yet, despite the gnashing of teeth and widespread JRPG backlash. Hell, most people don’t even

know why Final Fantasy was, potentially, the Final Fantasy. So sit right back and you’ll

hear a tale, of a struggling developer and publisher of oddities like Aliens for the

MSX (and apparently Sigourney Weaver is the new George Orwell), the Space-Harrier-esque

3-D WorldRunner, and Nakayama Miho no Tokimeki High School, which means nothing to anyone

not concerned with late-80’s Japanese pop idols or the earliest prehistory of dating

sims. Things were bad, so producer Hironobu Sakaguchi threw it all on the line in one

last-ditch effort to combine a popular swords-and-sorcery setting (some would call it a direct aping

of 1st-edition D&D) with an epic adventure. (Further note: Though it’s sometimes cited

as a reason for the strife leading up to Final Fantasy, the moderately-racially-insensitive

Square’s Tom Sawyer actually came a year after Final Fantasy II.)

Suffice it to say, their plan worked. Final Fantasy became a breakout hit, Square was

in the black again, and it’s been their MO ever since to keep the cash cow fed. Case

in point: Final Fantasy II landed just 365 days after the original. That’s a turnaround

to make even Capcom’s head spin. But the first installment in the series has never

been forgotten... how could it be, seeing as how it’s been ported, remade, and otherwise

contorted onto... the MSX2, the Wonderswan Color, the PlayStation, four different Japanese

mobile phone networks, the PSP, Wii Virtual Console, iOS, and double-packed with Final

Fantasy II on the NES, PlayStation, and GameBoy Advance.

Fortunately, as far as classic RPG experiences go, it’s tough to find one that held up

better to the years of scrutiny. More importantly, it would set the rails for the games that

would follow it, introducing elements like the Airship, crystals, timey-wimey shenanigans

(huh, bit of deja vu there) and optional superbosses like WarMech. However, certain elements - like

choosing immutable classes at the beginning of the game, lack of interpersonal relation

between your team (vis “The Warriors of Light Who Just Happened To All Show Up At

The Same Time”), the pseudo-Vancian magic system, and class promotion - didn’t make

it out of this one alive (well, save for a brief revival of the magic system for the

Famicom version of Final Fantasy III.) Every game in the series is unique for what it does

and doesn’t borrow from its neighbors; it’s interesting to look back and try to understand

why the elements that caught on did so.

The plot’s familiar to several generations of gamers, if by rote alone: Garland’s stolen

the princess, and it’s your job as the magical dudes what just showed up to save her. You

do so, and learn that while that’s all well and good, fiends at every corner of the earth

have been wreaking havoc, and if you’re the kind of heroes that can save a princess

from a moderately inept knight, you can certainly bash in these supernatural entities. Goes

without saying, of course. On the way you’ll meet elves, dwarves, pirates, a weird witch

and her backward-talking brooms, and the last resting place of Link (or Erdrick, depending

on which version you’re playing).

This Final Fantasy Origins version boasts several improvements over the original, including

a remastered soundtrack, more elaborate sprites, redrawn backgrounds, clarifications of the

script (‘cuz the original was a bit dicey in places,) and a wealth of background information,

from a dynamically-updated bestiary to a collection of the original Yoshitaka Amano concept art.

I hesitate to call this the definitive edition, if only because there are so bleeding many

of ‘em, but it’s certainly a good jumping-off point. Especially seeing as how you can still

play it on your PS3! So convenient.