Game 12: Final Fantasy (NES) - What Game Am I Playing?

This is the main menu? How Spartan

Game 12

Title: Final Fantasy
Year: 1990 (1987 JP)
Platform: NES
Developer: Square
Publisher: Nintendo
Genre: RPG
Exploration - Top-down
Combat - Turn-based (Party)





"We've come from the four corners of the world, each holding an orb, arriving at a time and place we're needed most. The world is in turmoil... the earth rots, the wind has ceased to move, fire spontaneously consumes, and the waters rage at all who dare traverse. Yet, somehow we've arrived on this distant plain seeking our destiny, drawn forward by the orbs."

*Plop*

Final Fantasy is the biggest name in console RPGs in the U.S. While not always well received, the franchise spans movies, music, and toys. In Japan, it's rivaled by Dragon Quest, and though Dragon Warrior was released first, it didn't catch on as well in the U.S. as Final Fantasy did.

We didn't start the fire... it was always burning since the world's been turning

The first game begins by giving a short back story of four prophesied warriors of light that would bear four orbs. These orbs once glowed with the light of each element (earth, fire, water, wind), but have dimmed over the past 2000 years. The world is troubled by unrest due to the existence of the four fiends. My quest, to destroy each fiend and return light to the corresponding orb.

For the past few months I had a poll up, which I used to determine my starting party. Taking the total votes and dividing by four, I came up with the total votes needed for each character. Since none had double that amount, I just picked the top four: Red Mage (Gioz), Black Belt (Tont), White Mage (Pipi), Black Mage (Kili).

Gioz and Kili are now characters, Tont and Pipi are characters I've used before

The party starts outside Corneria. In town and at the castle, they learn the princess was kidnapped by someone named Garland. As warriors of light, we take the quest and dispatch Garland. Rescued, the princess bestows a Lute upon the adventurers. This Lute has been a royal treasure for thousands of years, it must be worth something. The king, in honor of his daughter's rescuers, orders the north bridge rebuilt. Here the journey begins.

Now that's a title screen

From here, the game continues on a linear path of moving on to the next town or dungeon for no other reason than all other ways are blocked. There's not a lot of direction, no indication where the fiends are located, and purchasing items are kind of it and miss with no way to tell who can use what equipment. That is, if it weren't for the manual, I'd be completely lost. The manual acts as a guide, describing suggested equipment, spells, and providing maps of the surrounding areas. In fact, it walks through the first two fiends, up to the airship and class change.

An in-game map? That's got to be a first

The game was also originally packaged with maps of some of the dungeons, and a table of weapons, armor, and magic. Nearly everything was described in a similar way modern games would describe them inside the game. I'm not sure how far I'd want to take all this advice and where to draw the line between walkthrough and helpful hints. For now I've mainly been using it for equipment and spells, while I've done my own exploring without the use of maps.

Why buy a ship when we can take one from pirates?

I've managed to get a ship from some pirates, and am now on a quest to rouse a sleeping elf prince, return a crystal eye, and find a crown deep in a marsh cave. I've had to grind quite a bit to even make small progress. I often find I'm quickly outmatched by many encounters that can paralyze, poison, and stone. I've gotten used to targeting during fights, and having ineffective attacks if the target enemy dies before I'm able to attack with some of my characters. In a sense, it adds to the strategy that I need to remain thoughtful of who is attacking what enemy and if I can get away with splitting my attack or if it's best to focus.

Sounds legit

Session Time: 4h00m (Total Time: 4h00m)

Below the Cut: Spud's Adventure (Game Boy)

(Source: Defunct Games)

Spud's Adventure - Rating(6 RPP)
1) 4 - Character Advancement: practice/experience based advancement, stat or level increases, multiple classes or characters, customize characters
2) 0 - Combat: character stats used for combat, additional combat options, turn based
3) 0 - Items and Equipment: store to buy and sell, equipment decisions, item decisions
4) 1 - Story: main story at the forefront; world full of hints and lore; descriptions for objects, people, and places
5) 0 - Exploration: open world from the beginning, visited locations remain open
6) 1 - Quests and Puzzles: side quests not related to the main quest, puzzles and riddles to solve

How does this game get added to an RPG list? This is absurd; nearly as bad as Pinball Quest. The only reason I can think this would be in the list (came from Wikipedia) is that there are NPCs and dialogue. Also, I suppose it does have experience points and levels that offer health increases. Beyond that it's a poor man's Adventure of Lolo. The game is a set of floors, which are often maze-like, sometimes have puzzles, and offer a choice of stairs to take.

