Final Fantasy | SuperPod Game Club

After taking a break in December, SuperPod Game Club is back and ready for action! This January, the Game Club played through Final Fantasy (or FF1), which was chosen by Thrak. We're starting 2025 with a big Firaga-like BANG!

Released in 1987 in Japan and later making its way to the West, this title laid the groundwork for what would become one of the most beloved and expansive franchises in video game history. Members were allowed to play whatever version they could get their hands on, whether it's the NES original, GBA, PSP, or even the Pixel Remaster.

Gather your Warriors of Light, light-up those crystals, and let's see what the Game Club thought about Final Fantasy.

Final Fantasy 1 was released in 1987 and is considered a landmark title for the JRPG genre, spawning the franchise most people think of when the term RPG comes up. How does the original hold up after almost 40 years? I gotta say, I quite liked it. I played the Pixel Remaster that was done a while ago and it does a fantastic job of updating the classic while retaining the spirit. I was able to get all the Xbox achievements in 15ish hours. A nice breezy play that I had a good time with. I did have the XP and Gil boosts on and if you don’t like that, sue me! Overall, this was a fun little game and I hope to play more of this series this year as I have bought just about every mainline title on Xbox.

~Thrak

Hi all, Dave C. here. Having just joined the SuperPod discord last year, I was excited when we chose Final Fantasy 1 as the Super Game Club game of the month. The early Final Fantasy games (along with The Legend of Zelda) are near and dear to my heart, as they instilled a love of reading in me that carried me through my school-age years. And by “love of reading,” I mean that I became sick of calling my parents and older siblings into the room to read video game text to me.

I like to play through FF1 once every one or two years, and this time around, what stuck out to me was how deeply funny some of the adventuring situations and in-game dialogue are. Imagine running through a volcano dungeon and the party takes damage nearly every step from lava-filled rooms. Then at the end of a few long, branching paths, there would sometimes be a chest! Great! Open it up to receive… a basic potion! Not even enough to heal the hit points the party expended to make it to the chest. Have a laugh, 1980’s Squaresoft employees! The joke is on us. In another instance, the party finds a Rosetta Stone that teaches a language scholar the keys to understanding a long-forgotten language. While believable that this new knowledge from the Stone would help this scholar accomplish a level of understanding that has eluded him for years, I laughed again when the scholar taught our party full comprehension of the language in ten seconds. Thank you, video game logic!

Other humorous dialogue includes an Elf who declared, “The dwarves live in a cave on the western edge of the Aldean Sea. They’re a friendly bunch!” thus ending the Elven-Dwarven feud that has been common knowledge since the First Age of Middle-Earth. Magically powered brooms were “always trying to weasel their way out of chores.” In an overworld town connected to the underwater haven for mermaids, a woman declared she “loved having legs! Look! Look at that move I just did!” while a nearby older crone asked the party if our “legs were REALLY ours?” presumably because one couldn’t trust if the humans walking among the townsfolk were not mermaids in disguise.

I’ve been largely tongue-in-cheek up to this point, but please do not misunderstand my humor as snide or mean-spirited. This game means a lot to me, and I joyfully knew what I was starting when firing up Final Fantasy 1. But as with any media, new things stick out to a person upon revisiting. For me, the charm and humor came to the forefront for me this playthrough. Yes, the music still rules. Yes, the customization is great when the player presses the New Game button and picks the four-member party from up to six classes. Yes, the progression from finding a ship, then a canoe, then an airship progressively opens up an ever-sprawling world to explore that was impressive in 1987 and still holds up today. But largely, I just had fun laughing along with the game through humorous fetch-quests, situations, and NPC dialogue. And a lot of laughter is not a bad thing when adventuring to save the world from Chaos.

~Dave C.

Hi yes hello everyone, my name is MuddButt and I got to participate in Super Game Club this month and played Final Fantasy 1 for the first time ever, which was a lot of fun and honestly I didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as I did. I’m keeping this super spoiler free just in case there’s someone out there that hasn’t played this like I was until a few days ago.

The version I played was the PSP 20th anniversary edition cause I was a fancy boy. I went with Warrior, Red Mage, Monk, and Black Mage cause even though I haven’t really played much Final Fantasy I’ve always liked the Black Mage character design. (Turns out they crush)

Gameplay wise it’s your standard RPG obviously since it’s on OG, you hear story about problem, you and your team are fancy people trying to fix the problem, you move around and fight monsters or bad guys and you become even fancier people and everyone happy YAY. But seriously:

You play as 4 Warriors of Light off to save a princess and the slow decay of the world surrounding the area, from monsters to literal demons of the darkest depths of the elements you slowly but surely brave your way and become the hero’s of the world Fantasy.

The battles were fun and pretty fast paced which was nice, a little speed up here and there with grinding also helped but watching the little animations of new equipment I got, or new Black/White magic I purchased was neat to witness when I wanted to slow roll while fighting thru dungeons or exploring the world. I was instantly stoked when I saw the monsters that gets thrown at you, from goblins to vampires to whatever the hell an Evil Eye was. They had some good ideas when they were making creatures.

