Recently in another forum, the possiblity was raised that so-called old school gamers, such as myself, are allowing warm feelings of nostalgia for older Final Fantasy tittles to affect their opinion of the newer, post-Nintendo ones. For example, my favorite has always been Final Fantasy VI, and I hate Final Fantasy X and X2 with a passion that, upon closer examination, I find surprising.
After a bit of soul searching, and as I was playing the PSX FF I remake while feeding my 3-week old daughter one sleepless night, an idea struck me:
Why not re-play every single numbered Final Fantasy (save for XI), in an attempt to see which one is truly the ‘greatest’. I do own them all (well, all that was released in North America, and even then I think I have the ROM for FF3 floating around this hard rive somewhere…)and it will give me something do when Chibi-Silvercry is keeping me up at all hours even after I’ve fed, changed, and held her.
So, I’ll use this thread to keep those who give a flying flip about this grand experiment informed as to my findings as I play and complete each one.
Now for some details as how I will execute this:
I will play each Final Fantasy, I-X2, in no particular order. It is my hope that this will dispel the “Good, better, best” effect when it comes to graphics and music. For this to be successful, each game has to be judged on its own merits, not as compared to the following game.
For Final Fantasy I, II, IV, V, and VI, I will use the PSX remakes/re-releases. It will be easier that way than trying to get my old carts working after all theses years, and the only way I can play II and V in any event.
For obvious reasons (like the fact is doesn’t end, and everyone’s experience with it will be different), FF XI will not be included in this experiment.
Games will be evaluated in the following categories, using a 1-10 rating (1 being Superman 64 caliber Utter Crap, 10 being the Second Coming of Chrono Trigger Excellence.):
Graphics & Sound
Plot
- How I remember it
- How it actually is.
Character Development - (both plot wise and level/ability mechanics).
And Final Word with rating.
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Final Fantasy One Report
Reviving the power of the ORBS since 1990
Cue the victory music, FF I is complete, and my report follows.
Graphics & Sound: Good thing I used the PSX re-release for this experiment, or FF I would have been slaughtered in this category. Sprites were bright and reasonably well done, conforming to what I call the FF IV Standard of sophistication. All in all, not bad. Not great, but not bad.
The music was surprisingly catchy. As this was the first of the series, there are many tunes in this games that repeat themselves in various forms and fashions through other games. The ‘Victory’ theme for example. Or the Airship theme, and of course the traditional Final Fantasy Ending Theme (albeit a much more ‘basic’ version). Be that as it may, an added layer of depth was given to each score to keep it somewhat fresh. Not easy when high replay rate of each bit of music is so high (especially in towns). A big plus is the addition of Boss Fight music, which was lacking form the original release (in fact, I don’t think the concept had even been invented yet). But again, the compositions were nothing that would move you to tears, or get your foot tapping without you realizing it.
All in all, Graphics & Sound get a 5.0 Merely average.
Plot:
- How I remember it: What plot? “Hey, you there. Yeah, you four right there. Be a dear and rescue the princess. Garland kidnapped her because - er - well - as near we figure, he just likes being contrary. Oh? Back so soon? Well, since you’re up, could you restore the light to the Four Orbs? Thanks, you’re a pal. Tell you what, I’ll make a bridge for you and give you this hand-me-down lute. Off you go!”
Let’s be honest: There is next to no story in Final Fantasy I, which (in retrospect) I’ve always thought was kind of ironic as the series as a whole is most famous for its storylines. Of course, not knowing any better when I was but a young Silver-lad, I still found the crumbs of a plotline that did exists more than satisfying at the time. At the time, I appreciated the straight-forwardness of the game. Go to place A where person B tells you to go to location C and retrieve/fight item/being D, so you can go to place E and repeat the cycle. Not unlike Dragon Warrior I, actually, only with more party members and more places to save. This simple flow-chart style of the game was also a blessing, since (as I recall) the game was also very difficult to execute. I can honestly say that I died more times in my first play through of Final Fantasy I than I did in every other Final Fantasy combined (save for perhaps Tactics, which wont be counted in this experiment). I’m not sure if the high difficulty was planed so overcoming each portion of the game would feel more rewarding, providing the same sense of gratification that a plot revelation would provide in later games, or if my game-playing skills just sucked back then. Either way, the result was the same. From beating Garland to … beating Garland again (as Chaos), each of the smaller victories (The Pirates at Proavoka , Astos the Dark Elf, the rising of the Airship, the fall of the Fiends) felt like a huge accomplishment. I even accepted the ending as pretty good, even thought it consisted of nothing more than a picture of a 8-bit horizon and a text window.