The game comes from the creators of Kwirk and Amazing Tater, and I suppose they were trying to expand on their genre of push puzzles. A princess is kidnapped, and you're the last in a line of heroes that have attempted to rescue her. As you make your way through the tower, you'll find the previous rescuers and they'll join your party, offering different weapons. All weapons shoot out from you, but some have a wider range, do more damage, or have different patterns (one is a banana boomerang I believe). After a certain number of floors a boss will appear, defeat him to move on to the next area.

There aren't any other quests, there isn't an inventory, and there's a lack of rewards for combat. There's little use to fighting after reaching max health. The endless monsters get really annoying after the first floor. On at least one floor, there was the option to fight one of two bosses depending on the path taken through the maze. I had the chance to play through the entire game, and it only took about 5 hours (3 hours according to the game, which probably didn't take into account the game overs). I was hoping for something a little more from Atlus, which has quite the library of RPGs.

Below the Cut: Flying Warriors (NES)

(Source: Tomorrow's Heroes)

Flying Warriors - Rating(7 RPP)
1) 3 - Character Advancement: practice/experience based advancement, stat or level increases, multiple classes or characters, customize characters
2) 2 - Combat: character stats used for combat, additional combat options, turn based
3) 0 - Items and Equipment: store to buy and sell, equipment decisions, item decisions
4) 1 - Story: main story at the forefront; world full of hints and lore; descriptions for objects, people, and places
5) 1 - Exploration: open world from the beginning, visited locations remain open
6) 0 - Quests and Puzzles: side quests not related to the main quest, puzzles and riddles to solve

Flying Warriors is another Culture Brain game--the company that's doing its best to blend genre lines by mixing in RPG elements before anyone else--which has brought us The Magic of Scheherazade and the up coming Little Ninja Brothers. I'm not sure any of the Culture Brain games did exceptionally well, but we really don't see them hit a series until Little Ninja Brothers (also known as Super Chinese).

This title doesn't quite make the cut though, as it has a lack of NPC interaction, town/stores to buy and sell items or equipment to, and puzzles to solve. It does offer some innovative leveling and character combat stats for a beat'em-up / platformer. We won't quite make the transition into RPG-beat'em-up yet. Once again, I'm sure we'll get there, but it just hasn't happened yet.

For those looking to play this game, it's one of many games available for free on Virtual NES, online Java based NES emulation. No need to download anything, just have Java installed and play.

Below the Cut: Arcus Odyssey (Genesis)

(Source: World 1-1 Blog)

Arcus Odyssey- Rating(7 RPP)
1) 2 - Character Advancement: practice/experience based advancement, stat or level increases, multiple classes or characters, customize characters
2) 2 - Combat: character stats used for combat, additional combat options, turn based
3) 1 - Items and Equipment: store to buy and sell, equipment decisions, item decisions
4) 2 - Story: main story at the forefront; world full of hints and lore; descriptions for objects, people, and places
5) 0 - Exploration: open world from the beginning, visited locations remain open
6) 0 - Quests and Puzzles: side quests not related to the main quest, puzzles and riddles to solve

Many games try to mimic the Gauntlet series, and some of those go far enough to breach the line towards RPG dungeon crawlers. Dungeon Explorer was an example of this, and even I was fooled into thinking that game would prove to have enough in common with an engaging and interactive RPG. I hope to avoid that in the future, and it seems I'll pass on Arcus Odyssey . It actually has more in common with Dungeon Explorer than Gauntlet, and I wonder what inspired the game in the first place.

I considered playing, but I don't think it would offer enough in the end. I'm certain we're going to get to the tipping point eventually, just look at Diablo. I think I may have had this on my original list (before I decided to keep everything and rate it as an RPG), but cut it because it didn't quite fit. This is the same reason I didn't have BattleMaster and other games added based on lists composed by SeedyGamer. BattleMaster is one I plan on playing as it seems to offer enough while still in the same genre (I could be wrong).

