Delving into Classical RPG's : My Thoughts on Final Fantasy 1

When I think of Squaresoft, the first game that comes to mind for me is Final Fantasy. Final Fantasy is one of the most iconic Role-Playing Games, RPG's for short, in the gaming industry. A game that was originally created to be the final game of a failing company (hence the name final fantasy), ended up becoming more than just a fantasy for the creators of this game. Now what made such a simple game so successful that it ended up bringing a company out of bankruptcy, and made them one of the top dogs of the industry? Luckily, modern technology has allowed for me to get my hands on the game, so I was able to take a look into the game that would end up becoming part of a franchise of over 20 titles.

The player controls the 4 characters in a boss fight against Lich, the Earth Fiend in the iOS port of Final Fantasy 1

I was a little skeptical when I was about to play Final Fantasy 1 for the first time. I thought that the game feel outdated due to how old the game was, but the game definitely has held up the test of time. When you first get into the game you are prompted to choose between a variety of classes ranging from melee fighting classes like the warrior, to a wizard like role found in the black mage. When this game originally came out in 1987 this ability to choose what class you wanted to be was unheard of. Other popular RPG's released at the time like SEGA's Phantasy Star, Nintendo's Zelda II: The Adventure of Link featured characters that you could name, but they apart from that, no other customization options were available, making Final Fantasy 1 one of the most innovative titles released at the time. Another cool part about the class system of Final Fantasy 1 was the fact that during a later event in the game, the classes you pick are upgraded into a more powerful version of each class (such as warrior evolving into the mighty paladin class). The ability for the player to pick between 4 of the 6 playable classes, and the fresh customization options gave player a sense of freedom from other games released at the time.

A graphic depicting the 6 playable classes, and their upgrades.

The final reason in my opinion as to why Final Fantasy 1 was so successful was the game play, and the large world. Final Fantasy 1 featured an huge world map that the player could explore. The main story of the game took the player on a quest all the way around the globe trying to save the elemental crystals from the 4 elemental fiends. The world was huge, and when I say huge I mean HUGE. It was so huge that you got an airship near the end of the game to travel across the whole world; now that's pretty sweet. Another cool thing about Final Fantasy 1 was the battle system. The battle system was simple, you kill stuff, you gain experience points (exp), after a certain amount of exp you level up and get stats. Even though it was simple, the battle system was smooth, and the menus in battle were easy to navigate for the player. 

(Above: Final Fantasy 1 World Map. Upper Right: A typical battle in Final Fantasy 1 Gameboy Edition)

The mixture of unique game play elements, and an epic story would allow this game to shine during the beginning of the video game industry, and provide a framework that many other RPGs would follow to this day.