- How it actually is: Time to take off the rose-colored glasses of Nostalgia-vision. The PSX re-make of this game went out of its way to add some semblance of a story line to the game, while at the same time honoring the original material somewhat. Some additional dialog was added, mostly in the very beginning and the very end, and a few translation errors (read: Nintendo-driven censorship) were fixed. But at is core; we still have a very basic RPG. You’re good. They’re bad. Go kill them. Here’s a sword and some magic.
To make a short story even shorter, everything that has gone wrong in the world of FF I is all Garland’s fault. He is the one who sent the Four Fiends of Chaos to the future to rob the Elemental Crystals (no longer the Four Orbs in the remake) of their power. They then send Garland back in time when the Light Warriors beat him on their first mission. He then sends them forward in time… and thus time is stuck in a 2000-year loop. Pretty clever, actually. I once called Garland the best villain in FF history because he actually won for 2000 years, a better track record than Yu Yevon (who had Spira under his heel ‘within’ Sin for just 1000 years) Kuja, (who only succeeded in destroying a world that was dying off anyway), and Kefka (who only ruled the world for one short year before he was defeated.). What the game neglects to tell you, however, is why he did all this. In fact, nearly 98% of the game is finished before you are even given a hint as to his true part in it (a plot hole I refer to as the Ultimecia Fallacy). It is only in the ending does the game hint that Garland’s actions were brought about by a ‘misunderstanding’. Thinking some one said the letter ‘T’ over the phone when they actually said ‘P’ is misunderstanding. Manipulating time and draining the powers of the elements so you can live forever as the personification of anarchy is not the result of a misunderstanding. Sorry, Square, not buying it. You really should have tried harder, or just left it alone.
Plot gets a 2.5. And I’m being generous since the rest of the ‘story’ retains its sense of simple satisfaction.
Character Development:
Plot-wise. Ouch. FF I is going to take a big hit here. As far as plot-driven character development and interaction goes, there is none. Zip. Zero. Not a single line of dialogue. No attempt to hint at any of the party members motivation. Not surprising given the time the game first came out, but alas, for this experiment to work, the same criteria must be applied to all games.
0.0. Oh, Discordia!
Level/Ability Mechanics
In a word: Simple. At the beginning you pick four party members out of a possible 6 classes (or ‘jobs’ if you prefer): Warrior, Monk, Theif, Red Mage, White Mage, and Back Mage. The mix is entirely up to the player. Want to have a party of a thief and three red mages? Go ahead. Four warriors? Have at it. Two Monks, and two white mages? Go nuts. I have to say, it was pretty freeing to have a choice for the first time in a long time. Of course some choice are more viable than others.
Fighting monsters gets you experience points and gil. Enough experience and everyone in your party gains a level at the same time, regardless of class (unless a party members had died along the way and missed out on some exp). Money can be used to by spells, and only three can be learned to a particular spell level at a time, so chose carefully.
Halfway through the game, if you complete a simple quest, you can ‘upgrade’ your class, and become more powerful.
Refreshing as the simplicity here is, there is a draw back. Aside from mages, the only thing you can do is fight. Thusly, the Warrior/Knight and the Monk/Master are the best choice for melee. And the Red Mage/Wizard cannot use most higher-level spells. Suddenly I realized that all that freedom I thought I had at the beginning was an illusion. The best party will always be Warrior, Monk, White Mage, and Black Mage. Still, it was nice not to have to worry about switching to my sub-screen and see how much more AP (or whatever) I needed before switching my Materia/Magicite/GF/etc to someone else.
Deep? No. Fun? Yes. 4.0
Final Rating:2.9 [/b]
Ouch. I knew it would be low, but not that low. That zero didn’t help the average much, did it?
I really wanted this title to do better. It’s the one that stared it all, for Cid’s sake. The one that singled-handily saved a software company that otherwise would have vanished before North America ever knew it existed. That means there never would have been a Chrono Trigger, and I for one would not want to live in such a world.
Alas, this simple fact is that there isn’t too much to this game, really. Call it a throw back to a simpler time. Or, perhaps the drab foundation upon which a glittering Dynasty was built. But there one title it can never have: Greatest Final Fantasy Ever.
“Never forget the good and true...
Never turn the Four Powers to the dark side...
And truth will always live in the hearts of the people.
May the ORBS always shine!!...”
Next: Final Fantasy VI.
I put my favorite Final Fantasy under the microscope. It will be a great challenge for both the game and me, but I think I’m up to it. At the very least, this it gives me an excuse to play it again.
Feel free to debate me findings anytime. It will take a while to finish FF VI anyway (Kefka hasn’t even poisoned Doma yet in this play-through), and I’d rather not have the thread fall back in the meantime.
