Final Fantasy 1 (Pixel Remaster)

Platform: Nintendo Switch
Genre: JRPG
Developer: Square
Publisher: Square Enix
Director: Hironobu Sakaguchi
Designer: Hiromichi Tanaka, Akitoshi Kawazu, Koichi Ishii
Writer: Hironobu Sakaguchi, Kenji Terada
Composer: Nobuo Uematsu
Finished: 2024
Playtime: 14h 24m
Rating: 3/5

I love Final Fantasy. Final Fantasy X is probably my favourite game of all time.

The first Final Fantasy game I played was Mystic Quest back on the Super Nintendo which was a spin-off title aimed at beginners. I was pretty young at the time so I don't think I really understood what I was doing so the game never hooked me and I never ended up finishing it. I've still got my copy sitting around so maybe I'll give it another go one of these days.

The game that really got me hooked on the series was Final Fantasy VIII. That opening cinematic of Squall fighting Seifer was the coolest shit I had ever seen and I would just watch it over and over again. I was starting my angsty teens so of course I thought Squall was awesome and of course I had a crush of Quistis and Rinoa (sorry Selphie). I used to rent it from a videostore here in Australia called Video Ezy whenever I could but I don't think I ever made it past the first disc. I remember asking my mum for it for christmas but she ended up getting me Final Fantasy IX instead (which I loved anyway).

Final Fantasy 1 Opening Sorry I only took one screenshot! It sure is a lovely one though.

Last year I started a stupid challenge to play through every Final Fantasy game, including all the different spin-off titles, so naturaly I started from the start. Before playing the Pixel Remaster version my experience with Final Fantasy I was mostly with the Final Fantasy Origins remake on the PlayStation 1. I found the Origins version pretty grindy and it looked pretty ugly on my TV so I didn't get too far in it. The Pixel Remaster version is the complete opposite. The game looks fantastic thanks to the updated pixel art (they even brought back the original artist for it!) and their tweaks to the XP curves meant I barely had to do any grinding to get through the game. The original and the updated arranged soundtracks are both great (I'm listening to the in game music player while writing this).

The game has a few nice bonus features such as a beastiary where you can view the lovely pixel art of all the enemies, a gallery where you can view some absolutely gorgeous concept art by Yoshitaka Amano, and a music player where you can listen through the original and arranged soundtracks.

I finished this almost a year ago now and I'm getting too old to remember that far back so I won't go into details about the story or what I remember from it. I think maybe time travel was involved?

If you're interested in trying out the game that started a phenomenon then I think this is by far the best way to play.

What I liked

What I didn't like