History VideoGame / FinalFantasyI

* BossInMookClothing: Several, like the Wizards/Piscodemons in the Marsh Cave, and especially Warmech.

* {{Cthulhumanoid}}: Piscodemons and Mind Flayers, the latter being taken from DungeonsAndDragons.

** The FEAR spell does exactly what it says: inspires fear in the enemies so they run away. Of course, anything after Crescent Lake/Gurgu Volcano is immune to it, and ''you don't get experience for enemies that run away''. It's only real use is in the Earth Cave if you encounter an enemy too powerful, or the Cockatrice (which can petrify you with ease). After that, well...hope you didn't need that spell slot (hint: you don't).

* NintendoHard: Only the original NES version and the "Normal" mode of the Playstation remake. Later updates to the game streamlined the inventory and equipment systems, and made certain battle commands easier. Plus, the casting system of "limit X uses per level per day" was replaced with the familiar {{Mana}} system in remakes.

* ArtifactTitle: The game was originally intended to be the Hironobu Sakaguchi's swansong, who intended to quit Square and leave the gaming industry if ''Final Fantasy'' didn't sell well. Although, Sakaguchi now works for Mistwalker instead of Square, ''Final Fantasy'' itself has inspired numerous sequels and spin-offs.

You see, near the late '80s, a little game publisher called Squaresoft had made failure after failure. It seemed like they couldn't do anything right. One day, the president decided to produce one last game and retire. Pouring nearly all of their remaining resources into the title, he fully expected it to be Square's last game ever.

* ArtifactTitle: The game was originally intended to be the company's swansong. To this day it has thirteen sequels, about ''thirty'' spinoff games, and many, many more titles to come.

** It's also a case of {{Screw Destiny}}, since the time travel isn't literal "travel," but a variant in which all the events after a specific time are undone, with the traveler happening to be immune to any changes. Most of the time, this sort of time travel would be the practical equivalent to the standard kind, but in a StableTimeLoop, the repeated undoing "traps" everyone and everything in a specific period, [[GroundhogDayLoop going through it over and over, unable to progress]]. Garland can only win if he defeats you in his first battle, and you can only win if you beat him in the final battle--each of which has turned out the same way ''thousands of times already''.

** The game started and ended with Garland being slighted by the royal family and making amends with the royal family respectively after breaking the loop.

** The mysterious black orb in the Temple of Fiends/Chaos Temple [[spoiler: is used to transport you into the final dungeon, 1000 years in the past.]]

* StableTimeLoop: The Four Fiends send the dying Garland back in time 2,000 years, where he becomes the demon Chaos. Chaos sends the Four Fiends forward in time to seize the Orbs and send Garland back in time...

* SelfImposedChallenge: Probably the TropeCodifier. The most notable one is completing the game with a party of four white mages, although this arguably isn't as difficult as playing with a party of four thieves.
** [[SoloCharacterRun Or one.]]

* NoodleImplements: It's never made clear exactly how Astos plans to TakeOverTheWorld using the crystal eye and crown.
** The crown is the royal crown of Elfland. Matoya, the blind witch who needs the crystal eye to see, is the only one who can create the antidote that will awaken the king of Elfland. Now, how the royal crown of Elfland [[NoodleIncident ended up in a cave in the marsh...]]
** The crown is required for admission into the Castle of Ordeals. Presumably, he intended to get the Rat Tail and present it to Bahamut, so he could become all-powerful.

* GoBackToTheSource: The Four Fiends were sealed in the Temple of Chaos. From there, they summoned Garland, transformed him into Chaos, and had him send them into the future to overrun the world. The Light Warriors must then travel back in time to the Temple to prevent this Time Loop.

* FanVid: [[TheAdventuresOfDuaneAndBrandO The Adventures of Duane and BrandO's]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmi_7udjaSE Final Fantasy medley]] is particularly noteworthy in this respect.

** A slightly shorter example is The Crown - while you have to fetch it from [[ScrappyLevel the Marsh Cave]], it's not actually used by the party until the Castle of Ordeals.

* ChekhovsGun: The Lute is a reward given to the Light Warriors after they SaveThePrincess, but it doesn't come into play until close to the end of the game. A slightly shorter example is The Crown - while you have to fetch it from [[ScrappyLevel the Marsh Cave]], it's not actually used by the party until the Castle of Ordeals.
** The mysterious black orb in the Temple of Fiends/Chaos Temple, also. [[spoiler: At the end of the game, it's used to transport you into the past.]]
* ChekhovsGunman: Garland's both the first and last boss you face.

* BagOfSharing: Double subverted in the original; everybody can only carry up to four weapons and four pieces of armor. Potions are shareable by everyone, though.

* BonusBoss: [=WarMECH=]. He could only be found through a long and useless hallway on the way to the fourth Fiend. Although he had half the HP of the final boss, he compensated by ''hitting twice as hard.'' This amounts to hitting about 200-500 damage per turn to everyone in your party. This has made many gamers curse the heavens when they accidentally run into it and get destroyed in literally two turns, tops.

