The video I'm pointing to at the end of this video doesn't exist yet, but for now here's some tips to get you through FF1 FASTER! : ua-cam.com/video/16e3p_o1EM0/v-deo.html
Try Final Fantasy Renaissance. It's a remake of the game down in Unity for free with a VASTLY expanded job system and side quests to go along with it. That way you can experience the original graphical style with a fresh approach.
We didn't really struggle with the openness of games in the 80's and 90's. It was either "shut up and play the game" or "Go outside!" These days games are so easy and boring I just go outside, but then I never see any other 40 yr olds around to play with. 😩
It's funny I bought an amber ice emulator a while back... Little handheld that has pretty much everything from the PS1 and back... Here's the thing though... A lot of the games I realized I might need to look up the instruction manual... They had those back in the genesis days... The game didn't have a tutorial built in... The first level wasn't a walk through. Not to mention with only four buttons on the face of the controller the devs got incentive with button combos doing different things... Earthworm Jim got a lot easier when I remembered you could use Jim's worm body as a whip to grab things as well as an offensive weapon. Lol. Even that though... It made me pause the game and just kind of soak that in... Like renting a game and there was no manual. The Beavis and Butthead game on SNES and Sega was harder than it had any business being lol. Wonder if that's on my emulator lol. EDIT: we both have cat pfps... And apparently young souls. Have a happy holiday season etc.
@ScottW967 this game is on the Nes classic!? Are FF2 and FF3 on there as well!? I might purchase me one if they are!! And no I'm not talking about FF4 and FF6 on Snes however if FF4 FF5 and FF6 are on the Snes classic I might go purchase that too!! Always wanted to experience the OGs even if they aren't the definitive way of playing those games these days!!
I love how it adds a ton of new classes and irons out the bugs, but still keeps the NES feel. I tried the pixel remaster, but I went back to FFR as it felt like the most definitive version.
For the time, this was a great game. The risk of going off the beaten path in a cave, looking for the treasure chest my video-game-trained mind knew was likely there, limping out before everyone perished or turned to stone, and the relief of making it back to town - it was an experience that would have been tarnished with modern UI luxuries. Sadly, I had to call the Nintendo Help Line to learn how to get the airship to fly after getting it out of the sand. Guy said something like "walk on it and press B". I felt pretty silly.
You are 100% correct. Making it through the Marsh Cave was a brutal experience, but so satisfying. Making it back to town with dead and poisoned members. I felt like I really accomplished something. Learning to spread out and balance my attacks so I would not be attacking a "dead" enemy taught me how to plan ahead.
Ice caves were possibly more brutal. A group of mages could kill any party member in one shot. The Eye could Xxxx out your entire party. Undead group of 9 could paralyze you and whittle away at your HP. 4 Frost dragons could cast a devastating ice spell. Cockatrices could turn your party into stone. Maybe if you were lucky you picked up the lv5 life spell and you could revive someone only after battle.
All of these are still true in the other versions as well. The difference is that starting with the WonderSwan Colour remake, the majority of the glitches against you have been fixed. The many spells that were bugged and did either nothing, or the opposite of what they're supposed to do have been fixed. Menus are better and you can buy items in bulk easily, there's now a dash button, and some optional toggles to make your experience smoother, like menu cursor memory. At this point the NES version is functionally obsolete compared to the WonderSwan Colour or PS1 versions.
As a kid (and this was new) my friend and I were about 10 hours in before we realized we had to equip our weapons and armor. All the sudden our Black Belt wasn't the only good party member.
@@kur1tan the first (and only) time I played FF1 was after playing Dragon Warrior/Quest, where the shopkeepers helpfully remind you to equip your weapons and armor when you buy them, so I knew that, but the idea of a party constantly dying because they left their equipment in their bags is infinitely hilarious to me. If memory serves, I think 8-Bit Theater even did a joke about that back in the day.
The most annoying part when it comes to misses is if two people target the same enemy, but the first person kills the enemy the second person is gonna miss instead of picking a new target.
Play the WonderSwan Colour or PS1 versions, as it has an optional toggle to re-direct attacks on dead enemies, and fixes the majority of the broken mechanics (special equipment, spells, etc.) that either didn't work or did the opposite of what they're supposed to. NES version is functionally obsolete at this point.
This was my first final fantasy. I was 6 years old and had never played a game in which you had a pause menu that was important! So I never paused the game and never equipped all the weapons and armor I bought. I just assumed it was automatic. I also didn’t read instruction manuals back then. Why bother when games were so simple that you could just jump in and start playing. It wasn’t until a year or two later that I accidentally hit the menu button and realized that I had to manually equip my gear. I finished the game years later. Haha.
I played it as a four player game with a group of friends. We each gave commands to one guy in battles. It was my first FF game too since it was... the first...
People miss a lot when fighting. Why is that considered a negative? In a similar vein, this game used its Wizardry-style “ineffective” attacks based on being out of position in D&D. It’s a simulation, and it’s really strange to me that players fight against realism. Temper and other parts being bugged is a much more serious issue. Temper is so amazing in the GBA version. Edit: I’m playing through the CrystalSwan version right now and am enjoying this game all over again.
I've been playing a lot of randomizers of the original NES version that have bugfixes, and man do some of the bugfixed spells make the game so much easier when it's already kinda easy when you're an adult and not a 5 year old.
It's mostly because in most cases, that kind of missing just otherwise wastes your time. For instance, you're taking the ship from Pravoka to Elfheim to continue the main quest, and encounter a group of 9 Shahagins. They're almost guaranteed to only be slapping you for 1 damage each, but you gotta wait for them all to do just that to attack again. So any attacks missing such non-threatening enemies makes getting through such battles even more of a slog.
@@tamerkoh When I was 10 years old I enjoyed every second of it. Going back and playing FF1 today, every second of it is a slog. I wouldn't be able to bear it at all if it weren't for fast forwarding in emulatiors.
@@thedude5295 I think quality of life improvements and speeding things up like that in general is enough for me, which is why the later versions of FF1 have all but replaced the NES one functionally. WonderSwan Colour or PS1 versions for the spellcharge gameplay, and the PSP version for the MP system with all the bonus content in one package.
@@tamerkoh Yeah. I believe I have played every version by now, although I may have missed an obscure one or two of them. I've even played through a few hacks which patch out bugs and offer some of the subtle and not-so-subtle quality of life improvements without losing the flavor of the original game. I've played this thing so many times at this point I usually ask myself "don't you have better things to do" when I beat it.
I feel like where the lack of a western release for FFII and FFIII particularly hurts the series is that, if somebody asks for a recommendation for an RPG to play on their NES (no imports, emulators, etc.), I'd have a hard time recommending the original Final Fantasy over Dragon Warrior III or IV. Of course, the Final Fantasy series got its revenge in the SNES era when its rival series was a no-show in the west.
Yeah, all the skipping of both FF and DQ game releases were a major disappointment for the US. Even if they didn't make as much as expected, it would still have generated income AND make a lot of people happy who loved the series.
I bought this for my birthday in 1990. I had the guide from nintendo power which helped me get to the end although i couldnt beat chaos. It took me another year to finally get it done but man what a feeling beating old nes games was at that age
Loved this game, at the time I had dragon quest 1 and FF1, and FF1 was such a huge step up. The enhancements in newer versions have kept it fun even today.
I'm very lucky to have an in-box copy of Dragon Quest 1 (Dragon Warrior) sitting on my shelf right now and I have to 100% agree that FF1 is SUCH an improvement overall!
I played this on the original NES, when it first came to the US. I agree, it was a slog, and we had NO CLUE what to do most of the time. To be fair, we were like 7-10 years old, trading the controller between the 4 of us. Chaos took us something like 6 tries, with grinding in between each attempt. I think we had the nintendo power mags with some of the dungeons, but even with that it was confusing. Still, glad to have done it the intended way
At this point I'd say that the NES version is functionally obsolete anyway. If you want to play FF1 with the spell-charge magic system, you'll want to either go to the WonderSwan Colour (WSC) version (which was the first remake version), or the PS1 version, which is an enhanced port of the WSC version. Both have the spell charge system, but also have the majority of the glitches fixed (like how many spells were bugged and didn't do anything, or the opposite of what they're supposed to do on NES). Plus the quality of life improvements, like better menu design, a dash button to move faster and the toggle for redirecting attacks on killed enemies, makes the experience much smoother and less clunky. If you want to play FF1 with the most content and the MP-based magic system, which lets the mages be more viable and not just easily replaced with another warrior or monk, you play the PSP version. It's an enhanced remake of the GBA version which had the majority of the MP-system changes and extra content introduced in the first place. The PSP version has all the GBA content plus more exclusive content in the Labyrinth of Time bonus dungeon, so if you're planning to do one complete playthrough of everything FF1 ever had to offer in one go, the PSP version is the way to go.
I thought the PSP version was pretty good. I think I'd prefer a bugfixed NES original though. Recently I've been going through the whole Dragon Quest series, playing the original and then a remake of everything. So far I really love the originals of everything more. Quality of life improvements make remakes a bit nicer for more casual replays, but I think the originals are the real deal. FF1 PSP was really good though, as is FF4. I keep trying to make myself play FF2 on PSP but I just can't even get going on that came however many times I try. I lose interest like 30 minutes in. I played FF3 on PSP too actually but it's the 3D remake..... which is still okay, but I'd so much rather have one just like the other 2D PSP FF games.
@anonamatron Meanwhile it's the opposite for me; especially the first 3 Dragon Quests, I find the SNES and GBC versions to be the definitive ones. Not just in terms of content, since they have everything DQ1-3 ever had in one go (GBC for 3), but the quality of life improvements quite literally improve the pacing of the games. Having to open the menu and cycle through the commands all the time just to perform a simple action like opening a chest or talking to an NPC, for example, is streamlined with the context-sensitive buttons now. That alone will save you a bunch of unnecessary time waste, but in 3 especially, the faster movement speeds in towns and dungeons will also considerably save you a whole lot of time; I don't know why Enix didn't do that for 1 and 2 as well, they definitely needed that too. Plus the presentation is just miles better on the SNES and GBC compared to the NES versions, and once again especially 3. The monster animations in battle really add a lot to the immersion of the experience, and quite heavily sell just how threatening the foes you're dealing with are. Hearing the heavy swings and slams of the brutes especially! It really makes me wish 1 and 2 were also built on that engine; after playing 3 like that and getting spoiled with such great presentation, it's extremely hard to go back to fighting cardboard cutouts. Most remakes I've played like this functionally make the original obsolete as a result. They still have historical value, mind, but otherwise there really isn't anything they offer over the later polished editions, especially content wise. They're usually buggier too like in FF1 and FF2's case, or missing stuff in the original FF4's case (our version of FF4 SNES is missing many mechanics like Dark Knight Cecil's Darkness and is also made easier while the PSP version has all of that intact)
@@tamerkoh The SNES versions of DQ 1&2 were made WAY WAY WAY WAY too easy. They look nice otherwise but they're neutered. DQ3, I think the feel of the character walking is like really floaty and slidey... And I hate the "personality" system. I don't want my characters to just suddenly level up differently in a way I don't know about without looking it up and reading up on it, especially in a game that already has changeable classes that are already changing your growth as it is. I completely ignored it while playing the SNES version and made it through the game just fine. I don't like the hero's sprite either for some reason. I never played the game boy ones much except to check them out a bit. They seem ok, but I think the SNES graphics are far preferable to that. For part 4, the NES wins again since the DS version is ugly as sin (the jaggedy 3D that can't even display straight lines) and the translation is just dumb renaming everyone and giving everyone stupid accents. Unfortunately they've done this to every DQ game since.... I wish we'd get some decrapified real translations of every game one of these days. I can see why you'd like the remakes more though, for sure, especially with the first game and its menus. I think a SNES 1&2 rebalanced to be much more difficult would be ideal for me. It looks and plays great other than the difficulty. The originals have a certain charm to them. Age might also play a factor here too. I played Dragon Warrior NES after getting it for free from Nintendo Power so I have plenty of nostalgia there. I played the original NES Final Fantasy when it came out too.