Boss battles were when I had to for sure slow down and think of strategies, most micro bosses aren’t terrible if you just grind for a while and stock up on potions and what not, but the actual big bosses of the game made me have to strategize, which is always good to turn your brain back on and think of ways to actually beat the damn things. Especially the last fight….

Seeing sword make big number hit enemies and big magic attacks were always pleasant to the brain when you just unleash a stupid amount of damage on something like a small wolf or a lizard monster thingy. The music and atmosphere was really fun to just walk around and enjoy, the more I played the more I came to understand why people enjoy this series more than DW/Q, to me it felt more grandiose and epic, like every dungeon I went in I kind of soaked in the music and purposely tried to fill the bestiary even though after 20ish hours of playing I got exhausted. (Spoiler I didn’t finish the bestiary hahaaaaaaaa)

Now there’s some rough spots in my opinion that comes with old school rpgs (or some rpgs in general)

The story gets confusing at times and if I didn’t have a walkthrough handy my dumbass wouldn’t have been able to find out where to go or what to do next, I’m not a huge fan of using guides but man I needed one like 3 hours in of going in blind. I think I spent 8 of my 20ish hours just trying to find the next place to go to or who to talk to or what to get or find a specific treasure in a specific part of the dungeon that I happen to miss cause my dumbass was in a hurry to beat the big bad boss and be cool.

Overall playing Final Fantasy 1 made me genuinely want to pick up the rest of the series that I never got to play. If you haven’t sat down and experienced the first of many Fantasy’s that definitely aren’t the Final than so should you.

7 out of 10, would go back to defeat that stupid final boss again that totally didn’t wreck me like 30 times.

~MudButt

Hey, y'all. Nomad here. To start this off, let me say this. You can't spell Role-Playing Game without Final Fantasy. It's just the facts. And while the series has blossomed into something very large and expansive today, it all started in 1987 on the original Nintendo. My journey into this series began with Final Fantasy 7 and by then, the series really expanded in scope and story. But the original Final Fantasy, while much simpler by nature, remains the solid foundation that started it all.

I started this game once on the Playstation Portable but I ended of completing the Pixel Remaster version on the Playstation 4. Even going into this game with a fresh coat of paint and quality of life improvements (such as x4 EXP and X4 gil boosts), I knew this was going to be a simple experience. And honestly, that's a very good thing. The formula is as simple as the come. Choose a party of 4 warriors and assign them jobs. Warrior. Thief. Black Mage. Etc. Then, go bring peace to the land by defeating the four fiends and restoring light to the crystals.

Gameplay is simple and straightforward. You're set into the world and it's up to you to figure out where to go. Along the way, you're battling monsters in order to level up and collect coin for better gear and spells. And honestly, that's the best part of this experience. You're not juggling multiple party members, navigating skill trees or making in depth tactical decisions regarding your equipment. I loved that, especially being a 40 year old dude with little time on my hands.

It's incredible to think about, too. Back in 1987, having a game that constantly opens up as you go, allowing you to explore more of the world after you find a boat, a canoe and ultimately an airship is awesome to see.

Final Fantasy, is a raw experience that knows what it is and makes no apoligies for itself. Even playing the Pixel Remaster with EXP and Gil boosts to shorten my time, I still enjoyed every battle and loved exploring this world. And when the credits finally rolled (albeit very. friggin'. slowly...), it felt good looking back on this journey. I was glad to have played this game regardless of the version and I think it's a game any RPG fan should partake in. It's practically history at this point, one that you'll be proud to be a part of.

~Nomad

I have a long history with the original Final Fantasy, I owned the game for the NES back in the day and was never able to see further than the first quarter of the game because I always had bad luck with NES games losing my saves. I have briefly played other versions of the game over the years, but I never took the time to fully play through the game until very recently after purchasing the Pixel Remastered collection for the Nintendo Switch.

The Pixel Remastered version of Final Fantasy offers a variety of QOL features and updated graphics, while also staying pretty faithful to the original gameplay. Most notably, it uses the original Magic system that separates spells by tiers, with each tier being limited to three spells and that share a their own set of magic points. It might be pretty jarring at first, especially if you\rquote re used to the standard MP system used in most jRPGs, but it really isn\rquote t any different aside from maybe feeling a bit limited. The turn-based combat is exactly what you would expect from a jRPG of the era, with some tweaks to help make the combat flow a lot smoother.

The story is pretty basic as well, you play as the warriors of light and you must restore the light of the 4 elemental crystals to stop evil from destroying the world. It's not the deepest of stories, but the localization used is based on the GBA release from what I understand and it does its best to keep things interesting. Which I think leads into probably the weakest part about the game, it can sometimes be a shot in the dark on where exactly you're supposed to go, especially in later parts of the game. I ended up having to use a guide because I didn't feel like wasting my time running around everywhere trying to trigger the next event.

While Final Fantasy was very innovative for its time and set the groundwork of what would become the juggernaut game franchise we know today, it's still a pretty basic jRPG when looked at through a modern lens. While the Pixel Remaster does offer a great starting point for those who want to experience the franchise from the start, it is still very much Final Fantasy with a new coat of paint. That's not to say the game is bad, it is still a perfectly serviceable JRPG and I am glad to have finally gotten around to completing the game after all these years.

~Tony

Join us in February as we tackle The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening.

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Until next time, thanks for reading.