What if I told you I still want to see Guardian Legend!!! However, doing Final Fantasy is a massive undertaking, totally appreciate your dedication to us fans! Keep up the outstanding work!
I played ffxi way too much, and the red mage hat was always called the pimp hat. The comment took me there. Also its the most expensive ff1 job... gotta get extra income somewhere.
My daughter and I love watching your videos while having breakfast. Sometimes I'll randomly sing your intro song. I sing the dog part and my daughter will add the "meow" at the end. Thanks for doing what you do.
When I was a kid I found the Nintendo Power strategy guide for Final Fantasy at a thrift store. I didn't even know what FF was, but still bought it and was fascinated. I read through that thing over and over, until I had to have the actual game. I loved it, and was a diehard FF for many years after. Still have that guide to this day.
That's pretty cool, I remember having a subscription to Nintendo Power and having the entire first series. I wish that I had kept them, but "magazines" weren't exactly something people kept in the 80's, early 90's. Do you still have the Final Fantasy issue you mentioned ?
I always really enjoy the "history of the game" you do before you show how to beat the games. I beat this for the first time after watching your Dragon Warrior video and beating it when I wanted more of something similar.
Indeed! I got my copy from a cousin who already had the game and got a 2nd one through Nintendo Power. Came with a beautiful booklet, nicest one I ever saw
go play chrono trigger without a guide if thats your fancy. personally i use guides either after ive beaten a game or when im stuck but for chrono trigger i did not need any help from the internet. it was the late 1990's prolly 98 or 99 and a friend let me borrow Chrono Trigger. Great Game if you dont know already
@@Grant-H2O TBF, most of the secrets in CT were at the end of the game and if you had a tendency to grind out levels, none of the equipment from the secrets was necessary as it typically made you so strong that the lavos fights were a joke. Most of the secrets in CT revolve around the different endings and additional ending credits. Think about FFIII/VI and the result of not waiting for shadow on the floating continent... for some people this little "secret" ruined the second half of the game.
Ever wonder why some NES games asked you to hold RESET while powering OFF? It was to keep the CPU from writing bad code to your save game corrupting it. It could sometimes happen because the circuitry that prevents it was left out due to cost saving measures and the NES wasn't designed from the start for saving games.
That's also why some versions of game ROMs intended to be played on an official emulator usually remove that message. EarthBound even makes fun of it, given that the SNES didn't have that issue.
I think it's worth mentioning that when you are leveling up at the secret level up zone at the finger, when you save the game with a tent, if you turn the game off rather than press reset, it resets the encounter RNG so your first fight will always be zombulls/trolls. Same with water fights, your first fight will always be kyzokus. Probably the best farming tip I figured out when playing this game as a kid.
I'd do the Peninsula of Power at the start, but then later I'd use the one tile in the volcano that's a guarantee fight that's like a boss, and just go on and off it, rather than waiting for random encounters
I have never seen someone on youtube combine a historical breakdown of a video game well also delivering a full video commentary instructional walkthrough all with added maps/charts and statistical overviews. This is quite unique and ambitious for a content creator.
Holy crap I was literally watching your DQ one last night and was thinking "I can't wait for the day they do Final Fantasy!" This came as a surprise.. time to get the popcorn
Those side panels are very well prompted, this guide is amazing. I love FF1 and beaten it several times, but I loved watching your guide. Keep up the awesome work.
THREE HOURS. I wish I could stay up to watch this thing, but I've _gotta_ get sleep. I will be back later. This was my absolute favorite NES game growing up.
This game is an all time classic. I spent so many hours dedicated to unsuccessful attempts at completing this one. You're video here is an absolute masterpiece. Well done.
Same…I spent an UGLY amount of time on this only to get 2/4 orbs or whatever it was. I think I got to the third boss once, died, and then went to go ride bikes and never came back to it.
This is one of my favourite games! I can remember being a little kid playing this with my friends. None of us knew how to beat it, so we would help each other during recess! I can remember just waiting for that "terminated" message when facing a new and difficult enemy. GREAT VIDEO!
About those weapons which are supposed to be effective against particular enemy types like the dragon sword and the were sword; these items are bugged in the NES version and don't do any bonus damage. Some other versions of the game, like the Wonder Swan Color, don't suffer this bug. Like so many Square games, FF has a plethora of bugs.
What if I told you I LOVE the first 10 to 15 minutes of these videos. The intro and history and education of the games is what I find great about these videos. I usually don't have time to watch the whole thing but damn do I love the first 20 minutes. Can we have gaming history? The way you present it is phenomenal.
I've played through most of these games years ago and it's nothing short of a delight to hear you narrate and play through them. This is a nice long one. Thanks again!
It always fascinates me how close this game is the dungeons and dragons. You even have towns of elves, dwarves and you even have representations of tiamat and bahamut, two very important figures of dragons in dungeons and dragons
the enemy roster is almost a 1 for 1 for the monster manual as well, key tells would be copyrighted enemies like the Ochu (otyugh), the chromatic dragons, and blatant rip offs like the EYE sprite in japan being a 1 for 1 of a beholder.
@@JB-mm5ff Im not casting aspersions here, so dont get defensive for a game thats not been insulted and frankly doin alright. Im also saying that mine and General Jimmy are correct in this case; its clear that FF1 is using mythical creatures that are unique and copyrighted by then TSR, or are using a version of those creatures that's peculiar to DnD (Tiamat and Bahamut being an evil five headed dragon and a benevolent dragon opposed to their original incarnations as a goddess and a large fish)
That Nintendo Power artwork takes me back! And yeah, who knew from such humble beginnings would come such an important series. I may not keep up with it anymore (FFX was my last new entry I completed), but I still appreciate its history, where it’s been and where it’s going.
Have to agree with the last guy, Final Fantasy lost me at 11 and never really got me back. The NES FF1 and SNES ones are still my favorites to this day.
Yeah... I'm guessing we are all stubborn old timers that say, Back in MY day Final Fantasy was something great! But you kids today and your fancy shmancy Final Fantasy. Back in MY day we just had white and black magic and we were fine!
My favorite version of this game is oddly enough the remake for the Wonderswan. It fixed the code and updated the graphics without compromising the difficulty.
For a game that came with a map of all the dungeons, a list of all weapons, armor, items, and spells, a bestiary and an instruction booklet that outlined how to get through the first half of the game, this game was MEGA tough to get through as a kid. I remember getting the class change and feeling like a could rule the world. Beating the game was something I did later after the Super Nintendo had come out. Cheers to you man for even playing this long ass game let alone breaking it down in such a wonderful fashion. Love it!
Ive watched both parts now a few times. Perfection dude thank you. You are a big part of my taking it down and relaxing after work. Even started a new run of my own. Fighter, Red Mage, Black Belt, Thief. Why not?!? Never tried that before.
I've beat this game multiple times throughout the years with different party comps and on different versions of the game, but the video guide has inspired me to play along with this party on the OG NES game. Keep up the great work! Love this channel!
