Funny Examples of Video Game Underflow

The invisible woman of Cornelia, a glitch in the original Final Fantasy.

Various bugs and glitches appear in the Final Fantasy series, referring to programming errors that result in behavior not intended by the programmers. Glitches can be harmless and only manifest as incorrectly displayed graphics, or they can be hazardous and game-breaking, effectively ruining the player's save file.

"Glitching" is the practice of a player exploiting faults in a video game's programming to achieve tasks normally impossible if the game's script runs as intended, such as running through walls. Glitching can be used to gain an unfair advantage over other players in multiplayer games.

Appearances [ ]

Final Fantasy [ ]

The Intelligence bug and the critical hit bug are the most game-changing bugs. As a result, physical attacks are substantially more powerful on average than they would have been had the correct critical rates been used. The Intelligence stat is broken, meaning Red Mages are just as powerful spell-casters as White and Black Mages. The critical hit bug has been retained through various remakes, but the Intelligence bug has been fixed in recent releases.

The spells intended to raise effectiveness of physical attacks and evasion are glitched in the NES version, as is the item House, which saves the player's progress before it restores their spell charges. Several weapons are also bugged in the NES version, in which the weapons' intended special effects do not take effect.

There exists a bug in the NES version, where upon level up, the game checks if the Monk/Master has a weapon equipped instead of their armor to determine what formula to use. If they have no weapon equipped, but do have armor on, the game will mistakenly set their defense to their level, as if they were not equipping any armor. This error can be fixed by viewing the armor screen from the pause menu. This bug can also be exploited by granting the Monk/Master special armor properties but using the naturally higher defense of the unarmored Monk (e.g., leveling up with a Ribbon equipped and no weapon, to give the Monk the Ribbon's elemental and status protection but use the Monk's higher natural defense).^[1]

Most of the glitches are fixed in later remakes, apart from the critical hit bug, leading to the assumption it being a conscious choice by the programmers, and thus can no longer be viewed as a "glitch". The remakes also add some bugs of their own: in the Dawn of Souls Whisperwind Cove dungeon, the Angel's Ring can never be obtained, as the map that is supposed to have it never appears.

• Critical hit bug
• Equipment bugs
• Intelligence bug
• Invisible woman of Cornelia
• Magic bugs
• Peninsula of Power
• Running glitch

Final Fantasy II [ ]

Gordon with 0 HP capable of fighting (NES).

The Target-cancel bug was the most game-changing bug, but has been fixed since the Dawn of Souls release. The bug would allow the player to level up their weapons and magic effortlessly by simply choosing a command and then cancelling it straight away.

A similar exploit is to purposefully finish battles with low HP and MP to gain more of these stats; this isn't really a glitch as much as it is an exploit of the character development system. Most other bugs are only present in the original NES version, which had bugs related to equipment, spells and the dual wielding system with weapons that didn't work as intended.

• 0 HP character bug
• Dual wield bug
• Equipment bugs
• Evasion overflow bug
• HP/MP overflow bug
• Magic bugs
• Middle character target bug
• Party magic target bug
• Peninsula of Power
• Shield Attack bug
• Target-cancel bug

Final Fantasy III [ ]

Various equipment and spell bugs were still present in the original NES release, where certain spells and weapons don't behave as intended and the player could duplicate spells. The biggest exploit in the original NES version is the Item upgrade glitch, which would potentially let players get access to the most powerful equipment right at the start of the game.

Being a remake, the DS version does not suffer from any glitches present in the original version, though it has a whole new glitch of its own: the Item duplication glitch.

• Equipment bugs
• Item duplication glitch
• Item upgrade glitch
• Jumping Cid bug
• Magic bugs
• Magic duplication glitch
• Peninsula of Power

Final Fantasy IV [ ]

Due to the releases on multiple times on different platforms, smaller and bigger glitches can be found across versions. Final Fantasy IV was the first game to feature the Active Time Battle system, but in the original SNES version, it lacked a visible gauge indicating the characters' turn order. When this feature was added in the Game Boy Advance version, the system was relatively bugged.

In the original SNES version, there are various bugs concerning equipment, ranging from weapon effects that never take effect, and the Avenger weapon that, among many other glitches, fails to update the character's attack stats to those in the Avenger weapon, retaining whatever stats the character had in the previously equipped weapon, to weapon duplication glitches.

An especially hazardous glitch is the possibility of losing the Lunar Whale airship on the Red Moon. Another fatal glitch is the Save glitch, which erases all save files on a cartridge.

The Quake spell is bugged in the Advance version, and always hits the enemy party even when the caster is confused. In the Advance version, when using the Smoke spell, the smoke particles may not appear over the whole party, although it doesn't affect the ability's success.

In the Complete Collection and possibly the Advance version, during Rydia's Lunar Trial, giving the Cockatrice, Goblin, Bomb, or Mindflayer summon to Rydia while she is young will cause the summon to be lost when she changes back after the trial. This is most often found with the Cockatrice and Mindflayer summon, as the trial is filled with Mist Krackens and Mist Eagles who can drop the items.

Final Fantasy IV: The After Years [ ]

There is a glitch during the third battle against the Creator in which the Crystal, the item necessary to be able to attack the Creator, cannot be selected for use against the boss, and is instead used on the character attempting to use the item. The cause is unknown, but as this results in a battle where no party will attack it makes the battle never-ending. The only way to escape this is to reset the game.

