Final Fantasy (video game)

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Final Fantasy (ファイナルファンタジー, Fainaru Fantajī?) is a console role-playing game developed and published by Square Co., Ltd. (now Square Enix) in 1987, and is the inaugural game in Square's flagship Final Fantasy series. Final Fantasy has been remade for several different video game consoles and handheld systems. The game has frequently been packaged with its follow-up, Final Fantasy II, in collections such as Final Fantasy I-II, Final Fantasy Origins and Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls.[1]

The story begins with the appearance of the four youths called the "Warriors of Light" who each carry one of their world's elemental orbs which have been darkened by four Elemental Fiends. Together, they quest to defeat these evil forces and restore light to the orbs, thus saving the world.

Final Fantasy was one of the most influential and successful role-playing games on the Nintendo Entertainment System, and played a major role in popularizing the genre after Dragon Quest.

Contents [hide]
1 Gameplay
1.1 Combat
1.2 Customization
2 Plot and setting
2.1 Setting
2.2 Plot
3 Musical score
4 Development
4.1 North American localization
4.2 MSX 2
4.3 WonderSwan Color
4.4 PlayStation
4.5 Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls
4.6 Mobile phones
4.7 PlayStation Portable
5 Reception and legacy
6 References
7 External links



Gameplay
The following refers to the original Famicom/NES version. For changes in subsequent remakes, see the section on Development.
Gameplay in Final Fantasy is similar to that of many other console role-playing games. The player controls a party of four player characters, called Light Warriors (or "Warriors of Light" in later editions), who explore towns and dungeons as they travel across the world map. The goal of the game is to defeat four major enemies called Elemental Fiends or Fiends of Chaos. Along the way, the player travels to towns where he or she may shop, acquire information, and rest. While traveling, the player encounters monsters which must either be combated or fled from. Winning battles earns the player experience points, which strengthen player characters, and gold (gil in later versions) to buy new equipment.

The player begins Final Fantasy by creating the Light Warriors. As is typical of computer role-playing games of the era, player characters are passive participants in the story, with their names and abilities relevant only during battle. Characters are determined by four-character names, certain numerical attributes, and their class. A character's most basic attribute is its level, which is numbered between one and fifty. (The maximum is ninety-nine in later editions.) A character's level is determined by how much experience it has, and higher level characters are more powerful than lower level characters. Gaining a level increases the character's attributes, such as their maximum Hit Points (HP). HP represents a character's remaining health, and when a character reaches zero HP, they die. Additional attributes such as "Strength" govern other aspects of the character.

Each character has a character class, which affects the character's attributes and abilities. There are six classes, three of which are physically oriented and three of which are magically oriented. During the game, the player has the option of completing a quest which changes and upgrades each character to a different and more powerful class. With the exception of this upgrade, character classes cannot be changed once the game has begun.

The "Fighter" ("Warrior" in later editions) uses heavy weapons and armor, and can be upgraded into a "Knight", who is also able to use low-level White Magic spells. The "Black Belt" (or "Monk") is skilled at fighting armorless while empty-handed and upgrades to a "Master." The fast and agile "Thief" goes early in combat rounds and can upgrade into a "Ninja", which may use low-level Black Magic spells. Of the three magical classes, the "Red Mage" is a decent fighter and can use a mixture of White and Black Magic. The Red Mage upgrades to a "Red Wizard" who can use more powerful equipment and spells. The "White Mage" can cast defensive and curative spells and upgrades to a "White Wizard," while the "Black Mage" can cast offensive spells and upgrades to a "Black Wizard." Both the Black and White Mages/Wizards are comparatively weak at physical offense compared to the other characters in exchange for their powerful magic.


Combat

The Light Warriors face off against Lich, Fiend of Earth (NES version shown)Battles in the game are turn-based. At the beginning of each turn, the player selects an action for each player character, with the options being direct attacks, casting spells, drinking potions, using magical items, or running. Once the player has chosen actions for each player character, the player characters and monsters begin battling. Participants move one at a time in the order determined by their "agility" attribute.

