In 1987, Hironobu Sakaguchi was planning his retirement from the gaming industry. Square , the four-year-old company he co-founded, faced imminent bankruptcy after a string of disappointing Famicom releases, while competitor Enix surged ahead with a new game called Dragon Quest. Sakaguchi knew he could do better than Dragon Quest, and boldly decided to prove it with one final fantasy -adventure RPG people would remember long after Square faded into history. He named it accordingly.

Five sequels later, Final Fantasy proved anything but a finale. By the end of 1994, Square was a developer with some weight behind the name, and Sakaguchi was their executive wunderkind. They'd branched out with other successful titles like Secret of Mana and Chrono Trigger , earned a place as one of Nintendo's top third-party developers, and slowly moved into the prized American market. With Final Fantasy VI in the can, Sakaguchi and his team had choices to make on where to take their venerable series next, and their decisions not only changed their company forever, but the entire gaming industry.Seven was about to become everyone's lucky number.Production on Final Fantasy VII started in late 1995. After a strict hands-on approach to his series, Sakaguchi stayed in the background for Final Fantasy VI. For the new sequel, he stepped back into the lead with a mystery plot centered around Midgar, the perpetually dark capital city of Gaia, and the familiar themes of rebels fighting a corrupt system, pursued by "Hot Blooded Detective Joe." The player's ultimate goal: destroy Midgar.That changed when Yoshinori Kitase, director on Chrono Trigger and Scenario Writer for V and VI came aboard. Working with co-writer Kazushige Nojima, the mystery angle was dropped and the game's opposing forces -- AVALANCHE and Shinra, Cloud and Sephiroth -- came into sharper focus. Basic FF gameplay was already long established, so only a few tweaks were deemed necessary. Active Time Battles, standard since IV, made a return to add urgency to the turn-based fights, but everyone agreed VI's underused and underwhelming Desperation Attacks had to go. Instead of a last gasp from a nearly-dead PC, Kitase instituted Limit Breaks, a massive, adrenaline-fueled counterattack that built up as a character took damage. Building and using Limit Breaks became a strategic part of combat.After years of forests, castles, and one trip to the moon, VI had moved away from a purely fantasy setting and went more futuristic. Following that trend, art director Yusuke Naora fleshed out a monolithic industrial playground in the tiered city of Midgar and built its towering Mako reactors. Sakaguchi expected series designer Yoshitaka Amano to put his signature touch on their characters and designs, but Amano was busy opening workshops and exhibitions in France and New York, limiting his involvement. The team turned instead to a minor character and monster designer named Tetsuya Nomura.This was Nomura's first shot as a design lead, and he attacked it. VII was shaping up as a dark game, and his first design for chief protagonist Cloud Strife was a slick, black-haired kid to contrast uber-villian Sephiroth's silver mane. Unfortunately, Cloud just didn't look very heroic. A spiky blonde hairdo lightened him up and kept his prickly nature intact, and the colossal sword by his side was met with instant approval. Gruff rebel leader Barret Wallace started with two hands and a bow-shaped gun before going cyborg with a Gun-Arm. Flower girl/savant Aerith rounded out the list of available PCs, designed to inject some needed femininity.Sakaguchi and Kitase decided that cast was a little too thin, though. Nomura added another half-dozen characters for players to choose from, and he sweated every detail. Tifa Lockhart came in as romantic competition for Cloud's affections; Nomura obsessed over the length and color of her skirt to counterpoint Aerith's long pink dress, and nearly settled it by putting her in pants. The new Cid, a staple since II, became a foul-mouthed chain smoker. Talking lion Red XIII gained tattoos and a Native American motif before Nomura set his tail on fire for a little extra color. Ninja thief Yuffie Kisaragi and mechanical puppet Cait Sith added the requisite cute factor, while brooding Vincent Valentine's background changed from horror researcher to detective to chemist to undead man of mystery.Nomura didn't stop there. He gave Final Fantasy's mascot Chocobos a makeover, took charge of animating Summon attacks and Limit Breaks, and soon had story input as well. One offhand, late-night suggestion became one of the most shocking story twists in gaming history.