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Final Fantasy
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Cover box for original NES release in North America |
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| Developer(s) | Square Microcabin (MSX2) TOSE (WSC, PS, GBA, PSP) |
| Publisher(s) | Famicom: JP Square NA Nintendo of America MSX2: JP Microcabin Game Boy Advance: JP Square Enix Other regions Nintendo PlayStation Portable: Square Enix |
| Designer(s) | Hironobu Sakaguchi |
| Writer(s) | Akitoshi Kawazu Kenji Terada |
| Artist(s) | Yoshitaka Amano |
| Composer(s) | Nobuo Uematsu |
| Series | Final Fantasy |
| Platform(s) | Nintendo Entertainment System, MSX2, WonderSwan Color, PlayStation, Game Boy Advance, mobile phones, PlayStation Portable |
| Release date(s) |
December 18, 1987
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| Genre(s) | Console role-playing game |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
| Media | 2 megabit cartridge 3.5" Floppy Disk 32 megabit cartridge CD-ROM 128 megabit cartridge NTT DoCoMo FOMA CDMA 1X WIN UMD |
Final Fantasy (ファイナルファンタジー Fainaru Fantajī?) is a console role-playing game developed and published in Japan by Square (now Square Enix) in 1987 and published in North America by Nintendo of America in 1990. It is the inaugural game in Square's flagship Final Fantasy series. Originally released for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Final Fantasy has been remade for several different video game consoles. The game has frequently been packaged with its follow-up, Final Fantasy II, in collections such as Final Fantasy I-II, Final Fantasy Origins, and Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls.
The story begins with the appearance of the four youths called the "Light Warriors", who each carry one of their world's four elemental orbs, which have been darkened by the four Elemental Fiends. Together, they quest to defeat these evil forces and restore light to the orbs, thus saving the world.
The game received positive reviews from the media, and is regarded as one of the most influential and successful role-playing games on the Nintendo Entertainment System, playing a major role in popularizing the genre after Dragon Warrior. All versions of Final Fantasy were commercially successful, selling 1.99 million copies combined worldwide, as of March 31, 2003.
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Final Fantasy has four basic modes of gameplay; an overworld map, town and dungeon maps, a battle screen, and a menu screen. The overworld map is a scaled-down version of the game's fictional world, which the player uses to direct characters to various locations. The primary means of travel across the overworld are by foot, but canoes, boats, and airships become available as the game progresses. With the exception of bosses, enemies are randomly encountered on field maps and on the overworld map when traveling by foot, and must either be fought or fled from.[1] The player begins the game by choosing four characters to form a party for the duration of the game.[2]
The game's plot develops as the player progresses through towns and dungeons. Some town citizens will offer helpful information and others own item or equipment shops and inns and clinics for health recovery. Dungeons appear as a variety of areas, including forests, caves, mountains, swamps, and buildings. These dungeons often have treasure chests containing rare items that are not available in most stores. The menu screen is where the player makes decisions such as which equipment they wield, the magic they learn, the configuration of the gameplay, and to track experience points and levels.[1]
A character's most basic attribute is its level, which is numbered between one and 50. A character's level is determined by how much experience it has. Gaining a level increases the character's attributes, such as their maximum hit points (HP). HP represents a character's remaining health, and when a character reaches zero HP, they die. Additional attributes ,such as "Strength", govern other aspects of the character. Players gain experience points through winning battles.[1]
Combat in Final Fantasy is menu-based, in which the player selects an action from a list of options such as Fight, Magic, and Item. Battles are turn-based and continue until either side flees or is defeated. If the party wins, it gains experience and gold; if it flees, it returns to the map screen; and if the party dies, the game is over.[1] Final Fantasy took many concepts for the battle system from popular role-playing games, like Ultima and Dragon Quest. But Final Fantasy was the first game to show the heroes on the right side of the screen, and the enemies on the left side of the screen, as opposed to a first person view.[3][4] Unlike later versions of Final Fantasy, if a character chooses to attack an enemy who had been defeated earlier in the round, the attack is called "ineffective". Also, each magic-user is allowed "charges" for each level of spells; spells of a given level could only be cast as many times as the user had charges. As a character's level increased, more charges were gained.[1]
Each character has an "occupation", or character class, with different attributes and abilities that are either innate or can be acquired.[2] There are six classes; Fighter, Thief, Black Belt, Red Mage, White Mage, and Black Mage.[2] Later in the game, each character undergoes a "class change", where their sprite portraits mature, and they gain the ability to use weapons and magic that they previously could not use.[1]
