The world is vieled in darkness. The wind stops, the sea is wild, and the earth begins to rot. The people wait, their only hope, a prophecy.... " When the world is in darkness Four Warriors will come...." After a long journey, four young warriors arrive, each holding an ORB.

You are the one controlling who these warriors are. You can be a warrior (who wields the best weapons and armors, which can be expensive, and who can only get white magic once he gets promoted), a thief (who can't use as many good weapons as the warrior but who is much faster AND can use black magic once he get promoted), a monk (who wears very little, making him swift enough to avoid hits, and attacks better barehanded in the long run), a white mage (weak physically but can get decent HP and white magic, among which is Harm, which can hurt undead pretty badly), a black mage (very weak physically and low HP, but can get every strong magic) or a red mage (can wield decent weapons AND can use both black and white magics).

Your journey begins in Corneria, a city whose princess has been captured by Garland, the best knight of the kingdom. You go and look for the princess in the northwestern ruins and easily dispose of him. When you get back to the castle, the king recognizes your group as the legendary four warriors. As a token of appreciation, he gets the bridge north of the kingdom completed so you can get the crystals you carry illuminated once again and conquer darkness.

You first come across the city of Provoka, which is undersieged by pirates! After fighting them, their captain gives you his ship. You can now freely sail around any port in the world (the brick-like formation near cities). After navigating for a while, you find Elfland, where the king is under a curse from Astos, the Dark Elf. Should he get the crown, then Elfland is doomed!

Fortunately, you find it in the Marsh Cave before him. You then go seek him in the northwest keep and defeat him. He was holding on to the crystal eye, which he stole from Matsoya the witch. She was so desperate to get it back (it gives her eyesight) that she gives you her best herbal medicine in exchange. You promptly bring it back to Elfland; it was able to cure the king! He recognizes you as the Warriors of the legend, and gives you the mystic key as a token of gratitude. What treasures will you find with that key? Will you be able to find the crystals before it's too late?

Graphics: 6/10
For a NES game, Final Fantasy had decent graphs, better than games of the era like Dragon Warrior I and Legend of Zelda. Overworld details are nice and characters are slightly better than DW. Finally, dungeons are more detailed than comparable games (they even have bats). However, transition between screens is absolutely painful and slow.

Music: 8/10
The music, I heard, was one of the features that attracted people to Final Fantasy. It's understandable; that's what propelled Nobuo Uematsu to the rank of video game superstar. FF gave the classical battle, victory and "major item" themes, all of which got improved over time. Unlike comparable games, the music loops after more than 30 seconds.

Addictiveness: 6/10
Although there aren't that many sidequests (you can theoretically finish the game without getting promoted), the fact that there are so many types of characters will make you want to try them all to see what is the best combination.

Story: 3/10

Let's be honest: odd Final Fantasies before FF 7 had no real story line. In I, four warriors just happened to walk by having crystals that a legend says will heal the world. It's a fairy tale really, and these aren't renowned for the depth of their story.

Depth: 3/10

The score is a logical continuation of the story. The four warriors don't utter a single word in the game. We know absolutely nothing about them - at least, in DW, we knew the main hero was a descendant on Endrick, who defeated evil long ago.

Difficulty: 8/10

Level grinding in very painful and long. If you venture too far once you get the boat, your team can get wiped out very easily. Plus, magic starting at level 3 is extremely expensive. You can hope to fight those pirates on the sea to get easy money, but they don't show very often...

In conclusion, unless you want to try games in their original forms, I wouldn't recommend it. It's slow, it's very long and difficult. However, the PSX and GBA versions have modernized Final Fantasy I to 16 bits, making it MUCH easier to play with.

Wow, this is a pretty good Final Fantasy review. Especially if its the original game as well. You don't see reviews like this every day. Especially from people not in trusted. Keep it up, man.

janus : Fantastic sum up of the early plot of the game. This game's era was about grinding, and in this age we just know padding when we see it.  I also like you didn't just throw 9's and 10's all over the place. These games have to work hard to earn 'em!

endings : I admit I'm biased in my review as my first experience with the game was with the PSX. However, Final Fantasy II and III (especially III) are much easier to play.

I am really glad that there are better changes in Final Fantasy: Dawn of the Soul because it makes the game much easier and smoother for me to play. It can be quite time consuming and tedious for me to train and level up at a higher level from the original game.

This is a good review with reasonable explanations along with reasonable number reviews. Keep up with the good work!