The original Final Fantasy (Final Fantasy I Retrospective)
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- Опубліковано 8 чер 2024
- Final Fantasy is one of the most successful video game series of all time. In this retrospective video essay, I'll explain what the first game in the series, the original Final Fantasy 1 (also known as FF1 or FFI) was like, how it's held up by modern video game design standards, and whether it's still worth playing today.
🛑 I’VE MOVED! Check out my new channel for retrospectives, reviews, and critiques here:
/ @altercatetv
#FinalFantasy #JRPG #retrospective
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🎦 My other Final Fantasy retrospectives:
▶ Final Fantasy II - • The most important gam...
▶ Final Fantasy III - • Final Fantasy’s last t...
▶ Final Fantasy IV - • The blueprint to Squar...
▶ Final Fantasy V - • The last great adventu...
▶ Final Fantasy VI - • The first masterpiece ...
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Timestamps:
00:00 Intro and background
02:47 The gameplay loop
04:46 The story
12:38 Bitpop blues
15:26 Manual transmission
18:19 Combat
23:37 Character customization
28:16 Game balance
33:14 Shades of Metroidvania
36:35 Quality of Life
41:17 Rewarded behavior
45:07 A flash of brilliance
47:39 Is it worth playing? - Ігри
🛑 I’VE MOVED! Check out my new channel for retrospectives, reviews, and critiques here:
ua-cam.com/channels/6D4FlECbW_1KT_Z472LukQ.htmlfeatured
Whew. I think I spent about 100 hours making this video. I hope you enjoy it. If you do, I'd be super grateful if you could give the video a like and write a quick comment, as it really helps the video reach more people. And if you want to help a tiny channel grow, consider subscribing! ❤
"Don't hate them for failing, love them for trying" Wise words! Great vid
Thank you so much! :D
"Without the original Final Fantasy, the world would be a much darker place." I absolutely agree and think about that often! Truly, I thank the success of this 1987 product for the happiness and inspiration this franchise has given me and continues to give 💖
Thanks for sharing! It's amazing how much meaning video games can give to people's lives! 😀
Doubt it, Dragon quest would have done the heavy lifting.
No because Dragon Quest exists.
Honestly the lack of auto-targeting is not wholly a bad thing. It adds an element of strategy to what would otherwise be "take a nap and mash A until the battle is over". Yes, it's frustrating at times, but it forces you to pay attention and stay engaged instead of mashing A to win.
I do agree with that! It legitimately adds strategy to the combat and a layer of expertise to master as you play through the game. That said, I don't personally find it very fun 🤣
@@Altercate yes but other games in that era did the exact same thing. It was just the era. It wasn't oh the way they did no auto targeting just sux. No this was just the way games were. Play bards tale, wizardry, lufia, etc.
Yes
“Someone out there has a Final Fantasy in them.” I LOVE that.
Thank you! 😍
The first game will always be my favorite RPG. I spent a good chunk of my childhood with that game. Sure it was grindy and a little weird, but pop in your mixtape, get your crystal pepsi and settle in to grind the forests of Provoka so you can get yourself that silver sword. You will have a good time. :)
Thanks for stopping by and sharing! I always enjoy hearing about people's experiences with the game back in the day. Gotta have those silver swords! 😀
I remember seeing this game in the store and being so impressed by the art work and also that it came with so many physical extras (the mini strategy guide fold out map monster guide). I was so blown away by this game as a kid and it had so much depth and content much more than your typical NES game. Being able to traverse a large map by foot, ship, canoe, and then finally an airship was amazing. Looking at the game through modern lenses definitely shows all of this game’s shortcomings (which are in abundance) but seeing this game as a kid in the 90s was a sight to behold and I will always love this game and I’m thankful that this series is still going strong over 30 years later. I’m currently playing this again for the first time since i was a kid with the pixel remaster on the switch which has lots of quality of life features built in. Definitely check it out for nostalgia or to see where it the series started.
Thanks for sharing! I really wish I'd gotten a chance to play this as a kid :)
This was one of my favorite games on the NES. God, I love this game. I remember when my dad brought this home and I just marveled at the cover for what felt like an hour before popping it into my NES.
You didn't quite explain the story correctly.
Garland enters into a deal with the spirits of the four Fiends that if he brings their physical forms into the present that they would grant him the power to become one of the Fiends. This deal sets up the time loop, as Garland must travel into the past to gain the power to the send the physical forms of the Fiends into the future, which allows them to send him back into the past to make the deal. Garland takes Sarah to ransom her for control over the throne of Corneria(Cornelia) at the heart of the world, where he plans to set up his throne as the fiend Chaos. The Light Warriors defeat Garland, upon which he retreats into the past to regain his strength. After defeating the four Fiends in the present, the Light Warriors revive the four elemental Orbs(Crystals) granting them the ability to use the time crystal in the Chaos Temple to travel into the past to destroy Chaos and break the time loop forever.
Great summary, thanks! I wish this game got released in my country back in the day, I'm sure I would have had a similar experience to yours with it as a kid 😀
Back when this game first came out in North America, I was very literally just discovering high fantasy. I liked reading, but I read sports books geared towards my age group. I was in grade 5 at the time (roughly 10 years old in 1990), and I had just discovered a book that would fundamentally change me has a person: The Hobbit. And very soon after that, I would discover my ultimate passion when it came to video games; a friend of mine had an NES, and introduced me to Final Fantasy. This was two years before I would roll my first d20 and slay my first rat with my first ever character in D&D. For this and many other reasons, the original Final Fantasy will hold a truly special place in my heart. No, this game has *not* aged well in many aspects, but it matters not. It sucked me in and didn't let go back then. Its hard to imagine what my life would be like if it weren't for Final Fantasy. I enjoyed your retrospective immensely and look forward to your future projects.
Thank you so much for your kind words, and for sharing your experience with the game! I'm around the same age and also had my life changed by the Hobbit (and later D&D), and I'm sure I would have loved Final Fantasy if it had made its way to Europe! 😀
While I've been a gamer my whole life, going back to the Apple II, this was the first game I was PASSIONATE about. I'd think about it at school, pour over the guide, and leave my NES on just so I could listen to the music.
Thanks for sharing your experience! :)
Great video!
Nice to think why modern game which have all the advance feature that FF1 don't have can't make me play thru their game for the first hour or try to play thru it.
Btw play using simulator will give the best experience for real old game, solve alot of frastration😆
Thank you! 😊
That commentary at the end really made me think man. Great video.
Thank you so much! :)
Final Fantasy on the NES was one of those games that I had a hard time liking back then since the game felt very archaic and slow but after playing other old RPGs and replaying this game several more times I came to appreciate the game more and more.
Such how you had plan what party works best for you, how to fight the monsters without auto targeting, the world opening more and more as you progress. And how the game becomes more easier once you find the magic items that you can give to any party member and can use them indefinitely.
It’s by no means a perfect game, but I still do enjoy replaying this game even on the NES. and this video sums it up perfectly!
Thank you for stopping by and sharing your experiences! I really enjoy hearing about people's history with this game since I didn't get a chance to play it "back in the day" 😀
@@Altercate Thanks and I hope to see more retrospective videos of the old FF games.
@@gavinlucas9761 Will do! I plan to do one for every game in the main series!
I had this game as a kid, and I only made one serious attempt at the final dungeon, The Temple of Fiends Revisited. My White Wizard died relatively early, and I gradually started to run out of potions and my Knight's cure spells. I made it as far as Tiamat, and my Martial Artist was the last to die.
I don't remember many game's stories, but I remember that experience almost thirty years later.
I guess my point is that we make our own stories and significance out of things. I know this isn't what modern games are, but it was great for its time.
Thanks for sharing, and that's very true! Imagination is an incredibly powerful tool 😀
Still one of my favourite games of all time. It was like nothing I had played before. A lot of your negatives I saw as positives. No save point in the dungeons - positive. You had to be good enough to make it through. It was a challenge to make it through the dungeon. Limited weapon and armour slots - positive. You had to really think about which items to keep and which to get rid of. I will admit, I hate the poison feature as well. Having to change your order every time was soooooo annoying. I loved the fact that every 'quest' opened up more of the map. I still look back fondly on this game (it was actually the very first game I bought with my NES).
Thank you so much for sharing your experiences! I *really* wish I could have played this game back in the day as I think I would've loved it. Unfortunately it was never released in Sweden...
I loved everything you said! I reflect on it like a Dark Souls of RPG’s. Also, I loved not having auto-targeting. It made me very conscious of my attacks and enemy HP. Lastly, by the time I got to the special items that let you cast for free, (ie zues gauntlets etc), they felt really earned and special. Did anyone else skip the volcano right to the rat tail as fast as possible on subsequent play through a or is that just me?
@@paulatredies9242 Yep, I did Castle Ordeals first when I played the Pixel Remaster last week. Getting the Healing Staff and Zeus's Gauntlet early really changes everything! 😀
@@Altercate I’m really glad that UA-cam recommended your channel to me. I’ll be digging through your library soon. This was a great retrospective, and well written. Thanks for this video. I did play this on release, I was 11 I believe. It was the second RPG I’d played behind Dragon’s Quest, so it was a crazy upgrade. So this game definitely hits all the right buttons for me. Keep up the great work!
@@paulatredies9242 Thanks for sharing and thank you so much for the encouragement! It really means a lot to me 😍
I played this game with my best friend back in 89 or so. 13 years old and loving this! It felt a bit more grown up than most games, especially when the characters “grow up” and become adults. A really deep game for the time. Loved the monsters too. Tiamat, Kraken, Lich, and Chaos! And how could I forget WarMech?! Truly a great game.
You really have a knack for long-form essays. You went over all of the flaws, successes, issues, and triumphs that were made in this origin of many ideas. After seeing your video on it being a D&D Campaign all of its idiosyncrasies start to make more sense, (though the *hidden* buggy nature of the original is a highly unfortunate aspect of an inexperienced team). I played through the Final Fantasy Origins just earlier this year and it was a good time. It sort of falls apart by the end. Chaos is not difficult by any stretch, but the journey was worthwhile and well set.
Thank you so much! I love making these videos and it always makes my day when I get a comment like this 😀
I’m so glad you mentioned all the games that are remembered as “bad” and never had a chance to try again and get better. I particularly feel bad for those game series that were hugely successful in the 2d era, but didn’t make the transition to 3d either because they tried and failed or because they just didn’t feel comfortable making their games 3d. I especially think of Quintet who brought out Actraiser, Illusion of Gaia, and Terranigma to name a few but folded when they tried to make 3d games which were just not as good as their 16 bit masterpieces 😞.
Final Fantasy was very lucky to weather that storm, and we are also lucky that Final Fantasy VII was a really fantastic game that brought in new fans and breathed new life into the series❤️
Love that you mentioned those games! I absolutely adored Actraiser, Soulblazer, Illusion of Gaia, and Terranigma, and I really wish they could have kept the franchises alive somehow...
