WTF Moments in the Final Fantasy Series

Final Fantasy is one of the best-selling video game franchises of all time and has been hugely momentous within the gaming industry, inspiring an entire generation of Japanese and Western role-playing games across a wide range of consoles but despite it's accomplishment, the series has always found a way to separated it's fans. For every player who cosplays as a moogle in their parents' basement, there's another who frowns at the turned-based gameplay and eccentric anime-inspired characters.

Players used to be far more tolerant, after all, did we really care why Pac-man had the need to gobble up those little pellets or pesky ghosts? Or how Donkey Kong had a fondness for attractive women, who weren't his species? However, times have changed. Players demand more story, especially in RPGS. And with any good story come plot twists and material that provide a overall shock factor. In other words...a WTF moment. Final Fantasy are renown for these.

Whether you like Final Fantasy or not though, it's hard to deny that the series has had it's fair share of comical and bugged out WTF moments over it's twenty-seven years. Some of these could be attributed to cultural differences between the West and the East, but that excuse only takes us so far. Some of the more profound moments in the franchise seem like they would be considered strange even to the Japanese gamers that Final Fantasy is primarily targeted at.

Final Fantasy games are deep experiences that are usually driven by a strong narrative. A narrative that can be included in a list of bizarre and outlandish WTF Moments in gaming. With that said, sometimes these stories can throw a massive curveball, leaving it's players stunned, confused and maybe even a little dizzy.

With the release of Final Fantasy XV on the horizon, now is a good time to look back at the franchise as a whole and celebrate the wackiest, most bizarre WTF moments that the developers have ever devised. There are an innumerable amount of subjective shock moments out there, but the following moments in particular remained in our minds the most long after we were done playing the games.

Cross-dressing

In Anime and Japanese video games, cross-dressing by men is frequently used for the intent to amuse. Compared to western culture, it is not impermissible for a man to cross dress and holds little stigma of intimate orientation or dubious morals, although it's still seen as strange/perverted , thus the comedy. The Final Fantasy series has not being shy to put this bizarre theme in their games.

In Final Fantasy IV, a monk pretends to be a woman until the player speaks with him. He then unveils his actual identity and begins dancing. There is understood to be some other cross dresser in the game going by the name of "Stella".

A more known cross dressing moment from the series is from Final Fantasy VII, A mini game has Cloud gathering various accessories of woman garbs in order to win the opportunity as a female to keep the company of Don Corneo. Overall it was pretty weird having to play dress up with a muscular and tough EX Shinra Soldier. As children many of us didn't make much of this scene but as we got older this fetch quest definitely earned it's wtf badge, we wouldn't change a thing though.

How old are you Fran? (FFXII)

It's a known fact that most women generally don't like to be asked their age, in Final Fantasy XII Vaan asks Fran her age (because she's been living for over 50 years), and she doesn't reply. At the time we thought that this would be explained in more detail later on, but it never happened.

 The entire scene is a classic wtf moment in itself and we're only left to leave it up to imagination in regard to Fran's age. The Vieras look so youthful, mind you they supposedly live for several hundred years which definitely made us look at Fran in a different light.

Still too young to eat (FFIX)

In Final Fantasy IX one of the youngest party members Vivi was raised in a dwelling after being rescued by a Qu. The strange thing here is there are height measurement markings visible on the wall, which says "Six weeks since I adopted Vivi. Still too small to eat." This meant that the Qu (a race in Final Fantasy IX) was planning to eat poor Vivi once he grew up, this revelation wasn't only shocking but was one the most memorable moments in FFIX.

Balamb Garden's Hot Dog Obsession (FFVIII)

Hotdogs are delightful, but nobody goes crazy over them like the students at Balamb Garden. Which has us asking the question, what's up with the hot dogs in Final Fantasy VIII? Everyone wants them and one of the main characters keeps getting screwed out of getting them. You can even assign high ranking students to protect them during Garden battles, just what are they putting in these hot dogs? Just to add, hotdogs have absolutely no usefulness or consequence on the story game-wise.

Even More WTF Moments in Final Fantasy 

We just touched the surface as there's been so many weird moments in the Final Fantasy series, here's just about every last one of them. If you feel that we've missed any wtf moments, then feel free to list them below in the comment section and let us know.

10 More WTF Moments in Final Fantasy