Final Fantasy contains a variety of weapons, armor, and items that can be bought or found to make the characters more powerful in combat. Each character has eight inventory slots, with four to hold weapons and four to hold armor. Each character class has restrictions on what weapons and armor it may use. Additionally, some weapons and armor are magical; if used during battle, some of these items will cast spells. Other magical artifacts provide protection, such as from certain spells. At shops, the characters can buy items to help themselves recover while they are traveling. Items available include Potions, which heal the characters or removes an ailment such as poison or petrification; Tents and Cabins, which can be used on the world map to heal the player and optionally save the game; and Houses, which also recovers the party's magic after saving. Special items may be gained by doing quests.[1]
Magic is a common ability in the game, and several character classes use it. Spells are divided into two groups; White, which is defensive and healing, and Black, which is debilitating and destructive. Magic can be bought from White and Black magic shops and assigned to characters whose occupation allows them to use it. Spells are classified by a level between one and eight. Each type of magic has four spells that can be learned per level, but only three of which can be purchased and equipped. White and Black Mages can potentially learn all of their respective spells, while other classes cannot use most high level magic.[1]
Final Fantasy takes place on a fantasy world with three large continents. The elemental powers on this world are determined by the state of four orbs (crystals in later localizations), each governing one of the four classical elements: earth, fire, water, and wind. The world of Final Fantasy is inhabited by numerous races, including Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Mermaids, Dragons, and Robots. Each non-Human race has one "town" in the game, although individuals are sometimes found in Human towns or other areas as well.
Four hundred years prior to the start of the game, the Lefeinish (Lufenian) people, who used the Power of Wind to craft airships and a giant space station (called the Floating Castle (Floating Fortress) in the game), watched their country decline as the Wind Orb (Crystal) went dark. Two hundred years later, violent storms sunk a massive shrine that served as the center of an ocean-based civilization, and the Water Orb went dark. The Earth Orb and the Fire Orb followed, plaguing the earth with raging wildfires, and devastating the agricultural town of Melmond as the plains and vegetation decayed. Some time later, the sage Lukahn tells of a prophecy that four Light Warriors will come to save the world in a time of darkness.
The game begins with the appearance of the four youthful Light Warriors, the heroes of the story, who each carry one of the darkened Orbs (Crystals). Initially, the Light Warriors have access to the kingdom of Coneria (Cornelia) and the ruined Temple of Fiends. After the Warriors rescue princess Sara from the evil knight Garland, the grateful King of Coneria builds a bridge that enables the Light Warriors' passage east to the town of Pravoka. There the Light Warriors liberate the town from Bikke and his band of pirates, and acquire the pirates' ship for their own use. The Warriors now embark on a chain of fetch quests on the shores of the Aldi Sea. First they retrieve a stolen crown from the Marsh Cave for a king in a ruined castle, who turns out to be the dark elf Astos. Defeating him gains them the Crystal, which they return to the witch Matoya (Matouya) in exchange for an herb needed to awaken the Elf Prince cursed by Astos. The Elf Prince gives the Light Warriors a key capable of unlocking any door. The key unlocks a storage room in Coneria Castle which holds TNT (Nitro Powder). Nerrick, one of the Dwarves of the Cave of Dwarf/Dwarf Village (Mount Deurgar), destroys a small isthmus using the TNT, connecting the Aldi Sea to the outside world.[3]
After visiting the near-ruined town of Melmond, the Light Warriors go to the Earth Cave (Cavern of Earth) to defeat a vampire and retrieve the Ruby, which gains passage to Sage Sarda's (Sadda) cave. With Sarda's Rod, the Warriors venture deeper into the Earth Cave and destroy the Earth Fiend, Lich. The Light Warriors then obtain a canoe and enter Gurgu Volcano (Mt. Gulg) and defeat the Fire Fiend, Kary (Marilith). The Floater (Levistone) from the nearby Ice Cave allows them to raise an airship to reach the northern continents. After proving their courage by retrieving the Rat's Tail from the Castle of Ordeal (Citadel of Trials), the King of the Dragons, Bahamut, promotes each Light Warrior. Using an air-producing fairy artifact known as Oxyale, the Warriors defeat the Water Fiend, Kraken, in the Sunken Shrine. They also recover a Slab (Rosetta Stone), which allows a linguist named Dr. Unne to teach the Lefeinish language. The Lefeinish give the Light Warriors access to the Floating Castle (Sky Castle) that Tiamat, the Wind Fiend, has taken over.[3] With the four Fiends defeated and the Orbs restored, a portal to two thousand years in the past opens in the Temple of Fiends. There the Warriors discover that the four Fiends sent Garland (now the archdemon Chaos) back in time and he sent the Fiends to the future to do so, creating a time loop by which he could live forever.[5] The Light Warriors defeat Chaos, thus ending the paradox, and return home. By ending the paradox, however, the Light Warriors have changed the future to one in which their heroic deeds from their own time remain unknown outside of legend.[3]
Final Fantasy was developed during Square's brush with bankruptcy in 1987, and in a display of gallows humor, director Hironobu Sakaguchi declared that his "final" game would be a "fantasy" role-playing game; hence the title.[6] When Sakaguchi was asked what type of game he wanted to make, he replied "I don't think I have what it takes to make a good action game. I think I'm better at telling a story." Sakaguchi's concept was a game with a large world map to explore and an engaging story.
