Final Fantasy

The Good
I wasn't born yet when this game was first released, but I'm sure it was an incredible hit at this time. Some RPG were already there (Dragon Warrior, Ultima, etc...) but this one is much better and it's the one who had success with the role-playing genre. It has much better graphics and game-play than those few games, and this is probably the first game ever that have a decent storyline and a decent ending. Here you are an average game at this time : "A pretty princess has been kidnapped by an evil guy/monster/dragon or something, you shall rescue her and to be the master of the world". Or "You shall save the world from alien invasion with your space ship". All games had hard-cored stories like that. In this game, you have to save the princess at the very beginning, but it's rather a joke than a quest. And this is the first game where the princess does actually encourage you for your REAL quest, that is save the world, but not from aliens at all : from chaos. The average ending for the games at this time was "Yeah, congratulations. Got extra bonus score : 10'000 points" And then a new game begins again, only your score points remain for your previous game. I won't spoil Final Fantasy's ending, but it's more than decent, it's awesome, especially for this time, believe me or not. And there is NO new game starting after you completed the game.

Yeah, that's not all you'll get. Graphics aren't very good, but they are much better than Dragon Warrior's ones, for example. Some gloomy places are especially impressive. Also, you can both speak to people and open treasures with just the A button, when you press a direction on the D-pad, the hero immediately moves, all those stuff prove than Final Fantasy is indefinitely better than Dragon Warrior. Also, you can play 4 characters and be in front of up to 9 monsters at the same time, and both allies and enemies are well detailed in battle. I think this is the first game where you can see an actual difference between two swords, two axes, etc...

Music is still cool, but often too short (~15 seconds and the thing will repeat), and some music like the one you hear in a shop or in a castle would decrease my main opinion about the music of this game. Yeah, we're far to the incredible music you can hear into some of Final Fantasy sequels, but this is a good starting block.

The idea to select your party at the beginning of the game is good, and you can't change your mind later so this add a challenge to the game. The only problem is that when you start a new game, you haven't a good idea about what is a black mage, black mage, and what will be the exact differences, except if you read the instruction book.

The Bad
This game has in a lot of poor stuff, too. Most people had complains about the lack of Cid, Muggles, Chocoboes or something like that. For me that's absolutely not a problem, this is the first Final Fantasy, and all this stuff didn't exist yet, so how could this be said against the game, since those stuff DIDN'T exist ? Nope.

The music may be awesome, it's sound quality is poor. This is the NES, okay, but many NES games haven't only beeps and bleeps for sound effects, Final Fantasy is far to be on the list. There is only some sound effects in the game, and they're really poor.

Also, there is only one kind of healing-potion in the game. It heals ~30 HP and at the end your Max. HP is ~600 so, as you can see ~20 potions are needed to heal you totally. They shall do some better potions. That's not all, when you want to fill your stock of 99 potions, you have to buy the 99 separately, so to 99 times select the potion, and 99 times answer "Yes" at the seller's confirmation request. So you have to enter to an item shop, press 198 times the A button and exit. Square could input the possibility to buy more than one item at the same time. There is no way to cure your MP except sleeping in a Inn or "House" item that's very expensive, and that's frustrating at the end of huge dungeons (this would be okay without the potion problem I've say above).

There is a lack of action in the battle system. Yeah, Active Time Battle wasn't here yet, and when a character is fighting a monster that is already dead, it doesn't fight a remaining monster, but does an "Ineffective" attack, very scaring stuff. They could do something more... huh, how to say this ? More exciting. Battles will quickly become boring. Animation in battle is very simple, but still better than Ultima's or Dragon Warrior's one, so I won't complain about it.

One last thing, you can wear only 4 weapons and 4 protections at one time, and this is horrible. I hate item limitation, especially when you have to look on the net to show what you'll found in a treasure to know which of your 4 item you actually have you shall drop. But many RPG, even today (Golden Sun for example), have frustrating item limitations and this is one of the most evil thing about RPGs.

Oh, yeah, you can only have one saved game at the same time, and you shall sleep, so pay to save. For example you want to start a new game with 4 red mages just for fun, you'll have to erase your previous save where you trained up light warriors up to level 32 during many hours of gaming... pretty frustrating isn't it ? So this unfortunately decrease the replayability thing.

