Final Fantasy (1987)

I didn't cheat, except that one save state I used early on (and that only saved me 15 minutes). However, after the Fire Orb I started using the emulator's speed tools. It made some of the slow battles and very slow travel manageable.

It was a fine adventure, though one I would only play again on a modern remake. My 2 fighters/knights carried the whole game. Tbh I bet 3 fighters and 1 red mage is the best party in the game, but I'd have to look up and see.

My only experience with the Final Fantasy series up to this point have not been great. It was the FF3 3D remake for the DS when I was a kid/teenager. I got so fed up with being under-leveled that I used my action replay to break the game. Kill anything in one shot, level 99, job level 99, all that good stuff. And this next part is going to sound fake, but I still lost the final battle. I got TPK'ed on the very first turn and lost while cheating. I swore to never touch another FF game after that.

So I'm older now, wiser (maybe), and decided that it might be better to start from the beginning. Steam had a bundle of the first six FF games so I just grabbed it on a whim (and a decent sale). I finally finished the first game with 100% completion and I need to not listen to myself more often.

It's no wonder that this game kicked off a franchise with now 16 numbered entries and surely dozens of spinoffs. It's the quintessential JRPG. That being said, I'm sure there are some things that would turn people off to it, especially the pixel remaster. First of all, it does not hold your hand when it comes to progression. For the most part, you can figure out what's going on if you make sure to talk to EVERYONE, take some detailed notes, and just take the time to explore. I used a guide a couple of times (for example, using the Rosetta Stone), but other than that I tried to stay away as much as possible.

The only other thing I had an issue with was the final boss. Jesus fucking Christ. I looked up a couple guides to help me through. In the original NES, he had 2,000 HP. That's easy mode, so they upped it to 4,000 in some of the later entries. Apparently this was still to easy, because he had approximately 5,000,000,000 HP in the pixel remaster. It took 10 turns of CONSTANTLY buffing my fighter with 2 other party members to finally kill this thing, and even then I was lucky that he didn't haste himself or use his full heal spell.

Other than that, I had a great time! It's got a lot of charm and it was just pure fun. Maybe we need more of that in modern day gaming. Less emphasis on story, less cutscenes, more fun.

Preliminary: As per usual, I am playing the original Japanese version but fan-translated so, uh, I can figure out what's going on. This is such an important series to me, and this game is important to me from 5 years back, so I am excited. I will try not to make an overly long review, that's my new goal... Just sum up at the end of a game... we'll see about that lol. Ahhh, cheesy intro text, nice jingle, and most importantly the hand/select/menu Look and sound effects I have known all my life as Final Fantasy

Last time I did Warrior, Warrior, Red Mage, White Mage. This time Imma do Warrior, Warrior, Monk, Red Mage. Mostly because I have such a long backlog ahead and just want to confirm this is a beloved game and one I would consistently play through when I start it. (Tho oh boo, I found out later on that I couldn't exploit the HEL2-in-battle-acts-as-HEL3 glitch without a White Mage :( and argh I can't use Warp until Class Change)Welp I'm already hooked. Love the music (never really listened to it last time), love that the victory music is already established here, love equipping my characters and grinding like in Dragon Quest, love that I can just hold confirm and go through battle when just wanna hit. Love it all!

Look: 8.5/10 This place always reminds me of Zelda games (plus it's got a great tune)

Not always the prettiest, but I loved a lot of the settings, it set a lot of precedents, and I liked a lot of the battle sprites. But yea some of the color choices like in the volcano... but I secretly still loved it lol

Sound: 8.5/10 I love what seems to be one of the cave/dungeon jingles lol, the Dwarven Cave/mountain cave thingy has the jingle (a lot of the dungeons had it, and it was great). The final dungeon has a great tune too.

Play: 8/10 Even I have to admit the grind element in this is a biiiiit much. But, as long as you're in the right mood for that, want something semi-afk in between the intensive dungeons and whatnot, this is perfect. Of course, one barrier to this is that the game doesn't auto target a living enemy, so that gets frustrating and doesn't allow complete afk grinding. But still. That was probably my biggest beef with the game though: the heavy reliance on large groups of petty enemies. It was always much more exciting to run into a new, strong enemy alone than a pile of old, weak enemies. It made many of the grinds much more tedious. And boo that you can't unlearn magic (in the original version). I should've remembered that.

