I, Garland, shall knock you all down!
There aren’t many things that stick with you throughout your life. We end up picking and choosing the things that do. In my case, the Final Fantasy series is no different. Though when something does stick, you wonder how it got there in the first place. Some things you remember distinctly. Others take a little more thought.
The latter was my case when it came to Final Fantasy. I didn’t like it or understand it the first time I encountered it, but I gave it a shot.
See, I’m 30. I was born in 1983. The original Final Fantasy game came out in North America in 1990. I first played it shortly after that time. I didn’t have an NES of my own. I sincerely wanted one back in 1988; right after the original The Legend of Zelda game was released. My parents, like a lot of parents back in the 80s, thinking it was just as good as a $200 Nintendo (I guess) got me an Atari 2600. A used one, at that. The only game I had was ET: The Extra Terrestrial.
No, I’m not kidding. You can’t make up that kind of stuff.
Hanukkah 1988 officially goes down as the worst in history. At least in my book.
Anyway, there was this girl who lived either two or three houses down the street from me. Her name was Denise. She was a month older than me. She had two much older brothers who loved their NES. They were in high school at the time, so in the afternoons, when Denise and I were home from school and they were doing club activities, we played the hell out of that Nintendo. Well, I’m sure we spent more time blowing into it and the cartridges and fighting flickering load screens than actually playing it.
I vaguely remember the day that I first played Final Fantasy. Little did I know the series would change my life forever. One of the things I specifically remember from whatever hazy day that this life-changing event occurred: naming the Fghtr AAAA. I also remember the box art with the axe and sword on the cover. That image is seared into my memory. I remember the room in Denise's house-late 80s interior design. The dial-channel-changing TV and Nintendo were in a roll top cabinet in the kitchen of her Twin Ridge Drive home.
At seven years old, I didn’t entirely understand what it was I was doing. It took several attempts, but I finally beat Garland. I didn’t have much of a concept of magic or leveling. I died. A lot.
Regardless, I made it all the way to Elfheim, I didn’t know who Erdrick was, or why he was dead, but I knew I needed to save the Elf King. That led me to the Marsh Cave. Where I was promptly dispatched by the first random group I encountered. Probably slimes. Who knows. I’m not even sure if I’d equipped any weapons or bought magic spells.
I put down the game, utterly frustrated and went back to other games that were more my speed. Like Super Mario Bros. That is, when Denise and I actually got to use the console at all.
Fast forward to 2003. I was a freshman in college at The University of Alabama. Spring was coming around and I’d heard the recently merged companies Square and Enix were preparing to release a 16-bit version of the original Final Fantasy.
Like a lot of people, I bought Final Fantasy Origins. By this time, I was a seasoned veteran of the series and the promise of playing the two that got it all started made me anticipate the new/old adventures with baited breath.
I didn’t have a lot to say about the game when I beat it. The story was pretty solid. I didn’t like or appreciate the magic system. It made resource management more difficult. After all, I was solidly used to the MP system by this time in my life.
I think I played through the game maybe one other time after that. Maybe.
In December 2012, I got an iPhone (which, thank God, I no longer own). I’d been out of college for six years, been working professionally since graduation and still found time for Final Fantasy. Almost immediately after figuring out the ins and outs of the phone, I downloaded the game from the App Store (on sale for $3 at the time) and played through what I found out was the PSP Anniversary Edition, tweaked for iOS.
I distinctly remember enjoying the iOS version of the game. It was almost as if it took on a new life being presented in its current package. The battles flowed seamlessly, the MP system took the annoying resource management aspect out of the equation and the story seemed like it had been fleshed out more. I played through it twice, doing some of the added optional content the second time around.
Now, onto the review. The game is pretty straightforward. The party is what you make of it. Do as you will, set it up as you like. The story is great, albeit simplistic. There aren’t a lot of verbal clues as to your next location. You really just have to “feel” your way through the game. Unless you know what you’re doing and know where to go.
In 1996, I met a guy I still to this day consider one of my best buddies. Chris. He told me that for a time in 1990, the game was packaged with the official Nintendo Power strategy guide. I’m guessing there were enough complaints about the lack of discernible goals that Nintendo had to do something to help sales.
I also found out later on that Nintendo was packaging the guide with a subscription to the NP magazine as a way to entice people to go out and buy the game. Years later, I ran across a copy of the issue of NP that previewed Final Fantasy (and also contained a preview of the upcoming Super Nintendo and Super Mario World's amazing 16-bit graphics). I also got a copy of the original strategy guide. It was really cool going back in time like that.
The beauty of this tale is its absolute simplicity. Sure, there are points in the game where you have to go out on several seemingly endless fetch quests, but I give credit to this game for being such an originator to the genre (yes, I know the Dragon Quest series was already a thing by 1987 in Japan).
The other day, I got into a discussion online about where to start the series. My argument is that Final Fantasy is a good place to start. It may not be the most accessible, but even in 1990, when the game was released in the US, most people needed help from a guide to get through the game.
Admittedly, I’ve talked to others who went through the game blind, and they found the real heart of the game was in the trial and error aspect of story discovery. Because of this philosophy on the game, they feel it isn’t a good place to start for a series newcomer. I can absolutely respect that opinion.
To me, the fun was in knowing where to go, what to do, how to prepare and what I was going after. The challenge I found, however, was in the preparation for these challenges. It all came down to estimating how much grinding I needed to do in order to continue on in my quest with the best equipment available. That was great fun for me.
As I said, I do think this game is a good place to start with the series-especially if you want to give yourself the opportunity to play through them numerically. That way you can see the series evolve into the more modern iterations. If you were likely to use a guide in 1990 to beat the game, why not use a FAQ in 2014?
One of these days I’ll get around to playing through the NES version, but “ineffective” drives me batty.
Breakdown:
- Order played: 1 of 12
- Order completed: 8 of 12
- Place among my favorites: 6 of 12
- Number of times completed: 4 (possibly 5)
- Versions completed: PS1, iOS, PSP
- Versions attempted: NES, PS1, GBA, iOS, PSP
- Definitive version: PSP/iOS/Android Anniversary Edition
- Favorite track: Chaos Shrine
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