Played to completion on Nobara Linux. No issues detected.
Since its 1987 debut on the original NES, Final Fantasy has been remade a couple of times, not only for other consoles, like PS1, but also for mobile devices. I do believe the previous Final Fantasy remake released for PCs was actually a mobile port. These versions also had some additional content, like a couple of new dungeons. This 2021 Pixel Remake is, to my knowledge, a remake of the original NES game with no new gameplay content. All the graphics have been redone as pixel art, the soundtrack is fully orchestrated, and there are some quality-of-life additions in the form of boosters, which speed up the game quite a bit.
As far as beginnings go, the story of the first Final Fantasy isn't anything spectacular. The world is in turmoil: the fiends of air, earth, water and fire have corrupted the four elemental crystals, and the monsters are running rampant. There is a prophecy of 4 heroes, Warriors of Light, who will set things right. This is where your party steps in.
At the beginning, you need to create your party, something not found in newer games. You get to name them and choose their class from 6 types: fighter, thief, red mage, black mage, white mage and monk. All of them have their own skills, so depending on how you want to play, you can even go as 4 martial arts monks.
The 3 mage classes require some explanation. White mage is a healer and uses mostly support magic, black mage does combat magic, and the red mage can do both white and black magic. But it's not as simple as just using the red mage, as each mage can learn 8 levels of spells. Each level can have only 3 spells out of the possible 4. So while each white and black mage can learn most of their respective school of spells, the red mage needs to be more selective. Of course, it is possible to replace a spell, but you need to rebuy it if you want to switch back. Red mage can use better weapons and armour though, so they can be a bit more useful as a fighter as well.
At one point in the game, the character classes can be upgraded. Fighter becomes a warrior, a thief a ninja, a mage a wizard and the monk a master. So all in all, there are 12 classes, of which 6 are upgrades. This change improves the stats and allows the use of better armour and so on.
The very first mission for the group of 4 heroes is to rescue Princess Sarah of Coneria, who has been kidnapped by evil Garland and has taken her to the ruins of the Temple of Chaos. After doing this, the king rebuilds a broken bridge, allowing you to venture further to seek the elemental crystals and kick some fiend butt. Some fiend-smashing later, the heroes have repowered the crystals and can now open the path in the Temple of Chaos and take care of the villain behind the corruption of the crystals. And that's really all there is to the main story. Travel the world, grind, kill the baddies. The end. All the other bits of the story are just mostly small snippets here and there, which include taking items or talking briefly with other characters.
The original Final Fantasy was an influential game. It opened the floodgates for JRPGs as many developers followed in its footsteps. Some more slavishly, some adding their own spin to it. But, especially from a modern perspective, it is a simple game.
A lot of the gameplay is grinding for levels and money; the remaster has handy boosters, which will make the game a lot easier and more fun to play if you don't like the grind. It's possible to increase the XP and money gain up to 4x from the original, which makes the game very easy. So easy in fact, that you can run it through in less than 8 hours, and dying is very unlikely. But if you want an experience that is closer to the original, it's still possible.
Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster is a solid take on the original game. It feels like it not only respects the original game but also the player, as well as their time. This is, I'd say, the best way to experience it.
If you want the game, you can get it for PC, consoles and mobile devices. For PCs, Steam is an option, and it's often on sale, so you can get it for less than 10 euros.
Comments
Post a Comment