Final Fantasy Loves Its Star Wars Referecnes (Spoilers-- FF and Star Wars)

[Enkidoh]

I considered mentioning the Enterprise, but I decided not to, as it's more than likely it was actually named after the real American aircraft carrier of the same name.

In fact, three of the airships in FFIII are named after real-world vessels - the Invincible is a supply ship in the British Royal Navy, the Nautilus is a US submarine (appropriately enough), and the Enterprise is an aircraft carrier (as well as a NASA Space Shuttle), which is also where Gene Roddenberry got the name for the eponymous Star Trek vessel from in the first place.

[MonBeeb]

Penelo, Fran, Basch, Larsa, Al-Cid Margrace, Lord Reddas/Judge Zecht and Judge Bergan/Noah-- these I can't fit into the Star Wars mold, though if anyone else wants to try, they're welcome to it.

Fran = Chewbacca.

Basch is sort of similar to Obi-Wan Kenobi. He's a veteran knight from an order wiped out by the Empire, a knight with strong regrets about what he was unable to prevent, who has been in "exile" (AKA prison) since the Empire's rise. And he's got a beard when you first get him.

Reddas I've seen compared to Lando Calrissian, but he's only a little bit similar. He is the leader of Balfonheim, an isolated city over which the Empire has no jurisdiction and is keen to avoid Imperial attention. He also switches sides, which arguably is what Lando does. Though Reddas has an entirely different personality from Lando, because Lando's personality seems to have been transplanted onto...

Al-Cid. He comes into the story, and what's the first thing he does? He starts hitting on the princess.

The Judge Magisters in general occupy the space in Archadian Empire which Darth Vader occupies in the Galactic Empire. Gabranth occupies the same space as Vader in the plot. Gabranth/Vader is the "dragon" to Vayne's/Palpatine's "big bad." They are the recurring face villains. It also seems pretty obvious to me that Gabranth's design is heavily inspired by Vader's armor. The Theme of the Empire in FFXI is also clearly supposed to be evocative of The Imperial March in Star Wars.

As for Penelo and Larsa, beats me.

[Enkidoh]

Sorry to revive this after two months, but anyway.

I've just remembered two more FF references to Lucas's cash cow:

In FFVIII,

Spoiler!

when Squall is being tortured by Seifer at the D-District Prison, Seifer mentions that Galbadia will destroy Garden, and "after that, the SeeD Hunt will begin", in retaliation for SeeD's botched assassination attempt on Edea.

This is eerily similar to the Jedi Purge in Episode III, where following Mace Windu's botched attempt to arrest Palpatine following his unmasking as Darth Sidious, Palpatine intiates 'Order 66', declaring the Jedi as enemies of state, and causing Jedi to be hunted down and exterminated.

Unlike in FFVIII though, where Seifer's threat never actually came to fruition, apart from the missile attack on Trabia Garden, the Jedi Purge actually succeeded, bringing the Order to practical extinction before Luke rebuilds it twenty or so years later.

Although FFVIII predates SW Episode III by a good six to seven years, the Jedi Purge had been referred to long before then though, way back in 1977 at the start of the original trilogy. So the reference still stands.

A second reference is found in FFXI's storyline:

Spoiler!

where El'dnarche and Kam'lanaut, the Zilart Princes, are secretly manipulating world events, such as being the real masterminds behind the Crystal War, turning Raogrimm against his will into the Shadowlord and using him to enslave the beastmen to launch an assault against the three nations, while at the same under their guise as the dukes of Jeuno they rallied the nations to fight the beastmen under the Alliance of Altana, thus starting the Crystal War.

This is very similar to the to the events leading up to, during and after, the Clone Wars in the SW prequels, where Palpatine under his guise of Darth Sidious manipulates the Trade Federation into attacking Naboo, and after using the Confederacy to unleash an assault against the Republic, while under his guise of Chancellor rallying the Republic and the Jedi behind him to fight back, thus starting the Clone Wars.

The reasons for doing so though were different in each case though -

Spoiler!

for the Zilart it was all a means to an end, to continue their blasphemous quest to open the gateway to Paradise (which ultimately guarantees their destruction), where as in Palpatine's case, it was for him to to gain executive power to allow the Sith to assume complete control of the galaxy, a reoccurring theme throughout the SW expanded universe.

But I digress.