Episode 12 - Skyrim in Reverse - Final Fantasy

About this episode

The episode discusses the Game Boy Advance remake of Final Fantasy, exploring its gameplay mechanics, storytelling, and overall experience.

The black orb podcasts ominously… Welcome back to the podcast where today we’re going to be looking at the Game Boy Advance remake of Final Fantasy. The first in what is probably the series of games most synonymous with the JRPG genre, the original Final Fantasy showcases all the hallmarks of the genre in a simple but still very functional way. The player is allowed to choose the makeup of their party from the beginning of the game and that will influence the type of gear, spells, etc., that they will be able to use throughout the runtime, characters level up and can even upgrade their classes midway through the game, and you will encounter enemies every seven steps you take. Despite some rough edges, it ends up holding up surprisingly well and, probably due to forty years of cultural knowledge of playing RPGs, it isn’t a “Nintendo hard” type game from the era either. The result is a somewhat primitive, but beautiful looking, RPG that is surprisingly comfortable to play and fairly easy to get into even from a modern context. We’re going to be talking about the clever and natural ways the game gates exploration and makes it feel like a worthwhile activity, the depth of the…

Topics covered

• Final Fantasy
• JRPG
• Game Boy Advance
• game mechanics
• storytelling

Keywords

• RPG
• game design
• exploration
• cultural impact

Mentioned in this episode

Products: Game Boy Advance, Final Fantasy, NES, FF1, Discord, Resident Evil:

Books & works: Skyrim in Reverse

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