Sakaguchi originally finished the game in Spring of 1987, but it wasn't a hit. So, he had the other developers send him backwards through time so that when they were finished....never mind, I can't keep this joke going.
I got Final Fantasy 1 for my 10th birthday, and I was mesmerized by the mystery of the cover art. It was my first experience with a turn-based strategy game, and I had no idea how to play it. For years, it sat untouched until one day, I finally figured it out. It’s still one of my favorite Final Fantasy games to this day.
Wow, kudos for trying to pin down the development dates for the first Final Fantasy game! That took some real detective work and it sounds about right given the time frame.
Yep, and Amano had previously worked as an artist for Tatsunoko Productions on a bunch of famous classic anime. In the late 70s and early 80s he left and started doing fantasy and science fiction art for the burgeoning SFF scene in Japan, illustrating Japanese novels as well as translated editions of Western novels.
I love some of scrapped those spell ideas! A day and night system would have been an interesting idea. Can't wait for more information on each game in great detail!
I am convinced that "Final" Fantasy was supposed to be a Japanese version of Ultima, which was super popular and influential, especially after the Famicom Ultima III, since "Ultima" means "Final."
You can see A LOT of influence of Ultima III: Exodus on Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy. Dragon Quest also took _explicit_ inspiration from Wizardry, another PC RPG with an NES port, while Final Fantasy looked straight into Dungeons & Dragons books.
@@monkshoodable Yes, FF5's villain is named Exodus. He's also the guardian spirit of the Viera tribe in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (and thus presumably in FF12). Exdeath was initially Engrish, but the edgy vibes fit his angry persona so it was adopted officially; so he's Exodus as a benevolent tree spirit and Exdeath as a genocidal evil tree spirit.
@@RoninCatholic I like the one commenter in another video some time back who said, "FF1 is basically the classic D&D quest The Temple Of Elemental Evil, but as an early JRPG".
This video is a dream come true!! FF1 and its development story have always been of my interest, but my major source of info on it was always the japanese Wikipedia article on it translated to english. I was really hoping someone safeguarded Yoshitaka Amano's first sketches for the game, the infamous blocky characters akin to pixel art, before the team told him to illustrate as he usually did. Thank you so so much for this video.
Thank so much for this comment, it totally made my week!! - although, the blocky characters were drawn by Ishii! He also went on to make the super deformed character illustrations on the Japanese box of FFV too! As much as I love Ishii’s and Amano’s art for this game, it’s the pixel artist who I think steals the show. The reason the game has its classic blue menus and white boarder is because of her!
I originally couldn’t find much on the development of the game, but then I saw that broadcast and looked through the Ultimania book and there it all was! I just hope I can find the same for FF2…
...Um... where did you get info that Vampire Hunter D is a manga? I mean everyone knows it's a series of novels, just with Amano's illustrations on some pages... but i wonder what exactly caused you to think it was a manga.
Truthfully I got that information through my own ignorance. My own experiences with it was someone brought it to school years ago and I read it for a few minutes. I should have done more research!
Same! When I was watching the broadcast, I wanted it to stay on Amano for a long time, but we have to give the pixel artist credit also - she designed a TON, including the iconic blue menu boxes that lasted until FF8!
I was always surprised at how the class system and spell levels were borrowed from Dungeons and Dragons. Fighter, Thief, and Black Belt/Monk were direct copies. Black Mage was the Magic User. White Mage was an unarmored Cleric. Red Mage is closest to a multiclass fighter/cleric/magic user.
This was really interesting! Getting to see early concept art and learn about the development process was very cool. I appreciate the effort you put into the research.
