Final Fantasy (NES, 1990)

Final Fantasy is the most famous console RPG franchise in the world, and possibly the most popular. With 14 installments in the main franchise, and numerous ports, remakes, and spin-offs, Square's best-selling series has moved over 97 million units to date. The title itself is misleading, as people have often asked me, "Why is it called Final Fantasy when they just keep making more??"

How's about you stop asking me that question?!

As the story goes, back in the late 80's, Square was failing as a company. On the verge of bankruptcy, they assigned a small team led by young developer Hironobu Sakaguchi to put out a new type of game, different from what Square had been doing up until that point. Sakaguchi knew that if the game failed, the company would most likely go under, and he swore he would quit the game industry and go back to school to learn something else. Thus, he called the game "Final Fantasy" to describe his delicate situation.

The mustachioed man himself. Sadly, he's no longer with
Square-Enix but has his own studio, Mistwalker.

The game was obviously a smashing success, and not only saved Square (and Sakaguchi's job) but also popularized the RPG genre. It laid the groundwork for future installments in the franchise, introducing things like crystals and airships. But does it stand the test of time?

1987-era NES programming glitch = 1987-era NES Invisible Lady.

Sort of. Final Fantasy plays like your traditional RPG. You start off the game by choosing four characters (The "Four Heroes of Light") and assign a job class to each one. What you choose will determine your characters' stats and abilities. A well-rounded party may consist of a Fighter, a Black Mage, a Black Belt, and a White Mage, for example. For someone who wants a tougher challenge, you could create a party of only White Mages. This small amount of customization was unusual back in the NES days, and certainly added to the game's appeal.

The adventure begins!

Each of your party members carries a darkened orb, representing a different element. Their quest is to revitalize the orbs by defeating the Four Fiends who are bring chaos and destruction to the world. When each Fiend falls, the orb is returned to light, and peace comes a little closer. Along the way, you'll experience several misadventures, such as rescuing a princess, fighting pirates, and hunting down a vampire.

Four fiends, but not the Four Fiends.

While wandering the overworld map and exploring dungeons, you'll experience lots of random encounters, which would become a staple of the Final Fantasy series. Battles themselves are turn-based, and when you win, you gain experience points which will level your characters' stats. Unfortunately, this is where two of the game's most glaring flaws come into play: First, there is no auto-targeting -- for example: you are fighting a group of enemies, and you instruct your entire party to focus on Enemy A. The Fighter manages to defeat Enemy A in one turn. Rather than the next party member going on to attack Enemy B, the team will continue to attack the empty space that Enemy A once occupied. This is highly annoying, as you're constantly having to estimate how many attacks it will take to kill one enemy before you can direct attacks to the next one. Second, this game does require quite a bit of mindless level grinding to proceed: the first installment of Final Fantasy is generally considered by fans to be the most difficult.

Be ill-prepared and die!!

Despite these flaws, Final Fantasy set a precedent for further installments and is definitely worth a playthrough. It's really great to see the groundwork of a million-dollar franchise, and despite being originally released in Japan back in 1987, Final Fantasy fans will feel a sense of familiarity upon playing. It may not live up to today's RPGs, with their endless customization, colorful casts, and epic stories, but it's impossible to call yourself a retro gamer without this game in your repertoire.

Final Fantasy has been remade, re-released, and ported multiple times. Luckily, the targeting issue was fixed for each port, so the battle experience has definitely improved. The first remake for the United States was found in Final Fantasy Origins (a still-in-print PSOne title), which has updated graphics and is paired with the previously Japan-only title, Final Fantasy II. There is also Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls for Game Boy Advance and the simply-named Final Fantasy for PSP. It's also available on Wii's Virtual Console service for 500 Wii Points. And if that's not enough, you can even download Final Fantasy for Apple devices and mobile phones. But if you're really not into the new-fangled technologies, well, then there's always Amazon, where you can find Final Fantasy new and used for NES at varying prices.