Another glitch occurs when equipping the Protect Ring and the Fire Scarf. The Protect Ring resists elemental damage, while the Fire Scarf absorbs fire damage. The game can only keep track of one resistance tier per character with absorb taking priority. This is why the Cursed Ring when worn additionally with an elemental resisting item (e.g. Diamond Armor) results in the element being absorbed. The drawbacks of wearing the Cursed Ring balances this, but this was not accounted for when designing the Fire Scarf, thus equipping the scarf and Protect Ring simultaneously has the character absorb all elemental damage.

Final Fantasy V [ ]

Double face Bartz.

Most present glitches do not largely affect gameplay, rather being mere oversights. The most hazardous glitches are the ones where the player may permanently lose their airship, wind drake or black chocobo. If the player loses their airship, they are unable to finish the game. At least in the PS version, the player may also get stuck behind Cid when they are supposed to bring him Adamantite; when visiting Cid and Mid the player can pass through Cid, but then not pass him again to leave.^[2]

The encounter glitch lets the player avoid random encounters, and berserking Exdeath with the Kiss of Blessing bug lets the player skip fighting the true final boss, Neo Exdeath.

Most of the glitches are fixed in the Game Boy Advance port, although there are several new bugs exclusive to that version, such as the Control glitch. The Beastmaster's Calm ability has its effects reversed; it will only affect enemies that are not magic beasts. The Vampire ability uses a different damage formula, making it twice as effective.

The Samurai's Mineuchi ability was meant to paralyze opponents, but due to a bug in game coding, never does so. This was fixed in the mobile versions.

Final Fantasy VI [ ]

Pink Gogo bug.

The Super Nintendo version has over one hundred different documented glitches and bugs, both graphical and gameplay in nature, that were found by hackers. A few major bugs were not fixed until the Advance port: the Evade bug that makes the units' regular evasion stat do nothing, and the Vanish-Doom bug where the invisibility status overrides any unit's instant death immunity, making all enemies easily beatable by this method. One of the most notorious bugs in the whole series is the Sketch bug that has various unpredictable results that rendered the use of the whole command risky until it was fixed in the Advance version.

The game has a number of small glitches, such as Gau being unable to use the Tonberries Rage. Another bug makes it so that "invert damage if undead" attack property only affects healing abilities and so some attacks and statuses don't work correctly. The end result is that the majority of undead absorb Poison-elemental damage, when there were supposed to be a few select spells that hurt the undead, and that Sap hurts both the undead and the living.

While the Game Boy Advance port fixes most of the bugs, it introduces some of its own to the mix, such as the Level reset glitch.

Patches [ ]

Below are external links to sites for Final Fantasy VI bugfix patches (including patches for countless minor bugs not listed on this wiki, as well as some patches that are more hacks than they are bugfixes):

Final Fantasy VII [ ]

There are various glitches, ranging from harmless to beneficial or even hazardous.

The W-Item duplication bug and its many forms and uses is one of the best known beneficial bugs. It allows the player to infinitely duplicate virtually any item, apart from key items. The game has a notable instance of the overflow glitch, where the characters can overflow damage, killing anything with a single hit. The easier way is with Barret and Vincent with their ultimate weapons. Another beneficial glitch comes with the use of the Gil Plus Materia: the player will always get twice as much gil from battles, even if the Materia only has one star.

The Magic Defense bug renders all Magic Defense values in all armor useless, as the stat is never used when calculating damage on a target. This was fixed in the 2012 PC re-release. Another glitch occurs when a character uses an Elixir in battle, which triggers the Cover ability, where the character with the Cover Materia steps in to receive the Elixir instead of the intended person. If Sneak Attack is used to revive fallen party members, their ATB bars will never fill up. The status Darkness halves the physical accuracy of weapon-based attacks, but due to a bug, the status only affects the commands Attack, Morph, Deathblow, Mug, Slash-All, Flash, 2x Cut, and 4x Cut. Because enemies do not use the above commands they are unaffected by it, making inflicting opponents with the status pointless.

A potentially hazardous glitch is the Save Crystal glitch, which may permanently ruin a player's save. Another dangerous glitch lets the player avoid fighting Diamond Weapon, but it will ruin the player's save file. If the player enters the menu and saves their game exactly when the battle against Diamond Weapon is going to start, and then loads their game normally, Diamond Weapon has vanished. This leaves the player unable to finish the game as the barrier over North Crater is still intact.

Aeris's "ghost".

The phenomenon of seeing Aeris's "ghost" in the Sector 5 slums church is associated with glitches, although the ghost itself is intended to appear. Some enemies have glitched attack patterns where they are meant to use a certain attack but never do. These bugs go largely unnoticed by players.

If Cloud casts Barrier, MBarrier, or Wall on himself while under the Reflect status, he will leap forward as per usual, but his casting animation will be cut short and he will not move back. This can be done repeatedly to push him off screen, and he will eventually circle around the battlefield back to the default position if done enough times. If he attacks or is attacked, unless the attack misses or he is knocked out, Cloud's position resets to normal. The camera can still pan towards his position when he casts magic, and both Cloud and any enemies can attack each other like normal regardless of their positions. Damage numbers will still appear on screen. Since casting Reflect on Cloud resets his position, the Reflect Ring is mandatory to trigger the glitch.

The Aeris Elevator glitch lets the player control Aeris after exiting the elevator on the bottom floor of the Shinra Building by cancelling the text box that appears. The player can freely leave the building, and in some areas, Aeris will be invisible or Cloud's model will load instead. When climbing the stairs and entering the elevator near the top of the Shinra Building, only floor 60 can be accessed. Upon doing so, the elevator will start to move indefinitely and a text box claiming "You don't have a Card Key" will appear, but Aeris can still walk out of the elevator.

The Double Chocobo glitch involves having two chocobos appear on the world map simultaneously, and has varying effects depending on the console it is performed on.

