I went out and found the manual and map for Final Fantasy 1 in PDF format. I'm curious if I ever read through the game manual; I didn't own it as a kid. I vaguely remember that the video rental store had copies of the manuals they sent home with the game when you rented it. But, as a kid, if I had a manual for the game, I probably never bothered to look at it outside of being in a bind.
As an adult, reading through the manual of Final Fantasy was amazing. I don't remember what manuals were like; I guess they got fazed out over such a long period that I thought they were primarily lame pictures showing a map of what each button on the controller did. This was not that.
This manual acted as a walkthrough, really. When I started going through it, I assumed, "Oh, this is basically just the tutorial." I was expecting it to end essentially where the heroes crossed the bridge, but it goes on through a few dungeons; it even pointed out where the ring of mages was, which always felt like it was supposed to be a secret to me. It is half the game, realistically, but it seems REALLY far.
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| The map that gets packed in shows most areas you need to go in the game; I appreciate the places for notes, though. |
It also had 2 foldout inserts, each with information printed on both sides. In all, you got an overworld map complete with points of interest marked; a map of all the early dungeons, probably coinciding with how far you go in the manual; a listing of all monsters, their stats, and weaknesses; and a list of all weapons, armors, and spells, as well as who can use each.
All in all, I was surprised by how in-depth all this pack-in information got. It would have felt very spoilery if I hadn't already known what was happening.
Forming a Party
I usually vary all my playthroughs of Final Fantasy and have done many combinations. This year, I wanted to do something a little more tame than all black belts, my favorite, for a group. Before looking at the manuals, I decided to do Fighter, Black Belt, White Mage, and Black Mage. The manual actually broke down some party combinations to help the reader. I found out this party was called "The Beginner." I thought the thief would be considered for that type of party over Black Belt, but Black Belt is a bit more straightforward, so I guess it makes sense.
I've been reading through Mirrorshades and thus have been into Cyberpunk lately. So, in honor of that genre, I decided to name my team Will (Black Mage), Phil (Blackbelt), Neal (Fighter), and Masa (White Mage) after some of the more prominent names in the genre. It worked out too, given the 4 character limit of all the words.
Once in the world, I followed the manual's order of playing through the game. Instead of heading straight to the first dungeon, we go to Castle Coneria and check it out. I even talked to more NPCs than I usually would.
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| The manual went to weirdly great lengths to explain to the user how to talk to people. |
Most NPCs were extremely basic, usually saying things like "Please save the princess!" Many even say the same things as NPCs right next to them. The manual highlighted the Queen on the castle's first floor, though, so we visited her, not even remembering that she was there. Of course, she just wants me to save her daughter; we learn more about what is going on from the guard outside her door, saying she had locked herself in her room with grief. Though, we could go in easy enough.
Another person wandering around the first floor mentions that Garland used to be a knight who turned on the king. Up the stairs, we head to the king, who indicates that Garland has taken his daughter to the Temple of the Fiends due north.
Save the Princess!
We leave the castle and enter the Town of Coneria outside the gates. We don't find much more helpful information from any town NPC, so we go to the shops to pick up supplies. We grab a rapier and chain mail for Neal, nunchakus for Phil, a dagger and cloth for Will, and a hammer and cloth for Masa. We then go to the magic stores where Masa learns Cure, and Will learns Fire, and then head north to get the princess.
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| Ooo la la! So riskay! |
We make a beeline for the Temple of Fiends and go straight to where Garland stands in the center. Through a whirlwind of magic and steel, Garland meets his quick demise in only two rounds. The princess appears, and we speak with her, and we instantly find ourselves back in the throne room of Castle Coneria.
The king rightly thanks me and mentions completing a bridge to the north. We turn to the princess standing right next to me; she also thanks me and gives me a Lute as a reward. We do travel around the castle as the manual also made a point to mention that people's responses change after significant events, and sure enough, everyone goes from wanting me to find the princess to thanking me for the princes. There's not much need to talk to most NPCs, but I'll still give it a go and talk to one occasionally. Unfortunately, console RPGs in this generation don't have a ton of NPC interactions going on.
I look at our stats and see we are a short way away from a level so, bearing my newfound lute, we pipe my way into the wilderness and fight a few quick fights to get me to level 2 and then head back to Coneria where we stop at the Inn to get everyone back to full strength. We also go to the mage shops again and have Will learn Lit from the local Black Mage, thinking it may be helpful at some point.
Then, it's off to the bridge to receive the opening crawl.
Journey to the East
Again, following the manual's path, we head north past the bridge to a cave and find a witch surrounded by Fantasia-esque walking brooms. She indicates she needs an herb, but we also find chests with 2 Heal potions and a Pure potion. After a quick stop back in Coneria for a stay at the Inn, we finally head east to Pravoka.
Pravoka is an interesting town. Looking at the map, it looks like it was built on top of a lake for some reason, and it is currently under siege by a group of pirates. I find the pirates but walk right by them to the local armor shop, where we pick up gloves and a wooden shield for Neal, then turn around and head for a brawl with the pirates.
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| Is it a moat? Or a Lake? |
The fight with the pirates is straightforward; it isn't intended to provide a challenge for the player. The battle consists of 9 pirates, each of which can be killed with a single hit by either Neal or Phil or even one of the mages if they are lucky. We quickly dispatch them and receive our reward of a ship that is located at the docks outside town.
However, we must enter our first bit of grinding before taking off in our newfound vehicle. There are a couple of things we want to get here before we leave. First, we need to get everyone to at least level 4. But we also need to attain enough money to buy a short sword for Neal and allow Will to learn Ice so that he has something extra to cast.
This bit of grinding proved to be difficult. You generally want to get a lot of ogres, but the ogres seemed to have other ideas and chose to avoid getting into any fights with us. Instead, we got a lot of wolves and iguanas and, unfortunately, a few deaths along the way.
After much effort, we get our levels, a short sword, and Neal gets Ice. Then we head out into our boat. Almost immediately we ran into a group of Kyzokus; I guess we should have been grinding in the ocean. Kyzokus are known as one of the better options for gold in the early game, but some other monsters in the deep can prove tough, so I decided to do Ogre hunting early. It was still a nice sight to see, and we quickly dispatched them and took my loot.
We continue back east in the ocean, deciding to grab a few more fights in the ocean, killing sharks and more kyzokus, and then making a quick pit stop in Coneria at their cheap Inn to revitalize my crew before heading south in my ship, eventually find the Castle of Elf, as the manual calls it.
Entering the castle and exploring it a little bit, we find that the elfin prince sleeps. A villain named Astos attacked the elves and put a spell on the prince that only an herb can cure. We leave the castle and enter the neighboring town, called the equally inventive ElfLand, and take a look around.
There is little information from any NPCs in town, and everything is pretty expensive, so we leave and spend a little more time grinding. We are a little more lucky this time around and can find a number of ogres to slay. We quickly get another level or two and get FIR2 for Will, caps for both Will and Masa, several heal and cure potions, as well as a cabin for the road.
It was a productive first couple of hours of the game. The manual indicates that we should head towards the Dwarf Cave next, which is an interesting side quest that I don't usually do in my playthroughs, so I look forward to doing that in our next entry.
Hours Played: 2