Pro-tip: even in early game, don't be like me and skimp on items: buy lots of Antidotes and Potions. Marsh Caves rocked me! Barely made it back to the Elf town, only 2 members left, largely due to Poison ha. Looks like I gotta grind a bit more for money. (And I didn't learn my lesson after that: always carry lots of Potions and Antidotes lol, Terra Cave taught me yet again. This is assuming you're playing the original game which severely limits spell uses, I've read "Easy Mode" of some later versions makes that very different)

Feel: 9/10 Wow, where to begin. So many precedents for the series, had the right amount of secrets and expansiveness and airship and everything without being convoluted. The plotline, setting the precedent for Final Fantasys, starts mundane (save the princess, there's some prophecy, you're Light Warriors) but grows into something more. And indeed, I love how the "story really begins" after you do the initial "petty" quest and walk across the newly fixed bridge. I didn't get a screenshot but great Final Fantasy title screen there. And cute touch with the wave sounds when on the ship.

I like how open a lot of the game is, at least in its original form. LIke the Elf city having so many mid-game equipment options, if you wanted to grind for some of them then. I love how you can see, say, the Town of Gaia so early in the game, perhaps while on your boat while trying to figure out where to go next lol (thank goodness for guides, and decent hints from townspeople). Always loved that in games, like the "sneak peek" of the Bowser World in Super Mario World.

Yesss to so many Final Fantasy mainstays already starting in the first one. Ochus, Claymore, Flare, Excalibur, Masamune. Ahhh now I wanna play FFIX.

Nice. We're upgraded and class changed and looking all swole lol

Something new I noticed this time is the Lufenians remind me a lot of Castle in the Sky. Even with the robots they used to have. The secret/optional boss type enemy of Warmech is a fascinating touch.

Attachment: 9/10 This type of game is so addictive for me. I could not put it down most nights. Referencing guides, grinding, attempting the next dungeon and barely making it out alive, then doing the next one after overgrinding in compensation and being OP lol, rinse and repeat ha.

I still love that Hill Giant "Hill Gigas" area of Terra Cave/Earth Cave where they spawn on each step and they're great exp/gold. I grinded there for hours last time I played this game but I'm trying not to be OP for this playthrough (which has proved a bit frustrating at times ha) so I'm only gonna allow one level up then move on :-p

This game is full of heartless stuff, it's brutal, imagine opening all those empty chests while suffering the lava damage in the volcano. But a) I'm sure it encouraged hardcore gamers to work together and tell each other things they found out, plus it's better than the illogical puzzles/secrets found in adventure games like Metroid and Zelda and b) thank goodness for modern gaming, where I can look up things and still have a blast and a hearty challenge :-p Love this series! And this is the one that started it all!

Ugh I hate the Wind Elementals. And by the last levels of the last dungeon, I was just focused on finishing the game, it was just too brutal. Welp with no Cure spells left of any sort, no Potions left (I entered with 99 lol), here I am at the final boss.

The Monk/Master sure does have some low Defense, and I was sick of loading him with Potions, but he did some major damage when he had Haste on him! And at last.

Overall: 8.6/10 Completion: Main Story (I didn't get the Masamune nor did I encounter the Warmech so won't say "plus extras".... tho last time I playthroughed I did) Playtime: 9 hours

Played this game in the Pixel Remaster version.

This is the FF game that started it all, all the way back in 1987. Ofcourse it's all very dated and it's age shows, but especially in the PR version, it holds up quite well.

The story is quite simplistic, as is the gameplay. But many foundations for JRPG's were laid down here, foundations that we still see in modern games! I think any FF fan ows it at least one playthrough, only if just to see what the origins are, cause they are pretty good.

The PR version adds some modern versions of the beautiful music, although you can change it to the original music if you wish. Some conveniences you can enable if you wish (as in more gil earned, more xp gained, higher walkspeed, turn monsters off, etc.). Other than that it mainly brushed up the graphics a bit, in a pixel-style that's prone to about the SNES area.

One of those remastered music pieces is particularly outstanding, i actually shed a little tear when i entered that location for the first time, cause i remembered that piece of music very well from the NES version as a kid, and this version just made it incredible:

All in all an enjoyable experience, and a nice dip back in time!

I'm on a quest to platinum every mainline FF game and a select bunch of spinoffs :) Inspired by the FF Project Platinum list on PSNP.

Really fun to play the older FF titles again! I started FF1 in the pixel remaster version, i dont think those are listed separately here on Grouvee. I did play FF1 once a long long time ago on the NES, so i still remember some of it, but also don't remember a lot of stuff.

Doing this together with some other games that have just grinds left, so it's a nice pattern. Bit of grinding in those games, bit of playing FF.

I just finished this game for the first time. Just the original unmodified US release. It took me exactly 24 hours to beat from start to finish, over the course of ~5 play sessions.

