I first played Final Fantasy I a few years ago when I popped back in my old Final Fantasy Origins disk. Fun fact, that was the last game ever made for the PS1. It was...an experience. Not sure if it was a good or bad experience, but it was one worth having. I’ve been replaying old games to gain a better appreciation for them and I thought this would be a perfect time to replay it. As a break from giant robots and to return to my first love.
I don’t remember what I named my characters in my first playthrough, but this time I decided to go on a journey with my friends, or at least their wrestling personas.
Tryton was our parties tank and warrior.
Drew Carmello was our DPS and monk.
His twin, Xander, was our thief, only because it the most sense since bard isn’t a thing and the leader of the C-Men ain’t no mage.
And, finally, Cidalfus Gainsborough was the parties everything when I went Red Mage. And I also have the best hat, which is what mattered most.
No one is really sure where we came from or how we got there, but all four of us had shiny stones and showed up in front of Cornelia Castle. We walked into town for a rest and to buy gear until a knight found us and brought us to the king. King Rex said we were special youths and gave a task far beyond our placement.
Our first task was to save the princess, and seemingly heir to the throne of Cornelia, Sarah, who has been kidnapped by treacherous knight Garland. Seems like a big task for a bunch of strange kids, but who am I to question a king? Garland surrounds himself with bats which we easily dispatch. Our great battle against the dark knight went...well, the same. He was a pushover.
We returned to the castle and was rewarded with a bridge. Not sure why the bride was destroyed or why it wasn’t already repaired, but, again, who am I to question a king?
We then went east to some city I don’t recall, Provaka I think, and beat up some pirates. We took their ship as punishment. Sadly, I’m seasick so I felt like I was the one being punished.
Our next destination was the Elf Kingdom to the South. The ruler there has been asleep for several years. Rumor has it, the dark elf Astos curse the prince. His whereabouts are, allegedly, to the west. We traveled to a cave filled with poisonous monsters and there we got lost. Great place to get lost! But also a great place to get strong. We eventually find our way to the bottom and bite back against a vampire. He dropped a crown which Xander tried to don. The t didn’t fit so we searched around other parts of the southern continent until we came upon a ruined keep. There we found a nice old man who we gave the crown to only for him to turn into Astos! After a long fight, we were able to vanquish the foe. Sadly, Xander died. So Tryton had to carry the corpse of this loser all the way back to Elfheim to give him a proper burial. Fortunately, a local priest told us he could revive him for a small fee. We caved and gave him the gold and, low and behold, it worked. Xander breathed again with no ill effects. What a strange world. Shortly after, Drew said he found a crystal eye on Astos' corpse. We found it odd he didn’t morn his twin, but who am I question twins.
Hearing another rumor about a blind witch named Matoya, we sailed to her cave, ran into talking brooms, and returned what was her eye. She gave is a potion to wake the elf prince as thanks so we cured him of his curse. He allowed us to loot his castle as thanks and we found gunpowder therein. What’s a gun?
Setting sail once more, we circled the lake until we came upon the industrious dwarfs. One of their ilk was searching for a way to build a canal between the lake and the ocean. He have up and decided to just blow up the land when we gave him the powder. Effective.
Once more, unto the sea, we came upon a small town in the middle of a wasteland. Locals say this used to all farmland, but it looked like badlands to me. Evidently, the cause was an undead lich. We found our way down to his lair and, while only just, we survived. Tryton’s crystal resonated with the Earth Crystal Lich was guarding and restored its power.
Once more, again, onto the sea. Across the ocean was a town called Crescent. There we found twelve old dudes who said we were chosen to save the world. They have us a canoe. I never liked camping, but they told us we’d need it to reach the fire crystal in nearby Gulg Volcano. We got lost and ended up in an Ice Cave instead. There we fought a floating eye and won a floating stone. We tried to return to town, but got lost again (stop putting me in charge of navigation) and wandered around the desert for a bit until our Floatstone began to resonate with something and, from under our feet rose a ship. But not a normal ship, this one can take to the skies. We got on and, totally ignoring the prophecy, went about the whole world!
Long story short, we found a talking dragon. Drew wanted to fight him and I nearly had a heart attack out of him being so rad, but he didn’t react to our eccentrics and told us of another abandoned castle where we’d find a token of courage. It was a Rat’s Tail!? We took it back to Bahamut planning to give him a piece of our mind, but, instead, he made us stronger.
Tryton became a Knight and learned how to use white magic.
Drew became a freakin’ ninja and learned black magic.
Xander just learned how to punch better, we guessed.
I only got a cooler hat. Did I win?
Recalling we had a prophecy to fulfill, we went back to the volcano, walked through lava, and accidentally killed a snake woman named Marilith.
Our next target ended up being on the northwest continent. We talked to a robot, paid way too much for a fairy who we later freed and, as a reward, got some grass. Not even the illicit kind of grass. Just grass. She said we could breathe underwater with it, but I can’t swim so who cares?
Was my face ever red when we learned the next crystal was underwater, oh boy! So down we went and found a small village of Mermaids. No redheads so I was fine not staying. And then we beat up the Kraken which took out Drew. RIP Drewseph Carmello. So we went back to our Necromancer, paid him, and back Drew came. 100 percent of Necromancers are good people, it turns out.
Our next dungeon was quite the doozy. First, we had to land in the middle of nowhere, walk through the woods (RIP Xander’s clothes) and talked to an ancient race of people with worse hair than me. 100 percent worse. They told us about the floating castle so up we went.
After climbing a tower, we were teleported to the aforementioned castle where we finally beat up a dragon. I was in heaven. Tiamat went down with surprisingly little effort because we really are the children of prophecy. Or at least Tryton is as we just supported him. He’d be nothing without my heals.
While up there, we noticed energy from all the crystals was going to where we killed Garland. So, thusly, we returned. We were then teleported 5000 years into the past. Fighting our way to the bottom floor, we found the Dark Knight Garland! We also fought the four fiends again, but they were even easier than the first time. At the bottom, we fought the Knight once more!
He beat the snot out of us.
“Somehow”, we woke back up and escaped the dungeon. We then to grind in the “extra” dungeons which took us to all sorts of extra dimensions. The afterlife, Fairyland, Disneyland Chernobyl, and there we killed bosses who shouldn’t even be born yet because time is weird. Tryton died once, at some point, which left us in a pickle, but a bird feather fell on top of him which allowed him to wake up, because he's allergic to birds, and continued on. There we fought, gained some experience while gaining new equipment, and tried our luck against Garland again. After an immeasurable amount of time, and me spamming heals left, right, and center, up, down, and somewhere in a direction not possible in 3D space, we succeeded. Then something about no one knowing what we did because time loops and...uh...we got confused. But, I’m the only one who never died so guess who has bragging right on our Super Smash Bros nights?
So, yeah, FFI on the PS was pretty hard while the PSP version seemed really easy. Until the last boss, at least which made everything really fun. My friends and I may never have our once planned D&D game so, this might be the next best thing and I’m glad I replayed this. I no longer think the game was mediocre and now think it’s great. Not sure if I’d recommend it any differently, but it is a must-play for RPG fans.
An hour and a half of creative writing is what I’d consider worth it.
No comments:
Post a Comment