The company that thought it might be finished made a game called Final — and started everything.
Square was struggling, and Hironobu Sakaguchi wanted a title that shortened to a clean "FF." The popular story says "Final" meant his last try, but he later explained it simply replaced "Fighting," which they couldn't use. Either way, four young people — Sakaguchi, programmer Nasir Gebelli, composer Nobuo Uematsu, artist Yoshitaka Amano — poured themselves into one cartridge, and 520,000 of them sold in Japan. The lesson isn't that endings are dramatic; it's that the work you do when you're unsure how much road is left can turn out to be the road itself.
About this game
Final Fantasy XII is a 2006 role-playing video game for the famicom, developed by Square Enix, directed by Hiroyuki Ito, with music by Hitoshi Sakimoto. It belongs to the ファイナルファンタジー series.
Gallery
Tricks & Tales
The name almost wasn't "Final" at all: Sakaguchi wanted a title abbreviating to "FF," originally "Fighting Fantasy," but a trademark clash with the gamebook series forced the switch — and the well-known word "Final" fit. It was programmed by Nasir Gebelli, an Iranian-American coder who had never made an RPG before; he even slipped in a hidden sliding-puzzle minigame that wasn't in Square's original design. Square planned to ship only 200,000 copies; Sakaguchi pushed for 400,000 to justify a sequel, and the Famicom version ended up selling about 520,000 in Japan.
Collector's Guide
Region & Compatibility
Famicom and NES are the same hardware family but use physically incompatible cartridge formats — Famicom carts have a 60-pin connector and a narrower shell, while NES carts use a 72-pin connector with a wider housing. You cannot insert a Famicom cartridge into a North American NES slot without an adapter, and vice versa. The Famicom itself has no lockout chip, so any Famicom cartridge from Japan will run on a Famicom console regardless of origin. If you are buying a Japanese Famicom cart to play on a NES, you will need a 60-to-72-pin physical adapter; if you own a Famicom, Japanese-market software is your native format and no workarounds are needed.
Maintenance Tips
The gold-plated edge connectors on Famicom and NES cartridges pick up skin oils and oxidation over decades — a gentle wipe with a cotton swab dampened in 90% or higher isopropyl alcohol, stroking along the length of the pins rather than across them, is the accepted standard. Let the alcohol fully evaporate before reinserting. The old habit of blowing into a cartridge is folklore: the moisture in breath causes slow corrosion of the contacts over time, and any improvement you felt came from the act of re-seating the cart, not from the breath itself. Nintendo eventually updated its own troubleshooting guidance to say explicitly: do not blow into your Game Paks.
Going deeper
Explore the machine this game ran on, and what to check before you buy or care for one:
What to Watch Out For
Before buying, these are the points worth knowing — from someone who handles original Japanese Final Fantasy XII copies regularly.
Is this the original Final Fantasy, or one of the later numbered games?
On Famicom/NES this is the original Final Fantasy (Japan: December 18, 1987). The numbered titles like FFXII are entirely different, much later games on newer consoles — don't be misled by mislabeled listings.
How does it save — passwords or a battery?
The cartridge uses a battery-backed save (no passwords). That means original carts are decades old and the internal battery can die; if a cart won't hold your save, the battery likely needs replacing.
Will a Japanese Famicom copy play on a North American NES?
Not directly — the Famicom and NES use different cartridge shapes and the regions differ. The Japanese Famicom release is 1987; the English NES localization came later, in July 1990. Match the cartridge to your console (or use an adapter).
Before You Buy
Things worth knowing before you buy Final Fantasy XII
A short checklist for buying a used Famicom cartridge wisely — useful with any seller, anywhere.
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Choose a seller who tests it before shipping
A copy that has actually been powered on and checked is a known quantity. An untested one is a gamble you only settle after it arrives.
Look for a seller who states it was function-tested and says what they confirmed. A serious seller can tell you exactly what was checked.
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Make sure it fits your console
This is a Japanese Famicom cartridge with a 60-pin connector; a North American NES uses a 72-pin slot, so it will not fit directly.
Play it on a matching Japanese console or a region-free system, and confirm the listing states the region.
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If this title saves your progress, check the battery
Cartridges that save use a small coin-cell battery that fades over decades — a dead one wipes your save without warning.
Ask the seller whether the save function was tested. Replacing the battery is possible, but doing so erases any existing save.
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Check that the contacts are clean
Dirty edge contacts are the most common cause of startup and sound trouble in cartridges of this age.
Choose a seller who cleans the contacts before shipping. A note that it was tested and cleaned means the basics were handled.
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Confirm it is genuine, not a reproduction
Sought-after titles are targets for reproduction boards with replacement labels.
Ask for a photo of the circuit board and look for factory markings. Favour a shop with a licensed second-hand dealer permit (古物商) — by law its stock has a traceable origin, your simplest guard against fakes.
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Read the seller's reviews and return policy
A 100% positive record across thousands of sales is close to a guarantee — packing, communication and problem-solving all work for everyone. A return policy protects you if something is off.
Read the feedback and confirm a clear return window before you buy.
The last step before buying anywhere is knowing what it's worth.
See what it's selling for on eBay →Unexpected Discoveries
Games you weren't looking for — but might be glad you found.
Rooms this game lives in
Wander deeper — explore the themed rooms where Final Fantasy XII sits alongside its kin.
Memories from around the world
This is a young museum, and this page is still waiting for its first voices. The memories people send reach Taisei personally, and the ones that move him find a home here over time — always with the writer's blessing. Yours could be the very first for this game.
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