There is a glitch that lets the player skip the entire returning to Midgar scenario all the way up to the boss battle against Helletic Hojo. When the player approaches the North Crater on the Highwind after defeating Diamond Weapon, a scene will trigger where Reeve Tuesti is in the Shinra Building's conference room and will call Professor Hojo on his cellphone and a scene of Hojo operating the Sister Ray's controls is meant to play. The player can trigger the boss battle with Helletic Hojo straight from the scene where Reeve phones Hojo, because during scenes like this the game is meant to cancel character movement, but in this scene if the player holds down, right and run buttons while the scene fades to Hojo's field, the game will consider the player to move towards the location and starts the boss battle.

The repeating boss glitch allows one to fight almost any boss on field maps twice (thus, the Weapons fought on the world map are excluded, except Diamond Weapon). To do this, one must skip a random battle by opening the menu the instant the game wants to give a random encounter on a field map. This trick can be useful since it allows players to get the battle spoils twice.

A cosmetic glitch involves Allemagne's model staying in the battle even after being defeated if it defeats itself with LV4 Death when in pincer formation (the player needs to manipulate it).

The original Japanese PlayStation version had several glitches that would be fixed in the localized releases. In the Train Graveyard, it was possible to move after picking up an item before the message box disappeared. Cait Sith's glitchy Level 3 Limit Breaks were made inaccessible. Magic Pots could take damage without needing an Elixir. When defeating three Movers at once, the death animation for only one would play. Finally, it was possible to obtain Yuffie at level 1 by manipulating an in-game timer.

In the PlayStation version, a Hi-Potion could not be received for winning a chocobo race. Even when the game claimed the player won a Hi-Potion, a Tranquilizer would be added to the inventory instead. The Hi-Potion could still be traded in for 15 GP, whereas the Tranquilizer gives 10 GP.

Glitches present in the PlayStation version are also in the PC versions. The original PC version has a humorous graphics glitch that occurs if Vincent is in the party at the end of Part 1 scene, where his character model is stuck with one leg extended out into the air, although this was fixed in the 2012 re-release. Another glitch exclusive to the PC versions is the "Yuffie warping glitch". The original PC version did fix a glitch with Condor War, where entering the "Start the game?" menu whilst moving the cursor across the map would cause the game to display strings of Japanese from the minigame data files.

The PC re-release featured issues with music resetting after battles, and the wrong music playing in some areas, such as when exiting from Mythril Mine into the Marshes, the scene where Yuffie is recruited, and the flashback scene where Cloud confronts Sephiroth in the Nibel Reactor. These issues carried over to the mobile and console versions, and were eventually patched in some, but persist in others.

In the PC re-release and PlayStation 4 versions, pressing the Confirm button almost immediately after moving the cursor in a menu will cause the cursor to move two spaces before selecting.

The Switch version initially had an issue with the screen turning black for a few frames during FMVs that transitioned into gameplay. Similarly, NPC models in the Xbox One version would flicker briefly. These issues were eventually patched.

Final Fantasy VII Remake [ ]

The player stuck in midair.

During the Sector 7 pillar climb, the player may get stuck up in the air outside the pillar grounds where some flying enemies spawn. There is no way to leave if the player gets stuck here.

There are many seemingly open passages that are blocked by invisible barriers called "Warning Zones" that force the character to walk in the other direction. These don't extend that far back, so with the help of pause buffering, it's possible to maneuver the character in just the right way to get through. Passing most "Warning Zones" doesn't have any material benefit, but due to a programming oversight, one Warning Zone is all that prevents skipping almost all of chapter 13 and half of chapter 14. The player passes through Wall Market during the trip to Aerith's house, and bypassing a Warning Zone in a particular alleyway gets on the road to Corneo's mansion. Shinra guards are present, but they aren't programmed to react since the player is not supposed to be able to get to them. The chainlink gate leading to the sewer's back entrance is unlocked and when the player enters the door, it skips straight to when the party first enters with Leslie Kyle.

A full list of glitches and skips can be found here.

Final Fantasy VIII [ ]

The Junction glitch, a notable exploit that let spells be junctioned to multiple stats simultaneously, was fixed for the western releases. The original PC-version has many glitches not present in the PlayStation version, ranging from the game crashing easily to minor graphical errors. A patch was released to fix the surfaced issues. Without the patch, when the player would cast Double or Triple, the game would say "Doppel" and "Trippel" during the spell animation, instead of the spells' proper names; also, the animations displayed for the Devour command would be in German. Each of the game's PC releases featured a peculiar issue where most of the audio for Quezacotl's summon animation was replaced with Phoenix's.

Final Fantasy VIII - Balamb SeeD Car Glitch

Near the start of the SeeD exam, just before automatically driving through Balamb down the intersecting road, using the d-pad or tilting the analog stick in any direction will cause the SeeD Personal Carrier Vehicle to be stuck facing left as it proceeds. Towards the end of the exam, if X-ATM092 is defeated, the 'Attitude' category on the SeeD Rank Report is erroneously renamed 'Point(s) Deducted', despite functioning the same.

There were reported issues in the original PC version of certain cards mysteriously disappearing from the card inventory, and automatic scenes not starting; for example, when the player approaches Galbadia Garden stationed near Edea's House, the Battle of the Gardens is supposed to ensue; some players found that the scene triggering the war never begins, thus leaving them stranded.

Player's Ragnarok stuck.

The player may run into a game-breaking bug where they lose access to the Ragnarok airship by landing it too close to a structure on the world map, making it impossible to board again. Because the player needs the Ragnarok to invade Lunatic Pandora, they can become stranded.

