Video game economies aren’t often indicative of the ones we participate in in real life. Some video games have you unlock powers and abilities with currency, some allow you to unlock buildings and arenas at ridiculously low prices, and others allow you to unlock human beings for various purposes for a fixed price.
As the name implies, roleplaying games are meant to immerse you into a certain role, or have you play a specific character. Essentially giving you a simulated reality to enjoy during your playthrough, these games often borrow from reality in order to create their environments.
The Final Fantasy franchise is certainly not based on the world which we occupy—nonetheless, it simulates many characteristics of a futuristic version of our world. One area which is a complete miss is the economy. While there are tons of examples that deviate from our reality, here are 10 hilariously unrealistic features of the Final Fantasy economy.
10 Store Layouts
Walk up to any shopkeeper in a Final Fantasy game and you will immediately notice something amiss: Their goods are almost always sorted into “weapons,” “items,” and a variable third category. While this is reminiscent of department stores in the real world, most brick and mortar stores contain multiple department managers and ask the shopper to find their own items.
Not in Final Fantasy. While you might be able to walk around some of the shops, one person typically serves as your intermediary between any potential purchases you might wish to make. The implication that one person could handle this burden is laughable, but not so much as many items on this list.
9 Welcoming Solicitation
Speaking of menus which you encounter in Final Fantasy games, have you ever found a shop which doesn’t give you the option to sell your bulk items? Our guess is “no.” You can always dump off your excesses for some extra income at any stop you find.
In the real world, how often can you sell junk you’ve obtained on your adventures? Not very. In fact, most businesses have signs and postings which state that they do not welcome solicitation. If you’re unfamiliar with this concept, solicitation is where you offer to sell items to a business for money. The abundant welcoming of this practice in Final Fantasy games is a drastic departure from our norms.
8 Weapons
Remember when we listed those shop options? Well, if you’re kind enough to avoid solicitation and come to a store searching for wares, one of the options you’ll have is to purchase weapons. Upon selecting this option, you will have an unrestricted list of the finest wares available in your setting. We get that combat is an important feature of the game, but this seems a bit off.
While Walmart might offer certain handguns and hunting equipment, there is no shortage of debate in the real world over the regulation of weapons. Very rarely will you walk into a real store that freely sells cutting-edge weaponry, nevermind in settings such as Final Fantasy VII which feature a protagonist who actively works against the government. Something tells us there might be some restrictions.
7 Materia
Continuing with Final Fantasy VII, lets talk about materia for a moment. Materia is an embodiment of magical essence built from the planet’s “lifestream.” While artificial means of production are indicated, the hundred-year process of natural production should make any materia a big deal.
Not in Final Fantasy VII. This item, which can allow its user abilities ranging from healing and petty theft to the summoning of literal gods, can be easily purchased in shops at an affordable price. Just imagine a similar option in life. Such a premise is almost inconceivable.
6 Lack of Luxury
Speaking of ridiculous items that are available and shouldn’t be, what about those items which aren’t available and should be? Video games, movies, novelty items, and more are strangely lacking from most installments in the Final Fantasy franchise. While they wouldn’t be relevant given the fast-paced environment of most games, their omission is just insane.
To be clear, this doesn’t apply to newer installments where you can purchase such things as paint jobs for your highly customizable car. This applies to the bulk of games in the franchise where the implication of availability is that no one in the world has an interest in luxury and hobbies.
5 Specialty Items
While you might not be able to buy a gaming console, you can certainly buy some oddly specific items in Final Fantasy. Examples? Take a Gatling gun which can be attached to an arm stump, as is available in Final Fantasy VII. Who has an arm stump and uses such an item? A terrorist fighting against the government? Put it on the shelves!
Stump-arm attachments aren’t the only crazy items available in Final Fantasy games, but it serves as a great example. In what reality would such a specific and high-profile item ever see mass production or space on department store shelves? None.
4 Blitzballs
Speaking of oddly specific items, this one deserves a list-item of its own.
Imagine this scene. You’re walking through your local department store and your child is interested in sports. They ask for a soccer ball or a basketball and you walk to the appropriate section of said store. Among the options you find are regulation-sized balls, smaller balls for beginners, and spiked options for hurling at enemies.
Did that last one catch your attention? It’s absurd, but in Final Fantasy X, it’s a widely available commodity. Playable character Wakka uses blitzballs as offensive items, and, as a result, deadly versions of the sport’s central item are widely available for sale.
3 Gambling
Gambling isn’t nonexistent in the real world, but it is still very taboo in most places. While adults can visit locations where gambling is allowed, and everyone has that uncle who hosts poker night in his basement, gambling isn’t a widely accepted source of income.
Not true in many Final Fantasy titles. Specifically rampant in Final Fantasy VIII and IX, various forms of gambling have existed in many installments in the franchise. Only in Final Fantasy do adults actively proposition strangers to engage in a wager over card games or run the risk of enslavement as a jockey.
2 Lack of Restaurants
This one had to come up. While venturing through any Final Fantasy game, how often have you found yourself in an actual restaurant? There are examples of them in the series, but they aren’t common. This is probably due to the fortunate ability characters possess which allows them to complete an entire adventure without ever having a single meal.
Drive through a city the size of any of the Final Fantasy settings and count how many restaurants you encounter. It will be significantly more, and there’s good reason: people like to eat. Not only do they enjoy eating, they like variety. The absurdly limited number of dining options in the Final Fantasy series is appalling.
1 Income
Remember that job you had before you went off saving the world? No? Okay.
Very few characters in the Final Fantasy series had one. The lack of occupational opportunity leads us to wonder how the characters can afford all of the various items on this list. Fortunately, if you can suspend your disbelief, there is an answer!
While some newer entries will offer monetary compensation for the completion of quests, most of the older titles relied on players obtaining their income from the pockets of enemies they had defeated. In regard to human opponents, this raises the moral question of theft; but for monsters, why do they have money, to begin with?
NEXT: 10 PC Role-Playing Games You Need To Play