@@anonamatron The only real balancing difference between the SNES DQ1 and 2 and the NES versions are doubled exp and gold to cut down on grinding as far as I'm aware, which you have to do a lot of just to progress anyway, so it just cuts down on how much hacking the same slimes and ghosts you'll still need to do anyway just to continue. Prince of Cannock still is very squishy and not as useful as Princess of Moonbrooke, and they both still lack good endgame equipment options, lol. The Gold Batboons in Cave to Rhone can still cast Sacrifice and wipe the entire party randomly. Graphics are definitely subjective, so that's fair. The 2D on 3D definitely isn't always handled the cleanest; I also would've preferred full 2D with the 4-6 remakes. The old graphics do bave a charm of their own, but they definitely require more imagination out of you in battle especially since the monsters don't animate. That's fine for the people who prefer that, it'll just never top actual animation for me. It's like the Speed Racer era of anime when there was barely much animation and using a ton of zooms and pans on a still image, lol. It's like Pokemon Red compared to FireRed for me; Red is a beat up, clunky old car that you're afraid is gonna break down any moment, while FireRed is the same car built from the ground up in a sleek new body, and with a fresh coat of paint. You can prefer the look of the old car, but functionally, the new car is the one you'd actually rather drive on a long trip.
Honestly I would recommend the PSP version. FF1 _is_ still worth playing but do it on a handheld and with some of the quality of life improvements over the years.
I was fortunate to play this as my first FF, in 1995. My friend had a copy, we played it at a sleepover, and she would let me take it home during the week only to grind, I wasn’t allowed to progress the story 😂 but I was happy to grind, I’d never played an RPG before but it quickly became my favorite genre. But now after playing modern FFs, I could never go back and play it. I tried on my vita a few years ago and it’s so hard and tedious for such tiny drops of fun! But since I played it first and that was the first “drops of fun” I ever got, I loved it!
I love this story - I can remember asking my cousin to grind while I started playing a game boy game and he had no clue what to do. I remember telling him “just walk around and when you get to this screen, hit THIS button a lot”. He hated it lol. Drops of fun is a good way to put it for sure! Thanks so much for sharing!
FF12's battle system ruined all other FF games for me, and I was playing them since the beginning too. It was perfect. FFX is by far the best story up through 12, but I can't even bring myself to slog through the battles to watch it again. After playing FFXII, the only way I can play just about any RPG is if there's a fast forward feature that I can abuse heavily.
I have crazy nostalgia for this game. Yes, it is balls difficult. But victory feels like a huge accomplishment. To this day, it’s my second favorite of the classic 2D games.
@ Definitely FF6, which takes everything good about the previous entries and puts it over the top. It was the first one played through, and shortly after got a copy of FF1 at good old Funcoland for like two bucks. Was a step back in almost every way, but the mystique surrounding the series’ origins had me hooked. I love all of them except for FF2 which I have never been able to get into because of the weird leveling system.
On this channel, I definitely have lots of footage of me literally throwing FF2 in the trash, the Pixel Remaster kind of changed me on the game as a whole! I think it's at least worth a revisit, unfortunately - the unreleased NES Prototype is the next FF game I'm covering, so we'll see.. Oh and fwiw, FF6 is my favorite FF ever. I just adore that game.
@ The pixel remaster definitely cleans up the experience. It’s a shame Square took the risk they did with the original release because the game introduces a lot of innovative elements like revolving party members and being more character driven. I had never heard of the prototype until you mentioned it, looking forward to the video!
It was uncovered maybe 7-8 years ago but received little fanfare - the gentleman that owns it made a quick little video about it and that's kind of it. I would love to have it here at the hideout, but I'm not putting any stock into it!
So, while I do own a copy of the game - if you count the NES Classic Edition - I prefer to play using the Final Fantasy Randomizer or Final Fantasy Renaissance.
I haven't gotten into any romhacks or patches or anything - I've been told to give them a try, but I don't know for right now I think I'd rather get through the OGs and then check those out later on. Are they worth the time and effort?
@TheReturnersHideout I think so *but* I don't have the Pixel Perfect version of the original Final Fantasy. Final Fantasy Randomizer, even if you *don't* use the randomizer part, still offer nice quality of life Improvements I find worthwhile. Including fixing nonfunctional mechanics. Final Fantasy Renaissance is similar but if you *do* embrace the additional features, you get to pick from a bunch of additional classes (from later titles), and even the original classes gain new abilities. I really enjoyed it, though it is on my backburner now because of newer game acquisitions.
My backlog of games is.. overwhelming to say the least lol, I can understand putting some on the backburner. But maybe eventually I'll play the FF romhacks on a live stream or something. Thanks again!
@TheReturnersHideout Note that Final Fantasy Renaissance is *not* a ROM hack. IIRC, dude just rebuilt everything in unity. I'm clueless about programming, so if any of that doesn't make sense... my bad. XD
I fully disagree - while the NES graphics aren't there, there's a ton of quality of life improvements that make them worth playing! Everything is more balanced overall, OST improvements, EXP and Gil boosts, the ability to save anywhere, I just love it all! I think the original, as frustrating as it is, will always have a place here at the Hideout and with people all over the world, but I think the Pixel Remaster is a modern way to play the same game! Thanks so much for commenting!
In the more recent bonus dungeon. You make the karate master not cast spells. You make the red mage not attack (use light ringer) you make the ninja and the knight not be allowed to use items
Love the vid! Gotta love that one of your characters is named Fitz. On purpose or not, love you and your team that brought me this excellent trip down memory land. I played this a lot with my friend and his older brother way back in 1989. It was fascinating. I'd never seen a game like this and instantly fell in love with the theme and mechanics. Until... I bought and tried my own play thru and realized how hard (and often slow) this game can be. Guess his older brother was carrying us a little with his knowledge of the game. Still, thank you to everyone involved in making this vid!
Thank you for sharing that story! I love it and one of my favorite things that ever happened because of starting this channel is hearing how people got into the series. Thank you so much!
@@TheReturnersHideout Awww, no worries. I'd never heard the name Fitz until I read a really good fantasy novel from the 90's (Assassin's Apprentice-The Farseer Trilogy). My ADD brain tends to make connections when there aren't any (so my GF tells me). I took a shot... and missed. :P
@@TheReturnersHideout "do you wish to buy potion?" "yes" x99 And then you get to do that all over again with "do you wish to buy soft?" 😂 The struggles were REAL.
Reason FF1 feels harder than FFII(US), is because we got the easy version of FFIV. In Japan, there were two types of FFIV. Easy version and the original.
And there was actually a 3rd type! Easy Type and the US version still have some differences - when I get to FF4 I’ll talk alllll about it! Thank you for reminding me about that!
I can't recommend the Gameboy version. They switched to a mana system in that one and basically trivialized the whole game. The PS1 or PR are the two I would recommend.
I mean offensive magic was basically useless in the NES ff1 due to Int being glitched and thus damage not scaling on top of charges being dreadfully skimpy I mean sure it could hit all enemies for but for pitiful damage wasting a valuable spell charge. the only good spells were buffing spells and if you had to do AoE damage just have someone use the Zeus Gauntlet or similar that can be used infinitely and equally well by anyone because Int is a useless stat that does nothing.
Walk back-and-forth at the top of the Peninsula N.E. of Pravoka. to fight strong enemies. Bring tents to save after each battle. Although a programming error, I found this essential to get leveled up, equipment up, and magic spells before heading into the Marsh Cave and beyond.
Earned a sub. When I want the experience of "playing" this version I sometimes watch a Let's Play, haha. You hit the nail on the head that the bosses were laughably bad but getting merked in the woods without any tents/cabins was pretty much how you lost your last hour's progress. You'd remember to teleport from a dungeon but perhaps forget to have enough life to get back to a town.
Yes and no about no direction in Final Fantasy 1. If you actually purchased the game brand new, the manual itself tells you how to get through all the way to getting the airship I believe. And you'll have the 2 posters: listing all the equipment, magic, the world map in a lot better detail and basically all the dungeon maps.
Rented the game many, many, many times as a kid. Never even saw the manual until a buddy of mine showed me a high quality scan he made of his just a few months back. Yes. I imagine that would have been quite helpful.
I recommend checking out Final Fantasy Renaissance. It’s got the original game with lots of bug fixes (like TMPR actually working) and a “Renaissance” version with new job classes and side quests. I downloaded the pixel remasters for 1-6, and although I replay most of them, they didn’t do FF1 justice. They made it far too easy and the maps twice as big (as if the dungeons weren’t big enough?? lol) Renaissance, however, has been an absolute joy!!
Thank you for this excellent video!! You’ve made me want to play this again! I have to agree, though, that as a 42 year old, time is very precious, and I’m not so sure how far I’ll get this time, and I’ve beat FF 6, 7, 9, and 10 and almost beat 8, and got pretty far in 4, and unfortunately, I don’t think the original holds up very well to those ones, but still, it has it charm, I love talking to NPCs in games, and the visuals still look nice all these years later 😊
I love this comment - you don’t have to thank me, friend! I just love this series, and it’s very clear you do also! Time is incredibly precious and I choose to spend mine making these videos and playing these games, and you chose to spend yours leaving me a comment - and for that I thank you! I’ve got lots more on the way so hang out for a bit and check out some of the other videos on the FF series! Thanks again!
I would reccomend playing this with with a fix patch. Aside from broken spells and stats this is still the meatiest version of the game and the progression really isnt that slow. Later versions (especially DoS) homogenize what is essentially a Wizardry game, there are encounters in dungeons that are there to delibrately make you soil your pants and you are supposed to run from them. As a bonus you also get the best version of its battle theme, whoever remade it kinda lost the plot and undermined the mood of the piece. I'm also not a fan of them dropping the unique rendidion of the crystal theme this one had.
While it IS interesting to play this game while having a pool of MP instead of charges, I think it adds to the challenge to strategize and plan your trips to dungeons accordingly. I really feel like the Pixel Remaster got the balance right, I think it's just a clunky game over all in a lot of ways. I haven't ventured into patches and rom hacks yet but maybe one day I will! Thanks so much for commenting!