Sakaguchi took an in-development ROM of the game to Japanese magazine Family Computer, but they would not review it. Video game magazine Famitsu, however, gave the game extensive coverage. The development team was composed of seven people, while the other team at Square had about 20 people on theirs. Sakaguchi stated that if the game did not sell, he would quit making video games and return to university to make up a year. Only 200,000 copies were to be shipped, but Sakaguchi pleaded with the company to make 400,000 to help spawn a sequel, and they agreed.[7]
The game's characters and title logo were designed by Yoshitaka Amano. The scenario was co-written by Akitoshi Kawazu and freelance writer Kenji Terada. Iranian-American freelance programmer Nasir Gebelli, who was living in Japan at the time, worked as the programmer for the game. Among the other developers were Hiromichi Tanaka, Akitoshi Kawazu, Kōichi Ishii, and Kazuko Shibuya. Following the successful North American localization of Dragon Quest, Nintendo of America translated Final Fantasy into English and published it in North America in 1990. The North American version of Final Fantasy was met with modest success, partly due to Nintendo's aggressive marketing tactics. No version of the game was marketed in the PAL region until Final Fantasy Origins in 2003.[6]
The 1990 North American localization of Final Fantasy by Nintendo of America was essentially identical to the original Japanese game, although most names were changed for various reasons. Gameplay remained essentially the same, with changes limited to a few battle formations and removal of all random encounters from the final floor of the final dungeon.
The majority of name changes resulted from technical limitations on name length, for example the spell "Thunder" being reduced to "LIT". Nintendo of America's censorship policies resulted in removal of religious references, such as the spell "Holy" being renamed to "FADE" and the Church being changed to Clinic, and the elimination of nudity from certain monster images. Some changes, such as "Beholder" to "EYE" with a vastly different image, were presumably made for copyright reasons. Most Light Warrior battle graphics were slightly altered, along with the graphical changes to remove religious imagery.
The music was composed by Nobuo Uematsu, and was his 16th video game music composition.[3] The score was released on CD together with the score of Final Fantasy II. A few of the game's tracks became mainstays to the Final Fantasy series: the "Prelude", the arpeggio played on the title screen; the "Opening Theme", which is played when the party crosses the bridge early in the game and later referred to as the Final Fantasy theme; and the "Victory Fanfare", which is played after every victorious battle. The opening motif of the battle theme has also been reused a number of times in the series.[3]
Final Fantasy has been remade several times for several different platforms, and has frequently been packaged with its follow-up, Final Fantasy II, in various collections.[8] While all of these remakes retain the same basic story and battle mechanics, various tweaks have been made in a variety of different areas, including graphics, sound, and specific gameplay elements.
The MSX2 computer standard was roughly analogous, in terms of technical capabilities, to the NES, and as a result, the MSX2 version of Final Fantasy is probably the closest to the original Famicom version. However, while the Famicom was designed to operate exclusively as a gaming console, the MSX2 was intended to be used more generally as a personal computer. In practice, this meant that the game was subtly altered to take advantage of certain features offered by the MSX2 and not by the Famicom, and vice versa.
Due to its release on floppy diskette, the MSX2 version of the game had access to almost three times as much storage space as the Famicom version (720 KB vs. 256 KB), but suffered from a variety of problems not present in Nintendo's cartridge media, including noticeable loading times. There were also relatively minor graphical upgrades. In general, the MSX2 version sports an ostensibly improved color palette which adds a degree of vibrancy to character and background graphics. In addition, the world map seems to have been moved slightly, meaning that the placement of monster "areas" on the world map is slightly different, and that monsters appear in different places than in the Famicom version.