The background music in each of the PC versions resets after battles. This is fixed in Final Fantasy VIII Remastered, though two other music-related bugs were introduced:

• During the initial raid on Dollet, if the player had a save file at the Lapin Beach landing site, and then reloaded the file at a later date, the audio for the background track, "The Landing", would drop back to General MIDI format. This anomaly was also present during the Battle of the Gardens, but not triggered by player actions. It cleared when the player advanced the story to change the track in play. This bug was patched in November 2019.
• Several tracks may not cue up to the correct timestamps vs. where they did in the original game. As a result, a track may start playing from its end or from a point other than the start. This also affects tracks that used shorter loops, as some like "Movin'" and "Ride On" repeat their lead movement when reused.

Another patched issue in the Remastered version concerns the in-game cursor, which continuously flickered on-screen after selecting something in the menus.

Akin to Final Fantasy VII, there's an exploitable method to duplicate items through Chocobo World. One beneficial programming oversight also concerns the rare Hero-trial and Holy War-trial items; though they were supposed to have a chance of failing, they grant invincibility 100% of the time. Likewise, they last just as long as their normal counterparts despite their names. When using GFAbl Med-RF, the Help menu will claim 10 Silver Mails are needed to create 1 Gold Armor, when only 5 are needed.

• Balamb Garden balcony glitch
• Junction glitch

Final Fantasy IX [ ]

The best known glitch is the Thunder Slash glitch, where if Steiner (or Beatrix while under player control) uses the move it has an accuracy of 0%. Another more uncommon glitch occurs when the player boards the airship after entering the quicksands. After leaving the ship, the player will be stuck in the middle of the ocean, unable to move. The only way to fix this is to start a new game.

If the eidolon Fenrir's Terrestrial Rage attack is summoned on Bombs, sometimes when they use Grow, their graphic will disappear and they become invisible. If the player then inflicts them with Poison or Darkness, only the status effect's graphics can be seen floating in the air.

These glitches have been fixed to the most recent PAL versions, but the Thunder Slash glitch is still present in the most recent release in North America via the PlayStation Network.

If someone loses a card in Tetra Master, and it levels up from P or M to X, or from X to A status while on the opponent's team, should one win it back on that game, the card will be duplicated, with the leveled up card returning to the player, and the original being selected on the next game.

It is rumored that some early print versions of the game have a "gold chocobo bug," supposedly allowing the player obtain a gold chocobo before they obtain the airship, allowing some parts of the story to be skipped. However, due to the absence of legitimate evidence demonstrating this, it is considered to be a hoax.

Initially, in the mobile and subsequent versions, the background music would restart from the beginning of the track after each battle or Tetra Master match. This was eventually patched in the Android, PlayStation 4, and Switch versions.

Chemist may be bugged when coupled with the Auto-Potion in the Xbox One version of Final Fantasy IX Remastered, with the items healing for excess amounts (the amount shown on screen capped to 9999), eventually overflowing to negative values.

The port for iOS was briefly withdrawn from the App Store in mid-2021 for reasons as yet unknown. It can, however, be assumed that the signing certificate was not updated during the period of absence, as the application stopped working as of iOS 14.5 with a standard update notice displayed upon any attempt to start the game. The certificate issue, along with any other bugs, was resolved with version 1.5.3 as of November 2021.

• Thunder Slash glitch
• NPC event skip glitch

Final Fantasy X [ ]

The Salvage Ship in the original Japanese version for the PlayStation 2 featured a glitch where Piranhas could be encountered while on-board. Also in this version is a bug involving the Catcher Chocobo minigame, where the player could hang their chocobo at the edge of the Calm Lands, then deliberately take a hit from a bird just before the 2 minute timer expired, causing them to never get hit in the next race.

The only major glitch is the Home glitch, or "New Game Plus" glitch as it is sometimes referred to, which lets the player jump back in time and replay portions of the game by returning to Home at a time it shouldn't be possible any more. This was fixed in the PAL release, and only works in the Japanese International version.

In the International version, during the encounter against Dark Valefor, a glitch will occasionally crash the game during either the cutscene before or after the fight. If this happens, it will always happen in that save file, effectively preventing the player from fighting Penance. This was fixed in the PAL release.

In the PlayStation 2 versions, if the player has 8,000 gil or more, they can fight Fenrir in the Monster Arena for free; no matter what the result is, the player won't lose any money.

The FMV in Zanarkand where Auron and Tidus observe Sin can fail to load, often as a result of using a scratched game disc. The camera will remain focused on their in-game models, softlocking the game.

It's possible for Tidus to get stuck in his swimming animation when on land.

When fighting a single Grenade with two Grats, if the player uses any Blizzard spell with Lulu, the Grenade will not grow.

If a character with Auto-Potion in their armor is KO'd by an attack, the item they would've used is still removed from the inventory, despite them not getting a chance to use it.

In the first battle against Seymour, if the player defeats him with the first spell of a Doublecast and the second deals 6,000 or more damage, he won't summon Anima. Instead, the player will be stuck in a never-ending battle where Seymour is no longer selectable as a target (Tidus's name will be displayed in the Help bar) and he won't act, as he is considered to be KO'd.

When fighting Seymour Omnis, if two Mortiphasms are facing him with the water element, he becomes immune to fire-elemental attacks instead of water-elemental ones. This can even lead to a situation where Seymour is both resistant and immune to fire. This glitch persists across all versions of the game.

