FINAL FANTASY

For a game that's almost 40 years old, it's still pretty good and I'd recommend playing for the music alone.

I played FF1 for the first time about 20 years ago, but recently I decided to come back and revisit the origins after finishing Final Fantasy 16 and it's been great. The pixel graphics are dope and the magic looks so good when you cast it - definitely take a black mage!

This was my first game in 2024 where I happily completed 100% of the achievements. I'm sucker for pixel graphics and Pixel Remaster was a great journey. It's a very simple jRPG, but considering the original platform it was released for, it aged very well.

Beautifully rearranged soundtrack and graphics, yet still faithful to the original. Plus a revamped user interface, automatic combat and other quality of life improvements. All I can say is that it was my best retro gaming experience this year.

I wanted to like this, but something felt off the whole time. Not just that the graphics and spell names had changed, but it just felt way too easy. It wasn't until I hit level50 on Tiamat's bridge trying to find "WarMech" now named "Death Machine" I guess that I realized they had changed the leveling and the XP. 50 was no longer the max level, and hitting level50 took 30+ hours in the original. I hit 50 in 10 hours on this version of the game.

When reading guides online, that's when I realized this is some weird frankenstein version of Dawn of Souls. They took the tech, like the graphics updates and the balancing changes with leveling from Dawn of Souls, but then removed stuff from Dawn of Souls like the extra dungeons and end game content present in Dawn of Souls! But they the leveling in place! So the game is way way way too easy with no end-game content like Dawn of Souls.

So besides the disappointing partial updates from Dawn of Souls with no extra dungeons, and the bad balancing feel making the game unrewarding and challengeless, they made it so you can supposedly change your spells but you can't. You can forget a spell, but it won't let you learn any other spell than the one that was previous in the slot. Again, a feature from Dawn of Souls which looks like is broken on this implementation.

I'm down voting. They should have included full Dawn of Souls content or none of it at all, because they broke the balance of the game with what they did.

Great story and game play.
Trying to do a play through of the first final fantasies, I never thought I would like turn based RPGS. Certainly a surprise.

Rather than using Mana Points for spells, It's charge based. :O
Very cool, I like!

Surprised at how well this held up! Well, with some minor quality of life tweaks.
First time playing an FF game and had a ton of fun with it! Story's kinda generic, but probably wasn't when it came out.
If you like JRPGs, but somehow never played this series like me, check it out! (But get it on sale, the price is a bit steep for a game this old.)

Beautiful game, even if it come out years ago, personally it's still better than some "modern" games. Game clean, no DLC or propaganda, simple story to follow, gameplay not too complex to lose your self into it. Soundtrack is amazing, considering it's a FINAL FANTASY game ;)

I've played through this game countless times and it is always an enjoyable experience. A true classic, though I do miss the bonus dungeons from some of the previous versions.

Very classic and archaic game that, while simple when compared to its sequels, manages to be just as enjoyable and fun to revisit in the modern age. Plus the remastered music is fantastic.

its Final Fantasy.

Its pixels.

Pure nostalgia, solid musical arrangement.

only con is the short length, made even shorter by the no encounters feature if you choose to use it. But its a remaster of an early NES game, the original seemed longer cause it required several hours of figuring out where to go next.

Playing this game gave me some nice nostalgic feelings because it has been many years since I played the original version for the NES. But would I recommend playing this game if you have never played Final Fantasy I? It depends.

If you’re a Final Fantasy fan, I would certainly give it a try. Playing through the game that started it all is an interesting experience, and on several occasions, you’ll say to yourself, “Wow, this was already in the first game?!” This version also comes with several gameplay improvements that smooth out some of the rough edges and frustrations older JRPGs tend to have, notably the ability to turn off random encounters and the map system.

However, if you are an RPG fan with no strong connection to the Final Fantasy franchise, I would not recommend it, especially if you have limited time to play games. Despite the technical and gameplay improvements, the main problem is that the story is very weak, and character personalities are non-existent. Final Fantasy I was amazing for its time, but compared to modern RPGs, including later Final Fantasy games, it does show its age.

I wish Steam had a neutral option, but I’ll give it a thumbs up since I did enjoy playing it.

I've played this game quite a few times. Last year I've tried out the GBA version, and now I've gotten to the Pixel Remaster - the latest attempt of Square Enix to rerelease the original anthology of 2D games, after some ok and some not-so-good attempts.

I think FF1 is still a good game. The NES version is perhaps a little too dated to be enjoyed, but I don't think this remake is completely perfect. While the style is suitable and cute, I find that it lacks some stranger visions of the original game, and with, strangely, no option to turn on the original style, it's a little bit of a bummer that the original game's atmosphere has been just kind of forgotten through the years.

