Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy is a video game that consists of 11 releases
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Only when Chaos was defeated in the Past and the four fiends were defeated in the present was the world natural balance finally resorted. Final Fantasy was a very deep game with an Epic story for its time. Also it was originally considered exceedingly difficult. Saves only came at resting in a Town’s Inn or using an expensive item known as a House. Spells in the late game cost more than half a million gil , and had a limited number of charges that could only be replenished by resting. Monster encounters could go from simplistic to overpowering at a moment’s notice.
Using the same enhanced graphical look of the PSOne release, the Gameboy Advance release of Final Fantasy I in Dawn of Souls was most notable for drastically reducing the difficulty. The version also included bonus dungeons for each game, though the complex battle transitions and music quality were reduced due to the technical limitations of the system. All changes to the battle system of the PSOne release carry over, however the magic system (previously levels of magic "slots" with limited number of uses) was changed to use Magic Points instead. Speculative reasons for the changes include Nintendo's fear that an overly difficult RPG would turn the younger playerbase, arguably a larger portion of the audience than on the PSOne.
The PSP re-release featured the same difficulty reduction and added bonus dungeons of the Gameboy Advance re-release, but featured an even bigger graphical overhaul, with various post-processing effects added such as cloud overcast and hi-res sprites (including spells). However, unlike Origins and Dawn of Souls, these versions were not sold together and retailed individually at release for 30$ each. Together, these two releases doubled the price of the initial release of both Final Fantasy Origins and Dawn of Souls ($29.99). The price, in addition to the numerous other re-releases of the games on other platforms, resulted in the game receiving much criticism from the gaming press.
Final Fantasy was the first entry in the now widely recognized Final Fantasy franchise, originally developed on the NES by Square (now Square-Enix).
Gameplay
In 1987 a small and struggling company called Square put all their remaining resources entirely into the hands of the Director of Planning and Development named Hironobu Sakaguchi . They earnest hoped that whatever game he made would be a hit. As Hironobu was convinced this would be his final game ever, he called it Final Fantasy. Final Fantasy is a single player role-playing game ( RPG ) which lets the player control four characters called the "Light Warriors." They begin by rescuing a princess from the Notorious Knight Garland . Soon after they are given the world spanning task of collecting four Orbs of Light and defeating four fiends. The fiends went by the names of Lich, Kary, Kraken, and Tiamat. They had taken the Orbs from the rightful place they belonged and spread corruption over all the lands, skies, and seas. After many battles the Light warriors had collected items, gold and experience. When all the fiends were defeated it is revealed that they took Garland’s corpse and sent back in time. He had now become a mass of living evil known as Chaos. Confusingly Chaos sent the four fiends into the future where they currently plagued the world.Only when Chaos was defeated in the Past and the four fiends were defeated in the present was the world natural balance finally resorted. Final Fantasy was a very deep game with an Epic story for its time. Also it was originally considered exceedingly difficult. Saves only came at resting in a Town’s Inn or using an expensive item known as a House. Spells in the late game cost more than half a million gil , and had a limited number of charges that could only be replenished by resting. Monster encounters could go from simplistic to overpowering at a moment’s notice.
Battle System
Attacks were played out in turn based combat. All Characters and monsters all were told what to do before the round began , be it cast a spell, use an item, or commit a basic attack, and than it all actions were played out from the fastest person on the battlefield to the slowest. In the original attacks could be useless. For example, if a Fighter and a Thief were both instructed to attack a goblin they would both do so. If the Thief killed him, it wouldn’t stop the fighter from doing exactly as he was told by swinging his sword at the space the goblin once stood instead of at the other enemies present. This was later fixed in the re-releases for the PSOne, Gameboy Advance, and PSP versions.Innovation
The Player chose his party of four with some combination of Black Mage , White Mage, Red Mage, Thief, Fighter, and Black Belt characters. These classes could be upgraded by the Dragon King to White Wizard, Black Wizard, Red Wizard, Ninja, Knight, and Master. This kind of upgrade that allowed players to use items and spells otherwise forbidden to them had never been done. Final fantasy placed two windows on the screen. On the left was the Party. On the right all the monsters. In this way (coupled with a brief animation of a Fighter swinging his sword or a Mage pointing out his hands making the screen flash) combat was totally revolutionized. Players traveled the world in vehicles like Boats, Airships, and Canoes. In combat up to 9 monsters of various types could battle the party. This was a tremendous at the time. Unless they soared through the skies in an Airship or strolled in a safe area like a town, random encounters were always possible. In these Encounters a band of monsters could emerge and strike the party. Mages had a limited amount of spells they could learn. This forced players to pick and choose what they would use in combat, and what they would leave behind. Final Fantasy had almost 20 musical tracks. Again, this was an absurdly high amount for its day. Some of which, like the tune played after Victorious battle and the Opening theme, remained in one form or another in Final Fantasy games for decades to come.Trivia
Churches in the Japanese version were shaped like a Crucifix. In the English version it was replaced with a Heart. Over 68 Million copies of this game have been sold over 7 systems. Everything from mobile phones to the PSP have seen a version of Final Fantasy. Today some people who play this game do so in entirely different ways than originally intended. Speed runs, beating the game at as low a level as possible, or even beating the game entirely with 1 White Mage alive and the rest of the party left slain on the floor have all been recorded, written up as FAQs, and posted on various websites.Version Differences
The PSOne release of Final Fantasy was under the title of Final Fantasy Origins and contained enhanced remakes of both Final Fantasy I and II using higher quality MIDI and cleaner 16-bit graphics. These enhanced remakes were initially ports of the Wonderswan re-releases that never made it to the US for various reasons, most notibly that the Wonderswan Color was never released itself. Aside from the obvious graphical facelift, various changes in the PSOne version that differ from the original NES version that include an easy mode for the original Final Fantasy (increased Gil and EXP curves), auto-retargetting, a temporary quicksave, and the addition of new items such as Phoenix Downs (revive a fallen ally) and Gold Needles (removing petrify).Using the same enhanced graphical look of the PSOne release, the Gameboy Advance release of Final Fantasy I in Dawn of Souls was most notable for drastically reducing the difficulty. The version also included bonus dungeons for each game, though the complex battle transitions and music quality were reduced due to the technical limitations of the system. All changes to the battle system of the PSOne release carry over, however the magic system (previously levels of magic "slots" with limited number of uses) was changed to use Magic Points instead. Speculative reasons for the changes include Nintendo's fear that an overly difficult RPG would turn the younger playerbase, arguably a larger portion of the audience than on the PSOne.
The PSP re-release featured the same difficulty reduction and added bonus dungeons of the Gameboy Advance re-release, but featured an even bigger graphical overhaul, with various post-processing effects added such as cloud overcast and hi-res sprites (including spells). However, unlike Origins and Dawn of Souls, these versions were not sold together and retailed individually at release for 30$ each. Together, these two releases doubled the price of the initial release of both Final Fantasy Origins and Dawn of Souls ($29.99). The price, in addition to the numerous other re-releases of the games on other platforms, resulted in the game receiving much criticism from the gaming press.
| Game Name | Final Fantasy |
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| Original US Release |
July 12, 1990
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| Original US Release |
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| Aliases | FF1 |
Memorable Games
a list of 8 items by Rockmanneo12
a list of 8 items by Rockmanneo12
