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

NES screenshot of the scene that is shown after the Light Warriors cross a drawbridge built by the king.

Four hundred years prior to game's events, the Lufenian race used the power of wind to craft a giant space station called the Flying Fortress and airships. They 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. The Earth Crystal and the Fire Crystal followed, plaguing the earth with raging wildfires and devastating the agricultural town of Melmond as its plains and vegetation decayed. Some time later, a sage called Lukahn tells of a prophecy that four Light Warriors will save the world in a time of darkness.

The game begins with the appearance of the four youthful Warriors of Light, who each carry one of the darkened Crystals. They arrive at the kingdom of Cornelia, whose princess, named Princess Sarah, was kidnapped by an evil knight named Garland. The Warriors of Light confront Garland at the Chaos Shrine, defeat him, and return Sarah to Cornelia. Out of gratefulness, the King of Cornelia orders the construction of the drawbridge, allowing the Warriors of Light to access reach the second town, Pravoka.

At Pravoka, the Warriors of Light liberate the town from Bikke and his pirates and obtain their ship to use on the overworld. The ship does not allow the Warriors of Light to travel outside of the Aldi Sea. Meanwhile, the Warriors of Light learn of a dark wizard named Astos, has been causing trouble at nearby locations. The third town, Elfheim, is located to the south of Aldi Sea. There, the Warriors of Light discover that the prince was cast into a cursed sleep by Astos. He also stole Matoya's Eye Crystal. To the west of Elfheim is the Western Keep, whose king tells the Warriors of Light that Astos stole his crown and hid it in the Marsh Cave, though when the Warriors of Light retrieve his crown, the king reveals himself to be Astos. The heroes defeat Astos and continue with their journey. When the Warriors of Light retrieve Matoya's Eye Crystal, she gives them the Jolt Tonic to awaken the Elf Prince. By doing so, the Elf Prince rewards them with the Mystic Key. With the Mystic Key, the Warriors of Light return to Castle Cornelia and unlock a specific room with the Nitro Powder. At Mount Duergar, the dwarves use the Nitro Powder use to destroy a small isthmus, allowing the Warriors of Light to access more of the overworld.

After visiting Melmond, the Warriors of Light go into the Cavern of Earth, defeat the Vampire, and retrieve the Star Ruby, which allows them to access the Sage's Cave. In the Sage's Cave, a sage named Sadda gives the Earth Rod to the Warriors of Light. With the Earth Rod, the heroes access the bottommost floor of the Cavern of Earth, where the Earth Fiend Lich is fought. After the warriors defeat Lich, the Earth Crystal is restored.

The epilogue in the NES version, shown after the Light Warriors defeat Chaos.

In the fifth town, Crescent Lake, the Warriors of Light find the Twelve Sages, who provide a canoe to them if they have defeated Lich. With the canoe, the Warriors of Light enter Mount Gulg and defeat Marilith, allowing the Fire Crystal to be restored. Later, the Warriors of Light visit the Cavern of Ice and obtain the Levistone. The heroes take the Levistone to Ryukahn Desert and acquire a buried airship. With the airship, the Warriors of Light go to the Cardian Islands and meet Bahamut. If the Warriors of Light have obtained the Rat's Tail from the Citadel of Trials, Bahamut upgrades each warrior's class.

When the Warriors of Light have obtained Oxyale (allowing them to breathe underwater) from Gaia, they visit Onrac and travel underwater to the Sunken Shrine. At the end of the Sunken Shrine, the Warriors of Light defeat the Water Fiend, Kraken, causing the Water Crystal to be restored and the mermaids to be freed.

After leaving Onrac, the Warriors of Light return to Melmond and take the Rosetta Stone to a linguist named Dr. Unne, who teaches the Lufenians' language to the Warriors of Light. After learning the language, the Warriors of Light visit the last town, Lufenia, where the Lufenians help the Warriors of Light reach the Flying Fortress. At the end of the Flying Fortress, the Warriors of Light encounter the Wind Fiend and last fiend overall, Tiamat. They manage to defeat Tiamat and restore the Wind Crystal.

When all four crystals are restored, an unknown character in the Chaos Shrine tries to absorb the crystals' energy into a portal that goes 2,000 years into the past. The Warriors of Light enter the portal and discover the Four Fiends, which were created by Chaos (revealed to be Garland) back then to access the future and create a time loop allowing him to live forever.

The Warriors of Light defeat Chaos, which ends the paradox, and they return to the present. With the time loop broken, peace returns to the world. The Warriors of Light and the people are unaware of the events that occurred, although order has been restored and the darkness has been vanquished.

Gameplay

The Red Wizard exploring the overworld in the NES version

The player controls a party of four player characters, called the Warriors of Light, or Light Warriors in the NES version. They explore towns and dungeons while traveling across the overworld. The Warriors of Light's goal is to defeat four major enemies called the Elemental Fiends 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

Screenshot of the Light Warriors battling some Imps in the NES version

Battles in the game are turn-based. At the beginning of each turn, the player selects an action for each character, with the options being direct attacks, casting spells, drinking potions, using magical items, or running from the battle. Once the player has chosen actions for each warrior, they and the enemies start to fight. 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
	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: 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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