While the game barely has story, it was always funny to me that Final Fantasy has been wild from the beginning, with mechs and inexplicable plot twists sending games off the rails in the final act. Hell, you basically complete the entirety of Dragon Quest's story in the first 20 minutes.

You play as a party of four unnamed characters who you can name anything you want, and you can give them any job you want. I usually go with simple Warrior-Thief-Two Mages, but this time I tried out a Monk instead of a Thief. He kinda sucked, wouldn't recommend. In general, I feel like Warrior received the most care from any melee fighters due to sheer amount of equipment. The Mages only don't seem as underdeveloped due to a fairly unique magic system where for each level of spell you can choose what spells to learn (or, well, just buy). There are 4 spells available for each level but only three slots, which provides some further freedom.

Battles in the remake remove the penalty for constantly attacking one enemy where, if they were to die, other party members would keep attacking them on their turn. Along with that a number of boosts (read cheat codes) and a fast forward/auto battle mode have been added. While I think an option for original battle mode could've been made, fast forward is a nice addition since the bestiary of this game is lacking. Most diverse enemies are all in dungeons, so while you're adventuring out on the overworld you'll be constantly harassed by packs of dogs of each color of the rainbow, and it's a blessing to be able to kill them faster. It's not a hard game, but due to the fact that you can encounter up to 9 enemies in each fight means fights that are easy can be LONG.

I don't think the pacing of the game is the best, asking you to go back to some places and oftentimes not being clear about what to do in the backhalf, but the exploration is neat thanks to all dungeons feeling different. Only one of them is a fairly featureless cave! Another new feature that helps here is the map. You always have a mini-map, and can also open a large map of a room at any given point, which kind of defeats the purpose of exploring the dungeon and remembering stuff, since everything including chests is marked.

I've played with the original BGM but have listened to new arrangements, which are nice! I think FF1 still has some boppin' tunes like the town and the battle theme. As I've mentioned, it's a shame you can't play with original visuals. Some of the enemy sprites were charming and the battle void was weird. FF1 was a strange game and I don't particularly like that instead of keeping some strange elements, it was remade to be just like every other game.

Still, it's a cool remake, and if you want to play the game, well worth playing. New options can help to aliviate some grinding and tons of enemy encounters, since you can not only boost EXP/Gil but turn them off for a while completely. I've played around with them around the Tiamat fight and wouldn't really recommend the boosts in particular since the game just gets boring if made easier. I've still had a fun time 100%ing it, but it left me wanting something a bit closer to the original experience.

This game is amazing, I played it as a child and still love it as an adult. My dad can probably say the same. One of the only single player story games I enjoy. I wish they didn’t beef up Chaos on this version to the point where’s it’s just lucky if you beat him, but it doesn’t affect the story or game play at all.

I never grew up with these games so while playing FFXIV, i got curious about the Final Fantasy series as a whole and decided to give them a go.
The game was a lot of fun and seeing all of the references that were used from this game in FFXIV made me smile.

That final fight though...rng was not on my side so i just maxed my party :D

Fun and funky classic JRPG complete with QoL features that make it more accessible than previous versions.

It's just nice to play a simpler RPG that you can chill and get done in a stress-free weekend without having clunky gameplay mechanics or an overly expansive story to wrap your head around.

Rating: Seven Moogles out of Ten.

A pretty decent re-imagining of the Nintendo classic I played as a kid. Optimised for my slow and sluggish PC, but it keeps the old charm of the 'pixelated' feel of the OG game. I was doubtful that it would be worth the money I paid, but now I'm glad I took that leap of faith! :-)

Newest version of one of most classical of all jRPGs. It's game from old simpler days, but still it can you give a lot of retro fun. Crossing the bridge near the beginning of game when you get climatic artwork and listen first iteration of Final Fantasy theme is for me one of most important moments in history of video game and it's still leaving me with impression. Pixel Remaster maybe omit extra stuff from older reeditions of FFI, but it's looking good and sounding good and working good.

I love this game. It was the first pixel ff game I played and I think it did a wonderful job introducing me to how these games work and their magic systems. the story is engaging and the gameplay isn't repetitive.

I haven't played the first Final Fantasy since the NES version in 1990, so it was nice to see what I could remember.

Since this was the first game in the series, it didn't age all that well, though this Pixel Remaster has done a lot to make it enjoyable. Your characters will switch targets automatically if theirs is dead (no more misses!), you don't need to grind all that much now, there is faster movement speed and you can buy ethers for less money. They have even added Phoenix Downs. This makes the game a lot easier, so if you're looking for an authentic experience you should probably stick with the NES version.

