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Final Fantasy I Recap, Episode II: Astos Makes Asses Of Us

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…with borrowed Breath of Fire III characters adding personality to the generic Four Warriors of Light.

INTERLUDE:

Comparison of 1990 FFI on NES (first English edition of Final Fantasy) vs. the 20th Anniversary Edition ported to iOS, which is what I’m playing.

Here’s the start of the original NES version of Final Fantasy (skip to 1:25 for beginning of real gameplay, 3:38 for throne room):

Here’s the start of iOS Final Fantasy (skip to 1:49 for beginning of real gameplay, 1:55 for throne room):

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Final Fantasy I Recap, Episode I: MAKE MY GODDAMN TEA

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Items and Item shops in the iOS / 20th anniversary edition are symbolized by a teapot. I approve of a game that uses tea infusions as restoratives.

Note: To help me deal with the cardboard cutout protagonists of the original Final Fantasy I, I borrowed names/personalities from an old favorite, Breath of Fire III. (Except for the main character, which I always called “Spoo” for comic effect.)

So apologies for the peanut gallery commentary from characters whom you don’t know, but they’re fairly self-explanatory.

*DRUMROLL*

[CUE PROLOGUE CUTSCENE TALKING ABOUT CRYSTALS GOING PLOTZ, PROPHECIES, ETC, ETC WITH AWESOME UEMATSU MUSIC]

…After a long journey, four young travelers did at last appear, and in the hand of each was clutched a crystal.


Rei: Why the heck do I have a crystal? Can I sell it?
Nina: It’s an FF game. We gots to have crystals.
Momo: WHERE THE FRICK IS MY GRENADE LAUNCHER?
Spoo: …

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Introduction: Let’s Play Final Fantasy I

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My friends sev and las at Moogle University had the insane idea to replay ALL the Final Fantasy games, or at least the first ten, in a 2013 gamer marathon. I decided to join the insanity. Here commences my own ten-month-plus journey through the land of chocobos, airships, minimaps, and crazy dudes named Cid.

First up on our plate is Final Fantasy, the oxymoronically-named game that started the neverending franchise in 1987. I was a teen back then, playing games like Zork, Temple of Aphshai and Karateka on an Apple ][.  I did not discover Final Fantasy until 15 years later, so I missed FF’s old school era entirely.

As I am over forty and have a life, I am violating the path of gamer purity by excusing myself from the original, delightful yet buggy NES version of Final Fantasy, which required massive amounts of grinding, dragging dead characters back to towns for resurrection (no Phoenix Downs for you, sucker!), and conserving the precious few spells one could cast each day.

Instead, I’ve opted for the kinder, gentler, EASY MODE iOS edition of Final Fantasy, which is a port of the remastered 20th anniversary Final Fantasy for PSP.* This will be my first time playing any version of this title. I’m looking forward to a lot of 8-bit and D&D nostalgia (I played tabletop D&D quite a bit in the 80s).

Final Fantasy I iOS

Gotta be an airship somewhere…

But enough expository banter. Let’s play Final Fantasy I!

*(See list of all the Final Fantasy versions on FF Wikia and this GameFAQ guide to differences between the versions).

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