2:51:33 Earth cave, treasure hunting... you purposely trigger the guarded battle against the Sphinx, and also show us how to navigate around to avoid that battle, but you didn't open the treasure chest the SPHINX was guarding lol!!! Hope you can somehow edit/add that in for part 2 for next week (Or make it part of the blooper reel 😆)
@@gamepapo haha yeah, but he started off episode 2 with a quick couple of shots showing that, and like 1 or 2 other "mistakes" made... Hes the fuckin man regardless, these are by far the best walk-throughs I've ever seen in 12 years (maybe more) of watching walk-throughs... feels like I'm actually re-playing the game Side note--- I haven't checked his whole video set in a while, but I think he hasn't done Master Blaster. I want to see him complete Master Blaster. "U CAN," if you're seeing this comment, please do MASTER BLASTER (if you haven't, which I am going to look now to see if you have or not)... Oh, and SECTION-Z.... and one of my all time favs but I can't beat it anymore cuz I have it on the RetroPie, so I can't use the NES ADVANTAGE and it's TURBO anymore.... Ok., I've said enough while I take a leak..., back to PEACEMAKER episode 3
Man I remember grinding for hours leveling up when I was a kid on this game. Especially right before the damn marsh cave and those wizards guarding the crown. The difficulty scaled up quickly early on in the game!
3 black belts and 1 white mage is a chore at 1st but once you get the rat tail it is a brutal group The white wizard is nice because the exit spell is really useful at the end
I came here to discuss unusual party configurations. It makes this game so replayable. I tried doing 4 Black belts but it's very tough to beat Lich that way
@@TA-fp1xv I did the 4 black belts once and wow it was rough until level 15 or so, but after I hit level 25 or so it was a lot of fun. I do love how replayable it is
Interesting party choice. I always swore on Fighter-Monk-RM-WM until I kept getting great armor with no one to use it. A secondary Fighter solves that problem, plus you can give one of them the Excalibur and the other the Masamune, which the Monk doesn't really need and is kind of pointless in the hands of a mage. This frees up your casters to heal, buff, or use offensive spells, and Fade is a respectable white magic equivalent to Nuke. A Zeus gauntlet and Heal staff keeps your white mage relevant, and the Thor hammer makes them a decent melee fighter. But I might give your party a try to see if it's any different. Also? SWORD CHUCKS YO! Someone had to say it.
I've always used the ninja for the Masamune/good found armor, and to cast FAST, otherwise fighter, bb, wm. I was so used to grinding it out in the early game so I could have this party at the end, that playing the PSP version where the Thief is completely fixed was a real treat.
My favorite party comp is fighter/red mage/white mage/black mage. You get some decent beatdowns, flexible heals in clutch battles, and all the fire a pyromanica could ever want.
Very expensive magic builds but glad pixel remaster makes stuff more affordable for nearly any party to work. Red mage did get nerfed later on for intelligence (40:07 and sleep helps black mage a ton getting all enemies) and mp pool, so I wouldn't use with a monk (low magic resistance to barely heal) /black mage. Marsh cave poison was a pain in ps1 version lol 99 antidotes. Glad PR let me turn off encounters there.
And just imagine what Black Mages would be like if their spells actually scaled with Intelligence. Or if the Thief's main feature actually worked. It's amazing how good the game is despite like... 50% of the mechanics either not doing anything or doing the opposite thing.
If you're so inclined, there's patches out there that fix most of those issues. I actually did a full run on one of these fixes and honestly it didn't make a whole lot of difference. Of course, it would have made a lot more difference way back in about 1991 than it did in 2020. The best part was a few quality of life improvements like being able to buy items in stacks of 10 instead of 1 at a time. I definitely agree that it's cool how the game is still awesome even if it only about half works lol. The worst part about all the bugs is that Square and Nintendo both tried to pretend that they didn't exist and pushed stuff like the weapons that were supposed to be very effective against specific enemy types even though they just flat didn't work.
@@FallicIdol The armor effects worked too well, as in they protected against EVERYTHING. Makes the monk's defense ability less good because end game you really need magic protection.
I never owned a copy of Final Fantasy back in the NES days, but I did have that enormous Nintendo Power strategy guide and I used to thumb through it often. I love that you included plenty of graphics from it!
This channel is spectacular. Again, I love your thumbnails and your sweet little 8bit dog that is always chillin somewhere looking perfectly in place. Cheers!🍻
I absolutely understand and relate to having favorite guides good sir. Manuals, maps, guides etc were enjoyed by me almost as much as the games themselves back in the day.
@@anthonybalista7421 exactly. Back in the day of hand drawn maps those saved so much time. FF was notorious for confusing maps and that was why I love my old NP guide. Still use it 20 years later
Having thoroughly enjoyed your other videos, namely Metroid, Battletoads, and Kid Icarus, I think I can take the plunge with three hours of Final Fantasy. Unlike the others, I won't be able to do this in one sitting.
Honestly, I didn't think you would make more jRPG-dedicated episodes after Dragon Quest I (which is relatively a short game). Double respect for that. Actually, triple... because Final Fantasy is my favorite video game franchise.
Had the terrible misfortune of locking my game into an unwinnable state in the PS1 version, left the ice cavern with only my black mage alive , with no spell slots , and couldn't walk back to civilization without dying. So my new current party is fighter, redmage, white mage, black mage. It's taking longer to afford their gear and spells but the peninsula trick is really helpful. Thanks for the info
I wasn't paying attention to the time stamps on this video, I just saw it was 3 hours long and thought. "Man, this a speedrun of Final Fantasy?" Hehe. Looking forward to Part 2!
I’ve been watching through this and one hour in: CAN WE JUST ACKNOWLEDGE THE EFFORT HERE? The monsters/maps/encounter percentages to the left? Thank you for the hard work that goes in to your videos, you’re crushing it! 👍
I loved Final Fantasy as a kid (and still do). It was the second RPG I played, the third game that I have ever played, and my favorite NES game. I remember back when I was 5 years old getting lost after crossing the bridge next to Castle Coneria and never getting past that, because the battery inside the cartridge was dead so my progress would always get wiped when I shut off my brother's NES. It took me until 2004 when Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls came out to revisit the game and finally beat Final Fantasy with a Knight, White Wizard, Ninja and Black Wizard. Good times.
The beauty of the first Final Fantasy game, is that as much of a mess of a game as it is, it still gives the player so much choice in how they play and customize their run. You can legit beat this game with any party dynamic. I did a random-party playthrough, where I rolled 2 Red Mages and 2 Black belts. Very interesting to see what parts were more difficult and which parts were less difficult
Every single week when I see whats up next I'm excited. Always picks something I played growing up but didn't finish. I loved FF1 but 9 year old me never put in the grind required to finish it.
The origin story of the first Final Fantasy game always reminds me of how Stan Lee created Fantastic Four #1 (and thus MARVEL). These stories are similar on so many levels. And led to greatness!
Good job, one of my favorite games. When I was 10 I remember beating this game. I will never forget the big map that came with the game and basically gives you a walkthrough during the part parts of the game. Used to make weird party combos and beat the game with em.
Great work! I figured you'd get around to Final Fantasy at some point, and I was looking forward to the same type of humor from your Dragon Warrior video. I liked your following of the chapters from back in the day; it does make this feel more like a story. As always, thanks for all your work and effort in your videos. Looking forward to Part 2!
