The Naming Policy is the policy used when deciding the name for articles. It covers the naming scheme primarily for articles, though it also covers files, categories, and templates.
General rules
- The following rules apply generally to most article pages. There are additional rules and exceptions to these rules for specific article types.
Articles should be named according to the name provided by Square Enix*fan-based subject, in an official English release (game, film, novel, guide book etc), with the main North American release taking precedence. The most up-to-date identification should be used (such as unless it is not a Square Enix subject, such as a Aerith Gainsborough) - though this must be different from a previous version, rather than a direct port.
If no English release exists, and there is no English name provided in Japanese media, a fan-translation of apt notability may be used as a placeholder; if no notable fan translation exists, a literal translation, or a translation close to related releases should be used. If a related media provides more information about the name, elaborating on it rather than contradicting, such as a surname or middle name for a character, it can be added to the title. Anything lacking any official name may use a conjectural name with {{nameless}}
at the top of the page, and use a name most commonly referred to by players (such as Level grinding) or a descriptive name (such as Invisible woman of Cornelia).
Article names should use sentence case, rather than title case, and will go on whatever capitalization is used in the release. They should not be pluralized, unless they use the plural whenever they are referred to as plural in-release (such as Eight legendary dragons), or the article is based on a term that is plural (such as Stats).
If there are multiple articles that require the same name, tags are used at the end of the page name in parentheses (outside of some cases). The tagless page name should be either a disambiguation page which features an entry for the tagged page, a parent page which features an entry for the tagged page, or a redirect to another page.
Specific article types
Releases
Articles about releases do not use tags, unless to disambiguate from other releases. Their name is based on the official name found on the case, logo, online store or the North American website. Main series games always use "Final Fantasy" followed by their Roman numeral. Other releases may use a colon (such as Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children), dashes (such as Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-), or no separator at all (such as Final Fantasy Mystic Quest). Colons should generally be avoided, as the logos do not feature them, unless a manual, official website or otherwise depicts the colon.
In cases where two releases share the same name, a tag should be used to note the year it was released, (for example Dissidia Final Fantasy refers to both Dissidia Final Fantasy (2008) or Dissidia Final Fantasy (2015)).
Recurring features
An article about a recurring feature of the Final Fantasy series requires two criteria to be the name of the article: being recurring and/or being recent. The most recent translation is always used when no recurring translation exists. A recurring translation takes precedence over a more recent translation with only one appearance, though if the same feature appears again with the previous most recent name, the page can be renamed to the more recent name. This does not apply when sub-series use different naming systems, such as Ivalice with Magick instead of Magic, or the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII with Barrier instead of Protect.
Lists
All list articles start with the prefix "List of", followed by a pluralized word of the subject matter. If the list only regards one specific release, then after "List of" should be the full release name (the article name for the release), followed by a relevant suffix.
Typical list article suffix names are characters, locations, jobs, abilities, enemy abilities, items, armor, weapons, accessories, stats, statuses and elements. Any relevant name should suffice as the suffix (such as List of Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy player icons). In the situation where a release gives a different/specific name for one of the above, the article does not need to be treated as a list, but instead as a term page featuring a list (such as Relic (Final Fantasy VI)). Alternatively, when the term already has a page, but the list is featured on a separate article, a relevant name in the release (such as List of Final Fantasy VIII Triple Triad cards, when Triple Triad (Final Fantasy VIII) exists, but does not contain the list on its page). This similarly applies to location lists where all locations are listed on the planet for the release (for example "List of Final Fantasy VII locations" redirects to Gaia (Final Fantasy VII), while List of Final Fantasy VI locations exists as it features both the World of Balance and World of Ruin).
Characters
Characters use their most commonly used name if referred to more often by an alias (such as Red XIII), though otherwise use their full name, which may include romanized middle names and surnames in Japanese media (such as Rosa Joanna Farrell). If a character has a title (such as "Mr."), it should not be included in the article title unless to avoid using a tag (such as Professor Hojo), though it should redirect to the character's page without the title.
Note that any elaborations on the name should only be used if given officially. If a character is either married to a character with a surname, the child of someone with a surname, or the parent of someone with a surname, if there is no verification that this is their surname, it may not be necessarily.
Characters appearing outside of their original appearance or subseries which justify a separate page (per Article Creation Policy) will be named depending on whether the character is a recurring series character or specific to a particular subseries and setting. In the case of the former, the page for a character in a specific subseries will be tagged (for example, Gilgamesh (character) as the recurring series character, and Gilgamesh (Final Fantasy XII) as the specific appearance), while the latter case, the page will be a subpage of the base character's page (for example, Tifa Lockhart as the base page, and Tifa Lockhart/Dissidia as the subpage).