The Bottom Line
This is Final Fantasy, the first Final Fantasy game, the first Square's RPG, the first game who has a good story and a decent ending the first to .... hem the list can go on for a long time, so this game is a "first" in many domains. Everyone who like Final Fantasy shall have a try on this one, not at the GBA, Wonderswan, PlayStation or who cares re-edition, but at this original NES game. You'll have fun, and you'll discover what originally were Final Fantasy. I personally loved this game as much than many of it's sequels.

The Good
As I start this review this game brings mixed feelings. At the time this game seemed like a brave new world from the break of Megaman and Bonk and Mario. The game takes place in a huge world "for it's time and even now" which is seemingly populated by serveral people and towns.

You get a party of four characters which you can choose from the following classes. Fighter, Monk, Thief, White Mage, Black Mage, Red Mage. You can take a combination of any of them. Mix it up that makes the spice of this game.

The music for the time was well done and very detailed especially for NES hardware. The graphical sprites also pushed anything that Enix did with the Dragon Warrior series "though in all honesty Dragon Warrior games tended to be a bit longer"

The quest itself took at least thirty hours to complete. Though it could be pushed quicker the games enemies themselves are not easy like later final fantasy games and one or two levels could LITERALLY give you the strength points needed to damage the monsters.

The game introduced a very intriguing class changes into the later areas of the game where your characters actually grew up. Very small but very noticeable in a era where your characters always looked the same.

The packaging for the game was superb and the manual itself gave you help for 50% of the game.

The Bad
Gaining gold and leveling up can be very tedious since you get very little in this game in the beginning of it.

Monsters are overtly difficult bad if your a newbie but fun if you love challenge.

If weaned on later Final Fantasy Titles this game is far too difficult with no story to feed you. What you see is what you get.

NES Batteries are starting to go dead so you should replace the game battery before playing it.

The Bottom Line
The game is good for old school veterans or people who want to see the first Final Fantasy. Also if you can handle the difficulty then go for it! I give this game a 8/10 since I grew up with it and have beaten it several times. If I was a have to give a less biased view it gets a 7/10

The Good
Despite its simple concept, Final Fantasy could get quite addicting and even intense at times. Turn-based role-playing games were created before the release of Final Fantasy, so the concept wasn't anything too new. However, Final Fantasy implemented new ideas into this already-classic idea, like the advantages/disadvantages of choosing specific classes for your team, which would affect you throughout the game in either a good way or bad way. The classes ranged from Black Mages (specializing in offensive-based magic) and White Mages (specializing in healing party members), Warriors (who specialized in using weapons to fight, and could equip almost every weapon in the game) and Thieves (who didn't really specialize in fighting, but had luck and agility to make up for it), etc.

Items, equipment, weapons, etc. could also heavily determine the outcome of the battle. This showcased the complexity behind the game, where earning Gil (the currency of the world of Final Fantasy) was made possible by defeating enemies, which would eventually benefit you if your party was in trouble or in need of an upgrade. If your party is low on health, stop at an inn and get some rest to recover it, or if the enemies in the area are starting to get a bit too powerful for your party, stop at an item, weapon, or armor shop to prepare for grueling battles to come.

Not only does the complexity lie in boosting up character stats, but also the layout of the story. One task leads to another, and it eventually leads to the 4 Warriors of Light saving the world from the evil Chaos, who was fought earlier in the game in his first form under the name "Garland". Though you are basically given a blank slate to form your characters with the right armor and weapons until your characters finally evolve into something stronger, the story based around it, like the enemies and the people you meet along your quest, is a strong base for a storyline for what seems like such a simple game.

The Bad
The random encounters are like a necessary form of grinding. Though this was put in the game most likely as an intention to simply challenge the player, it ends up being one of the most frustrating features of the game. For example, you just finished a boss battle that took out every member of your party but one, which happens to be a class not known to specialize much in fighting (white mage, thief, etc.). You begin to walk a few steps to an inn only to be stopped by an enemy jumping at you literally out of nowhere. Your last party member gets slaughtered, and it's a Game Over. Having to fight enemies that come out of nowhere can not only get frustrating, but tedious and repetitive. It's different from other role-playing games, but all in all, in my opinion, it should have been kept out.

Another part of the game not particularly good would be the graphics. Although the enemy and character designs are nice, the game completely lacks when it comes to the environment. Comparing the graphics of Cornelia to the graphics of Hyrule in The Legend of Zelda just makes Final Fantasy look bad.

The Bottom Line
Though it can seem pretty overrated at times, and even a mediocre start to a popular series, give Final Fantasy a chance. Patience will show you what is actually a pretty fun game.