One Genre Could Be Oddly Perfect for a Final Fantasy Spin-Off

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home January 17, 2025 2 Views 7 Min Read
One Genre Could Be Oddly Perfect for a Final Fantasy Spin-Off

Summary

  • Final Fantasy’s enemies can justify a horror spin-off due to their terrifying and grotesque designs.
  • The series explores dark themes, making it a good fit for a horror game that can delve into unattainable hope.
  • Future spin-offs could make horror work by embracing the series’ terrifying enemies and dark themes fully.

Square Enix’s Final Fantasy franchise is one of the oldest video game franchises still alive and well to this day, and while this is largely due to the success of its many mainline installments, that prosperity can also be attributed to its bold spin-offs. Spin-off titles like Final Fantasy Tactics, Final Fantasy Type-0, and Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin have all proven that the longstanding series can explore a variety of different genres — like Roguelike, RTS, and Racing — and still maintain its popularity. However, there is still one genre the Final Fantasy franchise has yet to fully adopt that would be oddly perfect for a spin-off: horror.

It’s no secret that the horror genre in gaming has gained significant mainstream traction in recent years, with successes like the Dead Space remake, The Outlast Trials, Phasmophobia, and Capcom’s series of Resident Evil remakes all leading the charge. In light of that, there’s little reason why the Final Fantasy series shouldn’t pick up on the trend and perhaps introduce the first-ever legitimate horror experience set in the Final Fantasy universe. After all, the franchise has introduced plenty of elements that already fit the horror genre perfectly, including many of its enemies and its willingness to explore dark themes.

Final Fantasy 17 Final Fantasy 10 Footsteps

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The Horror Genre Would Fit a Final Fantasy Spin-Off Perfectly

Many of Final Fantasy’s Enemies Are Terrifying

More than anything else, Final Fantasy has proven itself worthy of the horror label in its enemy design. While not every Final Fantasy enemy is terrifying to behold, they very much are in many of the series’ darker titles, and that is steadily becoming even more true as modern technological developments allow for increasingly detailed visuals. Final Fantasy‘s Tonberry, for one, has always been one of the series’ most terrifying enemies, though more so on account of its demeanor than its design. Almost anyone’s first encounter with a Tonberry in Final Fantasy is likely to send shivers down their spine, as the eerie creature’s mysterious persona makes it almost too much to bear.

Alongside Final Fantasy‘s creepiest enemies are its most grotesque, like the iconic Malboro or Final Fantasy 10‘s Yunalesca. A proper Final Fantasy horror game might see players racing through a dark dungeon with a massive Malboro tailing them, where their only hope is escape rather than a simple remedy. Other enemies in the Final Fantasy series are simply frightening to look at due to their otherworldy design. The Daemonwall in Final Fantasy 15, for example, is by far one of Final Fantasy‘s most terrifying enemies, along with Jenova Dreamweaver from Final Fantasy 7 Remake.

The Final Fantasy Series Has Been Known to Explore Dark Themes

Horrifying enemy designs aren’t the only thing that would justify a horror Final Fantasy spin-off, as its willingness to explore dark themes is a franchise staple and could open the door for a similar experience in a horror game. Since its inception, Final Fantasy has flirted with dark and unsettling themes, from the chilling experiments of Hojo in Final Fantasy 7 to the existential dread of Sin in Final Fantasy 10, the series is no stranger to horror in this sense. The only thing keeping these dark themes from being called “horror” is the fact that there is often far too much hope present in Final Fantasy for it to ever reach such a state.

Final Fantasy‘s Tonberry, for one, has always been one of the series’ most terrifying enemies, though more so on account of its demeanor than its design.

In other words, in order for Final Fantasy to truly delve into the horror genre, it would need to be willing to let some or all of that hope be unattainable, and it would also need to be bold enough to let certain things happen on screen that it might not have allowed before. Final Fantasy 16 is one of the few installments in the series to have a more mature approach to its story, but even with that increased maturity, it only treads the border of horror and never fully commits to it. Perhaps a future Final Fantasy spin-off, even more than a mainline installment, could find a way to make horror work, especially given the series’ affinity for terrifying enemies and dark themes.

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