Let’s Play — Final Fantasy I, Part 1
Written Let’s Plays… Unique and Interesting or Boring and Silly?
Hello, anyone that decided to read this article! You’re already an S-tier person in my book for taking a chance on this. Let’s do a quick little paragraph (or two) to cover some of What, a little of Why, and probably most of How.
I’ve been a fan of the Final Fantasy franchise since I was a single digits child. Me and my friend were still young and carefree enough to not be embarrassed when we would stand up and act out the battles of Final Fantasy I on the NES. And I’ve been a fan for the past 35 ish years. Recently, my sister and I have been playing through Final Fantasy VII Rebirth in 2024. Just a tiny bit of evidence that I’m a fan.
And, I have little of myself recorded from my life as a young person. I’m certainly not qualified to that word (young) now, but I’ve been trying to change that and record, or write or whatever, some bits of who I am. Mainly so I can experience the nostalgia of it all in a decade or three. I’ve been wanting to do YouTube Let’s Plays for the entire mainline FF (Final Fantasy) series, but finding the time and the hard drive space has been challenging. As well as life getting in the way, but my BFF TAM recommended playing the games and writing my thoughts and reactions and HERE WE ARE!! (as far as I know) THE WORLD’S FIRST WRITTEN LET’S PLAY!!!! imagine if I publish the series into a book! It would almost be like an analog Let’s Play. Even if no one ever cares but me, I’m pretty psyched about the idea. :D
I have notes that I took through the first two ‘sessions’ of playing FF and I’ll post those notes in this article, but I’ll also write some bits to add cohesion or define some things for those that don’t know the terms. Or, you know, if I forget the terms when I’m older. lol.
Final Fantasy I playthrough. original NES emulator.
The opening music. the classic theme, in it’s original state. gorgeous.
Just to keep it real, this isn’t actually THE classic Final Fantasy theme. That will probably come in part 4 or 5. But, it is the most recognizable arpeggio to a Final Fantasy fan.
This all starts with character creation. In case you’ve never played FF1 before, there are 6 classes to choose from. Fighter, Thief, Black Belt, Red Mage, White Mage, & Black Mage. There’s a very long and entertaining web comic from the early 2000s that give these characters a personality. But, they have no lines in the game. And we never learn a single thing about their history. They are as blank as protagonists can be. Just a few pixels to give an aesthetic and the stats, spell slots, and allowed armor learned along the way. Just, when I say FTWB, i mean fighter, thief, white mage, black mage. and the little Bl down there is to refer to the Black Belt. ok. Continuing on…
then, character creation… do i FTWB? do i use default (FTBlR)? 4 white mages (kek kek)? I’m going to google ‘best ff1 party’ and see what happens… ok, the seeming consensus is that fighter, thief, white mage, black mage is the standard. you get to benefit from all the items in the game, except maybe nunchucks. But, you know what? i always used fighter, black belt, white mage, black mage when I played this as a youngster. and what does the theif/ninja have that is specific to them? it always comes down to thief, black belt, or redmage… ok. i know i’ve beaten the game with the black belt/master before, so i guess it’s time to try… he’s got blue hair, … he’s the first hot final fantasy character… but, red mage, though. has a cool hat… and I’m just swearing off of nunchucks, i guess… gonna go with the hot one. this will be a recurring theme, for me, so might as well lean into it, right? that’s thief, btw
I’m so silly and weird. ignore that… I really struggled to make the decision. You only get to bring a party of 4 with you for the game and there are 6 to choose from. So, I HAVE to exclude two of them. And there was a lot that went through my head about what was right and what was fair and what was honorable and what was entertaining or true to my childhood experience and many other things… And, like I should have easily predicted, I went with the one with blue hair, because I perceive him as hotter than the rest. I truly think that all humans are beautiful and can be seen as sexy. I will promote that every day I’m alive. But, it is true that I have a bit of a predictable response to hot people. More on that another time, in another article, about another topic.
now, on to naming… 4 letters each. do i name after family? friends? streamers? original names? I’ll let you know when I decide…
Zanf, the Fighter. Rast, the Theif. Syda, the White Mage. Pon, the Black Mage.
They will not be given personalities or stories, but I have named them. Let’s see if they evolve during the playthrough to have personalities, as imagined by me. LET’S BEGIN THE GAME!!!!
I was actually really proud of those names! I’ve started calling them by their names while playing and when I look at it from the third person perspective, it’s really cute. XD
While I just let the World Map music play, I have to say I’ve played the beginning of this game a dozen times or more. I have idea how often. I have a few times I only played long enough to beat Garland and was just distracted away from it. Well, time to go talk to everyone, buy the begining stuff, and start grinding to get all the things I want from the town. That’s how I play old RPGs. I grind until i have the money to buy what I need from the town, and then I do the story quest to advance. If I run into too many troubles, I’ll grind out a few more levels, but that should actually probably not happen. we’ll see. Back when something interesting happens, either in game or in my mind. lol.
Full disclosure, I’m playing the game on an emulator and I had to try a couple of different ROMs at this point. The game sadly crashed when I tried to talk to a towns-person. And, about playing on an emulator, I just want to say that I’ve owned several copies and remakes of this game, during my life, so I don’t feel the least bit guilty for it. Also, I really did want to play the NES original instead of the several remakes that have sprung up, over the years. When I finally do transition to a visual medium, like YouTube, I’ll probably play one of the remakes to make the sounds and visuals a bit easier on my potential audience.
ok. all geared up. I realized that the appeal of a red mage is that you can get every spell and i don’t know if that’s possible without a red mage. i might go look that up… I got lost in the weeds of data and spreadsheets, for a bit, but on to Corneria Castle before i go a’grindin’.
After I finished my notes and my first session for this playthrough, I realized that I didn’t really record any of the townsfolk’s words. There were probably 20 to 25 NPCs in the town and the castle and I talked to all of them, some of them twice. Even the invisible person in Corneria Castle. I kinda felt bad, like I was disrespecting those little game sprites, but I realized this is my reaction to the game, not me trying to re-write a new story on top of an old game. Maybe I’ll do that in the future. hehe
I grinded to level 2. I need about 400 gold to get the spells to advance and I’m about 40% there, maybe. I saved after getting to level 2, but I’ll probably be at level 3 or 4 before I move on. I remembered that this game has each individual enemy be a position to attack. so, if I have two people attack the same enemy, and the first hit kills it, the second hit just hits the blank spot, instead of moving on to the next enemy. Anyway, I can’t wait to continue! In episode 2, we’ll probably reach Garland’s castle and maybe defeat Garland himself. But, we’ll see.
And, that’s my first day of it! This feels pretty long, so I’m glad I didn’t go further. The amount of game time that this took up means that this could be a relatively long series, but we’ll see. I’m excited to continue it and I haven’t really been able to say that about something that I’m doing by myself, for myself, for a long time. Anyone that decided to stick around until the end of this, thank you so much for reading it! I hope it added just a tiny little something to your day! AAANNNDDDDD….
I hope you find smiles this day! :D
