Final Fantasy, the first game of one of the most epic video game series known to man. Anyone who considers themselves a hardcore gamer should have heard of the Final Fantasy series before, well this is the game that started it all!

You begin Final Fantasy by choosing your party from 6 classes which include; Fighter, Thief, Black Belt, Red Mage, White Mage, and Black Mage. You get to choose 4 of these classes to make your party, and you could even choose 2 or more of the same class. Each class has its strengths and weaknesses. The fighter is the best melee fighter and is able to use the best weapons and armor, giving him a high attack and armor value. The Thief is a little less strong than the fighter but he is quicker and more evasive. The Black Belt is similar to the thief and fighter but instead of using weapons, he excels in using his bare hands. The White Mage is a master of white magic (obviously) which mostly consists of healing spells and spells that do damage to undead foes. The Black Mage is a master of Black Magic which mostly consists of damaging spells and debuff spells. The Red Mage class is like a combination class of the fighter,white and black mage classes, being not as good as any of those classes at what they do but able to do a little of everything, like a jack of all trades type class. After Final Fantasy 1 most subsequent games of the series got rid of the ability to create your team and instead people join you as you advance further in the plot. I really enjoy this part of Final Fantasy and feel it was a shame they got rid of the idea for future games.

If you have never played Final Fantasy before and you are ready to find out what all the hype is about, I recommend you go out and buy an actual copy of the game because it comes with a load of instructional manuals, maps, and charts of enemies, equipment and spells. These things will make your quest much easier and less confusing. I will never forget my first play-through of the game, I surrounded myself in all of this Final Fantasy memorabilia and also a pen and paper and prepared myself for the quest of a lifetime! Every time I would encounter a new enemy I would be excited to look at my monster chart and look up that enemy's stats and especially what that enemy was weak towards so I could dispose of the menace in the best way possible.

Now that you have created your party and prepared yourself, it is time to embark on your quest!

The game begins in the kingdom of Cornelia. You find out your 4 heroes are actually 4 heroes of legend named the Light Warriors. The world is in chaos, the four elemental crystals have been darkened. With this comes disorder among the world elements. The world is scorched with fire, the sea is evaporating and in turmoil, the wind has all but ceased in places , and the earth is decaying and rotting. It is foretold that only the 4 Light Warriors can bring light back into the elemental crystals and restore order to the worlds elements. Your first mission upon leaving the Kingdom of Cornelia is to head north and rescue the Princess from the evil clutches of Garland, thus begins your Final Fantasy.

GRAPHICS: 9
The graphics of the game are pretty much what you would expect from a RPG on the NES. What is done especially good about the graphics is the sprites of all the different monsters that you will face. The overworld map is somewhat bland and your own character sprites are kind of small and undetailed, but later in the game you are able to advance your characters and then their look becomes much better.

SOUND: 10
The sound is incredible. I almost had to give this category a 1/10 because the music is so good in this game you wont be able to get it out of your head! Definitely one of those games where you will find yourself humming the music after a play session. If I could say anything badly about the sound it would be the special effects, but the music is SO good that I just couldn't bare to give this category anything short of a perfect score.

ADDICTIVENESS: 10
This is a long game and will take upwards of 20 hours to complete. Once you start leveling your party and get into the story you will not want to quit until you find out what happens until the end.  But what really made this game addicting for me was the ability to play so many different party combinations. Since their are 6 classes and only room for 4 players in your party , you will have to exclude at least 2 classes , so this will leave you wanting to replay the game to get to play those 2 classes you missed the first time.

STORY: 10
The story of this game is probably the best story of any NES game. NES games just do not have much to offer in the story department normally, opting instead for all gameplay. This game breaks that rule. The story had me captivated all the way until the end. Their is even a major plot twist that will leave you shocked. It sure did for me.

DEPTH: 10
Like I already said, this game is long and takes a long time to complete. It's one of those games where you may feel a need to grind for levels at some points just so you are strong enough to face the next dungeon. Also the party combinations add to the depth, you can even do things like challenge yourself and try to complete the game with 4 white mages.

DIFFICULTY: 9
This game is hard, you wont find yourself breezing through it from start to finish anytime soon. You also will find that if you try to do certain parts of the game without first properly leveling up your party will soon perish. The composition of your teams party also can drastically increase or decrease the games difficulty. For instance, if you wanted the game to be easy you would want a party with 2 or even more fighters because quite frankly they are the strongest class in this game. Adversely if you wanted more of a challenge you would do the a fore mentioned 4 white mage challenge. Or if you wanted a difficulty in between those two you would just make your party a diverse one of different classes. The game is challenging but if most people invested enough time in grinding it is a game most people could finish.

