Luigi Mario

Final Fantasy

Publisher: Square

System: NES

Genre: RPG

Introduction:

Dateline: 1987. The NES was growing more and more and many intresting games were made back then, but this game would put a growing company that we all knew back then as Square, and that many know today as Square/Enix, on the map for sure. Final Fantasy was surley the seed that would grow into a full-blown epic trend of many gamers today. Having many different variations, storylines, different gameplay style and characters as each one for the series came out. These games surely took the worlds imagination by storm, and continues to do so to this very day. Today, I'm going to focus on the game that started it all.

There really is no main character in this one. Just four different people known as the "Light Warriors." Each of them comes to a mysterious land, filled with all kinds of danger and mystery, as has been spoken through a prophecy spoken throuout the land. Surely there arrival will bring the land to peace once more.....that is, assuming you're good enough to do so.

I vonlunteered to review this game, out of a request from a fellow named Fox3. Thanks for the suggestions/opinions for the site and keep them coming. N-E-Way, I played this game for a few weeks and saw what all it had to offer. I found it pretty fun, but with a few noticable weak points. Just read on through the review.

Reviewed by: MattDDR

Graphics: C+  

Even for it's time, the graphic quality is ok.....just ok. Nothing more. Of course, keep in mind, this is the mid 80's, so of course games won't be as flashy as people would've hoped for them to be, or imagine them to be. As the characters moved on the map, it looked like one of those LCD games I used to play so much. I could tell what everything was....well, except those Spider monsters you'll run into. I couldn't tell if they were spiders, or seaweed. Either way. The graphics aren't too bad for a growing company in the 80's.

Sound: B-  

All I could say for the sound is....Eh. Nothing more. I gave it a B- because even though it's pretty much your basic NES sounds, the music sounds really good, and seems to fit the game well. Even though it's sounded pretty simple, I'd have to say Nobuo Uematsu, the Music Composer for this game, did a really good job bringing the feel of an epic RPG game like this to the game. As for hit impacts, it sounds kinda dull. But then again it was a growing age back then so you gotta cut them some slack for trying.

Control: A  

There's really not much to a game's control as far as RPG's go. Actions during the times where you're walking all over the world just invove The contrl pad to move around, and The A button to talk to someone, or make a decision, of course, B cancels out when you're in a shop or whatever. Controls during Battles are pretty much the same thing, except you don't move your character, you just use the control pad to move the cursor, The A button to decide, and The B button to cancel out. That's pretty much it. There should be no problems with controls, as everything is easy to do and pick up on.

Gameplay:C+  

I'd REALLY like to give this game an A.....really....I would.

It took me a few weeks to come up with this decision. Simply because I had to play through it for a bit to know exactly what I was talking about. At the start of the game, you get to pick your warrior's class, and there names. I really like that feature because I always make myself the main character. There's the Fighter(Which many now call the "Warrior"). He'll use many different weapons and can carry the most heaviest of armors. He has amazing strengh, but can't cast magic(Like he reeeeaaaaaly needs it in the first place).Then the Black Belt, who can fight bare-handed and still get along. Of course, he can use SOME weaponed, but not too many, and they just mostly drop his abilities. Great dissapointment in this case...Then the theives....which I find incredibly useless. Their attack power sucks, and their defense suffers greatly, but they have good agility, and can sometimes smack the foe with critical hits. If you're feelin' lucky, the thief's the way to go. The Red Mage is a pretty much average character in just about everything. He can equip some good weapons, but not all of then, plus, he can cast magic. I'd take him along if I were you. Next the White Mage.....weak weak weak. All she's good for is Magic. That's it. And WHITE magic at that. If you like healers, or just a girl on your squad, use the white mage. :D And finally, the one that everyone probably remembers the most....The BLACK Mage. Like the White Mage....weak weak weak. But He can use powerful Black Magic spells that'll send the enemies cry to mama. So if you have a lot of money to blow, stock up on magic with this one.

When you're done picking your squad, of course, you go into the castle. The king wants you to save his daughter, you buy weapons and what-not and you leave to slay the monster responsible. But this will be ANYTHING but easy. Even as you encounter your first enemies(Basically Imps and Wolves) You'll barely be able to hit anything half the time with your weapons. I've never, in my life, had THAT much trouble hitting anything in a role-playing game at the start. Of course, you can increase the hit % by leveling up and getting better weapons.....but you have to HIT the guys first and that is a challenge in itself. There is just no excuse for this. It made me scream out loud for the first time in my life(And I am a generally quiet person). Also, you'll need to know which character class can weild which weapons and wear which armor. You can look up everything you'll need to know at gamefaqs.com for that nifty info. But if you don't have a guide, you'll have to guess everything. "EVERYTHING" meaning the weapons, the armor, and who can learn what spell. So, it's all pretty much a shot in the dark, that, and a whole lot of wasted gold, which is not too eady to obtain for some of the weapons in this game. Of course, the good news through all of this is that the enemies Hit % isn't too sharp either, so you have an equal chance, but I didn't like the fact that some battles took FOREVER to finish. It was like looking at a slide show with one of those old projectors and audio tapes at school. I wouldn't suggest playing this game for a hot second before trolling off to work, because the game'll give you, possibly a cold hour. I still like the gameplay though, and it'll get more intresting once you level up your characters and upgrade there classes......if you can hit the enemies, that is.

Simply put: B-      

I really would've liked a bit more effort put into this game, but Square definetly did a good job for it's time. I just wish I could actually hit the enemies more than 1 outta 4 times, that, and I wish the battle scenes were a bit faster. This probably would've been much better, but then again, incredibly boring and too easy to level up. So I guess they had to put somewhat of a challenge somewhere. Of course, these simple little errors were for the most part fixed up as the series progressed. I really do like the Final Fantasy series, but I didn't know excatly where it came from. Now that I do, I see the effort one must put in a game to make a sucessful series. There are always going to be a few snags here and there, but this is proof that if you keep at it, you can make anything a sucess. I still think this is a great game, but it could've been better, so it's just an average score with me. It fufilled everything I expected, but left me wanting a bit more than it had. If you feel like a challenge though, this game'll definetly deliver, so at least it's worth checking out. Good luck with beating the game....wait. Who am I Kidding? Good luck actually killing the monsters. :D