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Retro Thursday: Final Fantasy 1
By kainzero 03-11-2010 12:48 PM
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693 views |
 This ugly guide is the reason I got into JRPGs. When I was a kid, I rented Final Fantasy and loaded it up. I had no idea what was going on. I pressed continue, all of a sudden I’m in an overworld, I started walking around and I get in a fight. I think I won that fight, but then, I really didn’t know what was going on. “Alright! I’ll press New Game instead!” Well, the same thing happened. I’m in an overworld next to a town, I get in a fight, only this time my guys were wimpier. “The hell is this game? Let me just play the other game I rented, Contra.” About a year later, this snazzy guide came with Nintendo Power and it just totally explained everything. What class does what, what stats are on the weapons, etc. etc. Basically, it explained how the game worked, and far better than the manual did. Sure, later I would find out that there are a lot of errors in the guide… for example, there are no racial bonuses in the game, like the Were sword is not any more effective towards Were monsters, nor are there elemental weaknesses. Looking back it at though, it revealed the immense complexity behind Final Fantasy and I would become a fan of those games for a long time to come. The guide didn’t go as so far to reveal damage formulas, but a lot of the stuff in there was just absolutely instrumental for a young 7-year-old to learn. Each item had all the stats–the hit percentage and strength increase, or absorb and evade percentage, as well as status resistances. All the monster stats were there so you knew what attacks they could do, how many HP they had. There would even be explanations for map events, like how there’s that hallway in the Earth Cave where you get in a fight with every step. (If I didn’t read that, as a kid I would’ve thought that that area was broken!) Without such a guide, I’m not sure if I ever would’ve continued to play RPGs. The guide really just spelled out how an RPG works, and the lessons learned from that guide could be applied even now. Now, I’d love to get into how silly the game mechanics were, (Ineffective, anyone?) but I’ll leave that for some other time. For now, I just wanna sit back and heap praise on the guide that started it all for me. |
 Comments (Total Comments: 7) |
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MattJ1991
- 03-11-2010, 01:05 PM
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Final Fantasy would indeed be an extremely tough game for a 7 year old. I remember playing Final Fantasy VII at around the age of 10 and having to have someone spell it out to me at first. I also played through that first Mako Reactor about a million times, because I didn't figure out how to save, lol. RPG's are good times man.
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Droogs
- 03-11-2010, 01:07 PM
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i still have that guide...
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Lord_Kefka
- 03-11-2010, 01:26 PM
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I had that guide too. Didn't Nintendo Power just devote an issue and publish this instead of their normal monthly magazine?
I was right around that same age (I'm 29 now) and I couldn't get a grasp on Final Fantasy. Wasn't exactly user-friendly back then. Luckily I got hooked on Dragon Warrior I - IV and my love of RPG's was inflamed. Final Fantasy hooked me back into the fold with the two SNES games. *sniff sniff* Ahhh, memories.... |
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kainzero
- 03-11-2010, 02:03 PM
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@MattJ1991: Oh man, in the original Dragon Warrior they kept asking me if I wanted to write down my exploits in the Imperial Scrolls of Honor. WTF? Sometimes I'd put no.
Then I realized that's how you save the game. @Lord_Kefka: I think NP offered a bonus guide for resubscribing. The most popular one was the SMB3 one, but you could also buy the guides individually. My mom had the subscription so I guess she just chose this one randomly. Now that I think about it, Dragon Warrior 1 was much, much more user friendly than Final Fantasy 1. Heck, I beat Dragon Warrior 1 when I was 6. It took me an entire year... as opposed to nowadays with Suikoden V, where I plowed through it in a week. |
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Halo05
- 03-11-2010, 02:04 PM
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That guide is currently sitting next to my couch, waiting for me to fire up Final Fantasy on the Virtual Console again.
I actually played the pencil and paper Dungeons and Dragons before I ever played Final Fantasy so it wasn't too difficult to figure out. There have been recent times where I marveled at my patience as a little kid. As a ~10 year old, I ground to level 9 before visiting the Marsh Cave. That takes for-  ing-ever in the NES version. |
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raarar
- 03-11-2010, 06:03 PM
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I have this guide too. Except for some reason when I was a kid I whole punched it and put it in a binder.
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MidnightMarauder74
- 03-12-2010, 04:51 AM
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Nice post! Brings back memories!
@kainzero: I agree that DW1 was much more user friendly than FF1. Killing my first blue slime was the start of my love for JRPGs. I had the same experience with trying to figure out what writing down my exploits in the Imperial Scrolls meant! LOL |
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