Leger vs. Final Fantasy (NES)

Even though Phantasy Star on the Master System and Final Fantasy on the NES are almost by date (December 1987) the same age they seem like games from two completely different eras when it comes to the technology they present to the player.

Also, since the Swedish publisher of NES games, Bergsala, and others involved thought of role playing games as too text heavy and not particularly much of a good fit with the public considering its age we never got to see Hironobu Sakaguchi's Final Fantasy back then.

Or Dragon Quest.

Or any jrpg at all, on the NES.

The Master System got Phantasy Star, Miracle Warriors and Ys: The Vanished Omens (the last one being an action adventure with role playing elements). Even the Mega Drive happened over here, with Phantasy Star 2 and other jrpgs before Nintendo and Bergsala caught up with the interest.

The point I am reaching for is that when I finally got to play the very first Final Fantasy (probably emulated in the second half of the ninties) the game felt archaic even by the standards of 1987.

Where Phantasy Star offered full blown 3D dungeons with animated movement, animated enemies and extremely detailed and colourful backgrounds on the battlefield Final Fantasy offered black backgrounds in battles, static enemies and graphics which even compared to the cartoony Dragon Quest of 1986 seemed, at times, simple.

Not to mention the fact that if a character is about to attack an enemy in battle but the enemy falls by the hands of someone else before the attack is carried through, the character lashes out at thin air instead of adapting to the situation and turn the interest to a still living enemy.

Also, the by now famous story about four heroes looking for a way to reactivate four crystals to save the world just felt... bland... especially compared to the revenge seeking Alis who lost her brother to the hands of evil.

This is not to say that Final Fantasy is a simple game.

Rather, it is a more open and dynamic journey than Phantasy Star, especially since the dynamics of the party is chosen by the player and not the story itself (as in Phantasy Star and Dragon Quest, with the latter not even offering a party at all).

See, if there is something that could be said about Final Fantasy and the way the player experiences the journey on offer it resides much in the choice of class of each character.

A Black Mage is good with offensive magic while a White Mage is good at defensive dito. The Red Mage can manage both white and black magic but lacks the ability to deal with the strongest magic on offer.

The Fighter is obviously a good fighter, the Thief is yet to become something I care to bother about and the Black Belt offers pure tanking; Such good fighters, deals massive amount of damage but is lacking in defense even though higher levels balances things up aswell as some of the armor and other defensive equipment that they can use.

Oh, and when reaching a certain point in the game all of the classes can evolve into something more advanced which enables use of more advanced equipment and magic.

So, depending on the choices made before the journey begins the game will feel quite different.

While I usually (when playing the later versions of the game, such as the one on the Playstation Portable or iPad) go with two fighters and two mages this last trip, the first playthrough on the NES, had me picking four Black Belts.

Certainly grindy in the beginning, especially with the low defense, made for many deaths until my levels had reached a point where I actually could withstand larger groups of enemies.

And this is also a big difference compared to both Phantasy Star and Dragon Quest, where only one enemy (or one type of enemy, although many of them) could be encountered in a single battle.

In Final Fantasy up to nine enemies can be battled at once, where the player can pick and chose between which one to attack and how.

This makes for way more strategic battles, which is a good thing, especially since players just hammering the button will spend much time attacking nothing but air until the round ends and the next enemy in line automatically gets selected.

Playing with only Black Belts also meant that no magic could be used, and thus I had to stock up on potions pretty much before each trip to wherever.

Here it becomes painfully obvious how small Quality of Life changes in later versions of the game makes a world of difference; The menues are slow, you can only buy one item at a time and stocking up on 99 potions takes a couple of minutes.

Also, the game in itself is pretty slow.

You can not run, just walk, and while the random encounters actually are not as frequent as one would think the battles always feel sluggish.

Now, this would be a huge problem if the game was massive in scope or if leveling up took a long time or if reaching a higher level made no real difference.

