Facts and notables
The name of the game is a bit of a pun. Since Square was about to go under due to lack of funds, that game could truly have been the FINAL fantasy they would release.
An interesting Easter egg appears when you’re on the ship. Pressing the B button 55 times while holding the A button brings up a sliding tile game, which gives you 100 free gold when beaten. The game can be replayed as many times as you wish.
A misplaced enemy overlay map in the game allows you to fight enemies almost twice your level near the beginning of the game, allowing easy level-ups in that area.
Two of the most well known songs in the Final Fantasy series originated in this game, the "End of Battle" jingle and the chiming main series theme.
Personal Reflection
Seeing as how I was only 3 years old when the game was released, I really didn’t have much of a stake in its original success. It was, however, one of the first games I played on the beat-up NES I received when I was 7. Even back in those days, the greatness of the game did not elude me. I was struck by the team customization abilities and incredible variety of enemies. You might even say that FFI was one of the biggest triggers to making RPGs my favorite genre. Even today it remains one of my personal favorites, and I still quite enjoy striking up a new game every so often, if only just to see how quickly one dies with a team of four white mages.
The answer is very quickly, by the way. Very, very quickly. Seriously, I lost to a freaking Goblin on my way out of Coneria.
Images and review courtesy of Digital Press.
Article comments
1 - platomaker
hey, some of that isn't true, the game could go at a much faster pace if you set your response rate higher, keeping it one is unbearable so its best to keep hitting the right button until its at 8 for faster play.
a team of black belts is awesome; once you hit level 10 you can unequip them for much more damage (more hits)
i was just playing that same old game just now(the one i got when i was 7 too) and there are still things im discovering (how most monsters can inflict one hit kills without doing damage)to keep you on your toes. no aspect of the game is useless.
they seem to want the player to focus more on preventing damage from occurring rather than healing, eventually everything balances out. (that could be biased because i have a team of two fighters, a white and a black mage.
2 - Chris "UZ" White
My main problem with the Black Belt team isn't the damage. You'll deal damage, obviously.
But you can do the same thing with a team of 4 fighters, and still have decent defense, health and eventually some white magic. You get none of those with the BB team.
3 - Chris "UZ" White
Good to hear the robots are reading my articles.
4 - platomaker
thats a low blow UZ.