Fan-favourite game gets quirky stage show adaptation

A Japanese publisher is marking hit game’s 20th anniversary by adapting it into a kabuki stage play.

Final Fantasy X celebrated 20 years of an unforgettable journey through the world of Spira and several sales milestones this week with developer Square Enix announcing a Japanese kabuki Stageplay of Final Fantasy X in Tokyo.

Since 2001, Final Fantasy X has sold over 20 million copies worldwide. This includes the count of 14 million copies announced back in 2013, as well as nearly 7 million copies of the HD Remaster sold digitally.

To celebrate, Square-Enix announced that they were endorsing a passion project of Final Fantasy X. Kabuki actors have expressed a desire to convert Final Fantasy X into a kabuki stage-play, and the project was green-lit, with the announcement trailer published on YouTube.

Kabuki is a Japanese form of theatre based around drama and stylized dance — which Final Fantasy X’s melodramatic story definitely lends itself to. The show will go live in Spring 2023 in Tokyo, but the exact dates and times are not yet known.

20 years later, Final Fantasy X is still considered one of the best in the series by fans. The recent HD Remaster not only brought the game to modern systems with upgraded graphics and reduced load times but also new in-game features and different ways to level up, providing new challenges for veteran players.

Final Fantasy 10. Picture: Square Enix

Final Fantasy X has also spawned countless fan costumes, or cosplay, alongside a sequel game in Final Fantasy X-2. The characters from the games have also appeared in other Square-Enix media and crossover games as well.

The game was a landmark pivot in the series — moving further away from the old Active Time Battle system and into newer, more snappy turn-based systems. Featuring a tale of a man lost in time and a band of heroes looking to complete a pilgrimage, Final Fantasy X won several awards, including Best Game of All Time in 2006 from Famitsu.

Final Fantasy X was the first Final Fantasy to move away from pre-rendered backgrounds into full 3D and also feature full voice-acting. It originally launched in Australia in 2002 for the PlayStation 2, taking full advantage of the platform’s hardware power for the features mentioned earlier.

Other Final Fantasy games show no shortage of success as well. The massively popular online game Final Fantasy XIV has players paying real money to advertise on real-world billboards for in-game activities.

Original reporting by Gematsu.

Written by Junior Miyai on behalf of GLHF.