Final Fantasy

This article is about the first Final Fantasy game. For information on the series itself, see [[Final Fantasy (series)]].

Final Fantasy, sometimes known as Final Fantasy I, is the first installment of the Final Fantasy franchise and its main series. The game was developed and published by Square. It was originally released in Japan for the Famicom in 1987 and for the Nintendo Entertainment System in North America in 1990.

Final Fantasy has been re-released on numerous consoles, including MSX2, WonderSwan Color, PlayStation, and PlayStation Portable, smart phones, and the Nintendo 3DS. The game has been packaged with its follow-up, Final Fantasy II, for a few compilations, including Final Fantasy I∙II, Final Fantasy Origins and Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls. The original Famicom/NES version of Final Fantasy has been released on Nintendo's Virtual Console for the Wii, Nintendo 3DS, and Wii U.

In 2004, Final Fantasy was released on two series of Japanese cell phones. In February, it was released for the NTT DoCoMo 900i series. In August, it was released for the CDMA 1X WIN W21x series.

Story

Four hundred years prior to game's events, a people known as the Lefeinish (Lufenian), who used the Power of Wind to craft a giant space station (called the Floating Castle (Sky Castle) in the game) and airships, watched their country decline as the Wind Orb 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 Orb went dark. The Earth Orb and the Fire Orb followed, 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 Light Warriors will come to save the world in a time of darkness.

The scene that is shown after completing the first dungeon and crossing the bridge

The game begins with the appearance of the four youthful Light Warriors, the heroes of the story, who each carry one of the darkened Orbs (known as Crystals in later Final Fantasy games). They arrive at Coneria (Cornelia), a powerful kingdom which has just witnessed the kidnapping of its princess, Sara, by a knight named Garland. The Light Warriors 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 Light Warriors' passage east to the town of Pravoka. At Pravoka, the Light Warriors liberate the town from Bikke and his band of pirates, and acquire the pirates' ship for their own use. Though having the ability to travel across the water, the Light Warriors 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 them that Astos stole his crown and hid it in the Marsh Cave to the south, though when the Light Warriors retrieve his crown, he reveals himself to be Astos. He has also stolen the witch Matoya's (Matouya) Crystal. With her Crystal back, Matoya provides a herb to awaken the Elf Prince. The Elf Prince gives the Light Warriors a key capable of unlocking any door. The key unlocks a storage room in Coneria Castle which holds TNT (Nitro Powder). Nerrick destroys a small isthmus using the TNT, connecting the sea to the outside world.

After visiting the near-ruined town of Melmond, the Light Warriors go to the Earth Cave (Cavern of Earth) to defeat a vampire and retrieve the Ruby, which gains passage to Sage Sarda's (Sadda) cave. With Sarda's Rod, the Warriors venture deeper into the Earth Cave and destroy the Earth Fiend, Lich, who is responsible for the earth's decay. The Light Warriors 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. After proving their courage by retrieving the Rat's Tail from the Castle of Ordeal (Citadel of Trials), the King of the Dragons, Bahamut, promotes each Light Warrior. Using 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 Light Warriors. Following this, the Light Warriors travel to a small and distant town — the last remaining outpost of the Lefeinish civilization. The Lefeinish give the Light Warriors access to the Floating Castle (Sky Castle) that Tiamat, the Wind Fiend, has taken over. With the four Fiends defeated and the Orbs restored, the Warriors find that their quest is not yet over: the true enemy waits two thousand years in the past. Traveling to the past, the Warriors discover that the four Fiends sent Garland (now the archdemon Chaos) back in time and he sent the Fiends to the future to do so, creating a time loop by which he could live forever. The Light Warriors defeat Chaos, thus ending the paradox and return home. By ending the paradox, however, the Light Warriors have changed the future, to one in which their heroic deeds from their own time remain unknown outside of legend.

Gameplay

The Red Wizard exploring the overworld in the original NES release

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 overworld. Their goal is to defeat four major enemies called the 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) currency to buy new equipment.

The player begins Final Fantasy by creating the Light Warriors. Like several role-playing games of its time, Final Fantasy's player characters are passive participants in the story, with their names and abilities relevant only during battle. Characters are determined by four-letter names (more than four can be entered in later editions), certain numerical attributes, and their class. A character's most basic attribute is its level, which is numbered between 1-50 (or up to 99 in the remakes). 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 is part of a class, which affects their attributes and abilities. There are six classes, three of which are physically oriented. The other three are mages, who are oriented in magic. The player can only select four characters and cannot change the party members once they start the game. However, there is a part of the game where after the Light Warriors complete a certain quest, they can visit Bahamut to upgrade to a more powerful class.

Combat

Gameplay screenshot for the NES version showing the party fighting a group of Imps

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 a randomly determined order.

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. Warriors may also fight bare-handed; however, only the Black Belt/Master may do so effectively. 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 three statistics: damage, chance to hit bonus, and critical hit chance. Certain weapons are also more effective against monsters of particular types or monsters weak against particular elements. In the original NES version, these properties and the critical hit chance were not used due to bugs, but these were fixed for later revisions. While four weapons may be held, only one weapon may be used at a time.

In addition to weapons, there are four types of armor: Armor (Cuirasses, Robes, Bracelets), Helmets, Gauntlets, and Shields. Unlike weapons, a piece of armor's type is very important. A character may wear up to four different pieces of armor at once, but only one of each type. Each armor has two statistics: a damage absorption bonus and an evade penalty. Certain kinds of armor also grant resistance to particular categories of magic.