Locations
A location in a game should be named based on what it is named on the world map, or otherwise similar in-game menus or text display. If no name is given in any of these sources, the relevant name given in the lore or a related game guide must be used, or a conjectural name failing all of these. Non-game locations always use the name in lore.
The rules of retcon apply, and if a location is given a different name in a release released later in the same media as the original, then the name should be changed (such as Shinra Headquarters).
Enemies
Enemy articles count as a gameplay feature, and should match the name of the enemy in-game exactly. Individual articles for enemies are always given separate from their lore page, with their lore page being treated as a parent, therefore even if the enemy name differs from the lore page name, an "enemy" or "boss" tag should be used, and the tagless name should redirect to the lore page (such as "Judge Bergan" redirecting to Bergan, while the enemy page is named Judge Bergan (boss); similarly, "Scarlet Hair" redirecting to Amarant Coral while the boss is named Scarlet Hair (boss)). If multiple versions of an enemy with the same name exist in the same game, then these share an article. This applies to most cases other than when a page needs a more specific tag, for instance when a final boss is split from a boss' page, the "final boss" tag is used (such as Kefka (boss) and Kefka (final boss)), or a "dummied enemy" tag is used if split from the page of a non-dummied enemy (such as Kaiser Dragon (Final Fantasy VI) and Kaiser Dragon (Final Fantasy VI dummied enemy)).
Glitches
Since the names of glitches are all fan-coined, naming glitches works on a case-by-case basis, and do not require a {{nameless}}
notice. The name should include the word "glitch" or "bug" as a suffix, and the article name should encompass whatever is involved, either by the feature involved in the glitch (such as Vincent Mug glitch), or the effect of the glitch (such as Empty party glitch).
Other features
All terms and features used in individual releases or sub-series should be based on how they are referred to in game scripts and texts, or in an information center. When it comes to these terms, the title case rule applies and all words bar prepositions should have their first-letter capitalized. A "The" is rarely added to the start of a term, with only a few exceptions to this rule. They are also rarely ever pluralized.
Tags
Tags are a component of a page name in parentheses at the end of a name, to differentiate it from similarly named articles. As a general rule of thumb, a tag can either refer to the the game the page refers to, or the type of page. For example, "Yellow Jelly" in Final Fantasy II is named Yellow Jelly (Final Fantasy II), as it shares a name with other "Yellow Jelly" enemies. Furthermore, "Fire" is used to refer to many things in the series, so the article about the ability is named Fire (ability). If the article refers to an entire series, then a series tag is used instead, such as Ultima (Ivalice).
A page cannot have two tags, but a single distinction may not be enough. In these cases, a tag should normally contain both the game and the page type. For instance, "Ultima Weapon" refers to both a weapon and a boss in Final Fantasy VI, and though the weapon is merely a section on a page, the article about the boss must still be named Ultima Weapon (Final Fantasy VI boss).
This does not include when an article is a parent page of multiple. Because Gilgamesh (Final Fantasy V) covers Gilgamesh in Final Fantasy V in general, and the Gilgamesh (Final Fantasy V boss) in Final Fantasy V specifically as a boss, the Gilgamesh (Final Fantasy V) page is considered a parent of Gilgamesh (Final Fantasy V boss). Therefore the tags are not considered ambiguous. However, "Ninja" in Final Fantasy V refers to both an enemy and a job in the game, which are completely different. These are therefore named Ninja (Final Fantasy V enemy) and Ninja (Final Fantasy V job) respectively.
Note that parentheses in a page name is not always used as a tag, for example, Forge (Rare) is simply a character named "Forge (Rare)".
Tags by release
The following is a list of tags used for articles specific to a release.
