Final Fantasy

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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.

Screenshots

Promo Images

There are no promo images for this game

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

Part of the Following Groups

• Fantasy Creatures: Dragons
• Final Fantasy games
• Final Fantasy series
• Games made into movies
• Games made into TV series
• Genre: Sliding block / tile puzzle
• Video games turned into board / card games

User Reviews

A game that helped popularize console Eastern RPGs, however, it is over-rated.	NES	Christian Delano (5)
The very first Final Fantasy game. Though a completely different beast all together compared to later titles	NES	Mr. Huh (112)
A treasure of the 80s, but does it really hold up compared to other games of its time?	NES	Masa♥Yuki (3090)
I guess this is the first game ever that has a (decent) ending	NES	Bregalad (967)
The first game that started it all.	NES	ABGamer (107)

Critic Reviews

1UP!	NES	Feb 20, 2009	90 out of 100	90
Pocket Gamer UK	J2ME	Jul 19, 2010	9 out of 10	90
RPGFan	NES	Jan 29, 2000	81 out of 100	81
Game Freaks 365	NES	Nov 01, 2007	8 out of 10	80
Digital Press - Classic Video Games	NES	Feb 27, 2005	8 out of 10	80
Nintendo Land	NES	2003	79 out of 100	79
Ultimate Nintendo: Guide to the NES Library	NES	2016		70
Nintendo Life	Wii	Oct 07, 2009		70
Retro Archives	NES	Jan 20, 2019	13 out of 20	65
Computer Gaming World (CGW)	NES	Dec, 1990	Unscored	Unscored

Forums

Topic	# Posts	Last Post
NES vs Famicom bugginess	3	Scribblemacher (210) Oct 06, 2012
Amazing story?	18	Unicorn Lynx (181614) Jun 12, 2007

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?

Awards

• Retro Gamer
  • September 2004 (Issue #8) – #93 Best Game Of All Time (Readers' Vote)

Information also contributed by FinalGMR, J. Michael Bottorff and Unicorn Lynx

Related Web Sites

• FF-Fan (archived) (A fansite that offers all kinds of information on the entire Final Fantasy franchise, including walkthroughs, game media, discussion boards and fan art.)
• OC ReMix Game Profile (Fan remixes of music from Final Fantasy.)