Culex exists in a superposition, being present in both all Final Fantasy games and none, at the same time
None. He's original to Mario RPG. The allusion to Final Fantasy is just an easter egg.
I had absolutely no idea. I always saw him referred to as a final fantasy boss. I guess in mario rpg he's from that universe, but he's not actually from the universe. Crazy.
Culex uses the Final Fantasy 4 boss battle music, so some people mistakenly think he is from the game but it's just the music. I've played through FF4 over 10 times and he definitely is not in it ;)
4!
Edit: looks like I was wrong. I genuinely believed this for 26 years.
The fight with Culex re-uses the boss music from FF4, though. (Even if he never appears there.)
I’m guessing that’s why I had the association. Thanks for reminding me!
Your edit makes me so happy that the "Culex in Final Fantasy" rumors still persist to this day
I hope a new generation of SMRPG players gets to experience that now for the next 26 years
Which 4? There's 11 of them
GP said 4!, which I assume is 4 factorial, or 24. It looks like the 24th game in the series was Final Fantasy Origins: