Final Fantasy VII Rebirth has a Dungeons and Dragons inspired mission we need to talk about

I know a lot of readers are fairly young so they might not be aware of this but there was a time where both Final Fantasy and Dungeons & Dragons were fairly niche. People weren't openly talking about them that much and you sure as hell wouldn't see merch for either in the wild.

There was a time when sporting some D20s or Final Fantasy stuff would practically be social pariahs. So at a time like that both games existed in their own happy little fantasy worlds and if there was a Venn diagram of fans of the franchises, there were be two small circles that were as far apart like planets. But over the last twenty years, the fandom has grown and expanded and rings on the Venn diagram are now very heavily overlapping making certain things come to light.

Specifically, you have the case of a Final Fantasy and D&D taking elements from each other for inspiration. This has gone on for years and while a lot are subtle, some are...a bit more blatant.

***SPOILERS INBOUND***

One of the most blatant I've ever seen though is in the Junon region in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. While exploring the region you can take part in quests to "investigate" rare creatures. For the most part, it's you killing some sort of creature while a character tells you info about the creature you're fighting. Eventually you'll get access to stronger battles that are, for the most part, boss fights.

My attention was grasped when I unlocked a mission called "Whispers in the Dark". It caught my attention because back in 2017, Dungeons & Dragons released a campaign with the same name. I was like, "wow, what a coincidence." I headed out to do it and I got a subtle warning about some creature in the area attacking folk. They didn't really tell me what it was though.

When I got there and initiated the battle though, Final Fantasy reminded me that they have snagged one of the biggest bads in Dungeons & Dragons and is not gonna let go until Wizards of the Coast pries if from their cold chaingunned hand. This guy.

Yup, that's right. We got us a Mind Flayer. And like, not some sort of Mountain Mist sort of knockoff, I'm talking a full on, holy crap I thought this dude escaped my copy of Baldur's Gate 3, type of Mind Flayer. And if you think it's got, at least, a different name to set it apart, Chadley is here to tell you other wise when he says "Congrats on defeating the Mindflayer!"

It is a Mind Flayer. It's just, literally, a Mind Flayer.

And you're probably thinking they added this creature as some sort of fun Baldur's Gate riff but the first Mind Flayer actually appeared in Final Fantasy Tactics back in 1998 and in Final Fantasy XII back in 2006.

I was, in no way, interested in D&D back in the 90's and Final Fantasy XII actually put me to sleep so bad that it was the only FF game I gave up on. I kept falling asleep within 20-30 minutes every time I played it, so I probably never made it far enough to see it.

But in 2024, not even a full year after Baldur's Gate 3 took the world by storm, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is bringing out a Mind Flayer that not only looks a LOT like the ones that you fought/romanced in Baldur's Gate 3 but is, objectively, cooler looking.

At this point, you have to wonder if Wizards of the Coast, who introduced the Mind Flayers back in 1975 (finally a sentence that doesn't make me feel old as this happened before I was born) is going to do something about this or if they're just going to learn to play together. Hell, I'd love to see a Final Fantasy campaign drop. I've already DMed an artificer with a magic cannon over the arm and more than enough female monks that seemed a bit...Tifa-esque so I think it could be cool. Gimme that Jinova Experiment class so I can make a brooding edgelord with a single wing and I'll be all set.