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Final Fantasy has also been re-released on the Wonderswan Color; however, this review will be confined to the NES version, as I haven't played the WSC version, and can't comment on it.
FF's battle system was very innovative. It is somewhat turn-based; each party member in turn selects to either fight, cast a spell, drink a potion, use an equipped item, or run away. Then, a turn order is randomly determined, and that round plays out.
The one annoying part is the infamous "ineffective" feature. If you attack an enemy that had already been killed by another party member, your attack affects the empty space where the monster was, instead of shifting to another. Although many denounce this as a horrible idea, I believe it introduces an element of strategy in battle, and forces you to pay attention to what is going on. You cannot simply get into a battle, hold down A, then sit back and wait until you've won. You need to pay attention to the approximate HP level of your enemies, and plan out your attack. Due to programming errors or oversights, however, a few of the spells have no effect, and one, LOK2, has the opposite effect from what is intended. Elemental weapons and armor also have no effect.
There are a couple of minor annoyances with the gameplay. First and foremost is the fact that you can only buy one of an item at a time, yet you can carry up to 99. This means that every time you want to buy 99 heal potions (which is rather often), you need to sit there and press A 297 times. This is a rather good time for finding a good book to start, or going to the bathroom is you're lucky enough to have a turbo controller. The other complaint is very minor, but the textboxes scroll up and down very slowly. This slows down the game if you talk to everyone. Other than what was previously mentioned, FF's gameplay is excellent. Magic is divided into 8 levels, and each level has its own number of magic points, from 0-9, which increase on level up. Also, random battles seem well-spaced out, unlike certain other games *coughPhantasyStar4cough*.
The method of choosing your party at the beginning of the game was an original one, and never occurred again, to the best of my knowledge. This aspect of the game is what gives FF its varying difficulty level. There are 6 classes to choose from: Fighter, your standard guy-who-carries-a-sword-and-lots-of-armor; Black Belt, a martial arts master who fights with his bare fists; Thief, who is useless for the most part, but can run really well; Red Mage, a watered down Fighter who can use both white and black magic; White Mage, a master of the healing magic; and Black Mage, a master of attack magic. In order to make the game harder, some people came up with the idea of killing off some of your party members at the very beginning of the game, never reviving them, then finishing the game with only the remaining characters (called a "solo game" if you do it with only one character.)
Later in the game, you can class change. All your characters change into another class, as follows. Fighter becomes a Knight, allowing him to equip stronger weapons and armor, and use basic healing magic; Black Belt becomes a Master, which does nothing except make him look cooler; Thief become a Ninja; allowing him to use a much wider range of weapons, and use basic black magic; Red Mage becomes a Red Wizard, allowing him to use higher-level magic; and White and Black Mage become White and Black Wizards, respectively, opening up level 8 magic for use. This is completely optional; in fact, some people skip this to increase the difficulty.
FF's music was composed by Nobuo Uematsu, commonly known as "The god of game music," or "The guy who does the music for Final Fantasy games." If you can manage to ignore the horrible quality of the music and appreciate that he only had 4 channels to work with, you'll find some incredible melodies and songs, such as "Matoya's Cave," "Gurgu Volcano," and the infamous Prelude and Prologue, which have been remixed and redone as many times as there are FFs. The only complaint I have in this department has nothing to do with the music itself, but rather how it is handled by the game. I'm not sure whether this is a limitation of the system, but whenever a textbox comes up, you get an item from a treasure chest, or go up or down stairs, the music starts over from the beginning. This can get admittedly quite annoying, as you often never get to hear the middle of a tune; just the start of it over and over.
The graphics on this game are quite dated, though they are pretty good compared to other games of the late 80s. The enemy sprites are very detailed, as are the character sprites and most of the tilesets. Of course, they can't hold a candle to today's graphics, or even those of 10 years ago, but there are well done considering the limitations of the system. I have seen screenshots from the WSC remake of FF, however, and the graphics from this are on par with FF6.
