FF Comics

Final Fantasy (ファイナルファンタジー Fainaru Fantajī), also known as The Original Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy I in collections and common languages, is a role-playing game developed and published by Square Co., Ltd. for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was released in 1987, and it is the inaugural game in Square's flagship Final Fantasy series.

Final Fantasy has subsequently been remade for several different video game consoles and handheld systems, including the MSX2 computers (converted and released by Microcabin) and the Bandai WonderSwan Color. It has also seen versions produced for two Japanese mobile phone service providers: the NTT DoCoMo FOMA 900i series (as Final Fantasy i) and the CDMA 1X WIN-compatible W21x series of mobile phones from au/KDDI (as Final Fantasy EZ) and has also been made available with the American mobile company, Sprint. The game has frequently been packaged with the next game in the series, Final Fantasy II. Compilations of the two games have been released for the Family Computer, the PlayStation, and the Game Boy Advance. The most recent port of the game is available in the iTunes App Store for the Apple iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad. Final Fantasy was Nobuo Uematsu's sixteenth work of video game music composition.

Gameplay

Final Fantasy begins by asking the player to select the character types and names of each Light Warrior (player character). As is typical of computer role-playing games of the era, the player characters are more or less passive participants in the story, and therefore the player's choice of character type affects only the Light Warriors' abilities in battle. The character types are:

-Warrior (Fighter) — A specialist in heavy weapons and armor who can withstand tremendous amounts of punishment. Can become the Knight later in the game, who is able to use the most powerful weapons and some White Magic spells.
-Monk (Black Belt) — A martial arts expert who is best left fighting empty-handed, but may also wield nunchaku, and the most basic of staves. Does tremendous amounts of damage in combat, but can't wear heavy armor. Can become the Master later in the game. In the original Famicom version a high level, barehanded Master who is unencumbered by armor, can do more damage in a single attack than any other character type; a party of four Masters can defeat the final boss monster in less than two full rounds.
-Thief — A considerably weaker Fighter with fewer weapons and armor skills but greater agility and luck (ability to escape from combat). This class can still do high damage thanks to its high hit count. Later in the game, the Thief can be upgraded to the Ninja class. Ninja can use almost every weapon and most armor, and can use many Black Magic spells.
-White Mage — A specialist in White Magic. Not a good fighter, but can use hammers for physical attacks. Can be upgraded into a White Wizard, which allows the character to use the most powerful White Magic spells in the game.
-Black Mage — A specialist in Black Magic and a very weak fighter. Becomes the Black Wizard later on. Black Wizard is the only character who can cast Flare (NUKE in the original North American localization), one of the two damaging spells that retain full effectiveness against Chaos (the White Wizard can cast Holy, the other spell, but it is less powerful than Flare).
-Red Mage — A jack-of-all-trades character, able to use most but not all of both White and Black Magic, and possessing fighting abilities similar to but not quite as good as the Fighter. Becomes the Red Wizard later in the game.

A battle in the NES version against a MADPONY, later translated as Crazy Horse.
Naming a character

Gameplay is similar to that of many other console role-playing games. The player wanders around a world map, randomly encountering monsters which must be either dispatched in battle or fled from. Winning battles earns the player Gil, which can be used to buy weapons, armor, curative items, and magic spells, and Experience, which accumulates until players achieve certain milestones ("experience levels") at which characters gain greater capacity for strength, damage resistance (known as Hit Points, or HP), and spell casting. The player can enter Towns on the world map to be safe from random attacks, restore HP and spell charges, acquire information by talking to villagers, and shop. Battle is turn-based, i.e. players select the desired actions for their PCs (Fight, Cast Spell, Run, etc.), and when finished the PCs execute their actions while monsters retaliate depending on their Agility.

Story

Final Fantasy takes place in an unnamed fantasy world with three large continents. The elemental powers of this world are determined by the state of four glowing crystals ("orbs" in the original North American localization), each governing one of the four classical elements: earth, fire, water, and wind.

In the two centuries prior to the start of the game, violent storms sunk a massive shrine that served as the center of an ocean-based civilization, and the water crystal went dark. Two centuries before then, a group of people known as the Lufenian, who used the power of the wind crystal to craft giant aerial stations ("Flying Fortresses") and airships, watched their country decline as the wind crystal went dark. Eventually, the earth and fire crystals also went dark, plaguing the earth with raging wildfires and devastating the agricultural town of Melmond as the plains and vegetation decayed. Some time later, a sage called Lukahn tells of a prophecy that four Warriors of Light will come to save the world in a time of darkness.

