Box Art
Game: Final Fantasy
First Released: July 12, 1990, Famicom
Developers: Square
Platforms: NES, MSX2, WonderSwan Color,
PlayStation, GameBoy Advance, Mobile Phones, PSP,
Wii Virtual Console, PlayStation Network, iOS, Windows Phone,
Android
Rated: E, for Fantasy Violence
First Released: July 12, 1990, Famicom
Developers: Square
Platforms: NES, MSX2, WonderSwan Color,
PlayStation, GameBoy Advance, Mobile Phones, PSP,
Wii Virtual Console, PlayStation Network, iOS, Windows Phone,
Android
Rated: E, for Fantasy Violence
How I Came To Play This Game
Castle Cornelia
I first heard of the series Final Fantasy when I was a young boy. I don't remember exactly where I heard about it, but I didn't care at the time. I didn't start caring until after my brother got Kingdom Hearts for his Playstation 2, which featured Final Fantasy characters. That game inspired me to buy Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls for the Gameboy Advance. I was surprised by how much Kingdom Hearts took from the Final Fantasy series. Ever since I played it, it has been my favorite Final Fantasy game.
Story
Fight With Garland
The story of the game is about four crystals. They are colored red, blue, green, and yellow, and correspond with the four elements fire, water, wind, and earth. The four crystals are what kept the Final Fantasy world alive. However, one day, the world was thrown into chaos. The winds died, the seas raged, and the earth decayed. People new something had to be wrong with the crystals. A prophecy the people believed in came true when four young warriors appeared to solve the problem. The were known as the Warriors of Light. Over a long journey, they discovered that the crystals were weakening because of four fiends draining their power. The Lich drained the Earth Crystal, Marilith drained the Fire Crystal, the Kraken drained the Water Crystal, and Tiamat drained the Wind Crystal. The warriors defeated them and restored the power to the crystals. They also visited many towns and made many friends along the way. Their journey ended when they entered the Chaos Shrine and transported 1000 years back in time. It led them to the one behind it all, a defected knight named Garland. He had captured the Princess of Cornelia and was stopped by the warriors at the beginning of the game. He revealed that he had created a time loop along with the four fiends to live forever. After they defeated him in the present before, the four fiends would send him back in time. After he goes back in time, he would send the four fiends there to the present so that they could send him back in time again. After hearing that the defeated the four fiends from the past before he could send them to the present, he absorbed their remaining power and transformed into Chaos, the final boss. They defeated him, breaking the time loop once and for all and returning everything to normal. The world the warriors of light returned to was slightly different though. In that timeline, Garland never went bad, and the crystals were never endangered, so nobody would remember what the Warriors of Light did to save them.
Pros And Cons
Story
Story Cutscene
The story is original and decent. I like everything about the story except for one thing. I think that its stupid that nobody remembers what the Warriors of Light did. They went through all of that hard work to find their people ungrateful.
Characters
The Six Job Classes
In the first Final Fantasy game, the characters you play as are blank slates. You input names of your choice for each of the four warriors. You also choose their Job Class as well. The characters in the game are what are called Silent Protagonists. They never speak a word, only answering to Yes or No questions. I like games with those type of characters because it gives you a feeling that the character is you. So when a non-player character talks to the player character, you can imagine in your head what you would say back.
Gameplay
Cornelia
I love the idea of the Job Class system. The six Job Classes available are Warrior, Thief, Monk, White Mage, Black Mage, and Red Mage. Warriors can wield great swords and equip heavy duty armor. Thieves can equip light armor and mostly use knives and swords. Monks fight with their bare hands, and have their own type of armor. White Mages cast White Magic which is usually for defense and healing, Black Mages cast Black Magic which is usually for offense, and Red Mages can use both Black and White Magics. However, the Red Mage cannot learn the highest ranked spells. The battle system of Final Fantasy was similar to Pokemon, except you have four fighters and there can be up to nine enemy fighters at once. I like the fact that the enemies take their turn just as you have to take yours, unlike in later games of the series. You just select the move you want a character to make and they'll do it in the order of the fastest to the least fastest character or enemy. The only problem I have is that it is hard to find out where to go next sometimes. At the beginning of the game, they start you off in front of the city Cornelia. It doesn't explain anything on what your supposed to do. You just assume you need to visit the Castle of Cornelia. One good thing is that usually you don't need to worry about training except at the beginning of the game. After training some at the start of the game, if you fight every enemy you encounter, level ups will happen before you know it. If you want to train extra like me though, go ahead.
Graphics
3D Airship View
The graphics are just what you would expect. They are like many other Gameboy Advance games. They resemble the capabilities of the SNES. A huge improvement over the original NES release. It even incorporates the 3D perspective airship flight added to later games in the series.
Music
The first thing that stuck out when I first played this game was the music. It was awesome! I listen to the music from this game on my PSP all the time. The Wild Battle Theme, Boss Battle Theme, Victory Fanfare, Town Theme, and Matoya's Cave musics are my favorites.
Releases
NES Box Art
Final Fantasy was originally released in Japan for the Famicom in 1987. It was then released for the MSX2 computer in 1989 with minor sound and graphical updates. Then the NES version was released in 1990 in the USA in 1990. In 1994 it was released as a package with Final Fantasy II for the Famicom in 1994. Then, it was released for the WonderSwan Color in 2000 and the Playstation in 2003 called Final Fantasy Origins with Final Fantasy II. The Playstation version had FMV cutscenes added. Both had upgraded graphics to the quality of the SNES. In 2004, the Dawn of Souls version that I have was released for the Gameboy Advance. In 2007, it was released for the PSP with the same updates as the Dawn of Souls version. It was also released for several other portable devices from 2010-2012 and Wii Virtual Console in 2009.
My Version's Extras
The version that I have is known as the Dawn of Souls version released in 2004. This version kept the updated graphics from the Playstation and Wonderswan Color versions, but also remixed the music to be more powerful. In addition to all of that, four new optional dungeons were put into the game where you can get extra powerful items and fight bosses from other Final Fantasy games. In the Earthgift Shrine, you can fight Two-Headed Dragon, Ahriman, Cerberus, and Echidna from Final Fantasy III. In the Hellfire Chasm, you can fight Scarmiglione, Cagnazzo, Barbariccia, and Rubicante from Final Fantasy IV. In the Lifespring Grotto, you can fight Gilgamesh, Atomos, Shinryu, and Omega from Final Fantasy V. In the Whisperwind Cove you can fight Typhon, Orthros (Ultros), Phantom Train, and Death Gaze from Final Fantasy VI. There is tons of stuff to do. These extras were also carried over to the 20th Anniversery PSP version.
My Rating
I give this game a 10/10. Everything about it was perfect.