Final Fantasy Producer Cites Star Wars as a Key Inspiration for Characters and Mechanics in Franchise

Longtime Final Fantasy producer Yoshinori Kitase revealed to IGN that Star Wars was a big influence on the RPG franchise. Speaking with Michael Peyton at the Lucca Comics & Games Festival 2026, Kitase admitted he is heavily inspired by other entertainment behemoths, specifically naming Star Wars. He expressed happiness about seeing games like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 drawing inspiration from Square’s RPG franchise. While noting that he has always been careful not to lift directly from Star Wars, fearing it would be too obvious, he pointed out several instances of sci-fi influence in his own work. Kitase noted that Final Fantasy 7 characters Wedge and Biggs are the most overt inspirations, as they are named after characters from Star Wars’ Rebellion. On a more subtle note, he revealed that Blitzball from Final Fantasy 10 was inspired by Podracing from Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. He elaborated that for Final Fantasy X, he used the idea of a pod race—an concept directly taken from Star Wars Episode I—to create the sport within the fantasy setting.