I really wanted to get that taste of finishing an old JRPG that I couldn't imagine beating as a kid. This definitely feels like the kinda game that'd benefit from being one of the handful of games I'd have growing up, without internet. There's a constant sense of trying to figure it out, whether it's in finding where to go next, figuring out what certain things do, optimizing my load out, learning the best methods of surviving a dungeon, or (my favorite) planning my moves out carefully during a tough battle.

I had such a rush of good feelings when i beat Chaos tonight. I legitimately didn't think I was going to beat him at these levels (24~26). Temper was my go-to for my first 2 attempts against him, but they didn't seem to really do anything, so I focused more on FAST, INV, FOG2, and such. Basically just all of the defensive options (and healing) while always attacking with my Warrior and Master.

(I think like the only thing I missed was the ship mini-game. Isn't there one? I must've scoured the world multiple times, but I just never came across anything about it.)

One notable quality of my experience with this game was just how much it disciplined me to appreciate the small things, which I really like. Like yeah there's a lot of grinding and monotony that could make one think only about reaching the end. But in this case I think I just really care about the lore, legacy, character/story progression, and overall themes of Final Fantasy. I mean here I'm just excited to see all the details and decisions that were made in the first Final Fantasy-- I just can't be mad. It made me feel like a kid, just experiencing the game without thinking more than I need to about it (but then thinking a lot during battles :>).

I wish I had this game as a kid, but I mean at least we had FF4 which I greatly prefer anyway, lol.

(btw i felt so cool when my party upgraded into buff, more proportionally correct men/women. but after a minute i was missing the cuter style -- esp that black mage)

YOU'VE NEVER HEARD OF HIM???

Now on to Final Fantasy II. 😌

I have a pretty long history with the Final Fantasy series, and the original Final Fantasy was right there near the beginning. I first played IV and VI through their GBA ports, and while I never finished them, I liked them enough to also check out the remake of the first game included in the Dawn of Souls compilation. Even back then, I thought it was a pretty solid game, though I also never got to the finish line with it due to the bane of my existence with this series: random encounters.

Now that I'm revisiting the game through the Pixel Remaster on Switch, I feel similarly. Despite its simplicity, Final Fantasy holds up remarkably well. While the game doesn't blow me away in the same way as VI or VII, it's fun to see the groundwork that was laid from this early stage. You know the drill--our heroes journey across a big old world, visit towns, conquer some dungeons, all in order to restore the power of the four crystals and save the world.

What gets me with the early Final Fantasy games, though, is the aforementioned random encounters. It's always tolerable at first, but it makes delving into dungeons into a stressful, time consuming chore, and it never fails to make me lose interest. Well, the Pixel Remaster has come to the rescue here. A toggle has been added to turn random encounters on and off, and boy is it a revelation. I can now turn off encounters whenever I feel tired of the constant grind, and enable it again once I'm in the mood for some battles. It's a nifty addition that greatly boosted my enjoyment of the game.

I was worried that using this feature would leave my party underleveled, making the game harder. The developers even seem to predict this issue by including the ability to boost your experience and gil gains. Strangely enough, though, I never felt the need to use these features. I found most of the battles to still be relatively easy, although some of the bosses still required careful preparation and strategizing. The only big gripe I still have with the game is that it's pretty terrible at letting you know where to go next, and I had to consult a walkthrough a few times to get myself back on track and avoid wasting hours with mindless roaming.

The Pixel Remaster has a few other nice things going for it. The graphics are a lovely reimagining of the original, with bright, saturated colors that really jump off the screen. The environments, especially the towns, deserve a special shout out as well. The soundtrack has amazing orchestrated takes on the original songs, but you can also change it to the original soundtrack in order to compare. Most mercifully, they have also added a pixel font to replace the hideous text of the PC version of Pixel Remaster.

Thanks to the quality-of-life features they introduced, I was finally able to finish Final Fantasy for the first time. While it doesn't have the most riveting story, the most compelling battle system or the most captivating moment-to-moment gameplay in the series, this game is still a standard and enjoyable entry that is worth playing today. Not only because it's fun, but also because it's fascinating to see how it establishes the formula that serves as the foundation that enabled later games in this series to reach true greatness.

It's amazing how a game from 1987 has captivated me this much. I have never played the original Final Fantasy (nor any remake) before. The word that can describe it best is "epic", as it truly is one. That being said, let's look at some pros and cons. I took the age of the game into account when judging its features.