In the original NES version, it was not possible to select a new enemy to attack once actions had begun; if the character had chosen to attack an enemy who had been defeated earlier in the round, then the attack was ineffective, and the character did nothing. This was changed in later versions.

Battles continue until one side either flees or is defeated. If the party wins, the characters gain experience and gold. If the party flees, they return to the map. If the party dies, the game is over.


Customization
Final Fantasy contains a variety of weapons and armor; new equipment can make the Light Warriors more powerful in combat. Each Light Warrior has eight inventory slots, with four to hold weapons and four to hold armor. Each character class has restrictions on what weapons and armor it may use. Additionally, some weapons and armor are magical; if used during battle, some of these items will cast spells. Other magical artifacts provide protection, such as from certain dangerous spells.

There are six types of weapons: Swords, Daggers, Axes, Hammers, Staves, and Nunchaku. The type of a weapon mainly determines its associated graphics, but also indicates which classes are more likely able to use that weapon. For example, a Black Belt is able to equip nunchaku but cannot equip axes. Each weapon has two statistics: damage and a chance to hit bonus. While four weapons may be held, only one weapon may be used at a time.

In addition to weapons, there are six types of armor: Armor (Cuirasses), Robes, Helmets, Gauntlets, Shields, and Bracelets. Unlike weapons, a piece of armor's type is very important. A character may wear up to four different types of armor at once, but only one of each type. There are items of armor which have no type, such as rings, which a character may wear any amount of. Each armor has two statistics, a damage absorption bonus and an evade penalty.

At shops, the Light Warriors can buy items to help themselves recover while they are traveling. Up to 99 of each item may be carried at one time. One of the types of items available are "Potions", which heal player characters or remove an ailment such as poison or stoning. "Tents", "Cabins", and "Houses", which heal the player and offer the chance to save the game, are also available, though they can only be used on the world map. In addition to restoring hit points, Houses also restore the party's magic. Finally, there are special items gained during or at the completion of quests.

Many character classes are able to use magic, which is divided into "white" defensive magic and "black" offensive magic. Spells are classified by a level between one and eight, with, in most cases, higher level spells being more powerful than lower level spells. There are four white magic and four black magic spells of each level. Characters may learn up to three spells of each level by purchasing them at shops in towns. White wizards are capable of learning all white magic spells, and black wizards are capable of learning all black magic spells. Other classes have various restrictions on the spells they can learn.

The original NES version of the game allowed each magic-user "charges" for each level of spells; spells of a given level could only be cast as many times as the user had charges. As a character's level increased, more charges were gained. This system closely resembles the spell-casting system in Dungeons & Dragons. In some later revisions of the game, this system was replaced by MP (Magic Points).

Plot and setting

Setting
See also: List of Final Fantasy locations
Final Fantasy takes place on a fantasy world with three large continents. The elemental powers on this world are determined by the state of four orbs (crystals in later localizations), each governing one of the four classical elements: earth, fire, water, and wind.


Plot

Outside the Kingdom of Coneria (NES version shown)Four hundred years prior to the start of the game, a people known as the Lufenians, who used the power of the Wind Crystal to craft giant space stations (Sky Castles) and airships, watched their country decline as the Wind Crystal went dark. Two hundred years later, violent storms sunk a massive shrine that served as the center of an ocean-based civilization, and the Water Crystal went dark. Another two hundred years later, the Earth Crystal and the Fire Crystal also went dark, plaguing the earth with raging wildfires, and devastating the agricultural town of Melmond as the plains and vegetation decayed. Some time later, a sage called Lukahn tells of a prophecy that four Warriors of Light will come to save the world in a time of darkness.

