Final Fantasy launched in Japan in 1987, which makes the series over thirty years old. That's a long time to keep pumping out games as fast and as frequently as Square Enix has. What's more amazing is the fandom surrounding this beloved series. So instead of celebrating the creators, let's instead take a look at what the fans have cooked up over the years.
There are some obvious omissions on this list. For example, there is no fan art, or cosplay. TheGamer already has tons of great articles dedicated to that sort of thing. This instead will mainly focus on fan games, music, videos, and other various projects.
10 Final Fantasy VII Demake
Technically this is not a fan project. It’s actually a Chinese bootleg and is a NES demake of Final Fantasy VII using the first game as a base. The developer, Shenzhen Nanjing Technology, has made tons of these rip-off games. So while this may be bootleg, it is too fascinating not to put on here. Illegal, or not, some fans have to be working on this, right? In many ways it’s so loving recreated in 8-Bit form. The same sentiment goes for other bootlegs on this list, or at least that’s the story this writer is sticking to in order to get them on here.
9 Final Fantasy VII: Re-Imagined
Okay, this one is a legit fan game. It first came out in 2015 and is essentially a one shot recreation of the Bombing Mission, but set as a 2D brawler. Players can choose to be either be Cloud or Tifa to fight their way through Shinra soldiers and mechs with it all ending with the scorpion boss fight.
It also has co-op! The animations are a bit ropey, but visually it is stunning regardless. The developer, PD Design Studio, released their own game similar to this fan project called Dusty Revenge.
8 Final Fantasy VII LittleBigPlanet
Not only did Media Molecule collaborate with Square Enix to get official costumes from Final Fantasy VII in the game, but also because of this, it inspired someone to remake the entire game in LittleBigPlanet 2.
The whole thing can be viewed on LittleBig World’s YouTube channel. It’s not an exact one to one recreation, but that YouTuber did is extraordinary considering his limitations. It’s also very cute. Sephiroth never looked less threatening.
7 Final Fantasy VII: Time Guardian
Like many fan created games based on popular franchises, nearly every bit of info was stripped away from the Internet in regard to this game. The story broke when user, Roden, made a post about this sequel to Final Fantasy VII on the qhimm forums. He was going to use the original PS1 hardware to develop it and this would span 9 discs, with each being about a separate character. A trailer was made along with this post, but it has since been taken down and now no assets exist seemingly anywhere online. Great, thanks Square Enix. What was the harm?
6 Overclocked Remixes
This is a great site that hosts user created video game remixed music. Fun, right? Every once and awhile they band together for bigger projects based on a single game, or series, and combine them into a huge CD collection.
For example, Voices of the Lifestream is a great remix album of Final Fantasy VII music, but the better project is Balance and Ruin, which is based on Final Fantasy VI. If there is one track that is a must, go and listen to “The Impresario” which is based on the opera scene.
5 Final Fantasy VI Remake
Not a lot came out of this YouTube channel. There are two videos showcasing Terra running through Narshe. No battles, just a 3D jaunt through town using Unity. This was in 2012.
The user, Andrés García Roldán, hasn’t done anything with the channel since so presumably he stopped on his own or Square Enix released their lawyers on him. Just another case of what could have been amazing. Seriously, Square Enix. Where is Final Fantasy VI’s official remake?
4 AVALANCHE
In 2014 Richard Whitehouse created AVALANCHE, a 3D brawler based on Final Fantasy VII as if the name wasn’t a dead giveaway. He also made a version of the card game in Final Fantasy VIII. Both games can be downloaded from his website. While AVALANCHE is cool, it was never finished and thus has a lot of rough edges. For PC people, it is still worth a download even if it is just a prototype.
3 Final Fantasy: Boss Battle
This is a fan made card game that one can download, for free, in order to print it off. There is a lot to it so the actual print will probably cost a pretty penny, but it looks to be worth it.
The card logo design is rad along with all of the art on the actual player cards. As the name implies this is about fighting classic Final Fantasy bosses be it alone, or with friends. Except for the printing, again, it is free so why not download it? Be the cool gamer and pop it out at the next friendly game night.
2 Final Fantasy X: Fantasy War
This is another bootleg game, but this time for the Game Boy Color. Unlike Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy X: Fantasy War is not a demake based on any specific game in the series. Players can choose to be a Warrior, Ranger, Black Mage, or Chocobo at the start in this side-scrolling beat ‘em up. That’s right. Three classic classes from the first game and then a Chocobo? It doesn’t make sense, but these things rarely do.
1 Taikong Zhanshi DX3: Zuizhong Huanxiang
Let’s close things out with yet another pirated game. A bootleg game with a not so friendly name for English speakers, but that doesn’t matter. All one needs to know is that it is also a Game Boy Color game and also a brawler. It appears to be based on Final Fantasy IX in that players can choose to either be Garnet, Vivi, or Zidane at the start. Enemies also resemble those found in the game like Flans. It’s not as lovingly recreated as the demake for Final Fantasy VII, but it is a neat little beat ‘em up.