Lol, yes that one! I watched this whole video in one sitting on 1.75x speed, and I was so into it, I didn't make my 1st comment til there was like 20 min left in the Earth Cave, but had I been making comments throughout, that def woulda been my 1st one 🤣.... Red Mage def lookin like Kramer in that Technicolor Dreamcoat 🤣 🤣 🤣
I love thieves (and thus into ninjas) but yeah, def not for a first-timer. The ninja gets one of the best weapons in the game, doubles up with your black-magic-user to get “Fast” up and running on your team, and can wear the Heal helmet for aoe healing without sacrificing an armor slot (a premium in this OG version). My favorite comps include Thief/BlackBelt/Mage, then either Fighter or WhiteMage.
If you're playing this game using a NES ROM I'll assume you've obtained legally, I very much recommend looking up the Final Fantasy 1 Randomizer for the website's ability to enable JUST "improved" vanilla patches to your ROM. Bugged spells work. Weapons that are strong against particular monsters actually work that way. All four characters can run. The thief isn't a loser. Characters will tell you if they can learn spells or use equipment in the shops. You can buy quantities of items. And you can see weapon stats before buying them. Stuff you can do in later games basically.
@@GregglyPuff Improved vanilla makes life SO much better playing this game casually. I've considered poking at some of the randomizer options but the nature of my vision impairment means I'll probably never be competitive playing the randomizer. Too slow reading text.
I dont remember if you stopped by the graveyard in Elfland, but there's a tombstone that reads "Here lies Erdrick." In later versions of the game it has different names, one version even says "Here lies Link."
I've been waiting for this one, I remember beating this almost 30 years ago (with the book of course) and I still remember most of the tricks. My favorite group is pretty expensive, I use the Fighter, Red Mage, White Mage and Black Mage team for maximum everything. Lots of grinding for G with that team.
But You Need a Black Belt. Black Belt starts little bit weak but as the Black Belt Level Up. He getting long stronger. Do not forget that. As they promoted and it turns into the Master. Master will deal more damage. Take note that
At roughly 13:30ish, when talking about Blackbelt, i'm surprised ya didn't say something more along the lines of "Blackbelt doesn't get a weapon... he IS the weapon!". :P
Chapter 2: on original NES, if you do hard reset after saving and then head straight into ocean you can always get Pirates who give TONS of money -- something to consider if you end up buying silver swords in chapter 3 EDIT: see why you didn't, almost forgot about that place (being vague to avoid spoilers) That's a MUCH better idea then the one I had so long as your team can handle (your's probably can.)
I must say I appreciate the time spent putting this video together you bring me back to a time when playing an rpg was epic . this was my first rpg that could not stop playing
Thoroughly enjoyed this, for the most part I had on in the background while cooking, doing chores or watched while eating like I would a TV show. Looking forward to part 2.
Kaizoku is Japanese for pirate. The characters mean sea thief! This game made me cry as a kid and taught me to save often!!! When monsters used rub it gave me a panic attack.
"What if I explain how this game actually works?" thats the problem with Final Fantasy on NES in a nutshell. Dragon Warrior was a blast using your video and this one should be a treat too.
I have no idea why I was waiting for this, I have beaten FF1 over 100 times with pretty much every comp and on three different game systems, but I was. And now I am going to watch it :D.
Not to be a bummer in your comments. I had to put my bud down a few weeks ago so I get super excited to see your dog in you videos. Keep up the great work.
My favorite possible teams are: - Fighter, Fighter, Red Mage, White Mage - Fighter, Red Mage, Red Mage, White Mage - Fighter, Red Mage, White Mage, White Mage Most optimal team for victory is one of: - Fighter, Fighter, Fighter, White Mage - Fighter, Fighter, Fighter, Red Mage - Fighter, Fighter, Fighter, Fighter Black Belt/Master and Thief/Ninja are just not as good at the tanking OR secondary attacker roles as Fighters, and the game is full of Fighter/Knight equipment. Further, there are many inventory items that cast the most relevant and useful Black Magic spells for free (except FAST).
And the black mage gets rendered constantly obsolete by physical attacks late game, magic items mid game, and the red mage's ability to do their entire job (while also equipping heavy armour and swords) early game (and cast Fast/Haste for the rest of it.) Sure the latter requires a bigger grind, but show me one non-TAS run of FF1 without a big grind before the Marsh Cave. The white mage at least became a lot more useful in later ports and remakes of the game where certain bosses had more HP and the war of attrition was a lot harder to win without the heal spells. The healing items were buffed somewhat but not nearly by enough. Chaos with no white mage in the GBA version is insanely tough to beat and requires a ton of luck because you straight up won't kill him fast enough.
@@reloadpsi Indeed. Being able to cast NUKE is no big deal since FIR3, LIT3, and ICE3 can do similar damage to neutral enemies, much less ones specifically vulnerable, and the Fighter, Red Mage, and Nina will all be doing comparable 1-target damage per turn with standard weapons by that point (and the Black Belt just barely exceeding them). Black Belt/Master is the weakest overall class post class change (due to a bug, he's actually weaker afterwards than before, even!) and only marginally better than a Thief before the class change. He's a glass cannon, but his glass to cannon ratio is a little skewed. The real main advantage of a Black Belt is that unless you're exploiting the glitch to give him the Ribbon's resistances but keep his level based ABSORB rate, you don't really want to equip him with any armor at all, and thus you can handily have him carry three or four pieces of spellcasting armor. In a four fighter or three fighter and a red mage party, though, you can just have each of the fighters aside from the strict frontliner sacrifice a single armor slot to not have the very best armor stats and carry a piece of slightly worse spellcasting armor like the Heal Helm or Black Robes. And yes, the Red Mage just does the Black Mage's job better. Sure, he can't start nuking the early game with FIR2/LIT2 until level 6 rather than level 5, but during the meantime he can use swords and wear chainmail. I do really like the Thief, Black Mage, and Black Belt aesthetically but this game definitely has some probably unintended biases in favor of the white and red color scheme.
I love how they named the random pirates "kyzoku" in the English translation. It's the Japanese word for pirate (well, kaizoku is) but their name in Japanese was just the English "pirates" written in kana. The pirates you fought in Pravoka were called "kaizoku" in Japanese instead. Basically they just flipped them around. That's some good localisation right there... and to think Tom Slattery and Koji Fox weren't at the company yet.
Indeed. Most recent ports just name the second kind _another_ English word for pirates or sailors instead of just spelling Kaizoku correctly now that there's room for it.
@@RoninCatholic "Room for it." I see you too have looked under the hood of FF1's ROM data and seen why most enemies in the game have such bizarre names.
@@reloadpsi Yeah, I'm used to old RPGs having strict text string length limits. One of those things where once you notice it in one game, you really learn how to spot it in others. Feraligatr.
@@RoninCatholic With Feraligatr it was more a case of all names having ten-character limits back then, and less to do with the entire bestiary having to avoid exceeding a combined amount of characters between them like in FF1, but that's still a classic example :P
@@reloadpsi Individual monsters also had maximum name lengths and seven characters gives you a lot more room in Japanese than it does in English. This is also why the Defender Sword is just named Defense among many others. Though I just now realized that Pairatsu could have been renamed to Kaizoku, probably, given the name of WarMECH at seven letters...but they might've intentionally misspelled it so Western kids would _pronounce_ it correctly instead of going "kay-zockoo"
This is the game I have been waiting for you to do! This game was the second game I ever played on the NES (after Super Mario Bros.). My mother got it for me on Christmas, the year it was released. I still play it today! Thank you for this great video!
