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Current Gaming: Final Fantasy I
Mar. 10th, 2024 05:01 pm Since completing FF5 for the first time a while ago, I've decided one of my longer-term gaming goals currently is to play or replay each the rest of the first ten games as well (I can cross 4 and 6 off that list already as I went through the Pixel Remasters of those last year, and 7, which I went through two years ago after downloading it on Switch). While I have the full PR collection, I'd like to do the NES trilogy in their original forms first. I have repros of 2 and 3 along with my original FF1 cart, but figured I'd go back to the beginning and do 1 first, and I'll talk more about that below. I'll even give 8 - which I hated - another shot, along with 10, which I don't have as much aversion to as 8 but certainly have a lot of issues with, and I've never actually gotten further than disc 1 on 9, which I have a feeling I'll end up liking more than the other post-7 games.
Anyway, FF1 is the current project. I chose a team of Fighter, Thief, White Mage and Black Mage. I know the Thief is pretty bad until getting the class change, but I haven't used one in a long time (usually I've used a Black Belt in that spot, with a White Mage and either a Red or Black Mage in the third and fourth spots). On top of having two decent physical attackers, once I get the class change it should be a pretty good party in terms of magic getting distributed throughout it, since the Knight and Ninja (the Fighter and Thief's second forms) can use some White and Black magic, respectively.
It's generally gone well. My team are up to level 17, and have completed the Earth Cave and the Gurgu Volcano dungeon. I actually did the Castle of Ordeals in between those, which took a few tries as my team were only at 14 at that point, but I wanted to get the Zeus Gauntlet and Heal Staff early (and, of course, the Tail, meaning I can go straight to the class change once I have the airship). I gave the Zeus Gauntlet to my White Mage and the Heal Staff to the Black Mage, to expand the versatility of both (when used as an item, the Zeus Gauntlet casts Lit2 for free, and the Heal Staff does the same with the Heal spell).
The bosses of those last few dungeons haven't been too much trouble. The Vampire in the Earth Cave went down in one turn - he got one attack in, then took a hit from my Fighter and a Harm2 spell from the White Mage and went down. Lich and Kary put up a little more fight, but still went down fairly easily. The Ice Cave is a bit of a difficulty spike, as I recall, so we'll see how that goes. Hoping to play a bit more - maybe through the Ice Cave - tonight before Curb.
There are some annoyances in the NES version of FF1 to deal with. The biggest one is that you can only purchase items one at a time, meaning it takes forever to get a full stock of 99 Heal Potions. It's also a pain that every time somebody gets poisoned you have to reorder your party, since the one with the status effect gets sent to the back. And, of course, it's a bit of a bummer that the elemental status of weapons is bugged and doesn't work, so you don't get any damage bonus from, say, using the Ice Sword on a fire enemy. Fortunately these are all fixed in later versions, so whenever I go through the Pixel Remaster, it'll feel that much smoother.
I have already started thinking about what I want to do for my next playthrough. I'm thinking of maybe doing a somewhat magic-heavier build with a Fighter-Red Mage-White Mage-Black Mage party, but there's every chance I'll end up dropping the Black Mage for a Black Belt again.
But I'm also looking forward to getting to FF2 and FF3, since I've never really played either of those, past a bit of the beginning of FF2 on the PS1 Origins disc.
Anyway, FF1 is the current project. I chose a team of Fighter, Thief, White Mage and Black Mage. I know the Thief is pretty bad until getting the class change, but I haven't used one in a long time (usually I've used a Black Belt in that spot, with a White Mage and either a Red or Black Mage in the third and fourth spots). On top of having two decent physical attackers, once I get the class change it should be a pretty good party in terms of magic getting distributed throughout it, since the Knight and Ninja (the Fighter and Thief's second forms) can use some White and Black magic, respectively.
It's generally gone well. My team are up to level 17, and have completed the Earth Cave and the Gurgu Volcano dungeon. I actually did the Castle of Ordeals in between those, which took a few tries as my team were only at 14 at that point, but I wanted to get the Zeus Gauntlet and Heal Staff early (and, of course, the Tail, meaning I can go straight to the class change once I have the airship). I gave the Zeus Gauntlet to my White Mage and the Heal Staff to the Black Mage, to expand the versatility of both (when used as an item, the Zeus Gauntlet casts Lit2 for free, and the Heal Staff does the same with the Heal spell).
The bosses of those last few dungeons haven't been too much trouble. The Vampire in the Earth Cave went down in one turn - he got one attack in, then took a hit from my Fighter and a Harm2 spell from the White Mage and went down. Lich and Kary put up a little more fight, but still went down fairly easily. The Ice Cave is a bit of a difficulty spike, as I recall, so we'll see how that goes. Hoping to play a bit more - maybe through the Ice Cave - tonight before Curb.
There are some annoyances in the NES version of FF1 to deal with. The biggest one is that you can only purchase items one at a time, meaning it takes forever to get a full stock of 99 Heal Potions. It's also a pain that every time somebody gets poisoned you have to reorder your party, since the one with the status effect gets sent to the back. And, of course, it's a bit of a bummer that the elemental status of weapons is bugged and doesn't work, so you don't get any damage bonus from, say, using the Ice Sword on a fire enemy. Fortunately these are all fixed in later versions, so whenever I go through the Pixel Remaster, it'll feel that much smoother.
I have already started thinking about what I want to do for my next playthrough. I'm thinking of maybe doing a somewhat magic-heavier build with a Fighter-Red Mage-White Mage-Black Mage party, but there's every chance I'll end up dropping the Black Mage for a Black Belt again.
But I'm also looking forward to getting to FF2 and FF3, since I've never really played either of those, past a bit of the beginning of FF2 on the PS1 Origins disc.
