According to several rumors and reports, Square Enix has a very interesting announcement planned for this E3. Apparently, the esteemed JRPG publisher has teamed up with Tecmo Koei's Team Ninja to create Final Fantasy Origin. This intriguing title is planned to be an action game based around the original Final Fantasy. According to reports, a mixture of the Dissidia NT staff and part of Nioh's development team is handling this game, which is said to be Souls-adjacent but not as hard. Finally, this game will have an alpha test run sometime this summer for PS5 owners, much like Nioh 1 and 2 before it.
As exciting as all that sounds, one detail stands out rather starkly among the rest. This game is named Final Fantasy Origin, and is thus based on the original Final Fantasy. While the old game is still solid and playable today, especially in its upgraded mobile iteration, it's rather simple in terms of its story and gameplay. The gameplay part will be handily solved by Team Ninja giving it an action facelift, but what about the story? Those who know it will recall that it's a fairly bare-bones plot with an oddball plot twist thrown in near the end, essentially serving as a Dungeons & Dragons tabletop framing device for the heroes to go fight monsters, conquer dungeons, and get treasure. There are some nuances there that could factor into Origin, however, so it pays to learn exactly what's happening in Final Fantasy 1.
Final Fantasy 1's Story, Recapped
Generally speaking, the original Final Fantasy contains a very simple plot that doesn't take much time to explain. Four mysterious Warriors of Light appear in the kingdom of Cornelia holding unlit crystal Orbs. Over the past few hundred years, the four elements of fire, water, earth, and air have gone out of control, and the world's populace is also being ravaged by monsters. After saving Princess Sara from the rogue knight Garland in the dilapidated Chaos Shrine, these four heroes set out across a newly built bridge to destroy the four Elemental Fiends and restore light to the crystals.
All of that is fairly standard classic RPG fare. The real wrinkle comes when Chaos, the root of the land's problems, comes into the picture. With the Four Fiends defeated and the Orbs restored, a portal opens in the Chaos Shrine which takes the Warriors of Light 2,000 years into the past. There, the Warriors discover that the Four Fiends sent Garland back in time to gain their power and become the dark god Chaos. He then sent the Fiends to the future to send his human self back, creating a time loop by which he could live forever. The Light Warriors defeat Chaos, thus ending the paradox, and return home. By ending the paradox, however, the Light Warriors have changed the future to one where their heroic deeds remain unknown outside of legend.
The whole time loop plot came out of nowhere, and was seemingly just a slapdash way to tie Garland back into the plot. Still, it gives the original game's story a unique flavor and helps it stand out more. Also of note is the destroyed ancient civilization of the Lufenians (originally translated as Lefeinish), which was extremely technologically advanced. So advanced, in fact, that they built a space station, combat machines, and even the nuke-wielding Warmech that is sometimes said to be tougher than Chaos. This is another loose reference to Final Fantasy's Dungeons & Dragons roots, given that the "destroyed futuristic ancient civilization" trope was fairly common at the time. It definitely allowed Final Fantasy to set up a very wide base full of different fantasy races and concepts, perfect for the different takes on the series later games provided. This also sets the stage perfectly for Final Fantasy Origin, and it will be a pleasure to see how Team Ninja handles the variety of elements in Final Fantasy 1 when more information drops later this summer.
Final Fantasy Origin is rumored to be in development for PC and PS5.