History of Final Fantasy: The Birth of a Franchise (Final Fantasy I) - Article
by Taneli Palola , posted on 04 September 2016 / 19,026 ViewsWelcome to the first article in a companion series for my history of video games articles. In each of these article series I will be looking at the history of a specific event, company, or video game IP that is in one way or another significant to the industry as a whole. This first series will focus on the history of one of the most successful and beloved RPG series of all time - Final Fantasy.
With the launch of Final Fantasy XV at last creeping close, I felt that this was an excellent time to take a detailed look at the venerated franchise and its myriad ups and downs over the last three decades. In these articles I will talk about each of the main installments in the Final Fantasy series, and will also cover the more notable sequels and spin-offs that have come out over the years.
Before Final Fantasy
The origins of Final Fantasy can be traced back to one man – Hironobu Sakaguchi. He had been working for Squaresoft as a game designer since 1983, contributing to various games. Among these were a few NES classics such as Rad Racer and 3D Worldrunner. Unfortunately, by the time 1986 came along he was considering going back to university as his career hadn't taken off to the extent that he had hoped.
Sakaguchi wanted to make one last game to see if he had any future in the industry, but Square leadership was apprehensive about letting him make the RPG he had wanted to create for a long time because they thought such a project had very little commercial viability. However, the release and subsequent success of Dragon Quest in May of 1986 made them change their minds and Sakaguchi was given the green light for the project.
At the time, Sakaguchi was not only close to giving up on his video game career, Squaresoft was also experiencing serious financial difficulties due to many of its recent games underperforming commercially. The name Final Fantasy was long believed to be a reference to either one of these situations, although in 2015 Sakaguchi stated that in reality he simply wanted the name to be abbreviated as FF, and at first the game was even going to be called Fighting Fantasy.
Initially the development team consisted of just seven people, but as the project began to pick up steam the number of people working on it also increased. Among those who worked on the first Final Fantasy were Hiroyuki Ito, who was integral in designing the turn-based battle system for the game; Yoshitaka Amano, who worked as the game's character designer and main concept artist; and Nobuo Uematsu, who composed the music for the game. These and many others would remain a core part of the development team for many future titles in the series as well.
The Beginning: Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy was first released on December 18th 1987 in Japan for Nintendo's Famicom console. It was an immediate success and effectively brought an end to Squaresoft's financial woes. The game would eventually make its way to North America in 1990, but European gamers would have to wait until 2003 for an official release.
Final Fantasy tells the story of four Warriors of Light who are tasked with saving the world from darkness and restoring power to the crystals of light. Although at first glance Final Fantasy seems to have a traditional 'save the princess' set-up (and indeed the first quest is exactly that), it quickly expands into something completely different.
The story, while simple by today's standards, featured many elements that hadn't really been seen in video games by that point. Gamers were used to the standard RPG tropes of princesses in need of rescue, evil wizards, saving the world, and other straightforward storylines. Then suddenly a high profile game came along that featured a time paradox as one of its major plot points.
This changed the way a lot of people viewed console RPGs and video game stories in general, even if time travel had already been used in some earlier titles. For the time, the story in Final Fantasy was genuinely complex and groundbreaking, and served as the basis for many future plot details in Final Fantasy games.
The main characters on the other hand are about as barebones as you can get, being little more than silent class archetypes like fighters, thiefs, mages, and so on. There's no real character progression outside of them getting class upgrades later in the game, which is more of a gameplay feature than anything related to actual character development.
This first game introduced numerous elements that have become integral parts of the long-running series. Airships made their first appearance in this debut entry, as did many of the familiar job classes like fighter, thief, and black mage that have remained integral to the series ever since. Final Fantasy also gave us quite a few musical themes that are used in almost every single new release in the series.
Among these are songs such as Prelude, Theme of Final Fantasy, and the Victory theme, which are now considered series staples. And, of course, Bahamut makes his first appearance in Final Fantasy as the king of dragons who provides the player with class upgrades.
The Best Part
How the game looks and sounds. Regardless of whether it's the original or one of the many remakes, Final Fantasy looks and sounds excellent for its time. Uematsu was already a very good composer at this point in his career, but he created some truly memorable pieces of music for Final Fantasy, and even the basic sound effects evoke a sense of nostalgia.
The game world and character sprites have so much character that they somehow manage to transcend the admittedly outdated graphics of the NES original. Later versions also feature wonderful re-imaginings of both the music and visuals that still to this day make the game a pleasure to play through.
