Whenever a game studio decides to throw together a crossover RPG comprised of characters from multiple games or franchises, there's often this fascinating process where the writers have to figure out new backstories and story roles that allow them to co-exist in this new setting without compromising the original characterization at their core. Sometimes that means trying to figure out how a character became the person we know and love without the specific backstory events that got them there. Frequently what you end up with are facsimiles that lack a lot of the deeper characterization of the originals that are there to provide cameo support or, occasionally, a pastiche.

World of Final Fantasy, Square Enix's big celebratory crossover that celebrates thirty years of the venerable RPG franchise (though it actually showed up a year before Final Fantasy I's 30th birthday, on November 2016 instead of December 2017), is - despite its deferential purpose - not a game that takes itself too seriously. You could quickly surmise that from screenshots, which invariably depict prior Final Fantasy protagonists and major characters as these bobble-headed "lilikin". (The game's localization is a lot of fun, so I've tried to sprinkle in a few screengrabs of it in action here and there.)

World of Final Fantasy is structurally similar to Final Fantasy XIII-2 of all games, in the sense that the party has two permanent protagonists (one male and one female) and an assortment of monsters (called "mirages" here) in revolving support roles. Though not actively involved in combat, the various Final Fantasy "champions" still play a role in the story and/or appear as the game's summons equivalent, dropping some huge damaging attack or party-wide buff whenever the player has a full enough gauge to invoke them. Their roles are expanded further in the game's "intervention quests," in which a small skit or vignette plays out between FF characters without the protagonists' involvement, and the player only steps in when a fight occurs through some kind of mystical dimension travelling nonsense: this allows the game to conceive of situations where they can throw disparate Final Fantasy characters together to see how they'd get along.

I've been a fan of these characters for a long time, and I'm always intrigued by how they continue to exist in some form long after their games have ended. Final Fantasy in particular seems to dive back into its back catalogue frequently, building up versions of these characters that have almost become more prevalent than the originals. What follows is how World of Final Fantasy chose to interpret all these legacy characters.

(NB: Part One covers Final Fantasies I-VII. Part Two will cover the rest of the cameos, from VIII to XIII-2. Also, I'm only covering those that appeared in the original game, not those added to the 2018 Maxima remaster.)

Warrior of Light & Princess Sarah (Final Fantasy)

Role in Final Fantasy: The distinct incarnation of "Warrior of Light" began as a means to represent the first Final Fantasy game in that other, more famous Final Fantasy crossover series Dissidia: Final Fantasy. The problem is, the first Final Fantasy didn't actually have any clearly defined, named characters for its party members. Rather, it was still focused on the CRPG model where party members were blank slates that the player was meant to role-play from scratch, filling generic class roles like "black mage" and "fighter" to befit a party composition of the player's choosing.

Role in WoFF: The Warrior of Light has no real character to transpose to this new world, so instead he's reimagined as Cornelia's Brigade Captain who awakens to his world-saving power after meeting World of Final Fantasy's twin protagonists. A cute aspect of this particularly guileless corner of Grymoire (the world of World of Final Fantasy) is that neither the Warrior of Light's concealed crush on Princess Sarah or Sarah's attempts to mingle incognito with her subjects in plainclothes are fooling anyone.

Surprising Factoid: The Warrior of Light who appears here with flamboyant armor is based on the unknown knight shown in Yoshitaka Amano's box art for the game's original Famicom release that doesn't appear anywhere in the game. His voice actor, Grant George, is the same one for his Dissidia appearances. Sarah's VA is Brooke Lyons, a TV and movie actress for whom World of Final Fantasy is her first video game voice role. She doesn't do a bad job with Sarah's received pronunciation.

Refia (Final Fantasy III)

Role in Final Fantasy III: Wisely skipping Final Fantasy II (at least in the non-Maxima version), World of Final Fantasy's sole FFIII representative is Refia. Refia is one of the interchangeable Onion Knights: they were all given names and characterizations for the Nintendo DS remake. Refia's the only woman of the group, and though she's depicted as a healer/white mage by default, any Onion Knight can be any class they choose at any time with the game's masterstroke innovation of the Job system.

