13 Fantasies: My Quest to Save the Crystals 13 Times Over

Over the course of my relatively short life, I’ve played a lot of video games. And, to go into detail, I’ve played quite a few RPGs. And in even greater detail, I’ve played a fair amount of JRPGs. But I couldn’t go any more in-depth as to say that I’ve played a single Final Fantasy game and a few weeks ago, I realized that. Which is why I’ve decided that I need (read: want) to fix that. And so I have henceforth begun to conquer every single Final Fantasy game from I-XIII (That includes X-2 but excludes XI for obvious reasons. In fact, I once read that one of its bosses is so far impossible to beat anyway) and also for some reason share my experiences with Destructoid! I’m not sure how I’m going to write; whether the articles will be reviews or just retrospectives. Maybe you guys can give me some tips as to which you prefer to read. But, yeah. Let’s do this. *fingers crossed*

PART I


Final Fantasy I
iPhone/iPod Touch
Other Consoles: PSP/Gameboy Advance/Nintendo Entertainment System/Playstation
Release Date: February 25, 2010
Release Date of Original: December 18, 1987

Yes, the game that started it all. It was an extremely important factor in the popularization of RPG video games and kicked off one of the most lucrative and largest franchises in the industry. I was going into it expecting something good, but nothing that would revolutionize anything for me; it has been about 23 years since it first came out. In fact, I’m a little concerned that I’ll come off as not really appreciating the game. Anyway, I might as well actually talk about the game instead of doing whatever I’m doing now.

Before I start (DUDE TREBZ HURRY UP), I ought to mention that the iPhone/iPod Touch and PSP versions of FFI have upgraded sprites. While they aren’t as charming as the 16-bit sprites that were used in the GBA version, they are definitely nice to look at and make the game a whole lot easier to look at compared to the NES version. Also, there was a PSX version. Hey, it’s a pretty popular game.


I like to think that this is actually what goes on during the game and not just a hyperbole to make traveling across continents quicker.

So, I started out with what I figured would be the perfect blend of everything: a Warrior, a Black Mage, a White Mage and a Thief. And, for the most part, I found that everything balanced perfectly, other than my Thief’s tendency to die whenever he was hit by anything with a greater density than your average lacrosse ball. My Warrior hit hard and stood like a wall against enemy attacks, my White Mage healed everyone all on her own, my Black Mage blew everything up, and my Thief did what my Warrior did but
with a weaker defense and slight speed advantage. I wasn’t that much a fan of my Thief.


The Black Mage is a baller.

So my party was let loose on the world, on a quest to save the princess of Corneria from the knight-gone-bad Garland... which turned out to be pretty easy. They invaded the Chaos Shrine and put a stop to Garland, but that wasn’t the end. Not by a long shot. It turned out that four fiends controlled somehow by Garland were taking hostage the power of the four Crystals that held the powers of the elements. And the rest was pretty much what you’d expect nowadays. The four chosen Light Warriors trekked across the world, solving problems and bringing beauty back to the world by destroying the fiends that sapped the Crystals of their energy, eventually having to take down Garland once and for all.


The bosses in this game are massive.

It wasn’t exactly a super-engaging plot. In fact, there was barely any plot at all until the last dungeon. The main characters never talked, there were no twists, and people barely told you what you were supposed to be doing or where you should be going at any given time, the latter being a major gripe I had with the game. Characters would tell me that maybe I should go get an item that I actually wouldn’t be able to retrieve for several hours and directions for where to go, if I were ever told where to go, were hard to come by themselves.

But, hey, I’m not complaining. Not by a long shot. For a game that’s about 23 years old, it holds up remarkably well and is still pretty fun. Unfortunately, being such a fundamental yet basic game, I couldn’t really say that anything was revolutionized for me, nor were there any really impactful moments. But that’s to be expected, right? The important thing is, Final Fantasy I is a solid, fun, yet somewhat basic RPG. And it’s also cool just to see how it all began.


Massive, as in, very, very big.

And that’s it. Tune in next time to read about what I think of Final Fantasy II and it’s really awkward experience system! And if you have any tips on what you’d like to see (spoiler-free review or opinionated retrospective-thingy), let me know, please! Thanks for reading!

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Trebz   

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