The Worst Part
The constant fetch quests. At one point in the game, in order to make your way to a new region you need to get a crown so you can get a crystal to bring to an old woman for a herb to cure a prince who gives you a key to open a chest full of dynamite to blow a way through a canal so you can sail through it. It gets quite silly at times. Fetch quests are nothing new, but at least in most modern games they are usually masked in some way to make them more intriguing. In Final Fantasy they aren't. It's all about getting that certain item so you can get another item to give to someone so you can progress to the next part of the game.
Does It Still Hold Up?
No, not really. But, you should still play it, if only once. Just stay as far away from the NES version as possible; there's nothing but frustration to be found there, thanks to a single baffling design choice that makes battles an absolute chore. Basically, if you kill an enemy during combat, the other characters who targeted that enemy won't switch to the next available target, but instead try to hit the enemy that is no longer there, missing their attacks and wasting a potentially crucial turn.
There's no doubt that the original Final Fantasy contains a lot of elements that haven't aged all that well. As already mentioned the story is fairly simple by today's standards, although it has a certain charm to it thanks to this simplicity. The random encounter rate is very high and in general there's a lot of grinding involved while playing.
Final Fantasy is also very stingy when it comes to directing the player, which leads to a lot of aimless wandering around the world looking for the right person to talk or the correct place to stand. This also makes the pacing of the game quite erratic, with long stretches without anything of note happening.
Still, there is enough in the game to warrant at least one playthrough, especially if you're interested in seeing where the series got its start. The music, story, and gameplay are engaging enough to carry the game through its relatively short playtime. However, if you are looking to play the game at some point then I strongly recommend getting one of the remakes instead of the original, as they fix a lot of the more frustrating elements found in the NES version.
Indeed, the PSP version is probably your best bet. It features many of the best updates and changes that have been made to the game over the years, and is probably the easiest version to find these days. Final Fantasy is one of only a handful of games that in many ways established the basics of modern console RPGs, alongside titles like Dragon Quest. As such, it definitely deserves to be played and remembered for the influence it has had on countless other titles.
Final Fantasy has unfortunately lost a lot of its allure over the years. RPGs have naturally evolved and changed a lot, both in general and within the Final Fantasy series itself, making many of the design choices found in the game very archaic and clumsy by comparison. It's still a decent game, but most of its appeal is held by its historic value. I enjoyed playing through it once on the PSP, but I'm not sure I'll ever return to it again.
Fun Fact
Did you know that one of the most iconic pieces of music in the entire Final Fantasy canon, the Prelude, was a last minute addition to the game which took Nobuo Uematsu roughly ten minutes to compose? It has since appeared in almost every single Final Fantasy game ever made.
As always, thanks for reading, and I'll return soon with the second part in this retrospective look at the Final Fantasy series.
Sources:
- Weekly Famitsu
- Wikia
- 1up
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Ah the one that started it all for me. I remember I was stuck at one part and took me forever to figure it out but managed. Hopefully I'll find time to replay this again.
Prelude took 10 minutes because Enya - Aldebaran which it copies. Seriously, I think I hear Enya's music is so many games and it's no coincidence that most of it came out the same year or year later in games.
Final Fantasy on the FF origins on PS is extremely well done.
agree! I'm currently playing the PS version and I think it's great, updated what seemed too old from the NES version while keeping it as close as to possible to the original, and of course keeping the retro feel
Thanks! Will read later. I have to say, for years I was hoping FF would somehow return to Nintendo systems, but all I've seen about modern FF wasn't my taste at all. Then I had high hopes for "Last Story", which ended up too convoluted though.. didn't finish. Kinda hoping they'll completely reboot and rethink FF at some point.
@Ka-pi96: Possibly, yes... It's only handheld though, I much prefer console games.
Yes! A Final Fantasy retrospective! I love this series. I have this game on PSP, but I haven't played it yet. My brother currently is, though.
I'm glad you like it. I do recommend playing the game at least once if you have the time.
I remember playing the Dawn Of Souls edition, and yes... There was at least one section of the game which had me clueless as of where to go.
The prelude is such an amazing thing, because it is mostly just some sort of chromatic scale going up and down in loop, but it packs so much nostalgia with it. Later versions with real instruments (them strings baby!) Just add on the charm it already has. Now the FF XV Prelude's has vocals, but it sounds as beautiful as ever.
Seems awfully similar at times to... http://kotaku.com/final-fantasy-the-kotaku-retrospective-1773438013
Good read, can't wait to read them all.
The picture of the jobs is from FF3 :P I have it on GBA :)