Ah, the first Final Fantasy that started it all. Hironobu Sakaguchi's ironic swan song that ended up lasting far longer than anyone in Square's company could have ever imagined. I've never owned this game despite my 40+ game collection for my NES nor did I knew it existed as I never pondered in my youth, "Where's the first Final Fantasy?" when I delved in Final Fantasy II for the SNES. The game now would be useless to me, as I no longer own a NES system as it was sold without my okay in a garage sale. Luckily, I picked up Final Fantasy: Dawn of Souls a few years back so I'm prepared to play this game, especially since it's now portable. I know it's not exactly the first Final Fantasy game but it's close enough for me. When I first bought the game, I only reached level 20 before losing interest in it completely. With no. 2, I only walked around the first town you're in, just to see what it was like.
The natural thing to do was to start a new game so here's the party I created. My line-up is as followed; a Warrior named Mugen (From the anime, Samurai Champloo), a White Mage named Konoka (From the anime, Negima!), a Thief named Bacon (see what I did there), and lastly a Monk by the name of T. Jaa (couldn't fit his whole name). The last one is named after martial artist Tony Jaa. (If you're curious about him just look him up on youtube.) At first, I thought my line-up was good, however I realized after playing a great deal of the game that all I really had is one magic user. I began regretting my decision early on as I didn't have much of a strategy other than mash the A button.
This game is simple, however I still needed Gamefaqs in orders to move along. Not for the boss battles, just figuring out where to go next. There is barely any indication of where or what I should do to continue my quest. By accident, I managed to get key items that I never understood what they were for. Who knew that the levistone would grant me access to an airship? I thought it was for reaching the floating castle to relight the last crystal. And the rat's tail downright confounded me. No one ever explained in game that it was for upgrading my parties' class. Some clarity or hints would have been nice with this game. (That dancer in Cornelia was hardly useful after beating the Lich.)
Just like in FF6, random battles appeared way too frequently. Trying to navigate a dungeon becomes monumental as every other step impeded my progress. In certain areas of a cave/dungeon, stepping on specific tiles will trigger a battle that's usually next to a chest. You may think that this is an annoyance but it's an unintentional exploitation for me. "Why?" you may ask. The enemies reserved for these instant battles offer a great deal of exp points when defeated. This is great way to grind a couple of levels before fighting any boss. The one enemy I killed the most, Earth Elementals. According to the bestiary, I've kill 274 of them. You could say I had gotten a bit carried away with the grinding…
Doing this grinding trick made the game 10x easier with my party, however I never realized that doing the Soul of Chaos dungeons (the new content) weren't part of the main quest. After defeating Lich, I headed straight over to the Earthgift Shrine and began getting my butt handed to me time and time again by the bosses within. I admit that wasn't my proudest moment but it did teach me a lesson, steer clear of new content until you're done with the game (or least close to the end).
When I upgraded my party's class, I noticed a significant difference on what they were capable to do. First off, Mugen and Bacon can now use magic and Konoka was able to wield top tier white magic. T. Jaa turned into a Master and now he can also be called a beast. After I unequipped him, his attack power caused 1000+ damage to pratically every enemy. My jaw dropped in disbelieve as up until the upgrade, my warrior did more damage than him. On a side note, Konoka's & Bacon's HP at level 60 was 777. Just thought it was interesting to mention.
Once I was able to reach the final dungeon/area, I decided to re-do the Soul of Chaos dungeons. At level 60-ish it was significantly easier to over come. I breezed through them all but it became tedious with the last two dungeons. After getting to floor 10 and beyond, I just wanted to throw the game into oncoming traffic instead of going through another floor. At least I managed to level my party to level 80 when I did finish those dungeons and not to mention some epic gear. By the time I did fight the last boss, Chaos, I was way overpowered for him.
Some of my gripes for this game have already been brushed upon: the short intervals between battles, and no indication on where to go next. I also noticed an abundance of color swapped enemies as you go through the game. I think there were at least a dozen different goblin enemies that had different color palette as the game progressed. This is a very cheap way of cutting corners during development but it is understandable considering the financial troubles the company had during it's development in the mid 80's. The only other thing was the lack of magic you can teach your party. Being a wizard granted top tier magic but only for the white and black wizards. And if you have anyone else, you would have to upgrade the classes in order to gain access to them and they're the low tier kind.
Musically wise, there are some strong contenders for being my top favorite. I really love the battle theme, as it doesn't get too annoying to listen to after the thousandth battle you enter. Gurgu Volcano and Floating Castle is very soothing considering that you are in a dungeon filled with countless enemies. Definitely not an all-bad soundtrack to listen to, especially when you are on the road and the only thing to occupy yourself is music.
As far as Final Fantasy goes, I think I've said my peace. My time playing was somewhat enjoyable except for getting lost and having to grind a couple of times. If I chose a grading system it would be a 4 out of 5 or in Gamespot's system a 7.5. Not too bad, not too great either but I wouldn't recommend it if you never played an RPG before. It just has it's place in history and keep it at that.