So awesome to have you back! I missed the notification, and i didn't see it in my feed and just found this by accident by looking at other content. I played Final Fantasy for the first time 3 years ago (at the age of 38, zero nostalgia) and had a great time! I played the PSP version first. I have since played through the mainline games multiple times and I like them all (including 2, 8, and 13 series). My first ever Final Fantasy was 4 (right before I played 1 a few years ago) and I've been hooked ever since! I gotta say though- I played through the NES versions of the first 3 games and I just didn't enjoy them much. The pixel remaster is my preferred way.
It was the time for sure. I can understand that! Everything in general was a lot slower paced back then and it reflected in the games we played too - but also could simply be a preference of yours! Nothing wrong with that! Also, thank you so much - it feels amazing to be back!
FF1 was my debut in the world of JRPGs. I've played it for the first time in 2019. From that I've beaten it about 20 times using different parties and to this day it's my all-time favourite game alongside the Dragon Quest III 😊
How is it, that if you run into a Mage and they cast RUB, it instantly kills your party member? On top of that, unless you can make it back to a town clinic, you won’t be able to bring them back!
I have amazing memories of this game having played it since it's OG release. I was 13 and became completely obsessed. I remember so much from those days - the music, the grind, the battles, the wins, the defeats but nothing compared to the satisfaction of actually beating this game. Did I require the Nintendo Power Strategy Guide? Hell yeah I did. Does that diminish thing the victory? Hell no. I have gone back recently to play the OG cartridge, however at this point in my life, I don't have the patience or time to grind my way through it. I know the game itself has since by rereleased with significant QOL changes, however I have yet to try it. Very few games give me the mindset where I wish I could go back to that time period to experience this masterpiece for the first time again as a kid, this is one of them.
Thank you for sharing that story! I think a lot of us have super fond memories of the series growing - I've shared a few of them on the channel! As far as trying the updated ones - they go by a LOT faster and are a lot less frustrating to play in general, it's good for a day's worth of gaming just to say you went back through it! Thanks for commenting!
I did manage to muddle through somehow without the guide, but I found out I missed so much stuff! And yeah, even with the guide, it was still tough. There's a reason "Nintendo Hard" is a thing.
I played it when it was new. I never owned it for my NES, but I rented it a LOT. Fun times. I agree with the list of why and why not to play the NES original version of it. It's easier for me to play something like that because I have the nostalgia glasses, but for those without it, I recommend the pixel remaster. It's one of the most accessible versions of the original Final Fantasy in terms of availability and it is at least closer to the NES experience than some of the other versions out there.
Phantasy Star 3 was the only one with an airship, but the first game sort of beat Final Fantasy to it by having a spaceship. Anyway, I'm planning to play a patch called Final Fantasy -1 (NES) that has classes from later games available at the start.
That's why I got a little confused with Phantasy Star, I didn't know which one had an airship! Also, that patch sounds super neat - I'm very green when it comes to patches and romhacks, but that one sounds awesome! Let me know how it is!
This is my favorite game of all time, and it has to be the perfectly imperfect masterpiece of FF1 for the NES. Bugged equipment, useless spells, and the amazing game that was my childhood, and now my middle-age hood. Sorcerers and their ability to 1 hit you were nightmare fuel, cockatrices that turned you to stone were terrors to be avoided, and the sheer number of battles that are unrunnable can make you question your life choices… and I love them all. I love watching people play it blind, and expect some sort of help from the game… and get none.
I haven't met too many that say this game is their favorite of all time! Have you played the recent remasters, and if you have do you like them as much?
@ I’ve played the PS1 FF: Origins version, and I think another for one of the game boy models, but FF1 for NES was the game I payed as a child, and a teenager, and a 20 something, then again in my 30s, and next year I’ll play it at 40. It’s a comfort game for me. Seeing the improvements, the spells, weapons, armors, and items working the way the original was supposed to does make me happy, but [old man shakes fist at clouds] I like the OG better.
Around the time of release Nintendo Power magazine would alternate between a regular issue and strategy guide. The strategy guide issue for FF1 is an excellent starter introduction / full walkthrough to the game.
I used to have it (I really wish I still did but I've moved so many times, I'm afraid it's gone forever) and I agree - it was a solid way to play the game with a competent walkthrough! It wasn't without its mistakes, but still good overall! Thank you for commenting!
Somewhere I have my own story with the series laid out somewhat - ua-cam.com/video/HsD7mCQk7CI/v-deo.html If you head to about the 11 minute mark is where my story of finding the series and all that. I love hearing how other people got into it too! If you feel up to it, share yours too!
4:04 that small storyline must’ve been influenced by Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid. Hironobu Sakaguchi probably watched Toei's 1975 adaptation of The Little Mermaid and that's what inspired the mermaid subplot in Final Fantasy I.
I played this when it was still brand new on my NES that I had while in college. I've gotten it for my birthday. I remember I needed to leave so my friends down the hall wanted borrow it and this was on a Friday. I had to get up that following morning real early as I had to leave for that weekend, and I could hear the music/sounds effect from it. They were up ALL NIGHT playing that thing! By the time I got back that Sunday evening, they had half the game beaten but got stuck on one of the bosses. I think I still have that copy (I'll have to see if I can find it down in my basement). But at the time, that was like the cutting edge of RPGs on the NES. The only other series at the time of games like this where the Dragon Quest/Warrior games. May have to bust it out and go play it again.
I love the pixel remasters personally, and yes the exp boosts/encounter toggle take the SLOGGGG out of it for sure, autobattle also helps tremendously!
i played through the original releases of ff1-ff10 a few years ago, and it was amazing to see the development of the series...i know every single one of them has been released since then, but it's really cool to see how the QOL slowly developed, particularly when it comes to items, combat, and the fundamental mechanics of gameplay
Yeah, I remember playing on the original NES and buying 99 heal potions was just 20 minutes of pressing A over and over. Not fun. But I still loved the game. Playing today would have to be on an updated version though.
100% for sure, buying 99 of anything in FF1 immediately adds minutes to your overall run time and I hate it lol. Especially if you’re looking to max out all of the buyable items, that’s easily nearing TT an hour alone!
FFOrigins makes wasting hours of your life optional by putting it all in the bonus dungeons :D I really _want_ to say that the Pixel Remaster is the right version to play for the first time, but wow is it ever not that. Simply wandering around lost can get you leveled up to the point that 90% of the game is trivial. Saw a guy run into a Gas Dragon in the _Waterfall_ and just steamroll it like any other chaff. That same guy could *not* beat Chaos because he'd never needed to strategize for the entire game and didn't have the knowledge or even the tools to win. Also, the caravan location is even more poorly visually-indicated in the PR than the NES. Thank goodness FFRenaissance exists. Such a neat idea.
I have footage of me running into several Gas Dragons in the waterfall cavern on the NES a few times! They just exist there and because of that, I too just hold A and move on lol. FF origins did not have the extra dungeons though - that started with the Dawn of Souls and PSP versions! Origins is largely faithful to the original with graphical, musical, and some minor QoL tweaks. I think my problem with Renaissance and other romhacks/fangames is they’re just not what the creators of the base game intended. That doesn’t mean they’re not fun to play, I just like to keep on with the actual releases, so much in fact that I took many Japanese classes to see the ORIGINAL game in its intended state! I’m weird I suppose lol. But thank you for this comment and for watching!
Been awhile, hope all is well . I love this game (nostalgia goggles) I got it when i was 12 and it was brand new , i still fire it up once or twice a year
Doing great, my friend! It's been years since I went through it, so I played it... 3 times in a row, and discovered that there is a Prototype of the game that I'm trying to get my hands on currently!
I remember being a young child and watching my father play this on the NES! It was amazing! Then I shattered playing it! I think I was 10 when I finally beat it for the first time!
I wish more Rpg's had a feature where you don't just create the main character but you also create the companions as well, dragons dogma kinda had that with creating your own pawn, I kinda wished you can make more than 1 pawn though... Skyrim, you can kinda do that through making your own characters when creating your own mod. (has done that many times, rather enjoyable having my own created companions)
FF1 is my favorite NES game ever. I still go through every year and try new challenges. The only thing I can't stand is buying potions. I usually connect a turbo controller and put a chair leg on the button and walk away for 5 mins.
I am also not promoting emulation here, but if by chance someone were to choose to do such a thing, they should look up the 'conservative bug fix' patch. It leaves the game 99.9% original, but fixes all of the bugs that make it artificially difficult and tedious. It's pretty remarkable how much easier it is to play, when presented the way the developers _actually_ intended.
I played FF1 on NES back in the day, and it's still a favorite of mine. I especially liked the degree of customization with the different character classes. My go-to party was Knight and Red, White, and Black Wizard, but the game could be enjoyed with numerous other party layouts. Then, there were the "glitches" that enabled faster grinding. This was an awesome game in its time and still fun today 👍
We had the original nes Final Fantasy when i was a kid. For a long time I thought Garland was the final boss of the game. I remember the first time I beat him I was waiting for the game to end and it just didn't. Then I figured out where to go and suddenly realized the game was actually huge. I then promptly got obliterated by the pirates in the next town.
And no hand-holding? Are you kidding me?! One of my biggest problems with this game back in the '80s was how linear it was, and how the next step was always so obvious and required no thought whatsoever.
I'd have to say that it was probably one of the least linear RPGs on the NES. The first half was linear up until you restore the earth orb, then technically you could finish off the other 3 in any order, though the "storyline" leads you a particular way (I usually do canoe, tail, floater, cube/oxyale, slab, chime and get all the good equipment before I go tiamat, kraken then kary) But they did hand-hold a bit since I think it might have been the only game at the time that came with a world map of all the key locations, all the stats of the monsters (and some of their weaknesses) and the maps of marsh cave (I think?), earth cave and guru volcano (it's been a long time) The bottle was a crap shoot though since you had to find the exact spot to step onto to get the caravan but the map at least showed the desert as a key area. Still the only FF I still go back to and play from time to time
And if you were outside of pravoka and happened to step on the wrong spots at the northern tip, you'd get punished by zombulls, frost wolves and giants at level 5 or something 😂 found that out the hard way back then (and later abused it for easy exp and gold after I got fir2)
@@ruffie326 yeah, I tend to play it in the same order you mentioned :) However, though it is _technically_ possible to do some things out of order after getting the canoe, you really have to consciously go out of your way to do so, and it would be next to impossible for a first time player who doesn't already know the game. For example, you might very well do the ice cave before the volcano, but you'd be unlikely to search out what you need to do with the floater until Kary is defeated (you have to go back to talk to an NPC in Elfland, which you're not likely to do if there are still other tasks on the board). Anyway, I don't find it all that non-linear just because there are a few unlikely opportunities to do some things out of the obviously intended order. Rather, I find non-linearity in not even _having_ an (obvious) intended order to begin with. This was a staple of non-console RPGs of that era, with the Ultima series being a prime example (before Ultima VII).
What I hated about it was the way it targeted enemies. Let's say there were... 9 enemies. You tell the knight and Ninja to attack, the white wizard to do... something..., and the black wizard casts Fire against all of them. Then, the black wizard goes first and kills all but 2 enemies. Then, the knight goes, and swings at the enemy you aimed him at... even though the black wizard killed that one. Then the ninja swings at the one you aimed him at, and misses as well, because that one is also already dead. THAT was the hardest part of combat, not hitting already dead enemies while living ones are still attacking you.