FF's plot, contrary to popular belief, is not non-existent. There is a rather substantial, and complex plot. Much of it is not spoon-fed to you, as in newer RPGs, but rather requires you to talk to people to discover what's going on. If you play through with a walkthrough that tells you exaclty where to go and what to do, you won't get the plot. It is much better to forgo the guides, talk to all the townspeople, and figure out for your self what it is you need to do next. If you haven't done this, the ending won't make much sense. This brings us to the translation aspect. It was relatively well done, to the point where you can understand what is going on without having to re-read text, look up words in the dictionary, and then consult a grammar book to figure out what people are trying to tell you.
Finally, we come to the crowning glory of FF, its replay value. I won't bother you with the math, but there are a total of 209 parties, or 418 if you decide not to class change. Each party completely changes the way the game is played. For example, playing through with the default party of Fighter, Black Belt, Thief, Red Mage gives a completely different experience than playing with 4 White Mages, which is completely different than playing with 4 Black Mages, which again will require a totally different strategy than a solo Fighter. It is possible to play this game well over 30 times without ever getting bored, simply because every party has a different difficulty level, and requires a different play style. Those who have played the game enough times might want to try what is considered by some the most challenging party - a solo Thief without class changing.
Although on first glance FF appears to show its age, if you pick it up and start playing you will soon be able to overlook its minor drawbacks, and see it for what it is - a superb RPG that still holds its own against the RPGs of today.
| Game Stats | |
|---|---|
| Genre | RPG |
| Platform | Nintendo |
| Format | Cartridge |
| # of Players | 1 |
| Released Jap | 12.18.1987 |
| Released US | 07.12.1990 |
| Released EU | N/A |
| Aprox. Length | 10-25 hrs. |
| Reviewer Rankings | |
| Battle System | 8.0 |
| Gameplay | 9.0 |
| Music | 7.0 |
| Originality | 11.0 |
| Plot | 6.0 |
| Replay Value | 11.0 |
| Sound | 7.0 |
| Visuals | 4.0 |
| Difficulty | User Selected |
| Overall | |
| 7.9 | |
Final Fantasy
By: SquaresoftReviewed By: CecilPL
Final Fantasy was Squaresoft's first venture into the world of RPGs, which at the time of its release, was limited to Enix's hit, Dragon Warrior. Final Fantasy (hereafter referred to as FF) was in all respects a gigantic leap over Dragon Warrior, vastly improving the menu system, and introducing the you-on-the-right, them-on-the-left battle system that became a cornerstone of all the subsequent FFs.Final Fantasy has also been re-released on the Wonderswan Color; however, this review will be confined to the NES version, as I haven't played the WSC version, and can't comment on it.
FF's battle system was very innovative. It is somewhat turn-based; each party member in turn selects to either fight, cast a spell, drink a potion, use an equipped item, or run away. Then, a turn order is randomly determined, and that round plays out.
The one annoying part is the infamous "ineffective" feature. If you attack an enemy that had already been killed by another party member, your attack affects the empty space where the monster was, instead of shifting to another. Although many denounce this as a horrible idea, I believe it introduces an element of strategy in battle, and forces you to pay attention to what is going on. You cannot simply get into a battle, hold down A, then sit back and wait until you've won. You need to pay attention to the approximate HP level of your enemies, and plan out your attack. Due to programming errors or oversights, however, a few of the spells have no effect, and one, LOK2, has the opposite effect from what is intended. Elemental weapons and armor also have no effect.
There are a couple of minor annoyances with the gameplay. First and foremost is the fact that you can only buy one of an item at a time, yet you can carry up to 99. This means that every time you want to buy 99 heal potions (which is rather often), you need to sit there and press A 297 times. This is a rather good time for finding a good book to start, or going to the bathroom is you're lucky enough to have a turbo controller. The other complaint is very minor, but the textboxes scroll up and down very slowly. This slows down the game if you talk to everyone. Other than what was previously mentioned, FF's gameplay is excellent. Magic is divided into 8 levels, and each level has its own number of magic points, from 0-9, which increase on level up. Also, random battles seem well-spaced out, unlike certain other games *coughPhantasyStar4cough*.