Random encounter rate is just annoying in this game. The game doesnt let us to explore the world freely. And grinding for leveling is also boring. Play it only if you really want to feel the original ff experience otherwise it is just time consuming game in which you just kill monsters to buy stronger items. Btw, my words for nes version. Later remakes made the game more enjoyable thanks to better graphics, better sounds, less expensive items, auto-targeting, dash button etc. And i have so much respect for this informative and well-documented video. Liked and subscribed.
Thank you so much for your kind words! 😀 I definitely agree about the random encounters and how it strongly discourages exploration. And yes, the remakes are so much more enjoyable to play, it's like night and day!
How this video has only 1000 views is beyond me. You deserve so much more. Amazing work.
Thank you so much for saying that! It really means a lot to me 😍
Congratulations, excellent review of a classic.
Your chanel deserves more view, the quality is superb.
Thank you so much, that's so nice of you to say! 😍
A gorgeous video. The amount of effort and heart put into it is immense. Please keep on making wonderful videos!
Thank you so much! It means a lot to me to hear! 😍
I love the original FF. I actually replay it quite often. Very simple and straightforward, doesn't wear out its welcome, and offers a good challenge.
You have a gift for story telling. You deserve a ton more views, man. Definitely going to subscribe
Thank you so much! You just put a BIG smile on my face 😍
PS. My FF2 retrospective will be out in a week or two, editing it right now.
@@Altercate Of course - great work! Got the bell notification on so I don't miss the FF2 vid!
@@tylerwilkinson804 Thanks for the support! 😀
This game holds a special place in my heart. Great video and thank you for taking the time to make it!
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it! :) Btw is that a WoT reference? 😍
What a great video that really captures the essence of gaming back in the 80's. Awesome content! Thank you for investing yourself in it!
Thank you! That really makes me happy to hear :)
I start to raise appreciation to the old FFs on the NES. The D&D Roots really make it special.
It blew my mind how much stuff was taken straight out of D&D! Not sure if you saw but I have a video talking about some of the most obvious of the many many things FF1 took from D&D. :)
Your videos deserve much more views, they are amazing
Thank you so much, that makes me really happy to hear 😍
Such fond friendship forging memories of this game! The Pixel Remaster is bringing it all back. Thank you for your detailed take on it.
Glad you enjoyed it!
I am impressed with your dedication to finish it! I tried many times over the years to play chrono trigger again, but got frustrated so easily :)
And chrono trigger is already so much more advance than that :)
Thanks! Yeah, it definitely took some effort to get through the game haha. With new games these days, I usually give up if they aren't gripping me after 20 minutes... 🤣
I enjoyed this retrospective. Thanks for this.
Glad you enjoyed it! 😀
Greetings from Russia! Thank you for the review!!!
Hello Sergey and Спасибо! Glad you liked it! 😀
I love these kinds of videos... very long, well explained and made me realize how great the first final fantasy.
Thanks for saying that! I'm glad you liked the video :)
I loved your video and I just recently beat the Pixel Remaster... it was my first time ever playing FF1. It's now one of my favorite games!
I liked the part in your video when you highlighted the genius design of the game and how the map slowly opens up during the course of the playthrough.
Thank you so much for your kind words! 😍 I'm glad to hear that you enjoyed the Pixel Remaster. It's my favorite version of the game now!
I actually like the fact that this game DOESN'T have any pre-made main characters as the protagonists. It's just the 4 "warriors of light" that YOU as the player choose (by class) and name them yourself! DragonQuest (Dragon Warrior), Ultima, Wizardry, and many other RPGs from that era used this concept, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with it as far as I'm concerned.
You're right! When I made this video, I had a bit of a different perspective where I was comparing the original Final Fantasy with a modern Final Fantasy title, so I put a lot of emphasis on the ways in which the first game is starkly different from the later titles. In hindsight, I think I came off as way too critical of Final Fantasy as a result.
Regarding the merits of creating your own characters, I summarized my feelings about this in my Final Fantasy III retrospective, if you're interested!
This is such an underrated video that deserves much more views than it currently has. I watched this after getting fed up with trying to play FFI, but hearing you break down both the flaws that they learned from as well as the parts that are still seen reflected in it’s more critically acclaimed entries, makes me wanna try giving it more of a chance.
Whether or not I replay it, I gained a newfound appreciation for the game, just you just gained a subscriber. Looking forward to watching your other final fantasy videos~
Wow, thank you so much for your kind words and your support! It really means a lot to me! 😍
If you do decide to give the game another shot, I definitely recommend playing the Gameboy Advance or PlayStation Portable version instead! The game is just so much smoother and more enjoyable that way.
Huh! Kinda feels like I’ve been playing this game the wrong way. Only copy I have of it is on the NES Classic, with no manual or anything :/
@@rail9677 😮 Wow, that's the ultimate hard mode for sure! You should at least download the original US manual off the internet. It's an amazing resource and I honestly can't imagine playing the original version of the game without it:
www.nintendo.co.jp/clv/manuals/en/pdf/CLV-P-NABJE.pdf
Thanks! And yeah, considering that I didn’t even know there was a town next to Cornelia castle at the very beginning (legit thought that you were just supposed to go straight to the dungeon); I’m probably gonna need the manual for later parts of the game too…
@@rail9677 🤣
Before Final Fantasy, RPG world maps and dungeons were drawn out on my cousin's graphing paper. I didn't need a story to become engrossed in the world. (edit: Just a stellar soundtrack)
Altercate is a mark of quality! Great videos, I really appreciate the quality of effort you put into them.
