Final Fantasy (video game)

Did You Know?

• The game was originally conceived under the working title Fighting Fantasy, but trademark issues prompted the name change.
• A soundtrack album was released together with the score of Final Fantasy II in 1989.
• 8-Bit Theater, a sprite-based webcomic by Brian Clevinger that parodies the game, started in March 2001.

Gameplay

Final Fantasy features four basic modes: an overworld map, town and dungeon maps, a battle screen, and a menu screen. The overworld is a scaled-down version of the game's world, and the player directs characters to various locations on foot, later gaining access to a ship, canoe, and airship. Enemies are encountered randomly on field maps and the overworld when traveling by foot, canoe, or ship, except for some preset battles or boss fights; the player can fight or flee. The plot develops as the player explores towns and dungeons, where citizens offer information or run shops, and dungeons contain treasure chests with rare items. The menu screen tracks experience points and levels, allows equipment changes, and lets the player use items and magic. A character's level, ranging from one to fifty, is determined by experience gained from winning battles, and leveling up increases attributes such as hit points (HP); a character dies when HP reaches zero. Combat is menu-based and turn-based, with options like Attack, Magic, and Item. Victory grants experience and money (Gil), fleeing returns to the map, and a party wipe results in a game over with loss of unsaved progress. Final Fantasy was the first game to show player characters on the right side of the screen and enemies on the left, instead of a first-person view.

Development

Hironobu Sakaguchi had long wanted to make a role-playing game, but Square refused permission due to expected low sales. After the success of Dragon Quest in Japan, the company approved Sakaguchi's vision of an RPG inspired by Ultima and Wizardry. Only three colleagues volunteered to join the project, as Sakaguchi was considered a rough boss despite his unsuccessful creations. The team, called the A-Team, consisted of seven core staff members. Sakaguchi convinced Koichi Ishii and Akitoshi Kawazu to join; Kawazu designed the battle system and sequences, heavily basing them on Dungeons & Dragons and Wizardry. He introduced enemy elemental weaknesses, such as fire and ice, which had not appeared in Japanese RPGs before, and advocated for the player's ability to freely choose party member classes at the start, believing that character creation was part of the fun.

Versions and re-releases

Final Fantasy has been remade for several platforms and often packaged with Final Fantasy II. The first re-release was for the MSX2 in Japan in December 1989, with nearly three times the storage space of the Famicom version but noticeable loading times, minor graphical upgrades, and improved music and sound effects. In 1994, the compilation Final Fantasy I・II was released for the Famicom in Japan with few graphical updates. The WonderSwan Color remake, released in Japan on December 9, 2000, featured many graphical changes, including updated 8-bit graphics, full background images in battle, and redrawn character and enemy sprites resembling those from Super Famicom Final Fantasy games. For the PlayStation, Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy II were re-released separately and as a combined game; the collection was released in Japan in 2002 as Final Fantasy I & II Premium Package and in Europe and North America in 2003 as Final Fantasy Origins, with more detailed graphics, a remixed soundtrack, full motion video sequences, art galleries of Yoshitaka Amano's illustrations, and a memo save function. This port was re-released in the Final Fantasy 25th Anniversary Ultimate Box package in December 2012. The Game Boy Advance version, Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls, released in 2004, added four new dungeons, an updated bestiary, and minor changes.

Reception

Final Fantasy was well received by critics and commercially successful. The original Famicom version shipped 520,000 copies in Japan, and by 1994 Square's publicity department reported 600,000 copies sold in Japan. The NES release sold 700,000 copies in North America. As of March 2003, all versions had shipped 1.99 million copies worldwide, with 1.21 million in Japan and 780,000 abroad. By November 2007, a PlayStation Portable version had shipped 140,000 copies. IGN ranked it the 11th best NES game, praising its class system and vehicle travel. GamesRadar ranked it the eighth best NES game, noting that Dragon Warrior introduced the genre but Final Fantasy popularized it. In 2004, Retro Gamer readers voted it the 93rd top retro game. Famitsu readers voted it the 63rd best game of all time in 2006, and GameFAQs users ranked it 76th in 2005. Nintendo Power placed it 49th on its Top 200 Games list and 19th on its best NES games list in 2008, praising it for establishing console RPG basics alongside Dragon Warrior. Time Extension included it on its Best JRPGs of All Time list in 2023.