The games behind the puzzles
finalfantasydle draws its answers from 42 Final Fantasy titles. The 21 below have a substantial cast in the roster (426 characters between them), and each has a page covering what the game did, what makes its cast distinctive, and how that plays out in the daily puzzles.
Characters from the remaining titles are in the character index, and the series' summons are listed under summons.
- Final Fantasy II 13 characters 1988 · Famicom · the first Final Fantasy with a named cast
- Final Fantasy III 10 characters 1990 · Famicom · the job system arrives
- Final Fantasy IV 25 characters 1991 · Super Famicom · fixed classes and a real dramatic arc
- Final Fantasy VI 25 characters 1994 · Super Famicom · fourteen playable leads, no single hero
- Final Fantasy VII 33 characters 1997 · PlayStation · the entry that made the series global
- Final Fantasy Tactics 36 characters 1997 · PlayStation · the War of the Lions
- Final Fantasy VIII 19 characters 1999 · PlayStation · SeeD, junction, and Guardian Forces
- Final Fantasy IX 24 characters 2000 · PlayStation · a deliberate return to the series’ own roots
- Final Fantasy X 16 characters 2001 · PlayStation 2 · Spira, Sin, and the first voiced cast
- Final Fantasy XI 25 characters 2002 · the series’ first MMO, and still running
- Final Fantasy X-2 11 characters 2003 · PlayStation 2 · the series’ first direct sequel
- Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 12 characters 2003 · Game Boy Advance · a boy who wishes the world away
- Final Fantasy XII 27 characters 2006 · PlayStation 2 · Ivalice, gambits, and a political war story
- Final Fantasy XIII 15 characters 2009 · the l’Cie, the fal’Cie, and a cast under sentence
- Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light 14 characters 2009 · Nintendo DS · the direct ancestor of Bravely Default
- Final Fantasy XIV 27 characters 2010 · the MMO that failed, shut down, and came back
- Final Fantasy Dimensions 17 characters 2010 · mobile · a deliberate throwback to the Super Famicom era
- Final Fantasy Type-0 28 characters 2011 · PSP · fourteen cadets in a war that erases the dead
- Final Fantasy Dimensions II 10 characters 2015 · mobile · originally released as Final Fantasy Legends
- Final Fantasy XV 22 characters 2016 · four friends, one car, and a kingdom already lost
- Final Fantasy XVI 17 characters 2023 · Valisthea, the Dominants, and a full move to action combat