Rock on Dude! That was a great bunch of information. It's amazing how quickly FF was made and pretty much unsurpassed in todays time. I would like us to get better at game development and treat people better so as not to cramp their creativity. I would like a Steam for video game developers to get together and create a concept for a game, design/art/sound. I think many of us are looking at retro games for what we liked about video games, as games became bigger, their design became unwieldy so that they are not as engrossing or enthralling. For example: pokemon, dragon quest, final fantasy, um... I agree with you that instead of the point of view of final fantasy, it was the character expressions like kneeling when poisoned that made players like their expressive characters. I also think the cute/harmless design of games like pokemon and dragon quest makes the characters and world easy to like, because nothing in that world is offensive (except garry oak). In our day and time, video games are so detailed that you can look around at the world of the latest spiderman and notice how everything has so much work put into it, however, what does that mean to you? The mental reference a player has for their in game surroundings is basic whether the game is UHD or SD(8-bit). In the players mind they know what is around them and they simplify it, as nothing that is there is what they were looking for, which is relief. That's why players breath a sigh of relief when their character kneels from being poisoned, it's emotive. Players are looking for harmless lovable expressions from characters they are playing or watching in their video game world. Also, in older games, the world was so simplified that a body of water could be a rectangle of blue mystery, its simplicity informs players that the body of water is not real, and the players expectation is changed to what the video game means by the body of water, what all is there. The closer to realism video games become, the more players know what to expect already from a body of water, even criticizing water in a videogame that does not act like the natural world. I think that when designing a video game world, it's about what the video game means to the designer, it's about what the designer rules can exist and cannot exist, so that you are exploring the lovable side of a person and their internal thoughts and what they think should exist. I think realism is to be avoided in video game design as it's pointless to put the real world into a video game, as it's too big, and the real world doesn't have the personality and charm of a person, exploring the real world in a video game is pointless, because it wasn't designed. Instead of a middle ground where designers fall somewhere in between designed and realism, I favor total design and zero realism. After all, we don't have rpg background music playing around us as we navigate the real world, it is only in someone's personal heaven that a world could be so nice.
I love this comment, and to go along with it - it’s the same reason I LOVE Kirby games so much, specifically Kirby Super Star. Kirby is this adorable pink puff with super adorable art styles all around, but when you do damage to another creature - the features get hyper-extended, the screen shakes, and there’s an over exaggerated punching sound; it’s pure destruction from adorable creatures. That juxtaposition is so important to me and I’m glad you reminded me of that!
The cute drawings that were done by Ishii for the battle arrangement - he just still has those, which is remarkable. I’d never seen them prior to this broadcasted show! The design docs that have the dates attached to them are in the Ultimania book that covers 1-6.
somewhere I read FF1 took 10 months to be made, so I think it's a really easy calculation basically february 87 - december 87 (?) but if it was completed in fall, maybe it's more likely: late '86 to start of fall '87
The problem is, I can’t go off of things like “somewhere I read…” I searched for days on some concrete evidence and found nothing lol. So I created my own, which somewhat lines up with your last timeline
@@TheReturnersHideout I wish I could find the actual source. Those keywords only lead me to some twitter posts from Genki. from memory it was definitely Sakaguchi saying that (can't post the link or my comment gets deleted)
Ok, To be clear, while there are illustrations in Vampire Hunter D from Yoshitaka Amano, I would NOT classify it as a manga. Its a novel series. Simple as that. I know because I have some of the books.
Sakaguchi originally finished the game in Spring of 1987, but it wasn't a hit. So, he had the other developers send him backwards through time so that when they were finished....never mind, I can't keep this joke going.
This is the type of joke only a true fan would laugh at.. well played
@OnBeingHuman thank you!
I got Final Fantasy 1 for my 10th birthday, and I was mesmerized by the mystery of the cover art. It was my first experience with a turn-based strategy game, and I had no idea how to play it. For years, it sat untouched until one day, I finally figured it out. It’s still one of my favorite Final Fantasy games to this day.
Wow, kudos for trying to pin down the development dates for the first Final Fantasy game! That took some real detective work and it sounds about right given the time frame.
Thank you so much! There’s a small part of me that believes I could get it even closer
Making FF1 around 21 years old is insane. I can't imagine anything I'd make at that age becoming famous and changing the world. That's incredible
Masahiro Sakurai actually created his Kirby character when he was 19, so it's not as farfetched as you'd think.
Haha, I love that Tokita and Ishii's battle mockup image uses Dragon Quest enemy silhouettes!
Correction around 4:19 - Vampire Hunter D was actually a series of novels by Hideyuki Kikuchi with illustrations by Amano, not a manga.