In any case, we're removing Arcus Odysser from the playlist because once again there's no leveling of the characters, no stores, little NPC interaction, a single quest, and a very linear world with separate levels. The combat is action oriented, with what seems like items and equipment, possibly puzzles to solve later on, and upgrades for the character after each boss. There's a choice of four characters, and it seems like a fun game. David Izat seems to think so at any rate.

A Cut Above: Cadash (TurboGrafx-16)

(Source: Turbo Play Magazine Archive)

Cadash - Rating(9 10 RPP)
1) 4 - Character Advancement: practice/experience based advancement, stat or level increases, multiple classes or characters, customize characters
2) 3 - Combat: character stats used for combat, additional combat options, turn based
3) 3 - Items and Equipment: store to buy and sell, equipment decisions, item decisions
4) 1 - Story: main story at the forefront; world full of hints and lore; descriptions for objects, people, and places
5) 0 - Exploration: open world from the beginning, visited locations remain open
6) 0 - Quests and Puzzles: side quests not related to the main quest, puzzles and riddles to solve


Cadash represents a subset of beat'em-ups that I actually enjoy, those that employ weapons, spells, and (especially) a fantasy theme. My favorite of these are the D&D games on the Japanese Saturn [Tower of Doom and Shadow over Mystara], which I'm sure would do well if they ever decided to release them in the U.S. (if they have, I've missed them, and would appreciate someone telling me).

Beat'em games tend to contain certain aspects that ensure we won't see many on this list, or played for the blog proper. Most notably the game world progresses level by level and puzzles and quests are non-existent. A lack of NPCs, stores, character levels, and stats keep most of these games from even being considered, but Cadash does employ some of these, yet not enough for me to put it on my play list.

I haven't actually played Cadash, and I based the score on videos of the first couple levels, so I may be off. As always, correct me if I'm wrong or if anyone feels I should really play through this game for the blog. Hopefully Guardian Heroes for the Saturn doesn't turn out to be the only game I end up playing from this genre. Only time will tell (unless someone wants to look it up).

Cadash is originally an arcade game released on the TurboGrafx-16 and Genesis. The TG-16 version enhanced the arcade version to better balance the classes, and offers the original four classes; however, the Genesis version only included two of the four. For those looking to play the game, it's included in the Taito Legends 2 released on the Xbox and PC (original game and hardware is expensive).

Edit: It turns out the game does offer shops to buy and sell equipment. So, based on the comments below, I'm adding this back to the list. It'll be a year before I get to it, but I'll need to think about getting it sometime soon. If anyone has any suggestions for what version I should get, then speak up before then. I'm thinking the Taito Legends 2 version, which has some other games I want to check out.

Game 11: Phantasy Star II (Genesis) - Final Rating

Combatant
Over half the game is combat, so it's no surprise that the basic combat starts to wear my patience. Tech points are best saved for healing in the early game; it's more economical than casting spells in combat, which left me with one option, attack. It's helped mildly after finding items that give unlimited spell use, but even that gets old by the final dungeon. Having to use items or techs in the late game really drags out the combat, about a minute or two to each one.

Enemies are unique, and vary from robots to dragons, giant owls, mammoths, rabbits, and strange rock or golem creatures. It's a strange mix, but that's expected in these early fantasy games. Boss fights are few and far between, and actually do require some strategy. Once tech points and one-use items are gone though, everything reverts back to heal and stab.
Rating: 5

Enemies continue to be animated, some better than others

Admirer

The roster is impressive for it's time. When it comes down to it though, the need for this is very limited. The best well rounded fighter is the main character who can never leave the party. Rudo, the tank is also the most consistent damage dealer. Amy the healer comes early and is the best buffer. After that you have your pick of Anna, Hugh, Wrecker, or Shir once Nei becomes useless. Any one will do, as they all have their perks (some more than others). Each character comes with a personal story to give some background.

