Final Fantasy I – Pixel Remaster Mini Review
Release Date: July 28, 2021
Developer: Square Enix
Platforms: PC (Reviewed), Switch, PlayStation 4
Price: $11.99
Where the legacy all began... Final Fantasy [Pixel Remaster] is a fantastic game that really brings about the classic and feel-good way of RPGs how they once were, with set classes and a world that was just the right size, feeling concise and focused in both its narrative and gameplay. While I'll admit the story sort of got super loose after the first few hours of the game, the sense of adventure stays true throughout and rarely waivers throughout its 12-18 hour experience.
Old-school RPGs like this have always had a soft spot in my heart, and it feels great to go back and witness the stepping stones of a genre that's evolved so much in the decades since then yet still yearns for the classics. It's why a lot of the retro JRPGs now I can't help but feel an admiration and attraction towards. KEMCO, for example, has basically made a legacy and identity publishing and developing almost exclusively old-school JRPGs, and I'm a sucker for them all.
It feels weird having to pick apart a game that is seminal to the genre's growth and the IPs strength, though for all it did well it wasn't without mishaps. I don't know why but it seemed like a lot of RPGs back then just simply didn't care about debuffs despite giving the option to do so. There are a lot of items that are found throughout chests and purchasable through the world's various towns that truthfully feel absolutely pointless and like a waste of time, or so rare to the point you ask yourself "why?" when you can just stock up on a variant (for example, I may have found two Dry Ethers throughout my playthrough, which replenish 5MP, but a regular Ether costs 150 gil in shops, which, if you know how to manage your gil, is nothing at all, especially later in the game.). Going back to debuffs, they were absolutely pointless throughout the game, with miss after miss after miss no matter the enemy type or level. I expected it to be fairly common with bosses, but the general overworld enemies were also dodging them like it was no one's business. I think all I was able to successfully do on occasion was Slow. Otherwise, literally every other spell in existence - and mind you I bought just about everything - was DOA. Any sort of attempt at paralysis, petrification, death, sleep, blindness, etc.? Please. Buffs, however, work as intended, but those debuffs were nothing more than on-screen text fillers. Thankfully, though, Final Fantasy back then isn't as sophisticated as it is now, so you don't really have to be too strategic to make it through the game. There are very few times you'll actually struggle, and any time it did get particularly tough, it felt like a proper skill check instead of a difficulty spike (at least until Chaos at the very end of the game).
Final Fantasy [Pixel Remaster] is a great game through and through, and with all the quality-of-life enhancements added to make the game more accessible and approachable for today, it feels like a must-play for fans of the genre, and certainly those devoted to the Final Fantasy franchise that want to see where it all began.
PROS:
The renewed orchestrations for the pixel remaster are absolutely stunning as you feel the force and power of the compositions come through in every battle and place on the map.
A piece of gaming history that’s a straight-forward classic JRPG that defined an era
CONS:
Though rare, it can feel a bit lost at times
Mechanics are a product of its time and sometimes don’t add up when it comes to damage output, buffs, and debuffs.