Thank you so much, that's really nice to hear! :)
Great video. I love Final Fantasy, especially the original. Beyond that, my favorites are 4, 5, 6, 7, 12, and 13.
Thanks for sharing! :)
I just finished playing the Pixel Remaster (my first time playing a main FF game!) and I liked it enough, but watching your video made me appreciate the game so much more and also kind of compare the differences and get a little taste of what it was like to play the original game. Thank you very much for this amazing video
I'm glad you liked the video, and thank you so much for commenting! 😀 Are you going to play through the rest of the Pixel Remasters?
@@Altercate Yes! I will, I'm preparing psychologically for FFII since everybody says it's really weird lol
@@DavidLuis198 Cool! I really like FF2, especially the Pixel Remaster. Pretty much all of the annoying stuff from the original game has been fixed. I hope you enjoy it!
Most of the quality-of-life issues that feel like they're results of inexperienced game programming (e.g. no auto-targetting) are not present in the PSX version of the game that was released as Final Fantasy Origins. However, that game still retains much of the original's difficult mechanics, which is often the main draw for gamers who want to experience 'NES hard' vibes. I'd further recommend that one to anybody whose love of the series started with the games from the SNES era onwards, as it shares the 16-bit titles' finer-tuned quality level for music, sprite design, spell animations, menus, backgrounds, etc... Historical importance aside, the NES original is simply cumbersome on the senses and clumsy in terms of its gameplay. When I wanted to experience this one, I got a used PSX and memory card for like $20 and got the game for about the same price (and it comes with a similarly-beautiful faithful remake of FF2).
I'd recommend against playing the GBA reissue of the game, as they nerfed the difficulty quite a bit. I never tried the PSP version, but remember not caring for the extra-polished look they went with on that.
So it's important to think like this when analyzing the plot of this game. The multiverse theory of time travel wasn't exactly a popular or common one at the time, important since you reference Back to the Future. If defeating Garland sends him 2,000 years into the past where he can, from there, send the fiends forward in time, then at the time you first show up in Cornelia at the start of the game, none of the fiends should exist yet. You defeat him, and from there he can send the fiends forward. Tiamat and Kraken arrive in a time between then and your arrival, so that by the time you see it as the player, it already happened in the past.
A lot of other games nowadays would have made that into a separate timeline, but that's just not how time travel plots were done back then. And you can see the proof of that in Back to the Future when as a result of Marty meddling in the 1950s timeline, his siblings in the photo he carries with him start to disappear until he ultimately does as well, and part of the plot of the back half of the movie involves him trying to make sure that his parents fall in love.
Well quality of your vids is really amazing!
Thank you! That makes me happy to hear! 😊
This game is 10 years older than me and I only recently played the pixel remaster. It surprised me with how solid it is to play even today
Wow, soo much i didn't know! Thanks Altercate! :)
Glad you liked it! 😀
You are aware there is a strategy guide published by Nintendo Power?
Interesting story. My older brother took his first paycheck from his first job in 1990 and bought an NES. We rented a bunch of games at Blockbuster and one was Final Fantasy. I had a subscription to Nintendo Power and that day the Final Fantasy strategy guide was in the mailbox. Needless to say that is the game we had to go out and buy.
Haha awesome! The old Nintendo Power guides were so much fun! I haven't seen the one for FF1 but I remember the ones for Super Mario Bros 3 and some other games. :)
It's been a long time I found another person who is both a fan of Final Fantasy and Starcraft. The first one was a buddy of mine since grade 7 til now.
I remember when it was first on a floppy disk in the 80’s.
I loved this video. Thanks so much for your work.
Thank you! I put a lot of heart and soul into these retrospectives so it really means a lot to me to hear that! 😍
I always wonder what a ff7r sized budget remake of this thing would be like
Time well spent making this video. You've clearly put a lot of thought into what does or doesn't happen to be a good gaming experience. Do you happen to be a software tester by profession?
I wish you and your family prosperous, long lives,
Trip Seibold 子兴
Haha, you're not too far off, actually. Software testing is something I've done in the past. But most of what I put into this type of video comes from sheer nerdiness. 🤣 Thank you for your kind words!
I'm curious, is 子兴 your Chinese/Japanese name, or a reference to something?
子兴 is my Chinese name given to me by my mother-in-law.
I know all about the nerdy. White and Nerdy is my theme song:
m.ua-cam.com/video/N9qYF9DZPdw/v-deo.html
Omg thank you for mentioning how confusing the plot twist is. It’s neat that the writers even bothered to go there, it does give the story more depth, but I can’t wrap my head around it.
I love all final fantasy games.
Got a favorite?
Those dungeons weren’t intended to be completed in one go. You explore till you ran out of resources, left, rested, and came back.
You’ve been trained by modern games. Everything just works right. Backtracking is a sin.
What I noticed most of this game when I played it was the grinding. The level would jump up in a dungeon and it’d be difficult if you didn’t level up.
The leveling curve was a design choice. Like Dragon Quest, a smooth curve made a short game longer. And gave a stronger feeling of achievement.
Oops, don't know why I didn't respond to this earlier. You make some good points! When I made this video, I approached it very much from a "what is FF1 like from a modern game design perspective". When you look at it from the perspective of what the game was like *at the time*, everything makes a lot more sense!
greatest video i've watched in some time. Thanks a lot
Wow, thanks so much for saying that :)
I still prefer hard copy manuals / strategy guides to in-game hand-holding tutorials and looking up information online.
