Has this game aged well?

Has this game aged as well as fine wine or would you describe it as sour milk? The game is over twenty-five years old now and been ported to every electrical device known to man, so what are your thoughts? Has this game aged well or do you feel playing through it now is more about the novelty than the enjoyment?

Personally I feel this game has aged rather well and I've always had a fun time doing another run through when the mood strikes me. It's always been one of those games where I never think about playing it over the new shiny stuff or old faves, but when I do I suddenly remember how magical it was.

What are your thoughts?

I grew up in the 8/16 bit era so my opinion may be biased since I'm used to the visuals, but I think Final Fantasy has aged just fine. When I played it for the first time I had a lot of fun, and when I had my "A-Team" of Warrior, Red Mage, White Mage, and Monk, I got pretty far into the game before finally stopping. Can't remember why I did.

It's way more entertaining to run through than 2, 3, and maybe even 4. So I'd say it's aged pretty well.

I have just as much fun playing it now as I did 20 years ago. It's aged well for me but I don't know how much someone new to it would enjoy the game.

I played the NES version after this PS1 version about 8 or 9 years ago and was fine going into it. The game is a grindfest no matter which version you play.

To this day, this game is still awesome. No tedious sidequests. No muscle spasming games. Just good ol' JRPG fun.

I think it's still a great game. Granted, I've only played the updated versions. I'd love to go back and get the original NES version. I still plan to at some point.

It was my first entry into the world of RPG's when I was just a wee lad, but I find myself every so often still grabbing at the game and plugging it in to play!

People still have fun playing the original for the first time even today. Having said that, I wouldn't blame those who play more updated versions of the game that streamline the gameplay, making leveling easier, and fights go by faster.

I would said it aged like wine until they make Stranger of Paradise out of this! :bigsmile:

Jack Garland, Bitches!

It has definitely aged, but it is still very fun to play.

The most annoying sign of aging is probably the part when you have to buy one item at a time, instead of simply buying them in stock.
I always use a Turbo controller when I buy Heal potions, and go and make a sandwich in the meantime or something.

There is also the issue with bugs;
this game has lots of them, like for example the Intelligence stat doesn't work, and several of the spells are useless (most notably TMPR).
The game is also very strangely paced:
it takes forever to get to the first ORB, and then all the other ORBs come really quickly.
It is also kind of annoying that chests don't show when they have been opened.

But yeah, it is a very fun game, despite all the imperfections.

The game is very basic but have potential for a remake with better features like a whore class. :bigsmile:

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Originally Posted by Christmas

The game is very basic but have potential for a remake with better features like a whore class. :bigsmile:

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I don't want to taint my precious google search history, but there must be a porn version of FF1.

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Originally Posted by Christmas

The game is very basic but have potential for a remake with better features like a whore class. :bigsmile:

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Personally I think that they should fix the available white magic spells for Knight;
it looks very strange when he cannot completely fill the LV3 spells, and cannot use any LV4 spells at all, especially when this also makes him only able to learn ALIT and AFIR, but not AICE or AMUT.
There is also no reason for him to not be able to learn PURE:
that spell is almost as basic as CURE, and it is certainly not so useful that it would make Knight overpowered or anything.

I am cool with Knight not being able to learn HARM;
this was probably a fair balancing factor, since it is good enough that he can murder most enemies with his physical attacks, so it would possibly be too much if he were also able to spam HARM spells on all the undead enemies.
However, a proper spell list for Knight should be able to look something like this, as an example:

CURE --- FOG --- RUSE
MUTE --- ALIT --- INVS
CUR2 --- AFIR --- HEAL
PURE --- AICE --- AMUT

This would clearly look a lot more tidy and complete than the half-assed spell repertoire that he has got in the actual game;
I honestly believe that SquareSoft probably rushed that part, since I doubt that they would leave it the way they did there.

Either that, or they were going by D&D rules at the time. They lifted a lot from that whole sale. The only balancing reason I could see why Knight would be so limited would simply be so Red Wizard and White Wizard would still have better utility, especially since buff/debuff magic becomes more important later on than offensive spells.

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Originally Posted by Wolf Kanno

Either that, or they were going by D&D rules at the time. They lifted a lot from that whole sale. The only balancing reason I could see why Knight would be so limited would simply be so Red Wizard and White Wizard would still have better utility, especially since buff/debuff magic becomes more important later on than offensive spells.

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I guess that is it.
Of course, it doesn't really matter from a pure gameplay perspective;
I just felt it was slightly awkward how the Knight was limited in a lot of ways like that, but I almost only use him for CURE and CUR2 spells anyway, and maybe FOG and RUSE a couple times, if physical defense becomes super-important and should be maximised as much as possible.
Actually I probably don't even really use the actual RUSE spell that much, since you get that spell for free in an infinite amount from the Defense sword, which is cool;
but I would probably give the Defense sword to someone who cannot normally use RUSE spells, at least once Knight has some better weapon to play around with
(such as the Sun sword or the Xcalber, or the Masmune of course).

Is it worth playing if I missed this game on release? I only played the last parts. I'm not so sure that I can fully master it. Although I mostly like pixel art games. But this game is very old.

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Originally Posted by vivec

Is it worth playing if I missed this game on release? I only played the last parts. I'm not so sure that I can fully master it. Although I mostly like pixel art games. But this game is very old.

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It has certainly aged, and it has a few annoying mechanics that wouldn't be very acceptable today;
for example, you cannot buy items in stock (and this makes buying 99 Heal potions very annoying), and if several characters target the same enemy during a battle, and the first attacker kills that enemy, then the other attackers will try to attack that dead enemy instead of automatically picking a new target for that attack, which results in the infamous "Ineffective" message, which is basically a wasted turn.

That said though, it was a really outstanding game back in 1987, and it still has a lot of charm;
the graphics are very nice and colourful, the controls work fine, and the music is excellent.
I still genuinely enjoy playing it every now and then, and it has a very special atmosphere.

I think it has aged well, and still has value for newer games and replay value for older gamers. Maybe more than most other FF games given it's simplicity and well execution of what it sets out to do.

As some have said, it is a pretty straightforward RPG. No tedious and repetitive side quests, good class system, diversity of areas to explore, challenging battles.

The thing that sets FFI apart from other games is the selection of the four heroes at the start from one of the 6 classes. It allows for over 100 combinations, none of which play exactly the same. Other games allow for customization, but FFI making this the first and permanent decision you make gives it a lot of weight.

Some of the remasters also help remove the unnecessarily burdensome restrictions that make the game more accessible. I need to make my kids play it!