At shops, the Light Warriors can buy items to help themselves recover while they are traveling. They can carry up to 99 of each item at a time. Potions are one of the most common, and they restore HP to a player. Antidotes are also common, and they cure the poison ailment. The Light Warriors can use Tents, Cabins, or Houses (named Cottage in the remakes) on the overworld to restore their HP (in the original version, the player also has the option to save the game). By using a House, the Light Warriors can also restore their magic points. They can gain additional special items during or by completing 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. The White Wizard can learn any White Magic spell, and the Black Wizard can learn any Black Magic spell. Other classes have various restrictions on the spells they can learn. In the original NES version, once a spell has been learned it cannot be forgotten. This was changed in some later revisions.

The original NES version 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 Magic Points (MP).

Classes

There are six classes, and their beginning stats and a general description of them are listed below.

Sprite (NES)	Name	HP	Strength	Agility	Intelligence	Vitality	Luck	Description
File:Black Mage FFI NES.png	Black Mage	25	1	10	20	1	20	This character can cast offensive spells. Its upgraded class is Black Wizard.
File:Monk FFI NES.png	Monk/Black Belt	33	5	5	5	20	10	This character is skilled at fighting armorless while empty-handed. Its upgraded class is Master.
File:Red Mage FFI NES.png	Red Mage	30	5	5	15	10	20	Of the three mages, the Red Mage is the strongest at physical attacks. It can use a mixture of White and Black Magic. Its upgraded class is Red Wizard.
File:Thief FFI NES.png	Thief	30	5	10	5	5	15	A fast and agile character who can be upgraded into Ninja, who can use low-level Black Magic spells.
File:White Mage FFI NES.png	White Mage	28	5	5	15	10	20	This character can cast defensive and curative spells. Its upgraded class is White Wizard.
File:Warrior FFI NES.png	Warrior/Fighter	35	20	5	1	10	5	This character uses heavy weapons and armor, and can be upgraded into a Knight, who can also use low-level White Magic spells.

Listings

Characters

The characters are not individually named, and they are collectively known as the Warriors of Light. At the start of the game, the player can select the types and names of each Light Warrior. Like computer role-playing games of the era, the player characters are passive participants in the story, and therefore the player's choice of character type affects only the Warriors of Lights' abilities in battle.

Enemies

In later releases, starting with Final Fantasy Origins, there is a Bestiary from the main menu, listing each enemy and their stats.

Bosses

• Garland
• Astos (Dark Elf)
• Piscodemon
• Vampire
• Death Eye
• Blue Dragon
• Lich, fiend of earth
• Kary/Marilith, fiend of fire
• Kraken, fiend of water
• Tiamat, fiend of wind
• Chaos

Items

Armor

Weapons

Transportation

• Ship

Magic

There are two types of magic in Final Fantasy I: Black Magic and White Magic.

Locations

• World A
• Cornelia

Shops

Stats

Each warrior's stats are determined by eight categories.

• Hit Points (HP)
• Agility (Agi)
• Vitality (Vit)
• Magic Defence (M. Def)
• Strength (Str)
• Intelligence (Int)
• Hit Percentage (Hit%)
• Luck (Luck)

Achievements

The Windows Phone version features achievements.

Music

Staff

Original Famicom version

• Original Concept — Hironobu Sakaguchi
• Character Design — Yoshitaka Amano
• Programmer — Nasir Gebelli
• Scenario — Kenji Terada
• Music — Nobuo Uematsu

PlayStation remake

• Executive Producer — Yoichi Wada
• Producer — Yusuke Hirata
• Production Manager — Kiyomi Tanikawa
• Directors — Hideshi Kyonen, Katsuyoshi Kawahara and Kazuhiko Yoshioka
• Movie Director — Koji Wakasono
• Movie Designers — Mitsuhira Yamado, Satoshi Sumida, Masata Motoki, Yutaka Maekawa, Wataru Ikeda, Shin Azuma and Rumiko Sawada
• Movie Programmer — Naoto Uenaka
• Original Music — Nobuo Uematsu
• Graphics — Yoshisuke Nakahara, Mieko Hoshino, Tomohiko Tanabe, Hideki Omori and Eiji Yamashita
• Testing — Reiko Kondo
• Localization Manager — Akira Kashiwagi
• Localization Directors — Tomoko Sekii and Kazuyoshi Tashiro
• Localization Programmer — Yoshinori Uenishi
• Localization Specialist — Amanda J. Katsurada
• Localization Assistant — Satoko Kondo

References to and from other media

• References in Final Fantasy to other media
  • This game draws a inspiration from Dungeons and Dragons, first Edition.
• References to Final Fantasy from other media
  • This game serves as the basis for 8-Bit Theater. The comic follows the basic plot, albeit with artistic license and creative liberties given to help flesh out the minor details. It ran for 1224 issues and an epilogue.

See also

• Comparison of Final Fantasy names between versions - A comparison of names used in the original NES release to later version.
• Final Fantasy version differences - Differences between the several versions of the game.
• Final Fantasy regional differences - Regional differences for every version of the game.
• List of glitches in Final Fantasy - A list of glitches found in the game.

External links

• NES version on Final Fantasy Kingdom
• Final Fantsy on TV Tropes Wiki

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