There is a reason why I try not to judge older games by modern standards. For what was revolutionary 30-years ago is now commonplace and often taken for granted. The original Final Fantasy is the textbook example of this. Anyone playing it today would surely find it antiquated in many ways, but Final Fantasy was the epitome of grand adventure and role-playing when it originally was released. That being said, I don’t think it’s a particularly worthwhile adventure anymore, unless you are curious about the series’ history or if you simply want to indulge on nostalgic quest.

The first indication of how dated Final Fantasy is comes from the combat. I personally enjoy the occasional turn-based game, but Final Fantasy has an incredibly simplistic approach to battles. You control a party of 4 characters, and at the beginning of the game you choose which class you want each character to be. The physical attacking characters like warrior, thief, and monk are relegated to using nothing other than a basic attack in combat. The magic using characters are more interesting, but they having stifling limitations.

Spells are assigned levels, and as you progress you unlock more powerful spells. But magic users have a limited number of spell casts at each level before they need to refresh their charges by resting. I found myself holding onto the more powerful spells for bosses or particularly dangerous encounters, which meant that basic battles often were quite boring. Since combat is remarkably simple, the standard encounter is not often threatening. But over the course of navigating a dungeon you have to be worried about attrition. Each battle may only chip away at your characters health, spell casts, and items, but over the course of dozens of battles it adds up quickly.

Since this natural whittling of resources is the major concern of dungeons, I found myself conserving as many spell casts as possible for the boss or emergencies. Using nothing other than basic attacks unless necessary. But this is incredibly boring as there is little strategy or satisfaction is simply mashing the attack button with all four characters. Resource management should be an important aspect of games, but Final Fantasy could’ve afforded to be less restrictive with magic users. Moreover, I wish that non-magic classes had skills that could be used to make battles more interesting.

One aspect that I was surprised by was the story of Final Fantasy. JRPGs are infamous for their often confusing and over-the-top narratives. But Final Fantasy was fairly grounded while also providing a fun series of episodic quests. It’s not a generic adventure. From battling pirates, to curing an elven prince of his curse, to assisting dwarves to blow-up an isthmus, to diving under the ocean into the temple of mermaids, to climbing a desert tower and boarding an airship, Final Fantasy progressively ups the ante with its story.

The series if renowned for its scope and presentation, and that trend obviously began at its inception. For 1987, the world map is massive. As you unlock more modes of transportation to travel to new regions it truly feels like a grand adventure. The sprites and artwork are iconic. Not to mention the music. Everybody knows the Final Fantasy victory theme. There are so many great tracks that got stuck in my head that I was humming along to as I was playing.

One downside of having such a massive world is how easy it is to get completely lost on your journey. Unfortunately, Final Fantasy relies on a ton of trial and error in its quest design. Most of the time, there is a singular character you have to converse with to progress the game. This leads to a ton of aimless wandering as you go from town to town, talking to every character. Occasionally there are hints of where you should be searching, but there’s too many times when that isn’t the case and you are left to purposelessly roam. This wouldn’t be too much of an issue in and of itself, but it gets absurdly frustrating when paired with the game’s other major issue: random encounters.

I honestly don’t hate random encounters. As long as they are omnipresent and there is a method to deal with them. I grew up playing Pokémon, in which random encounters would only occur in specified areas. You could also easily escape from most wild battles in a couple of seconds. Moreover, you can buy repels to prevent them altogether. None of this is the case in Final Fantasy. Random encounters are unavoidable and occur anywhere and everywhere that isn’t a town. They are frequent and disruptive. You can flee from them, but it’s often just as time-consuming as combat since enemies may go first. Leading to you just watching a party of baddies attack while you are waiting to escape. Not to mention that you are going to need to participate in a ton of encounters to acquire enough money and experience to be prepared for later parts of the game.

It’s the combination of archaic quest design and random encounters that makes Final Fantasy unbearable at times. Without random encounters, aimlessly wandering to search for an objective wouldn’t constantly be grinded to a halt. Without the annoying search for what to do next, random encounters would be far less purposeless and feel more manageable. This is where the age of Final Fantasy is felt the most, and it’s this obnoxious combination that hampered my enjoyment of the game.

It’s worth mentioning that I played Final Fantasy in a more modern format: the Pixel Remasters. These are faithful remasters of the classic Final Fantasy games, but with some great quality-of-life updates. Saving is easier, the overworld and dungeons have maps, and your characters will redirect attacks that were destined to hit empty spaces. I’m sure the game would have been even more tedious without these features, the maps especially. A feature that I did not use but I’m sure is handy for veterans of the series is the ability to turn off random encounters and boost experience gain. I wanted to play the game as it was originally intended, but these options would be fantastic for a quicker playthrough if the game. Lastly, I would be remiss if I did not mention the new orchestral version of the soundtrack. It’s phenomenal.

Overall, I don’t think the original Final Fantasy is worth the time unless you really are curious about it. I would love to see a full-fledged remake, as I do believe it has some fun scenarios for adventuring. The Pixel Remaster version allows for some methods to cut down on the tedium, but the game as it was intended is often a slog. It was fun to see the roots of the series, but it definitely wasn’t the most enjoyable experience.