Role in WoFF: Refia appears alongside another FF refugee - Sherlotta - when the party approaches the Kingdom of Saronia, also imported from Final Fantasy III. She's one of the only characters that follows the party around and actually provides a service, healing them with cure spells whenever their HP drops below half after a battle ends. When she becomes available to summon, her ability to heal the whole party and remove negative status effects makes for a handy emergency button.

Surprising Factoid: The Dissidia games don't follow the FFIII remake's canon, instead having a more nebulous and unnamed "Onion Knight" character represent the third game. The pragmatist in me imagines that World of Final Fantasy only opted for Refia's inclusion because they didn't have enough healer NPCs or women or both.

Rydia (Final Fantasy IV)

Role in FInal Fantasy IV: Rydia is a summoner from the town of Mist, who first meets Cecil and Kain when the two are part of the invading army that burns her village down and murders her entire clan. It takes a while for her to warm up to the duo, to put it mildly. Her powers as a summoner takes her to all sorts of unusual places, including the dimension of summoned monsters where she learns to hone her craft. She's usually depicted in her "adult" form, which is really just her child form after some rapid aging in said other dimension. It's... weird.

Role in WoFF: There's several aspects of Rydia's character that are emphasized here, one of which being her phobia of flames borne from the traumatic razing of her village, which makes her assistance in a nearby volcano dungeon a bit fraught. The other is her mother's Mist Dragon familiar, which follows Rydia around and is often the source of her strength. The game establishes an odd relationship between "summoners" and the protagonist "Mirage Keepers": both are able to command monsters, though apparently there's a significant difference in the level of ability and scope (it's like the difference between persona users in Atlus's Persona franchise, who typically only have one or two persona, and the "Zero" protagonist's ability to control hundreds).

Surprising Factoid: Rydia's voice actor, Caroline Macey, is the same one that voiced her back in the 2008 DS remake of Final Fantasy IV. World of Final Fantasy is meant to be a celebration of the franchise, so I think the localization team's efforts to track down former voice actors to reprise roles almost a decade after the fact is admirable, as we'll see in FFX's returning stars. The other surprising factoid is that, despite Final Fantasy IV being really the first Final Fantasy game to have a well-developed and expansive cast of characters in addition to being one of the most beloved games in the entire franchise, Rydia is the only FFIV visitor in World of Final Fantasy. (Unless Kain is working for the bad guys and hasn't revealed himself yet, and I wouldn't put it past him.)

Bartz Klauser (Final Fantasy V)

Role in Final Fantasy V: Good old generic Bartz, or Butz, is the blank slate protagonist of Final Fantasy V, the second game in the series to employ the class-hopping Job system. Bartz himself is cookie-cutter a protagonist as they come, but there's a lot going on around him that makes him more interesting than immediately meets the eye: primarily, that his partner is an intelligent chocobo, that he hails from another world, and that his father was once friends with a goshdarn werewolf.

Role in WoFF: Bartz shows up on the Big Bridge to show the party how to use the jump pads. He's then involved with a kerfuffle with an enraged Gilgamesh, who claims to have been chasing after him for a hundred years. This particular Bartz has never met Gilgamesh though; it's implied that the visitor Gilgamesh is actually the real one, who has once again lost his way in the dimensions between realities. Bartz later ends up joining Rikku on her treasure hunting missions, letting her take all the loot while he simply enjoys the adventure. The two of them are very cute together.

Surprising Factoid: Keen-eyed Final Fantasy aficionados might've already noted an appalling omission with the way I moved straight from Final Fantasy IV to Final Fantasy V in the chronological order I'm following: there's no Final Fantasy Mystic Quest cameo! Where's Benjamin? Or Phoebe? Or, hell, I'd take a Reuben or a Tristam. Anyway, there are three Final Fantasy V characters, as if to rub salt on the wound, and Bartz has a surprising amount of presence in the story for someone with no presence to speak of. He mostly shows up a lot due to his connections to the chocobo world via his avian partner Boko.