The game begins with the appearance of the four youthful Warriors of Light, the heroes of the story, who each carry one of the darkened Crystals. They arrive at Coneria, a powerful kingdom which has just witnessed the kidnapping of its princess, Sara, by a knight named Garland. The Warriors of Light travel to the ruined Temple of Fiends in the northwest corner of Coneria, defeat Garland, and return Princess Sara home. The grateful King of Coneria builds a bridge that enables the Warriors of Light passage east to the town of Pravoka. At Pravoka, the Warriors of Light liberate the town from a band of pirates, and acquire the pirates' ship for their own use. Though having the ability to travel across the water, the Warriors of Light remain trapped within the Aldi Sea, in the center of the southern continent. On the south side of the sea is the kingdom of the elves, where the prince has been put into a cursed sleep by Astos. To the west is a ruined castle, where a king tells you that Astos stole his crown and hid it in the Marsh Cave to the south, though when the Warriors of Light retrieve his crown, he reveals himself to be Astos. He has also stolen the witch Matoya's Crystal. With her Crystal back, Matoya provides an herb to awaken the Elf Prince. The Elf Prince gives the Warriors of Light a key capable of unlocking any door. The key unlocks a storage room in Coneria Castle which holds TNT. Nerrick, one of the Dwarves of Mount Deurgar, destroys a small isthmus using the TNT, connecting the sea to the outside world.

After visiting the near-ruined town of Melmond, the Warriors of Light go to the Cavern of Earth and destroy the Earth fiend, Lich, who is responsible for the earth's decay. The Warriors of Light then obtain a canoe and enter Gurgu Volcano (Mt. Gulg) and defeat the Fire fiend, Kary (Marilith). They recover the Floater (Levistone) from the Ice Cave, which allows them to obtain an airship. Using the airship and an air-producing fairy artifact known as Oxyale, the Warriors go to the Sunken Shrine to defeat the Water fiend, Kraken. They also recover a slab with fragments of the Lefeinish language. A linguist named Dr. Unne uses the slab to decode the Lefeinish language, which he teaches to the Warriors of Light. Following this, the Warriors of Light travel to a small and distant town — the last remaining outpost of the Lefeinish civilization. The Lefeinish give the Warriors of Light access to the Sky Castle that Tiamat, the Wind fiend, has taken over. With the four fiends defeated and the crystals restored, the Warriors find that their quest is not yet over: the fiends created an archdemon, Chaos, using the body of Garland, and sent him two thousand years into the past. Following Chaos into the past, the Warriors discover that it was Chaos who had sent the four fiends into the future, creating a time paradox. The Warriors of Light defeat Chaos, but the time paradox causes everyone except the Warriors of Light to forget everything that transpired.

Musical score
Main article: All Sounds of Final Fantasy I·II
Final Fantasy was Nobuo Uematsu's 16th video game score. The score was released on CD together with the score of Final Fantasy II.

A few of the game's tracks became mainstays to the Final Fantasy series: the Prelude, the arpeggio played on the title screen; the Opening Theme, which is played when the party crosses the bridge early in the game and later referred to as the Final Fantasy theme; and the Victory Fanfare, which is played after every victorious battle. The opening motif of the Battle theme has also been reused a number of times in the series.


Development

Cover box for original Famicom release in JapanFinal Fantasy was developed during Square's brush with bankruptcy in 1987. In a display of gallows humor, director Hironobu Sakaguchi declared that his "final" game would be a "fantasy" role-playing game, hence the title. [2]. Far from being Square's final game, however, Final Fantasy proved to be a major success in Japan, not only saving Square from bankruptcy, but presenting them with the second most popular role-playing game franchise in the country (after Enix's Dragon Quest).[citation needed] The characters and title logo were designed by Yoshitaka Amano. The scenario was co-written by Akitoshi Kawazu and veteran writer Kenji Terada. [3] . Iranian-American game programmer Nasir Gebelli, who was living in Japan at the time, worked as the programmer for this game. Among the other developers were Hiromichi Tanaka, Akitoshi Kawazu, Koichi Ishii, and Kazuko Shibuya. The game was developed by Square's A-Team. Following the successful North American localization of Dragon Quest (as Dragon Warrior), Nintendo of America translated Final Fantasy into English and published it in North America in 1990.[citation needed] The North American version of Final Fantasy met with modest success, due partly to Nintendo's aggressive marketing tactics.[citation needed] No version of the game was marketed in the PAL region until Final Fantasy Origins in 2003.[citation needed]

Final Fantasy has been remade several times for several different platforms. While all of these remakes retain the same basic story and battle mechanics, various tweaks have been made in a variety of different areas, including graphics, sound, and specific gameplay elements.


