Final Fantasy

Let us go back to the roots. This is what started the day all off, the original Final Fantasy, released for North American in 1990, on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). I still have the console and the game itself. As a reminder to what started my gaming addiction, I have them placed in special locales.

Being a game of the 80’s, Final Fantasy looks simple from today’s point of perspective. However, at the time of its release, it can be considered one of the complex games, rivalling maybe to Dragon Quest and Legend of Zelda. It is the game that sparks then Squaresoft (now Square-Enix) jump into mainfray gaming and saved them from certain bankruptcy.

There were few, if none at all, character development in this game. The characters and the NPCs are as is. It was the 80’s after all. However, the storyline is very complex, and downright tedious. They have elements of airships, time travel, the legendary crystals, and various magic.

The amount of random encounters gamers have to put through in this game is nothing compared to the modern final fantasy games. What is worse is that gamers cannot save their progress within dungeons. That adds to just how tedious it can be if the party is not fully prepared before embarking to dungeons.

Final Fantasy sets the tone for some of the repeated and identical features of all final fantasy games – Bahamut, Chocobo, Cid (to some extent), airships, crystals, and many others. It is arguably one of the most mind-blowing games of its time.