One would expect that any series that lasts as long as Final Fantasy (with so many installments) would have no shortage of fan theories. And this would be correct, with some even supported by creators. But most of them are simply interesting speculative exercises, such as the “Squall is dead in Final Fantasy VIII” theory.
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Then there’s this class of fan theories: Ones that actually solve issues with the story or provide additional information or details that are otherwise missing. While some of these theories have later been debunked by the creators, they never fail to raise some interesting questions.
10Final Fantasy IX’s Last Boss Is A Summon
The final boss of Final Fantasy IX, Necron, is never mentioned or introduced before the player-controlled party has to take him on right after the actual main villain of the game, Kuja. But a popular fan theory is that this is Necron didn’t exist before that fight… because he’s a summon.
Officially, Necron is a representation of fear, despair, and death - the emotions that Kuja was feeling as he was defeated while still connected to enormous power. The idea that said power would result in a summon capable of ending all existence makes a bit more sense and keeps him as a thematic foe and a callback to the dangers of summoning.
9Final Fantasy XIII’s Group Never Understood Their Focus
The opening sequence of Final Fantasy XIII sees the main playable characters given a focus to “Destroy Cocoon,” the planet most of them hail from. By the end of the game, their goal has become to stop the forces of Cocoon from attempting to use humanity as a sacrifice. How did things change? According to this fan theory, they didn’t.
Most of the guidance that the party gets about their focus comes specifically from the main villain, who wishes to use them to successfully sacrifice the residents of Cocoon. But by this theory, the focus was never to destroy the physical location of Cocoon, but to destroy the fal’Cie running the world as a prison for eventual sacrifice.
8Rinoa Is Ultimecia
While Final Fantasy VIII’s main villain doesn’t come out of nowhere, Ultimecia’s motives and goals are rather vague beyond achieving “time compression,” which has unclear mechanics. It’s also known that she is from an unspecified point in the future. According to this fan theory, however, you already know Ultimecia’s motivations, because she’s Rinoa, protagonist Squall’s main love interest.
The theory posits that Rinoa has lost memories of Squall in the future, remembering only his jewelry (hence summoning Griever as a Guardian Force), and ultimately seeks to remove any possibility of forgetting again. Officially this theory has been shot down, but it does lend an interesting motivation to the main villain as a potential bad ending for a main character.
7Final Fantasy IX Takes Place In An Alternate Timeline Of Final Fantasy I
InFinal Fantasy I, the Warriors of Light travel back in time to prevent Chaos from ever rising, thus undoing their entire journey. But according to this fan theory, the net result is in producing the world of Terra, the root of all the problems (and both Zidane and Kuja) encountered in Final Fantasy IX.
The root of this theory is essentially how many plot elements from the first game are echoed in FFIX, right down to the villainous Garland and the Four Fiends. It also posits that even with the time loop broken, there are still dangers in the future for the first Final Fantasy world.
6Vagrant Story Is The Future Of Ivalice
The idiosyncratic PlayStation classic Vagrant Story (sadly unplayable on current consoles) is loved by fans for its weapon customization, rich characterization, engaging story… and for many, its connection to the Ivalice visited in both Final Fantasy XII and Final Fantasy Tactics, with many fans certain that Vagrant Story takes place far later than Final Fantasy Tactics in the timeline.
Many items in Vagrant Story are named after characters from Final Fantasy Tactics, terms from the game show up in the (chronologically earlier) Final Fantasy XII, and at least a few bits of lore are attributed to characters who supposedly narrated FFT’s story. The understanding of how magic and darkness work in Ivalice also help explain some of the more obscure elements of Vagrant Story’s tale, and vice versa.
5Final Fantasy XIV Is The Heart Of The Multiverse
It’s no secret that critically acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV is replete with references to other titles in the franchise. According to one theory, that’s not a coincidence; it’s because Etheirys (the world of the game) is actually at the heart of the franchise-wide multiverse.
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In FFXIV’s lore, the world was split into numerous reflections by the goddess Hydaelyn to stop the dark god Zodiark. Hydaelyn and Zodiark bear no small resemblance to the usual franchise-wide generic good and evil of Cosmos and Chaos, and the theory postulates that every other world came about from even further splitting and reflection unknown on the main world and even to Hydaelyn herself.
4Gogo Is A Character In Final Fantasy VI’s Story
The famed mimic Gogo in Final Fantasy VI was originally intended as simply a reference to Final Fantasy V. But some players in America (where Final Fantasy V would not be released for many more years) came up with a more compelling theory - that the mimic is one of the characters unaccounted for following the ruination of the world.
Popular theories include both Banon (leader of the Returners) and Emperor Gestahl (seemingly killed beforehand), along with Setzer’s lost friend Darrill. Interestingly, recruiting Gogo was originally meant to involve tracking down the mimic impersonating a party member, which raises further questions about true identities…
3Jenova Is Lavos From Chrono Trigger
Jenova, the extraplanetary entity that empowered Sephiroth as his “mother” in Final Fantasy VII, is fought repeatedly but expresses little of its motivation. But one theory is that it is an imported threat from another Square-Enix franchise, the same basic entity as Lavos from Chrono Trigger (a game recommended to FF7 fans hungry for more).
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Not only does this provide some idea of the entity’s ultimate goals, it is often combined with a theory that Sephiroth’s “Meteor” was not a chunk of rock, but the whole organism being brought to the planet. It certainly explains why it might absorb magic but ultimately be rejected by the planet’s lifestream, as well as providing a tantalizing cross-series speculation hook.
2Final Fantasy III And VIII Have The Same World
Players clearly love speculating about Final Fantasy games taking place in the same world, and this one has similar roots to the prior one. The theory essentially posits that Final Fantasy VIII is the far future of Final Fantasy III, based on a legend about the origin of sorceresses that mentions the figure Hyne.
Hyne (also localized as Hein) is a legendary figure in FFVIII and a boss in FFIII who seems to definitely have similar abilities and perhaps even goals to the sorceresses in the later game. Furthermore, the maps have similarities, and the older game’s floating continent is located where the ambiguous Deep Sea Research Center is constructed, implying a collapse and a progression after the events of the earlier title.
1Final Fantasy Tactics Has An Unreliable Narrator
The story of Final Fantasy Tactics (which is still rumored for a remake) is presented by the in-universe historian Arazlam Durai, sharing the true story behind the War of the Lions. However, it is considered odd that this story lacks elements of Ivalice found in other games, such as non-human sapient races like Viera, Bangaa, and Seeqs. The real reason is that those races were created later in the real world… but this fan theory fixes that hole completely.
Simply put, the theory is that Durai is himself an unreliable narrator, and while he is telling a version of the events that occurred during the War of the Lions, he is leaving out details and changing elements to suit his preferred version. At the very end it is revealed that Durai himself is a descendant of one of protagonist Ramza’s allies, thus contributing to his likely alterations to the story to better fit his chosen narrative.