There are some minor graphical glitches that don't affect gameplay. If Wakka is petrified by his own attack via the Stonestrike ability, his ball will be suspended high above his head. It will remain up in the air even after he is healed from petrification, although it doesn't hinder his ability to attack with it. The Abyss Worm's Regurgitate attack may end up making party members invisible until the swallowed characters have left the battleground for a summon or the battle ends, provided a character is under the effect of Guard or Sentinel when Abyss Worm uses this ability.

Kimahri can learn Thrust Kick as an Overdrive, which the game describes as able to eject enemies. However, due to an oversight by the developers either on the programming side or the localization team, Kimahri's Thrust Kick does not inflict Eject; it only does damage. The game also states Shiva's Heavenly Strike attack inflicts delay, but it actually inflicts the Threaten status. Likewise, the in-game description for the Tetra Elemental item erroneously says it works on the party, when it only works on a single party member, and the Silver Hourglass and Gold Hourglass items fail to mention that they also inflict Slow.

The blitzball minigame features an exploit where, if the player takes the ball and stays behind the goalkeeper of his team, the AI opponents will never try to take the ball. If the player's team is leading, they can wait there until the match ends and win easily. There are also issues with the Anti-Drain technique being virtually impossible to tech copy.

The HD Remaster version for the PlayStation 4 had the background music not resume where it left off after a battle, instead starting the track from the beginning again. Glitches concerning this version's random number generator have also been reported. These issues have since been patched.

The game may softlock in battle for various reasons when hacking, such as trying to summon an aeon where it's normally impossible, defeating a normally undefeatable enemy, or using specific abilities with Seymour. When running the game on an emulator, characters and enemies tend to face the wrong direction in battle. This can often be seen with Auron running in the opposite direction when using Shooting Star or other abilities (running indefinitely in the former's case).

• Home glitch
• NPC event skip glitch

Final Fantasy X-2 [ ]

The most notable bug is the Episode Complete bug; if the player gets an Episode Complete in Zanarkand, they are not transported back to the Celsius. Therefore, if Zanarkand is the last location the player gets an Episode Complete in, the scene where the Gullwings are given the Mascot dressphere never triggers, and the player misses out on it even if they fill the requirements.

Due to a bug, the Dark Knight dressphere can avoid losing HP from the Darkness command by equipping the Ragnarok accessory.

Prior to the HD Remaster version, Rikku's Mascot ability PuPu Platter, which attempts to eject all enemies, would never succeed if Rikku was Level 93 or higher.

In rare instances, the game can softlock in battle, with neither side being able to act. The exact reasoning isn't known, but might involve specific use of large monsters.

• Episode Complete bug

Final Fantasy XI [ ]

Numerous bugs were present over the years, most of which are patched when they are found, but some have become important within the history of the game and are worth mentioning here.

The single most infamous bug is probably the salvage duplication bug, which went unnoticed by the development team for months and was exploited by players to produce billions of gil worth of duplicated items. When the bug was finally discovered by the development team in November 2008, it was patched later that same month in emergency maintenance, and a special investigation was made that resulted in the permanent ban of approximately 550 players and the temporary suspension of 400 more. The bug, which actually occurred in any event that used the "layer" system and not just Salvage, was that when an Alliance dissolved with items in the treasure pool each of the three parties would receive a copy of the items in their own separate treasure pools.

The second most infamous bug is probably the Beetle foot glitch, which endured from the introduction of the Beetle family monsters in initial development in 2002 or earlier up until the November 10th, 2015 version update, where it was fixed because a beetle is prominently featured in a cutscene. The glitch was thus at least 13 years old, making it theoretically older than some of the people who play the game. The glitch was a simple and obvious graphical glitch: the right front foot of beetles was on backwards. The issue was made known by player complaints on the official forums and elsewhere for years before anything was done.

Another long-lasting glitch was the dance glitch, which caused the goblins in Dynamis-Jeuno to move in place in unison after all players had been killed. This glitch persisted from the introduction of Dynamis in the February 26th, 2004 version update to the sweeping revamp of Dynamis in the May 10th, 2011 version update.

A bug that was notorious despite its short life was the infamous frontal Sneak Attack bug, appearing for a few days in June 2008 after a version update before being patched in emergency maintenance. The problem was simple: Sneak Attack, which normally only worked when behind the monster that was being attacked, now worked only from the front. Sneak Attack was (apparently) not being modified (intentionally) in any way during that version update, causing bafflement at how the development team could make such a mistake. The phrase "spaghetti code" and references to the bug have ever since been used by players to describe alleged poor programming practices and lax quality control by the development team.

The 99999 cure damage bug was also short-lived, but caused bafflement and derision at the development team for similar reasons. The bug was simple: casting cure spells on the undead dealt 99999 damage instead of the normal damage.

The Atnm Test bug was a legendary debacle as much for the players involved as for the development team. The first group to get the Pandemonium Key needed to challenge the infamous Pandemonium Warden decided to trade it to a mysterious ??? in Wajoam Woodlands instead of the correct ??? located in Aydeewa Subterrane—just to see what would happen. Their trade was accepted, and instead of Pandemonium Warden a single hapless low level goblin called Atnm Test appeared and was killed in a single blow. No loot was dropped. The ??? was swiftly removed from the game, and following an investigation the players' Pandemonium Key was refunded. The bug in this case was twofold: the test ??? should not have been present, and it should not have accepted the Pandemonium Key.

Final Fantasy XII [ ]

Some bugs are version-specific. There is a glitch that occurs in the NTSC version, but appears to have been fixed by the PAL release, where the player may get stuck behind a standing Garif Herder in the Lull of the Land area of Jahara. In the Zodiac versions, the treasures in Site 2 of Lhusu Mines will disappear and never respawn after Ba'Gamnan attacks the party. If the player defeats Ba'Gamnan immediately, the treasures are still there, but exiting Site 2 means the treasures will disappear for good. If the player wants a particular treasure from this area, they should get it before triggering the battle with Ba'Gamnan.

