The things you're searching for.	April 6, 2001

The Final Fantasy Phenomenon It's been on the Lycos 50 for 83 weeks, yet most Americans have never heard of it. Today we take a closer look at the phenomenon of Final Fantasy. Final Fantasy is a series of role-playing games developed first for the original Nintendo and then for the Sony Playstation. Each edition of the game is somewhat like the classic Dungeons and Dragons; the player takes a group of characters through a series of quests involving battles, magic, and other fanciful elements. Winning battles is often based more on strategy than on hand-eye coordination. The original Final Fantasy was released in Japan in 1987 by what was then a failing video game company, Square. In fact, the game was called Final Fantasy because it was the company's last shot at success before it would have to close its doors. And what a success it was -- it launched more than ten sequels and soon a major motion picture. Final Fantasy was huge in Japan before it came over to the United States, but with Final Fantasy VII it was established as one of the leading video game series in America. Final Fantasy VIII and IX sold even more copies and drew even more fans. The series is known for cutting-edge graphics, sophisticated characters, and intricate plots. And now it is bringing those same aspects to your local movie theater. Columbia Pictures is releasing Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within this summer. While many of the Final Fantasy games took place in worlds of dragons and wizards, the movie will be a futuristic tale of an Earth devastated by alien attack. Voice actors include Alec Baldwin, Steve Buscemi, Ving Rhames, James Woods, and ER's Ming Na in the lead role. The Final Fantasy movie will be the first all-computer graphics film featuring primarily human characters (as opposed to toys or bugs) and the visuals are stunningly realistic. After the movie comes the next wave of Final Fantasy games. Final Fantasy X, the first Final Fantasy developed for the Playstation 2, will come out in Japan this July, and in the United States in November. Then, according to Final Fantasy producer Hironobu Sakaguchi, Final Fantasy XI will break with tradition to be a multi-player online role-playing game similar to Everquest or Ultima Online. For more on the history of Final Fantasy, check out this article. FINAL FANTASY: THE STATS Based on last week's searches, 3.0% of Lycos searches for Final Fantasy are for the upcoming movie, 85.5% are for the various games, and 11.5% specify neither. Which Final Fantasy do users search for? I: 0.2% II: 0.7% III: 2.4% IV: 0.2% V: 1.0% VI: 0.7% VII: 13.6% VIII: 17.2% IX: 23.4% X: 3.4% XI: 0.2% Tactics: 1.8% Anthology: 0.1% None specified: 35.1% What do Final Fantasy searchers seek? Walkthroughs: 13.8% Pictures: 6.7% Cheats: 4.5% Adult pictures: 4.1% Wallpaper: 2.0% Music: 2.0% ROMs: 1.9% Video: 0.5% Strategy: 0.5% Other or nothing specified: 4.0% What are walkthroughs? They are often-requested documents which describe every action you need to do to get through a complex video game. MONDAY: United Nations

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Send mail to Aaron at ASchatz@lycos-inc.com.