I always thought the experience for the monsters was a misprint in the Nintendo Power strategy guide because the experience listed was never what you got after battle (e.g. 3 Zombulls = 3150). It wasn’t until your video when you mentioned the awarded experience is PER CHARACTER that it finally clicked (3150 / 4 = 787)! Wow! Mind blown! And it only took me 32 years to figure that out! 🤣 I just assumed it was something else in the game that was bugged.
When I was a kid, I'd go the video store to rent most of my games. Buying the cartridge was reserved for Christmas or my birthday. I was cautious because I didn't want to get stuck with a bad game, so I would often preview a game via rental. We had a video store in town that had a lot of selection and they were often getting the latest games as they came out. I rented Final Fantasy and absolutely hated it. I never rented it again and didn't give it a second thought. Some kids at school said that it was great, but I didn't understand why. The opening minutes of this video show the problem of trying to play some games without a manual. I realize now, over 30 years later, that I never equipped any items. The item is listed next to the character, which I thought was enough. Being killed repeatedly in the early going caused me to assume that I missed an item, so I would start over, buy something else, go out into the world again and die. I never even reached the title screen. I missed out on a big game and a big franchise, all because I didn't understand the user interface. I think I might now have to pick it up so that I can play it again for the first time.
Since you mentioned Ultima: Quest of the Avatar on the NES, I still await the day you will become the Avatar! Great video though! Keep up the great work!
On the original NES, when you start a saved game from Corneria, and you have the ship, sail straight south, you will run into 2-5 kyzoku garunteed. You can then sail back to corneria, save, shut the power off, restart and do again. You can garuntee a Kyzoku battle everytime. Not sure why. And reset won't work. Must shut power off. How I used to farm money before I knew about the secret area north of Pravoka.
What if I told you I just started playing this a couple of weeks ago on my classic? And what if I told you that this guide will be very helpful in guiding my play through? I’m just about to watch your episode but I’m assuming it will be pretty helpful since most of the spells are broken and there are a few bugs in the NES release and you will provide a pretty intuitive guide for completion of this game as you have provided in all the other titles you have covered in the past. Your videos are most entertaining while also being informative. You manage to balance surface level entertainment of a “Let’s Play” with gameplay strategies of a walkthrough, creating a hybrid model of content that provides an entertaining and informative experience that is enjoyable. P.S. your production quality is on par with legacy content creators.
My first real video game love. I adored this game, and had the Nintendo Power Strategy Guide before ever knowing about the game, buying it at Roses department store with my allowance because it looked cool. It wasn't until 6 months later when I actually rented the game, and my life was changed forever. Literally. I spent so much fucking time on this game that I can't begin to fathom.
What if I told you I still want to see Guardian Legend!!! However, doing Final Fantasy is a massive undertaking, totally appreciate your dedication to us fans! Keep up the outstanding work!
Heck Yea, Guardian Legend
Christopher Hamilton "What if I told you I still want to see..."
Me "let me stop you right there, THAT GAME SUX"
@@gregoryeverson741 Found the guy who never could beat The Guardian Legend. Need a video showing him how to do it! 🤣
@@cnkclark you leave me alone🥵, lol, you got me, it was a hard game, i rented it a few times, dude i beat LINK
Oh yeah. TGL please :) I like to learn some new tricks I may overlook (sp?) all the time. Regular snd TGL Mode, please.
"He has all of that and an outfit that says 'I might manage prostitutes'."
It's eight in the morning and my day is already made. Excellent video!
Pimpn' ain't easy unless you can cast both FIRE and CURE at first level.
I played ffxi way too much, and the red mage hat was always called the pimp hat. The comment took me there.
Also its the most expensive ff1 job... gotta get extra income somewhere.
It's funny that just by reading this comment I'm 95% sure he was talking about the Red mage
"Vido's probably from the Bronx. You don't want to mess with that guy. He's gangsta"
@@BarelyDere The truest way to manage prostitutes.
My daughter and I love watching your videos while having breakfast. Sometimes I'll randomly sing your intro song. I sing the dog part and my daughter will add the "meow" at the end. Thanks for doing what you do.
I adore this comment. Thanks for sharing. *Meow*
So sweet.. Hope you guys are having a great morning!
When I was a kid I found the Nintendo Power strategy guide for Final Fantasy at a thrift store. I didn't even know what FF was, but still bought it and was fascinated. I read through that thing over and over, until I had to have the actual game. I loved it, and was a diehard FF for many years after. Still have that guide to this day.
I absolutely love hearing people’s stories of getting into video games 😂
That guide was iconic. To this day, I name my characters Bors, Lee, Jed, and Toth lol.
That's pretty cool, I remember having a subscription to Nintendo Power and having the entire first series. I wish that I had kept them, but "magazines" weren't exactly something people kept in the 80's, early 90's. Do you still have the Final Fantasy issue you mentioned ?
I had that guide it was great!
@@SmoothJKthat’s nicer than my character’s names: DUMB, BUMB, FART, and TOOT 😂
I always really enjoy the "history of the game" you do before you show how to beat the games. I beat this for the first time after watching your Dragon Warrior video and beating it when I wanted more of something similar.
Me too
Me, I wish to see McKids.
Indeed! I got my copy from a cousin who already had the game and got a 2nd one through Nintendo Power. Came with a beautiful booklet, nicest one I ever saw
go play chrono trigger without a guide if thats your fancy. personally i use guides either after ive beaten a game or when im stuck but for chrono trigger i did not need any help from the internet. it was the late 1990's prolly 98 or 99 and a friend let me borrow Chrono Trigger. Great Game if you dont know already
@@Grant-H2O TBF, most of the secrets in CT were at the end of the game and if you had a tendency to grind out levels, none of the equipment from the secrets was necessary as it typically made you so strong that the lavos fights were a joke. Most of the secrets in CT revolve around the different endings and additional ending credits. Think about FFIII/VI and the result of not waiting for shadow on the floating continent... for some people this little "secret" ruined the second half of the game.
Ever wonder why some NES games asked you to hold RESET while powering OFF? It was to keep the CPU from writing bad code to your save game corrupting it. It could sometimes happen because the circuitry that prevents it was left out due to cost saving measures and the NES wasn't designed from the start for saving games.
That's also why some versions of game ROMs intended to be played on an official emulator usually remove that message.
EarthBound even makes fun of it, given that the SNES didn't have that issue.
Hmm, interesting 🤔
I guess that explains the paragraph long passwords for some games.
@@dansmith1661yes, but also the pass code saving takes massively less memory than save files
We kinda figured that
I think it's worth mentioning that when you are leveling up at the secret level up zone at the finger, when you save the game with a tent, if you turn the game off rather than press reset, it resets the encounter RNG so your first fight will always be zombulls/trolls. Same with water fights, your first fight will always be kyzokus. Probably the best farming tip I figured out when playing this game as a kid.
I would grind Ogres for hours for xp. I'm so glad you picked this game, a true classic. This channel is a flood of forgotten memories.
i did the grind for money, silver sword 4K
I'd do the Peninsula of Power at the start, but then later I'd use the one tile in the volcano that's a guarantee fight that's like a boss, and just go on and off it, rather than waiting for random encounters
Peninsula of Power -> Ice Cave Eye -> Volcano Dragon Tile = Crazy fast leveling and regret that I leveled so much before getting the class change.