Yep, and Amano had previously worked as an artist for Tatsunoko Productions on a bunch of famous classic anime. In the late 70s and early 80s he left and started doing fantasy and science fiction art for the burgeoning SFF scene in Japan, illustrating Japanese novels as well as translated editions of Western novels.
I love some of scrapped those spell ideas!
A day and night system would have been an interesting idea.
Can't wait for more information on each game in great detail!
I am convinced that "Final" Fantasy was supposed to be a Japanese version of Ultima, which was super popular and influential, especially after the Famicom Ultima III, since "Ultima" means "Final."
You can see A LOT of influence of Ultima III: Exodus on Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy. Dragon Quest also took _explicit_ inspiration from Wizardry, another PC RPG with an NES port, while Final Fantasy looked straight into Dungeons & Dragons books.
@RoninCatholic I am convinced that the proper pronunciation of the final boss of FFV is "Exodus", which is the name of the final boss of Ultima III
@@monkshoodable Yes, FF5's villain is named Exodus. He's also the guardian spirit of the Viera tribe in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (and thus presumably in FF12). Exdeath was initially Engrish, but the edgy vibes fit his angry persona so it was adopted officially; so he's Exodus as a benevolent tree spirit and Exdeath as a genocidal evil tree spirit.
@@RoninCatholic I like the one commenter in another video some time back who said, "FF1 is basically the classic D&D quest The Temple Of Elemental Evil, but as an early JRPG".
6:01 thanks, Nasir!
This video is a dream come true!! FF1 and its development story have always been of my interest, but my major source of info on it was always the japanese Wikipedia article on it translated to english. I was really hoping someone safeguarded Yoshitaka Amano's first sketches for the game, the infamous blocky characters akin to pixel art, before the team told him to illustrate as he usually did.
Thank you so so much for this video.
Thank so much for this comment, it totally made my week!! - although, the blocky characters were drawn by Ishii! He also went on to make the super deformed character illustrations on the Japanese box of FFV too!
As much as I love Ishii’s and Amano’s art for this game, it’s the pixel artist who I think steals the show. The reason the game has its classic blue menus and white boarder is because of her!
@TheReturnersHideout as Sakaguchi once said, Final Fantasy isn't Final Fantasy without a blue textbox!!
8:57 The date is clearly the clock on the computer, as part of the screen cap. That's when the image was taken.
This was awesome. I can't wait to see more of these for the rest of the series (or whatever you have planned)!
Thanks so much! I’ve got several more FF1 related videos and then we’ll head on to FF2 and I plan on covering it just as deep!
Awesome information! Thank you! It’s really cool how this all came together to create what we all love and enjoy today!
I originally couldn’t find much on the development of the game, but then I saw that broadcast and looked through the Ultimania book and there it all was!
I just hope I can find the same for FF2…
...Um... where did you get info that Vampire Hunter D is a manga? I mean everyone knows it's a series of novels, just with Amano's illustrations on some pages... but i wonder what exactly caused you to think it was a manga.
Truthfully I got that information through my own ignorance. My own experiences with it was someone brought it to school years ago and I read it for a few minutes. I should have done more research!
I aspire to draw on the level of Amano
Same! When I was watching the broadcast, I wanted it to stay on Amano for a long time, but we have to give the pixel artist credit also - she designed a TON, including the iconic blue menu boxes that lasted until FF8!
@@TheReturnersHideout Amen to that
The man behind the Fantasy
I was always surprised at how the class system and spell levels were borrowed from Dungeons and Dragons. Fighter, Thief, and Black Belt/Monk were direct copies. Black Mage was the Magic User. White Mage was an unarmored Cleric. Red Mage is closest to a multiclass fighter/cleric/magic user.
This was really interesting! Getting to see early concept art and learn about the development process was very cool. I appreciate the effort you put into the research.
Thanks so much! Even more finds are coming soon!
Thank you for this video. I love this franchise so dearly. I'm always hungry for content related to it. Great video and research, bravo!
Subscribed by the way thanks to this video! Looking forward to more!
