Why is it called Final Fantasy if it never ends?

The legend says a nearly bankrupt Square named its final game in desperation, and if it failed, the fantasy really would be final. The man whose name the legend hangs on has personally dismantled it, twice: creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, in his 2015 Ritsumeikan University keynote (reported from Famitsu) and again in Square Enix's official 35th Anniversary interview (2022).

His account is more practical and funnier. Dragon Quest had become "DQ", so his team wanted a two-letter abbreviation too, and "FF" sounds good in Japanese: "efu efu." Their first choice of title was Fighting Fantasy, but that name belonged to the British gamebook series. In Sakaguchi's words: "We reluctantly went with Final Fantasy as a last resort... anything that started with an F would have been fine."

The myth keeps two kernels of truth, and both are in his telling: Square was struggling, and Sakaguchi personally planned to quit and go back to university if the game failed. The company was not betting its life on the title. He was betting his.