Played Final Fantasy on the NES now about 33 years before this video with zero issues. Just pull up the big boy pants and prepare for a rough and awesome ride. It is difficult for a lot of people now......but it is not a hard game if you put the effort in it.
@ If I remember correctly, I think you hit a level cap at 50(?) Had a maxed out blackbelt one-shot Chaos one time. 😂 Last time I played it was a mobile version where they may have nixed warmech (spent hours hunting for it) and Chaos was way, way, WAY harder than in the original version. Would love to find a port that is 100% original.
Had this when I was a kid. Got it right after Dragon Warrior, the game which made me love RPGs. I had 99 of everything you could get 99 of. Yes, even things like houses. Don't ask me why.
Best balanced party: Thief/Ninja Blackbelt/Monk White Mage/Wizard Black Mage/Wizard Don't bother with a Warrior/Knight, because it will make all the special swords obsolete. Don't pick a Red Mage/Wizard because it's a below average class, and the spells are limited.
I have not but LOTS of people have recommended it to me after this video came out lol - I’m going focus on fanmade games and rom hacks after I go through all the official ones. I’m going through them in chronological order! Thank you so much for commenting!
Did you happen to play the Japanese version? The English version wasn't released until 1990 and Europe didn't get the game at all until Final Fantasy Origins in 2003!
I'm baffled reading the comments here. The game originally came with an 80-page manual that is essential for understanding how it functions and walks you through the first 1/4 of it. It also had maps of every dungeon, stats for all the enemies, and an entire equipment chart to tell you what each class was capable of using. It was impossible at the time to include any of that info on the cart/in the game, so they gave you a book to read instead. The difficulty of the original game literally comes down to whether or not you read the book. The only issues I ever had playing it on the original hardware were from random party wipes and missed attacks. I think more people who talk about FF1 should be clarifying how important it is to have access to that original manual.
I would 100% agree with you if the times haven’t completely changed and manuals were still a thing that got included in releases these days. In a future video I DO go over the equipment and magic charts to show that there is more to the in-box game than just a cart and a “good luck” note. The only people that care about manuals these days are collectors.
@TheReturnersHideout Yes, I understand what you're saying, and you're right. This was a response to comments from people saying that when they originally played it at release they had issues with understanding the game and its' mechanics. Someone referenced not knowing about the pause menu, others mentioned not knowing to equip items. Things like this were all covered in the manual and, even at 9 years old, I knew to read it as I played.
Back in the day when I played FF1 (with a friend), we didn't have the manual but we weren't deterred: we figured things out ourselves as we went along. Never knew that about half of the things in the game were completely broken (most of which are fixed in its various remakes).
Oh yeah lol even in later games like FF6, several things are still broken but I still adore them! Thanks so much for commenting and sharing your FF- experience? Do you have a favorite version of FF1?
I love FF1. Trying to beat it with weird party combos. 3 Black Belts with a White mage was amazing. 99th level one-shoting Chaos with 16 preemptive critical strikes was awesome! 😆
I thought you were going to warn us about the broken spells that don't work or work in reverse and that things ilke the 'ice sword' don't actually do more damage to 'fire' like monsters. I thought you would mention some of the broken mechanics to avoid so that when you do play, you'll not have a really hard time and wonder why some of those support spells just never seem to work, etc.
I'll call the Prison Moogles, they'll show you what for! Seriously, thanks for watching and commenting! Have you played the Pixel Remaster of the game yet?
In Anniversary on the PSP Chaos absolutely mops the floor with you lol. I don't know why because in terms of difficulty the game isn't much different from the GBA version but some reason they made Chaos like 'super boss' level hard.
I've played FF for NES, GBA, PS1, and now the pixel remastered version. Nothing like mowing down every enemy in sight with a full party of high level bl belts/Monks in the NES version.
I beat the pixel remaster without gaining a single level because you can turn off the Exp gain, and because the game has items the original doesn't. That being said, I can tell you, as someone that's finished an "oops all [any class]" run on the NES cart, even if I could turn off the exp gain for the cart and added those items into the games code, it would still not be beatable that way. The NES version has so many coding errors that made the game almost unplayable had it not been for all the ideas you cite in this video, that were in the name of being innovative with RPG video games. I think another thing this game did also, was that FF1 gave you a team. I am thinking of a lot of games that came out before this one that were fantasy rpgs and I can maybe think of a few tjat were on commodore or PC that existed before this one but not one I can recall. Most of them were like Dragon Warrior or Hylide and you had one guy doin all the ass-kicking.
@TheReturnersHideout Hey I dont have the time to make the video right now, so I was going to ask you if you wanted to make a video from my 0xp FF6CES run video. It's like 2.5 hours of me doing the whole Kefka fight at 5th and 6th level. You should message me if you're interested in making it or just want to see the raw video of it.
@TheReturnersHideout The main run is about 1 gig, and there are a few other videos you'll want that have some videos of me defeating some of the bosses along the way. You won't use all of the footage in the main video. Almost 2 hours of it is me just cycling a pattern on kefka. So you'll wanna fast forward over that in your video or whatever but there's some good stuff for content there for sure
@paddyhopper okay great, 2 things: 1. Is it on UA-cam currently anywhere? If so, throw me a link on here and I can get the video that way 2. If not, head over to wetransfer.com and send the footage to returnerhideout@gmail.com Whatever I end up doing, you’ll get credit for it! I just wanna see it anyway lol. Thanks so much!
FF2/4 was where it really took off for me. I started with 1, and it was not nearly as enjoyable as 2 and 3. With DQ, 3 was amazing after the first 2. A HD2D release of DQ3 juat came out, if you loved it dont miss it!
Never played the first one but I loved FFIV aka II, I had the original FF VI aka III that had the bug in the world of ruin that could crash the game and corrupt saves. Back to FF 1 it was difficult due to the limited Ethers you would find, and people made the mistake of equipping the black belt with weapons but they hit much harder without weapons. It's a fairly simplistic game and I agree it's not very intuitive on where you need to go next. It's interesting to see where a game started and see how it has evolved over the years. But if you want super simplistic play Dragon Quest (Dragon Warrior), that game fits the definition of simplistic (and what got me in to JRPGs). Remember my brother getting that particular game with his subscription to Nintendo Power.
In FF1 for NES the only thing that restored your magic charges were Houses. There were no ethers yet in the game! And yes your black belt/monk should be fairly free of equipment nearly the whole time - defense items do the same thing!
Kinda too late. I played it and beat it when it came out. You guys must forget how long video games have been around and that people did play them before you were even born.
The video I'm pointing to at the end of this video doesn't exist yet, but for now here's some tips to get you through FF1 FASTER! : ua-cam.com/video/16e3p_o1EM0/v-deo.html
Try Final Fantasy Renaissance. It's a remake of the game down in Unity for free with a VASTLY expanded job system and side quests to go along with it. That way you can experience the original graphical style with a fresh approach.
Waiting for that Warmech expose
How are you saying "ff1 is on the same gaming system as ff6" when literally they are NOT?
@eddypeacock4005 I’m not saying that. I said in the video that FF4 and FF6 are on the same console.
@TheReturnersHideout got it but it'll surprise you how much a difference 2 years made back then
We didn't really struggle with the openness of games in the 80's and 90's. It was either "shut up and play the game" or "Go outside!"
These days games are so easy and boring I just go outside, but then I never see any other 40 yr olds around to play with. 😩
It's funny I bought an amber ice emulator a while back... Little handheld that has pretty much everything from the PS1 and back... Here's the thing though... A lot of the games I realized I might need to look up the instruction manual... They had those back in the genesis days... The game didn't have a tutorial built in... The first level wasn't a walk through. Not to mention with only four buttons on the face of the controller the devs got incentive with button combos doing different things... Earthworm Jim got a lot easier when I remembered you could use Jim's worm body as a whip to grab things as well as an offensive weapon. Lol. Even that though... It made me pause the game and just kind of soak that in... Like renting a game and there was no manual. The Beavis and Butthead game on SNES and Sega was harder than it had any business being lol. Wonder if that's on my emulator lol.
EDIT: we both have cat pfps... And apparently young souls. Have a happy holiday season etc.
You are 37 years too late on this video. lol.
Yeah I know lol, I had to save for a microphone and editing software!
And I'm a day too late to make this same comment.
Not really. I’m playing this game on my NES Classic Edition now.
@ScottW967 this game is on the Nes classic!? Are FF2 and FF3 on there as well!? I might purchase me one if they are!! And no I'm not talking about FF4 and FF6 on Snes however if FF4 FF5 and FF6 are on the Snes classic I might go purchase that too!! Always wanted to experience the OGs even if they aren't the definitive way of playing those games these days!!
@@thevangsta9892 Only Final Fantasy 3 is on the SNES classic. There are 3 other RPGs on it as well: Super Mario RPG, Secret of Mana and Earthbound.
Just a heads up, there is Final Fantasy Renaissance. It's a faithful recreation of ff1 in unity. It's fantastic!
This is the one you want to start with.
I love how it adds a ton of new classes and irons out the bugs, but still keeps the NES feel. I tried the pixel remaster, but I went back to FFR as it felt like the most definitive version.
For the time, this was a great game. The risk of going off the beaten path in a cave, looking for the treasure chest my video-game-trained mind knew was likely there, limping out before everyone perished or turned to stone, and the relief of making it back to town - it was an experience that would have been tarnished with modern UI luxuries. Sadly, I had to call the Nintendo Help Line to learn how to get the airship to fly after getting it out of the sand. Guy said something like "walk on it and press B". I felt pretty silly.
You are 100% correct. Making it through the Marsh Cave was a brutal experience, but so satisfying. Making it back to town with dead and poisoned members. I felt like I really accomplished something. Learning to spread out and balance my attacks so I would not be attacking a "dead" enemy taught me how to plan ahead.
You felt silly? Imagine how the employee from the Nintendo Help Line felt?
Ice caves were possibly more brutal. A group of mages could kill any party member in one shot. The Eye could Xxxx out your entire party. Undead group of 9 could paralyze you and whittle away at your HP. 4 Frost dragons could cast a devastating ice spell. Cockatrices could turn your party into stone. Maybe if you were lucky you picked up the lv5 life spell and you could revive someone only after battle.
All of these are still true in the other versions as well. The difference is that starting with the WonderSwan Colour remake, the majority of the glitches against you have been fixed. The many spells that were bugged and did either nothing, or the opposite of what they're supposed to do have been fixed. Menus are better and you can buy items in bulk easily, there's now a dash button, and some optional toggles to make your experience smoother, like menu cursor memory. At this point the NES version is functionally obsolete compared to the WonderSwan Colour or PS1 versions.
lol Im sure they heard sillier questions than that every day
As a kid (and this was new) my friend and I were about 10 hours in before we realized we had to equip our weapons and armor. All the sudden our Black Belt wasn't the only good party member.
Yup. Who'dve thought that your character would be able to use the weapon you gave them without another step of clicking it to "e-"?
@@kur1tan the first (and only) time I played FF1 was after playing Dragon Warrior/Quest, where the shopkeepers helpfully remind you to equip your weapons and armor when you buy them, so I knew that, but the idea of a party constantly dying because they left their equipment in their bags is infinitely hilarious to me.