The game begins with the appearance of the four youthful Warriors of Light, the protagonists of the story. The Warriors of Light each carry a darkened Crystal, one of each element. They arrive at Cornelia, a powerful kingdom that has just witnessed the kidnapping of its princess, Sarah, by a rogue knight named Garland who wants to acquire the kingdom. The Warriors of Light travel to the ruined Chaos Shrine in the corner of Cornelia, defeat Garland, and return Princess Sarah home. The grateful King of Cornelia builds a bridge that enables the Warriors of Light passage east of the country.

Traveling east, the Warriors of Light learn that a dark elf wizard named Astos has been terrorizing the area surrounding the inland sea of the southern continent, Elfheim, stealing a crystal that the witch Matoya needs for sight, putting the prince of the elves into a coma, and stealing the crown of a minor western king. As they travel, they liberate the town of Pravoka from a band of pirates and acquire the pirates' ship for their own use. The Warriors of Light now have the ability to travel across the water, but remain trapped within the Aldean Sea, in the center of a large continent. A large rock blocks the only exit from this sea. There is a group of dwarves in Mount Duergar trying to remove the rock, but they find themselves unable to proceed without Nitro Powder. The Nitro Powder is contained in a locked room in Castle Cornelia, the only key to which is held by the sleeping elven prince. They retrieve the stolen crown, only to find that the minor king was actually Astos. After defeating Astos, the Warriors of Light recover Matoya's crystal and return it to the witch, who makes them an herb that will awaken the elven prince. The prince gives them the Mystic Key, with which they travel to Castle Cornelia and retrieve the Nitro Powder, which they then take to the dwarves to help them finish their canal. With the rock now cleared, the Warriors of Light proceed into the greater world.

Sailing to Melmond, the Warriors of Light seek out and destroy the Fiend of Earth, the Lich, who is responsible for the earth's rotting. The Warriors of Light then enter the volcano Mount Gulg and defeat the Fiend of Fire, Marilith ("Kary"), who was awakened two hundred years prematurely by the Lich's defeat. The Warriors then acquire an Airship and visit the Cardia Islands to meet with the dragon king Bahamut who gives them the task of surviving the Citadel of Trials and getting proof of their deeds. When they return he gives them greater Job Classes, improvements of their original ones. The Warriors then defeat the Fiend of Water, the Kraken, in an underwater palace near Onrac, and Tiamat, the Fiend of Wind, in the Flying Fortress. The four Fiends defeated, and the crystals restored, the Warriors find that their quest is not yet over: The Fiends created an archdemon, Chaos, using the body of Garland, and sent him 2,000 years into the past. Following Chaos into the past, the Warriors discover that it was Chaos who had sent the four Fiends into the future, creating a time loop paradox.

The Warriors of Light, upon defeating Chaos, return to their own time, but having broken the time loop, the rest of the world are consigned to be completely unaware that the entire ordeal had taken place, though the Warriors themselves don't recall their adventure either.

Development

Final Fantasy was developed after Square Co.'s initial games were not entirely successful. Planning to retire from the game industry, Square Co.'s president and producer/director Hironobu Sakaguchi declared that his final game would be a fantasy RPG, hence the title. Far from being his final game, however, Final Fantasy proved to be a major success in Japan, presenting them with the second most popular RPG franchise in the country (after Enix's Dragon Quest). Following the successful North American localization of Dragon Quest (as Dragon Warrior), Nintendo of America translated Final Fantasy into English and published it in North America in 1990. The North American version of Final Fantasy was met with modest success, due partly to Nintendo's aggressive marketing tactics. No version of the game was marketed in Europe or Australia until 2003's Final Fantasy Origins.

Final Fantasy, along with the original Dragon Quest, proved to be one of the most influential early console role-playing games, and played a major role in legitimizing and popularizing the genre. Graphically and musically, it was a more polished effort than many of its contemporaries. Many modern critics point out that the game is poorly paced by contemporary standards, and involves much more time wandering in search of random battle encounters to raise their experience and money levels than it does exploring and solving puzzles. However, this was a common trait for role-playing games of this era, and one that, in some respects, would remain in place until the mid-1990s.

Final Fantasy has been remade several times for several different platforms. While all of these remakes retain the same basic story and battle mechanics, various tweaks have been made in a variety of different areas, including graphics, sound, and specific gameplay elements. What follows is a brief description of certain characteristics unique to each remake.

