Back in 1987, there was a failing game company named Squaresoft, that just couldn't seem to catch a break in the industry, what with how many of their games were failing. So Hironobu Sakaguchi, then president of Squaresoft, decided to release one last game before calling it quits, his Swan Song. After seeing how well Enix' game Dragon Quest had sold, Sakaguchi decided to make an RPG unlike any other. This was supposed to be his last project, hence he gave it the most ironic name ever given to a video game: Final Fantasy.
Can you hear that iconic theme in your head, just by looking at this box art?
In an unnamed fantasy world, there is a prophecy: "When the world is in darkness, four warriors will come..." The word is in chaos: fire is growing cold, the wind has become stagnant, the earth is rotting, and the sea is wild. The four Elemental Orbs (Crystals in later versions) have become darkened, their energies stolen by the Elemental Fiends: Lich of the Earth, Marilith of the Fire, Kraken of the Water, and Tiamat of the Wind.
Four warriors arrive in the kingdom of Coneria, where the king is seeking the four warriors of Prophecy. Each of the four is in possession of one of the Orbs, a clear sign that these are the warriors of Prophecy. He begs the warriors to help save his daughter, Princess Sara, who had been kidnapped by the treasonous Garland, a former knight in the service of the king. The four warriors, dubbed the Warriors of Light (and hereby referred to as the WoL) travel to the nearby Temple of Fiends to lay the smack down on Garland and save the princess, thereby giving the franchise its first ever boss fight. And yes, it is ridiculously easy.
With the princess saved, the WoL make their way north of Coneria, where they encounter the witch Matoya, who is missing her crystal. She asks the WoL to help locate her crystal, and in exchange, she'll tell them where to go next. The warriors then head off to a nearby port town that's infested with pirates, led by Bikke. The four beat Bikke, and he gives them his ship, which they use to travel to Elfheim.
The Elf Prince is in a coma, and it is up to the WoL to awaken him. They travel to the Marsh Caves to retrieve the key to the Elven castle, where the Prince's crown is held by the Dark Elf, Astos. Upon defeating the Dark Elf, the WoL recover not just the crown, but also Matoya's crystal. She tells them to go to Melmond.
The town of Melmond's earth has decayed; nothing grows anymore. The Earth Fiend, Lich, is decaying the land. The Warriors travel to the Cavern of Earth to defeat the demon, eventually overcoming the Fiend. With Lich gone, the power of the Earth Orb returns, restoring the earth to its fertile state.
The WoL travel to Crescent Lake, where the Circle of Sages point the four towards the next fiend: Marilith (Kary in the original NES version). The warriors travel to Mt Gulg, an active volcano, where the second of the four Fiends lays. The warriors defeat her, with ease, re-empowering the Orb of Fire.
The third Fiend lays underwater, in the Sunken Shrine. The WoL, with the aid of mermaids, travel underwater to locate the Water Fiend, Kraken. After a mighty battle, the power of the Water Orb returns.
The last fiend is Tiamat, the dragon of the Wind. The warriors need an airship to get to the Floating Fortress, where Tiamat is based in. After a long and dangerous trek, the WoL manage to destroy Tiamat, restoring the power for the four Orbs. But something is wrong...
There is a dark force that is absorbing the power of the Orbs, located in the Temple of Fiends. The WoL go there and find a portal that leads one towards the past. The WoL go through the portal and find Garland, surrounding himself in dark forces. Garland's essence had been sent to the past by the magic of the Four Fiends, who in turn used his new dark magic as Chaos to send the Fiends to the future, creating a continuous time loop that guaranteed the existence of the Four Fiends. After a tough battle, the WoL defeat Chaos, bringing peace to their world.
Final Fantasy, as it was originally known when there was only one game in the franchise, has not aged so well. If the synopsis offered sounds a little thin to you, it's because this game has the thinnest story in the franchise, consisting mostly of "go to this town, solve the problem, go to next town, repeat." The Warriors of Light have no character whatsoever: no back story, no motivation, no spoken lines, NOTHING. They are as one dimensional as the NPC's that one typically finds in the towns and castles. To a modern gamer, this is jarring.
But that's the thing, you see. Final Fantasy was made BEFORE a deep story, three dimensional protagonists, villains with complex motivations, and even a constructed world were the norm. Everything in Final Fantasy 1 was actually not only fair for its day, there was a lot that was rather innovative. The story, thin as it is, had a lot going for it, including what was in those days a surprising twist: the first boss you beat also being the last boss you faced!
There was also the Class System, which helped separate Final Fantasy from the rest of the pack. Final Fantasy 1 gave you freedom that no other game could: your choice of which of your characters had which class. You had a team of four, and six classes to choose from: Warrior, Thief, Red Mage, Black Belt, White Mage, and Black Mage. After a certain event in the game, those classes would get a hefty upgrade.
