Description
The world is veiled in darkness. Winds don't blow, the seas are stormy, and the earth rots. All people can hope for is that the ancient prophecy will be finally fulfilled. "When the world is veiled in darkness, four warriors will come..." And indeed, they come - the four characters you have previously chosen. Their first quest is to free a princess from the evil knight Garland, and then the real journey begins.
Final Fantasy is played with an adventuring party rather than with a single character. Before the game starts, the player chooses four characters from six different classes: Fighter, Thief, Black Belt, White Mage, Red Mage, and Black Mage. He also gives the characters names.
In the game, the party walks around in a top-down world, visits cities, caves, palaces and other places to buy equipment, rest and get hints and new quests, and fights baddies when they are encountered.
Final Fantasy uses a turn-based combat system. In battle, the player gives each character in order a command (attack a particular enemy, cast a spell, use an item, or try to run.) Then the characters and the enemies act in a random order. Attacked enemies and party members lose hit points, dying when they reach zero HP. When all the enemies are defeated, living party members receive experience, eventually gaining a level and improving their stats when enough experience is accumulated. Slain party members can be revived in towns for a price.
Spells are bought in cities in special shops. The spells are divided into two categories - white magic and black magic. White Mages can only use white magic, Black Mages can only use black magic, and Red Mages can use both. Casting spells in battle uses up Dungeons & Dragons-style spell slots, which, like hit points, can be restored by resting in inns.
Alternate Titles
- "最终幻想" -- Chinese spelling (simplified)
- "Финальная Фантазия" -- Russian spelling
- "Zui Zhong Huanxiang " -- Chinese title
- "Finalnaja Fantazija" -- Russian title
- "Final Fantasy I" -- Common title
- "FF1" -- Common title
- "ファイナルファンタジー" -- Japanese spelling
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Trivia
Classes
As of 2002,
Final Fantasy is the only single-player entry of the series where you can choose four characters from six different classes before starting the game.
King of the dragons
The most popular (and usually the most powerful) "summonable" monster of the
Final Fantasy games makes his appearance already in the very first
Final Fantasy. In this game you still can not summon the king of the dragons, but he talks to you.
Music
It is rumored that composer
Nobou Uematsu composed the theme song in just five minutes.
References
In Elfland, there are three tombstones next to the White Magic shop the furthest to the left says
"Here lies Erdrick" "837 - 866" "R.I.P."
This is a reference to a character in
Dragon Warrior but in the Japanese version, the tomb says "Here lies Link" instead. Link, of course, is the hero of the
Legend of Zelda series.
Title
The first
Final Fantasy game was called "Final Fantasy" because its creator,
Hironobu Sakaguchi, wanted to retire from the gaming business and by calling the game "Final Fantasy" wanted to say precisely that this game would be his final fantasy. The game's composer,
Nobuo Uematsu, has deliberately contradicted this claim, however, and claims that the "the bigger reason, the real reason, was that
Square was going to go bankrupt and the designers believed that it would be the company's swan song."
Who could have known that within fifteen years there would be ten direct sequels and many side-games under the very same title?
Information also contributed by
FinalGMR,
J. Michael Bottorff and
Unicorn Lynx
