Spoiler: This isn’t the Final Fantasy.
It was the First.
There hasn’t been a final, yet, despite the gnashing of teeth and widespread JRPG
backlash.
Hell, most people don’t even know why Final Fantasy was, potentially, the Final Fantasy.
So sit right back and you’ll hear a tale, of a struggling developer and publisher of
oddities like Aliens for the MSX (and apparently Sigourney Weaver is the new George Orwell),
the Space-Harrier-esque 3-D WorldRunner, and Nakayama Miho no Tokimeki High School, which
means nothing to anyone not concerned with late-80’s Japanese pop idols or the earliest
prehistory of dating sims.
Things were bad, so producer Hironobu Sakaguchi threw it all on the line in one last-ditch
effort to combine a popular swords-and-sorcery setting (some would call it a direct aping
of 1st-edition D&D) with an epic adventure.
(Further note: Though it’s sometimes cited as a reason for the strife leading up to Final
Fantasy, the moderately-racially-insensitive Square’s Tom Sawyer actually came a year
after Final Fantasy II.)
Suffice it to say, their plan worked.
Final Fantasy became a breakout hit, Square was in the black again, and it’s been their
MO ever since to keep the cash cow fed.
Case in point: Final Fantasy II landed just 365 days after the original.
That’s a turnaround to make even Capcom’s head spin.
But the first installment in the series has never been forgotten...
how could it be, seeing as how it’s been ported, remade, and otherwise contorted onto...
the MSX2, the Wonderswan Color, the PlayStation, four different Japanese mobile phone networks,
the PSP, Wii Virtual Console, iOS, and double-packed with Final Fantasy II on the NES, PlayStation,
and GameBoy Advance.
Fortunately, as far as classic RPG experiences go, it’s tough to find one that held up
better to the years of scrutiny.
More importantly, it would set the rails for the games that would follow it, introducing
elements like the Airship, crystals, timey-wimey shenanigans (huh, bit of deja vu there) and
optional superbosses like WarMech.
However, certain elements - like choosing immutable classes at the beginning of the
game, lack of interpersonal relation between your team (vis “The Warriors of Light Who
Just Happened To All Show Up At The Same Time”), the pseudo-Vancian magic system, and class
promotion - didn’t make it out of this one alive (well, save for a brief revival of the
magic system for the Famicom version of Final Fantasy III.)
Every game in the series is unique for what it does and doesn’t borrow from its neighbors;
it’s interesting to look back and try to understand why the elements that caught on
did so.
The plot’s familiar to several generations of gamers, if by rote alone: Garland’s stolen
the princess, and it’s your job as the magical dudes what just showed up to save her.
You do so, and learn that while that’s all well and good, fiends at every corner of the
earth have been wreaking havoc, and if you’re the kind of heroes that can save a princess
from a moderately inept knight, you can certainly bash in these supernatural entities.
Goes without saying, of course.
On the way you’ll meet elves, dwarves, pirates, a weird witch and her backward-talking brooms,
and the last resting place of Link (or Erdrick, depending on which version you’re playing).
This Final Fantasy Origins version boasts several improvements over the original, including
a remastered soundtrack, more elaborate sprites, redrawn backgrounds, clarifications of the
script (‘cuz the original was a bit dicey in places,) and a wealth of background information,
from a dynamically-updated bestiary to a collection of the original Yoshitaka Amano concept art.
I hesitate to call this the definitive edition, if only because there are so bleeding many
of ‘em, but it’s certainly a good jumping-off point.
Especially seeing as how you can still play it on your PS3!
So convenient.