Pros

• Great character design. Not only the main characters, but the encountered monsters have a superb design;
• Great combat. I know it's simplistic compared to today's turn-based combat, but don't be fooled. If you play the game right, you need to do a lot of strategizing;
• Great music. Even though the music consists of only a few 8-bit ~60 second tracks that loop forever, it's very enjoyable to listen to it, and it fits the atmosphere perfectly;
• Great quests. As far as I know, there is only one optional quest you can do in the game. The rest are necessary to progress. Nevertheless, they're thought out great and it's very satisfying to complete them;
• Good story. Even with the limitations of that time, Square managed to put in enough textboxes onto the cartridge and end up with a good story, that sparks the imagination and makes you think about it for some time after finishing the game;

Cons

• Unclear objectives. As with all the older games, the path forward is sometimes unclear, making you revisit old locations and talking to all NPCs hoping one will reveal info about the progression;
• Empty world. The world is too big and too empty, plain and simple. It's good to have a big world with things to explore. It's bad to stare at a screen covered in water tiles for a while, with nothing happening while travelling;
• High encounter rate. I realize the objective was to turn a 5-hour game into a 10+ hour game, but this was a very bad way of doing it. Sometimes a new encounter happens after only one step.

There are more negative things. One thing I could mention is that there is no information on equipment items, i.e. what stats they grant or who can equip them. But this, along with other unlisted things is something that can be overlooked due to the age of the game, given that this is one of the first (if not the first) games that even had equipment and stats.

All in all, great game. I definitely recommend it.

I really enjoyed my time with the pixel remaster. Loved the music and having never actually completed the game as a child, the story goes some places and has more depth than a contemporary like Dragon Warrrior.

Biggest qualm was difficulty. Was a fun difficulty up to the Marsh Cave, but after that I felt like I leveled too fast just going through the game to make any of the other areas difficult. The final shrine gave some challenge, but never once did my party die.

Was Phoenix Down in the first one? Once you can bring your party members back to life with an item, there's no risk as gold is so plentiful, purchasing handfuls of these was easy.

Enemies have a wide variety but you rarely need to strategize, as Warrior/Monk will one shot almost anything and same with BlackW/WhiteW with the right weapons.

Final Fantasy is broken in many ways. Certain spells do not work. The Black Belt's armor value is glitched. There is an area in which the developers accidentally placed disproportionately higher level enemies (known to players as the "Peninsula of Power").

And yet... Final Fantasy is a grand adventure.

In order to truly understand and appreciate the game's charm, you need to imagine yourself playing it in the 1980s. The internet barely exists. Help text isn't really a thing either. The game throws a new weapon at you and... good luck figuring out what the heck it does!

What? You just received a Were Sword? That's probably great against "Were" beasts! Except... it isn't. The same goes for the Dragon Sword, Flame Sword, Ice Sword, and many others. You expect one thing but get another.

Spell names are a garbled mess. (Ah, the 8-bit glory days.) What the heck does TMPR do, anyway? Oh... nothing. Cool. Same goes for SABR...

Yes, the original game is that buggy.

But the music is fantastic, the story is interesting, and the bosses are fun. RPGs like Final Fantasy were some of the first "open-world" games. You feel like an adventurer in a foreign land... a land you get to explore. Dungeons, crypts, mountains, caves, fields, and castles. It's all here.

Sail the seas. Traverse the skies...

And then go and play one of the many faithful remakes to experience the game without all the bugs. (I recommend Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls.)

This review is for the PSP version of Final Fantasy.

This is the very first Final Fantasy game, though not it's first form, or even it's last form. What more can I say about it, that hasn't been said? It's a classic, it's influential. Does it hold up? Not really. It's as bare bones as it comes for a JRPG. There's a story but it's very very simple and straightforward, even with the time travel.. Yes I spoiler alerted a game almost a decade older than me.

What does it get right? Well right off the bat, it is a genuinely enjoyable gameplay loop, looking at it in a vacuum, or at least 1987. You become mega powerful in this game. Once you figure out the haste, temper, Monk, repeat loop, you become god, or at least could kill one. What is the issue with the gameplay loop? It's so slow. Walk around, random encounter, repeat. Punch a boss so hard the game explodes. It never really evolves much, and if you weren't a dirty little cheater like me, using the speed up function on an emulator, you'd probably go insane.

The art style is simply gorgeous. Both 8-bit and the redesign on the PSP or GBA. Personally, I think my favorite version is the GBA, but the NES had a 8-bit charm to it. At least from what I've seen, most of which was from the webcomic 8-bit Theatre back in the day. I'm a sucker for good spritework, and my God does this remaster deliver.

The music is simply put, amazing. I personally love the original chiptune NES version, especially the prelude music. It gets stuck in my head all the time. The only themes.that got kind of grating were the battle theme and the victory music. Not because they're bad, or even because there's only one theme for every battle besides bosses. No, it's because I was in a short-lived Dungeons and Dragons campaign and the dude running it played FF Battle music for EVERY encounter the entire time. People who have played D&D know how long combat can drag on. Imagine the FF Battle music, but for like 2 hours straight.

