Final Fantasy

Games: Final Fantasy

• Release Date: 1990 05
• Genre: Role-Playing
• Style: Third-Person 2D RPG
• Similar Games: The Legend of Zelda (Nintendo Entertainment System), Faxanadu (Nintendo Entertainment System)

Game Description

Final Fantasy involves a band of warriors assembled to save the world from the forces of evil. Players create a party of four adventurers and set forth to explore their large world. Characters are selected from six different classes (Fighter, Black Belt, Thief, Red Mage, White Mage and Black Mage), each with its own defining attributes.

The Fighter can use almost any weapon or armor, the Red Mage can use some weapons, some armor, and some spells, and the Black Mage can cast powerful battle spells but cannot use most of the armor or weapons. Other classes feature similarly balanced restrictions. Once a certain point in the game is reached, the characters become experts in their current class and change into a more powerful identity (e.g. the Black Mage becomes the Black Wizard).

Players can enter towns, buy items and spells, learn clues about their quest, and even occasionally fight. And as the story progresses, non-player characters may have more to reveal or different things to say. Final Fantasy has a deep story and huge areas to explore, taking the heroes to mountains and volcanoes, buried submarines, space stations, and even through time.

Roots & Influences

Although not as action-heavy, Final Fantasy is obviously influenced by The Legend of Zelda, which hit the NES in 1987.

Review: Overall

If Enix's Dragon Warrior created the console RPG, then Square's Final Fantasy gives it flesh and substance. Final Fantasy introduces a party system and does so in a remarkable way. The game also introduces a plot device that would become a staple of RPGs, and starts the trend of having a major plot twist halfway through the story. Final Fantasy is a monumentally important milestone in the development of console RPGs.

The game's party system both enhances the gameplay during the first time through and adds a significant amount of replay value for subsequent replays. The classes are sufficiently different from eachother that playing with one group feels different than playing with another, even though the game itself is linear. Unfortunately, the class upgrades were bungled a bit. You don't have a choice of different advanced classes to pursue, so there's really no point to having the class change. The game would play exactly the same if you just gained all the abilities of the new class as part of leveling up. Having different upgrade options would have fleshed out the class system considerably.

Final Fantasy's fighting system is pretty primitive. You get the full range of basic options, but little else. You can try to hit physically, cast a spell, use items, drink potions or run away. Battles are handled in strict turns, with all your party doing their thing, then the enemies doing their thing, then your party again. Hits also don't carry over, meaning that if one of your characters kills a monster, then any of your other characters who aimed at that particular monster will just whiff instead of trying to hit another monster. The system is functional but not particularly elegant. As a result, combat in Final Fantasy is something to be resolved as quickly as possible, rather than a really enjoyable part of the game.

Graphically, Final Fantasy is something of a mixed bag. The graphics can be clean and colorful at times, with some pretty good animation sequences. But there are also some lazy graphics, most notably during battles. The battle graphics are separated into two distinct portions, one for you and one for the monsters. That way the game doesn't have to deal with sprite interactions for attacks; your character steps forward and waves in the air and the monster takes some damage. Monster attack animations are worse, as they actually have no attack animations.

All Final Fantasy games have shared common musical themes, and this game started the trend. The memorable and evocative Final Fantasy theme music graces the game's intro sequences, although in a slightly unpolished format. The game also has a variety of other songs, most of which are good. But the sound effects are rather poor, definitely not taking full advantage of the NES hardware. They're basically a collection of primitive beeps in different tones.

Final Fantasy's world is rich and rewarding. The storyline is great, and there are stacks of items and spells for you to find and acquire. The class system is interesting, although it hasn't been developed adequately. Still, Final Fantasy is one of the best console RPGs from the genre's formation period.

Review: Enjoyment

The fighting system is a little basic, but the game world is deep and the storyline great.

Review: Graphics

A lot of good looking graphics with some instances of laziness, like monsters that have no attack animation.

Review: Sound

The game features great music, with a few tunes that would go on to become part of all future Final Fantasy games. But the sound effects are primitive.

Review: Replay Value

The game's depth and the class system gives {*Final Fantasy} significantly higher than normal replayability for an RPG.

Review: Documentation

Average documentation that is enough to get you started.