[[caption-width-right:330:Don't [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyII get]] [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIII your]] [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV hopes]] [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyV up]] [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI for]] [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII a]] [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII sequel.]] [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX That'll]] [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyX NEVER]] [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyX2 happen,]] [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI are]] [[FinalFantasyXII we]] [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII right?]] [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV Right]][[FinalFantasyXV ?]]]]

->''"[[NeverSayDie I, Garland, will]] [[GoodBadTranslation knock you all down!]]"''

[[caption-width-right:330:Don't [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyII get]] [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIII your]] [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV hopes]] [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyV up]] [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI for]] [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII a]] [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII sequel.]] [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX That'll]] [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyX NEVER]] [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyX-2 happen,]] [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI are]] [[FinalFantasyXII we]] [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII right?]] [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV Right]][[FinalFantasyXV ?]]]]

[[caption-width-right:330:Don't [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyII get]] [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIII your]] [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV hopes]] [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyV up]] [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI for]] [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII a]] [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII sequel.]] [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX That'll]] [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyX NEVER]] [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI happen,]] [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII are]] [[DragonQuest we]] [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII right?]] [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV Right]][[FinalFantasyXV ?]]]]

The story focuses on the trials of the Light Warriors, four people who were either [[FragileSpeedster thieves]], {{white mage}}s, {{black mage}}s, [[MightyGlacier warriors]], [[BareFistedMonk monks]] (black belts in the the original translation), or [[TheRedMage red mages]]. Each [[AnAdventurerIsYou character class]] had different abilities in battle, and had a variety of weapons and armor to choose from, and to top it all off, one quest you can take has as its reward an upgrade of your classes into a more powerful version, most of them with brand new abilities. The game also had three modes of transportation besides walking - ship, canoe, and airship. ''This was mind-blowingly new and different for a console game.'' Compare it to its main competition in Japan, ''DragonQuestII'', where you only had three characters with pre-set abilities and a single mode of transportation.

[[caption-width-right:330:Don't [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyII get]] [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIII your]] [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV hopes]] [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyV up]] [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI for]] [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII a]] [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII sequel.]] [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX That'll]] [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyX NEVER]] [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI happen,]] [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII are]] [[DragonQuest we]] [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII right?]] [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV Right]][[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV ?]]]]

* SelfImposedChallenge: Probably the TropeCodifier. The most notable one is completing the game with a party of four white mages.

The popular webcomic ''[[Webcomic/EightBitTheater 8-Bit Theater]]'' is ''very'' loosely based on this, and pays homage to the fact that much of the first game's mechanics were drawn from DungeonsAndDragons.

[[caption-width-right:330:Don't [[FinalFantasyII get]] [[FinalFantasyIII your]] [[FinalFantasyIV hopes]] [[FinalFantasyV up]] [[FinalFantasyVI for]] [[FinalFantasyVII a]] [[FinalFantasyVIII sequel.]] [[FinalFantasyIX That'll]] [[FinalFantasyX NEVER]] [[FinalFantasyXI happen,]] [[FinalFantasyXII are]] [[DragonQuest we]] [[FinalFantasyXIII right?]] [[FinalFantasyXIV Right]][[FinalFantasyXV ?]]]]

* BonusBoss: The elemental bonus dungeons in the GBA version have 4 bosses to fight each, and they're all taken from later FF games. Earthgift Shrine has [[FinalFantasyIII Two-Headed Dragon, Echidna, Ahriman, and Cerberus]]; Hellfire Chasm has [[FinalFantasyIV Cagnazzo, Barbariccia, Scarmiglione, and Rubicante]]; Lifespring Grotto has [[FinalFantasyV Gilgamesh, Atomos, Omega, and Shinryu]]; and Whisperwind Cove has [[FinalFantasyVI Typhon, Orthros, Phantom Train, and Death Gaze]]. The Labyrinth of Time in the PSP version has ''eight different versions'' of Chronodia, based on the number of blue and red seals you open in the Labyrinth.

The story focuses on the trials of the Light Warriors, four people who were either [[FragileSpeedster thieves]], [[WhiteMagic white mages]], [[BlackMagic black mages]], [[MightyGlacier warriors]], [[BareFistedMonk monks]] (black belts in the the original translation), or [[TheRedMage red mages]]. Each [[AnAdventurerIsYou character class]] had different abilities in battle, and had a variety of weapons and armor to choose from, and to top it all off, one quest you can take has as its reward an upgrade of your classes into a more powerful version, most of them with brand new abilities. The game also had three modes of transportation besides walking - ship, canoe, and airship. ''This was mind-blowingly new and different for a console game.'' Compare it to its main competition in Japan, ''DragonQuestII'', where you only had three characters with pre-set abilities and a single mode of transportation.

* BegoneBribe: Gamers have the option to bribe enemies in this manner, but it's not guaranteed to work. The enemy can either refuse, or take your hard earned gil and still attack you!
* {{Bishonen}}[=/=]{{Bishoujo}}: White Wizard is the long haired type, depending on what gender you think White Wizard is.