But anyway, Final Fantasy 1 is a bit lacking for current standards, and I definitely wouldn't say it's a must play, but as a historical piece, it's fun to see where it came from. Would I recommend it? No. Would I say stay away? No.

Also I just wanna say it's kind of adorable that the game that saved an entire company and sparked a love for an entire genre in the West (Dragon Quest came first I know), was probably based on the office D&D campaign, if the dozens of D&D face-lifts, erm, references, are anything to go by. Actually I don't know, is/was D&D big in Japan? I know their biggest TTRPG is Call of Cthulhu of all things.

This year celebrates the 30th anniversary of the release of one of gaming’s biggest franchises, Final Fantasy. Debuting on Japan’s Nintendo Famicom in 1987, legend has it that the game was a last ditch effort to save its fledgling developer, Square. The game wouldn’t make its way stateside until 1990 on the Nintendo Entertainment System, which is when I first got to experience it.

I remember clearly that the cartridge cost $70 and I cobbled together half of that and split the cost with a classmate, so we could share the game. And we did share it over the summer of 1990. I must admit, this setup was not the best way to play a game. After wrapping up the volcano and lighting the second orb, he took the game back and I didn’t see it again until he had wrapped it up. At which point, I just started a new game.

Wonky first experience aside, I have fond memories of the game on NES and returned to regularly over the years. I’ve played it on nearly everything it has released, except for maybe the Wonderswan. With the release of the NES Classic last year though, I thought what better time and way to celebrate its anniversary than to go back to the original as it was first played by me? You know, minus the weird trading between dungeons.

Few games are as burned into my memory like the opening of Final Fantasy is. Visiting the tiny kingdom of Coneria and learning of the kidnapped princess at the hands of Garland. Leveling up against Imps, GrImps, Wolves, and the occasional MadPony until my party was strong enough to venture north to the temple and rescue Princess Sara. Once rescued, the real adventure begins and the world opens up dramatically. Today, so many years and playthroughs later, that opening is still fully engaging for me.

Going back to it on the NES though, does bring with it some design shock. For one, combat encounters were developed on a very particular set of turn based rules. Each turn you select actions for your party to perform including the ability to attack physically or cast magic. Physical attacks and some spells require you to select a target. This is honestly pretty standard practice. But where returning to Final Fantasy on the NES brings in that design shock, is that if you select a character to perform an action and the receiving target has disappeared your character will still perform the action on the empty space, in effect wasting their move.

This can lead to some “cheap” deaths or “unfair” encounters that can strain your patience, especially when saving is relegated to inns in towns, or usable habitats on the open world. Nothing taxes me more than losing a significant chunk of progress because the game handles saving as a reward instead of a safety net.

If you can get past that one odd design quirk, that probably had more to do with the memory limitations of the NES at the time than anything else, Final Fantasy offers up a pretty great early era, open-world RPG. It doesn’t offer up an overly deep story, but what it does have is enough to string you along. It has a solid bestiary and some fantastical boss fights against massive behemoths that can leave you white knuckled and tense. Even today, the enemy designs look great, especially the more intricate bosses like Tiamat and Kracken.

It also lays the groundwork for so much of what comes in later entries to the series. Musical themes, weaponry, and little world building items from this game sprinkle every other Final Fantasy game. For me, even with its lack of story, outdated battle system, and lack of modern functionality, it might be my favorite in the series. Thirty years old and it still stands tall as one of the best.

History:

I have plenty of history with the franchise but this actually isn't the game with which to talk about it! Back then, Final Fantasy for the NES was always a bit of this mythical treasure. The thing that your friend found in the NES in the back of a shed he was cleaning out one day resulting in you secretly hating said friend forever. Then... you played it. Of course by the time you got around to playing you'd already playing Final Fantasy II & III on the SNES, and probably Chrono Trigger and Secret of Mana. You realized, to your horror, that you did not like this game... At least I sure didn't. I don't think I've ever played FF1 for more than 20 minutes at a time.

Expectations:
Actually I'm really looking forward to forcing myself through it. I feel like I owe it a real chance, and frankly I'm just happy to FINALLY (no pun intended) be playing a proper RPG for this project!

Day 1:

When I hit the power button on the NES I heard the game before I saw it, and that 8-bit rendition of the crystal theme had me smiling.

I went with the Fighter/Thief/Black Mage/White Mage party for no other reason than that's what I wanted to do. Names were based on MMO characters because that's how I roll.

I remember finding the game on the difficult side last time I played, so the first thing I did was make sure I ran straight into town and stocked up on gear and magic.

