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That's right, it's been 25 years since the original Final Fantasy hit the NES courtesy of SquareSoft. Since then there have been ups and downs and throughout this summer, I'm gonna show them all to you. The series was originally created by Hironobu Sakaguchi to try to save the company from bankruptcy. When asked what type of game he would like to make, he said: "I don't think I have what it takes to make a good action game. I think I'm better at telling a story". Together with Nobuo Uematsu, Yoshitaka Amano and Hiroyuki Ito, they created one of the most important games of all time. Has it stood the test of time? Let's see:
The Story:
The story is very simple and...well, actually, it's both incredibly simple and complicated at the same time. It revolves around the 4 Light Warriors who were chosen by...eh...someone...to defeat the 4 fiends in the 4 shrines to return the light to these 4 magical orbs and restore the balance of the world.
Seems simple, right? Well, turns out someone sent these 4 fiends from 2000 years ago to the present time and after that the fiends sent that person back in time 2000 years ago. By doing this, a time loop is created and this person will live forever. I will not say who that person is because it's the plot twist of the game and I don't want to spoil it. Yeah, the story is pretty stupid, but for the time, it was groundbreaking. Even though the story doesn't hold up, I personally loved it. It's stupid, but it's the funny kind of stupid in my opinion.
5/10
The Gameplay:
Alright. First, the good stuff. This game has an impressively huge open world to explore, especially for the time. Even though there's not much to do besides the main quest, it is remarkable how huge this game was for its time. At the beginning, you get to choose which class each of the Light Warriors have. There's a Fighter (Your physical powerhouse), a Black Mage (Who uses offensive magic), a White Mage (Who uses defensive magic) and a Red Mage (Who can do everything, though not as good as characters with just one specialty) among others. I personally recommend the party I just mentioned since it allows for a lot of solutions when you're in trouble. The combat is classic turn based fare. There are 5 commands: Fight (Your physical attack), Magic, Drink(For using healing items), Item (For using weapons that have special abilities when used with this command) and Run. Aside from that, it's your typical JRPG stuff: Equipping Weapons and Armor you buy at shops, resting at inns, Exploring dungeons with a boss fight at the end, classic stuff. One thing modern gamers might find weird is that you don't learn magic. You buy it. Now, don't ask me how exactly you buy something like a spell that has no physical form at a store; you just do. Speaking of magic, there's no MP in this game. Instead, there are magic charges. There are 8 levels of magic spells and each mage can learn a maximum of 3 spells of each level, which means you have to choose carefully what spells to buy. Each spell level has a certain number of charges, which indicate how many spells of that level you can cast. When you run out of charges, you can restore them by resting at an inn or by using Houses (One of the resting items you can use in the world map).
Now for the bad stuff. The game's most glaring flaw is that when 2 or more characters target one monster and one of them kills it before the others have a chance to attack, they just attack the air instead of attacking one of the other monsters automatically. This will lead to a lot of wasted actions and spell charges. True, this was the first time you were controling more than one character in a JRPG, but come on, how did no one think this was unfair during playtesting? Also, like I mentioned before, there's not much to do besides the main quest, which makes this huge world feel empty. There's one optional dungeon that rewards you by making your characters stronger, but that's about it. Of course, you might say that was probably because this game had a low budget because of Square's situation at the time, but that doesn't change the fact that it is a problem.
7/10
The Music:
Even though this is not Uematsu's first soundtrack, it was definitely the one that put him on the map. The soundtrack has a lot of catchy tunes, including, of course, the prelude, the victory fanfare and obviously the intro theme that evolved into the series main theme we all love so much. It's not perfect, though; some tracks are kinda repetitive and get old fast when you're in a big dungeon. I adore the battle theme though. Even in the first game, Uematsu was already showing how awesome he is. It should also be noted that it is a quite extensive soundtrack for the NES, boasting about 20 tracks.
8/10
The Graphics:
The graphics, while not pushing the NES limits, are pretty darn good for their time. The battle animations were groundbreaking and the environments are colorful and charming in their simplicity.
Monster design is also cool and creative. Yoshitaka Amano is a great artist.
8/10
Overall, I love this game. Does it hold up? No. Is it fun and challenging? Yes. The game has a classic charm to it, which impedes me from disliking it. However, modern gamers should try out the remakes on the PSP, GBA or PS1, which fixed the flaws and added new features.
Final Grade: 7/10
Join me next time when I tackle the controversial Final Fantasy II. See ya.
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