27 April 2020

Final Fantasy

by kyo

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Final Fantasy (1987)
Square Enix
NES

Version: GBA (Dawn of Souls); Always found it funny how the save file also shows with the configured text box bg color

Started playing through the Final Fantasy main series + Tactics in order and was expecting this to be unpolished and mostly boring; Thankfully I was Wrong, this game still holds up to JRPGs today, though the version I picked (GBA) is a bit too easy compared to the original because it replaces the magic “charges” with MP, which is a better system but it messed with the balance of things a bit. Was tempted to try the PSP version but, while the graphics have more resolution the retro aesthetic got binned, gonna be real, picked the GBA version because of the graphics and sound.

The encounter rate in this game is really big, but hey, I got by without any grinding other than at the first few levels. Also the battle theme is just amazing, maybe even the best random encounter music in the series, and the version on Dawn of Souls is probably the best version of it too.

On my save picture you can see that I have 50+ hours but thats a bit misleading, left is on at nigt a couple of nights, the actual play time was around ~18 hours, but I didnt complete the bestiary, mostly because it’s just a pain in the ass; Did fight the WarMech though.