North American localization
The 1990 North American localization of Final Fantasy was essentially identical to the original Japanese game, but technical limitations and the censorship policies of Nintendo of America, resulted in a few minor changes to certain elements. For example, the original game program provided only four character spaces for magic spell names, meaning that a lot of original Japanese spell names had to be abbreviated to fit into the space requirements for the English version.[4] These changes include "Flare" being reduced to "NUKE", "Thunder" being reduced to "LIT" and "Degeon" being reduced to "ZAP!" Also, there were censorship issues, since Nintendo of America policy prohibited games from featuring any overt Judeo-Christian imagery or reference to death. As such, some content was modified so that, for instance, "HOLY" became "FADE", and churches became clinics which no longer featured crosses, but had heart symbols instead.[5]

WonderSwan Color
WonderSwan Color remake
Release date(s) JPN December 9, 2000
Media 32 megabit cartridge
Many more changes were introduced for the WonderSwan Color (WSC) remake of the game. The 8-bit graphics of the original Famicom game were completely redrawn for the WSC version, bringing the game roughly on-par with 16-bit era graphics (between Final Fantasy V and Final Fantasy VI). The color palette was much larger and battle scenes now featured full background images.

Character sprites, or two-dimensional pre-rendered figures, were also redesigned to look more like characters from the Super Famicom Final Fantasy games, especially as they upgraded in class. In the Famicom version, shops and inns had no interior map: once a character entered the building, they were greeted with a menu-based purchase screen. In the WSC version this was changed to more closely resemble other games in the series, where each building had an interior, along with a shop counter where the transaction screen could be accessed. Similarly, the battle screen was redesigned, with all textual information moved down to a blue window stretched across the bottom of the screen in an arrangement similar to that utilized in Final Fantasy II through Final Fantasy VII. As a further update, short cutscenes using the internal game engine were added to expand the story of the game somewhat. One such cutscene involved the construction of the bridge by the army of Corneria.


Dark Elf Astos rains death down upon our heroes (WonderSwan Color version shown)Also of significance is that the original Famicom version of the game did not have the ability to display more than one window of text during a conversation, which meant that all conversations with non-player characters were strictly limited in length. The WSC version removes this restriction. In the original version of the game, any attempt to attack a monster that had been killed by a previous character's attack would result in an "ineffective" attack. The WSC version introduced an option wherein the attack would be redirected to another monster rather than fail. Similarly, a "dash" option had been introduced: holding down a specific button while walking around in a town or dungeon map would cause the character to move around at twice their normal pace. Both of these options can be turned on and off via the game's configuration screen.

As in the original version, every magic using character has successive "spell levels". Each character has only three available slots per spell level, but is given the option of choosing from four spells. Once that choice had been made in the original version, there was no way to "unlearn" spells to free up a space for the unchosen fourth spell. In the WSC version, this has been changed so that it is possible to delete spells once purchased. In the original Famicom version, the cartridge could only store one set of game data at a time, and every time a new save was made, the previous one was overwritten. The WSC version provides up to eight distinct slots for saved game data. There is also a "quick save" feature introduced which allows the player to save his or her progress at any time (except during battles). This will exit the game, however, and as soon as the game is resumed, any quick save data is lost.

Another change from the original version involves items; only items specifically assigned to a character could be used during battle. In the WSC, this has been changed so that there is a party-wide "pool" of items which can be accessed at any time by all characters. Certain status healing items (such as "Potion" and "Soft") can now be used during battle. Further, in the original game not only did each character have their own armor and weapon inventory, each was fixed to storing only 4 of each category per character. This meant that as opposed to the first game, one could now actually equip all 5 different armor types, as well as collect every single armor and weapon in the game without needing to drop or sell anything. A number of magic spells that didn't work properly in the original were also now "fixed" to work as originally intended. The status ailment "silence" no longer prevents items from being used. In addition to remixing the soundtrack, composer Nobuo Uematsu has composed several new tracks, including a new "boss battle" theme. Because many of the above changes make the game simpler than before, the hit points of certain monsters, and almost all boss monsters, have been substantially increased (doubled, in some cases) in order to better balance the gameplay.