(As a note of disclosure, I intend to replay Final Fantasy I and II via the
Playstation One “Anthologies” re-release).
Ah yes, what arrangement of talents do I select to comprise
my party for the long journey that lies ahead? In case you are wondering what I
am referring to, I am referring to the character-select screen where the player
is presented the ability to hand-pick the class of each character that is to
make up his party of four as well as to name each of those characters.
I have started and re-started the game a few times,
experimenting with different permutations for my starting team; finally,
though, I think I have a solid foot-hold with my party initialization, electing
to go with a Warrior (skillful with attacks), a Red Mage (skilled in both
“white” [healing] as well as “black” [combative] magic), a White Mage
(specializing in “white” magic) and Black Mage (specializing in “black” magic). So far as nomenclature is concerned, I
figured that I would draw upon the great men and women of science with my
warrior as Godel (and unfortunately an umlaut was not selectable amongst the
alphabet of symbols at my disposal, so “Godel,” with an English “o,” it is),
Newton, Curie (for Madame Curie, just to disambiguate amongst the couple, as my
White Mage is a female character) and Euclid (my Black Mage).
My party so far has been met with much hope and expectation,
as prophecy has foretold that “four warriors of light shall come”—and that we
are those warriors-- according to His Majesty who was in much distress when we
visited him due to his daughter having been kidnapped and held in a fortress up
north by the mad knight Garland. It
should also be noted that each of us in my party holds a special crystal
endowed with some sort of special and mystic significance as we were each shown
beside such a shining artifact when introduced by His Majesty as the fateful four
of whom legend had foretold.
Amidst the beginning of my game-playing experience with this
first Final Fantasy I am thoroughly
enjoying the game’s aesthetic and am especially impressed at how well the
game’s characters are articulated in its 2D, sprite-based realm. I am also
impressed by how well the various tutorials interspersed throughout the game’s
opening village of Cornelia are able to acquaint one with the gameplay
mechanics. The townsfolk are plenty
helpful in explaining inventory basics as well as the magic system.
Now for a bit of grinding, as my various restarts weren’t
just due to a desire for team reformation but were also necessitated by the
quick demise of my party on multiple occasions due to venturing out into that
great wilderness of random battle encounters and save-point scarcity before I
was properly leveled up.