But it makes a big difference leveling up, especially when it comes to the Black Belts which when using no weapons will attack more and more times with each blow if using only bare hands.

By the time level 20+ is reached they are extremely powerful and pretty much obliterates everything in their path as long as they do not encounter enemies that manage to kill them with one hit. This is particulary troublesome since Final Fantasy offer no way of reviving fallen characters outside of towns.

Furthermore, since the equipment Black Belts can use is scarce there is never really a lack of money that hinders progress. Most money will be spent on reviving fallen characters or bying potions, antidotes or cabins or houses (that allows the player to regain some health, some magic and save on the world map, the only place besides an inn where this is possible).

Playing this way made the first third of the game feel like a preparation for the two final thirds.

Reaching higher levels early made traversing land and caves, dungeons or castles much easier and when putting pure focus on progress and exploring previously unexplored places the game suddenly seemed to rush towards its conclusion.

Getting hold of a canoe to be able to travel on shallow water, a boat to do the same on deep water. Finding a gravity defying stone which pulls up a buried airship from beneath a desert. Finding items which opens up new pathways, talking to people and doing them some favours.

Beating the keepers of the ways to reactivate the crystals, the bosses linked to the four elements, and in a strange twist of happenings travel in time to break a loop which keeps the world in turmoil.

I could not stop playing.

Each session had me come up with a certain task to complete (reach level x, search through cave y, beat boss z, buy the best equipment available in a particular city and so on) aswell as a new task to deal with next time playing.

Most of the grinding was done while watching, for example, a movie to eliminate some of the monotonousness of it all.

And when I finally could see THE END on the screen I almost felt like starting again, from the beginning, with a different kind of party.

It may sound strange, but Final Fantasy on the NES managed to get me much more involved in the journey than the versions on PSP and iPad did.

I do believe this is due to the need of actually engaging in the gameplay, putting in commands in the battles and not just hammering away on attack, having to plan all of the trips by stocking up on potions and other items and knowing that some bad choices or bad luck could wipe out the entire party from one second to another.

This is simply not the case in the versions I have played earlier where you can save wherever and whenever you want. Where there is less need to engage in the battles since you do not have to think about the consequences of killing an enemy that another character is waiting to attack. Where less time is needed moving from one place to another with the help of the ability to dash.

You could say that I was somewhat surprised, since the archaic feel of the game put me off years earlier and had me thinking that I would never bother about beating this original version.

Instead, it made me actually appreciating the experience more especially considering when it was released and what other games at the time had to offer.

Sure, Phantasy Star is prettier, more streamlined and accessible to play today even without bothering about the later remaster with added QoL functions such as mapping of the caves and such.

Not to mention lacking all of the truly odd bugs to be found all over Final Fantasy on the NES (such as many weapons with certain characteristics not working as they should, some magics being broken and some glitching stat defining algorithms).

But Final Fantasy differs so much from Phantasy Star that it it is hard to directly compare what is on offer; They both have a relevant place in history and are both worth experiencing.

While the quite newly released Pixel Remaster, or any version from the one released on Game Boy Advance and onwards, would be what I recommend to those interested in experiencing the origins of the series without having to deal with most of the design choices which by the standards of today seem horrible...

...this original version could do more than well if being aware of its shortcomings, if looking at it from a perspective of when it was released and simply wanting to experience it all in the way it begun.

Almost baffled by my own opinon, but due to it being the odd case of me putting the experience above the product delivering that very thing.

Also, it is more than fascinating to see so many series mainstays appear in this very first installment such as the Black Mage, The Prelude (in its most basic form, an arpeggio which never ends) aswell as the victory fanfare (Nobuo Uematsu does a good job with the entire soundtrack, though his later work is in so many ways more memorable and more well defined), the airship and the crystals (here called orbs).

And as such, I just have to love Final Fantasy on the NES; An intriguing, entertaining (albeit slow and somewhat broken) and replayable piece of ridicilously important video game history.