Final Fantasy - The Journey That Started It All
I first played Final Fantasy when I was seven years old. I probably got it for Christmas in 1987, but the details are a bit fuzzy. Most of my gaming life to that point was spent in games like Centipede or Super Mario Bros. where the “story” lived only in my imagination based on the limited introduction given in the instruction manuals at the time.
Final Fantasy was different. I knew it was a paradigm shift immediately, even though I wouldn’t know that phrase until Final Fantasy XIII two decades later. The game itself was far too difficult for me to beat at that age, but it captivated me with its sense of discovery and adventure. Meeting kings, rescuing princesses, and stepping into a world full of towns, caves, and monsters felt like a novel coming alive. It was magical.
Todd the Fighter
Dave the Black Belt
Jed the Black Mage
QT the White Mage
QT was a girl in my mind, but in elementary school giving her the name of a female classmate felt like a bold confession, so I kept it anonymous and generic. Later in life, I would see the White Mage (and moreso the White Wizard) as a male and name him Kiru after my Final Fantasy XI character who was also a White Mage.
It took me nearly a decade to conquer the NES version of Final Fantasy. I was 16 and over-hyped for Final Fantasy VII to launch, replaying all the classics to fill the time over the summer leading up to it. The day I finished it, I felt like I closed a loop that began when I was seven. I finally mastered a game that had introduced me to a lifetime of stories.
Game Breakdown
Final Fantasy is a short but dense JRPG, beatable in a weekend if you know what you’re doing. The moment-to-moment gameplay loop is simple. You explore towns for hints. You explore the overworld for dungeons. You explore dungeons for upgrades. Those upgrades come in the form of experience to level up, loot from treasure chests, or gil (money) to buy new spells and equipment when you head back to town and thus the loop begins anew.
The game opens asking you to build a party of four members from a choice of six jobs or character classes. The freedom to choose between warriors, thieves and wizards felt incredible to my young mind. Later learning those classes would go through an optional evolution was even crazier. When my White Mage was finally a White Wizard wielding Thor’s Hammer and could call down lightning with it, my imagination was in full overdrive.
By modern standards, the story is a bit thin. However in 1987, it felt groundbreaking. The world’s light mythology about crystals, dragons, chaos, and legendary heroes of light was enough to spark my imagination for years (decades) to come. Even being able to name your party members with the four-character name limit became a huge part of the game’s charm. Homages to this would be paid in Final Fantasy XI and Strange of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin years later - even my old Black Mage “Jed” suddenly found himself fighting alongside Jack - at least that’s how it is in my headcanon.
Even in this early game, the music deserves special mention. Nobuo Uematsu remains one of my favorite composers of all time, and Final Fantasy really planted the seeds of what would become an entire franchise of iconic soundtracks. Although, Uematsu was working with the NES’s limited sound hardware, he managed to craft themes that felt bigger than the gray packaging that contained them. “Prelude” and “Victory” are simple 8-bit compositions that carry that spirit of adventure and transcend the NES hardware. Later games’ soundtracks would certainly outshine in complexity and emotion, but these foundational first tracks on this first score would echo through the entire series. “Chaos Shrine” and “Mt. Gulg” have permanent residence status in my memory and emotions.
Notable Versions
The NES Original (1987) is punishing but pure. This game had limited spell usage (spell slots) rather than MP pools that later games would adopt. Predicting the party’s lethality is a necessary strategy, because if the Fighter kills the enemy the rest of the team is targeting, then everyone after him will fight that empty space. This is what I consider to be a true “hard mode” version of this game.
The Dawn of Souls on Game Boy Advance (2004) added smoother combat, the modern MP pool, and additional Soul of Chaos dungeons with bosses ripped from other games in the franchise. The 20th Anniversary edition on Playstation Portable (2007) is my personal “definitive” version with all the content from Dawn of Souls and an additional Labyrinth of Time and Chronodia superboss waiting for you at the end.
We’re currently in the era of Pixel Remaster which boasts sleeker visuals while retaining the original style of the NES version. This version strips out the optional dungeons for a return to form on the original experience.
If I were guiding the modern player to check out Final Fantasy, I would recommend the Pixel Remaster edition. It’s approachable, charming, and true enough to the core experience that I described as short, dense, and magical. While I still hold true that 20th Anniversary is the definitive version with all the bells and whistles and extra content, the optional content can frankly be a slog and a distraction from that succinct weekend adventure I’m promising. If you end up loving the game, check out the versions with more content later down the road.
Snapshot
Pros:
Short, dense adventure that respects your time (10-20 hours)
Party building freedom and satisfying upgrades; good for replaying with different combinations of characters to choose from when building a party
Timeless sense of discovery and nostalgia; see the origin story of a huge franchise
Pixel Remaster makes it easy for modern gamers to access and enjoy
Cons:
Story is dense, but sparse; no cutscenes, no exposition - just the player experience and dialogue from NPCs in towns to build the world, explore the lore and define the narrative
NES Original mechanics feel clunky and archaic compared to later versions
Those optional dungeons are more padding than payoff; fighting bosses from future games is cool, but the dungeons themselves are tedious.
This depends on your values as a gamer, but the game does not hold your hand. It expects you to talk to the town NPCs and follow clues to complete objectives. There is not a shiny line leading you from point A to point B or quest markers over anyone’s head. Exploring and discovery is part of the design. This is frustrating to some, refreshingly old-school to others.
Final Reflection
Final Fantasy didn’t just entertain me. It really shaped me. It was my first window into how video games could tell real, captivating stories. It merged my love for fantasy, mythology, and adventure into an interactive experience. Even now, decades later, it’s more than nostalgia. It’s the game that pushed me from gamer to storyteller. It was the first spark that would carry me into a lifetime of RPGs and creative writing - endless imaginary worlds would follow.
If you’ve never played this game, go in expecting a short, charming experience that is basically a time capsule from the dawn of the JRPG genre. For me, everything I love about games today really traces back to those four little heroes on the NES exploring the unknown to save a world.