Yeah, paper manuals were super fun. I miss those days!
I thought I would share the whole "Final" in Final Fantasy was because they were going to go out of business is actually a myth. In truth the were fine financially but they did want an alliterative name. They were going to go with Fighting Fantasy but that name was owned by the choose your own adventure book series in the west so they did not want to go with it (a funny fact is since that time they have acquired the rights to the Fighting Fantasy name and brand). They wanted it to be FF so instead of Fighting Fantasy it turned to Final Fantasy. It easily could have been any appropriate word starting with F.
Thanks! I've heard about the "Fighting Fantasy" part before, but I have not seen an interview that said they were doing fine financially, where did you read that? All the interviews with Uematsu, Sakaguchi etc that I've seen suggest that they were doing quite poorly at the time. 😂 Either way, I still felt like the name "Final", even if it's not deliberate, is quite fitting given that Sakaguchi thought it might be his last game at the time.
Actually FFI wasn't the only FF to ask you a permanent class choice, the original International Zodiac Job System of FFXII release on PS2 in Japan worked like FFI, for your 6 characters you had to pick 1 Class and once chosen you couldn't change ever, this was change in the first release of Zodiac Age to 2 Classes per character and in a later update the option to change jobs by talking to a certain NPC was added.
Thanks for this! Well made and a great look at the original. 😊
Thank you so much, glad you liked it!
Could you PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do a retrospective on Wild Arms 1?
I'll put it in my backlog! Probably won't be in the near future, but I'd love to do that. Never played Wild Arms but I remember hearing so much about the games back in the day...
Great video, really enjoyed it!
Thanks for taking the time to say that! :)
@@Altercate you're very welcome. It was really interesting to see how the genre developed, and the bit towards the end about having to draw maps gave me serious nostalgia because I did that pre Internet with some tough games. I wouldn't play ff1, looks like a nightmare, but I enjoyed watching you play it. This video deserves way more views.
@@ralphparlour7972 Thank you, that means a lot to me :)
29:39 almost all the things you’ve said are weird about this game are directly from dungeons and dragons. I’m surprised that it was as faithful to the original rule set as it was
40:52 poisoned condition was not handled well, they should have implemented the medicine check action, but to be fair the developers likely didn’t have enough time to add that
43:10 this is an artifact of the history of DnD, back then there was a very pervasive culture of DM v Player
Just finished FF1 for the first time ever over the last 8 days (the pixel remastered version) what a THRILL - it holds up well if you appreciate the time and place it came from
"Best selling, multi acclaim series of all time" that hasn't been the case since FF 10-2
National Anthem of Jrpg is the Dragon quest Intro.
My first JRPG was Chrono Trigger and it pretty much broke the genre for me. Overworld encounters, no forced grinding, brilliant story with real choice. Since then I was only able to enjoy maybe 1 or 2 other JRPGs. I love the genre itself, but grinding especially grinds my gears :(
I hear you. Chrono Trigger was amazing. To my mind, it's the greatest JRPG of its generation, even better than FF6.
The lack of random encounters especially was such a triumph for its time. It's hard to go back to older games in the genre (or even many of the later games, like FF7) and enjoy random encounters... 😂
Hi. This is the first time I see your videos and consider me subscribed! It’s a great analysis and review. The only flaw to this video is comparing FF (1987) to FF7 remake (2020). You acknowledge that this is what gave birth to what is now considered a JRPG, but that same argument makes is kinda cruel to judge the game by today’s standards. But other than that, I really wanted to give kudos to the great work done here. PS: Beautiful ending monologue
Don't know why I never saw this comment until now. Thank you for your kind words :)
@@Altercate thank you for the awesome work and dedication
Dood, great job, radiates the love u got for this. Masterclass quality vids with 1300 subs lol. Unfair.
And the final conclusion? Nuts. XD
Do u thinking about patreon?.
Cheers!
Thank you so much! That means a lot to me. 😊 I'm interested in Patreon but I guess I don't feel confident yet that anyone would want to support me at this stage!
At 33:14 you are describing "open world" which is exactly what a "metroid" game is. You "open the world" as you progress unlike a sandbox game where the entire map is basically open from the start.
I know a lot of folks get the 2 confused mostly due to game "journalist" who always use wrong terms to describe games. Other examples is when they call a remake a remaster or a reimagining a remake.
Legacy of Kain Blood Omen and Soul Reaver are both open world as well, i think the first time "open the world" was used was in a review of Soul Reaver but I could be wrong on that one.
Great job otherwise, still one of my favorite games.
Thanks for sharing! I've never heard of anyone using the term "open world" to mean "opening the world", but it's an interesting thought! In my experience, "open world" was something people started talking about in relation to "closed" worlds like something out of Super Mario Bros or the original Castlevania, where your progress is linear and confined to a specific path. Do you have any article or source that explains more about your definition of the term?
@@Altercate I have been looking for the Soul Reaver article that mentioned it but have not had any luck. Starting to wonder if it could be a Mandela Effect.
But I remember that term being used back in the late 90's to describe games like certain Zelda's, Metroid, Legacy of Kain, The Metroidvania's (The Castlevania's that play like Metroid), and many others.
Classicvania games are just linear games like Super Mario.
