FINAL FANTASY I - Series Analysis

  / ludiscere  
  / ludiscere  

(if you're here from the FFII video, hello! the timestamps you're looking for are 4:25 for version differences, and 17:22 for combat. thanks for checking this out!)

hello everyone! this is the first video in a series in which i will be going through every main series Final Fantasy game (and some others too probably) in order to give them a wee bit of in-depth analysis, and figure out what makes each individual FF game tick. i'll be focusing on various things like development history, gameplay analysis, and musical analysis, but i'll also be drawing from outside sources like linguistics and mythology to try and understand as much as possible why these games are the way they are, and why people love them so much.

even though this video is nearly an hour long, there's a lot i didn't talk about, or that i'd like to clarify:
the original NES game came packaged with a lot of supplementary help like maps, and enemy info. although this would have played a huge role in experiencing the game back in the 80s i decided not to include it within the analysis, mostly just to see how well the game managed to stand on its own two feet. if you're interested though,you can find what it all looked like here: https://www.nintendo.co.jp/clv/manual...
i didn't discuss level grinding and the Peninsula of Power. i couldn't really fit these in and tie them to any other interesting overarching points without it feeling forced, so i made the decision to ultimately leave them out. the game is pretty grindy, though.
unfortunately, i didn't talk about some of the best songs in the game, like 'Castle Cornelia' and 'Matoya's Cave'. a lot of the music in this game is hard to analyse because it's quite simplistic and underdeveloped in comparison to later entries in the series, and i'm by no means an expert. this is partly due to old hardware limitations, but predominantly due to Uematsu's style shift as the music begins to match the narrative more and more as the games go on. i say it in the video, but it's FFIV where this really starts to take off. the music is still banging though.

if you're interested, the songs used in this video are:
Terra's Theme (FFVI) - 0:01
Overworld (NES) - 1:45
Shop (NES) - 3:52
Prelude (PSP) - 5:49
Church (PSP) - 7:14
Menu (NES) - 8:06
Town (PSP) - 9:31
Castle Cornelia (PSP) - 11:18
Chaos Temple (PSP) - 13:12
Main Theme (NES) - 14:43
Battle Scene (Black Mages) - 17:23
Battle Scene (PSP) - 21:37
Dungeon (PSP) - 24:03
Matoya's Cave (PSP) - 25:25
Mt Gulg (PSP) - 27:35
Airship (PSP) - 29:39
Ship (PSP) - 31:03
Matoya's Cave (Black Mages) - 32:15
Gurgu Volcano (NES) - 36:12
Dungeon (PSP) - 37:01
Victory Fanfare (NES) - 38:27
Sunken Shrine (PSP) - 39:40
Town (NES) - 43:04
Flying Fortress (PSP) - 44:34
Chaos Temple (PSP) - 46:50
Ending Theme (PSP) - 51:25
Main Theme (London Philharmonic Orchestra) - 52:42
sorry about some songs being used twice! there aren't many songs in FFI, and they're all super short.

as for sources for the interviews i used, you can find them here:
Sakaguchi on FF's name: https://www.famitsu.com/news/201505/2... (this is in Japanese btw)
Uematsu on FF's name: https://www.wired.com/2009/07/final-f...
Uematsu on the Prelude: https://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com...
Uematsu on the FF Main Theme: https://www.ign.com/articles/2014/12/...
Ito on combat/sport: https://kotaku.com/wow-final-fantasys... (the original interview link is dead, this is the best i can offer)

footage used throughout the video:
FFX intro:    • Final Fantasy X HD Remastered PS4 int...  
FFIX intro:    • Final Fantasy IX - Cinematic Cutscene...  
FFVIII cutscenes:    • Final Fantasy VIII Remastered - The M...  
FFVI opera scene:    • Final Fantasy VI - The Famous Opera S...  
FFXIII Eden infiltration:    • Final Fantasy XIII CGI-Cutscene HD - ...  
FFXV intro:    • FINAL FANTASY XV - Opening / No Comme...  
FFIV 'Anxieties' scene:    • Final Fantasy IV Cutscenes 03 - Anxie...  
Dragon Quest boss:    • Dragon Warrior (NES) // All Bosses  
the rest of the footage was captured by me. but please check out the above videos and their creators!

also, i spelled 'slightly' wrong just after 5 minutes into the video. mortifying. get someone else to proof-read your work.

finally, a huge thanks to my best pal Joe, without whom this channel would be much worse off. Joe has done all the art for my channel from its inception, from the old logo to the new black mage logo, the old intro and all the outros, and most recently the incredible art for my Patreon tiers! he is an immensely talented artist and an absolute legend so check him out:
  / steakjoe  
  / steakjoeart  

thank you all so much for reading this far and i sincerely hope you enjoyed the video!

alastair x