Archive: Final Final Fantasy

Even though I have a couple dozen unplayed video games in my queue (a problem exacerbated by the recent Steam summer sale) I recently felt the urge to play through the original Final Fantasy again. I'm not sure exactly why. It was the first RPG I ever played, but not the one I obsessed over and essentially changed my life - that was Final Fantasy II. However, I arguably spent more time reading and memorizing Nintendo Power's Final Fantasy strategy guide in my youth than actually playing the game. For that reason alone it left an indelible mark on my childhood.

And today, for whatever reason, I think I'm still more interested in playing through it again than other games that I played a ton as a kid, such as FFII, Dragon Warrior/Quest 3, or even Chrono Trigger. Perhaps it's the open-endedness and character customization that still appeal to me as an adult gamer. For whatever reason, I still find it gratifying to get a new weapon or spell in FF1, despite having done the same basic things in countless other games since. So I decided one more trip down memory lane wouldn't hurt, and it might be interesting (to me, if no one else) to blog about the experience. I'm hoping it'll only take about 15 hours to get through (compare that to 80+ hours for FF12), so the other games on my list won't have to wait too long.

Now, some purists will scoff at the fact that I'm playing the FF1 rerelease on the PS1 disc Final Fantasy Origins. To those I say, get with the times (meaning, an early '90s remake released in the U.S. in 2003, of a game that originally appeared in Japan in 1987). Sure, I could play through the original on an emulator, but I want to play on my big screen and enjoy the updated graphics and music, which still sounds awesome. Also I find the few "modern" amenities that the remake offers, such as clearly showing the effects weapons and armor have when equipped and more storage space for said equipment, a nice convenience that do not make the game less "hardcore." Believe me, it's still the same challenge. Your low-level characters still can't hit the broad side of a barn with their swords. The other most noticeable change is renaming certain monsters and spells to be more in line with later FF games, which has its benefits and drawbacks. While I have no problem renaming CONF to Muddle, it also means that we lose some of the greatest spell names in FF history, such as HARM and XXXX (almost as creative as Dragon Warrior's Hurt and Hurtmore). Either way, it's still not as bad as the spell renaming in Dragon Quest 8, which replaced series mainstays like Firevolt with - I kid you not - Kafrizzle. Fo shizzle, yo.

I no longer have the Nintendo Power strategy guide (or maybe it's still buried in my parents' house somewhere - not sure), so my goal for this playthrough is to explore every nook and cranny as much as possible, without looking for help whatsoever. My memory should serve well enough toward that end. In my youth I was glued to the strategy guide and followed very precise routes in the dungeons, afraid to stray from the main path. This time I plan on exploring as much as possible in an attempt to experience the game in as pure a fashion as I can, with the immense history I have still firmly lodged in my memory.

What party formation did I decide on for this quest? I wanted to do something a little different than my usual mainstays of fighter, black belt, red mage, and either white mage or black mage, depending on who the red mage replaced. I wanted to have a thief in my party, even though I've always thought they generally suck until they class-up to a ninja. They can't even steal like in every other FF game, and they're not even really as good of a fighter as the red mage due to their limited weapon selection. Still, I wanted to throw one in for the challenge. Who gets the axe then? A fighter is a must, and I love my red mages. A thief is a poor replacement for a black belt, so I decided I would go balls-out with physical power and drop the other mage from my party. This will mean the red mage will be carrying the entire magical load until the class change, but I think it'll work out ok. Only about 3 spells per level are must-haves anyway, and I'll get my healing through potions. The limited uses may hurt, however. I think the hardest part of the game will be the midsection, when frequent uses of the level 2 and early level 3 black magic spells are lifesavers - and I won't have too many available. Later on, however, you get so many items that cast spells in battle that they should make up for my lack of magical prowess. Again, I'm doing it for the challenge. Not to mention the opportunity to name my characters after board game designers. So we have Saxon (respelling of Sackson, as in Sid) the fighter, Reiner (Kinizia) the thief, Vlaada (Chvatil) the black belt, and (Wolfgang) Kramer the red mage.

Currently I'm about 2 hours in and immersed in what I believe to be the longest grinding segment of the game, before venturing into the Marsh Cave - the game's first real dungeon. (Fun fact - before I had ever heard the term "grinding," I called it "level building.") It's going well, not least because the glitch/secret spot northeast of Pravoka where you can fight super strong enemies to gain uber XP and gold is still present in the remake. I'm well on my way to restoring the Crystals. Check back later for updates on my journey.


Captain's Log: 6 hours in and ready to descend to the depths of the Earth Cave to take on Lich, first of the elemental fiends.

Since last I blogged I've slogged through the Marsh Cave, which I often thought to be one of the hardest dungeons in the game. You have to do some serious grinding before tackling it otherwise you WILL get your ass handed to you. Even at the proper levels, some characters (*cough* thief *cough*) still lack real fighting power, making them close to useless.

While playing through the Marsh Cave I discovered what I believe is a chief reason why the dungeons in FF1 still present quite a bit of tension to me. A lot of more modern JRPGs and some western RPGs (Dragon Age, I'm looking your way) only throw about three different enemies per dungeon at you - it becomes very repetitive and predictable. Not so in Final Fantasy. Most dungeons seems to have at least a dozen enemy types, and they come at you in many different numbers and combinations. In short, you never know quite what to expect, and that keeps the endless random battles from getting monotonous (in my opinion, anyway.)

My physical-based party is doing well. Now that I have the Mystic Key I've retrieved a few good weapons (finally) for the thief, the best he'll have available until he becomes a ninja. Relying on my red mage as the only caster is working out fine. I actually find myself using status-effect spells like Sleep and Dark more than I ever have, as these spells disable at least some of the enemies while my warriors pick them off one by one. Large groups of undead are a bit of a hassle, as they are not prone to sleep and I rarely want to use a precious Fire 2 spell on them. Still, they don't have many hit points and generally don't inflict much damage, so they're usually more of an annoyance than anything.

I'm anxious to see how I fare against Lich - I'm sure my thief will be useless, so it'll probably boil down to my red mage casting Fast/Haste on my fighter and black belt and hoping for the best. Stay tuned for the next update.