Final Fantasy (1987)

I completely missed all of the NES Final Fantasies during my childhood. Sometime around 2009 I decided to play through all 3 NES titles in order, even though I had already gotten pretty far in FF3. Armed with a few reviews, a class guide to help pick my team, the 8 bit theater videos and the nuklear powered comic series I dived in, playing the original NES version on emulator on my PSP.

I went with the standard fighter, thief, white mage, black mage team. Thief was not a good choice though since his damage was always significant lower than the fighter such that if the fighter could one shot an enemy the thief would require 2 shots. I do respect his ability to flee from battle, though I rarely used it because of save states. The mages only meleed for terrible and fairly pointless damage in most battles. But the game was full of cheap enemies that were massively more dangerous than other contemporary enemies, and the game predetermined random encounters, success rates and who would be targeted. So if a battle sees one character get one shotted, save states will not help. In these cases I had to learn which enemies were high priority targets and use the mages to burn them down ASAP. Many of the annoying enemies were undead so the white mage could wreck them. The black mage could one shot an entire enemy group with the right spell. I saved most magic for bosses and they went down easily.

I did a moderate amount of grinding to make sure I could afford new gear. One of the first dungeons was particularly gruelling and took several trips to fully explore. It was here that I learned to always have a healthy stock of potions. I remember having to look at a walkthrough to find the buried airship because the directions were so vague. Not sure if I got stuck at any other part but I have very little patience for being stuck and will check walkthroughs at the drop of a hat.

Good game for its time and still holds up in the modern era, but it has too many design flaws to be a great game. Its very much shows its hardcore pen and paper D&D simulator roots with the unforgiving difficulty and unnecessary tedium. I am not inclined to play it again but if I ever do the thief is getting the boot in favor of another fighter or the monk.

By no means a great game, but it deserves props for starting the genre. Lots of busy work in the quests, and the rest is ho hum (plus a weird, anachronistic time travel bit at the end), but when we recognize the foundation it created for later games, it's hard not to give the origin title a favorable nod.\

My rating is primarily about that nod, although the game has its own merits as well.

So I beat Final Fantasy 1 Anniversary Edition.

Dated. But that's kinda to be expected. :V

I can't imagine anyone getting through it without a guidebook or something. Some of the item interactions that are necessary to proceed aren't really hinted or anything. There is one instance where you have to backtrack back to the first castle and open up a treasure room with a mystic key. If you dont, you cant advance because you need a specific item in the treasure room. No where is this mentioned, so unless you have a lot of time to wander around aimlessly until you figure out what you are suppose to do next, you won't be getting very far. I wonder if I am spoiled after having played more linear games, but I think this is a little unwarranted. Kinda like an artificial difficulty (I know people like to throw that around a lot) but making progress routes obscure and hidden sounds like a cheap way to lengthen game time.

So Final Fantasy 1 is beat. I'm not going through the fire/water/wind/earth shrines. I've had enough.

Also temper stacks, which is kinda cheap. My monk was doing ~3k dmg in 1 hit on the bosses. I think I was overlevelled but it doesn't help that the rate of enemy encounters was something like every five steps and the dungeons were unforgivingly tricky with tons of dead ends and loops. Was playing on Fast Forward mode so the time listed on the save file is a little innacurate.

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.