OVERALL: 9.9
I give Final Fantasy a overall score of 9.9. This game is nearly perfect , only some minor perfecting like slight graphics and sound effect updates and it would be. Luckily Final Fantasy fans get just that in some of the remakes for the game! The only other bad thing you could possibly say about the game is maybe it could be made easier at about the marsh cave because you really have to grind before this level which could become boring to some people. The story, gameplay, depth, and music in this game makes it a must play to all RPG fans. Not to mention just the significance this game played on the gaming and rpg world. Anyone looking to get into the Final Fantasy series look no further than the first game of the series. If slaying monsters, casting spells , and saving the world is something that sounds like fun then play this game!

I love the final fantasy series. The games are always so fun to play. Good review, and I have to say that I like the idea of choosing your class when you begin a new game.

A really in-depth review... though I think you might have overrated the original Final Fantasy game. When compared to other NES RPGs, I can't say I agree it ranks THAT high in some of the categories.

Take graphics, for instance. They were standard for NES, but that said, not exceptional. There was a lack of things like battle backgrounds and the whole in-battle graphics looked kinda weak compared to the other 2 NES Final Fantasy games. I would have personally lowered that to around 7.

Sound is a more questionable one. Yes, the music is excellent. The series as a whole (at least when Uematsu was composing for it anyway), has had excellent compositions. This game was no exception. If you're just talking about sound quality as in rating how good the music/sound that was present in the game was... then a 10 may be justified... but let's remember that you have to listen to that one battle theme throughout the entirety of the game without variety. Compare this to a game like Final Fantasy 3 (NES) and you have a boss battle and final boss to add some variety to the soundtrack. This sorta became a RPG standard and even in old games, it was rare to see only one battle theme across the whole game. So I would personally dock them at least a point for that... but it depends on how you're approaching it.

Story might be a tad high too. Sure, most games on the NES don't even HAVE a story... but most games on the NES aren't RPGs. Compared to other 80s RPGs, I wouldn't say it's the best story I've ever seen. I personally thought Final Fantasy 2 (NES) had a better story especially with having actual characters with their own character development. There was some pretty good story lines in the old Dragon Quest games too.

Of course, it's all a manner of opinion and you're fully entitled to yours. My style is to avoid perfect scores unless the game truly seems to be the pinnacle of perfection in that area... I think being stingier with 10s make them mean more when you actually use them.

Crazy Li : Well, like you said, a lot of it is based on opinion. One thing about this game though , those other Final Fantasy games on the NES wouldn't have existed if it were not for the original, I think this bumps the games scores up. I like to take into account the time period these games are released also.

If some company released a game tomorrow similar to this game the graphics, sound, gameplay, pretty much everything would be horrendous by comparison to a xbox 360, ps3 or wii game.

That song my get repetitive but I think it's a good one so I rate it highly!

I enjoyed hearing your opinion though and if you ever have constructive criticism for me , don't be afraid to share it, I'm not easily insulted

LegolasJJH : I'm glad you feel that way. I didn't want to offend you. My intent was only to share some of my own comments and my opinion of your review style. The actual review itself and what was said was really good. I just found the scores to be very generous.

And I usually consider the console a game was on more so than the exact year it was made. A NES game made in 1993 still has the same graphical limitations as one made in 1984. Sure, the developers should know more in 1993 and have an edge in knowledge for using the technology... but no matter what you do, you can't compare with the potential of a SNES game, even though it was possible for those to have been made prior to 1993. So it's more of the console itself that's the focal point for assessment.

Also, there are some exceptions in this... such as games intentionally going for a retro style. Mega Man 9 and Mega Man 10 are examples of games that can be played on modern consoles, but they're purposefully done in 8-bit style. It would be pretty silly to compare them to PS3/Wii/360 games even if it's on those systems. It'd be more fair to compare them to the NES MM games.

LOL.  The irony in the game series known as Final Fantasy is that it doesn't have a true ending.  It is no where near Final.  Wonderful review.  I see RGR staff in your future.  

mr.pace : HAHA yeah I'm glad you got my joke. I always thought the series name; Final Fantasy, was kind of ironic since the series has what like over 13 games lol.

Man that compliment about seeing RGR staff in my future really flatters me, If I were to ever achieve that position , I would definitely take it seriously and try to write the best reviews I could. To me its mostly about giving back, I gain so much enjoyment from visiting vizzed.com that I really would like to do something or anything to show my gratitude to davideo7 and all of the other awesome mods that keep this site running and a friendly place. That's why even if I don't become RGR Game Reviewer I will still probably put in my best effort to do quality reviews.

Maybe one day I wont be so poor and I could actually donate money which is probably the most helpful way to give back to vizzed.com but right now I'm still a young kid living on my own with a lot of bills to pay so I really have a tight budget.

The title could use some work (how many times has this joke been made lol) but otherwise a very solid review on your part.

I've always been a huge fan of the Final Fantasy series, and this was oddly enough not the first one I played. I wish I had started gaming in this era so I could have really enjoyed this game more.

But I digress, the game itself was great.