I couldn’t help myself. I had to pause at 10 minutes to write this comment. These critique videos younger gamers do always look at the game from the wrong perspective which is from the present to the past. I bought this game brand new when it was first released; my perspective is different. This game is on a 144 kilobyte cartridge. Let that sink in. That’s like a two or three page word document in today’s tech. The fact that they were able to make this game and the accompanying story in 144 kilobytes is a miracle. This game was revolutionary then. During that time period, if you got a story at all, most games would give you a brief intro about 30 seconds long and you were lucky if the ending was more than a “congratulations” screen. This story blew me away then. Sure I can imagine it sucks when you look back on it after living in a world with more advanced technology and playing those games.
So…. At the beginning Garland is alive. You kill him and the fiends from this time period send him back to the past where he can send them to the future, but THAT future is not The Light Warriors present. If A is the past and C is the present, the fiends get sent to B. Not really a plot hole in my opinion, it’s just harder to convey all this with only 144 kilobytes of space and let’s not forget the English language takes up more memory than the Japanese language so that dialogue needs to get slashed to fit.
Sorry, I love this game and the NES version to boot. I play it at least once a year. This game is my jam. Anyhoo, I just try to nudge critics to not think of some from the past through a modern lens because if you do that EVERYTHING from the past sucks. Thanks for making this video by the way.
Added…
And then at 12 minutes you acknowledge all that, lol.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts! Honestly, when I made this video a couple of years ago, I wasn't really sure where I was going with it until I finished, and it ended up being mostly about comparing the game to a modern JRPG. Which, as you pointed out, isn't really fair.
If I'd made the video today, I would have focused a lot more on putting the game in its historical perspective, and put more emphasis on praising its breakthrough qualities.
@@Altercate I really enjoyed this video. You put a lot of work into it and it shows. Thank you very much it was awesome.
Original name was “Fighting Fantasy”, however, a copyright prevented that, and was renamed to “Final Fantasy”.
I have loved this game ever since it first came out. However my age is showing as I listen to your comments. I yelled "The gameplay IS the story!" At the wall lol. That's a dead idea these days.
Lol yeah, the angle I took when I first made this video was "how does the game compare to a modern JRPG". In hindsight, if I'd make the video today, I would have focused a lot more on what the game meant at the time.
Awesome video!
Thank you! :)
Love you content! Liked subbed and the bell is on so I don't miss anything haha
Thank you so much for the support! 😍
@@Altercate thanks for taking the time to reply! I know you are busy but I was wondering what your setup was for getting game footage? I'm working on a majoras mask retrospective and using a capture card to take cottage from the wii u to my laptop but it always plays it back super choppy and low frames. Just wonder if it's the fact that I'm using a 2012 Toshiba laptop or if I'm doing somthing wrong software sid s
@@GabrielShakkori I played on an emulator, so getting the footage through Streamlabs OBS was very easy! I use a capture card for PS4 and Switch footage but haven't tried it with Wii unfortunately, so I have no experience with that... 🙁
@@Altercate thank you! I'll try emulater next
@@GabrielShakkori Good luck with your retrospective! Majora's Mask is one of those legendary games I never got a chance to play. Maybe one day! 😀
Good vid! Engagement comment!
Thanks for the assist! 😍
Do you think you'll cover "Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin"?
Yes! It'll be my next video. I'm working on the script right now :)
It’s interesting to watch a younger gamer talk about an old ass classic. Hard to look objectively isn’t it. I will say, all elements missing here were just not a thing yet, FF and dragon quest were starting something new. 🙂 good video, I subscribed
Thanks! To be honest, when I made this video I hadn't really figured out my approach with retrospectives. If I made it today, it'd be a very different video - one which would look at the game from the perspective of what it meant at the time.
If you're interested, I just released a retrospective of the original Dragon Quest on my new channel: ua-cam.com/video/IUhpDg6RhLU/v-deo.html
In my opinion the origins version is the best. Yeah the game can be brutal but it really made you feel like that you accomplished something when you barely make it out alive of a dungeon. I don’t agree with the changes to the difficulty in the newer versions, but I do agree with quality of life changes, like the game not being insanely slow and being able to buy 99 potions all at once.
There is definitely a feeling of satisfaction in the original game (and Origins) that isn't there in later versions! 😀
I think when the villagers refer to the “vampire”, they’re actually talking about the Lich.
There is a boss called Vampire in the Earth Cave that you need to beat to get the Star Ruby, so I assume they're talking about him! What I meant to say is more like, there's no backstory to the Vampire, no explanation for who he was before or why he's serving Lich, etc. 😀
@@Altercate oh wow, you're right. I forgot about that. I guess that vampire is so forgettable, I just assumed they were talking about the Lich. Liked the video btw.
@@charlesroseman9466 Thanks for the support! 😀
They did what they can with the technology they had too.
A very impressive game for its time! 😀
Here is a quick comment
Thanks for the assist! 😍
This video: *complains about how primitive and ear-grating this game's 8-bit soundtrack was*
Me: *recently played the Pixel Remaster version and immediately switched to the original 8-bit soundtrack because I like it and it just felt right for the game* 😅
The FF1 remakes on the PS1, GBA, PSP and PC/Android/iOS are much better than the original on the NES IMO. If quality of life enhancements are the top priority for you, get the Pixel Remaster. If you want beautiful cute art, get the PSP version. If you prefer the Pixel style, get the Pixel Remaster. If you want a mix of quality of life enhancements and challenge, get the PS1 version Final Fantasy Origins. If the Normal Mode of FF1 on PS1 is too hard for you, use the memo save feature. The Easy mode in Origins is far more accessible as well.
Final Fantasy was originally planned to be named Fighting Fantasy, it has nothing to do with the game possibly being Square’s final game.
