It's funny because when you think of all the classic iconography that makes Final Fantasy the series that we know and love; Final Fantasy 1 has basically none of them.
My first experience with FF1 was with the GBA port that fundamentally changed some of the mechanics that make the original so charming in an attempt to make it more in line with contemporary FF games of the time. While I love that version of FF1, it definitely comes across as neutered.
What I commend the most about this particular remaster of Final Fantasy 1 is that it commits to the game's weirdness. It keeps spell charges instead of MP, the encounter rate stays busted, the sprawling dungeons of empty hallways are unchanged; the Pixel Remaster confidently displays all the good, bad and weird of Final Fantasy 1 in a finely wrapped package filled to the brim with classic Final Fantasy aestheticisms meant to evoke nostalgia at every turn.
To speak about the remaster's quality, it's likely my favorite version of FF1. It feels like every single little thing was purposely designed to send a distinct message to the player that this is Final Freaking Fantasy. The sprite work, the animations, the cursor itself, the menus, the blue text boxes, the sound effects, all of it evokes such a sense of belonging that it truly feels like you're playing a piece of gaming history. And the music, my god. This is one the best arrangements I've ever heard. It's transcendent.
I wish I could say the Pixel Remaster is perfect but unfortunately, it's not. The x2 fast forward speed up is very much appreciated, but still too slow. I think a x3 speed up would have been much more appropriate for a game as slow and repetitive as this. And the font is truly horrible. I'm not one to talk about superfluous stuff like this but the font is genuinely so bad that I had to mod it in order to even motivate myself to play the game.
About the game itself, it's a weird little romp and I love it. The game is basically a 10-hour key item collectathon where the encounter rate is obscenely high, the classes are broken, and the bosses are mostly jokes. The game is basically Star Wars and DnD fan fiction. But the game's charm and light heartedness are so enduring that it's impossible to stay too mad or frustrated with it. To this day FF1 has an overworld so inviting and fun to mess around in that it puts games released decades later to shame. It's a game that is near and dear to my heart; and I'm happy to know that the pixel remaster did it justice.
My first experience with FF1 was with the GBA port that fundamentally changed some of the mechanics that make the original so charming in an attempt to make it more in line with contemporary FF games of the time. While I love that version of FF1, it definitely comes across as neutered.
What I commend the most about this particular remaster of Final Fantasy 1 is that it commits to the game's weirdness. It keeps spell charges instead of MP, the encounter rate stays busted, the sprawling dungeons of empty hallways are unchanged; the Pixel Remaster confidently displays all the good, bad and weird of Final Fantasy 1 in a finely wrapped package filled to the brim with classic Final Fantasy aestheticisms meant to evoke nostalgia at every turn.
To speak about the remaster's quality, it's likely my favorite version of FF1. It feels like every single little thing was purposely designed to send a distinct message to the player that this is Final Freaking Fantasy. The sprite work, the animations, the cursor itself, the menus, the blue text boxes, the sound effects, all of it evokes such a sense of belonging that it truly feels like you're playing a piece of gaming history. And the music, my god. This is one the best arrangements I've ever heard. It's transcendent.
I wish I could say the Pixel Remaster is perfect but unfortunately, it's not. The x2 fast forward speed up is very much appreciated, but still too slow. I think a x3 speed up would have been much more appropriate for a game as slow and repetitive as this. And the font is truly horrible. I'm not one to talk about superfluous stuff like this but the font is genuinely so bad that I had to mod it in order to even motivate myself to play the game.
About the game itself, it's a weird little romp and I love it. The game is basically a 10-hour key item collectathon where the encounter rate is obscenely high, the classes are broken, and the bosses are mostly jokes. The game is basically Star Wars and DnD fan fiction. But the game's charm and light heartedness are so enduring that it's impossible to stay too mad or frustrated with it. To this day FF1 has an overworld so inviting and fun to mess around in that it puts games released decades later to shame. It's a game that is near and dear to my heart; and I'm happy to know that the pixel remaster did it justice.