Best Games - Final Fantasy
It might seem strange to list a game that isn’t even recognized as the best in its series among the best games, but that’s not really what I do here. This isn’t a ranking of games. This is a celebration.
Computer (and for this example I am counting game consoles as computers) role playing games have changed a lot over nearly four decades. From simple games with simple graphics, to complex games also with simple graphics, to majestically rendered multi part fully voiced and scored monstrosities that take months for the average player to complete.
There are any number of games that one could point to as the original instigator of the genre. Ultima, Dragon Quest, Wizardry, Dragonstomper, maybe even Rogue. They are all potentially the starting point for someone. More likely though, it’s the fusion of ideas and game systems from so many early games that makes the RPG genre what it is today.
And all of that brings us to Final Fantasy. It is all at once a fusion of the games that came before it, and the jumping off point for so many other games. In some ways, it is a simplification and streamlining of the RPG genre. In others, it is a very complex combination of systems that can create some early emergent gameplay.
Final Fantasy is a game that shouldn’t really be fun. Most of what you will be doing is navigating menus. A task that doesn’t exactly scream ‘fun’. But that abstraction fades away as you get into more difficult fights. You aren’t stepping through menus, you are strategizing intense combat. You are weighing using limited magic and items against sword swings and even running away. Can you defeat this mob of creatures before they take out your White Mage? Can your Fighter absorb one more hit, or is it time to spend a turn drinking a health potion.
There is no ticking clock. No time pressure to contend with. But each selection has consequences. It is a system that still works, and almost 40 years on, the original Final Fantasy is still fun.
Like I said at the top, Final Fantasy isn’t even the best game in the series. Later entries tell vibrant stories and vary up the mechanics with novel sequences. It’s not the best, but everything is here. It plays well. The adventure pulls you in. Every button press has to be carefully considered. Every victory feels earned. Every victory feels exciting.
No modern RPG could get away with being so spare and raw as Final Fantasy, but the foundation is there and the foundation is solid. Final Fantasy is one of the best games.