I have started playing FF1 some time ago (patched NES ROM Final Fantasy Restored Debalance) and it's a surprisingly solid and fun game. It's honestly really impressive for a 34-year-old console game. There is quite a lot of tactical depth in the fights, especially since you get to form your own party. I have read many people complain about the fact that your character will hit air if the targeted enemy is dead, but I think that this is part of the strategy : you can't just mash A, you need to plan each turn.
I have to say, I don't really get the graphics update. I think that the original NES graphics are not only still very functional, they are actually quite charming. Yes, it's the NES, so they can get eye-scorching after a while, but still, to me it is part of the game experience. Another reason is that if you upgrade the graphics to 16+bits era, you come to expect the same gameplay depth out of it, which is quite unfair to an 8-bit game. This is where developers feel the need to add and change all kinds of stuff in the gameplay, which puts you further and further away from each release.
There is such a thing as too much remastering in my opinion. Seeing yet another re-re-rerelease of FFI, I feel like I am watching an antique furniture that's been painted over multiple times and new pieces of wood nailed on as trends came and went. Some bug fixes and minor QoL changes is all it needs to me.
Thanks for sharing! I agree that the lack of auto-targeting adds strategic depth to the game. I just find it very frustrating personally, especially given how many random encounters you'll need to fight... 😅
I see your point about the remasters. For me personally, I really enjoy the new Pixel Remasters of FF1-3 because the graphics hit that sweet spot of 16-bit goodness that is so nostalgic and beautiful to me. It's a return to the best days of my childhood when gaming felt breathtaking with every new release! That said, the rearranged soundtracks and quality of life features are more important to me, especially the ones that make the menus easier to navigate.
@@Altercate Come to think of it I like the way M2 ported Phantasy Star. Basically the base game is mostly unchanged. However, they give you the option to double XP in order to make the game easier and less grindy. Moreover, they add a lot of info "outside" of game, but still on screen, like a map of the dungeon, or info about the enemy/weapon/etc. In the end it all comes down to taste and the only wrong way to play is if you don't have fun.
@@gaetan4164 So true! 😀
I don't know much about Phantasy Star, but I'd love to play through the whole series eventually. The only one I've played was Phantasy Star IV, and I couldn't finish it due to some bug in the ROM I was emulating...
@@Altercate I haven't actually played it yet, it's on my... *cringe*... backlog.
@@gaetan4164 The backlog... The ghost that haunts us all :/
“Story” for whatever value of story existed in the 80s & 90s was in the instruction books for the weird kids who were interested in that kinda thing.
Legend of Zelda you kill the bad guy and save some princess. Super Mario you stomp bad guys & save some princess. In Contra you fight the bad guys because of some crap President Reagan was doing that your dad was grumpy about. Metroid you kill the aliens.
For story you watch cartoons.
Gen Z grew up up ps2/GameCube, yeah we know what manuals are 🙄
Good video, sir.
As for the game itself, it's fun and simple, so what's not to love? It's not confusing and slow (like FFV), has decent difficulty (unlike FFIII and FFIV), has a lot of rewarding qualities (along with FFII). Yeah, maybe it's for the starters but so is Super Mario Bros and Mega Man II, thus it's a classic NES game. You know, from the console when the games had no boring tutorials, dragging cutscenes and mind-numbing minigames (like FFVII, FFIX and Suikoden II). And I do believe that random encounters were rigged in later versions.
P.S. Yep, the thief in NES version is incredibly bad, but ninjas are great, so here's another reward for multiple dying in the Ice Cave. :)
Thanks for stopping by and sharing! You did mention a bunch of my favorite games of all time in there but I can see why not everyone like them! 😂
@Tom Ffrench there's a bunch of great NES RPGs like Lagrange Point, Mother, Chaos World, Metal Max and so on. Yeah, DQ3 is probably the best one in realm of JRPG mechanics, but FF1 had such a fantastic distinguished atmosphere, so it is a tie for me. :)
And by decent difficulty i meant it's not that hard as 3 or 4.
@Tom Ffrench Thanks for stopping by! Yeah, Final Fantasy is mostly about grinding for levels whereas Final Fantasy IV demands quite a bit more out of the player to beat certain bosses etc. Been a while since I played the game but I just finished my FF3 playthrough so I'm going to take on FF4 again soon!
Thanks for the tip about Dragon Quest 3, I'll be sure to check it out sometime!
your not a turn based fan eh, I loved the battles of the first game.
Depends on the game! I love Active Time Battle if that counts as turn-based (I see it as a hybrid), and FFX is probably my favorite battle system in the Final Fantasy series. 😀
@@Altercate yeah I consider 10 the best, the sphere grid and blitz ball were some of the coolest mechanics in any FF game, in my humble opinion anyways.
Really need to compare this to dragon quest 1. That game was super small compared to final fantasy.
It gives you the baseline and how much they improve.
Dragon quest 2 come out with multiple characters inspired by final fantasy.
Final fantasy 2 had each protagonist be its own character like dragon quest 2 and started experimenting with the progression system.(final fantasy 2 was bad IMO)
I guess they should have played final fantasy vii before they made this huh?
Hi Daniel! Not sure I understand your comment? :O
I’m jusr defending the game :p
I love your work and watch all your videos! :)
@@danielmclean3733 Haha no worries. If I sound down on FF1 in the video it's only when judging the game by modern standards. Amazing game for its time!
And thanks for your kind words. :)
The Monk/Bl. Belt class (FF1) is useless!.
Guy craps on FF1 for 45 minutes straight, then at the end pulls the "but don't scold a toddler for not walking well".