@@gregoryeverson741 if you need money just play the ship game
I do the Castle of Ordeals before the Ice Cave because you get the Zeus Gauntlet and Heal Staff.
I have never seen someone on youtube combine a historical breakdown of a video game well also delivering a full video commentary instructional walkthrough all with added maps/charts and statistical overviews. This is quite unique and ambitious for a content creator.
Holy crap I was literally watching your DQ one last night and was thinking "I can't wait for the day they do Final Fantasy!" This came as a surprise.. time to get the popcorn
Holy cow, dude. Your informational side panels are on point with this one. Excellent work!
Thats the original Nintendo power strategy guide page by page
Those guides we're amazing
Those side panels are very well prompted, this guide is amazing. I love FF1 and beaten it several times, but I loved watching your guide. Keep up the awesome work.
'With the mystic key our mission becomes clear.'
_yes, to make everyone regret storing their anything in any chest ever_
THREE HOURS. I wish I could stay up to watch this thing, but I've _gotta_ get sleep. I will be back later. This was my absolute favorite NES game growing up.
This game is an all time classic. I spent so many hours dedicated to unsuccessful attempts at completing this one. You're video here is an absolute masterpiece. Well done.
Same…I spent an UGLY amount of time on this only to get 2/4 orbs or whatever it was. I think I got to the third boss once, died, and then went to go ride bikes and never came back to it.
Your guide is gonna help me beat final fantasy for the first time. I never really played it as a kid. So this will be great!
YEAH, GO JERRY
I don't know about you walking around unsupervised.
This is one of my favourite games! I can remember being a little kid playing this with my friends. None of us knew how to beat it, so we would help each other during recess! I can remember just waiting for that "terminated" message when facing a new and difficult enemy. GREAT VIDEO!
I'm also very excited to see if you find the ever-elusive Iron Golem!
That secret level up area saves so much time, maybe hours. Never knew about it before, thanks!
About those weapons which are supposed to be effective against particular enemy types like the dragon sword and the were sword; these items are bugged in the NES version and don't do any bonus damage. Some other versions of the game, like the Wonder Swan Color, don't suffer this bug. Like so many Square games, FF has a plethora of bugs.
I finally beat this recently on my NES classic to put an end to my 19-year speedrun of this game. Hey a PB is a PB I guess!
Same here!
😂
Lololololol!!!!!😅😅😅😅😅😅😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😅😂😅😂😅😂😅😂😅😂😅😂😅😂😅😂😅😂😅😂😅😂😅😂😅😂😅😂😅😂😅😂😅😂😅😂😅😂😅😂😅😅😂 sooooooooooo funnaaaaaaay!!!! Lolol 😂😂😆😂😉😉😂😂😂😆😆😆😆😆😂😂😂
What if I told you I LOVE the first 10 to 15 minutes of these videos. The intro and history and education of the games is what I find great about these videos. I usually don't have time to watch the whole thing but damn do I love the first 20 minutes. Can we have gaming history? The way you present it is phenomenal.
Almost lost my mind when I saw the announcement yesterday. Favorite channel by far!
You nailed that rendition of "Hotel California"
I've played through most of these games years ago and it's nothing short of a delight to hear you narrate and play through them. This is a nice long one. Thanks again!
It always fascinates me how close this game is the dungeons and dragons.
You even have towns of elves, dwarves and you even have representations of tiamat and bahamut, two very important figures of dragons in dungeons and dragons
the enemy roster is almost a 1 for 1 for the monster manual as well, key tells would be copyrighted enemies like the Ochu (otyugh), the chromatic dragons, and blatant rip offs like the EYE sprite in japan being a 1 for 1 of a beholder.
@@elsanto2401 Well in that case D&D ripped off Elves and Dwarves and many more from Tolkein
@@JB-mm5ff Im not casting aspersions here, so dont get defensive for a game thats not been insulted and frankly doin alright. Im also saying that mine and General Jimmy are correct in this case; its clear that FF1 is using mythical creatures that are unique and copyrighted by then TSR, or are using a version of those creatures that's peculiar to DnD (Tiamat and Bahamut being an evil five headed dragon and a benevolent dragon opposed to their original incarnations as a goddess and a large fish)
@@elsanto2401 Also, the wizards and sorcerers in the marsh and ice caves are blatantly mind flayers from D&D.
@@AbstractM0use The ice caves one even got the brain slurp attack, see you get it!
That Nintendo Power artwork takes me back! And yeah, who knew from such humble beginnings would come such an important series. I may not keep up with it anymore (FFX was my last new entry I completed), but I still appreciate its history, where it’s been and where it’s going.
Honestly that's like the last good one anyways. An argument could be made for 15 but that's it.
Have to agree with the last guy, Final Fantasy lost me at 11 and never really got me back. The NES FF1 and SNES ones are still my favorites to this day.
@@Alexvander10 Agreed! I lost literal countless hours on ff5 and 6!
Yeah... I'm guessing we are all stubborn old timers that say, Back in MY day Final Fantasy was something great! But you kids today and your fancy shmancy Final Fantasy. Back in MY day we just had white and black magic and we were fine!
@@nobodycares4321 Lol no. 12, 14 and 7R are all phenomenal. 15 Royal Edition is good too
My favorite version of this game is oddly enough the remake for the Wonderswan. It fixed the code and updated the graphics without compromising the difficulty.
Thats a great remake, i prefer the PSX remake myself.
The PS1 port was a port of the wonderswan version without nerfs.
Yes, that's the version I beat back in the day. It's hard. I simply beat it by grinding much more as seen in the video.
3 hours?! You never fail to impress, keep up the good work!
To be fair many parts are sped up. Nevertheless it is impressive
I get what you're saying, I was mostly saying I was impressed he was providing 3 whole hours of content for me to watch lol
@@mattschiavone3435 true! Love this channel! Have a great day friend!
@@56Tyskie You as well, thanks!
For a game that came with a map of all the dungeons, a list of all weapons, armor, items, and spells, a bestiary and an instruction booklet that outlined how to get through the first half of the game, this game was MEGA tough to get through as a kid. I remember getting the class change and feeling like a could rule the world. Beating the game was something I did later after the Super Nintendo had come out. Cheers to you man for even playing this long ass game let alone breaking it down in such a wonderful fashion. Love it!
Just saw this came out while I'm at work. Can't wait to watch this tonight. My 1st RPG experience.
Ive watched both parts now a few times. Perfection dude thank you. You are a big part of my taking it down and relaxing after work. Even started a new run of my own. Fighter, Red Mage, Black Belt, Thief. Why not?!? Never tried that before.
I've beat this game multiple times throughout the years with different party comps and on different versions of the game, but the video guide has inspired me to play along with this party on the OG NES game.
Keep up the great work! Love this channel!
Yes, my Sunday routine has started. Making a large iced coffee and watching YCBVG. Thanks for these, I always look forward to them.
2:51:33
Earth cave, treasure hunting... you purposely trigger the guarded battle against the Sphinx, and also show us how to navigate around to avoid that battle, but you didn't open the treasure chest the SPHINX was guarding lol!!!
