How Final Fantasy's Mini-Games Have Expanded The Franchise's Lore

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Traditionally, Final Fantasy games tend to be content-rich experiences. In terms of the mainline entries in the series, the main campaign alone can take anywhere from 30 to 50 hours to see through to completion. Throw in side content, optional areas, bosses, and collectibles, and the hours will quickly stack up, with some Final Fantasy games having well over 100 hours worth of content for those wishing to see it all. Building a game with so much content doesn't always pay off, though. Many developers have been accused of bloating their titles by stuffing them full of unnecessary content just to boost the average playtime.

Somehow though, Final Fantasy usually manages to keep the quality of all of its content at a high level, to the point where some of their more memorable mini-games have developed fan bases to rival the games themselves. These mini-games are extremely diverse, and over the years have encompassed many activities such as Chocobo racing, playing cards, fishing, participating in tower-defense simulators, and even participating in aquatic sports. At their best, these mini-games can take up hours of players' time, and become something of an obsession that goes some way to expanding the game's lore.

Other Final Fantasy Games Deserving of the FF7 Remake Treatment

The world of Final Fantasy 8 is packed full of things to see and do, but if the player becomes tired of the traditional turn-based combat or exploring the world map, Triple Triad proves to be an incredibly fun change of pace. Conceived by veteran Final Fantasy battle designer Hiroyuki Ito, it's a simple card game played out on a 3x3 board similar in layout and design to noughts and crosses. The aim of the game is to use the player's five cards to capture