In the Steam version, it's possible to play as Reks after the prologue by renaming the autosave file. Loading this save file messes with the scripts that switch out Reks for Vaan, meaning the player keeps Reks in the party, though Vaan's model is used in towns. There are virtually no benefits to this, however, and the drawbacks grow in number as the game progresses, such as Reks's lack of a License Board, inability to change equipment or even have combat animations for other weapons, and disabled menu commands.

The Immobilize glitch can cause enemies to disappear in the field, and also allow characters to "teleport" within large zones. Of similar manipulation is the zone out glitch, which tricks the game into thinking a dead monster has not been spawned yet, and thus respawns it. The dead character glitch, meanwhile, sends a player character into a limbo of having been flagged defeated, but still remaining on the screen, which messes up enemies' attack patterns.

If an enemy capable of teleporting, such as a Ghost or Etém, is afflicted with both Disable and Confuse, it will continuously teleport without pause, making them difficult to defeat due to both the invincibility granted and the status effects not wearing out.

When the player is riding a chocobo and the timer is at 0.0 seconds, they can open the menu, change equipment, and return to extend the duration by 1.8 seconds. This can be done repeatedly to ride a chocobo indefinitely.

A notable exploit that can be interpreted as a glitch is the battle chain not increasing or breaking when enemies are slain with Stone, Poison, or Doom, whereas their loot drops are still calculated by the current battle chain (except with Doom, which doesn't drop loot). This means the player can build up a high battle chain with common enemies, and then debuff some rarer enemies to collect their improved loot drops without the chain breaking.

An example of a purely cosmetic glitch is the "flapping hair woman" in Rabanastre, close to the bridge near the Sandsea, wherein a NPC, when spoken to, will have wildly flapping hair for no apparent reason. One also exists in the Rabanastre Aerodome, but will only rarely be activated. Something that is more of a mistake than a glitch involves Dyce in the Nam-Yensa Sandsea. Before defeating the Garuda, Dyce looks completely different than how he appears afterward. This was fixed in The Zodiac Age. In the PlayStation 4 version, Basch's (the red-vested model used for majority of the game) and Balthier's character models are glitched, where Basch's hair, and Balthier's hair, sleeves and earrings, never move in the wind and are static.

A minor glitch seen in the English version of The Zodiac Age involves collecting multiple copies of the Mina from the Larva Eater, which leads to the combat log displaying "You obtain 2 NOT USED Mina". This also applies to the Vrsabha.

• Accuracy underflow bug
• Dead character glitch
• Immobilize glitch
• Phoenix Down glitch
• Self-revival glitch
• Zone out glitch

Final Fantasy XIII [ ]

There are some glitches regarding the computer controlled units' AI on the field. The player may find the enemy soldiers continually running around in circles, or party members getting stuck in a jumping motion, endlessly jumping back and forth over a gap. These are merely visual and don't hamper gameplay.

One glitch renders Snow Villiers's weapon outside of battle, letting him have a "different" coat on the field. If the player kills a beast on a mission with the Eidolon of another character, and the summoning is executed while the beast is attacking Snow, Snow's weapon stays on him, even on the field.

Another glitch concerns Mission 6 "No Place Like Home," where one can kill the Munchkin Maestro without it completing the mission.

When traversing one of the staircases in Taejin's Tower, the camera can briefly get stuck.

In the PC version, playing at a resolution higher than 1280x720 results in the "Notes" section of the enemy intel screen not being displayed. Though this was never resolved, a simple fan-made fix was made available for download. There have also been reported issues when playing at a 2560x1440 resolution, where artifacts can be seen and a line occasionally appears across the bottom and right edges of the screen.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 [ ]

There is a bug regarding the Live Trigger in the Archylte Steppe. Because the area does not properly reset when closing the gate from the Historia Crux, there is no way to collect the opposing adornment from the Live Trigger scene after the battle with Faeryl.

In the Yaschas Massif, a character may stutter in place while standing on a certain part of the ground near one of the staircases. This can be dispelled by moving away.

When fighting Proto fal'Cie Adam, if it casts Ultima just before it is defeated, the party will still take damage afterwards. If Serah and Noel are KO'd from the resulting damage, they will be rendered invisible during the following Cinematic Action cutscene, with no inputs appearing and both lines of dialogue playing simultaneously, ending with the player receiving a Game Over. A Game Over will also occur if one of them is KO'd by Ultima and the other from failed input damage.

Some players have reported Mog getting stuck hovering or spinning in place in A Dying World. Since Mog cannot be thrown in the area and the Historia Crux only allows the player to visit Serendipity and the Coliseum at the time, he remains unable to uncover necessary people and elements in the area, and the player cannot move forward in the story. Additionally, when closing the gate to A Dying World and progressing to New Bodhum -700 AF-, another bug can prevent the player from progressing any further, where obtaining the artefact and proceeding through the gate returns the player to the very same Historia Crux instead of Academia 500 -AF-.

In battle, performing the Friendly Fire Feral Link with monsters such as the Circuitron will sometimes render the Auto Battle option unusable in the turn afterward. If the player attempts to select the Auto Battle option, the sound effect that plays when Auto Battle actions are queued will play, but no actions will be queued and the player will not be taken to the target selection screen. Players can still manually input abilities and use items, and after the turn has passed, the Auto Battle option will work as normal.

