Square Enix

Towards the ‘80s, it was common to see RPG board games in the media, whether you were watching pastors take down the game in the time of the satanic panic or whether you were watching the news talking about the negative effects of the game. However, this is only a fraction of the popularity it truly had. It didn’t matter if you were a basement dweller or an athlete, there was a position open for anyone in the tabletop game world. However, the problem was the introduction of home video games and the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System). Nonetheless, a dying developer, Square Enix began to develop a game that was by the atmosphere, Fighting Fantasy, now obviously they changed it to Final Fantasy later on. 

Final Fantasy’s combat is a turn-based battle system with a customization of 4 classes, each being able to wield different powers and stats. Whereas in previous games you would be in first-person mode and the game would explain combat in text, this game provided unique enemy designs and attack designs on the screen instead. Most attacks are broken down into spells and attacks with different types of damage, with each type of weapon and spell. With this, there is a strategy presented with enemies having weaknesses and durabilities. Square does such a great job converting the type of combat that DND presents in a more immersive way while giving a better bite-size to audiences who may or might not have had trouble imagining their quests. The world is vast and great to look at with very little hints of primitive technology to what would be an open-world game. 

Admin of the Facebook Final Fantasy, Larissa Petokvich says, “As for the battle scenes, more games ended up copying FF than DQ since it’s way more appealing to see all your characters AND the enemies on screen.”

The art style of the first game is mainly in the use of 8-bit pixels and smaller versions of sprites. I think though the amount of detail in the boss characters you will encounter shows the limits Square was willing to push toward for a fantastical setting and the bandwidth the NES truly had. I especially loved the box art they used for the game which had a lot of similarities to what Hirohiko Araki made famous, in which he used ’80s pop art with realism as implementing feminine features within his male character design.

Facebook user, Mark Saliba also adds, “It also took inspiration from traditional kabuki theater by having the heroes on the right and the villains on the left,” He then explains. “A trope that endured in JRPGs for decades.”

Overall, the first Final Fantasy is a great foundation to what the fantasy/ RPG genres would be and the start to a thirty-year-old franchise still busting records and award shows to this day.