I didn't really know what to buy here, so I got the Small Sword for my Fighter, Rapier for Thief, Wooden Staff for Black Mage and Iron Hammer for White Mage. Picked up what looked like ideal armor, and finally bought Fire and Cure and headed out into the world.

I decided I'd play this game less like the ADHD twelve year old I was and more like the ADHD adult I am, and try to take in some of the story.

Mmm, yes, I see. Princess, tower, northwest. I got this, I can do this! Okay so the story I decided I'd take in isn't exactly the stuff of later entries, but I'll take it. From what I'm gathering there's these orbs I need to collect because we're the Heroes of Light, but in the meantime, there's a princess that needs saving.

Hadouken!

Again, remembering how difficult the game was before I decided to try to grind out one level before leaving the starting area. Sure enough, combat is slow and hard, and those imps are little bastards. I do finally reach Lv2 but find aside from my max HP, my stats don't really make any kind of difference.

Regardless, I set forth to the temple in the Northwest to save the princess. Things go horribly wrong and I get my ass handed to me by monsters in the temple and have to retreat back to town to lick my wounds. I'm a bit put off now, I mean I'm all for difficult RPG's but this is feeling really unfair.

...Then this happens...

Right, so, you see... When you buy a weapon or piece of armor you're asked which character you want to give that weapon or armor to. In my mind, that implied I was choosing who would be wearing it. Not so! Characters have their own personal inventory for weapons and armor, and when you give it to that character, it just sits in their inventory!

Yep, grinded out my first level and explored the game's first dungeon... naked.

Once my character were wearing clothes and wielding weapons, the difficulty went from sadistic to COMPLETELY acceptable. It was a little embarrassing, but hey. Now that I could cut through imps with ease and laugh as their attacks bounced off my armor, I decided to grind out one more level and buy some new spells.

One such spell was Harm for my White Mage, which as far as I could tell had a Hit% in the negatives... Yes, I would later learn that this was FF1's version of Turn Undead, and when used as such was very effective. Times like these I wish I had the game manual.

I also realized that I could be equipping better weapons and armor, and eventually gave both my Fighter and Thief a rapier. What I also started noticing was that, even after reaching Level 3, over half my attacks against the imps would register as "Ineffective". What's strange is that after leaving the Shire and fighting "real" enemies, this never happened.

Anyway, now that I was properly over-leveled I made my way back to the temple where the monster had now become a joke and Garland was next on my list!

Oh snap! He's gonna knock us all down!

Yes, I know I came in to this fight way overpowered, but still... Garland went down after about 2 rounds of attacks, and the princess was saved!

As a reward I received 250g from the boss, and an old Lute from the princess, and decided to end my adventure for now.

I had a LOT of fun, at least a lot more than I thought I would. Now I'm just hoping I held RESET and POWERED off correctly...

Day 2:

Despite an incredibly difficult journey from the first city, I managed to make it to Pirate Town where I almost fell asleep during the fight above. Seeing so many of my attacks listed as "Ineffective" is the number one most frustrating thing about this game for me. Anyway, I beat the pirates...

Didn't realize we were playing for pink slips, but hey, I got a boat! I explored the new town, upgrading my equipment and trying to gain a level or two. The monsters here are MUCH more difficult than previous ones, but the gold and XP payout is also much higher.

Day 3:

Grinding... Grinding...

...

Grinding.

There's a lot of grinding in this game, more than I'm happy about. I spend just about the whole night circling Pravaka (?) fighting wolves, imps, creeps, nightmare iguanas and giants, just to gain more levels, buy more gear and learn more spells. I did finally catch on that my characters aren't as smart as I initially gave them credit for, and do in fact try to attack dead monsters. Learning this made combat go buy much faster, but not fast enough to ease the mindless grinding...

I finally had enough and braved the seas to make my way to Elf Land.

Elvish goods are EXPENSIVE, so it's right back to grinding... I'm about ready to just try to get on with the story, though I fear I may be a bit under level.

I know playing the NES version is the right thing to do, but I sure do find myself staring over at my copy of Final Fantasy Origins a lot lately...

Day 4:

I'd be lying if I didn't say that this game has felt a bit off-putting lately, which is why it took me a couple days to come back to it... The grinding is really rough, and I realize I may be overdoing it a bit but that's just how I tend to play.

Tonight I set my sights on picking up the Silver Sword from Elf Land. 4000g and I only just barely broke a thousand. I started by farming mobs on the seas which eventually got me up to about 2800g. Instead of pressing forward, I decided to backtrack a bit on my balance and buy Lit2 (1500g) for my Black Mage. This set me back on gold, but also made battles go by MUCH faster.

There's an area that's only barely farm-able at my level, which was now 6, where the monsters are insanely tough but yielf hundreds of XP and thousands of gold. I was only able to last a couple fights before I risked having my whole party die but the result was well worth it!

