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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MoogleEmpMog" data-source="post: 3514179" data-attributes="member: 22882">Actually, I had that exact thing in mind when I made my analogy.A writer could be doing a space opera and boast he hadn't read Dune - which would be a mite odd, and would indicate he wasn't familiar with at least one of the literary giants of the field.  But by claiming he hadn't seen Star Wars, he would be claiming he hadn't seen what defined the pop cultural expectations of the genre.It's the same with FF.  It's not the original and we can debate till blue in the face if it's the classic.  But FFs 7 through 12 have each sold more than twice as many copies as WotC says tabletop RPGs have players (and, to excise a common bugaboo, roughly half again as many as the allegedly 'tabletop RPG-killing' World of Warcraft has subscribers).And when you're talking about non-standard fantasy, especially fantasy with high- or common magic and pulp undertones, FF is by FAR the most prominent example.  Nothing else is even close to on the popular radar.Odd, then, that Final Fantasy airships (at least in 6, 7 and 9, and for the most part in 12) are *much* more like true zeppelins than Eberron's elementally-powered ones, which bear a closer resemblance to spelljammers.I consider the Final Fantasy style a natural outgrowth of pulp stylings, whereas D&D and high fantasy in general take a wide, unpleasant detour through epic fantasy and lose most of the pulp flare.  Eberron tries to re-infuse that, and does a solid job of it (I like the setting, just not as any kind of FF-equivalent), but is handicapped by the roots from which it is expected to grow.Priding oneself on not using something as inspiration is fine.  I could say "I reject the black and white of Star Wars in favor of the nuance of Dune" or "I reject the..." OK, I'm not sure what you'd reject from FF for a high magic pulp setting; the, uh, "the non-Tolkien races-ism of Final Fantasy in favor of the presence of Tolkien races."  Rejecting something as inspiration because you've weighed it and decided to look elsewhere is VERY different from never familiarizing yourself with some of the most high-profile media in your genre - THE most high-profile media in the subgenre you intend to work with."More unique" is actually... nonsensical... and I regret saying it.  More unusual, or more distinctive, would be more appropriate, and neither is wholly subjective.  The worlds of FFs 6 through 12 are considerably more distinctive and unusual, compared to the broad swathe of fantasy media, than Eberron.In any case, the poster I was responding to was intrigued by the idea of Eberron being Final Fantasy like, so I assume he looked favorably on the FFs.</blockquote>

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