C. K. Chesterton
Year: 1987
Publisher: Square (now Square Enix)
Since Square Enix re-released Final Fantasy I on the Nintendo DS, I believe this game deserves a proper review of its own. Final Fantasy for the NES was a game many people did not expect to gain such popularity.
The story follows four youths called the Light Warriors, who each carry one of their world's four elemental orbs which have been darkened by the four Elemental Fiends. Together, they quest to defeat these evil forces, restore light to the orbs, and save their world.
The game received generally positive reviews, and it is regarded as one of the most influential and successful role-playing games on the Nintendo Entertainment System. Praise focused on the game's graphics, while criticism targeted the time spent wandering in search of random battle encounters to raise the player's experience level. All versions of Final Fantasy sold a combined total of two million copies worldwide by March 2003.
Final Fantasy has four basic game modes of exploration: an over-world map, town and dungeon maps, a battle screen, and a menu screen. The over-world map is a scaled-down version of the game's fictional world, which the player uses to direct characters to various locations. The primary means of travel across the over-world is by foot, canoe, ship, and an airship. Enemies are randomly encountered on field maps and on the over-world map when traveling in any form, with the exception of bosses a player must defeat. The player begins the game by choosing four characters to form a party, which lasts for the duration of the game. There are a total of six characters to choose from. The characters include a knight, thief, white mage (a spell caster of white magic that supports the team), a black mage (a spell caster of black magic that attacks the enemy), red mage (spell caster of both black and white magic), and a monk.
Once a player picks his or her team, the player must travel across the land, searching far and wide, for the truth of the orbs each character has.
Looks good for a NES game. It was soon ported to the Game Boy Advance in a game called Final Fantasy I and II. This had both the original and the sequel. In my option, this port is the best one.
My perspective: I never actually played the actual NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) version fully. I only finished the GBA (Gameboy Advance) version, but they are the same game with only a few changes within the game. I got this game since I found at at a store for fifth teen dollars and back around 2005, it felt like a steal. I boot up my system and then I heard the song in which all Final Fantasy play when someone starts the game, the interlude. The music already got me hooked and I got into the game, picked the default characters, gave them names (based on family members), and started off my adventures into the unknown.
Nostalgic: This game is not easy. This game requires a person to "grind", a term in which a person keeps fighting enemies in a location for experience. If a person can accept this alone, with exploration, and patience, then this game is fun. This is the only RPG I will gladly replay because it is short and straight to the point. Role Playing Games these days are the longest games a person can play based on that category.
I would recommend this game to anyone if they want a short, simple RPG that anyone can get into. If you are a RPG fan, best to look where the Role Playing Action started.
Whoa, this looks ancient! I find it absolutely amazing how much video games have changed over a couple of decades. I mean, the cover art alone looks so different these days. FFI seems like an enjoyable game, despite its lack of super special awesome 3D graphics. My friend once told me that she played this entire game and found it surprisingly entertaining, right to the very end. I suppose my little obsession with graphics comes from my lack of gaming experience with the original products and my appreciation for detail. Speaking of detail, this review overall lacks none of that. Nice!
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