Last week saw the release of "Final Fantasy XIII" in North America, the latest entry in the epic RPG series from video game maker Square-Enix. At this point I'm required to make a witty remark concerning how strange it is that a series with the word "Final" in its title is releasing its thirteenth game (not counting numerous other tie-ins). And then I should add that this one will undoubtedly sell millions of copies, no matter how good or bad it is, paving the way for further sequels beyond the already announced "Final Fantasy XIV".

One of the main draws of the video game series has been its stories, the heroic journeys of ensemble casts that can last for tens of hours. And while the last few games in the series have employed a highly cinematic approach to their storytelling, earlier games didn't have that sort of technology available to them. Instead they told their stories through a mix of text, moving and static images, and music -- a hybrid form somewhere between animation and comics.

The manga tradition was likely a greater influence on the game's makers than comics published in the U.S., but any regular reader of Marvel and DC who plays games in the Final Fantasy series would find a lot that was familiar. So in honor of Final Fantasy XIII finally hitting this side of the Pacific, here are some favorite elements shared between western comics and Final Fantasy.

Yoshitaka Amano

The artist responsible for the concept illustrations that created the core look of the Final Fantasy series and its regular bestiary of creatures, Amano got his start at animation company Tatsunoko Productions in Tokyo. His gorgeous artwork was often too complex to render accurately into the Nintendo and Super Nintendo games, but served as a constant inspiration to the sprite designers in the series. His character portraits were used in game for Final Fantasy VI, the last title in the series in which he played a major design role.

Insane Evil Clowns

From Final Fantasy VI, here's Kefka. Product of a morally dubious science experiment that could not be said to have failed, since it did give him the power to wield magic, but could also not be said to be a perfect success, because it drove him completely insane. Face-painting, evil-laughing, mass-murdering-troops-under-his-own-command insane. Reminiscent in many ways of DC's Joker, another fan of makeup, unhinged psychopathic giggling, and not worrying all that much about collateral damage done to the lackeys he's brought along on his current job.

Both are deeply frightening villains because they're actions are unpredictable, as they don't see to care who gets hurt in the process, up to and including themselves. Kefka is like the Joker if he had a military rank, magic powers, and a higher kill count owing to the fact that he once caused an apocalypse. All of which build up to a good argument for the flame-baiting claim that he's clearly the best villain in the entire Final Fantasy series.

World Mythology

Final Fantasy is a series that pulls the inspiration for its worlds from all the cultures of our own. Creatures drawn from mythologies ranging from Greek to Arabic to Hinduism are fought with weapons whose namesakes range from Celtic to Norse to Japanese. Comics have often lovingly drawn inspiration from the same sources. Both the worlds of Final Fantasy and the Marvel Universe commonly see heroes wield the hammer Mjollnir and the swords Excalibur and Masamune, and both feature frequent appearances by Odin, the Phoenix and Hades.

Sword + Gun = Hurray!

Lightning, the heroine of the newest Final Fantasy game, wields a weapon that switches function between a sword and a gun. This isn't the first time that a Final Fantasy game's protagonist was given such a hybrid weapon. The designers of Final Fantasy VIII, unable to settle the age-old debate of gun versus sword amongst themselves, chose to give its hero, Squall, a weapon known as a gunblade. The device has been a little ridiculed by fans, but I continue to stand by it. Part of the problem is that the term "gunblade" is something of a misnomer. The weapon consists of an impractically large sword with a revolver chamber built into the blade. But rather than bullets, the weapon seems to use a kind of explosive cartridge, triggered by the user upon impact. In other words if you're unfortunate enough to be struck by such a weapon, first a giant blade cuts into you. And then inside that freshly opened wound a small explosive is detonated. I will never be convinced that this is not an awesome weapon.

Airships

Planes may be a more effective way of getting around. Cars may not have that whole gravity problem to deal with. But I can't think of a better way to travel than a wooden sailing ship kept aloft by either helicopter propellers, an enormous balloon, magic, or some combination of those three. The airship has been the standard optimal means of transportation throughout the Final Fantasy series, and although it's become more technologically advanced of late I've still got a special fondness for the older models. And with the increase of steampunk's popularity they're quite common in comics, popping up in such places as Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill's "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen", Phil and Kaja Foglio's "Girl Genius", and most recently in Warren Ellis and Raulo Caceres' "Captain Swing and the Electrical Pirates of Cindery Island". I continue to wait for the day that some wealthy fanboy with a lot of money to blow builds a working, full size replica. I hope to get a chance to ride it before its inevitable crash as a result of working steampunk being too beautiful (and impractical) for this world.