The black orb podcasts ominously…

Welcome back to the podcast where today we’re going to be looking at the Game Boy Advance remake of Final Fantasy. The first in what is probably the series of games most synonymous with the JRPG genre, the original Final Fantasy showcases all the hallmarks of the genre in a simple but still very functional way. The player is allowed to choose the makeup of their party from the beginning of the game and that will influence the type of gear, spells, etc., that they will be able to use throughout the runtime, characters level up and can even upgrade their classes midway through the game, and you will encounter enemies every seven steps you take. Despite some rough edges, it ends up holding up surprisingly well and, probably due to forty years of cultural knowledge of playing RPGs, it isn’t a “Nintendo hard” type game from the era either. The result is a somewhat primitive, but beautiful looking, RPG that is surprisingly comfortable to play and fairly easy to get into even from a modern context. We’re going to be talking about the clever and natural ways the game gates exploration and makes it feel like a worthwhile activity, the depth of the storytelling which was rare for games on the NES, and how the canoe is really just walking, but different.

Thank you for joining us again this week! This was one we had in the chamber in case we needed to do something quickly because we had both played it and yet we still managed to be late. Classic us. Do you have experience with any of the many, many versions of FF1 that exist? Do you have a favorite? Were you born twenty or more years after the release of this game and never even considered playing it? Let us know in the comments or over on our Discord! Next time, we’re going from one of the (technically) oldest games we’ve ever played to the newest, and talking about Resident Evil: Requiem, so we hope you’ll join us for that.