About the only customization possible here is naming each character as they join, except for Shir... she's bugged or something and wouldn't let me change her name. Each character has a set progression for stats and skills. Controls in combat are cumbersome once there's a need to do anything other than attack.
Rating: 4

If only this continued to show party equipment and techs

Puzzler

There's a main quest, although motivation gets a bit fuzzy as things progress. You could call mapping dungeons a puzzle. The game originally came with a hint book. Forgoing that was my own choice, and seems to have added about 10 hours to game; I'm not sure it was worth it.

There are no side quests and there's only one area in a dungeon I'd call a puzzle (requires a certain skill). That one area really doesn't have a logical reason to exist, and that's a theme oft repeated. Everything is straightforward enough that the only difficulty is knowing exactly where to go.
Rating: 1

Dungeon puzzle: Left or Right?

Instigator
The story started strong, but seemed to get lost among all the dungeon delving. Speaking to NPCs offer some background, but are not much help in figuring out where to go. Dialogue options are unclear in many cases, and I found myself having to answer both to get anywhere. There aren't any descriptions for items, and any potential lore is not explained (for example, Nei, the character, and Nei, the equipment).

This is the first game to offer a progressive story. We don't get the end goal right away, although we get hints. There's no alternative or way to influence any part of the story. Due to the leaps of logic, I felt disconnected from the whole experience, and was glad to finally be done with the game.
Rating: 3

If Nei means that, what does that have to do with the equipment?

Collector
Unfortunately, the game suffers from its interface in both battles and inventory. You must try on a piece of equipment in order to know who can use it, and if it's even worth having. Buying items from a shop will tell you if someone can't use it, but if they can, then you've just bought that item. Each character has an inventory, which is limited to two pages [16 items]. There is a storage container, but it's also limited to 16 items. In addition to the limited space, sorting an inventory is unbelievably difficult. Sorting goes like this: select the item, give the item, select yourself, the item moves to the end.

There is no way of knowing if your collection is complete. In fact, there's a point in the game where you collect items with the prefix 'Nei' and there's no way to see if you have them all other than returning to the quest giver. Some items have a tech/spell effect in combat, but most are low powered and repeated across multiple items. The economy did better than most games. I was running out right up until the last planet where rewards overwhelmed what I needed to purchase.
Rating: 3

Why does this room hold exactly as much as one person can carry?

Explorer

There's nothing that excited me about exploring the land. While some interesting places were described, once reached, these places looked very similar to any other dungeon. The explorable area is sectioned off into plot locations, with "keys" needed to progress to the next area.

This is the first game where I felt the graphics detracted from exploring. In every dungeon there's a parallax scrolling foreground that often obscures the surrounding area. Also, the view of the surrounding area is a little wobbly since it doesn't center on the party. The music is well done, and there's even a way to listen to each one.
Rating: 3

The majestic final stronghold of the Espers... looks like another dungeon to me

Final Rating: 19 (32%)

Overall I expected more from this game. As a follow-up to the first Phantasy Star, I found it a little off-putting. From the changes to combat to top-down view of dungeons, it didn't quite feel like a proper sequel. The length of each combat coupled with the a sparse story that often left me wondering, "what's the point of that?" sapped my desire to play. I'm not sure the game would have been much better had I used the maps in the hint book, but it would have been shorter.

The rating puts it on par with Ultima: Exodus, but I'd much rather play through that game than take another shot at this one. Even with the possible challenge of playing through with only Rolf (this seems to be a thing), I can't see it offering much more.

Next up, I'll finally get to the poll and the next game, but first I want to clear up the list a little by cutting a few games. Also, I plan to update my other blog. I'll definitely be starting up Final Fantasy this weekend. I'm sorry for not being more consistent with posting and making progress. I think going more than a week without posting is a mistake, and I'll aim for twice a week, but won't let things get out of hand again. Thanks for sticking around.

Game 11: Phantasy Star II (Genesis) - Finished!

I bet you weren't expecting this post so soon. I decided to push through to the end without another post about how there's basically no additional plot points beyond, "here's a prism, go dungeon crawling."

I hardly notice the scrolling foreground anymore

Last I left it, there was only one small area on the Dezo over-world left to explore. There I found a crevasse. On the other side was the strange man mentioned by the Dezo people. Lutz, previously known as Noah in the first Phantasy Star, welcomed Kyle. He has been watching over Algo for 1,000 years, ensuring the line of Alis would live on to save the star system again (minus one planet). He even once saved Kyle from a spaceship collision 10 years prior. It seemed someone was trying to end the line of Alis, and seize control of Algo.