Opening a treasure sphere with Mog Throw just as a battle starts may cause it to stop spinning but continue to move up and down afterwards. Interacting with the sphere again will still yield its contents.

• Live Trigger bug
• Yaschas Massif Stair glitch

Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII [ ]

Multiple NPCs can be seen standing where the Clock Tower pedestal is, clipping through it and each other. This can also happen in the Warren, in the wall next to the Oracle Drive, and in several other locations in Luxerion, particularly in doorways.

Some "soft-cutscene" dialog sequences (wherein Lightning speaks to other characters with generic animations and camera pans, as opposed to more fully-choreographed cutscenes) can rarely glitch, getting stuck in loops or repeating, and such cutscenes that are involved with quests, specifically those that are tied to quest flags, can even bug those quests to make them incompletable.

In Yusnaan and Luxerion, the loudspeaker announcer can have multiple speech lines playing over one another.

It's possible for the Aeronite to get stuck in mid-air for a time when launched by powerful attacks.

The PC port introduces some graphical glitches, such as skybox and transparency flickering. High framerates with the Dynamic Frame Rate setting can also cause issues in the Wildlands when interacting with Rocky Crag Moles or the Gysahl Green planting spots at Canopus Farms, erasing the planted greens and sometimes preventing the spots from being used. This setting can also cause the moogle from the Decoy EP ability to clip through the floor, preventing it from being damaged by drawn attacks.

Final Fantasy XIV [ ]

Shortly after the release of A Realm Reborn, it was sometimes possible for a character to move while using an emote, resulting in bizarre animations. Other reported glitches include wandering out of bounds in various areas, looking through walls with the first-person perspective, large mounts moving at awkward angles in cramped areas, improper fishing animations, respawning in the wrong areas, drawing a glowing weapon and using the /sit emote to allow it to glow while holstered, HQ items not being downgraded while using a mount, and standing under the water spouts in the Manderville Gold Saucer when getting a duty message.

Several housing glitches exist. Through the use of stacking certain items, the /sit emote, and jumping, it's possible to gain access to the roof and subsequently wander out of bounds. This glitch was inaccessible in the PlayStation 3 version, as /sit would not snap the character to the stool used to jump off of. It's also possible to make tabletop or wall-mounted objects hover by placing an extra surface clipping into them, positioning them on a non-surface, disabling counter placement, selecting the item and hovering it over an open space before canceling, and finally picking up the extra surface and putting it somewhere else before removing it.

Final Fantasy XV [ ]

Various ways to exploit map boundaries and venture out of bounds were found. Some of these methods were used to keep guests in the party, or even keep Noctis in the Armiger mode seen when fighting Leviathan and the final boss, effectively giving him a permanent upgrade and letting him freely explore areas throughout the game. Some methods were eventually patched.

There were also various minor issues involving character models, deceased monster models, animations, vehicles, lighting issues (particularly in Galdin Quay snapshots in the PC version), magitek troopers attacking during cutscenes, characters falling through the ground, and the game softlocking. The Armiger glitch itself caused softlocking in many different areas, such as when fighting the Bloodhorn.

The most popular of the glitches with guests staying in the party involves keeping Aranea as a party member after her appearance as a guest in Chapter 7.

It is possible to visit Angelgard via an "out of bounds" glitch if the player swims there on a chocobo. The imperial lands seen from the train can also be visited this way, but there is nothing to interact with in these areas.

One rare bug occurs when Noctis tries to sit in random locations, sending him into a falling animation. This resolves itself when sitting in a car or on a chocobo, but requires a reset anywhere else.

There was a glitch that allowed warping in the Pitioss Ruins, trivializing its difficulty. It involved Noctis manipulating the mechanic that separates him from the party before entering the dungeon.

Warp-striking at the area with the moving blocks in Costlemark Tower can be glitchy. If the player clips through a wall and there is no platform beneath them, they will fall into the abyss before being teleported outside the dungeon entrance.

Steam players have encountered massive stuttering, micro-stuttering, and crashing, which may be exclusive to the platform. Square Enix has stated that it will not be providing any further patches, as development has ended.

Final Fantasy XV Episode Duscae [ ]

In the original version of the demo it was possible to leave the intended demo bounds to venture outside the map and approach the large crystal in the area. If the player ventured too far off the map they got an error message and a Game Over. One way to leave the map was to use the cars driving around by running in front of them at the boundaries to push Noctis out. The demo was later patched.

Another glitch was discovered after the patch, that lets one venture out of bounds and even get past the error message of "Game Over" by having the inventory screen up while out of bounds. This lets one explore anywhere until eventually falling through the map.

Final Fantasy Tactics [ ]

The original PlayStation version had some glitches that were later fixed in the War of the Lions remake, including a bug that prevented Oil from having any effect. The Quickening glitch functions more as an exploit of game mechanics, and can still be performed in the latter release.

• Dragqueen
• JP scroll glitch
• Jump glitch
• Poach bug
• Quickening glitch
• Weapon duplication bug

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance [ ]

There is one known glitch:

• Shara glitch

Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift [ ]

There are two known glitches:

• Double KO Bug
• Requiem Counter

Final Fantasy Type-0 [ ]

When using the speed-up feature in the PC version, moving too fast through certain areas can lead to a softlock.

Final Fantasy Mystic Quest [ ]

The most famous glitch is Benjamin's Cure when cast on the final boss, causing the Dark King to take over ten thousand damage due to the Overflow glitch.

The player can also gain a free level up from Battlefields that reward EXP, by leveling up during the final fight of the Battlefield. The EXP prize will cause the player to level a second time, even though it is not high enough to raise the player an entire level. However, this will cause the EXP required for their next level-up to be the total of both previous levels, so the player only gets the second level-up "early".

