After my decision to start playing the Final Fantasy series from the beginning, I started last night. I ended up playing this first one, Final Fantasy, on the Game Boy Advance for reasons I stated in the first post, and I’m happy I did. First time I played FF1, it was a ROM of the original, which does not stand the test of time. First time I seriously played it, it was on PSP which was good, but I wanted to try the GBA version.
So in the interest of getting the most out of the game, I consulted a few guides on advice on what jobs to play with. I ended up with a Thief, Red Mage, White Mage, and Black Mage. What I was reading is that the game really is beatable with any combination of characters, but I wanted to go for “fun”, which meant I don’t want any straight damage dealers, hence 3 mages and a theif. I also really like the Red Mage class in pretty much any Final Fantasy because that’s what I played in FFXI.
The picture included in this post is where I’m at currently, so lets start talking about the game itself. First off, this version feels good. The battle system is nice, the world map feels intuitive, and the world map also is a big help.
The story starts off so generic, in the Kingdom of Coneria where a Princess has been captured by Garland, a man who has not always been evil. The King recognizes your group as the Warriors of Light and asks for your help! He says that he’ll rebuild the bridge going north if you rescue the princess, therefore leading you on your way. You accept and head to the first dungeon, which really is nothing more than two single rooms that have little content (for now). After beating Garland, the King is overjoyed and the bridge is fixed. You get a lute from the princess and you move on. You learn more about the Crystals and how unless the Warriors of Light restore the crystals the world will go back into darkness. Next up, the Town of Pravoka.
In Pravoka, a pirate has taken over town! Lots of new magic and equipment to get here, so I built up for a while (probably more than needed, seeing how I killed the 6 pirates with ease and then their leader). He, of course, gave me his boat because he’s “changed his ways” and is no longer a bad guy…oh well, off to Elfheim. Why? I don’t know, there really is little to no story. Even talking to everyone, you get little tidbits of things to come, but nothing major.
Elfheim is the kingdom of, you guessed it, Elf’s. It’s also the Kingdom of extremely expensive magic! Level 3 and 4 magic is available here (i’m guessing the dev’s only meant for someone to aquire the lvl 3 ones for now, but I built up enough to get a little of each). To put it in perspective, each level 4 spell costs 2500, level 3 spells cost 1000. I have 3 mages, each needing 3 spells for each level. If I wanted to fill it up, I’d need over 31,000 gold. With each mob in this area giving between 90-300 gold, it took me a while to get just the minimum amount I wanted, about 20,000. This took about 35-45 minutes to do, but it was worth it because now not only am I head in Magic, but also in levels.
Back to the story. Something is (of course) wrong in Elfheim! The prince is cursed! I also found out that a kingdom is in ruin because the King’s crown has been stolen and that I need to find his crown in a cave nearby.
So this is where I am, about level 16, 3:45 into it on a quest for the first of four crystals! I’m having a lot of fun with this, didn’t really expect to enjoy the Battle system so much. I didn’t expect it to be so…rewarding? Levels come fast, money comes pretty fast, and the magic you get (even at level 3 and 4) is really powerful, especially for a Black Mage. I forgot how much a white mage is important in this game, because potions are at a premium and you heal, a lot.
I don’t remember exactly, but I know this game is pretty short, so with any luck I’ll have maybe 4 or 5 of these checkpoints in total before moving on to Final Fantasy II. Because I originally beat FF1 and FF2 on PSP, they run together for me, so I actually don’t remember a lot of what’s going on until it happens. I don’t remember how the game ends or anything like that, so I’m having a lot of fun!
It reminds me a lot of when I played Phantasy Star 1 a few months back. The story was almost non-existent, you need a guide to really be able to get through it with no problems, and lots of grinding, which even then doesn’t guarantee success.