The town of Melmond's earth has decayed; nothing grows anymore. The Earth Fiend, Lich, is decaying the land. The Warriors travel to the Cavern of Earth to defeat the demon, eventually overcoming the Fiend. With Lich gone, the power of the Earth Orb returns, restoring the earth to its fertile state.
The WoL travel to Crescent Lake, where the Circle of Sages point the four towards the next fiend: Marilith (Kary in the original NES version). The warriors travel to Mt Gulg, an active volcano, where the second of the four Fiends lays. The warriors defeat her, with ease, re-empowering the Orb of Fire.
The third Fiend lays underwater, in the Sunken Shrine. The WoL, with the aid of mermaids, travel underwater to locate the Water Fiend, Kraken. After a mighty battle, the power of the Water Orb returns.
The last fiend is Tiamat, the dragon of the Wind. The warriors need an airship to get to the Floating Fortress, where Tiamat is based in. After a long and dangerous trek, the WoL manage to destroy Tiamat, restoring the power for the four Orbs. But something is wrong...
There is a dark force that is absorbing the power of the Orbs, located in the Temple of Fiends. The WoL go there and find a portal that leads one towards the past. The WoL go through the portal and find Garland, surrounding himself in dark forces. Garland's essence had been sent to the past by the magic of the Four Fiends, who in turn used his new dark magic as Chaos to send the Fiends to the future, creating a continuous time loop that guaranteed the existence of the Four Fiends. After a tough battle, the WoL defeat Chaos, bringing peace to their world.
Final Fantasy, as it was originally known when there was only one game in the franchise, has not aged so well. If the synopsis offered sounds a little thin to you, it's because this game has the thinnest story in the franchise, consisting mostly of "go to this town, solve the problem, go to next town, repeat." The Warriors of Light have no character whatsoever: no back story, no motivation, no spoken lines, NOTHING. They are as one dimensional as the NPC's that one typically finds in the towns and castles. To a modern gamer, this is jarring.
But that's the thing, you see. Final Fantasy was made BEFORE a deep story, three dimensional protagonists, villains with complex motivations, and even a constructed world were the norm. Everything in Final Fantasy 1 was actually not only fair for its day, there was a lot that was rather innovative. The story, thin as it is, had a lot going for it, including what was in those days a surprising twist: the first boss you beat also being the last boss you faced!
There was also the Class System, which helped separate Final Fantasy from the rest of the pack. Final Fantasy 1 gave you freedom that no other game could: your choice of which of your characters had which class. You had a team of four, and six classes to choose from: Warrior, Thief, Red Mage, Black Belt, White Mage, and Black Mage. After a certain event in the game, those classes would get a hefty upgrade.
Left are the characters you start with. Right are what they will become.
And the best part is, you are allowed to repeat classes! You can have more than one Fighter, more than one White Mage or Black Mage, etc! This freedom guaranteed the player many, many more playthroughs, encouraging them to go crazy and experiment. In fact, one of the game's strongest challenge is to go through the whole game with 4 White Mages! For pros only!
You can make the claim that Final Fantasy was more about the gameplay than the story, and honestly, that's not wrong. As I said before, the story is razor thin, but the gamepay is pretty good. The game was re released on several systems, including the Playstation, the Game Boy Advance, the Playstation Portable, and the WonderSwan. Each of these re releases tends to fix the bugs that were present in the original game, and often added scenes and better effects, as well as giving graphical updates.
Left: Final Fantasy on the NES. Right: Final Fantasy on the iPod Touch (Image on the right from agreenmushroom. Link here: http://www.agreenmushroom.com/2011_03_01_archive.html)
But in spite of the many, many remakes this game gets, there is still the fact that it is NOT for everyone. The original release, in particular, is very hardcore, very demanding. This is by no means a game for new players; it assumes that you already know what to do and how to do it. There is no tutorial, no compass, the map is hard to activate (press B and Select at the same time, NES version), and often you have to spend hours fighting monsters to increase levels. In fact, just to show you the discrepancy between levels: getting from level 1 to level 2 requires 25 experience points, but getting from level 2 to level 3 requires 150! Healing items tend to be expensive, weapons tend to be expensive, and magic has to be bought, per individual character. And yes, it's expensive.
Final Fantasy 1 is a game that knew what it wanted to do and did it well. It was Hironobu Sakaguchi's last hurrah, his fond farewell, his love letter to the industry. It was his way of saying "I failed so much, this is the last thing I'll make. My team and I hereby give our all to this one last game." What was supposed to be a last game became such a smash hit, that Squaresoft was now on the map! A sequel was in demand, and a sequel was made and released, one year later!
Final Fantasy 1 saved Squaresoft, and it birthed one of the greatest RPG franchises ever made. Did its successor continue the trend? Well...join me next time when we take a look at Final Fantasy 2!
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