Further, game data could not be saved onto the original program diskette, so it was necessary to provide a blank floppy diskette to save one's progress. For some reason, it was possible to store only one saved game on any given disk at one time, although it was possible to have multiple diskettes for multiple saved games. As an upgrade, the MSX2 featured more sound channels than the Famicom, and as such many music tracks and sound effects were altered or improved for the port. Also, some dungeon music was swapped. The player would reach a point where a Black Belt could do more damage without any weapons than he could with weapons. In the MSX2 version, this is not the case: Black Belt strength does not increase nearly as quickly, and as such he cannot operate effectively as a barehanded fighter. Also, a few items available at stores have had their costs changed.
Many more changes were introduced for the WonderSwan Color (WSC) remake of the game. The 8-bit graphics of the original Famicom game were completely redrawn for the WSC version, bringing the game roughly on-par with 16-bit era graphics (between Final Fantasy V and Final Fantasy VI). The color palette was much larger and battle scenes now featured full background images.
Character sprites, or two-dimensional pre-rendered figures, were also redesigned to look more like characters from the Super Famicom Final Fantasy games, especially as they upgraded in class. In the Famicom version, shops and inns had no interior map: once a character entered the building, they were greeted with a menu-based purchase screen. In the WSC version this was changed to more closely resemble other games in the series, where each building had an interior, along with a shop counter where the transaction screen could be accessed. Similarly, the battle screen was redesigned, with all textual information moved down to a blue window stretched across the bottom of the screen in an arrangement similar to that utilized in Final Fantasy II through Final Fantasy VII. As a further update, short cutscenes using the internal game engine were added to expand the story of the game somewhat. One such cutscene involved the construction of the bridge by the army of Cornelia.
Also of significance is that the original Famicom version of the game did not have the ability to display more than one window of text during a conversation, which meant that all conversations with non-player characters were strictly limited in length. The WSC version removes this restriction. In the original version of the game, any attempt to attack a monster that had been killed by a previous character's attack would result in an "ineffective" attack. The WSC version introduced an option wherein the attack would be redirected to another monster rather than fail. Similarly, a "dash" option had been introduced: holding down a specific button while walking around in a town or dungeon map would cause the character to move around at twice their normal pace. Both of these options can be turned on and off via the game's configuration screen.
As in the original version, every magic-using character has successive "spell levels". Each character has only three available slots per spell level, but is given the option of choosing from four spells. Once that choice had been made in the original version, there was no way to "unlearn" spells to free up a space for the unchosen fourth spell. In the WSC version, this has been changed so that it is possible to delete spells once purchased. In the original Famicom version, the cartridge could only store one set of game data at a time, and every time a new save was made, the previous one was overwritten. The WSC version provides up to eight distinct slots for saved game data. There is also a "quick save" feature introduced which allows the player to save his or her progress at any time (except during battles). This will exit the game, however, and as soon as the game is resumed, any quick save data is lost.
Another change from the original version involves items; only items specifically assigned to a character could be used during battle. In the WSC, this has been changed so that there is a party-wide "pool" of items which can be accessed at any time by all characters. Certain status-healing items (such as "Soft") can now be used during battle. Further, in the original game, not only did each character have their own armor and weapon inventory, each was fixed to storing only 4 of each category per character. This meant that as opposed to the first game, one could now actually equip all 5 different armor types, as well as collect every single armor and weapon in the game without needing to drop or sell anything. A number of magic spells that didn't work properly in the original were also now "fixed" to work as originally intended. The status ailment "silence" no longer prevents items from being used. In addition to remixing the soundtrack, composer Nobuo Uematsu has composed several new tracks, including a new "boss battle" theme. Because many of the above changes make the game simpler than before, the hit points of certain monsters, and almost all boss monsters, have been substantially increased (doubled, in some cases) in order to better balance the gameplay.
The PlayStation versions of Final Fantasy 1 and 2 were most similar to the WonderSwan Color remakes that were produced separately in 2000 and 2001. The playstation did have minor changes however such as a higher screen resolution which meant that the PlayStation versions graphics in the were slightly more detailed, and and a remixed soundtracks. Both games have added CGI FMV cut scenes, and added content. It also includes art galleries of Yoshitaka Amano's illustrations. PlayStation Portable versions have as many save slots as the player has available through PlayStation memory cards.
Both games were faithful in content to the original NES versions, and the package, while graphically similar to the WonderSwan Color adaptation of the first game, also contains the Bestiary feature, which allowed the player to view images and statistics of enemies that they had defeated in both games, and which first featured in the PlayStation package. However, the package lacked the ability to choose between easy and normal games as was available in Final Fantasy Origins, although not in the original.