Faris Scherwiz (Final Fantasy V)

Role in Final Fantasy V: Faris is a pirate captain who captures the party at one point, their feminine appearance briefly confusing Bartz and Galuf until they realized who Faris was: the missing Princess Sarisa of Tycoon and the sister of their travelling companion Lenna. Faris initially joined Bartz and company because she was curious about a pendant Lenna wore - one that she also had - but was eventually sucked into the same prophetic destiny as the rest of the group as they went around collecting crystals, as Final Fantasy parties are wont to do.

Role in WoFF: This Faris has no hidden destiny or true identity that he's aware of - he's just a pirate captain who commands a crew of moogles with his sea serpent familiar, Syldra. When WoFF's protagonists attempt to steal Faris's ship, they're forced to contend with Syldra and Faris in a battle that's impossible to win (one of many annoying unwinnable story battles). Faris relents when he hears about their mission, and though cannot take them to their next destination by ship, helpfully points to someone who can.

Surprising Factoid: If you're wondering about the pronoun use, Faris - or this particular Faris at least - is explicitly mentioned in their bio as presenting as male. The original game hinted that a terrified child Faris, after being lost at sea and recovered by pirates, was perhaps only pretending to be male to make it easier to fit into that society, but WoFF's Faris doesn't have that baggage and presumably decided of his own volition that he was both male and a pirate. Faris's voice actor is Emily O'Brien, who previously voiced fan favorite Y'shtola Rhul for the online Final Fantasy XIV; the white-haired Miqo'te being something like the poster child for the MMO. Since Y'shtola doesn't appear in this game, or at least the non-Maxima version, it seems they gave her a different character to voice.

Gilgamesh (Final Fantasy V)

Role in Final Fantasy V: Though named for one of the earliest and most powerful heroes of ancient literature, Final Fantasy's Gilgamesh has always been presented as something of a buffoon. That comedic edge cemented his fan favorite status back in Final Fantasy V, and since then his canonical disappearance into the nebulous "realm between realms" has given subsequent Final Fantasy directors carte blanche to have him turn up in any world at any time for any reason. In addition to his role as a recurring mid-boss in Final Fantasy V, he also shows up in Final Fantasy VIII as an optional summon who first lends his support in a pivotal battle and in Final Fantasy IX as a many-armed individual who enjoys card games.

Role in WoFF: Though this version of Gilgamesh is unique to Grymoire, his soul is linked to the "Ur Gilgamesh" floating around inside the space between dimensions, which is apparently where this obsession with fighting Bartz derives from. He's still looking for another conclusive fight even if this world's Bartz has no idea who he is. Gilgamesh isn't all that picky though, and quickly finds other worthy opponents to fight such as the protagonists and (later) Final Fantasy XIII's Snow - his theory is that anyone who willingly picks a fight with him must be Bartz, because Bartz is the one he's destined to fight.

Surprising Factoid: Gilgamesh is really only related to the Mesopotamian hero by name. His boastful mannerisms, penchant for fighting on bridges, single-minded desire for powerful weapons and opponents to fight, and kabuki-style make-up are all reminiscent of Benkei the monk instead: a famous figure in Japanese folklore and kabuki theater analogous to Robin Hood's Little John. His VA, Keith Szarabajka, previously voiced the same character (or versions of the character?) in Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy Type-0.

Celes Chere (Final Fantasy VI)

Role in Final Fantasy VI: Celes Chere is a former Imperial General who underwent the same damaging magic-infusing experiments as her peer Kefka, albeit with less resulting insanity. She is eventually swayed by the good guys and joins their cause against her country after they break her out of jail, but it's really only when we hit the game's final act that her sympathetic characterization hits the fast lane. For whatever reason she's always dressed like she's going to the gym.

Role in WoFF: Celes is guarding an ancient library in WoFF, not only protecting it from any external destructive forces but also its own malfunctioning robotic librarian Cid, mirroring the slightly antagonistic familial relationship the two had in Final Fantasy VI (even if this is a different Cid than the raincoat-sporting scientist of FFVI). She's acquaintances with fellow blond of few words Cloud Strife, who is in the same town for other reasons.

