With the upcoming release of the Nintendo Entertainment System: NES Classic Edition (NA) / Nintendo Classic Mini: Nintendo Entertainment System (PAL), we're going to (eventually) provide short profiles of all 30 games included on the system. This time around we look at Final Fantasy.
The Mini NES is packed full of classic games and franchises that have stood the test of time. Final Fantasy stands tall among them - after all, one of the biggest releases in this 2016 Holiday period is Final Fantasy XV, and on top of that there have been lots of spin-offs. As a franchise it was a banker for Square and then Square Enix, and remains a hugely significant IP to this day.
There's some interesting history to this game. First of all, what we have on the Mini NES is the actual first game - that's an important distinction, as it never came to Europe in the NES era. A 1987 release in Japan, it came to North America in 1990 but skipped PAL territories. The numbering of these games was increasingly confusing as sequels rolled around, with inconsistency in releases between regions. For example, Final Fantasy III on SNES in North America was actually Final Fantasy VI in Japan, before the sensible decision was made to take a hit on PlayStation title Final Fantasy VII and use the same numbering globally.
In any case, back to Final Fantasy - the NES title did come to Europe in its original guise on the Wii Virtual Console, so it hasn't entirely skipped the territory. It's an RPG held up by many (not without justification) as a definitive forebear to the genre. Dragon Quest is another and perhaps the original, as its success helped get FF greenlit within the walls of Square - its presence on the Mini NES is very welcome for that reason alone.
To go further into the history of the game, three key stories help to explain its genesis and name. For one thing, it was nearly called Fighting Fantasy, but a series of role-playing game books already had that name in Japan. The 'Final' in the name was also tied to two other stories, both given credence in multiple interviews. Creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, after struggles in his work, had begun to lose heart and was planning to go back to finish his University / College education. Another aspect that made the 'Final' relevant was that Square was reportedly in financial difficulty, needing a hit release to chase off bankruptcy.
The eventual fantastical tale of 'Light Warriors' on a quest to save the world from darkness captured imaginations, especially in Japan. The gameplay picked up much of the pioneering work done by Dragon Quest in order to combine gameplay and adventure effectively - in a Famitsu interview from 2007 (via Develop Online) Sakaguchi-san explained that this was a challenge, however. Final Fantasy needed to make its name, while facing indifference at the time from Japanese gaming media that was still unsold on the young genre.
There were four games that were following on from Dragon Quest. Final Fantasy was one of those challengers.
I took an in-development ROM to the editor of 'Family Computer Magazine', but was turned away. They told me they didn't deal with games like that. Only Famitsu dealt with Final Fantasy in any grand way, for which I'm still very thankful.
Much about the game was a gamble, as was explained further in that interview.
Initially, only 200,000 copies of the game were going to be shipped. At that time, manufacturing the ROM took two to three months, so your initial shipment equalled the number of copies that you could potentially sell.
So I argued within the company, and pleaded: 'If we only make this many, there's no chance of a sequel – please make it 400,000'. But the costs were high, so as a company all they could think was 'that's a lot of money!' despite having this great game. So the reason it became such a hit was thanks to Square's management taking a chance – for which I'm really grateful.
In the end the risk was worthwhile, with the franchise going from strength to strength. It's gone in a lot of different directions, with many of the main entries skipping Nintendo hardware since the 'bit' days. The original is a key part of gaming history, however, so it's only right that Nintendo's call back to its iconic past with the Mini NES includes one of the games that helped to define the era.
Comments (21)
I'm looking forward to playing this game when my NES Mini Classic arrives.........next week.
@Kakaak You and all your guises need to be exterminated. Permanently!
it's this one on the 3DS virtual console in Europe?
The 'Final' in the name was also tied to two other stories, both given credence in multiple interviews. Creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, after struggles in his work, had begun to lose heart and was planning to go back to finish his University / College education. Another aspect that made the 'Final' relevant was that Square was reportedly in financial difficulty, needing a hit release to chase off bankruptcy.