- Final Fantasy: (Final Fantasy)
- Final Fantasy II: (Final Fantasy II)
- Final Fantasy II Hihō no Dragon: (Hihō no Dragon)
- Final Fantasy III: (Final Fantasy III)
- Final Fantasy IV: (Final Fantasy IV)
- Final Fantasy IV: The After Years: (The After Years)
- Final Fantasy IV -Interlude-: (Interlude)
- Final Fantasy V: (Final Fantasy V)
- Final Fantasy: Legend of the Crystals: (Legend of the Crystals)
- Final Fantasy VI: (Final Fantasy VI)
- Final Fantasy VII: (Final Fantasy VII)
- Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children: (Advent Children)
- Before Crisis -Final Fantasy VII-: (Before Crisis)
- Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII-: (Dirge of Cerberus)
- Dirge of Cerberus Lost Episode -Final Fantasy VII-: (Lost Episode)
- Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-: (Crisis Core)
- Last Order -Final Fantasy VII-: (Last Order)
- Final Fantasy VII: On the Way to a Smile: (On the Way to a Smile)
- Final Fantasy VII The Kids Are Alright: A Turks Side Story: (The Kids Are Alright)
- Hoshi o Meguru Otome: (Hoshi o Meguru Otome)
- Final Fantasy VII: Snowboarding: (Snowboarding)
- Final Fantasy VII G-Bike: (G-Bike)
- Final Fantasy VII Remake Kaiga no Naka no Chōsatai: (Kaiga no Naka no Chōsatai)
- Final Fantasy VII The First Soldier: (The First Soldier)
- Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis: (Ever Crisis)
- Final Fantasy VII Remake: (VII Remake)
- Final Fantasy VII Rebirth: (VII Rebirth)
- Final Fantasy VIII: (Final Fantasy VIII)
- Final Fantasy IX: (Final Fantasy IX)
- Final Fantasy X: (Final Fantasy X)
- Final Fantasy X: Eternal Calm: (Eternal Calm)
- Final Fantasy X-2: (Final Fantasy X-2)
- Final Fantasy X-2: Last Mission: (Last Mission)
- Final Fantasy X-2.5 ~Eien no Daishou~: (Final Fantasy X-2.5)
- Final Fantasy X -Will-: (Final Fantasy X -Will-)
- Final Fantasy XI: (Final Fantasy XI)
- Final Fantasy Grandmasters: (Grandmasters)
- Final Fantasy XII: (Final Fantasy XII)
- Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings: (Revenant Wings)
- Dive II Hunt: The Adventures of Sorbet: (Dive II Hunt)
- Final Fantasy XIII: (Final Fantasy XIII)
- Final Fantasy XIII-2: (Final Fantasy XIII-2)
- Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII: (Lightning Returns)
- Final Fantasy XIII Episode Zero -Promise-: (Episode Zero)
- Final Fantasy XIII -Episode i-: (Episode i)
- Final Fantasy XIII-2 Fragments Before: (Fragments Before)
- Final Fantasy XIII-2 Fragments After: (Fragments After)
- Final Fantasy XIII: Reminiscence -tracer of memories-: (Reminiscence -tracer of memories-)
- Final Fantasy XIV: (Final Fantasy XIV)
- Encyclopædia Eorzea: The World of Final Fantasy XIV: (Encyclopædia Eorzea)
- Encyclopædia Eorzea: The World of Final Fantasy XIV Volume II: (Encyclopædia Eorzea II)
- Encyclopædia Eorzea: The World of Final Fantasy XIV Volume III: (Encyclopædia Eorzea III)
- Final Fantasy XV: (Final Fantasy XV)
- Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV: (Kingsglaive)
- Brotherhood Final Fantasy XV: (Brotherhood)
- Justice Monsters Five: (Justice Monsters Five)
- King's Knight -Wrath of the Dark Dragon-: (King's Knight)
- Final Fantasy XVI: (Final Fantasy XVI)
- Final Fantasy Tactics: (Tactics)
- Final Fantasy Tactics Advance: (Tactics Advance)
- Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift: (Tactics A2)
- Final Fantasy Tactics S: (Tactics S)
- Crystal Defenders: (Crystal Defenders)
- Crystal Defenders: Vanguard Storm: (Vanguard Storm)
- Vagrant Story: (Vagrant Story)
- Final Fantasy Type-0: (Type-0)
- Final Fantasy Agito: (Agito)
- Final Fantasy Type-0 Side Story: The Ice Reaper: (The Ice Reaper)
- Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: (Crystal Chronicles)
- Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates: (Ring of Fates)
- Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King: (My Life as a King)
- Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time: (Echoes of Time)
- Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a Darklord: (My Life as a Darklord)
- Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers: (The Crystal Bearers)
- Final Fantasy Mystic Quest: (Mystic Quest)
- Final Fantasy Adventure: (Adventure)
- The Final Fantasy Legend: (Legend)
- Final Fantasy Legend II: (Legend II)
- Final Fantasy Legend III: (Legend III)
- Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light: (The 4 Heroes of Light)
- Final Fantasy Dimensions: (Dimensions)
- Final Fantasy Dimensions II: (Dimensions II)
- Dissidia Final Fantasy: (Dissidia)
- Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy: (Dissidia 012)
- Dissidia Final Fantasy NT: (Dissidia NT)
- Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia: (Opera Omnia)
- Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: (Theatrhythm)
- Theatrhythm Final Fantasy Curtain Call: (Curtain Call)
- Theatrhythm Final Fantasy All-Star Carnival: (All-Star Carnival)
- Theatrhythm Final Bar Line: (Final Bar Line)
- Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin: (Stranger of Paradise)
- Pictlogica Final Fantasy: (Pictlogica)
- Final Fantasy Airborne Brigade: (Airborne Brigade)
- Final Fantasy Artniks: (Artniks)
- Final Fantasy Artniks Dive: (Artniks Dive)
- Final Fantasy All the Bravest: (All the Bravest)
- Final Fantasy Record Keeper: (Record Keeper)
- Final Fantasy Explorers: (Explorers)
- Final Fantasy World Wide Words: (World Wide Words)
- Final Fantasy Brave Exvius: (Brave Exvius)
- War of the Visions: Final Fantasy Brave Exvius: (War of the Visions)
- World of Final Fantasy: (World)
- Mobius Final Fantasy: (Mobius)
- Chocobo Racing: (Chocobo Racing)
- Chocobo no Fushigina Dungeon: (Chocobo no Fushigina Dungeon)
- Chocobo's Dungeon 2: (Chocobo's Dungeon 2)
- Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales: (Chocobo Tales)
- Chocobo to Mahou no Ehon: Majo to Shoujo to Go-nin no Yuusha: (Chocobo to Mahou no Ehon)
- Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon: (Chocobo's Dungeon)
- Chocobo Stallion: (Chocobo Stallion)
- Dice de Chocobo: (Dice de Chocobo)
- Chocobo Panic: (Chocobo Panic)
- Final Fantasy: Unlimited: (Unlimited)
- Final Fantasy: Unlimited After: (Unlimited After)
- Final Fantasy: Unlimited After 2: (Unlimited After 2)
- Final Fantasy: Unlimited with U: (Unlimited with U)
- Final Fantasy: Unlimited on PC Adventure - Labyrinth: (Labyrinth)
- Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within: (The Spirits Within)
- Final Fantasy Trading Card Game: (Trading Card Game)
- Final Fantasy Lost Stranger: (Lost Stranger)
Tags by type
This will list tags that can be used for each type of page.
- Character
- For characters whose names are used elsewhere in a different fashion, like Shera (character) compared to Shera (airship).
- Race
- For recurring race/species articles, like Moogle (race).
- Location
- For recurring location articles, like Healing spring (location).
- Summon
- For all summons, e.g. Carbuncle (summon).
- Enemy
- For recurring enemies like Lamia (enemy).
- Boss
- For main characters who are also bosses.
- Final boss
- To separate final boss information from the same boss if fought earlier in the game, like Kefka (boss) and Kefka (final boss).
- Weapon
- For weapon pages, e.g. Spear (weapon).
- Equipment
- For equipment pages (usually armor and accessories), e.g. Shield (equipment).
- Weapon type
- For a set of weapons, if there's also a type of weapon with the same name. For example, Spear (weapon type).
- Command
- For command pages, like Magic (command). This is different from articles with the "Ability" tag as "Commands" are which open up into a sub-menu of abilities are not abilities in themselves.
- Ability
- For an ability, like Poison (ability) or Counter (ability). If a name is shared among abilities of different types, they get an appropriate tag for the skillset they appear in, like Flame (Ninjutsu). Failing this, a more specific tag about the nature of the ability may be used.
- Status
- For a status page, like Invincible (status).
- Stat
- For a stats page, like Bravery (stat).
- Term
- For recurring terms in the series, like Magic (term).
- Series
- For sub-series articles sharing their name with a game. The article is usually named after the game from which the subseries originates, e.g. Final Fantasy X (series).
- Disambiguation
- Used only for disambiguation pages that share their name with a game, e.g. Final Fantasy (disambiguation).
Tags by series
The following is a list of tags used for articles specific to a series.
- Final Fantasy series: (series)
- Main series: (series)
- Final Fantasy II series: (Final Fantasy II)
- Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection: (Final Fantasy IV)
- Final Fantasy V series: (Final Fantasy V)
- Final Fantasy VII series: (Final Fantasy VII)
- Compilation of Final Fantasy VII: (Final Fantasy VII)
- Final Fantasy VII remake project: (VII Remake)
- Final Fantasy X series: (Final Fantasy X)
- Ivalice series: (Ivalice)
- Final Fantasy XII series: (Final Fantasy XII)
- Vana'diel series: (Final Fantasy XI)
- Fabula Nova Crystallis: (Fabula Nova Crystallis)
- Lightning Saga: (Final Fantasy XIII)
- Final Fantasy XV Universe: (Final Fantasy XV)
- Final Fantasy Type-0 series: (Type-0)
- Versus epic: (Versus)
- Final Fantasy Tactics Advance series: (Tactics Advance)
- Crystal Defenders series: (Crystal Defenders)
- Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles series: (Crystal Chronicles)
- SaGa series: (SaGa)
- Dissidia Final Fantasy series: (Dissidia)
- Theatrhythm Final Fantasy series: (Theatrhythm)
- Final Fantasy Artniks series: (Artniks)
- Chocobo series: (Chocobo series)
- Chocobo's Dungeon series: (Chocobo's Dungenon)
- Final Fantasy Fables series: (Fables)
- Chocobo Collection: (Chocobo series)
- Final Fantasy: Unlimited series: (Unlimited)
Non-article pages
For pages outside the main namespace, the following rules apply.
