CoN 25th Anniversary: 1997-2022
Review: Final Fantasy

Posted: 4th April 2009 20:03

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Member of more than ten years. Contributed to the Final Fantasy VI section of CoN. User has rated 25 fanarts in the CoN galleries. Major involvement in the Final Fantasy V section of CoN. 
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(Well, first game review I've ever written so I hope it's enjoyed. I enjoyed writing it, so that should count for something, right? haha. Lemme' know if there's anything I should tweak for future reviews and such.)

Final Fantasy Review

Final Fantasy… Wow… What to say about the game that started it all? About the game that Squaresoft then, now SquarEnix nearly threw in the towel over, only to stumble upon a gem that has spawned into making them a household name? I mean, without this game, we wouldn’t have had years of cosplay, or 8-Bit Theatre, or the age-old battle between painted crazy-clown Kefka and the effeminate-looking momma’s boy Sephiroth. Well, there’s plenty that can be said, really.
I was a late bloomer into the Final Fantasy series, personally. A child of ripe ol’ 84, you’d figure I’dve come across it all, but not so much. I caught glances and glimmers, friends showing me the wonders of the “brand new” Final Fantasy III, explaining in their vast knowledge that it was actually VI in Japan, but here in Canada it was III. But what about one and two? It wasn’t until several years later that another friend busted out that cartridge on his NES and showed me where it all began. Four characters to bring life to, as any of the playable classes you choose, and named with whatever name you could give them within the confines of four digits. A lot of fours, come to think of it…

Moving on.

I saw bits and pieces of it as he played through, though my friend is that guy or gal we all know that picks up some game, but never finishes it and moves on to something else, and may eventually come back and start all over, only to move on yet again. I think he’s beaten it now, finally, but I can’t recall. As for me, the advent of Final Fantasy Origins is where I first took my own personal steps into the realm of Final Fantasy.

This game begins with a very simple setup as I loosely described above: you can start a new game, or continue from the old save. Woo. Go classic gaming options. At any rate, a new game brings you to the beginning of your up, down, left, right, A and B adventure. You have four characters, the Heroes of Light, and six classes to choose from for this party, so wisely one must choose. Each has its unique skill set, armour class and weaponry restrictions. Also, further down the line, each class will upgrade into an advanced version, allowing the classes to branch out further with more powerful weapons and, in some cases, spells that one likely did not think could be possessed at the get go. Once you have selected and named your party, your quest has begun with you standing outside the kingdom of Corneria, equipped with nothing but the clothes you left home with and no direction whatsoever as to where to go. Rule of proximity should likely come into play, however, and the story pretty much picks up from there, but we’ll get to that later.

The gameplay was simplistic and laid the brickwork for all that was to come later in the series. The standardized menus, item usage, equipment assignment and spell allotment – all of it from here. The world map is navigated with the D-pad, getting you around from point A, to point B, all the way through to Z by mostly booking it on your feet. The occasional vehicle comes into play, but they’re steered the same as your legs, so no real learning curve. It’s the mechanics that were a little more fleshed out, if you will.
Menus are the mainstay of FF gameplay, whether you’re spending the night at the inn, buying some potions for the next trip, keeping up to date with experience gain or whackin’ away at enemies in a random encounter, you’ll always have your menus and the little white pointer to guide you. The main menu screen offers you a look at each character’s stats as they grow with each level from experience earned through battle. There’s also an item section, which, quite obviously, allows you to peruse, use, and organize said junk. Equip lets you, well, equip your characters (also note that simply purchasing a weapon in a shop does not automatically equip in such an early game. Don’t make the same dopey mistakes I once did, kids!) Spells, again, similar to items; you can check in on what spell slots you have left, as you’re limited to four spells per level, how many times a spell can be used, and use said spells between battles if necessary.
And hey, just when you thought there wouldn’t be more, well, there’s the aforementioned random encounter, another mainstay of things to come. As you wander about the world map, every so often the scene shifts wildly and you find yourself in a turn-based two-sided battle of “us” versus “them”. A litany of snarling beasts design by the ever awesome Amano lay before you and at your disposal are these tools: Fight, Magic, Drink, Item and Run. Each one pretty well speaks for itself, with possible exception to drink, but you get the idea. During battles, Fight’s the usual mainstay, allowing you to bash away at the opponents, well, unabashedly, with whatever equipment you have on your bad self. However, some boss fights tend to get a little more dramatic and drawn out, and certain elements of strategy come into play as you mingle in the occasional potion, Cure and Fire 2. Once you’ve gone through your turn of thwacking your opponents, they return the favour and you the gamer play the epicness out in your mind. On that note, these battles are to be gotten used to, because from here on in, that’s how FF plays through the series. With victory comes silly dancing and that tune we’ve all grown to know and love, and exp. and gold, leading you to level up and buy more stuff.
All in all, the gameplay is a pretty straightforward system to comprehend. What can you say? They got it right and grew from there, adding and expanding with differing mechanics and whatnot. Still, back in those days, White Mage and Black Mage knew only casting Fire or Cure four times a day, none of this magic point or materia or draw out business.