If memory serves, I think 8-Bit Theater even did a joke about that back in the day.
Me, too! My mind exploded when that little "E" popped up next to the weapons and armor!
Me and my buddies too man!
The most annoying part when it comes to misses is if two people target the same enemy, but the first person kills the enemy the second person is gonna miss instead of picking a new target.
Play the WonderSwan Colour or PS1 versions, as it has an optional toggle to re-direct attacks on dead enemies, and fixes the majority of the broken mechanics (special equipment, spells, etc.) that either didn't work or did the opposite of what they're supposed to. NES version is functionally obsolete at this point.
Hey! So he does! I would tell you where the names are from, but I like coincidences like this so, it shall remain!
OMG YES. That part drove me insane as a kid.
@@tamerkoh hummm i will need to look into it. Thanks
gameboy advance version at least fixes that. (yep there was one) I have it on emulator
This was my first final fantasy. I was 6 years old and had never played a game in which you had a pause menu that was important! So I never paused the game and never equipped all the weapons and armor I bought. I just assumed it was automatic.
I also didn’t read instruction manuals back then. Why bother when games were so simple that you could just jump in and start playing. It wasn’t until a year or two later that I accidentally hit the menu button and realized that I had to manually equip my gear.
I finished the game years later. Haha.
I was about the same age when I first played this. 30+ years later, still LOVE FF games!
I played it as a four player game with a group of friends. We each gave commands to one guy in battles.
It was my first FF game too since it was... the first...
Nintendo told us "Talk to EVERYONE" and we took it seriously.
This guy made a crucial mistake In his video by saying FF1 and FF6 were on the same system, uhhhh no 6 was on SNES 🤦
@@eddypeacock4005 Also said crystals started in FF1 when it was orbs.
People miss a lot when fighting. Why is that considered a negative? In a similar vein, this game used its Wizardry-style “ineffective” attacks based on being out of position in D&D. It’s a simulation, and it’s really strange to me that players fight against realism.
Temper and other parts being bugged is a much more serious issue. Temper is so amazing in the GBA version.
Edit: I’m playing through the CrystalSwan version right now and am enjoying this game all over again.
I've been playing a lot of randomizers of the original NES version that have bugfixes, and man do some of the bugfixed spells make the game so much easier when it's already kinda easy when you're an adult and not a 5 year old.
It's mostly because in most cases, that kind of missing just otherwise wastes your time. For instance, you're taking the ship from Pravoka to Elfheim to continue the main quest, and encounter a group of 9 Shahagins. They're almost guaranteed to only be slapping you for 1 damage each, but you gotta wait for them all to do just that to attack again. So any attacks missing such non-threatening enemies makes getting through such battles even more of a slog.
@@tamerkoh When I was 10 years old I enjoyed every second of it. Going back and playing FF1 today, every second of it is a slog. I wouldn't be able to bear it at all if it weren't for fast forwarding in emulatiors.
@@thedude5295 I think quality of life improvements and speeding things up like that in general is enough for me, which is why the later versions of FF1 have all but replaced the NES one functionally. WonderSwan Colour or PS1 versions for the spellcharge gameplay, and the PSP version for the MP system with all the bonus content in one package.
@@tamerkoh Yeah. I believe I have played every version by now, although I may have missed an obscure one or two of them. I've even played through a few hacks which patch out bugs and offer some of the subtle and not-so-subtle quality of life improvements without losing the flavor of the original game. I've played this thing so many times at this point I usually ask myself "don't you have better things to do" when I beat it.
I feel like where the lack of a western release for FFII and FFIII particularly hurts the series is that, if somebody asks for a recommendation for an RPG to play on their NES (no imports, emulators, etc.), I'd have a hard time recommending the original Final Fantasy over Dragon Warrior III or IV. Of course, the Final Fantasy series got its revenge in the SNES era when its rival series was a no-show in the west.
Yeah, all the skipping of both FF and DQ game releases were a major disappointment for the US. Even if they didn't make as much as expected, it would still have generated income AND make a lot of people happy who loved the series.
I've played and beaten FF1 on the NES more times than any other entry in the series. I loved that game so much.
Have you played any of the recent remasters?
I played the OG on Nes. I got to the airship and never beat it. I have the PS1 and PSP versions. Beat both of them. The PSP version is my favorite.
Well if you have any interest, I do have a guide coming out soon that might get you through the NES version!
I bought this for my birthday in 1990. I had the guide from nintendo power which helped me get to the end although i couldnt beat chaos. It took me another year to finally get it done but man what a feeling beating old nes games was at that age
Loved this game, at the time I had dragon quest 1 and FF1, and FF1 was such a huge step up. The enhancements in newer versions have kept it fun even today.
I'm very lucky to have an in-box copy of Dragon Quest 1 (Dragon Warrior) sitting on my shelf right now and I have to 100% agree that FF1 is SUCH an improvement overall!
As a kid, running into a "boss" w "rub" was a true kick in the ass. Like boom, my dude is dead
I played this on the original NES, when it first came to the US. I agree, it was a slog, and we had NO CLUE what to do most of the time. To be fair, we were like 7-10 years old, trading the controller between the 4 of us. Chaos took us something like 6 tries, with grinding in between each attempt. I think we had the nintendo power mags with some of the dungeons, but even with that it was confusing. Still, glad to have done it the intended way
At this point I'd say that the NES version is functionally obsolete anyway.
If you want to play FF1 with the spell-charge magic system, you'll want to either go to the WonderSwan Colour (WSC) version (which was the first remake version), or the PS1 version, which is an enhanced port of the WSC version. Both have the spell charge system, but also have the majority of the glitches fixed (like how many spells were bugged and didn't do anything, or the opposite of what they're supposed to do on NES). Plus the quality of life improvements, like better menu design, a dash button to move faster and the toggle for redirecting attacks on killed enemies, makes the experience much smoother and less clunky.
If you want to play FF1 with the most content and the MP-based magic system, which lets the mages be more viable and not just easily replaced with another warrior or monk, you play the PSP version. It's an enhanced remake of the GBA version which had the majority of the MP-system changes and extra content introduced in the first place. The PSP version has all the GBA content plus more exclusive content in the Labyrinth of Time bonus dungeon, so if you're planning to do one complete playthrough of everything FF1 ever had to offer in one go, the PSP version is the way to go.
Since I'm going chronologically through the series, I WILL be touching on the different versions of FF1 and I'm very excited to get to the PSP port!
I thought the PSP version was pretty good. I think I'd prefer a bugfixed NES original though.
Recently I've been going through the whole Dragon Quest series, playing the original and then a remake of everything. So far I really love the originals of everything more. Quality of life improvements make remakes a bit nicer for more casual replays, but I think the originals are the real deal.
FF1 PSP was really good though, as is FF4. I keep trying to make myself play FF2 on PSP but I just can't even get going on that came however many times I try. I lose interest like 30 minutes in. I played FF3 on PSP too actually but it's the 3D remake..... which is still okay, but I'd so much rather have one just like the other 2D PSP FF games.
@anonamatron Meanwhile it's the opposite for me; especially the first 3 Dragon Quests, I find the SNES and GBC versions to be the definitive ones. Not just in terms of content, since they have everything DQ1-3 ever had in one go (GBC for 3), but the quality of life improvements quite literally improve the pacing of the games.
Having to open the menu and cycle through the commands all the time just to perform a simple action like opening a chest or talking to an NPC, for example, is streamlined with the context-sensitive buttons now. That alone will save you a bunch of unnecessary time waste, but in 3 especially, the faster movement speeds in towns and dungeons will also considerably save you a whole lot of time; I don't know why Enix didn't do that for 1 and 2 as well, they definitely needed that too.
Plus the presentation is just miles better on the SNES and GBC compared to the NES versions, and once again especially 3. The monster animations in battle really add a lot to the immersion of the experience, and quite heavily sell just how threatening the foes you're dealing with are. Hearing the heavy swings and slams of the brutes especially! It really makes me wish 1 and 2 were also built on that engine; after playing 3 like that and getting spoiled with such great presentation, it's extremely hard to go back to fighting cardboard cutouts.
Most remakes I've played like this functionally make the original obsolete as a result. They still have historical value, mind, but otherwise there really isn't anything they offer over the later polished editions, especially content wise. They're usually buggier too like in FF1 and FF2's case, or missing stuff in the original FF4's case (our version of FF4 SNES is missing many mechanics like Dark Knight Cecil's Darkness and is also made easier while the PSP version has all of that intact)
@@tamerkoh The SNES versions of DQ 1&2 were made WAY WAY WAY WAY too easy. They look nice otherwise but they're neutered.
DQ3, I think the feel of the character walking is like really floaty and slidey... And I hate the "personality" system. I don't want my characters to just suddenly level up differently in a way I don't know about without looking it up and reading up on it, especially in a game that already has changeable classes that are already changing your growth as it is.
I completely ignored it while playing the SNES version and made it through the game just fine.
I don't like the hero's sprite either for some reason.
I never played the game boy ones much except to check them out a bit. They seem ok, but I think the SNES graphics are far preferable to that.
For part 4, the NES wins again since the DS version is ugly as sin (the jaggedy 3D that can't even display straight lines) and the translation is just dumb renaming everyone and giving everyone stupid accents. Unfortunately they've done this to every DQ game since.... I wish we'd get some decrapified real translations of every game one of these days.
I can see why you'd like the remakes more though, for sure, especially with the first game and its menus.
I think a SNES 1&2 rebalanced to be much more difficult would be ideal for me. It looks and plays great other than the difficulty.
The originals have a certain charm to them.
Age might also play a factor here too. I played Dragon Warrior NES after getting it for free from Nintendo Power so I have plenty of nostalgia there.
I played the original NES Final Fantasy when it came out too.
@@anonamatron The only real balancing difference between the SNES DQ1 and 2 and the NES versions are doubled exp and gold to cut down on grinding as far as I'm aware, which you have to do a lot of just to progress anyway, so it just cuts down on how much hacking the same slimes and ghosts you'll still need to do anyway just to continue. Prince of Cannock still is very squishy and not as useful as Princess of Moonbrooke, and they both still lack good endgame equipment options, lol. The Gold Batboons in Cave to Rhone can still cast Sacrifice and wipe the entire party randomly.
Graphics are definitely subjective, so that's fair. The 2D on 3D definitely isn't always handled the cleanest; I also would've preferred full 2D with the 4-6 remakes. The old graphics do bave a charm of their own, but they definitely require more imagination out of you in battle especially since the monsters don't animate. That's fine for the people who prefer that, it'll just never top actual animation for me. It's like the Speed Racer era of anime when there was barely much animation and using a ton of zooms and pans on a still image, lol.
It's like Pokemon Red compared to FireRed for me; Red is a beat up, clunky old car that you're afraid is gonna break down any moment, while FireRed is the same car built from the ground up in a sleek new body, and with a fresh coat of paint. You can prefer the look of the old car, but functionally, the new car is the one you'd actually rather drive on a long trip.
Honestly I would recommend the PSP version. FF1 _is_ still worth playing but do it on a handheld and with some of the quality of life improvements over the years.