Both wrong.
Sakaguchi himself has already explained the ACTUAL naming reason. "We needed another word that start with F, because "efu efu" (the sound of FF) is pleasing to the Japanese ear". So they basically picked a random word with the same sound that fit somewhat into a name without sounding stupid.
“Final” (ファイナル or “fainaru”) is a famous word in Japan, so for the game’s creators, it was probably a logical “F” word to pick.
As he said himself, "but honestly, any word that started with ‘F’ would’ve been fine.”
Sauce:
http://www.famitsu.com/news/201505/24079276.html
@Kakaak Quit spamming links constantly.
I've played the original; never really been into old-school NES and SNES RPGs though. That being said... THE FFVII REMAKE BETTER BE ON THE SWITCH!!!
It's odd how this game gets on the mini, but avoids VC releases on Wii U and 3DS over here.
@SLIGEACH_EIRE
As much as I loved this game back in the day, I will play the remake before I play the original again just because I always hated how you could waste attacks if you attacked a monster that had been killed with a previous hit from a comrade in the same round..
Played and beat this on Wii vc back in 2008 or 2009 just a short time before I had sold my first Wii, it was fun and long.
I had however actually played it for the first time in the early 90's when I was a youngsta dude.
Interesting note: I have 1-9 on my PS3, 7 I have a save file where I'm literally at the last save before Sephiroth but I couldn't seem to beat him, like I should've maybe spent some more time in the world for higher level/better equipment, so it's been sitting there for about 5 years now probably. lol
I'm rather jealous that Japan gets FFIII. Sure, the original is a solid choice and I'm happy it's on the NES Mini, but III is like comparing Super Mario World to the original NES Super Mario Bros. in every way except graphically, I guess. In terms of gameplay, FFIII is the best NES FF game and with SNES graphics, would be better than IV, IMO.
Oh well, Square never localized III (they did that 3D remake), so we get the original. FFII could be totally forgotten, wouldn't bother me, heh.
If you want to know why this series was so amazing, though, I think we need to give Nasir his credit, the guy was a genius at programming it
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasir_Gebelli
Nintendo passed the guy up, big mistake.
This is easily one of my favorite NES games. Assuming I can pick up a NES Classic before they all sell out, I'll be looking forward to going back to the series' origins before it all went downhill.
Its a great game! Its just not my thing.
@SLIGEACH_EIRE Mine arrived today.... Wife won't let me have it till Christmas!
(Not even the 8-bit Mario cushion thing)
😂
Played this on the Gameboy years ago. Looking forward to this again. Wonder how long the line outside gamestop will be?
This is the best game on the Mini. It is so raw and pure. I love it and I played it on my Vita last year and fell in love with it all over again. This is an old school RPG that hits all the right notes. It has aged but I still rate it an eight. The iconic music is magical. It is hard. It is beautiful.
@dronesplitter
Well, FF 3 now had been remake. From NDS, PSP and the latest is IOs / Android. Also, the heroes got the names and some plot changes on remake version.
It's a shame Japan got the first great FF game on Famicom Mini while we got the... kinda broken under-the-hood first game.
Also a shame about the horrific bugginess of the original. Elements don't matter, weapons with a bonus against specific enemy types don't actually do extra damage, etc. Bugfix patches for the rom exist, but almost certainly weren't applied here.
@plug313 I don't think so but if it was... that would be awesome!
@Menchi187 True, but I bet the other two stories are the main reasons behind why they picked that particular "F" word beyond just being a word that sounds good in front of "Fantasy."
@zeldazero Well, it's not realistic and is somewhat frustrating, but it is a more strategic way to handle multi-on-multi JRPG battles (unless it's a series like Pokémon that is absolutely flush with support moves and even some moves and abilities designed specifically for Double Battles). This way, you have to think more about which of your attacks should target which of your enemies rather than just mostly ganging up on each enemy one at a time.
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