Actually, you haven't said my name yet. Translation issues?

In order to stop the nefarious plot, I'm tasked to find some enchanted items called the Nei equipment. Wait... Nei? As in, my fallen companion Nei? No, she's actually not mentioned and the game never explains a connection. Maybe it's just coincidence. I was given a prism, which unlocks four new towers to explore. You see, they were invisible and intangible before and now they're not.

My sketched map of Dezo over-world. Triangles are the hidden towers. You can see one of the easy ones on the other side of the paper on the right side.

These last areas range from mildly annoying to 5 hour slogs (less if I used someone else's map). Nothing too difficult, only time consuming. Combat is what really drags on. Not much thought needs to go into how to handle each fight, and by the end of the game I wondered how the final battle(s) would deal with an otherwise lacking combat system. While spells are helpful, I'd be out of them by the time I reached the actual dungeon if I relied on them heavily.

And here is the nightmare dungeon that took upwards of 5 hours to map and explore. (Not to scale.) I got kind of lazy towards the end and didn't even bother mapping the bottom two floors.

So, instead I spend a good minute or two each battle. Now, I know part of this is my own fault. I got rid of Rudo (Luke), which is huge chunk of damage and tanking gone. I suspect he would rival Kyle for damage dealing by the end. The game pretty much told me who I should have in my final party by giving me the Nei Shot, Nei Crown, and Nei Slasher, which are only usable by Rudo, Amy, and Anna respectively.

Finally a Nei item I can use!

After collecting all the Nei items, I returned to Lutz and was given the Nei Sword. Lutz then offered to transport me to the final dungeon. This dungeon is actually rather simple. Going the wrong way usually brings about a dead end quickly. Like a few other dungeons, this one is lacking treasure chests; however, a mimic style boss tempts the unwary traveler. It seemed out of place, as the only treasure that blocked my path in the entire game. I prepared myself for a fight, and, on the advice of Sean (once again), saved my game.

The first round went to Dark Force (the game doesn't name him, but that's my best guess), but I was victorious in the second. Dark Force is definitely the hardest fought battle up to this point. His attacks either turn a party member evil or damage everyone for about a third of max HP. Evil characters have a high chance to do nothing for their turn.

Casting "Snow Crown" [doubles defense] before the fight with Dark Force

I haven't decided if my first attempt was very unlucky, or my second was extremely lucky. Maybe both. The only thing that makes this fight manageable is the Nei Sword, which has a small chance to dispel the evil presence from the party and this happened zero times, or in the case of my second chance, nearly every time the party had fully turned evil. I was a little worried by having burned through all my Star Mist [heals party fully], but I pressed on.

Mother Brain was waiting for me just around the corner; however, I thought it best to fully recover first, which meant another trip through the dungeon. For this final battle, I fully expected a tougher fight than Dark Force, which is exactly what I didn't get. Mother Brain is pretty much a pushover. She has two attacks as well, hit everyone or hit one. Everyone in the party could heal themselves more than she could hurt them. A battle of attrition began and ended with the inevitable.

This battle is very psychedelic with Mother Brain cycling through all the colors of the rainbow

With Mother Brain defeated, it was time to leave. Mota needs rebuilding. But wait! Lutz tells me there's someone else on this space station. Could it be... Nei? No, it turns out it's just a bunch of humans that were behind Mother Brain all along because they had tarnished their home planet of earth, and came to this star system in order to control the evolutionary path of the people of Algo. Well, we won't let that happen! Cue the slaughter of the last remaining humans.

Let me guess, you ruined nature in pursuit of technology thinking you could control everything?

Somehow I fully expected Nei to return at the end. Why are all the final equipment named after her? I still don't know what the GR Sleeves item was supposed to do. Well, time to read up on walkthroughs and make a final rating post. Thanks for sticking around. I'm going to update the poll afterwards, make some cuts to the list, and finally start up the next game this weekend, Final Fantasy.

Session Time: 13h29m (Total Time: 38h00m)