The method of choosing your party at the beginning of the game was an original one, and never occurred again, to the best of my knowledge. This aspect of the game is what gives FF its varying difficulty level. There are 6 classes to choose from: Fighter, your standard guy-who-carries-a-sword-and-lots-of-armor; Black Belt, a martial arts master who fights with his bare fists; Thief, who is useless for the most part, but can run really well; Red Mage, a watered down Fighter who can use both white and black magic; White Mage, a master of the healing magic; and Black Mage, a master of attack magic. In order to make the game harder, some people came up with the idea of killing off some of your party members at the very beginning of the game, never reviving them, then finishing the game with only the remaining characters (called a "solo game" if you do it with only one character.)
Later in the game, you can class change. All your characters change into another class, as follows. Fighter becomes a Knight, allowing him to equip stronger weapons and armor, and use basic healing magic; Black Belt becomes a Master, which does nothing except make him look cooler; Thief become a Ninja; allowing him to use a much wider range of weapons, and use basic black magic; Red Mage becomes a Red Wizard, allowing him to use higher-level magic; and White and Black Mage become White and Black Wizards, respectively, opening up level 8 magic for use. This is completely optional; in fact, some people skip this to increase the difficulty.
FF's music was composed by Nobuo Uematsu, commonly known as "The god of game music," or "The guy who does the music for Final Fantasy games." If you can manage to ignore the horrible quality of the music and appreciate that he only had 4 channels to work with, you'll find some incredible melodies and songs, such as "Matoya's Cave," "Gurgu Volcano," and the infamous Prelude and Prologue, which have been remixed and redone as many times as there are FFs. The only complaint I have in this department has nothing to do with the music itself, but rather how it is handled by the game. I'm not sure whether this is a limitation of the system, but whenever a textbox comes up, you get an item from a treasure chest, or go up or down stairs, the music starts over from the beginning. This can get admittedly quite annoying, as you often never get to hear the middle of a tune; just the start of it over and over.
The graphics on this game are quite dated, though they are pretty good compared to other games of the late 80s. The enemy sprites are very detailed, as are the character sprites and most of the tilesets. Of course, they can't hold a candle to today's graphics, or even those of 10 years ago, but there are well done considering the limitations of the system. I have seen screenshots from the WSC remake of FF, however, and the graphics from this are on par with FF6.
FF's plot, contrary to popular belief, is not non-existent. There is a rather substantial, and complex plot. Much of it is not spoon-fed to you, as in newer RPGs, but rather requires you to talk to people to discover what's going on. If you play through with a walkthrough that tells you exaclty where to go and what to do, you won't get the plot. It is much better to forgo the guides, talk to all the townspeople, and figure out for your self what it is you need to do next. If you haven't done this, the ending won't make much sense. This brings us to the translation aspect. It was relatively well done, to the point where you can understand what is going on without having to re-read text, look up words in the dictionary, and then consult a grammar book to figure out what people are trying to tell you.
Finally, we come to the crowning glory of FF, its replay value. I won't bother you with the math, but there are a total of 209 parties, or 418 if you decide not to class change. Each party completely changes the way the game is played. For example, playing through with the default party of Fighter, Black Belt, Thief, Red Mage gives a completely different experience than playing with 4 White Mages, which is completely different than playing with 4 Black Mages, which again will require a totally different strategy than a solo Fighter. It is possible to play this game well over 30 times without ever getting bored, simply because every party has a different difficulty level, and requires a different play style. Those who have played the game enough times might want to try what is considered by some the most challenging party - a solo Thief without class changing.
Although on first glance FF appears to show its age, if you pick it up and start playing you will soon be able to overlook its minor drawbacks, and see it for what it is - a superb RPG that still holds its own against the RPGs of today.
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