This review contains spoilers
I made a throwaway comment the other day that Final Fantasy 1 was a great time, and then every once in a while you'd run into something that would give you enormous pause, go what the hell, overcome it, and then be back to having a great time.
I really liked FF1 but I have to be truly honest about my time: there's NES-era grime all over the place. Some of the dungeon layouts are just bad and there are a number of empty rooms or passages, meant only to take up time and wear your party down with encounters. Getting the airship is also obtuse as all hell with multiple baits with NPCs saying they're looking for Levistone (that you can't give to them, I guess, even after you get the airship and still have the Levistone).
But honestly the flow is otherwise mostly natural. NPCs talk about what problems they're having in their town, which then guides you generally where to go. Combat is, dare I say, mostly very fun, even though it takes a bit to get going (mages have a rough start and the red wizard kind of peters out at the end being locked out of the best options for anything). Difficulty is all over the place, nothing is super hard though enemies like cockatrices being in Mt. Gulg is BS, and sometimes you'll randomly run into low level enemies in high level areas late in the game which is frankly just bizarre.
I also have to give this game praise for having a ?story? in 1987. Like, not really a story but, they tried to do something beyond "hero fights a series of dungeons and saves the world" in having a time travel plot (which I always love tbh) - I knew virtually nothing about FF1 and I can say the stable time loop situation actually pleasantly surprised me. It's hardly the best writing ever, but hey, for 1987 when my expectations were "platitudes, at best", it knocked it out of the park.
Play the FF1 Pixel Remaster, it's good.
I really liked FF1 but I have to be truly honest about my time: there's NES-era grime all over the place. Some of the dungeon layouts are just bad and there are a number of empty rooms or passages, meant only to take up time and wear your party down with encounters. Getting the airship is also obtuse as all hell with multiple baits with NPCs saying they're looking for Levistone (that you can't give to them, I guess, even after you get the airship and still have the Levistone).
But honestly the flow is otherwise mostly natural. NPCs talk about what problems they're having in their town, which then guides you generally where to go. Combat is, dare I say, mostly very fun, even though it takes a bit to get going (mages have a rough start and the red wizard kind of peters out at the end being locked out of the best options for anything). Difficulty is all over the place, nothing is super hard though enemies like cockatrices being in Mt. Gulg is BS, and sometimes you'll randomly run into low level enemies in high level areas late in the game which is frankly just bizarre.
I also have to give this game praise for having a ?story? in 1987. Like, not really a story but, they tried to do something beyond "hero fights a series of dungeons and saves the world" in having a time travel plot (which I always love tbh) - I knew virtually nothing about FF1 and I can say the stable time loop situation actually pleasantly surprised me. It's hardly the best writing ever, but hey, for 1987 when my expectations were "platitudes, at best", it knocked it out of the park.
Play the FF1 Pixel Remaster, it's good.