Front Office Football Central - View Single Post

Abe Sargent · 07-26-2006, 10:25 PM

I know that some may choose other entries in this series, like VII or IV, but for my money, no game in the series was more impactful, no console game as complex as:

20. Final Fantasy
SquareSoft
Nintendo
1990
GameSpot Review - 8.8 (Again, this is the player aggregate reviews because there was never an official review of FF)
RPG

As I mentioned above, I think the original adventure in the series is still the top notch one. It allows you to play your own characters, instead of forcing them on you. And it doesn't have that damn talking red dog from VII that joins your party.

Final Fantasy is the best game ever produced for the NES, bar none. No game was as pretty, no game as deep, and no game as complex as Final Fantasy. Simply put, it was the top dog of the system.

Final Fantasy was one of the great classic RPGs of the early days of video games. An expansive world, for its time, met a solid plot and a large variety of dungeons, landscapes and more.

I remember going up against the first dungeon, that castle with Garland. I had spent some time levelling up, exploring, talking to people, and finally marching to the dungeon and taking out Garland. Then the bridge was built to the rest of the continent and I walked onto that bridge and the scene cut away and I found out that the few few hours were designed as a preview. That was amazing, and that moment of wonder stuck with me.

I loved that you could play whatever game you wanted at whatever pace you wanted. You could go anywhere so long as that area had been "opened up" in the game. Wander around, fight monsters, level up - it was great! And then you delved into dungeons with the intent of exploring every nook and cranny. There were a ton of unique items in these dungeons, and you wanted every one.

I still remember the difficulty of the Marsh Cave. I had to have gone into there 15-20 times before I finally emerged with the itme that Astos, the dark elf in disguise needed.

When you gained a ship, didn't you just sail everywhere, trying to see where you could land?

When you gained the airship, didn't you do likewise, learning every island in the map?

This was a masterpiece of gaming design. The beauty was that it was very replayable because you could take a party each time. I beat the game with a fighting intensive party and then with an all spell casting party, and even a one player game, recently. (In the one player game, you let everyone get killed except for one player and then you never res them. You play that one player for the entire game. It's a very interesting challenge.)

The monsters had a diverse range of characteristics.

You had to balance money for items against money for spells, which seemed really pricey in the mid game.

The Liche:

Final Fantasy was so successful that it kept a dying computer game copany afloat and launched arguably the single most important franchise in video game history. It certainly is the third biggest selling franchise. That's a pretty impressive resume for an NES game that was released in America near the end of the system's life.

It remains a beautiful, enchanting game to this day (I have the GBA version still.) Final Fantasy was truly landmark for console systems in its depth. It acheived a complexity and was really the only challenge to contemporary PC games because of it (as opposed to today, when there are tons of console games as deep). Final Fantasy was truly a remarkable game for that reason alone.

-Anxiety

07-26-2006, 10:25 PM	#44
Abe Sargent Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Catonsville, MD	I know that some may choose other entries in this series, like VII or IV, but for my money, no game in the series was more impactful, no console game as complex as: 20. Final Fantasy SquareSoft Nintendo 1990 GameSpot Review - 8.8 (Again, this is the player aggregate reviews because there was never an official review of FF) RPG As I mentioned above, I think the original adventure in the series is still the top notch one. It allows you to play your own characters, instead of forcing them on you. And it doesn't have that damn talking red dog from VII that joins your party. Final Fantasy is the best game ever produced for the NES, bar none. No game was as pretty, no game as deep, and no game as complex as Final Fantasy. Simply put, it was the top dog of the system. Final Fantasy was one of the great classic RPGs of the early days of video games. An expansive world, for its time, met a solid plot and a large variety of dungeons, landscapes and more. I remember going up against the first dungeon, that castle with Garland. I had spent some time levelling up, exploring, talking to people, and finally marching to the dungeon and taking out Garland. Then the bridge was built to the rest of the continent and I walked onto that bridge and the scene cut away and I found out that the few few hours were designed as a preview. That was amazing, and that moment of wonder stuck with me. I loved that you could play whatever game you wanted at whatever pace you wanted. You could go anywhere so long as that area had been "opened up" in the game. Wander around, fight monsters, level up - it was great! And then you delved into dungeons with the intent of exploring every nook and cranny. There were a ton of unique items in these dungeons, and you wanted every one. I still remember the difficulty of the Marsh Cave. I had to have gone into there 15-20 times before I finally emerged with the itme that Astos, the dark elf in disguise needed. When you gained a ship, didn't you just sail everywhere, trying to see where you could land? When you gained the airship, didn't you do likewise, learning every island in the map? This was a masterpiece of gaming design. The beauty was that it was very replayable because you could take a party each time. I beat the game with a fighting intensive party and then with an all spell casting party, and even a one player game, recently. (In the one player game, you let everyone get killed except for one player and then you never res them. You play that one player for the entire game. It's a very interesting challenge.) The monsters had a diverse range of characteristics. You had to balance money for items against money for spells, which seemed really pricey in the mid game. The Liche: Final Fantasy was so successful that it kept a dying computer game copany afloat and launched arguably the single most important franchise in video game history. It certainly is the third biggest selling franchise. That's a pretty impressive resume for an NES game that was released in America near the end of the system's life. It remains a beautiful, enchanting game to this day (I have the GBA version still.) Final Fantasy was truly landmark for console systems in its depth. It acheived a complexity and was really the only challenge to contemporary PC games because of it (as opposed to today, when there are tons of console games as deep). Final Fantasy was truly a remarkable game for that reason alone. -Anxiety __________________ Check out my two current weekly Magic columns! https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/?action=search&page=1&author[]=Abe%20Sargent Last edited by Abe Sargent : 05-01-2022 at 11:07 AM.