Although Squaresoft would eventual go on to become one of the biggest Japanese developers/publishers around their start was a rather humble one. They developed a lot of small arcade style games for the NES platform, but unfortunately they weren’t doing so well. The company was very close to closing when one of the designers, Hironobu Sakaguchi, set to work on a game that was essentially planned to be their swan song. It was named Final Fantasy, and was an attempt to cash in on the booming RPG market. It was a huge success and Squaresoft was back in the game. In a rather ironic twist the developer went on to make no less than fourteen (as of now) installments in the franchise. When I got the game I fell in love with it immediately, and this game was a major reason that I became such a huge fan of the genre. Let’s forget the franchise’s modern downward spiral for a moment and instead take a look at the game that started the original phenomenon because it’s a doozy.
The story takes place in your typical medieval fantasy world full of mythical beasts, dragons, and magic. The land is in peril, and an old prophecy tells of the ‘light warriors’ who will restore light to magical orbs and save everyone. That’s where you come in. You start out the adventure by selecting and naming four different characters (whom you can all name) to use throughout the adventure, and you’ll be stuck with them to the very end. You’re given the option of selecting from six different character classes for each one, and these include the fighter, thief, black belt, black mage, white mage, and red mage. They each differ in stats, growth, usable equipment, and the ability to learn different types of magic. You can have any party alignment that you want; you can have a well rounded group with two physical fighters and two mages, or even four fighters only if you’re looking for a real challenge. This aspect of the game is what has always captivated me; two people can have radically different experience because the classes differ wildly. At a specific point in the story each class is upgraded to a more powerful version of their former selves. Fighters become knights, thieves become ninjas, mages become wizards, etc. This allows them to use new equipment and learn new spells which makes them significantly more formidable.
Final Fantasy is the very definition of a traditional RPG. You travel across a vast world map eventually gaining the use of a ship and airship to reach new areas, fight your way through deep and dark dungeons, and visit towns to progress the story as well as purchase new equipment and items. Battles occur at random when outside of towns and these are strictly turn based affairs that take place on a separate screen. The life of each of your characters is measured by their hit points, and damage is calculated numerically. You input commands such as fight (the standard attack using the equipped weapon), magic (to cast any learned spells), drink (this consumes restorative items to recover your hit points), item (for other miscellaneous tools) and run (which is pretty self explanatory). The battle ends when your party is wiped out or when the enemies have all been defeated. The action stands still as you input commands which makes battles very slow paced, but it’s never overbearing. The battle system is functional, but it suffers a few flaws.
The first major problem I have is the fact, because you select commands for all four characters one after the other, if one of them is targeting an enemy that has already been defeated by another the command isn’t automatically re-directed. This means their attack/spell is wasted. This is unfortunate because you’ll be fighting hundreds of battles throughout the course of the adventure, and you can’t simply alleviate this by pressing the A button repeatedly. Every command must be planned out, and that’s fine at first but it quickly becomes far too repetitive. In addition enemies tend to inflict status ailments on your party members too frequently. This tends to happen deep within each of the dungeons, but when one of your characters is poisoned and loses hit points with every step you take this can be annoying. In addition the item that heals this is the pure potion, and you have an extremely limited inventory and when you run out it can be frustrating beyond belief. A lesser issue is the fact that within dungeons your party tends to encounter enemies with every other step they take. I can handle this in most games, but with status ailments and tough enemies the dungeons will really test your patience in no time at all.
Aside from these issues the game is quite enjoyable. The story is very basic, but the world in which it takes place is a place of wonder, mystery, and it’s downright enchanting. Lifting ancient airships from the sand, and exploring underwater ruins makes for some of the most memorable moments the genre has ever seen. The battle system, despite its shortcomings, makes for some very strategic boss battles, and simply planning ahead and gathering supplies is a significant aspect of the game, and it feels truly rewarding here. The dungeons are carefully designed, and in my opinion are better than in any other 8-bit RPG. The ability to choose your party at the beginning of the game makes this one incredibly replayable. The dungeons themselves are better designed than most RPGs from this era. You’re often rewarded for exploration (with new items/equipment) and they aren’t overly confusing or badly drawn. Keep in mind that some level grinding is required in this game, but in this regard it’s on par with other retro RPGs and it’s perfectly manageable.
The graphics are acceptable by NES standards, but they aren’t anything special. The world map tends to lack detail, but there’s a variety of different terrain tiles so it’s acceptable in the end. Depending on whom the lead is in your party the sprite will change outside of battle which is a nice effect for such an old title even if the others are not displayed. Battle screens are very simple looking with black ground and limited background detail. The enemy designs are a step above those in Dragon Warrior, and despite lacking any kind of animation look really nice. The boss characters in particular tend to take up significant real estate, and I’ve always been a fan of the art style used for them. Despite the hardware limitations Final Fantasy still looks decent even today.
Final Fantasy has one of my least favorite soundtracks across the entire series, but because it’s the first title this isn’t a big deal. The world map theme is one of my favorites and conveys a huge sense of adventure. It fits the game extremely well. The battle theme is a little underwhelming to be honest. It isn’t as memorable as that of the first Dragon Quest game, but it’s a step above Phantasy Star in this regard. It’s just kind of muted, and too slow paced for my liking. What I found most disappointing about this soundtrack is the fact that there’s no separate music for the boss fights. The absolute best song is Matoya’s theme, and it’s probably the only one I would actually listen to outside of actually playing the game. The soundtrack is okay as are the sound effects.
Final Fantasy is a good game, but it’s mostly worth playing for historical value. This title has been remade hundreds of times, but I still prefer the original version because each remake takes something away that made it so special. It’s difficult and can be frustrating, but I was able to complete the game without a guide even when I was a child so modern gamers should be able to as well. This is a title that every hardcore gamer should have, but go for the original NES version.