Final Fantasy had a straightforward story, as I suggested earlier, starting our Heroes of Light in a world slipping into chaos, at the gates of Corneria. Upon entering and ending up before the king, you quickly learn of the ill fate that has befallen the land, a knight named Garland turned bad who has scampered off with Princess Sara. Curses! The quest acts as the game’s intro, being a straightforward run to Garland’s base of operation and gets players familiar with the game’s mechanics, levelling, spells, equipment and items. And thankfully, this early on, it’s not too late to start over with a new party if the current band of four isn’t quite finding your lost remote. Or, floating your boat, perhaps? Whichever you prefer.
Upon the fated return of our darling Princess Sara, you are congratulated, the rest of the world is opened to you and the adventure begins with a prologue and then you move along. You go to a port, get a ship, travel the world pursuing the four elemental crystals and defeating their appropriate Fiends, grow-up, meet some elves and dwarves and a Titan who eats rubies and all that fun stuff until eventually you face off against Chaos himself; it’s your pretty a-typical tale. True, the characters weren’t well developed nor the story terribly complex, but it was still interesting enough to keep players wanting to follow along and learn more of this strange new world and the people inhabiting it.

The graphics were simple, as one could expect from an NES game, but it still looked great. Vibrant and interesting, though the real work was put into the battle art. The sprite artists did a great job at interpreting and transposing Yoshitaka Amano’s original artwork into the game’s 8-bit limitations. Still, nothing to write home about, I don’t think, but it still brought the world to life and wasn’t bad to look at at all.

Another artist that was a part of this wonderful game was Nobuo Uematsu, bringing the world of Final Fantasy further to life with a great soundtrack. Prelude was birthed for this game, becoming yet another staple of this brilliant series for years to come. The piece instilled a certain emotion into the player, helping you through the door into a place of grand adventure. The battle theme was engaging and moving, bringing action to a playing that actually lacked in any sort of movement. As the Heroes of Light travelled across the countryside, the overworld theme kept time and kept players motivated on their journey and definitely captured the thrill of exploration, adventure and the epicness of their quest. That’s just to name a few, for that matter. Many more brilliant pieces of music came from the first of the series, but another review entirely would need to be written to fully explore the subtleties of it all.
As for the game’s sound, it was, again, well put together for a simple. The battles ring with the midi clash of swords, crackle of thunder, and purifying ring of curing which gave them more than ample life to further engage the player’s mind.

Overall, Final Fantasy brought something spectacular to the table and certainly made a name for Square in the gaming industry. It was the first of what has become a brilliant series and, really, there was no better place to start. It gave players a great mix of everything a good RPG needed: a fun and well-developed gameplay system, interesting classes to explore, weapons and magic and monsters galore, beautiful music and a vast world full of intrigue and adventure, tied together with the fate of the world hanging in the balance. Gamers, like myself, have come to love this game and the consequent ones that followed it. If for some reason you haven’t played Final Fantasy and saw how it was all begun, then get on it, if only to say you did, but preferably to say it was great.

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Games on the Go
Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy: Four Warriors of Light
Baldur's Gate

Too much to play, so little time!

Greg
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