He praised it a ton the whole way through.
A lot of viewpoints you have and carry are solely generational. What you feel as QOL now are the same thing the people felt when playing this game versus it's predecessors. This game really is a culmination of slamming games from PCs and meshing them into this. Ultima, wizardry, and a plethora of other titles. They ripped off a bunch of stuff from other games, books, movies, etc. There still was plenty of ways to find information about the game to help you defeat it. But that's what made you cool. If you were able to beat things that no one could. BBS were a thing before the internet. Files were shared all over.
Game releases that era weren't exceedingly crazy like today. So when you got a game you needed it to last a while. Grinding , exploring, figuring out what to do next was part of the experience. Now it's guides you where to go. Hell this generation just can't deal with set backs and will watch a walk thru instead of trial and error trying to beat something to gain that feeling of achievement.
When you said you would just power level outside a town, the just run through encounters in dungeons. That's not how the game was designed, it's just the way your mind playing games of this era has decided to play it. What's wrong with going into the dungeon until you get to a certain spell point level where you know you can make it back to the surface safely? Then use a cottage to heal/save. You mentioned that save possibility in your video. That is how the game is designed. You know. Like an RPG is designed. You are weak. You can't go to chaos and one shot him. You have steps to go through to get stronger to get to the next step.
Also going back to QOL. Imagine playing classic WOW and bashing on it saying it has no QOL compared to new WOW dragonflight and how ridiculous that it was.....not realizing how much QOL it has compared to it's predecessors. I mean, dying and corpse running. Losing XP and maybe a level when dying? Yikes. Oh wait classic wow didn't have that. QOL improvements. 👍
Thanks for commenting! Yeah, a lot of the things I pointed out in this video is stuff that wouldn't have bothered me at all if I'd gotten to play the game back in 1990.
To be honest, when I made this video a couple of years back I had kind of a different angle, looking at the game in comparison to a modern JRPG. If I made the retrospective today, I would have focused more on putting the game in its historical perspective, instead of comparing it to a modern title.
Gba, yes
Psp, yes
Pixel remaster? Best
Nothing is like this tension you have adventuring. RPGs are too... Handholding. If you're low you break to full quickly, no headache...
No tension that the warrior is dying to POISON... That you're running out of spell slots for wipes and heals... Should you save a white mage spell for healing or día?
Nothing beats the feeling of barely limping into town with a single character with 5 HP left 😀
@@Altercate its more like what it was trying to emulate, dnd.
this last playthrough, (cause the characters are lacking in character it makes it VERY replayable btw, this is a strength as you cant have 1 of each class or everyone with set classes you cant change like more modern rpgs.) I got through the first dungeon, and grabbed what i could. In marsh cave, i had to leave 3-4 times before completing it, and some of that was to rest with a tent or such, or go back to town for better gear/spells. I remember my worst exits form there and i was prepared with a tant already, had the same experience leaving the frost cave early one to sequence break (again, replayability being rewarded) where i had to use such tools as I was basically gonna die otherwise.
I WISH more rpgs had this feeling of tension which made questing feel like quests, and not simply having a heal to full for free/save option in each dungeon.
You can see this with games like Morrowind where your quests may force you to figure out how to get past dangerous terrain... well its all dangerous but water with slaughterfish, lava causing you to move around it, dangerous enemies you might not be able to handle, all without fast travel or ways to replenish your resources instantly forever... this means your armor might break, your repair tools might break, your weapons, if it went a step further food for a hunger meter would be a good addition. and then you dont even know what youre going to face there once youre at your destination or if you can keep retrying to fight your foe from that save.
It makes you question if its worth going back to town cause you need... holy water for a vampire, fire for a troll, feather for your encumbrance/loot, who knows?
the only rpg to come out recently with such a focus on not just sleeping/saving after every exp boost you get was LISA the Painful, and I wish it was more common to get. Yeah I could level outside a town in ff1 but for the quests, you were out on a quest and couldnt just leave and go back instantly to get a spell, armor, weapons, potions, antidote, gold needles, P downs, etc. you had to prepare before your quest or try heading back which took more time than you just making sure you had bought 10 antidotes and a sleeper before heading off.
@@elgatochurro Agreed, I would love to see more games like this! There's so much more that can be done with this type of gameplay. It's a more niche genre, but there's plenty of people out there who would embrace this type of gameplay, so I hope to see some indie studios go for it in the future! 😀
@@Altercate the only thing I really wished for while playing this last time was that there was very little to discover in the world. Now it is on based to the T so well on the NES version... But there's much of the map with nothing on it... They could at least have extra towns that you go to that are ruined already, no one around, showing the severity of plot.
My next campaign based on such play and it's entirely what I'm planning on having.
To be fair, FFXVI didn't evolve from FF1. It evolved from Witcher 1. It's a completely separate game to Final Fantasy made by completely separate people that have nothing to do with the Final Fantasy series. :P
But I'll just imagine FFXV or FFXIII in it's place and stop being an idiot.
I'm sorry but i think this is an awful way to approach a classic game. You can't judge a game from the past with an actual mindset. Yeah, sure, you can make comparisons now and then, but the WHOLE video is just putting in the game the lens of modern game designing. You can't just do that.
Yeah I agree with you actually lol. It’s been a couple of years since I made this video and I’ve changed my approach a lot since then. If I were to make this video today it would be totally different.
You dont seem to like this game.
Boring narrative...
I love Final Fantasy but hate the gay propaganda in 7 remake. Pass. There's your quick comment.