FINAL FANTASY

I'm a pretty big Final Fatasy fan, so it was really special to play the game that started it all for the first time. The story is quite strong, and I enjoyed how the gameplay was. I'd definitely recommend Strangers of Paradise, after playing this, it's a fun prequel.

I bought my own NES in the mid 80s and played a lot of Mario and Zelda, but Final Fantasy was one of those games I had and never fully understood. My 11-year-old self mostly wandered aimlessly through the forests and grasslands around Cornelia with no clue where I was supposed to go or what I was supposed to do. Eventually I lost interest as other shiny Nintendo games made their way into my grubby little gamer hands. Fast forward 37 years later and all the hype around Clair Obscur got me thinking about revisiting this genre I had written off a long, long time ago. So I decided to give Final Fantasy another shot and was determined to finally figure this game out. I did some research, even had AI build me a city-by-city guide on what to buy, only to find out AI was almost entirely wrong. Thankfully I also found some human-made guides that actually helped prepare me. This time was going to be different. It wasn't. I talked to every NPC, paid attention, focused on the story, and there were still moments where I found myself thinking, "How in the world was I supposed to know to go there or do that? Did I misread something? Was I supposed to understand what this one sentence from this one NPC meant?" Once again, I was completely lost at times, but the guides helped get me where I needed to be. Despite all of that, I could not put the game down. There was just something about the constant XP, gear, magic, and gil grind that completely hooked me. I wanted the story to be the thing that pulled me in, but honestly I don't think that's something I should expect until FF7. Even so, this game absolutely got its hooks into me. The pixel art and effects looked fantastic both on my PC and Steam Deck. The QoL features were great additions too. I appreciated being able to view the bestiary, change the font and soundtrack, and reduce the grind with boosts, which I somehow didn't even realize existed until I was already level 40. :| In the end, I finally understand why this series became such a big deal to so many people. Even with the moments of confusion and the constant need to check guides, there was still something weirdly addictive and charming about the whole experience. What started as me revisiting a game I bounced off of as a kid ended with me genuinely excited to keep going through the rest of the series. Turns out 11-year-old me just wasn't ready for Final Fantasy yet.

The game that started it all. Not a difficult title, and not too long, but don't expect the same kind of sweeping storylines as established in later titles. This one cuts the expository banter and drops you straight into a medieval fantasy world to explore.