Surprising Factoid: Celes is pronounced "seh-LESS", as in the name Celeste. In retrospect this makes a lot more sense than "SELL-ess" or "cellars" or however I was saying it. Her VA is Christina Rose, appearing in her first ever voice acting role. Rose does, however, have a history in musical theater including the Broadway performance of Grease, which makes her inspired casting for Celes "opera floozy" Chere.

Edgar Figaro (Final Fantasy VI)

Role in Final Fantasy: The pragmatic young (well, 27, which might as well be ancient in JRPG terms) King of Figaro has been playing the Empire, presenting himself and his nation as willing vassals to the Empire's cause but has long been plotting a way to emancipate Figaro of their influence. He chose to be King in order to give his brother, Sabin, the life of freedom the latter always wanted. An inveterate ladies' man, he hits on almost every woman in the game - the exception being the child artist Relm, who hits on him instead.

Role in WoFF: Pretty much the same, really. He claims allegiance to WoFF's antagonistic Bahamutian Federation, even helping them capture the protagonists and fit them with suppressors to neutralize their Mirage Keeper powers, but it's all part of a long con to sever the literal chains that bind Figaro to the Federation and instead help those resisting their rule. Gets on well with Vivi Ornitier, who along with his black mage brethren all become honorary citizens of Figaro. For whatever reason in this game Figaro is sitting directly above the high-tech subterranean D-District Prison that Squall and co. were dumped into after the disastrous first act of Final Fantasy VIII, which is itself sitting on top of a Mako Reactor named for Final Fantasy VII's Midgar. It's amazing what you find in a desert if you dig deep enough.

Surprising Factoid: Like Faris, Edgar's voice actor Ray Chase is best known for playing a different Final Fantasy character. Specifically, another young King: Noctis Lucis Caelum, the moody protagonist of Final Fantasy XV and its related media. According to Edgar's bio he won't hit on the female protagonist because she's also too young, which... I dunno if this is the one aspect of his character that you want to keep harping on for the sake of humor.

Terra Branford (Final Fantasy VI)

Role in Final Fantasy VI: Though Final Fantasy VI was specifically designed to not have a protagonist, letting players gravitate towards their preferred heroes and heroines and splitting the story into vignettes where many of the playable characters don't appear, Terra Branford is the closest the game has to one. She's seen in the opening credits, and her journey from brainwashed agent of the Empire to half-esper unsure of her place in the world is one of the more elaborate of the game's many plot threads. Whenever a crossover game needed one significant character from each game, Terra is usually that for Final Fantasy VI.

Role in WoFF: Terra appears in her signature MagiTek armor alongside her esper father Maduin to stop the twins from reaching the ominous Crystal Tower that supposedly leads to the conclusion of various prophecies governing the world. She doesn't give a whole lot away in this encounter, either coerced or possessed by some unknown outsider to attack the duo. Terra can't ever seem to catch a break in any world she's in; she gets psychically manipulated more often than Counsellor Troi. I'm curious to see if the game ever explains how she can be "half-Mirage" or if esper means something entirely different in Grymoire.

Surprising Factoid: Well, I was surprised that she showed up for only thirty seconds and a pointless boss fight, but she sticks around to help out the heroes once her wits return albeit via an annoying mini-game that's somewhere between Minesweeper and Battleship. Her VA is Natalie Lander, who also voiced the character for her many Dissidia appearances (and Saints Row's Kinzie Kensington, with whom Terra shares very little else in common).

Cloud Strife (Final Fantasy VII)

Role in Final Fantasy VII: Cloud's role in Final Fantasy VII would take half a novel to summarize, but in short he's a former member of Shinra's elite SOLDIER unit who has turned mercenary, helping Barret's AVALANCHE ecoterrorist organization tear down Midgar's Mako Reactors that are threatening to... there is no "in short" version of this, really. Cloud's a laconic presence throughout FFVII, as is typical for a RPG protagonist, but his personality and grasp on reality go through a number of shifts as he comes to terms with his amnesia and trauma. It's kinda hard to get a handle on the guy, just like how I imagine it'd be pretty hard to get a handle on that enormous slab of sheet metal he uses as a weapon.

