Final Fantasy

    Final Fantasy is obviously one of the most popular RPG series in the world. With 8 games bearing the title, it's obvious that Square did something right with the series(although Dragon Quest is more popular in Japan). And the first one is no exception.

    Unlike American Dungeons and Dragon like RPG's which concentrate on exploring dungeons through a first person perspective(which I find EXTREMELY boring). Japanese Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy RPG's have more to do with characters and their development throughout the game.

    In Final Fantasy, you choose a party of 4 people of any of 6 classes that you like. Fighters are strong overall. Theives don't seem to be inherently useful until they upgrade to ninja, then they kick MAJOR ass. Black Belts are really strong physically even without weapons. White Mages cast healing spells. Black mages cast fighting magic. Red mages can cast both. Each class can upgrade to a more powerful warrior. Fighters upgrade to Knights. Thieves to Ninjas. Black Belts to Masters. White Mages to White Wizards. Black Mages to Black Wizards. And Red Mages to Red Wizards.

    Unlike future FF games, the plot is good but isn't very complex. Basically 4 Light Warriors come to fight evil, each powering up their orbs along the way. Ok....so maybe that wasn't a good description. Sure this game has some cool plot twist and stuff. But since you "make" the characters it's hard for them to interact with each other.

    You start out in front of Corneria castle when you talk to the king he asks you to save his daughter from a guy named Garland. This is just a practice mission though, it's really easy. After you get the ship, the game gets signifigcantly harder. This requires you to spend a lot of time fighting to build levels and gold. Nothing is more annoying in an RPG is going to a place where the enemies outrank you severely.

    Something I do enjoy in this game is the music. It's great, though my favorite FF music is from the FF6 (American FF3) and FF4 (American FF2).

    This is a long, hard game, guarenteed to keep you busy for a looooong time.

Graphics	Music	Sound	Control	Overall
Look quite good in battle, and the superdeformed characters are a staple of Final Fantasy games, though that will change when FF8 comes out. *sniff* I give it a 7	Beautiful. Nobouo Uematsu's music sounds great. I give it a 9	As far as I'm concerned, the sound is pretty good, but not great. I give it a 6	It's a RPG, control isn't really that important I give it a 9	An RPG classic. Don't pass it up. I give it a 9