Final Fantasy 1

-Developer: Square
-Platform: NES
-Japan Release: 12/18/1987
-U.S. Release: 7/1990

-Final Fantasy 1 was the beginning of it all. It was introduced by Square for Nintendo back in 1987. Although there had been some console role playing games, none did what Square did with this masterpiece. This game set the trend for the entire series. If you haven't played it yet, and you like rpg's, you must play this game.

Music

-The music from FF1 was so good that it was basically copied in every other Final Fantasy game to come. With some variations the prelude, battle theme, and town themes heard in FF1 can be heard in almost every other Final Fantasy game since. It has one of the best soundtracks of any Nintendo game out there. Some of this music is available for download in my Music page.

Story

-Back in the day storylines for RPG's weren't very complex. They were pretty basic, save the princess type games. However, Final Fantasy offers a fairly complex storyline where you control four light warriors and must travel the world searching for the crystals and fighting fiends. Very enjoyable for the time.

Graphics

Now for the part that turns most people away from games such as this, the graphics. I don't believe that a game has to have great graphics to be a great game, but many people do. And let's face it, the graphics for FF1 are pretty bad. Why, because the game was made for Nintendo. It was made quite a while ago so obviously it can't stand up to modern day games because it was made so long ago. However, the graphics are pretty good for an NES game. The enemies and characters in the battle scenes were especially nice for their time.

System

In my opinion the coolest part of the Final Fantasy series is the fact that every new game has an entirely different system. That is, a different way of playing the game. In FF1 you start the game by selecting a party, choosing between fighters, mages, black belts, etc... During the game the black mage can use all black magic, the white mage can use all white magic. However, red mages can use either, but not as effectively, and they can not used level 8 magic which is the most powerful. Again, this was a pretty revolutionary idea for its time and this system allows for a great replay value. The game can easily be played again using different parties making for a whole new gaming experience.

Game Play

-The game play for FF1 is pretty good, but there are some annoying things. First of all, a thing that has many people quitting the game early is the money. You seem to have absolutely no money at all for most of the first half of the game, but by the end of the game you have more money than you know what to do with. If you've played the game, you know what I'm talking about. The difficulty of the game is decent for a final fantasy game. You'll have to level up every once in a while, but not that often. You can also find a good fight and fight it over and over again to level up easily.