Graphically, this version is a lot nicer looking than the original. The battle backgrounds used to be black but now they have scenery. There are also spell effects added to everything so it looks more like the newer 2D games.

I really like what they did with the music. The new arrangements sound fantastic.

The story, however, is still pretty short and simple so it won't take you long to finish this game. It's probably the shortest Final Fantasy I've played so far.

Because FF 4 and 6 were so much better in terms of story and gameplay, I never felt all that interested to return to FF1, but this version made the experience very pleasant.

I enjoyed this game, though I am not sure new players will be as interested. Final Fantasy 4 is probably a better starting point, but if you want to experience the beginning of a wonderful series, then this is worth getting.

A fantastic trip down memory lane, nostalgia lvls 100. A 100% must play for fans of the original on the NES.
Completing the game, minus some of the more 'grindy' achievements took me around 24hrs. playing casually. definitely worth $12.

Worth playing too see the influential rpg, but if you want a fun turn based game or fun game this is not it. It's bland in visuals and soundtrack and story

Review: A Nostalgic Return to Final Fantasy I

What a delightful and nostalgic experience! The graphics, the turn-based gameplay, the class system—everything felt perfect to me. I do regret not playing this on the original Famicom when I was younger, but this remaster truly captures the magic of the classic. It’s a must-play for any fan of the series or anyone looking to experience where it all began. Now, I’m off to dive into Final Fantasy II!

I've always meant to play through the Final Fantasy series but never got around to it. The QOL features here (Quick save, turning encounters on/off, and boosts to EXP and Gil) are a lifesaver for an old like me that doesn't have the time to grind anymore. Does it make the game too easy? Of course! But it also allowed me to experience something I'd intended to do for decades and wouldn't have actually done otherwise.

The main knock is how simple the story is, and that the characters are blank slates. I found that kind of endearing though, in that it allowed me to give them names and head canon personalities, much like a TTRPG.

It's not going to set your world on fire, but much like going back and watching a movie from 100 years ago, it's a fascinating document of a cornerstone game that influenced modern RPGs.

This is a simple, straight foreword game, yet it's the humble origins of the iconic Final Fantasy series, and a major cornerstone of the RPG genre.

So, I'm not gonna pretend this game will blow your mind if you're as well versed in Role-playing games as I am, the gameplay is easy to wrap your head around, and it isn't that hard with a few rare exceptions (And nothing you can't solve with a little level grinding I ought to note), despite this, I've had fun and perhaps a part of that stems from the ease with which one can jump in, no long tutorials, no complicated mechanics you have to memorize, one could say that Final Fantasy I is simple and clean.

Now we discuss the story. Four champions of light go on a world spanning quest to restore balance to the land... and that's about it, despite Final Fantasy (And many RPGs as a whole) being lauded for the stories they tell, it's very ironic how the first game in this long-runner of a franchise has such a bare-bones story, characters and world-building, the game's plot is basically a rookie Gamemaster's D&D campaign... but to be honest, it doesn't bother me, as I've said earlier, I had fun.

In terms of other aspects of this game, each class feels unique, if a little unbalanced, while magic buffs work wonders for the party, debuffs are kinda... pointless. The art is bright and upbeat if a little smudged at times (In my mind at least) and the music, which includes the option of either the original tracks or their remastered versions, is pleasing to the ears, and the game features quick saving which is great.
Final Fantasy I shows its age, not because the mechanics have aged poorly, but because as I said, this game is a cornerstone to an entire genre, that has grown and evolved over five decades. It may not be to everyone's tastes, but if you are new to RPGs or are a seasoned player wanting something more simple and bite-sized, give this game a chance, I'm glad I did :)

The game is listed as verified and as listed it ran perfectly throughout the game.

It's Final Fantasy. Besides being a time window to when video RPGs were new, it still holds up pretty well. Sure it's simple relative to the modern games, but that's OK. The bug fixes, autobattle feature, and especially for me that you don't attack an empty space after a monster dies, make it one of the best versions. It is missing the bonus dungeons that other remakes had, but if you play for story it won't matter much.

If you don't rec FF1, you can go fuck yourself.

This is where it all began, and you NEED to take that account when picking it up.
I love this franchise, and this is a cornerstone to everything about it.

Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster brings back the classic game with small updates to make it fit better in today’s gaming world.

Pros:

Cons:

Final Rating: A

Great to go back now nostalgia road. Personally it's not one of my favourites as I don't feel the story is there but it's where it all began and introduced me to so many systems I would grow to love.

