TwiceBittenBacklog Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster Review

The way I see it, there are two reasons to play the first of the finals of the fantasies. Either you’re an old-head making a trip down nostalgia lane, or you’re a fan of the later entries and want to make the pilgrimage to the series origin. Both are valid, but it’s debatable which version of Final Fantasy I is the “most correct” to play in the year 2026. The Pixel Remaster is the version in my Steam library and thus, that is the one I have chosen. I will also be judging Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster as a singular and fully representative product as opposed to making comparison between versions. FF I’s world is downright spartan. The player-characters are empty, voiceless shells, and NPCs are utilitarian, offering little more than hints to lead the player to the next key item. The quests themselves are equally sparse. I’m reminded of old one-shot adventure module synopses you might find in a Dungeons and Dragons magazine. “The Elf Prince has fallen into a magical sleep! Brave the lair of the Dark Elf Astos and retrieve the Jolt Tonic to awaken the rightful heir!”, fully encompasses all the flavor the game will give you for that specific quest. Saving this from being a vorpal flaw is the context that this was originally an 80’s Famicom game, thus limited in scope, as well as an overall charming art design. Sprite work is great, taking concepts by Yoshitaka Amano and doing a surprisingly good job at translating his illustrative and loose water colors into pixelated monsters. Even the more simply designed playable characters have an iconic appeal. The Black Mage is a design that will always stick with me, and others, to the point where it would come back in subsequent titles. A fantastic score by Nobuo Uematsu captures the grand high fantasy flavor of this world-traveling adventure. From peaceful town themes, to triumphant victory fanfare, to moody dungeons, everything is well-composed, catchy and on message. I was disappointed that the final boss did not come with his own track, at least on the original score setting that I was playing on - a feature I had come to expect as a staple from playing the sequels. But, on the whole, the FFI’s OST is truly beautiful, and it’s no wonder so many of it’s melodies remain present and iterated on in subsequent entries to the franchise. Lacking in traps and puzzles - with the exception of the Citadel of Trials - gameplay is restricted solely to turn-based combat. Solid in design but limited in player choice, your main focus will be deciding which spells to use and how often as in this Final Fantasy, spells are divided into charges by level, again, similar to Dungeons and Dragons. This resource management however is obviated by about two-thirds into the game as the character will be bestowed an embarrassment of riches from dungeons, including items that can be used indefinitely and without consequence to cast mid-tier but still powerful spells. You can enter a comforting flow state while playing the game, but don’t expect a challenge. Attempting to judge the original Final Fantasy in the wake of it’s sequels and almost 40 years of time since passed, is a difficult task. This is a JRPG in it’s most base and primordial form, begging to be expanded and iterated on. In many ways, from monster designs to gameplay mechanics, FFI feels more like an off-brand D&D game than the Final Fantasy we know of today. If you’re a fan, give it a shot. But I can’t see traveling back in time being worth it to someone who is lacking in the greater context of the Final Fantasy franchise. A “limited by the technology of my time” 6 out of 10.