I do enjoy the PSP version, but I think for me personally it's the Pixel Remaster. I just love it!
I was fortunate to play this as my first FF, in 1995. My friend had a copy, we played it at a sleepover, and she would let me take it home during the week only to grind, I wasn’t allowed to progress the story 😂 but I was happy to grind, I’d never played an RPG before but it quickly became my favorite genre.
But now after playing modern FFs, I could never go back and play it. I tried on my vita a few years ago and it’s so hard and tedious for such tiny drops of fun! But since I played it first and that was the first “drops of fun” I ever got, I loved it!
I love this story - I can remember asking my cousin to grind while I started playing a game boy game and he had no clue what to do. I remember telling him “just walk around and when you get to this screen, hit THIS button a lot”.
He hated it lol.
Drops of fun is a good way to put it for sure! Thanks so much for sharing!
FF12's battle system ruined all other FF games for me, and I was playing them since the beginning too. It was perfect. FFX is by far the best story up through 12, but I can't even bring myself to slog through the battles to watch it again. After playing FFXII, the only way I can play just about any RPG is if there's a fast forward feature that I can abuse heavily.
I have crazy nostalgia for this game. Yes, it is balls difficult. But victory feels like a huge accomplishment. To this day, it’s my second favorite of the classic 2D games.
It’s a massive accomplishment! I have to ask though; what’s your first favorite of the 2D classics?
@ Definitely FF6, which takes everything good about the previous entries and puts it over the top. It was the first one played through, and shortly after got a copy of FF1 at good old Funcoland for like two bucks. Was a step back in almost every way, but the mystique surrounding the series’ origins had me hooked. I love all of them except for FF2 which I have never been able to get into because of the weird leveling system.
On this channel, I definitely have lots of footage of me literally throwing FF2 in the trash, the Pixel Remaster kind of changed me on the game as a whole! I think it's at least worth a revisit, unfortunately - the unreleased NES Prototype is the next FF game I'm covering, so we'll see.. Oh and fwiw, FF6 is my favorite FF ever. I just adore that game.
@ The pixel remaster definitely cleans up the experience. It’s a shame Square took the risk they did with the original release because the game introduces a lot of innovative elements like revolving party members and being more character driven. I had never heard of the prototype until you mentioned it, looking forward to the video!
It was uncovered maybe 7-8 years ago but received little fanfare - the gentleman that owns it made a quick little video about it and that's kind of it. I would love to have it here at the hideout, but I'm not putting any stock into it!
So, while I do own a copy of the game - if you count the NES Classic Edition - I prefer to play using the Final Fantasy Randomizer or Final Fantasy Renaissance.
I haven't gotten into any romhacks or patches or anything - I've been told to give them a try, but I don't know for right now I think I'd rather get through the OGs and then check those out later on. Are they worth the time and effort?
@TheReturnersHideout I think so *but* I don't have the Pixel Perfect version of the original Final Fantasy.
Final Fantasy Randomizer, even if you *don't* use the randomizer part, still offer nice quality of life Improvements I find worthwhile. Including fixing nonfunctional mechanics.
Final Fantasy Renaissance is similar but if you *do* embrace the additional features, you get to pick from a bunch of additional classes (from later titles), and even the original classes gain new abilities. I really enjoyed it, though it is on my backburner now because of newer game acquisitions.
My backlog of games is.. overwhelming to say the least lol, I can understand putting some on the backburner. But maybe eventually I'll play the FF romhacks on a live stream or something. Thanks again!
@TheReturnersHideout Note that Final Fantasy Renaissance is *not* a ROM hack. IIRC, dude just rebuilt everything in unity. I'm clueless about programming, so if any of that doesn't make sense... my bad. XD
I just bought the pixel remastered collection for the first six FF games
Awesome! Let me know how you like them!
Don't play the pixel remasters they lost all the charm the old nes and super Nintendo graphics had
I fully disagree - while the NES graphics aren't there, there's a ton of quality of life improvements that make them worth playing! Everything is more balanced overall, OST improvements, EXP and Gil boosts, the ability to save anywhere, I just love it all! I think the original, as frustrating as it is, will always have a place here at the Hideout and with people all over the world, but I think the Pixel Remaster is a modern way to play the same game! Thanks so much for commenting!
In the more recent bonus dungeon. You make the karate master not cast spells. You make the red mage not attack (use light ringer) you make the ninja and the knight not be allowed to use items
Love the vid! Gotta love that one of your characters is named Fitz. On purpose or not, love you and your team that brought me this excellent trip down memory land. I played this a lot with my friend and his older brother way back in 1989. It was fascinating. I'd never seen a game like this and instantly fell in love with the theme and mechanics. Until... I bought and tried my own play thru and realized how hard (and often slow) this game can be. Guess his older brother was carrying us a little with his knowledge of the game. Still, thank you to everyone involved in making this vid!
Thank you for sharing that story! I love it and one of my favorite things that ever happened because of starting this channel is hearing how people got into the series. Thank you so much!
You brought me good feelings with your vid and looks like I returned some of those warm fuzzies. Much love!
@Delekhan what was it about the name Fitz? I don’t guess I caught it in your comment!
@@TheReturnersHideout Awww, no worries. I'd never heard the name Fitz until I read a really good fantasy novel from the 90's (Assassin's Apprentice-The Farseer Trilogy). My ADD brain tends to make connections when there aren't any (so my GF tells me). I took a shot... and missed. :P
There's a game speed option on the main screen of NES Final Fantasy 1. I missed it as a young kid also, but it's there!
Oh yes I definitely utilize it, but it doesn’t speed up the 20 minutes it takes to buy 99 potions lol the game is just built slow!
@@TheReturnersHideout "do you wish to buy potion?" "yes" x99
And then you get to do that all over again with "do you wish to buy soft?" 😂
The struggles were REAL.
Reason FF1 feels harder than FFII(US), is because we got the easy version of FFIV. In Japan, there were two types of FFIV. Easy version and the original.
And there was actually a 3rd type! Easy Type and the US version still have some differences - when I get to FF4 I’ll talk alllll about it! Thank you for reminding me about that!
I can't recommend the Gameboy version. They switched to a mana system in that one and basically trivialized the whole game. The PS1 or PR are the two I would recommend.
By making that switch and having a pool of MP versus magic "charges", it definitely made the game VERY different and much easier to manage!
I can't recommend the Gameboy version on account of the fact that there is no Gameboy version.
I mean offensive magic was basically useless in the NES ff1 due to Int being glitched and thus damage not scaling on top of charges being dreadfully skimpy I mean sure it could hit all enemies for but for pitiful damage wasting a valuable spell charge. the only good spells were buffing spells and if you had to do AoE damage just have someone use the Zeus Gauntlet or similar that can be used infinitely and equally well by anyone because Int is a useless stat that does nothing.
The Gameboy Advance is a thing though and Dawn of Souls was on it.
@@TheTateful He means the GBA version.
Walk back-and-forth at the top of the Peninsula N.E. of Pravoka. to fight strong enemies. Bring tents to save after each battle. Although a programming error, I found this essential to get leveled up, equipment up, and magic spells before heading into the Marsh Cave and beyond.
Earned a sub. When I want the experience of "playing" this version I sometimes watch a Let's Play, haha. You hit the nail on the head that the bosses were laughably bad but getting merked in the woods without any tents/cabins was pretty much how you lost your last hour's progress. You'd remember to teleport from a dungeon but perhaps forget to have enough life to get back to a town.
Nearly every play through had something different happen, but we pushed through! We might have pulled out our hair a time or 2 but we made it!
lmao, the "love you" at the end got me.
I'm glad it did! I definitely will include it in every video moving forward! Thank you for your comment.
Love you.
Yes and no about no direction in Final Fantasy 1. If you actually purchased the game brand new, the manual itself tells you how to get through all the way to getting the airship I believe. And you'll have the 2 posters: listing all the equipment, magic, the world map in a lot better detail and basically all the dungeon maps.
Ah yes, the old days of manuals, posters, and strategy guides - I miss that!
Rented the game many, many, many times as a kid. Never even saw the manual until a buddy of mine showed me a high quality scan he made of his just a few months back. Yes. I imagine that would have been quite helpful.
I recommend checking out Final Fantasy Renaissance. It’s got the original game with lots of bug fixes (like TMPR actually working) and a “Renaissance” version with new job classes and side quests.
I downloaded the pixel remasters for 1-6, and although I replay most of them, they didn’t do FF1 justice. They made it far too easy and the maps twice as big (as if the dungeons weren’t big enough?? lol)
Renaissance, however, has been an absolute joy!!
I agree about FFR being great. What's your favourite new class? (I think mine is Geomancer.)
Thank you for this excellent video!! You’ve made me want to play this again! I have to agree, though, that as a 42 year old, time is very precious, and I’m not so sure how far I’ll get this time, and I’ve beat FF 6, 7, 9, and 10 and almost beat 8, and got pretty far in 4, and unfortunately, I don’t think the original holds up very well to those ones, but still, it has it charm, I love talking to NPCs in games, and the visuals still look nice all these years later 😊
I love this comment - you don’t have to thank me, friend! I just love this series, and it’s very clear you do also! Time is incredibly precious and I choose to spend mine making these videos and playing these games, and you chose to spend yours leaving me a comment - and for that I thank you! I’ve got lots more on the way so hang out for a bit and check out some of the other videos on the FF series! Thanks again!
I would reccomend playing this with with a fix patch. Aside from broken spells and stats this is still the meatiest version of the game and the progression really isnt that slow.
Later versions (especially DoS) homogenize what is essentially a Wizardry game, there are encounters in dungeons that are there to delibrately make you soil your pants and you are supposed to run from them.
As a bonus you also get the best version of its battle theme, whoever remade it kinda lost the plot and undermined the mood of the piece. I'm also not a fan of them dropping the unique rendidion of the crystal theme this one had.
While it IS interesting to play this game while having a pool of MP instead of charges, I think it adds to the challenge to strategize and plan your trips to dungeons accordingly. I really feel like the Pixel Remaster got the balance right, I think it's just a clunky game over all in a lot of ways. I haven't ventured into patches and rom hacks yet but maybe one day I will! Thanks so much for commenting!
So awesome to have you back! I missed the notification, and i didn't see it in my feed and just found this by accident by looking at other content. I played Final Fantasy for the first time 3 years ago (at the age of 38, zero nostalgia) and had a great time! I played the PSP version first. I have since played through the mainline games multiple times and I like them all (including 2, 8, and 13 series). My first ever Final Fantasy was 4 (right before I played 1 a few years ago) and I've been hooked ever since! I gotta say though- I played through the NES versions of the first 3 games and I just didn't enjoy them much. The pixel remaster is my preferred way.
It was the time for sure. I can understand that! Everything in general was a lot slower paced back then and it reflected in the games we played too - but also could simply be a preference of yours! Nothing wrong with that! Also, thank you so much - it feels amazing to be back!
FF1 was my debut in the world of JRPGs. I've played it for the first time in 2019. From that I've beaten it about 20 times using different parties and to this day it's my all-time favourite game alongside the Dragon Quest III 😊
How is it, that if you run into a Mage and they cast RUB, it instantly kills your party member? On top of that, unless you can make it back to a town clinic, you won’t be able to bring them back!
