The world lies in shrouded darkness.
The winds die...
The seas rage...
The earth decays...
But the people believe in a prophecy, patiently waiting for its fulfillment.
'When darkness veils the world, four Warriors of Light shall come.'
After a long journey four young warriors did at last appear...
...and in the hand each was holding a crystal.
Beaten: 2 times, in 2004 and 2023
Versions played: Gameboy Advance (Dawn of Souls), Switch (Pixel Remaster)
There's not a ton of depth to go into with the first Final Fantasy game, so I'm not even going to try. At heart, it's extremely simple. Four nameless warriors are chosen to restore balance to the world. There's one conversation worth of character development in the game, and it belongs to Garland. For a game series that would eventually become so story-driven, Final Fantasy is very much not that.
And you know what? That's okay.
I first played Final Fantasy in roughly 2004, when it came out for the Gameboy Advance in the Dawn of Souls package. I didn't grow up with consoles, just handhelds, so this was my first "real" exposure to the main series — though I had started with Final Fantasy Tactics Advance the year prior.
I don't have firm memories of how I felt about FFI at the time; it's just too long ago. What I was left with, instead, was the clear feeling that I'd had fun with it. I didn't like it as much as FFII, because I do prefer my games to have some story, but it was fine on its own, I thought.
Imagine my surprise when I returned to the game in 2023 with the Pixel Remasters and found myself absolutely enthralled by it. Yeah, it's a really basic game, but you know what? The core gameplay loop is fun. It's delightful to explore all the different dungeons. I still own my physical guidebook for the Dawn of Souls edition, and as I pored over the maps to chart my course while playing the Pixel Remaster version, I felt like I was a kid again.
Sometimes you don't want something fancy. Sometimes all you really want is a decent game to play. And FFI more than meets that mark. And really, I was quite touched by the ending text in the Pixel Remaster edition, which I'd had no memory of whatsoever. That alone felt like worth the time I'd spent with the game.
I don't have a favorite character from this game, since really the only character of any interest is Garland. I do think the core idea behind Garland's plan is interesting, but it's not really expanded upon in any detail within the game itself. This, more than anything, is why I'll give Stranger of Paradise a try sometime.
Is it cheating to go with the Prelude? Probably. Even so, I can't go with anything else. The Prelude is very simple, even to my untrained ears, but it's always been beautiful. Nobuo Uematsu is rightly revered for his work on the series, and it's really no surprise that he got it right from the very start.
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the dungeons in this game, actually! The whole game is basically a dungeon crawler, so it's a fun time to explore from top to bottom. It helps that I still have my physical guidebook for the Dawn of Souls edition, so I had no trouble navigating any of the areas in the Pixel Remaster. I really liked the different dungeons and had a grand old time going through them all. It's a shame the bonus content wasn't in the Pixel Remaster, really; I would have happily gone through those too.
To be honest, what I really enjoyed when I came back to the game was how incredibly powerful using items is. With magic so limited, item use gets past a lot of issues you'd otherwise have. Perhaps it's a bit overpowered, but then the Final Fantasy games have never been particularly difficult.