Final Fantasy I (Dawn of Souls)

After what the game tells me took just over 25 hours of play (most of it in half-hour weeknight installments), I finished Final Fantasy I: Dawn of Souls on my Nintendo DS. I remember playing this game as a kid on my Nintendo and thinking it was very short and easy--but back then, I probably fit the 25 hours into a weekend with time left to spare!

To my embarassment, I got stuck a couple of times this round through and had to peek at an online walkthrough to get back on the right track after a lot of wandering around and double-checking stuff.

The game has a pretty standard high fantasy setting, but near the end you come across some funky futuristic stuff like robots and time-travel. The story is pretty sparse, but basically involves elemental Chaos releasing four elemental Fiends (Earth, Air, Fire, Water) loose on the world. As heroes of the realm, you have to defeat each of the Fiends and then the big-bad. One of the cool features of the game is that after successfully completing a certain task, each of the starting classes transforms into an upgraded version with special abilities: Fighters become Knights, Monks become Masters, Thieves become Ninjas, etc. My party of four consisted of a Fighter, a Monk, a White Mage, and a Black Mage. The Fighter was a great choice, as he was pretty much invulnerable and could kill pretty much every mundane enemy with a single hit; the Black Mage was a killing machine using fire spells, and the White Mage was great for healing. The character who sucked was the Monk, as he did little damage, got hurt easily, and couldn't use any good weapons or armor (except for a weapon called Masamune, obtained right before the final combat of the game)--I should have gone with another Fighter.

I bought my copy used, so I have no idea what most of the statistics mean (what is "Luck" good for? How is Attack different that Accuracy? I don't know!). Anyway, here's how my characters turned out at the last save point prior to the final combat (names swiped from The Wheel of Time):

RAND (Fighter/Knight)
Level 72
HP: 999/999

MP: 149/216

Magic Level: 3

Current EXP: 6000963

Str: 53, Agl: 41, Int: 18, Sta: 44, Lck: 40, Atk: 56, Acc: 255, Def: 74, Eva: 113

Wpn: Braveheart, Shd: Diamond Shield, Hlm: Diamond Helm, Arm: Diamond Armor, Glv: Protect Ring

GAUL (Monk/Master)

Level 72

HP: 999/999

MP: 0/0

Current EXP: 597027

Str: 35, Agl: 35, Int: 26, Sta: 52, Lck: 34, Atk: 74, Acc: 255, Def: 43, Eva: 108

Wpn: Masamune, Shd: None, Hlm: Ribbon, Arm: Diamon Armlet, Glov: Protect Ring

EGWENE (White Mage/White Wizard)

Level 72

HP: 931/931

MP: 955/972

Magic Level: 8

Current EXP: 603331

Str: 27, Agl: 30, Int: 48, Sta: 29, Lck: 28, Atk: 25, Acc: 136, Def: 38, Eva: 113

Wpn: Mithril Hammer, Shd: Zephyr Cape, Hlm: Leather Cap, Arm: Sage's Surplice, Glv: Protect Ring

MOGHED (Black Mage/Black Wizard)

Level 72

HP: 674/674

MP: 974/999

Magic Level: 8

Current EXP: 603331

Str: 22, Agl: 21, Int: 68, Sta: 20, Lck: 31, Atk: 37, Acc: 196, Def: 37, Eva: 96

Wpn: Judgment Staff, Shd: Zephyr Cape, Hlm: Ribbon, Arm: Ruby Armlet, Glv: Protect Ring