• Bypass event glitch
• Equipment bugs
• Item duplication glitch
• Magic bugs
• Overflow glitch

Final Fantasy Adventure [ ]

There are two known glitches:

• Equipment bugs
• Magic bugs

The Final Fantasy Legend [ ]

Many bugs exist, though the most notorious is the Saw bug (below).

• Due to programming oversight, two bugs are present in the transformation system:
  • There are some monsters into which a party member cannot ever transform (e.g. Shrimp), since the monster's hidden level is lower than that of any dropped meat and the algorithm used for transformation looks up one level before it can look down.
  • Because the transformation tables do not have higher-level monsters in all possible slots, some meats will always downgrade a monster to a previous species

• Saw bug
• Sound test bug

Final Fantasy Legend II [ ]

There are two known glitches, both of which can harm the player's game and render it unplayable if the player exploits them. There is also a glitch related to the Sound Test. A bug occurs where the save-counter value from the loading screen is carried over if the player happens to go there first, leading to overflow and illegal values for the Sound Effect option.

• Human Fungus glitch
• Trash can bug
• Walking through walls glitch

Final Fantasy Legend III [ ]

There are three known glitches:

• Bypass event glitch
• Money underflow glitch
• Overflow glitch

Dissidia Final Fantasy & Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy [ ]

Dissidia Final Fantasy had a number of harmless graphics glitches, which were fixed in Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy. The biggest glitches, however, the Double KO glitch and the Holy glitch, exist in both games.

The Mirage Sandsea contains some errors in its terrain, the most notable being in the forest northeast to the Gateway Forgotten Trail, which will leave the player stuck, the only way out being resetting the game.

• 0 HP EX Burst glitch
• Ability sort bug
• Chaos intro glitch
• Double KO Bug
• Holy glitch
• Invisibility glitch
• Jumping capsule top glitch
• Walking in air glitch
• Snooze and Lose glitch
• Chase auto-charge glitch

Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia [ ]

Players may be compensated if issues arise that affect gameplay, with all items immediately delivered to the player's gift box upon resolution. Notable glitches include:

• With the release of client 1.6.1, the backend may have erroneously set a flag on the player's data that causes the game to start over as it downloaded updated game files. If this occurred, the player was advised to proceed as prompted, though existing data would remain and progress would therefore be saved. This bug was later patched out in a data update.
• A UI glitch in the Android package forced developers to extend events that were scheduled for closure on March 21, 2019. This was at least partially fixed with version 1.8.1 on March 27, 2019.
• A programming error caused players to be locked out of the Abyss Beta after the final mission was cleared, also causing the game to crash. This forced developers to extend the reward period for the first six strata by two weeks. This was fixed in a later data update.
• A bug has been acknowledged involving the selection of certain single-target abilities and their targets, causing sync issues. To work around this, it is suggested that the player touch the intended target's 3D model first, then invoke the ability as per usual.
• Changes in Apple's approval process since iOS and iPadOS 13 have caused unplanned delays in the release of Global clients beginning with 1.11.1 on September 25, 2019 and continuing into current versions. In order to get ahead of these delays, developers may push the client out before work begins server-side. Users are cautioned to disable automatic updates until maintenance completes. Similar delays have been reported involving other third-party games that employ gacha. Players were given extensions on certain draws and shops as compensation for a longer-than-expected outage in December 2019.
• Global client 1.17.1 contained a bug that caused framerates to slow noticeably in iOS. This was rapidly identified and patched out with version 1.17.2. To ensure cross-platform compatibility, the Android version was updated in tandem, though it was not impacted by the same issue.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles [ ]

There is one known glitch:

• Infinite Gil glitch

Final Fantasy Brave Exvius [ ]

There are three widely-known glitches:

• Berserk bug
• Twist of Fate bug
• Reset app bug

Other bugs may be introduced due to programming errors. In these cases, the player may receive compensation for any impacts suffered:

• In early 2019, a botched rollout of client 3.4.x caused a host of problems in functionality and connectivity irrespective of player setup. These issues were to have been mitigated with client 3.4.5 and should not exist in later releases.

If left idle for a period of time, the client may experience desynchronization and therefore log the player out of the game and its attached social network account. When this occurs, the player must re-establish the dropped link along with re-downloading any updated data, after installing the most recent client.

Mobius Final Fantasy [ ]

When bugs were confirmed and later corrected, players received compensation according to the impact of the bugs identified.

• A glitch in the iOS package resulted in an undisclosed number.of players being unable to access game services through early November 2019, returning disposition code 3 when starting the app. This was corrected in the final version. Players were compensated no less than 2,000 magicite on top of gifts made for other less severe difficulties.

Other bugs and glitches [ ]

• On August 26, 2020, problems with the Square Enix Bridge service caused unexpected difficulties with accessing mobile games hosted by Square Enix. All affected games declared an emergency maintenance shutdown at approximately 6 PM Pacific Daylight Time. Maintenance was completed by late morning August 27. All players received appropriate compensation.
• A second Bridge outage occurred Thursday, November 12, 2020. Players received compensation equal to one full day worth of rewards in most games supported by the service from the following day forward if claimed within one week of the outage.
• On July 20, 2021, routine maintenance operations for Square Enix games hosted by third parties took much longer than expected. The cause was not disclosed when service was restored in the early morning hours, though players received compensation for the delay.

References [ ]

1. ↑ (2012). https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/nes/522595-final-fantasy/faqs/57009. GameFAQs.
2. ↑ https://youtu.be/XaOG-0AV92A

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Source: https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_bugs_and_glitches

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