Monster (term)

Monster refers to a recurring type of enemy fought in the Final Fantasy series. Monsters make up the bulk of enemies in each game. In some games the existence of monsters is not given a back story and they exist simply as the fauna of the world, but in other games, the element of monsters the player fights throughout the game is incorporated into the lore of the game world, by giving their occurrence a more specific explanation.

Final Fantasy I
At least some monsters are identified as servants of the 4 Fiends. Since the 4 Fiends get their power from the Crystals, it can be inferred that at least some of the world's monsters come from Chaos corrupting the crystals.

Final Fantasy II
Direct mention is made several times to The Emperor summoning armies of monsters from Hell. Why some of the Empire's monsters manifest as undead, others as plants, etc. even though they all come from the same place, is unknown. However, some monsters in Final Fantasy II may not be connected to Hell. Kashuan employs monsters to guard its treasures, and monsters appear in Arruboth, the game's equivalent to Heaven. However, the monsters that appear in Arruboth are still connected to the Emperor, albeit the Emperor of Light.

Final Fantasy VII
Monsters are not given a meta-origin in VII, however several different classes of monsters are explained. After Cloud's story, in which he notes that Shinra was creating monsters at Nibelheim through modifying humans with mako, Red XIII notes that there has been a steep rise in the number of monsters. Hojo also produces many, many other monsters that the party fights as experiments. Additionally, undead only appear in areas where large scale death occurred. "Like stagnant air," Bugenhagen says, they refuse to move on to the Lifestream and haunt the area where they died. Some monsters, such as dragons and giant scorpions, only live in caves, but it is unknown if there is any meaning to this. According to Ifalna, Jenova also transformed the Cetra into monsters with the use of a virus. Monsters can also be generated out of the Lifestream itself, as seen when the Remnants use corrupted Lifestream to create the Shadow Creepers in Advent Children. It is unclear if any monsters are naturally occurring, and if so, how many. The Weapons the planet produces and Summon Monsters (Crisis Core) can arguably be classed as monsters as well. In general, denizens of Gaia seem to use "monster" as a catch-all term for "a violent, non-human entity." Monsters are classed and catalogued in some way, as Case of Denzel notes that Cloud gave Denzel a "monster manual."

Final Fantasy X
In the world of Spira monsters are corrupted souls formed of pyreflies. Upon a person's death, if they do not enter the Farplane either on their own volition or being sent by a summoner, they stay on the world of living as unsent. If the unsent does not find meaning in his or her continued existence in the form of a "mission" of sorts, they are in danger of being consumed by envy and hatred they feel toward the living and transform into mindless fiends. Some unsent who have not been corrupted and turned completely into fiends are still shown to be able to transform into a fiend-like monster at will, and are still able to revert back into their human form. Curiously, the Farplane itself still appears to be filled with fiends, as seen in Final Fantasy X-2. Defeating a fiend disperses its pyreflies and the fiend ceases to exist.

Dissidia Final Fantasy
In Dissidia series manikins work as the common monsters fought in the game. Manikins were themselves artificial experiments banished in the Rift, but during the 12th cycle the forces of Chaos find a way to summon them to World B and pit them against the forces of Cosmos.