Fishing is a recurring minigame and sidequest in the Final Fantasy series which allows the player to harvest fish. Fish tend to serve different purposes depending on the game they are featured in, and fishing is often a form of gathering.
Appearances[]
Final Fantasy VI[]
The player can catch fish on Solitary Island to give to Cid. Fast-moving, healthy fish help improve his condition, whereas the slow-moving rotten/foul-tasting fish deteriorate his health. When the player is trying to save Cid, the game keeps track of a counter for his health, which starts at 120 and decreases by 1 every passing second, unless the player is in the menu screen or in a battle.
Feeding Cid fish lowers or raises the counter depending on the type of fish:
Speed | SNES/PSX | GBA/iOS | Value |
---|---|---|---|
Slow | Fish | A fish | -16 |
Medium | A rotten fish | A foul-tasting fish | -4 |
Medium | Just a Fish | An ordinary fish | +16 |
Fast | A yummy fish | A delicious fish | +32 |
If the player feeds him multiple fish at a time, the effects of all of the fish count. The type(s) of fish in the water is reset every time the player talks to Cid.
If the player does not save Cid, there is no way to make the fish reset because one needs to talk to Cid to do that. So the player will not be able to collect all four fish under the Rare Items within the Items menu.
What Cid says spoken to depends on his "health" counter. If the player enters the cabin when the counter is below 30, Cid is dead when spoken to, but if the counter is over 30 when the player enters, but drops below 30 while they are in the room, Cid will not die until they leave and come back in. If the player feeds Cid fish which increases the counter to 256 or more, Cid will be saved.
Yoshinori Kitase made the fish-catching game for Final Fantasy VI and designed it to be difficult by giving no hints as to which fish to give to Cid, because he wanted the "bad route" to be the canon one.[1]
Final Fantasy XI[]
The first appearance in the main series, Fishing allows the player to collect fish around Vana'diel for use in Synthesis.
Final Fantasy XII[]
Fishing is conducted in the South Bank Village of the Dalmasca Estersand after completing the Cactuar Family sidequest and the story at the Draklor Laboratory. The item Lu Shang's Badge is obtained by doing the fishing sidequest, an item needed for the Wyrmhero Blade.
Final Fantasy XIV[]
Fishing is conducted by the Fisher class, and allows the player to extract sea creatures from the waters of Eorzea. It gathers raw materials mostly for the Alchemist, Culinarian class. The Fishers' Guild is based in Limsa Lominsa.
Final Fantasy XV[]
Fishing is a minigame where the player can gather food ingredients for cooking at camp sites, as well as prize fish that cannot be eaten. The player can catch fish of all sizes in bodies of water, using various different rods and lures. The fishing game minigame uses button prompts the player must input while reeling in a fish.
There is a record of what kinds of fish have been caught. It is possible to catch fish up to one meter in length. Upon catching new fish, the party can unlock new recipes. Fishing is an optional past time, but some quests require one to fish.
Fishing is Noctis's leisure skill and the player can level up his fishing skill via fishing; the fishing experience is added when resting at camp or at lodgings, the same as for EXP.
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers[]
World of Final Fantasy[]
Fishing is a minigame added in the Maxima version, inspired by the addition of Noctis.