on either an ally or an enemy. It will give you detailed information about the character, which can be helpful in determining their weaknesses in combat.

The Scan spell also allows you to take a closer look at the 3D model of the creature you are scanning.

You can then rotate the 3D model and look it at from every angle.

The only character whose model cannot be turned is Selphie. This is due to the fact that she is wearing a yellow minidress. Squaresoft actually put in special measures to prevent the player from looking up her skirt.

The Sickness Of The Warden

 

The vast majority of MMOs have no respect for the player's time. They make more money by keeping their player base subscribed to the game and paying for digital items. It is for this reason that many of the high-end bosses in these games tend to take an extraordinarily long time to defeat, in order to keep you playing that little bit longer.

This kind of thinking backfired on Square Enix in 2008, when a group of Final Fantasy XI players had to stop a boss battle, due to the fact that the players had started to become ill.

The group known as Beyond the Limitation had been attempting to defeat a boss known as Pandemonium Warden for eighteen hours straight. The boss was so difficult that they were unable to do so in a shorter period of time.

The backlash from this incident forced Square Enix to drastically lower the health of several end-game bosses and introduce mandatory time limits on their battles, to prevent people from attempting to defeat them in one long session.

Blaming The World Ends With You

The Final Fantasy series has mostly escaped from the scrutiny of the media when it comes to blaming violence on video games. The Final Fantasy games rarely feature blood or accurate depictions of violence that other prominent video game series use frequently.

However, there was an incident in 2013 when the Final Fantasy series was blamed for the death of a woman in Munich.

The German press immediately blamed the alleged suspect's interest in fantasy RPGs, with his Final Fantasy XIV profile being printed in newspapers.

One newspaper printed a photo of the suspect where it was said that he was cosplaying as his favorite Final Fantasy character. It seems that the paper didn't do much research, as he was actually dressed like Neku from The World Ends With You. 

The World Ends With You was also developed by Square Enix, but it is not part of the Final Fantasy series.

The End Of Magic

Final Fantasy VI ends with the party defeating Kefka, who was terrorizing the world using the powers he had gained by becoming the God of Magic. The death of Kefka meant that the world would finally be safe, but that magic would fade away forever. The game ends with Terra losing the ability to call on her Esper forms, but she was now finally free to live her own life.

It was revealed in an issue of V-Jump magazine that Final Fantasy VI was supposed to end with the death of Terra. The loss of magic from the planet was originally going to make her fade away from the world, along with the Espers.

This decision was changed during development, as it was felt to be an unnecessarily dark conclusion to the game.

I See Tidus... All The Time

Final Fantasy X Tidus

The true nature of Tidus in Final Fantasy X is hard to explain to those who have never played the game before. Basically, he is the living dream of a dead society, who was called into existence to defeat the monster known as Sin and end the cycle of destruction that was consuming the world of Spira.

Tidus' true nature was originally going to be a lot simpler.

According to the Final Fantasy X Ultimania Omega guide: Tidus was originally planned to be an undead being who was unaware of the fact that he had died in the past.

The reason this idea wasn't used was due to the fact that The Sixth Sense was released during the development of the game and would use the same plot twist. The idea of one of the characters being undead was given over to Auron instead.

The Imprisonment Of Celes

The controversy surrounding Mortal Kombat and Night Trap led to the creation of the ESRB in the early '90s. Japan would not see an official equivalent until CERO became recognized in 2003.

The establishment of CERO meant that certain scenes from the older Final Fantasy games had to be removed when they were released on new platforms. This was the case with the version of Final Fantasy VI that was released on the Game Boy Advance in 2006.

The Super Nintendo version of Final Fantasy VI included a scene where Celes is being beaten by guards while she tied up in a jail cell. This scene was taken out of the Game Boy Advance version of the game, as it would have increased the age rating of the game.

The Meaning Of Yiazmat

Yiazmat boss fight Final Fantasy 12

Video game development is a tough industry, which requires countless man hours in order to create a product that people can enjoy. The development cycle is taken to hellish new levels in Japan, where it isn't unheard of for developers to stay at their office for days or even weeks at a time in order to make sure their work is completed.

The creation of Final Fantasy XII took a tremendous toll on Yasumi Matsuno, who was chosen to be one of the directors of the project.

Matsuno had to back out before the game was completed, as he suffered from numerous health issues that were brought on by the workload.

The Final Fantasy XII superboss, known as Yiazmat, is believed to be a reference to Yasumi Matsuno that was added by the development team as a means of showing respect to their former leader.

Thanks For The Whole Saving The World Thing (P.S. I Love You)

Final Fantasy X ends on a bittersweet note. Sin and Yu Yevon are defeated, which means that people of Spira can now live in safety. This victory comes at the cost of Auron and Tidus, who both fade away from the world.

The final scene between Tidus and Yuna is different in both the English and Japanese versions of Final Fantasy X. In the English version of the game, Yuna tells Tidus that she loves him, while in the Japanese version of the game, she just thanks him for his help.

The changing of this scene happened due to the efforts of Alexander O. Smith, who was the Localization Specialist on the game. He revealed in an interview with EDGE magazine that he felt that the scene didn't portray the correct emotion, so he pushed for the line to be changed.

Smith faced opposition from the Japanese developers, due to the fact that the phrase "I love you" is rarely said in Japanese media.

Palmer's Trip To The Honey Bee Inn

The Honey Bee Inn has more dummied out content than any other location in the Final Fantasy series. The Honey Bee Inn is a brothel in Midgar that Cloud can visit during the quest where he needs to assemble a female outfit so that he can sneak into Don Corneo's manor.

There were several rooms and scenes that were cut from The Honey Bee Inn, due to the Squaresoft staff going too far with the newfound freedom of the 32-bit era.

One of the scenes that were cut from this segment of the game involved Palmer (one of the Shinra executives) leaving a room after having slept with one of the women who work at the establishment.

The Final Fantasy VII Ultimania Omega guide reveals that Palmer was originally going to brag about how refreshed he felt, but this was cut, along with rest of the unused Honey Bee Inn sequences.

Edgar Uses A Chainsaw To Drown Out The Inappropriate Thoughts He Has About Relm

Edgar Roni Figaro is the King of Figaro and one of the playable characters in Final Fantasy VI. Edgar is a notorious flirt, who comes on to pretty much every woman in the game. He is often drawn into escapades, simply because he cannot refuse a pretty face.

Edgar's flirtatious nature even extends to the younger members of the party, as he comments on Relm's beauty and hopes that he is still around in eight years, as Relm is only ten-years-old during the events of the game.

Edgar's dialogue was far more inappropriate in the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VI. He makes a comment about how he needs to remain in control around Relm so that he doesn't commit a crime. This makes him considerably creepier than he was in the English version of the game.

The Revealing Aerith

Yoshitaka Amano is one of the most important figures responsible for the success of the early Final Fantasy games. His unique art style helped to create the aesthetic of the first five games in the series. This was more true of the monsters, as the main characters were often forced to remain as small sprites throughout the game.

Tetsuya Nomura did most of the character and location designs for Final Fantasy VII. 

Yoshitaka Amano also created some early concept art for the game, through these went unused since they were inappropriate.

Yoshitaka Amano revealed his original concept art for Aerith Gainsborough from Final Fantasy VII in a feature for Illustration magazine. Amano's original artwork showed her wearing no clothes while sporting a massive mane of hair that contained a unicorn, while a man screamed above her. It's not hard to see why Amano's design went unused.

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Can you think of any other outrageous secrets about Final Fantasy? Let us know in the comments!