Final Fantasy's battle system was inspired by an American sport, says Hiroyuki Ito

Final Fantasy players have been turn-based battling baddies for 25 years now, and while they were trying to thwart the evil plans of Sephiroth, Kefka and the like, they may have been too busy wondering what inspired these battles in the first place.

In order to create an efficient battle system for the original Nintendo Entertainment System title, series technical wizard Hiroyuki Ito took partial inspiration from a peculiar choice: American football.

"There's no one inspiration that I got that battle system from," Sakaguchi told 1UP. "It was just a logical process, where I thought, 'How can I create an efficient battle system for a role-playing game?' That's the answer that I came to.

"At the root of it all, though, there's a basic kind of system that comes from professional sports... NFL Football is probably the closest thing."

The more you know, etcetera.

Thanks, Nintendo Life.