Rock on Dude! That was a great bunch of information. It's amazing how quickly FF was made and pretty much unsurpassed in todays time. I would like us to get better at game development and treat people better so as not to cramp their creativity. I would like a Steam for video game developers to get together and create a concept for a game, design/art/sound. I think many of us are looking at retro games for what we liked about video games, as games became bigger, their design became unwieldy so that they are not as engrossing or enthralling. For example: pokemon, dragon quest, final fantasy, um... I agree with you that instead of the point of view of final fantasy, it was the character expressions like kneeling when poisoned that made players like their expressive characters. I also think the cute/harmless design of games like pokemon and dragon quest makes the characters and world easy to like, because nothing in that world is offensive (except garry oak). In our day and time, video games are so detailed that you can look around at the world of the latest spiderman and notice how everything has so much work put into it, however, what does that mean to you? The mental reference a player has for their in game surroundings is basic whether the game is UHD or SD(8-bit). In the players mind they know what is around them and they simplify it, as nothing that is there is what they were looking for, which is relief. That's why players breath a sigh of relief when their character kneels from being poisoned, it's emotive. Players are looking for harmless lovable expressions from characters they are playing or watching in their video game world. Also, in older games, the world was so simplified that a body of water could be a rectangle of blue mystery, its simplicity informs players that the body of water is not real, and the players expectation is changed to what the video game means by the body of water, what all is there. The closer to realism video games become, the more players know what to expect already from a body of water, even criticizing water in a videogame that does not act like the natural world. I think that when designing a video game world, it's about what the video game means to the designer, it's about what the designer rules can exist and cannot exist, so that you are exploring the lovable side of a person and their internal thoughts and what they think should exist. I think realism is to be avoided in video game design as it's pointless to put the real world into a video game, as it's too big, and the real world doesn't have the personality and charm of a person, exploring the real world in a video game is pointless, because it wasn't designed. Instead of a middle ground where designers fall somewhere in between designed and realism, I favor total design and zero realism. After all, we don't have rpg background music playing around us as we navigate the real world, it is only in someone's personal heaven that a world could be so nice.
I love this comment, and to go along with it - it’s the same reason I LOVE Kirby games so much, specifically Kirby Super Star. Kirby is this adorable pink puff with super adorable art styles all around, but when you do damage to another creature - the features get hyper-extended, the screen shakes, and there’s an over exaggerated punching sound; it’s pure destruction from adorable creatures. That juxtaposition is so important to me and I’m glad you reminded me of that!
Love this video and subscribed. Also a huge final fantasy fan, been playing for close to 20 years now.
Hey thanks so much! I’m going through the games chronologically so this video found you at the right time! Welcome aboard!
Brother went full in. Love to see new information
I know, right? It's so interesting to see what went into this game!
I need those design documents! Were they in the Ultimania book? Which one? I love those cute drawings...
The cute drawings that were done by Ishii for the battle arrangement - he just still has those, which is remarkable. I’d never seen them prior to this broadcasted show! The design docs that have the dates attached to them are in the Ultimania book that covers 1-6.
@@TheReturnersHideout I see I see!
somewhere I read FF1 took 10 months to be made, so I think it's a really easy calculation
basically february 87 - december 87 (?)
but if it was completed in fall, maybe it's more likely: late '86 to start of fall '87
The problem is, I can’t go off of things like “somewhere I read…” I searched for days on some concrete evidence and found nothing lol. So I created my own, which somewhat lines up with your last timeline
@@TheReturnersHideout I wish I could find the actual source. Those keywords only lead me to some twitter posts from Genki.
from memory it was definitely Sakaguchi saying that
(can't post the link or my comment gets deleted)
Ok, To be clear, while there are illustrations in Vampire Hunter D from Yoshitaka Amano, I would NOT classify it as a manga. Its a novel series. Simple as that. I know because I have some of the books.
Vampire Hunter D isn't a manga btw
Where can I watch the original NHK documentary on the game?
I got an email from Square when it came out, but just now I searched “NHK Games Legend Chronicle Final Fantasy” and it was the first result!
holy shit i've spent so long looking for some of this stuff
Im very glad that this video helped in anyway! A lot went into it and I tried to show as much as I could find! Thank you so much for commenting!
Fun information.
Hey thanks! I can’t wait to get into the other FFs!
ff6 is good :o
🤯