I took my shiny new blade for a test run and noticed a marked improvement, well worth the effort. With that, I checked into an inn, held reset and pressed power.

Day 5:

Grind, grind, grind and grind some more. Even playing through the story just feels like more grinding! The difficulty curve in this game feels really steep, which makes over-leveling and getting the best available gear feel almost mandatory. In addition, combat is needlessly slow, and number ranges feel way too broad. For example, the damage on Ice1 is 10-80... As a result of all this, progressing through the game feels INCREDIBLY slow.

Heh...

I made it through the March Cave From Hell as part of the quest to awaken the Elf Prince. This was by far the worst of the game thus far.

Astos... name sounds familiar. Also, why is my armor chafing?

I rescued the prince, got a magic key and am now getting ready to visit the dwarves. I brought explosives!

Later...

Picked up the game again later in the evening intent on at least reaching the airship. My new magic key had me revisiting a lot of old locations for weapon and armor that looked nifty, but really only amounted to vendor food. Going to the Dwarf Cave opened up the entire world map to my boat, and the next town sold Lv5 magic spells!

...Now to go grind to lv12 so I can use them...

Once I hit my desired level it was off to the Terra Cave to find a Ruby!

Not quite the boss I was expecting at the end of an earth dungeon, but hey. He went down with a single Fire 3... Next stop is the volcano dungeon, but I'm not quite up to level, and the clocks running just a bit too late. So much for the airship...

Tomorrow, surely!

Day 6:

Before visiting that volcano I had to venture back into the Terra Cavern and face off against the Lich. Another all too easy boss, and with that I was off to Crescent Lake!

I'm in a boat!

I was able to afford all the equipment and spells I needed here, as well as a full 99 stack of potions. I stayed in the area until my party was up to lv 17, then headed for the fire dungeon.

Monsters here hurt bad, but the treasures were pretty amazing!

Not what I'd call graceful, but a win's a win anyway... With that it was off to the Peninsula of Power to get my party up to around lv 20, which is exactly what I did.

The Ice Cavern was a pretty cool dungeon with some really crappy monster encounters. I was actually able to get to item I needed and take out the mini-boss really easily... Then it happened.

Yeah, monsters got the preemptive strike and all three got off successful Rub's on my party... instant wipe. Jaw and controller dropped, I'd just lost about 45 minutes of progress.

I picked up and powered through the cavern again, playing it a bit safer this time, ensuring I could keep all four party members alive the whole time. The result of my efforts?

Yay! Now to go talk to dragons...

Fine, but only if I get to use you as a Summon in future Final Fantasy games...

That took me to the Castle of Ordeals, which was a surprisingly easy dungeon. Even the boss went out with a whimper!

Fire 3, Harm 3, stab and stab again. Bosses down in one rotation.

Right... okay...

Well hey, at least I'm a badass now.

With that I whooshed off to the mage town of Gaia, stocked up on new gear for my new wizards, and new spells for them to cast. I'm now saved in front of the Ice Cavern, intending to farm the boss for a few levels before moving on.

Day 7:

I said I was going to play tonight and I did... sort of... As previously mentioned, I was stationed in front of the Ice Cavern intent on farming the boss for a few levels, and that's precisely what I did...

All...

I...

Did.

For about an hour, or however long it took me to watch the last two Nintendo Directs on Youtube... I leveled up to 25 then flew around the world picking up some high level magic. Next time I play I'll actually get "game" in, maybe even finishing it...

Day 8:

I feel like I've been playing this game forever now, and it's finally nearing its end.

Release the... screw it I'm too tired at this point. Flew all over the worl to eventually gain access to the Underwater Topless Mermaid Dungeon where I killed a giant squid. After picking up Flare NUKE at a super secret magic store it was off to the desert tower turned holodeck!

Seriously, even from the very beginning Square just couldn't keep sci-fi out of my fantasy!

I was expecting a lot more out of Tiamat, but it turned out to be a pretty easy fight.

With that it was off to prepare for the final dungeon, the Chaos Temple Redux. I picked up my Xcalibur, loaded up on items and set off to finally finish this game! The temple was appropriately difficult, and did that thing where they have you fight suped up versions of bosses you've already fought, which is cool.

The problem is that the very first boss, Lich, ended the fight with a Nuke that only managed to kill one of my characters.

My White Wizard.

With no way to resurrect her and with four more bosses to go, I had no choice but to reset. Unfortunately Real Life happened and I had to take a break from giving it another go.

Later...

I sat down after the kids were put to bed and prepared to give it another shot. I farmed the Ice Cavern for a bit and got my party up to lv28 before setting off for the temple.

