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Now that you have your party selected, the time has come to begin your adventure!
As the game begins, you find yourself standing in front of a town. Your party is represented by the sprite of the character you have in the first/top position on the status screen. This order can be changed by pushing select and rearranging the characters. It is important to note that the party members in the top two positions will take the most damage in battle, so you’re going to want characters with the highest HP here. This will almost certainly be a Fighter.
The town/castle before you is Cornelia, and it is highly advisable that you enter it immediately as any type of enemy encounter at this point could be disastrous, and nullify the time you spent conjuring up four character names for each member of your party. As you enter the town, the screen wipes and transitions from the field map to the town map. You’ll note that your sprite is the same as on the field map, although the rest of the world has been zoomed in around you, bringing everything into perspective (more of less) with your sprite. Pushing start brings up the menu, the proto JRPG menu which nearly every single role playing game has been emulating or snatching design queues from for the past 25 years. From the menu you can view individual characters stats, the amount if gold (it wasn’t translated as Gil until Final Fantasy IV made it’s way to North America), equip armour and weapons, use/view items, etc. The four darkened orbs in the top left corner of the the menu screen each indicate one of the four elements, elements that you, the Light Warriors, have been prophesied to save from the dark forces of- whatever.
First thing is first, you must used your meager stipend to purchase weapons, armour, and magic (if applicable). Make sure that every character in your party has a weapon and some sort of armour. Unlike later Final Fantasy games, there is no indication while shopping (or anywhere in the menus, for that matter) that lets you know if a particular character can equip a weapon/armour or not. This was solved by virtue of the packed-in Equipment sheet that came with every copy of the game, which denotes not just who can equip what, but the stat increases are provided by each item.
If you are sans-packed in literature, having no indication of who can equip what and no ‘equip optimum’ option is a real drag, and one of several areas in which Final Fantasy shows its age. The only way to find out if the Thief can equip a certain type of armour is to actually go to the equip menu, put the armour into the character’s inventory and try to equip it. This can be an expensive and time consuming headache, which has thankfully been fixed in all subsequent remakes.
Now you are outfitted and ready to go you may be asking yourself: where do I go? C’mon, man! This is an old school JPRG! There are no cutscenes and the game farts out almost no exposition. That means you have to talk to EVERYBODY in order to get any indication of what is happening. After speaking with the NPCs scattered through-out the town of Cornelia and the castle proper, you will have learned that the princess of Cornelia, Sarah, has been kidnapped by Knight-gone-bad Garland. Garland’s has aspirations for the throne of Cornelia and the Light Warriors are quickly recruited to rescue Princess Sarah.
Garland has taken the Princess due north to the ominously titled Temple of Fiends. It is a good idea to fight some enemies around Cornelia in order to gain a level before heading north. While you’ll mostly be fighting Imps and perhaps the occasional group of Wolves, its a good idea to get a few battles under your belt before heading to the first ‘boss’. Gaining a level or two is highly advisable before questing to the Temple of Fiends. Two levels might be a bit on the excessive side, but not discouraged! One thing about Final Fantasy is that you can never, ever be too prepared.
A quick note on the battle system in Final Fantasy; when all of your characters have been assigned the same target, and that enemy dies before you get all of your characters get their hits in, the attacks do not automatically move to the next enemy, rather they are scrubbed completely and rendered ineffective. This actually adds a level of strategy to the battle system that is important to get a grasp on early on. This design quirk, which was changed in later instalments and remakes, forces you to co-ordinate your attacks to be as efficient as possible.
On very important thing to do before setting off to save the Princess and battle Garland is to stay in the Inn in Cornelia; sleeping at the Inn not only refills any depleted HP and MP, but it is also the primary means of saving your progress in Final Fantasy.
With your game saved, you are ready to head to the Temple of Fiends! One the way you should see more of the same as far as enemies go. You may come across larger groups of Imps and Wolves, but you should not see any surprises. You can fight as you go, but unless you purchased some healing items or have curative magic on tap, it may be best to flee from these battles to keep yourself fresh for Garland.
The Temple of Fiends is a decapitated palace of sorts, fallen into a state of disrepair. As a ghastly side effects to the ruins, the Temple of Fiends is indeed overrun with fiends. You get your first glimpse of the undead if you choose to loot the Temple of Fiends, which amounts to two locked rooms, a HEAL, a CABIN and a CAP. The CABIN is a luxury item at this point, and along with the more affordable TENT and the ludicrously overpriced HOUSE, the CABIN is the only way to save your game outside of an Inn. The CAP can also be very useful at the point, as it adds an extra point of defence to a black of white mage or thief, all of which need all the help they can get.
Raiding the Temple of Fiends is not all that important at this point, as all the best stuff is behind locked doors anyway. You also encounter some ghastly foes such as Zombies and Ghouls , which can be dispatched the easiest with the FIRE or HARM spells. HARM is your best bet (provided you have a white mage) as it targets all undead enemies. Some of the other enemies can be quite tough, so I would recommended not wondering around too much. When you are ready, head to the room in the center and prepare to face the man of the hour, Garland. Despite his beautifully detailed and menacing sprite, Garland is a bit of a pushover, and if you go for an all-out assault he shouldn’t last more then a few rounds. After defeating Garland, speak to Princess Sarah and you will be magically (and mercifully) warped straight back to the throne room at Cornelia castle. Speaking to the king reveals that the bridge that connects the island kingdom of Cornelia to the rest of the continent has been rebuilt. Don’t forget to speak to Princess Sarah as well, as she awards your valiant efforts with an item that becomes very important much later in the game.
Crossing the new bridge just north of Cornelia brings up the title screen and opening credits of the game. That’s right; the hour plus you just put in was much like the pre-credit sequence of a James Bond flick, just the precursor to a much larger and more exciting adventure. Now it’s time for the REAL journey to begin.
Next week: We head out into the world and meet a witch and a band of pirates. Adventure!
Screenshots taken from Hardcore Gaming 101 and the Video Game Museum.
