Fantastic urbanity. Imaginary cities and urban cultures in the Final Fantasy saga, between world-building and immersion

Abstract

Video games merge storytelling, interactivity, and world-building to create imaginary urban spaces that convey identity and meaning. Game cities are tangible expressions of world-building and reflect social, cultural, and spatial dynamics that enhance player immersion through the internal coherence of the game world. Immersion relies on the sensation of “being inside” a living, dynamic world shaped by social networks, conflicts, and transformations. Game cities exist at the crossroads of art, urbanism, and literature, enabling active and temporal exploration of places by blending and reworking real and fantastic elements. The Japanese game series Final Fantasy exemplifies these traits, crafting worlds and cities that are not mere backdrops but complex organisms
where discovery, exploration, and interaction with the environment and its inhabitants fuel a collective imagination and sense of belonging within the game universe. Cities and territories in Final Fantasy—such as Midgar and Spira—serve as laboratories of fantastic urban imagination, intertwining archetypes, utopias, and dystopias, subverting and recombining scales and forms, revealing humanity’s fears and aspirations, and offering a rich panorama of suggestions that expand our perception of possibility.