Hope you can somehow edit/add that in for part 2 for next week
(Or make it part of the blooper reel 😆)
really :D
@@gamepapo haha yeah, but he started off episode 2 with a quick couple of shots showing that, and like 1 or 2 other "mistakes" made...
Hes the fuckin man regardless, these are by far the best walk-throughs I've ever seen in 12 years (maybe more) of watching walk-throughs... feels like I'm actually re-playing the game
Side note--- I haven't checked his whole video set in a while, but I think he hasn't done Master Blaster. I want to see him complete Master Blaster.
"U CAN," if you're seeing this comment, please do MASTER BLASTER (if you haven't, which I am going to look now to see if you have or not)...
Oh, and SECTION-Z.... and one of my all time favs but I can't beat it anymore cuz I have it on the RetroPie, so I can't use the NES ADVANTAGE and it's TURBO anymore....
Ok., I've said enough while I take a leak..., back to PEACEMAKER episode 3
Man I remember grinding for hours leveling up when I was a kid on this game. Especially right before the damn marsh cave and those wizards guarding the crown. The difficulty scaled up quickly early on in the game!
Did you use the peninsula of power?
3 black belts and 1 white mage is a chore at 1st but once you get the rat tail it is a brutal group
The white wizard is nice because the exit spell is really useful at the end
I came here to discuss unusual party configurations. It makes this game so replayable. I tried doing 4 Black belts but it's very tough to beat Lich that way
@@TA-fp1xv I did the 4 black belts once and wow it was rough until level 15 or so, but after I hit level 25 or so it was a lot of fun.
I do love how replayable it is
Red Wizard can use Exit as well, so Vido will still be great!
@@kirin347 that's right he can.
4 Black or 4 White mages is always a rough go for a long while.
Interesting party choice. I always swore on Fighter-Monk-RM-WM until I kept getting great armor with no one to use it. A secondary Fighter solves that problem, plus you can give one of them the Excalibur and the other the Masamune, which the Monk doesn't really need and is kind of pointless in the hands of a mage. This frees up your casters to heal, buff, or use offensive spells, and Fade is a respectable white magic equivalent to Nuke. A Zeus gauntlet and Heal staff keeps your white mage relevant, and the Thor hammer makes them a decent melee fighter. But I might give your party a try to see if it's any different.
Also? SWORD CHUCKS YO! Someone had to say it.
I've always used the ninja for the Masamune/good found armor, and to cast FAST, otherwise fighter, bb, wm. I was so used to grinding it out in the early game so I could have this party at the end, that playing the PSP version where the Thief is completely fixed was a real treat.
It is neither the sword nor the chuck that works... rather, it is their synthesis that is deadly.
Welcome to Corneria
8 bit theater ref, wow. Its been a LOONG time
@@jedgrahek1426 playing with a thief is like hard mode during the first half, but they definitely make up for it once you reach ninja
My favorite party comp is fighter/red mage/white mage/black mage. You get some decent beatdowns, flexible heals in clutch battles, and all the fire a pyromanica could ever want.
Yes! I also enjoyed two Red Mages instead of a Fighter.
I did a 4 Black Mage run once. It sucks early on but once they all learn Fire 2 it gets really fun.
generic squad
Very expensive magic builds but glad pixel remaster makes stuff more affordable for nearly any party to work. Red mage did get nerfed later on for intelligence (40:07 and sleep helps black mage a ton getting all enemies) and mp pool, so I wouldn't use with a monk (low magic resistance to barely heal) /black mage. Marsh cave poison was a pain in ps1 version lol 99 antidotes. Glad PR let me turn off encounters there.
I do like the fighter/3 mages combo. Generic yes, but rather efficient
And just imagine what Black Mages would be like if their spells actually scaled with Intelligence. Or if the Thief's main feature actually worked. It's amazing how good the game is despite like... 50% of the mechanics either not doing anything or doing the opposite thing.
If you're so inclined, there's patches out there that fix most of those issues. I actually did a full run on one of these fixes and honestly it didn't make a whole lot of difference. Of course, it would have made a lot more difference way back in about 1991 than it did in 2020.
The best part was a few quality of life improvements like being able to buy items in stacks of 10 instead of 1 at a time.
I definitely agree that it's cool how the game is still awesome even if it only about half works lol. The worst part about all the bugs is that Square and Nintendo both tried to pretend that they didn't exist and pushed stuff like the weapons that were supposed to be very effective against specific enemy types even though they just flat didn't work.
Or if the sword and armor elemental factors worked
Agreed entirely. The first Final Fantasy is a complete mess, but I'd still put it as the second best 8-bit JRPG right behind FF3
@@FallicIdol The armor effects worked too well, as in they protected against EVERYTHING. Makes the monk's defense ability less good because end game you really need magic protection.
@@montefisto Dragon Warrior 4 beats both FF and FF3 easily
I never owned a copy of Final Fantasy back in the NES days, but I did have that enormous Nintendo Power strategy guide and I used to thumb through it often. I love that you included plenty of graphics from it!
Playing FFXIV, meeting Matoya and hearing the music was a sucker punch right in the childhood! Cue up the nostalgia tears!
Master Matoya is great. She's sarky af XD
That your boston terrier?
This channel is spectacular. Again, I love your thumbnails and your sweet little 8bit dog that is always chillin somewhere looking perfectly in place.
Cheers!🍻
I love your videos! Thanks for making every weekend feel like childhood again!
I love the fact you included pages from the official guide. One of my favorites, and no, I won't explain why I have favorite guides.
I absolutely understand and relate to having favorite guides good sir. Manuals, maps, guides etc were enjoyed by me almost as much as the games themselves back in the day.
@@anthonybalista7421 exactly. Back in the day of hand drawn maps those saved so much time. FF was notorious for confusing maps and that was why I love my old NP guide. Still use it 20 years later
I like the layout, it's like a moving strategy guide. Good job on the formatting!
THREE HOURS. You absolutely do not lack commitment when it comes to these!! May your soul be blessed by the four Orbs.
Thank you so much for doing what you do! This game played such a huge part of my childhood and I cannot wait to see what secrets I may have missed!
As somebody who knows this game pretty much front to back, this is a really nice guide so far! I'm looking forward to seeing more.
Always great to see a player who appreciates both the gameplay AND aesthetic awesomeness of the Red Mage. 👍
I did a playthrough with 3 and a warrior once, got a little tricky in the final push but as long as I had plenty of potions it was pretty doable
That number puzzle was a new one on me.
Having thoroughly enjoyed your other videos, namely Metroid, Battletoads, and Kid Icarus, I think I can take the plunge with three hours of Final Fantasy. Unlike the others, I won't be able to do this in one sitting.
This is going to be considered a channel highlight for a long time. These two Final Fantasy videos were worth the wait.
Honestly, I didn't think you would make more jRPG-dedicated episodes after Dragon Quest I (which is relatively a short game). Double respect for that. Actually, triple... because Final Fantasy is my favorite video game franchise.
Had the terrible misfortune of locking my game into an unwinnable state in the PS1 version, left the ice cavern with only my black mage alive , with no spell slots , and couldn't walk back to civilization without dying. So my new current party is fighter, redmage, white mage, black mage. It's taking longer to afford their gear and spells but the peninsula trick is really helpful. Thanks for the info
I come for the opening theme and the doggy. I stay for the content.
