Lines in the Fog

Contents

  1. 1. Booting up the game
  2. 2. Setting the scene
  3. 3. The Journey begins
  4. 4. The Chaos Shrine
  5. 5. Facing Garland
  6. 6. Back to the Castle
  7. 7. The Real Journey Begins
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15 min read

Final Fantasy I - The First Hour

Part of the series: The First Step: Final Fantasy I

Booting up the game

After installing the game on my PS5, I boot up Final Fantasy I. I'm sure I've played it once upon a time, possibly on the DS/GameBoy Advance, but from what I understand these Pixel Remaster versions are a bit more polished. Some quality of life improvements, and some graphical improvements, with them being a 'remaster'.

However the first thing that jumps out to me is the font at play - I'm not a total font nerd, but it looks something like Arial, maybe? Definitely a plain-ish sans-serif font anyway. It's giving me vibes of a 'default' choice in a system. Fortunately in the settings, there's an option to go for a 'Classic' font which is a cleaner monospace 'pixel' style font, which to be honest I have no idea why it isn't the default. It just fits the vibe so much more.

Also in those settings I notice that there's the option to have different background music types - the default of 'Arrangement', i.e. what I assume is a recording or at least a high quality synth vs. the 'Original' version. In this scenario, I'm actually going for the opposite to the font - the arranged versions of the themes are just so much nicer to listen to than the '8-bit' versions. I guess I'm fickle...

Anyway, with that squared away, we can start a new game, and I'm presented with the first jarring thing - you pick your party. The default is a Warrior, a Thief, a White Mage and a Black Mage, and frankly while there are also Monks and Red Mages that could be brought into the mix, on the face of it, it feels reasonably balanced, and maybe it's the default for a reason? My gut instinct would be maybe to switch the Thief for one of the other 2 classes, but not enough to make a change.

The Pixel Remaster offers a nice helper of offering 'Suggested Names', and I decide to use this - if they don't have names as characters, I might as well roll the dice. So meet the party:

  • Rukus: Warrior
  • Kaili: Thief
  • Clair: White Mage
  • Glitz: Black Mage

I feel like I may struggle a little to truly engage with those names as I'm guessing with the party being interchangeable, there's likely very little if any dialogue that the characters will have. Perhaps I'll create my own lore for them as I go...

Anyway with that decided let's get the party started.

Setting the scene
Final Fantasy First Impressions Let's Play Party Dynamics Real-Time Reflection Combat Notes
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Final Fantasy I - Out into the World
Part of the series: The First Step: Final Fantasy I (19 posts)
  • 1. Final Fantasy I - The First Hour (current)
    A retrospective on the first hour of Final Fantasy I Pixel Remaster - my thoughts and feelings so far.
    • 15 min read
  • 2. Final Fantasy I - Out into the World
    The first steps into the world of Final Fantasy I, Matoya's Cave, and the town of Pravoka.
    • 9 min read
  • 3. Final Fantasy I - Elfheim
    The first steps into the world of Final Fantasy I, Matoya's Cave, and the town of Pravoka.
    • 14 min read
  • 4. Final Fantasy I - Heavy is the Head
    Getting back on track, heading to the Western Keep
    • 8 min read
  • 5. Final Fantasy I - Magical Mystic Key Tour
    Heading around the world with the Mystic Key, and seeing what we can unlock.
    • 9 min read
  • 6. Final Fantasy I - Go West, Young Warriors
    Setting sail to the west, exploring Mount Duergar, and the town of Melmond.
    • 9 min read
  • 7. Final Fantasy I - Into the Bowels of the Earth
    We head into the Cavern of Earth, with a goal of defeating the Vampire and restoring the Earth Crystal. Things are never quite that simple though, are they?
    • 14 min read
  • 8. Final Fantasy I - The Wandering Heroes of Melmond
    We return to Melmond, but struggle to find our next task.
    • 9 min read
  • 9. Final Fantasy I - Everybody Get Into a Big Canoe (and Then Into the Lava)
    With a renewed sense of purpose, we're ready for some amphibious adventuring. We head to Mount Gulg, and find ourselves in a lava-filled dungeon with a fiery boss.
    • 10 min read
  • 10. Final Fantasy I - Shattered Ice, Frayed Nerves
    We get some more mileage out of our canoe as we head further north and into the Cavern of Ice, where both the party and I have more trouble than we have in a while.
    • 11 min read
  • 11. Final Fantasy I - Warriors on Trial
    In this post, we try to find what to do with our newly acquired Levistone, but end up being put to the test.
    • 8 min read
  • 12. Final Fantasy I - A Rat's Tale
    Hot on the heels of collecting a Rat's Tail from the Citadel of Trials, we head out on the task of working out what to do with it, and make some nice progress along the way!
    • 10 min read
  • 13. Final Fantasy I - Out of the Bottle
    Today we continue to explore the new areas that our airship has opened up - starting with the town of Onrac.
    • 8 min read
  • 14. Final Fantasy I - Canoes, Cubes, and Cat Claws
    This morning, we head out to try and use the oxyale that we've been given, and head to the waterfall we'd spotted to the north.
    • 7 min read
  • 15. Final Fantasy I - Under The Sea
    In this outing, we make our way down into the Sunken Shrine, in an attempt to save the mermaids from the wrath of the Fiend of Water.
    • 11 min read
  • 16. Final Fantasy I - Duolingo on Steroids
    We make our way back to Lufenia, but it turns out that just having the Rosetta Stone in our inventory isn't enough to bridge the language gap - we need a teacher!
    • 6 min read
  • 17. Final Fantasy I - The Flying Fortress
    We make our way to the Mirage Tower, and with our Warp Cube in and onto the Flying Fortress to take on our final Fiend
    • 12 min read
  • 18. Final Fantasy I - Entering the Chaos
    With all four of our Crystals illuminated, we head back to the Chaos Shrine, where this all began and try to unravel the mystery of the world's decay.
    • 10 min read
  • 19. Final Fantasy I - From Utter Chaos to Calm
    We reach the depths of the Chaos Shrine - time twists, fate unfolds, and history demands a reckoning.
    • 19 min read