Role in WoFF: Cloud is perhaps the most travelled of the Final Fantasy heroes, making cameos in more games than any other, but his characterization in these games tends to default to a dispassionate aloofness that is an uninteresting amalgam of FFVII's Cloud that combines his early curtness and all-business approach and his later reawakened sense of empathy and courage. It's proven to be an enduring paradigm for the character, from his inexplicable presence in Final Fantasy Tactics up to his appearance here, where he's part of "the League of S" (which is largely made up of Final Fantasy VII and VIII people) and obediently goes wherever something needs omnislashing.

Surprising Factoid: Steve Burton, primarily known as a soap opera actor outside of his VA work (again, great casting), has been voicing Cloud since the spiky-haired wonder's 2002 appearance in Kingdom Hearts. Most of that game's star-studded voice cast were switched with professional voice actors for later crossovers, but Burton's managed to stick around for every non-FFVII appearance of Cloud up to and including the upcoming FFVII remake. Like the Kingdom Hearts version, WoFF Cloud is also characterized by his single-minded vendetta against Sephiroth; there's an insidious bond between the two that is more parasitic than brotherly, and Cloud would love nothing more than to sever it forever.

Tifa Lockhart (Final Fantasy VII)

Role in Final Fantasy VII: A survivor of the Nibelheim incident who settled in Midgar and founded her own bar, the Seventh Heaven, in the enormous metropolis's Distict 7. She's the only link to Cloud's past, and he with hers, though the Cloud she meets early on is nothing like the quiet and loyal teen she remembered. Despite being a hotheaded martial artist in battle, Tifa's best exemplified by her endless patience with Cloud's many flavors of bullshit, standing by his side and lending her support to the troubled hero.

Role in WoFF: For whatever reason, Tifa's original age is retained (20) but she's wearing the trashy tourist-friendly cowboy gear her teen self appears in during Final Fantasy VII's Nibelheim flashback as well as the events of Crisis Core, which was a prequel set during the same time frame. Also odd is that in Grymoire Nibelheim is still in one piece, and Tifa's incinerated hometown is now Rydia's village of Mist. I mean, when you have two heroines who have a razed village as part of their tragic backstories, you might as well combine them.

Surprising Factoid: Genuine movie star Rachel Leigh Cook is still voicing Tifa here. She first voiced her back in that Advent Children CG movie, and continued to do so for Kingdom Hearts II and the second Dissidia game (Tifa wasn't in the first).

Shelke Rui (Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII)

Role in Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII: I really couldn't tell you off hand what Shelke's role was in Dirge of Cerberus because I never played that poorly regarded spin-off and I'm surprised the creators of this game assumed anyone would remember anything that came out of it. Shelke's part of a group of color-coded genetic soldier antagonists and a possible clone of Vincent's mostly-dead former lover Lucretia. She looks like a sexualized underaged ninja, which wouldn't be the first for Final Fantasy VII.

Role in WoFF: Shelke's another highly skilled operative of the League of S, albeit one that has almost zero emotional range. So, pretty much like Cloud, Squall, and Lightning then. She shows up to beat the protagonists back into fighting shape and then mostly flits around with those laser batons of hers. A grim reminder that Square once tried to Devil May Cry their best-known property to questionable results.

Surprising Factoid: Shelke is still voiced by her Dirge of Cerberus VA, Kari Wahlgren, which isn't too much of a surprising fact since Ms. Wahlgren has had hundreds of voice roles in video games and anime. No, the most surprising factoid is that Dirge of Cerberus gets represented in this game and Final Fantasy II, Final Fantasy XII, Final Fantasy Tactics, Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core, Final Fantasy X-2, and Final Fantasy Mystic Quest doesn't (barring Maxima and DLC champions).

Next time! We're going to take a closer look at Final Fantasies VIII to XIII-2 and maybe a few other fun references the developers tossed into World of Final Fantasy, though I'm stopping short of every reused monster, settlement, and dungeon. Also: Claudia Black shows up as Leviathan in this? I thought Leviathan was supposed to be the King of the Summoned Creatures, according to Final Fantasy IV anyway. Still, if Claudia Black's in your game as a giant talking sea serpent I'm there for it.