I wasn't paying attention to the time stamps on this video, I just saw it was 3 hours long and thought. "Man, this a speedrun of Final Fantasy?" Hehe. Looking forward to Part 2!
Historic game....legendary commentary. Thankyou for making this video my friend.
I’ve been watching through this and one hour in: CAN WE JUST ACKNOWLEDGE THE EFFORT HERE? The monsters/maps/encounter percentages to the left? Thank you for the hard work that goes in to your videos, you’re crushing it! 👍
I loved Final Fantasy as a kid (and still do). It was the second RPG I played, the third game that I have ever played, and my favorite NES game. I remember back when I was 5 years old getting lost after crossing the bridge next to Castle Coneria and never getting past that, because the battery inside the cartridge was dead so my progress would always get wiped when I shut off my brother's NES. It took me until 2004 when Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls came out to revisit the game and finally beat Final Fantasy with a Knight, White Wizard, Ninja and Black Wizard. Good times.
The beauty of the first Final Fantasy game, is that as much of a mess of a game as it is, it still gives the player so much choice in how they play and customize their run. You can legit beat this game with any party dynamic. I did a random-party playthrough, where I rolled 2 Red Mages and 2 Black belts. Very interesting to see what parts were more difficult and which parts were less difficult
There are "challenge" runs where they choose 4 white mages and then keep 3 of them dead the entire game.
Every single week when I see whats up next I'm excited. Always picks something I played growing up but didn't finish. I loved FF1 but 9 year old me never put in the grind required to finish it.
Sweet "cliffhanger" you did there!, Am watching this video while playing the game, first time donig both...
The origin story of the first Final Fantasy game always reminds me of how Stan Lee created Fantastic Four #1 (and thus MARVEL). These stories are similar on so many levels. And led to greatness!
Good job, one of my favorite games. When I was 10 I remember beating this game. I will never forget the big map that came with the game and basically gives you a walkthrough during the part parts of the game. Used to make weird party combos and beat the game with em.
Little hidden secret about black belts. They have an absorb equal to their lvl if naked.
I used to play this all the time as a kid and I'm still suprised at all the things I missed.Thanks for the nostalgia and awesome work
Great work! I figured you'd get around to Final Fantasy at some point, and I was looking forward to the same type of humor from your Dragon Warrior video. I liked your following of the chapters from back in the day; it does make this feel more like a story. As always, thanks for all your work and effort in your videos. Looking forward to Part 2!
Thanks!!
Absolutely brilliant! More gold. So well made, interesting and chilled. Loved the journey. Have you considered doing a full documentary in the future?
UCBVG: “And with an outfit that says he might manage prostitutes, he’s a solid addition to your team.”
Me: *spits out coffee*
Lol, yes that one! I watched this whole video in one sitting on 1.75x speed, and I was so into it, I didn't make my 1st comment til there was like 20 min left in the Earth Cave, but had I been making comments throughout, that def woulda been my 1st one 🤣.... Red Mage def lookin like Kramer in that Technicolor Dreamcoat 🤣 🤣 🤣
I love thieves (and thus into ninjas) but yeah, def not for a first-timer. The ninja gets one of the best weapons in the game, doubles up with your black-magic-user to get “Fast” up and running on your team, and can wear the Heal helmet for aoe healing without sacrificing an armor slot (a premium in this OG version).
My favorite comps include Thief/BlackBelt/Mage, then either Fighter or WhiteMage.
The magic system is known as Vancian style casting : x number of each level of power. Named after Jack Vance, the fictional origin of the system.
The same system as in Dungeons and Dragons to this day.
Fact-checked, and confirmed -by casting 'Googlemancy' from one of my Second Tier slots.
Hmm. You learn something new every day.
If you're playing this game using a NES ROM I'll assume you've obtained legally, I very much recommend looking up the Final Fantasy 1 Randomizer for the website's ability to enable JUST "improved" vanilla patches to your ROM. Bugged spells work. Weapons that are strong against particular monsters actually work that way. All four characters can run. The thief isn't a loser. Characters will tell you if they can learn spells or use equipment in the shops. You can buy quantities of items. And you can see weapon stats before buying them. Stuff you can do in later games basically.
This guy gets it
@@GregglyPuff Improved vanilla makes life SO much better playing this game casually. I've considered poking at some of the randomizer options but the nature of my vision impairment means I'll probably never be competitive playing the randomizer. Too slow reading text.
I dont remember if you stopped by the graveyard in Elfland, but there's a tombstone that reads "Here lies Erdrick." In later versions of the game it has different names, one version even says "Here lies Link."
It's not too late for me to mention that. Thanks, Colin!
The PSP remake says "Here lies Link".
This ain't Hyrule (dies)
The commentary is really something special. 👍👍
I have this game on PSP and it was a wonderful remake but I never played it on NES before. Great upload!
I was surprised you took on this one because it so long. I mostly watched to remember this beloved game. Your tips to complete it faster where great.
I've been waiting for this one, I remember beating this almost 30 years ago (with the book of course) and I still remember most of the tricks. My favorite group is pretty expensive, I use the Fighter, Red Mage, White Mage and Black Mage team for maximum everything. Lots of grinding for G with that team.
But the payoff of getting ninja is awesome
YES! That is the BEST team!
But You Need a Black Belt. Black Belt starts little bit weak but as the Black Belt Level Up. He getting long stronger. Do not forget that. As they promoted and it turns into the Master. Master will deal more damage. Take note that
@@JROfficialGamer Oh yes, I played the BB too, it's cheap to equip, but I play as a save-hog, if I die, I restart kinda thing
At roughly 13:30ish, when talking about Blackbelt, i'm surprised ya didn't say something more along the lines of "Blackbelt doesn't get a weapon... he IS the weapon!". :P
Chapter 2: on original NES, if you do hard reset after saving and then head straight into ocean you can always get Pirates who give TONS of money -- something to consider if you end up buying silver swords in chapter 3
EDIT: see why you didn't, almost forgot about that place (being vague to avoid spoilers) That's a MUCH better idea then the one I had so long as your team can handle (your's probably can.)
I must say I appreciate the time spent putting this video together you bring me back to a time when playing an rpg was epic . this was my first rpg that could not stop playing
This channel is a treasure. Thanks for all of your hard work!
Thoroughly enjoyed this, for the most part I had on in the background while cooking, doing chores or watched while eating like I would a TV show. Looking forward to part 2.
Kaizoku is Japanese for pirate. The characters mean sea thief! This game made me cry as a kid and taught me to save often!!! When monsters used rub it gave me a panic attack.
I always give my black belt the wooden nunchucks until level 6 or 7. That's when unarmed combat really takes off.
19:00 The probabilities are actually 31/256 for the third slot and 34/256 for the fourth. Slot 3 is actually the safest, though only slightly.
I just learned something new from this comment. Stupid 3/256
Love the thumbnail. Reminds me of 8 Bit Theatre. 😃
It really has to suck being the lone Warrior of Light that has to haul around their three stoned teammates back to town.
"What if I explain how this game actually works?" thats the problem with Final Fantasy on NES in a nutshell. Dragon Warrior was a blast using your video and this one should be a treat too.
I have no idea why I was waiting for this, I have beaten FF1 over 100 times with pretty much every comp and on three different game systems, but I was. And now I am going to watch it :D.