This time around I managed to make it to the third boss in the tower before my White Wizard ate it... Seeing as far along I was already, I decided to keep pressing on and give it a try regardless. By the time I made it to the last boss I was completely out of potions and things more or less looked like this:

Even with the Masmune in hand, I could take him out before he restored himself to full health and rolled me...

Next attempt saw me run into back to back 4x Gas Dragon packs before the first boss... Reset.

Finally, on the fourth go, I managed to easily clear all the way up to the top of the tower.

Full party, with full health... I remember adding up all the damage as I launched an all out assault on Chaos. 3x Nuke, 3x Holy, Knight and Ninja attacking for over 400... Actually, it was pretty easy!

Apparently the whole game's story revolves around some crazy 2000 year time paradox. I tried making sense of it, but... time... paradox... Anyway after a short essay, this happened!

Freedom...

Conclusion:

Final Fantasy, the game that will forever be remembered as the one that forced me to re-re-re-evaluate how I conclude my write-ups.

Where to even start... Well the beginning's a good place I guess. I went into this game not fully knowing what to expect, but still expecting to be able to handle it without too much trouble. What I got was this strange amalgamation of P&P RPG's and something that vaguely resembled games I'd be playing in the future. This game is hard, likely, brutally borderline unfair hard. Like, I don't think any other other RPG has made me scream "BULLSHIT!" at my screen more than this one.

Sit down Dark Souls...

The game demanded grinding, as in, setting aside entire play sessions just to do so, lest you be severely under-leveled for the next portion of the game. The magic system was ripped straight off the tabletop, and made me long for MP. You almost felt punished for using any magic during dungeons. Starting the Kraken fight but used all your LIT3 and LIT2 charges on the monsters leading up? Oh well! Alternatively, if you save your magic, like the game wants you to do, you end up with a party member who effectively does nothing until the boss at the end of the dungeon. This makes it so that grinding levels outside of the dungeon so that you can safely just run from every encounter within the dungeon the most efficient way to play the game.

All that said, I was sill unable to stop. Even if I spent a whole night grinding, even if I lost an hour of progress to a cheap wipe while working my way out of a dungeon, I had to keep playing.

Every time I want to say I didn't like this game, which all things considered I didn't really, I immediately put myself back in 1987. When Final Fantasy came out, there was nothing like it. Not even Dragon Warrior operated on the same level as what Final Fantasy managed to be on. When I think about what this RPG really did for the genre at the time it's impossible to hate it. In fact, all I could think about while playing this game was how badly I couldn't wait to play future entries in the series. It was also fun seeing the origins of a lot of series staples that are still running today. FF1 had the Masamune. FF1 went to space. FF1 had the Airship.

It's easy to say you had to have played it when it was new to truly appreciate it. I think this is true, but with conditions. If I had played Final Fantasy at the height of my NES craze in the very late 80's early 90's, I would have HATED this game. I would have been lost within minutes, and I would not have cared to try to continue. I'm actually glad that played this game in a time where I had the resources to help me get through it, otherwise I never would have.

Masochistic as it may sound, part of me actually wants to play again on either the PSP or GBA versions, just to see what kind of effect slightly more modern technology can have on this title.

Final Fantasy. What a concept.

Liked:

* Going back to where my favorite franchise all began was a really great experience
* Even without any real narrative, the game managed to have memorable moments, like getting the Xcalibur and Masmune, or finding the airship, or opening the canal.
* Response Rate: 8

* Topless mermaids

Disliked;

* Unforgiving difficulty, and not always for the right reason. Game demanded constant grinding that tended to detract from the...
* ...completely nonsensical story.
* Too much randomness in stats. There was no speed or initiative stat, so turn orders were always completely random. Worse still, damage ranges were all over the map! The same spell that could somtimes hit for 300, could also hit for 30.
* Lack of direction. Not as bad as other games, but without Google I'm not sure I could have helped but get stuck constantly. Wouldn't be so much of a problem if the combat wasn't as hard as it was and random encounters seemed to trigger every three steps!
* Primitive game systems made the game more difficult and/or tedious than it needed to be. Potions only heal for 30 HP, there are no better versions, and you can only buy one at a time. Buying a full stack of 99 could take 20 minutes... The P&P magic system makes sense with a pencil and notebook, but suddenly MP looks revolutionary!
* The game tended to be very nondescript with its systems. Again, without Google, I would have never known that my characters were wasting their attacks on dead monsters, or that some of my equipment could be used to cast spells

Personal Score:

Fun : 15
Relevance : 25
Replayability : 15*
Survivability : 10
Total : 65

*RPG's get an inherent 15 to replayability, since by their nature they are not meant to be particularly replayable.