What a fun remaster! My biggest complaints are lack of questlog and quest markers. It's easy to get lost if you're not paying close attention to the NPCs you're talking to. Keep a walk through handy just in case.

Also, if you find yourself stuck on any tough fights, just remember that temper and haste are OP.

This is where it all began, and it deserved the recognition. For anyone that hasn't played an FF game before, or even an RPG before, if you want to start here, I think its good enough.
It isn't too difficult but it still has encounters here and there that can challenge you depending on your team, you have a story that, although simple, sets the stage for many things future FF games borrow from and with the Pixel Remasters being based off other re-releases, you get several changes from the original, such as the ability to buy Ethers to refill magic and having your characters auto-target a different enemy if the enemy you targeted died to the previous attack, as well as other changes exclusive to the PR version.
Its an older game, but it has the legacy it has for a reason. If you are thinking about it, give it a shot, as long as you keep your expectations reasonable, you won't regret it.

Buy it when on sale! There's always some package sales and then for a barely 20h game it's completely worth it. To 100% it you basically need around another 20h of grinding.
This was a ride in the past of memory lane where... I couidn't remember anything!
Still pretty fun, and it feels like gamers back in the day didn't have the same level of hand holding during the game. You had to remember what was going on at all time.

In all honesty it was pretty easy and quick. Overall was a ok story but in the context of the time it came out it's pretty solid!

Ah, 1987. A time when video games didn't hold your hand. You were expected to explore and experiment and forge your own path of discoveries. But Final Fantasy saw that and thought: "But what if we made it just a little bit more accessible?" And gave birth to everybody's favorite citizen of Cornelia, the Exotic Dancer!

Now, they didn't call her that in the game, but you look at that sprite, and you indulge her in conversation, and after she calls you "handsome" and winks at you, she flirtatiously offers to give you a "funny dance," and even my dense as diamond dumb ass autistic brain matter can put two and two together. Our sexy dancer friend's proclivities to flirt with anyone who makes eye contact with her aside, she sure seems to know some things she really shouldn't sometimes. Perhaps she is the secret fifth Warrior of Light all along! But even if she isn't, I enjoyed our banter nonetheless. She always knew just what to say to get me going (places). But I didn't like relying on her. She exists purely to be an accessibility feature, and I am not the kid I was when I first played this game (and never finished it). I'm a seasoned game connoisseur. I don't need a dedicated hint system. I'm a proud explorer!

The majority of Final Fantasy is pretty easy to follow, provided you do the usual RPG thing and talk to everyone as you pass by the various locales of the world. There's plenty of bread crumbs to follow. There will always be at least a couple nudges in NPC dialogue here and there to guide you to your next quest, or an item you get naturally reminds you of something you came across earlier that could obviously use said item.

Right up until there isn't.

Indeed, when I reached a certain point in this game, I have a key item I obtained from my last quest, and absolutely no clue where to go, who to give it to, what to use it on, and believe you me, I tried everything I could think of. I went all over the world that was open to me, every single locale, and spoke to every NPC in the game up 'till that point, as surely I had missed something? There was even a guy who was searching for that very item -- usually an obvious "talk to this person" flag if ever there was one! -- but no, he simply said the exact same thing he said before I had the item. There wasn't the slightest crumb to be found.

So I finally decided, okay, fine, I'll swallow my Gamer Pride™, and actually engage with the Hint System of the game. I will travel all the way back to the very beginning area of the game and confess my woes to my exotic dancer friend. And on that one fateful day, the one day when I was at my wit's end, the day I needed her most, do you know what she said to me?

"I don't know what else to tell ya! How 'bout we have that dance? Whaddaya say?"

...

10/10 would get danced on again.

Classic game updated with ease-of-use features. Really enjoyed replaying this!

On a journey to play through all of the FF series starting from I to XVI (current).
The game is worth your time; it's a classic and it's just nice to pay some homage to this modernized-classic.
HOWEVER, for full price and approx 20hrs of gameplay, i'd highly recommend purchasing this when it's onsale.

W Remaster overall.
Not a ton to do because it's the first game in the series and you can 100% in like 10 hours if you know what you're doing; for sure worth your time though, as it's still a very fun RPG even after all these years.
Easily one of the most replayable games in the series too, you can do five runs and still not get sick of it somehow.
Slight shame they excluded the anniversary content from the PSP and GBA ports though.

Had a lot of fun with this game ( not with that final boss).
Now i have to attempt the rest of the series :)

While obviously barebones considering it is the first installment in the series, FF1 is enjoyable while being simple. The go to dungeon get key item then repeat over and over until end game is enjoyable enough and I had no issue getting 100% for the game. Worth a playthrough to see where it started!