The Ice Cave hates the player and wants them to lose. :)
Some people call it the graveyard and I can absolutely see why!
Death builds character... party wipes builds bigger graveyards and keeps the gravedigger in business and business was good.
The pixel remaster version is really good at bringing back the nostalgia without looking like half a nintendo game.
I have amazing memories of this game having played it since it's OG release. I was 13 and became completely obsessed. I remember so much from those days - the music, the grind, the battles, the wins, the defeats but nothing compared to the satisfaction of actually beating this game. Did I require the Nintendo Power Strategy Guide? Hell yeah I did. Does that diminish thing the victory? Hell no. I have gone back recently to play the OG cartridge, however at this point in my life, I don't have the patience or time to grind my way through it. I know the game itself has since by rereleased with significant QOL changes, however I have yet to try it. Very few games give me the mindset where I wish I could go back to that time period to experience this masterpiece for the first time again as a kid, this is one of them.
Thank you for sharing that story! I think a lot of us have super fond memories of the series growing - I've shared a few of them on the channel! As far as trying the updated ones - they go by a LOT faster and are a lot less frustrating to play in general, it's good for a day's worth of gaming just to say you went back through it! Thanks for commenting!
@TheReturnersHideout I'll definitely give them a shot based on your recommendation. Thanks!!
I did manage to muddle through somehow without the guide, but I found out I missed so much stuff! And yeah, even with the guide, it was still tough. There's a reason "Nintendo Hard" is a thing.
I'm so glad to see more new content from you! I think I've gotta run the original NES again, it's been a while...
Thanks so much! Putting these videos together has been super fun and I’m glad to be back and to see your name in the comments!
I played it when it was new. I never owned it for my NES, but I rented it a LOT. Fun times.
I agree with the list of why and why not to play the NES original version of it. It's easier for me to play something like that because I have the nostalgia glasses, but for those without it, I recommend the pixel remaster. It's one of the most accessible versions of the original Final Fantasy in terms of availability and it is at least closer to the NES experience than some of the other versions out there.
Seconded. I’ll always point out the PS1 Origins version also!
Phantasy Star 3 was the only one with an airship, but the first game sort of beat Final Fantasy to it by having a spaceship. Anyway, I'm planning to play a patch called Final Fantasy -1 (NES) that has classes from later games available at the start.
That's why I got a little confused with Phantasy Star, I didn't know which one had an airship! Also, that patch sounds super neat - I'm very green when it comes to patches and romhacks, but that one sounds awesome! Let me know how it is!
This is my favorite game of all time, and it has to be the perfectly imperfect masterpiece of FF1 for the NES. Bugged equipment, useless spells, and the amazing game that was my childhood, and now my middle-age hood.
Sorcerers and their ability to 1 hit you were nightmare fuel, cockatrices that turned you to stone were terrors to be avoided, and the sheer number of battles that are unrunnable can make you question your life choices… and I love them all.
I love watching people play it blind, and expect some sort of help from the game… and get none.
I haven't met too many that say this game is their favorite of all time! Have you played the recent remasters, and if you have do you like them as much?
@ I’ve played the PS1 FF: Origins version, and I think another for one of the game boy models, but FF1 for NES was the game I payed as a child, and a teenager, and a 20 something, then again in my 30s, and next year I’ll play it at 40. It’s a comfort game for me.
Seeing the improvements, the spells, weapons, armors, and items working the way the original was supposed to does make me happy, but [old man shakes fist at clouds] I like the OG better.
So great to see you at it again!
Thank you so much! It’s good to be back!!
Around the time of release Nintendo Power magazine would alternate between a regular issue and strategy guide. The strategy guide issue for FF1 is an excellent starter introduction / full walkthrough to the game.
I used to have it (I really wish I still did but I've moved so many times, I'm afraid it's gone forever) and I agree - it was a solid way to play the game with a competent walkthrough! It wasn't without its mistakes, but still good overall! Thank you for commenting!
If only you could have posted this 30+ years ago. My dad played and beat this port of the game back around its release.
I know, I apologize, I had to save up for a microphone and editing software and it took a little longer that I hoped!
I only had ff1 and ff2.. and oh god the nostalgia hearing ff instead of the whole title. I relate to your story so well sir. Thank you for this..
Somewhere I have my own story with the series laid out somewhat -
ua-cam.com/video/HsD7mCQk7CI/v-deo.html
If you head to about the 11 minute mark is where my story of finding the series and all that. I love hearing how other people got into it too! If you feel up to it, share yours too!
Did the 4 white mages challenge! It’s totally doable by leveling up on the tip of that one peninsula. After doing that it’s all fun.
Congrats you are more bold than I am! I might have to give it a try though to at the very least experience it!
@ You stack fog or invis and use harm on zombull at an early point in the game.
4:04 that small storyline must’ve been influenced by Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid. Hironobu Sakaguchi probably watched Toei's 1975 adaptation of The Little Mermaid and that's what inspired the mermaid subplot in Final Fantasy I.
You might be right about that!
I played this when it was still brand new on my NES that I had while in college. I've gotten it for my birthday. I remember I needed to leave so my friends down the hall wanted borrow it and this was on a Friday. I had to get up that following morning real early as I had to leave for that weekend, and I could hear the music/sounds effect from it. They were up ALL NIGHT playing that thing! By the time I got back that Sunday evening, they had half the game beaten but got stuck on one of the bosses. I think I still have that copy (I'll have to see if I can find it down in my basement). But at the time, that was like the cutting edge of RPGs on the NES. The only other series at the time of games like this where the Dragon Quest/Warrior games. May have to bust it out and go play it again.
I was 8 when I beat Final Fantasy. It was my second RPG after Dragon Warrior. I didn't feel like it was a hard game, just long and enjoyable.
Thoughts on the Pixel Remaster? The exp/gold boosts and turning encounters on/off took much of the slog out for me.
I love the pixel remasters personally, and yes the exp boosts/encounter toggle take the SLOGGGG out of it for sure, autobattle also helps tremendously!
FF1 to FF6 are the best final fantady I've played, wish they make a remake with today's graphics of FFIV and FFVI
Would ultraviolet backlit screen and a four-channel RGB+UV video camera work?
i played through the original releases of ff1-ff10 a few years ago, and it was amazing to see the development of the series...i know every single one of them has been released since then, but it's really cool to see how the QOL slowly developed, particularly when it comes to items, combat, and the fundamental mechanics of gameplay
Yeah, I had a Master at level 40 and cast FAST on him, he defeated Chaos in one shot.
Zombies and the coctrice will mess you up, man!
Every. Single. Time.
Always hold magic spell charges for when you see a mass of undead, coctrices, or Mages. Unless its the Evil Eye because F that mofo.
Yeah, I remember playing on the original NES and buying 99 heal potions was just 20 minutes of pressing A over and over. Not fun. But I still loved the game. Playing today would have to be on an updated version though.
100% for sure, buying 99 of anything in FF1 immediately adds minutes to your overall run time and I hate it lol. Especially if you’re looking to max out all of the buyable items, that’s easily nearing TT an hour alone!
after all these years, my favorite version is the PSP FF1 version...it looks crisp, plays good and is a lot more difficult. But in a good way.
I do like the PSP version and I can’t wait to cover it when I get to it!
FFOrigins makes wasting hours of your life optional by putting it all in the bonus dungeons :D
I really _want_ to say that the Pixel Remaster is the right version to play for the first time, but wow is it ever not that. Simply wandering around lost can get you leveled up to the point that 90% of the game is trivial. Saw a guy run into a Gas Dragon in the _Waterfall_ and just steamroll it like any other chaff. That same guy could *not* beat Chaos because he'd never needed to strategize for the entire game and didn't have the knowledge or even the tools to win.
Also, the caravan location is even more poorly visually-indicated in the PR than the NES.
Thank goodness FFRenaissance exists. Such a neat idea.
I have footage of me running into several Gas Dragons in the waterfall cavern on the NES a few times! They just exist there and because of that, I too just hold A and move on lol. FF origins did not have the extra dungeons though - that started with the Dawn of Souls and PSP versions! Origins is largely faithful to the original with graphical, musical, and some minor QoL tweaks.
I think my problem with Renaissance and other romhacks/fangames is they’re just not what the creators of the base game intended. That doesn’t mean they’re not fun to play, I just like to keep on with the actual releases, so much in fact that I took many Japanese classes to see the ORIGINAL game in its intended state! I’m weird I suppose lol.
But thank you for this comment and for watching!
Well, I beat this on the GBA, and never played on the NES. I like the enhanced sprites. The same can be said for FFII for the PSP.
Been awhile, hope all is well .
I love this game (nostalgia goggles)
I got it when i was 12 and it was brand new , i still fire it up once or twice a year
Doing great, my friend! It's been years since I went through it, so I played it... 3 times in a row, and discovered that there is a Prototype of the game that I'm trying to get my hands on currently!
I remember being a young child and watching my father play this on the NES! It was amazing! Then I shattered playing it! I think I was 10 when I finally beat it for the first time!
I played it a lot when I was a kid but I don’t think I actually sat down and beat it until I was in my 20s. Sad but truuueee
I wish more Rpg's had a feature where you don't just create the main character but you also create the companions as well, dragons dogma kinda had that with creating your own pawn, I kinda wished you can make more than 1 pawn though... Skyrim, you can kinda do that through making your own characters when creating your own mod. (has done that many times, rather enjoyable having my own created companions)
FF1 is my favorite NES game ever. I still go through every year and try new challenges. The only thing I can't stand is buying potions. I usually connect a turbo controller and put a chair leg on the button and walk away for 5 mins.
I am also not promoting emulation here, but if by chance someone were to choose to do such a thing, they should look up the 'conservative bug fix' patch. It leaves the game 99.9% original, but fixes all of the bugs that make it artificially difficult and tedious. It's pretty remarkable how much easier it is to play, when presented the way the developers _actually_ intended.
I'll have to safely and legally check that out sometime! *wink*
I played FF1 on NES back in the day, and it's still a favorite of mine. I especially liked the degree of customization with the different character classes. My go-to party was Knight and Red, White, and Black Wizard, but the game could be enjoyed with numerous other party layouts. Then, there were the "glitches" that enabled faster grinding. This was an awesome game in its time and still fun today 👍
We had the original nes Final Fantasy when i was a kid. For a long time I thought Garland was the final boss of the game. I remember the first time I beat him I was waiting for the game to end and it just didn't. Then I figured out where to go and suddenly realized the game was actually huge. I then promptly got obliterated by the pirates in the next town.
And no hand-holding? Are you kidding me?! One of my biggest problems with this game back in the '80s was how linear it was, and how the next step was always so obvious and required no thought whatsoever.
Well that’s great for you! Especially because it didn’t release outside of Japan until 1990, do you still have your Famicom version of it?
Was it really 1990? Okay, then. I thought I remembered playing it back in the late 80's. I guess my decades-old memory is off by a year or two.
