Final Fantasy I (GBA)

The first of many Final Fantasy

I’ve been moving into my own place which means I got to unpack all those boxes I’ve stored on my parents attics (yes, that is multiple attics). And guess what I found, my GBA/DS collection. Unfortunately I can’t find my DS Lite so it has to be somewhere in a box that I yet have to discover. It’s like a real life treasure hunt finding my own stuff, but I would gladly accept finding some kitchen utensils so I can cook something more basic that macaroni. Anyway, lucky for me I knew where my GameBoy Advance SP where, at my sisters place with all my Zelda games because my brother-in-law wanted a go at them at the closest original hardware he could get his hands on. Whats that? They gave it back to my sister that have been living at my parents house for a year and she never told me but put the games in plastic bag near her sleeping place? Well, glad I looked around for my things then since I got it back. So which game should I try first? Well, most GBA games I actually got on the Wii U virtual console so that is the preferred console I would say for those. I still haven’t found my GameBoy-games so no Ducktales 2 or Roger Rabbit (the rest is Mario Land 2 and 3 together with Donkey Kong Land 2 and 3 and all of those I got on the 3DS). So that leaves the Final Fantasy-games, I-II, IV-VI. I could play them on my PS3 with the PSOne-discs but first I don’t have a TV and secondly it seems I haven’t got the games with me either so Final Fantasy I it is on GBA. 

Now I'm playing with power

This one is a double pack game with both I and II in it together with some other stuff like extra dungeons or in II case a whole new story scenario after completing the main game, but I’m gonna focus on the first game only. It starts out like any typical fantasy RPG. The world is in turmoil due to the elements being out of balance since the four crystals of the elements have gone dark and there is talk about a prophesy about four warriors of light bearing their own crystals. So you name four characters and chose their respective class. I usually go for the fighter, thief, white mage and black mage.  Now, I brought back the names from my Quest for Glory playthorughs (which I probably should finish of some day) with the Warrior Roland and Black Mage Magus. I never played as a thief so I gave it my own name and the white mage I gave one of my middle names, Erik. So you arrive at Corneria where the knight Garland have taken princess Sarah hostage and the king wants you to save her and he will rebuild the bridge to the north if we do. Selfish prick. So I set out to town to stock up on supplies. And I can’t help that they must have made the game easier cause I could afford every weapon, armour and spell in town. I think on the PSOne I had to grind to get the things, like in Dragon Quest where you need to at least be level 5 to even attempt the starter dungeon. Anyway I set out the the Temple of Chaos where he hides and fight Garland, killing him and taking Sarah back to her parents. And then your off.

He's gonna knock me down (not in this version, but I recall that first time playing through the game)

Basically you travel from town to town solving their problems one by one and getting things so you can progress. The second town have an infestation of pirates so you clear that out, get their ship and sail to Elfheim where the prince have fallen under the dark curse of Athos, the dark elf prince. So for some reason I travel north to a ruined castle and the king there gives me a quest to search for a Crown in Marshe Cave. Do that and return and it turns out the King was Athos the whole time. Defeat him, get a crystal eye that you give to Matoya the witch that gives you a brew that awakens the elf prince. You get a mystic key that opens locked doors so you backtrack through towns, castles and dungeons to get all the stuff you couldn’t get the first time leading you to some nitro that you give to the dwarfs that blows up a channel so you can get out of the inner sea. The first town you encounter tells about the crystal of earth that is sealed in the earth cave to the south so you go there and defeat the vampire that have plauged the lands and you realise that something more sinister is behind that. You, for some reason got some ruby you bring to the giants cave so you can get to the Sage cave where you get a staff to dispel evil and you head back the Cave of the Earth and find some more floors locked behind a stone. Where you encounter Lich, the fiend of the earth. Blasting him and you have awakened the first Elemental Crystal. 

The Lord of Death

This is the first part of the game and is rather straight forward. And it’s usually here I failed to continue the game when I was younger (I finished the game ones before and it was on the GBA, I think it’s because I actually could play it alone without anyone bothering me for the TV or the possibility that I could save anywhere). From here you supposed to get to the Crescent lake, get the canoe and sail to the volcano Mount Gulag (sp?) where the fire crystal is held. But since I know somethings about the game at this point I ditch that story for now and head for the ice caves to the north of the volcano in order to get the levitate stone and then travel to the Ruyka (sp?) desert to the south to get the airship, then travel to the castle of trails to climb to the top and get a rat tail and then see Bahamut, the King of Dragons that gives me an upgrade. Roland turns into a Knight, Niklas turns into Ninja, Erik into a White Wizard while Magus becomes a Black Wizard. What I learned was that you should strive to get the upgrade as fast as possible due to the characters getting better stat upgrades for each level up and I did it, at the level 33. And here I believe the remake makes it self apparent again. I never grinded through the whole game. I went straight for the bosses and objectives and yet I reached level 54 at the end of the game and my characters had always the same experience points. Meaning I never finished a fight with a character down. And I recall grinding for hours to get spells, weapons and armours on the PSOne and I still never felt strong enough. So apparently they gave you more gil and exp this time around and it shows. I finished the game after 11 hours (taking into the account the restarts I did and so on). I checked the last save I did where my characters where level 93 and I put in 25 hours on that save. 

Giver of level ups

And the story continues with you finding each crystal and defeating the corresponding Fiend, Marlith for fire, Kraken for water and Tiamat for Wind. At the top of the floating sky fortress you can observe the world below you and see that the energy from the crystals are amassing at the Temple of Chaos. From the sages near Crescent Lake you learn that the fiends arrived during certain intervals in time, but they all came from 2000 years ago, and only by traveling to that time you can put a stop to this circle of violence. Entering the temple you travel back 2000 years and fight the fiends at each level once again until you reach the bottom floor and stands eye to eye with Garland, once again. As he died at the beginning he was sent back in time and when that happened he sent the four fiends forward in time creating the moment where the warriors of light appears and kill Garland starting the circle anew. Interesting concept. So the fight against Chaos starts. The battle rages on with Magus and Niklas boosting Roland and then Niklas so that they dish out the most damage while Erik heals the party. Magus then turns into nuking Chaos with the highest levelled magic spells. Then suddenly Roland falls and before anyone can act Magus throws a final nuke on Chaos obliterating him from existence and breaking the circle of destruction. Doing so undo the evils that plagues the world and so also the heroes own deeds since it was never needed. I like that story progression. It gives the ending a bitter sweet edge to it.

The Bringer of Pain

All in all it was fun playing through it, I tried going through one of the extra dungeons, but that was a at level 33 and I couldn’t fight of any single boss so I gave up on that idea. Doesn’t bring anything to the story anyway. The graphics of this version is very nice to look at, only wish I had the DS Lite so that the lighting is a bit more crisp, cause it’s hard to see in certain lights. I also believe they have added some cutscenes as well for certain scenes, like blowing up the channal, finding the airship and entering the sunken palace. The music was really good, and I’ve forgotten that certain themes are really pumping like the Cave of the Earth. Maybe it was on the easy side as noted, but if I ever get a TV we can see for ourselves with the PSOne if there is any major differences.