The use of spell slots makes me bounce right off. It was a bad idea before the original, it's a shit idea now.

I won't lie, a part of me wants to use the word 'generic' when it comes to a good portion of this game, but then it clicks with me that this game is quite literally where a lot of the aspects we consider to be 'generic' were popularized. The story is straight forward, big evil Chaos, warriors of light, get the crystals, save the world. It's nothing we haven't seen dozens of times over at this point, yet despite all of this, I found an obscene amount of charm playing through this game. I once tried playing through the original back on the NES but gave up due to how cryptic everything felt. The Pixel Remaster does take a few strides in remedying this, making the whole experience feel a lot more streamlined and straight forward.

I really appreciate this entry into the series, though clearly there are a number of balancing issues and what not, it's truly worth a play through in my opinion. The music is so iconic that, even though I never really put time into the franchise before, I get a whiff of nostalgia the moment I hear the victory theme or the menu music. I currently have a goal of completing the entire Final Fantasy franchise on Steam while obtaining every achievement possible and this entry took me just over 22 hours while taking it nice and slow. Final Fantasy 1 gets two thumbs up from me!

This is definitely a good version of Final Fantasy, but it's still a 1987 NES JRPG, so YMMV

A slice of nostalgia.

I never got to play the original Final Fantasy games. Honestly, I didn't really play any of them until FFXIV. I got tired of not being as excited as the people I game with because I didn't get the callbacks. FF1 has been fun though. Takes me back to the SNES days and games like Breath of Fire

A great way to experience one of the foundational RPGs in a modern context. The remastered visuals are sharp and have some modern flourishes (such as the spell animations), without going overboard. I'm personally not a huge fan of the rearranged soundtrack, however, it's a good option of you're not keen on the chip sounds (and you can easily toggle between this and the original sound). Finally, the booster options (experience and gil multipliers of up to X4) and encounter toggle are perfect for someone who just wants to experience the beginning of the series without grinding.

I didn't really enjoy this, but I'd still recommend it if you're a fan of FF so you can see how far the series has come. Realistically it's pretty unenjoyable in its original form (i.e. without the quality of life improvements).

I really like the music and fantasy aesthetic of the game. The aesthetic feels very unique and the turn based gameplay is fun and engaging.

Classic FF1 with refined controls and QoL features that remove the frustration from the old game.
-Pros. Auto Battle, added items like Phoenix Downs. The Ability to save in the field.

-Cons. Not really a con but the ability to turn encounters off can make the game so simple it becomes irrelevant.

This is pretty true to the original on NES in terms of gameplay, albeit with bugs fixed.
However, it lacks any of the bonus dungeons, items, or enemies that are in the GBA or PSP versions, and therefore is a bit of a ripoff. I think they should have kept those and maybe even added more.

Once these hit Steam I knew I was in for a long grind 100% all Final Fantasy's. Starting with this OG. Loved it.

Short, trivial, and a little bland, Final Fantasy I, while I am sure used to be impressive during the era it released in, regrettably doesn’t hold up even remotely as well as its other entries—even when just considering other early FF titles.

Story and Setting

Gameplay

Graphics and Sound

Technical Issues and Performance

Final Thoughts

The OG Final Fantasy and still one of the best. It was so amazing to revisit this classic.

Final Fantasy 1987 is an incredibly important game to me, as is Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls. This is not those games. In bringing FF1 to a modern audience, Square Enix has neutered any and all of the grit you could find in earlier versions of this game. Now I know that many of these options can be turned off, but as they are presented as "opt out", they feel like part of the core experience of this release. I'm talking about always-on maps, battle speed-up, and the ability to turn encounters off. I never touched the XP scaling or full heal options. I know that Final Fantasy usually isn't about difficulty, but I prefer it when it comes with some tension. I felt that in FF'87 and in Dawn of Souls.

Difficulty aside, the presentation here (the main selling point of the Pixel Remasters) is an incohesive mess. Different pisel sizes between map assets and player sprites, HD textured spell effects, strangely low-detailed characters sprites, I could go on. They're clearly going for that "NES+" look while totally forgetting what both the NES and SNES looked like. This is an improvement over the mobile port of VI, but what was so wrong with the Dawn of Souls sprites? those are beautiful 16-bit renderings of the NES games that inject more character into the world, yet still feel like the original game. The look of the PIxel Remasters is excusable for the NES games, but I can't believe how bad the SNES games look. We'll see if I get that far in my playthrough of the classic games.

It's still an enjoyable game, but this is pretty far from what I'd call a faithful remaster. 3/5