Files
There is no strict naming scheme for files. However, in order to improve search engine optimization, and to make names easier for other editors to use, a descriptive name that makes sense should be used. For example, an image of Cloud's appearance in Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII- could be called something along the lines of "Cloud-DoCVII.jpg", rather than "Screenshot 20151012.jpg". In any case where a file name does not make sense, {{Bad Name}}
should be added. As a rule of thumb, what the file contains, the release it appears in (often an abbreviation), the specific version of the release, and further elaboration, such as the medium (artwork, screenshot, sprite) or situation.
With audio files, only the name of the track and its release source should be included in the filename, due to the existence of several versions and arrangements for tracks in the series and recurring track names.
Categories
The category structure does not follow a strict naming policy, however, each category is clearly and concisely named. In most cases, it is easy to identify why a category is a sub-category of another category due to their relation of names. For example, Category:Utility templates is a subcategory of Category:Templates since it is further division of templates, and Category:Final Fantasy IV Items is a subcategory of Category:Final Fantasy IV since it further divides Final Fantasy IV articles.
Categories for specific releases use the release's full name. The full name is identical to the name used in the release's article. Every division of the category thereon has the full release's name with a descriptive and pluralized suffix, such as "Items" or "Enemies".
If there are different versions of a release which use different graphic styles, then the abbreviation of the version of the release appears in the category name directly after the release's name. For example, Category:Final Fantasy V GBA Enemy Images. If two versions of a release share the same graphic-style it is not necessary to include both versions in the release and just the first version with the graphic-style is enough. The versions are not written out in full but instead follow some rules.
- Nintendo Entertainment System → NES
- Super Nintendo Entertainment System → SNES
- Nintendo GameCube → GC
- Wii → Wii
- Wii U → Wii U
- Game Boy → GB
- Game Boy Advance → GBA
- Nintendo DS → DS
- Nintendo 3DS → 3DS
- PlayStation → PS
- PlayStation 2 → PS2
- PlayStation 3 → PS3
- PlayStation 4 → PS4
- PlayStation Portable → PSP
- PlayStation Vita → Vita
- PlayStation Network → PSN
- Xbox 360 → 360
- Xbox One → Xbox One
- Microsoft Windows → PC
- WonderSwan Color → WSC
- MSX → MSX
- iOS → iOS
- Android → Android* often "iOS" is used as most games are shared and output the same
- Ouya → Ouya
Images and articles are kept in separate categories. Therefore most subcategories of the main release will have a further subcategory for relevant images. All image categories require the suffix "Images". For a specific type of images such as images of enemies, "Images" remains the suffix and what groups the images comes before images in singular, for example, "Enemy Images".
Templates
Most templates follow a relaxed naming format, and due to the use and purpose of most templates for small utility or other formatting jobs, their template names are usually short but descriptive, such as {{A}}
, {{tl}}
, and {{IPA}}
. The only requirement is to represent the purpose. There are only two cases in which names are more specific, for instance, navboxes about recurring or otherwise non-specific features can simply use whichever name is in their title (such as {{Armor}}
), while infoboxes about recurring or otherwise non-specific features contain the "Infobox" prefix and their purpose as a suffix (such as {{Infobox CVG}}
).
Any template specifically for one release should use the Codename prefix in its name, such as {{FFVIII Card}}
. This also applies to release infoboxes, such as {{FFX Character}}
for an infobox for a character in the Final Fantasy X (and its sub-series). Main release navboxes use the Codename as the name (though a sub-navigation of a release requires a pluralised suffix name afterwards, such as {{FFU Episodes}}
or {{FFXI Enemies}}
).
Note that a template that was not created for mainspace or other wiki purposes should not feature in template namespace, but should be a subpage of a userpage or walkthrough page.
Project pages
Project pages may all use title case, as they are official projects.
Template:Policies and guidelines