In 2004, Square Enix released a version of Final Fantasy for two Japanese mobile phone networks. A version for NTT DoCoMo FOMA 900i series phones was launched on March 1, 2004 under the title Final Fantasy i.[9] A subsequent version for the CDMA 1X WIN-compatible W21x series was released on August 19, 2004 as Final Fantasy EZ. Another version, simply titled Final Fantasy, was also released for SoftBank Yahoo! Keitai phones on July 3, 2006.[10] Graphically, the games are superior to the original 8-bit game, but not as advanced as many of the more recent console and handheld ports. Square Enix planned to release this version of the game for North American mobile phones sometime in 2006.[11]
For the 20th anniversary of Final Fantasy, Square Enix has remade Final Fantasy for the PSP along with Final Fantasy II. The first game was released in Japan on April 19, 2007, the North American version was released on June 26, 2007,[12] the European version was released on February 8, 2008, and the Australian version on February 28, 2008.[13]
The PSP version has higher-resolution 2D graphics, the FMV sequences from the Origins release and the bonus dungeons from the Dawn of Souls release. It also borrowed the soundtrack from the Origins release, though the extra dungeon boss battles use the music that was used in the game they originated from (for example Gilgamesh's music from Final Fantasy V while fighting Gilgamesh), and the gameplay from the Dawn of Souls release. The Japanese script and English translation are also borrowed from the Dawn of Souls version, aside from the PSP exclusive dungeons. The PSP version has aerial effects on the towns and dungeons. Scaling and rotation effects (similar to Mode 7 effects on a Super Nintendo Entertainment System console) have been added to the world map. It also contains an all-new dungeon, as well as an Amano Art Gallery. The gallery uses the PSP's high resolution to display high-quality art by Yoshitaka Amano, with new pieces of art being unlocked as the player progresses through the game. The new dungeon, titled "Labyrinth of Time", is a dungeon with a time limit, in which the player's HP constantly decreases as time passes. The player is able to exchange abilities such as White Magic usage and the Dash command in order to extend the time limit, allowing them to delve deeper into the dungeon.[8]
Final Fantasy has been well-received by critics and commercially successful. The original release sold 400,000 copies.[7] As of March 31, 2003, the game, including all re-releases, had shipped 1.99 million copies worldwide, with 1.21 million of those copies being shipped in Japan and 780,000 abroad.[14] In March 2006, Final Fantasy appeared in the Famitsu magazine's Top 100 games list, where readers voted it the 63rd best game of all time.[15] In 2005, GameFAQs users made a similar list, which ranked Final Fantasy at 76th.[16] It was rated the 49th best game made on a Nintendo system in Nintendo Power's Top 200 Games list.[17]
Final Fantasy was one of the most influential early console role-playing games, and played a major role in legitimizing and popularizing the genre. According to one reviewer, Final Fantasy's storyline, which dealt with elaborate tales and time travel, had a deeper and more engaging story than the original Dragon Quest.[4] Many modern critics point out that the game is poorly paced by contemporary standards, and involves much more time wandering in search of random battle encounters to raise their experience levels and money than it does exploring and solving puzzles, while other reviewers find the level-building and exploration portions of the game as the most amusing ones.[18] IGN praised the WonderSwan Color version of Final Fantasy, rating it at 8.6 and praising its graphical improvements, especially in the area of combat.[19] The version of Final Fantasy in the Final Fantasy Origins compilation was generally well-received, though it lacks many of the innovations found in later Final Fantasy games such as Final Fantasy IV, and some commented that the additional content like improved graphics did not significantly improve the overall game experience.[20] The PlayStation Portable version was rated 6.9, stating that there had been better and cheaper releases of the game, though the much improved graphics were "quite pleasant".[21] The game has been called epic for its time, but not nearly as engaging as subsequent titles in Final Fantasy.[3]
The theme song that plays when the player characters first cross the bridge from Coneria has become the recurring theme music of the series, and has been featured in most numbered Final Fantasy titles except Final Fantasy II and Final Fantasy XI. Final Fantasy was also the basis for the series finale of a video game-themed cartoon series Captain N: The Game Master entitled The Fractured Fantasy of Captain N.[22] 8-Bit Theater, a sprite-based webcomic parodying the game, has become very popular in the gaming community.
Warrior of Light (based on Yoshitaka Amano's design of the lead character, and seen in the FMV sequence featured in the PlayStation and PSP versions) and Garland have been confirmed as the respective hero and villain representing Final Fantasy in Dissidia: Final Fantasy, where they will be voiced by Toshihiko Seki and Kenji Utsumi respectively in the Japanese version.
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