Not to be a bummer in your comments. I had to put my bud down a few weeks ago so I get super excited to see your dog in you videos. Keep up the great work.
My favorite possible teams are:
- Fighter, Fighter, Red Mage, White Mage
- Fighter, Red Mage, Red Mage, White Mage
- Fighter, Red Mage, White Mage, White Mage
Most optimal team for victory is one of:
- Fighter, Fighter, Fighter, White Mage
- Fighter, Fighter, Fighter, Red Mage
- Fighter, Fighter, Fighter, Fighter
Black Belt/Master and Thief/Ninja are just not as good at the tanking OR secondary attacker roles as Fighters, and the game is full of Fighter/Knight equipment. Further, there are many inventory items that cast the most relevant and useful Black Magic spells for free (except FAST).
And the black mage gets rendered constantly obsolete by physical attacks late game, magic items mid game, and the red mage's ability to do their entire job (while also equipping heavy armour and swords) early game (and cast Fast/Haste for the rest of it.) Sure the latter requires a bigger grind, but show me one non-TAS run of FF1 without a big grind before the Marsh Cave.
The white mage at least became a lot more useful in later ports and remakes of the game where certain bosses had more HP and the war of attrition was a lot harder to win without the heal spells. The healing items were buffed somewhat but not nearly by enough. Chaos with no white mage in the GBA version is insanely tough to beat and requires a ton of luck because you straight up won't kill him fast enough.
@@reloadpsi Indeed. Being able to cast NUKE is no big deal since FIR3, LIT3, and ICE3 can do similar damage to neutral enemies, much less ones specifically vulnerable, and the Fighter, Red Mage, and Nina will all be doing comparable 1-target damage per turn with standard weapons by that point (and the Black Belt just barely exceeding them).
Black Belt/Master is the weakest overall class post class change (due to a bug, he's actually weaker afterwards than before, even!) and only marginally better than a Thief before the class change. He's a glass cannon, but his glass to cannon ratio is a little skewed. The real main advantage of a Black Belt is that unless you're exploiting the glitch to give him the Ribbon's resistances but keep his level based ABSORB rate, you don't really want to equip him with any armor at all, and thus you can handily have him carry three or four pieces of spellcasting armor.
In a four fighter or three fighter and a red mage party, though, you can just have each of the fighters aside from the strict frontliner sacrifice a single armor slot to not have the very best armor stats and carry a piece of slightly worse spellcasting armor like the Heal Helm or Black Robes.
And yes, the Red Mage just does the Black Mage's job better. Sure, he can't start nuking the early game with FIR2/LIT2 until level 6 rather than level 5, but during the meantime he can use swords and wear chainmail.
I do really like the Thief, Black Mage, and Black Belt aesthetically but this game definitely has some probably unintended biases in favor of the white and red color scheme.
This is my all time favorite game. Thanks for the play through!
I love how they named the random pirates "kyzoku" in the English translation. It's the Japanese word for pirate (well, kaizoku is) but their name in Japanese was just the English "pirates" written in kana. The pirates you fought in Pravoka were called "kaizoku" in Japanese instead. Basically they just flipped them around. That's some good localisation right there... and to think Tom Slattery and Koji Fox weren't at the company yet.
Indeed. Most recent ports just name the second kind _another_ English word for pirates or sailors instead of just spelling Kaizoku correctly now that there's room for it.
@@RoninCatholic "Room for it." I see you too have looked under the hood of FF1's ROM data and seen why most enemies in the game have such bizarre names.
@@reloadpsi Yeah, I'm used to old RPGs having strict text string length limits. One of those things where once you notice it in one game, you really learn how to spot it in others.
Feraligatr.
@@RoninCatholic With Feraligatr it was more a case of all names having ten-character limits back then, and less to do with the entire bestiary having to avoid exceeding a combined amount of characters between them like in FF1, but that's still a classic example :P
@@reloadpsi Individual monsters also had maximum name lengths and seven characters gives you a lot more room in Japanese than it does in English. This is also why the Defender Sword is just named Defense among many others.
Though I just now realized that Pairatsu could have been renamed to Kaizoku, probably, given the name of WarMECH at seven letters...but they might've intentionally misspelled it so Western kids would _pronounce_ it correctly instead of going "kay-zockoo"
This is the game I have been waiting for you to do! This game was the second game I ever played on the NES (after Super Mario Bros.). My mother got it for me on Christmas, the year it was released. I still play it today! Thank you for this great video!
Once again a start of an amazing video game series.
Thank you so much for your work and effort. Your videos are really enjoyable. ^^
The Peninsula of Power is definitely a great leveling area. As is the Giant's hallway.
I always thought the experience for the monsters was a misprint in the Nintendo Power strategy guide because the experience listed was never what you got after battle (e.g. 3 Zombulls = 3150). It wasn’t until your video when you mentioned the awarded experience is PER CHARACTER that it finally clicked (3150 / 4 = 787)! Wow! Mind blown! And it only took me 32 years to figure that out! 🤣 I just assumed it was something else in the game that was bugged.
When I was a kid, I'd go the video store to rent most of my games. Buying the cartridge was reserved for Christmas or my birthday. I was cautious because I didn't want to get stuck with a bad game, so I would often preview a game via rental. We had a video store in town that had a lot of selection and they were often getting the latest games as they came out. I rented Final Fantasy and absolutely hated it. I never rented it again and didn't give it a second thought. Some kids at school said that it was great, but I didn't understand why.
The opening minutes of this video show the problem of trying to play some games without a manual. I realize now, over 30 years later, that I never equipped any items. The item is listed next to the character, which I thought was enough. Being killed repeatedly in the early going caused me to assume that I missed an item, so I would start over, buy something else, go out into the world again and die. I never even reached the title screen. I missed out on a big game and a big franchise, all because I didn't understand the user interface.
I think I might now have to pick it up so that I can play it again for the first time.
Since you mentioned Ultima: Quest of the Avatar on the NES, I still await the day you will become the Avatar!
Great video though! Keep up the great work!
On the original NES, when you start a saved game from Corneria, and you have the ship, sail straight south, you will run into 2-5 kyzoku garunteed.
You can then sail back to corneria, save, shut the power off, restart and do again. You can garuntee a Kyzoku battle everytime. Not sure why. And reset won't work. Must shut power off. How I used to farm money before I knew about the secret area north of Pravoka.
What if I told you I just started playing this a couple of weeks ago on my classic? And what if I told you that this guide will be very helpful in guiding my play through? I’m just about to watch your episode but I’m assuming it will be pretty helpful since most of the spells are broken and there are a few bugs in the NES release and you will provide a pretty intuitive guide for completion of this game as you have provided in all the other titles you have covered in the past. Your videos are most entertaining while also being informative. You manage to balance surface level entertainment of a “Let’s Play” with gameplay strategies of a walkthrough, creating a hybrid model of content that provides an entertaining and informative experience that is enjoyable. P.S. your production quality is on par with legacy content creators.
My first real video game love. I adored this game, and had the Nintendo Power Strategy Guide before ever knowing about the game, buying it at Roses department store with my allowance because it looked cool. It wasn't until 6 months later when I actually rented the game, and my life was changed forever. Literally. I spent so much fucking time on this game that I can't begin to fathom.