I'd have to say that it was probably one of the least linear RPGs on the NES. The first half was linear up until you restore the earth orb, then technically you could finish off the other 3 in any order, though the "storyline" leads you a particular way (I usually do canoe, tail, floater, cube/oxyale, slab, chime and get all the good equipment before I go tiamat, kraken then kary)
But they did hand-hold a bit since I think it might have been the only game at the time that came with a world map of all the key locations, all the stats of the monsters (and some of their weaknesses) and the maps of marsh cave (I think?), earth cave and guru volcano (it's been a long time)
The bottle was a crap shoot though since you had to find the exact spot to step onto to get the caravan but the map at least showed the desert as a key area.
Still the only FF I still go back to and play from time to time
And if you were outside of pravoka and happened to step on the wrong spots at the northern tip, you'd get punished by zombulls, frost wolves and giants at level 5 or something 😂 found that out the hard way back then (and later abused it for easy exp and gold after I got fir2)
@@ruffie326 yeah, I tend to play it in the same order you mentioned :) However, though it is _technically_ possible to do some things out of order after getting the canoe, you really have to consciously go out of your way to do so, and it would be next to impossible for a first time player who doesn't already know the game. For example, you might very well do the ice cave before the volcano, but you'd be unlikely to search out what you need to do with the floater until Kary is defeated (you have to go back to talk to an NPC in Elfland, which you're not likely to do if there are still other tasks on the board). Anyway, I don't find it all that non-linear just because there are a few unlikely opportunities to do some things out of the obviously intended order. Rather, I find non-linearity in not even _having_ an (obvious) intended order to begin with. This was a staple of non-console RPGs of that era, with the Ultima series being a prime example (before Ultima VII).
What I hated about it was the way it targeted enemies.
Let's say there were... 9 enemies. You tell the knight and Ninja to attack, the white wizard to do... something..., and the black wizard casts Fire against all of them.
Then, the black wizard goes first and kills all but 2 enemies. Then, the knight goes, and swings at the enemy you aimed him at... even though the black wizard killed that one. Then the ninja swings at the one you aimed him at, and misses as well, because that one is also already dead.
THAT was the hardest part of combat, not hitting already dead enemies while living ones are still attacking you.
Yes. Mindlessly swinging in the air at nothing is ineffective. And they will refuse to learn that lesson all game long until you do.
This was the second game I ever beat on the NES. The first was Dragon Warrior. I miss the good old days!
There's nothing quite like those days!
Played Final Fantasy on the NES now about 33 years before this video with zero issues.
Just pull up the big boy pants and prepare for a rough and awesome ride. It is difficult for a lot of people now......but it is not a hard game if you put the effort in it.
I got FF 1 - 6 for the PS5 that has the turbo option built in. All you have to do is press L3.
It's one of the best (NES) games ever and you should 100% play it if you can. Bonus points if you go Warmech hunting on Tiamat's bridge.
Warmech every time! The game is easy enough to 100%, but only if you’re leveled enough!
@ If I remember correctly, I think you hit a level cap at 50(?) Had a maxed out blackbelt one-shot Chaos one time. 😂
Last time I played it was a mobile version where they may have nixed warmech (spent hours hunting for it) and Chaos was way, way, WAY harder than in the original version. Would love to find a port that is 100% original.
Had this when I was a kid. Got it right after Dragon Warrior, the game which made me love RPGs. I had 99 of everything you could get 99 of. Yes, even things like houses. Don't ask me why.
You were VERY prepared! In that game it's almost required lol
What are you playing that on? I can’t find anything that gets the pixels right?
Wait.. What do you mean gets the pixels right?
Best balanced party:
Thief/Ninja
Blackbelt/Monk
White Mage/Wizard
Black Mage/Wizard
Don't bother with a Warrior/Knight, because it will make all the special swords obsolete. Don't pick a Red Mage/Wizard because it's a below average class, and the spells are limited.
FF was amazing when it came out and to have the Nintendo Power Strategy guide with it was so good. I loved looking at all the monsters in that guide.
3:04 Its unbalanced because it is coming from Old School D&D. Lack of balance is a feature not a bug, the kids these days complain too much.
Did the pixel remaster fix some these issues for FF1 and others.
Snacks, Nintendo power, and FFI was the perfect afternoon
This sounds like an amazing time!!
have you played final fantasy renaissance?
I have not but LOTS of people have recommended it to me after this video came out lol - I’m going focus on fanmade games and rom hacks after I go through all the official ones. I’m going through them in chronological order! Thank you so much for commenting!
@TheReturnersHideout it is the best way to play FF1 by far
I started to play FF1 in 1988. I was 11yo, with almost no english knowledge (french native speaker). I finished the game anyway.
Did you happen to play the Japanese version? The English version wasn't released until 1990 and Europe didn't get the game at all until Final Fantasy Origins in 2003!
@@TheReturnersHideout It was maybe in 1990. I was still in primary school. I though it was in 1988.
I'm baffled reading the comments here. The game originally came with an 80-page manual that is essential for understanding how it functions and walks you through the first 1/4 of it. It also had maps of every dungeon, stats for all the enemies, and an entire equipment chart to tell you what each class was capable of using. It was impossible at the time to include any of that info on the cart/in the game, so they gave you a book to read instead. The difficulty of the original game literally comes down to whether or not you read the book. The only issues I ever had playing it on the original hardware were from random party wipes and missed attacks. I think more people who talk about FF1 should be clarifying how important it is to have access to that original manual.
I would 100% agree with you if the times haven’t completely changed and manuals were still a thing that got included in releases these days. In a future video I DO go over the equipment and magic charts to show that there is more to the in-box game than just a cart and a “good luck” note.
The only people that care about manuals these days are collectors.
@TheReturnersHideout Yes, I understand what you're saying, and you're right. This was a response to comments from people saying that when they originally played it at release they had issues with understanding the game and its' mechanics. Someone referenced not knowing about the pause menu, others mentioned not knowing to equip items. Things like this were all covered in the manual and, even at 9 years old, I knew to read it as I played.
Back in the day when I played FF1 (with a friend), we didn't have the manual but we weren't deterred: we figured things out ourselves as we went along. Never knew that about half of the things in the game were completely broken (most of which are fixed in its various remakes).
Oh yeah lol even in later games like FF6, several things are still broken but I still adore them! Thanks so much for commenting and sharing your FF- experience? Do you have a favorite version of FF1?
@@TheReturnersHideout I've only ever played two -- the original, and the PSX Remake ("Final Fantasy Origins").
I love FF1. Trying to beat it with weird party combos. 3 Black Belts with a White mage was amazing. 99th level one-shoting Chaos with 16 preemptive critical strikes was awesome! 😆
Got this at release took me a few weeks but with a little grinding I managed to beat it! Loved it
I thought you were going to warn us about the broken spells that don't work or work in reverse and that things ilke the 'ice sword' don't actually do more damage to 'fire' like monsters.
I thought you would mention some of the broken mechanics to avoid so that when you do play, you'll not have a really hard time and wonder why some of those support spells just never seem to work, etc.
Patience friend this video 1 of 12 I have lined up
The original Final Fantasy don't age well
Oh geez, I've played through FF1 around ten times over the years before watching this video. Am I going to jail?
I'll call the Prison Moogles, they'll show you what for! Seriously, thanks for watching and commenting! Have you played the Pixel Remaster of the game yet?
@@TheReturnersHideout Nah, too attached to the original, Nasir bugs and all.
I can understand! I think Gebelli is a brilliant programmer but yes this game is action packed with bugs lol thanks again!
C'mon, a solo thief challenge isn't all THAT hard!!
37 years too late for me, too. Wild to think about how far we've come.
Playing on an NES without a turbo control is insanity alone just to refill your potions.
Yeah I would never play final fantasy one if I’d known before the story doesn’t make any sense, final fantasy II now that’s the one you want to play.
FF2's story is amazing, especially for the time!
In Anniversary on the PSP Chaos absolutely mops the floor with you lol. I don't know why because in terms of difficulty the game isn't much different from the GBA version but some reason they made Chaos like 'super boss' level hard.
I've played FF for NES, GBA, PS1, and now the pixel remastered version. Nothing like mowing down every enemy in sight with a full party of high level bl belts/Monks in the NES version.
If you use a party of Monks/Bl.Belts, you can just immediately start the game and take down Garland at lvl 1! Powerful lot, they are!
I beat the pixel remaster without gaining a single level because you can turn off the Exp gain, and because the game has items the original doesn't. That being said, I can tell you, as someone that's finished an "oops all [any class]" run on the NES cart, even if I could turn off the exp gain for the cart and added those items into the games code, it would still not be beatable that way. The NES version has so many coding errors that made the game almost unplayable had it not been for all the ideas you cite in this video, that were in the name of being innovative with RPG video games. I think another thing this game did also, was that FF1 gave you a team. I am thinking of a lot of games that came out before this one that were fantasy rpgs and I can maybe think of a few tjat were on commodore or PC that existed before this one but not one I can recall. Most of them were like Dragon Warrior or Hylide and you had one guy doin all the ass-kicking.
That’s a good point! Zelda, Crystalis, Dragon Quest 1, all those games at the time had a singular lead character! Thanks so much for commenting!
@TheReturnersHideout Hey I dont have the time to make the video right now, so I was going to ask you if you wanted to make a video from my 0xp FF6CES run video. It's like 2.5 hours of me doing the whole Kefka fight at 5th and 6th level. You should message me if you're interested in making it or just want to see the raw video of it.
@paddyhopper I can absolutely make a video on it, what ls the file size of the video?
@TheReturnersHideout The main run is about 1 gig, and there are a few other videos you'll want that have some videos of me defeating some of the bosses along the way. You won't use all of the footage in the main video. Almost 2 hours of it is me just cycling a pattern on kefka. So you'll wanna fast forward over that in your video or whatever but there's some good stuff for content there for sure
@paddyhopper okay great, 2 things:
1. Is it on UA-cam currently anywhere? If so, throw me a link on here and I can get the video that way
2. If not, head over to wetransfer.com and send the footage to returnerhideout@gmail.com
Whatever I end up doing, you’ll get credit for it! I just wanna see it anyway lol. Thanks so much!
FF2/4 was where it really took off for me. I started with 1, and it was not nearly as enjoyable as 2 and 3. With DQ, 3 was amazing after the first 2. A HD2D release of DQ3 juat came out, if you loved it dont miss it!
Never played the first one but I loved FFIV aka II, I had the original FF VI aka III that had the bug in the world of ruin that could crash the game and corrupt saves. Back to FF 1 it was difficult due to the limited Ethers you would find, and people made the mistake of equipping the black belt with weapons but they hit much harder without weapons. It's a fairly simplistic game and I agree it's not very intuitive on where you need to go next. It's interesting to see where a game started and see how it has evolved over the years. But if you want super simplistic play Dragon Quest (Dragon Warrior), that game fits the definition of simplistic (and what got me in to JRPGs). Remember my brother getting that particular game with his subscription to Nintendo Power.
In FF1 for NES the only thing that restored your magic charges were Houses. There were no ethers yet in the game! And yes your black belt/monk should be fairly free of equipment nearly the whole time - defense items do the same thing!
Kinda too late. I played it and beat it when it came out. You guys must forget how long video games have been around and that people did play them before you were even born.