FF1 Pixel Remaster : Mandatory Battles Only

Introduction

I was a fan of classic JRPGs pretty much since I played the original Final Fantasy 7 on my father's PS2 when I was 7 or 8.  I wouldn't play another JPRG until my early adolescence, when I started playing Dragon Quest XI - but it is also during that time that I got back into this genre of games more seriously. At the age of 13, I discovered about the FF7 "low level" challenge, in which players have optimised their strategy to finish the game with no character going past level 27, which I found really impressive. I would later get my hands on ROMs for the GBA remasters of Final Fantasy I, II, IV, V and VI, and start discover these games by myself. After doing other things for a while, I eventually came back to JRPGs in the summer of 2022, and this time I wanted to do a challenge run of one of them by myself (I had already begun one in DQXI, but I didn't go very far).

Since a "low level" challenge wouldn't be particularly interesting for FF1, as the EXP that enemies reward is split between each character when you win a battle, I instead decided to go for a "mandatory battles only" challenge, where I would only beat the encounters that are absolutely required to finish the game. I was playing on the GBA version of the game (Dawn of Souls) at the time, which meant I had to save-scum my way through the world map and the dungeon as to not enter any random encounters (more on that later).

I actually got all the way up to the second Tiamat fight, but failed to go past it. Not only the fight was difficult, but I knew that Chaos, the final boss, was going to be much harder, perhaps maybe impossible, and that discouraged me. So now, three years later, I came back to Final Fantasy 1 to finally answer the question : is the Mandatory Battles Only challenge possible ?

I would like to give a shoutout to Sullla who was my main inspiration to write this sort of text report for my challenges. You can go visit his website for more Final Fantasy stuff (as well as other games like Civilization, but I'm not really familiar with those) : https://www.sullla.com/

Differences between the GBA and PR versions of FF1

First off, I'd like to mention the main points of difference that either advantaged or disadvantaged me in comparison to my first attempt at this run from 3 years ago.

• Perhaps the most noticeable right away is that Pixel Remaster restored the old Vancian magic system present in the original Famicom/NES release of the game. I feared that this was going to be a signific downgrade from the - in my humble opinion - much better MP system that we are used to in more recent JRPGs, but I will admit that working with and around this unique system made the challenge more interesting than it was on the Dawn of Souls version of the game. Namely, the ether item works quite differently than it does in other Final Fantasy games : it restores 1 spell charge per level that you have charges for. To be fair, the limit of only being able to use up to 9 spells of a certain charge wasn't too bad considering that I could usually rest at an inn between each fight that I had to do.

• The "No random battles" option in the menu makes this challenge 100x more convenient than it was playing on the GBA. I absolutely wouldn't recommend trying this challenge on Dawn of Souls without an emulator, as it basically requires save-scumming and restarting your console each time you get in a random encounter. :/

• The Pixel Remaster removes most of the new content that was introduced in Dawn of Souls, namely the 4 additional dungeons as well as all the equipement and items found inside of them. I didn't use them when I did this challenge on GBA anyway, as I felt that it would go against the spirit of the challenge, and I wanted to see how much I could do without using them.

• Considering that this remaster was "faithful" enough to restore the outdated Vancian magic system and those awfully ugly sprites for the upgraded classes (WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO POOR BLACK WIZARD ?), I was surprised to see that the AI routines for the enemies were actually changed significantly. In every previous version of the game (including the original Famicom/NES one), the enemies either had a chance to attack physically, use magic or an enemy-specific ability. The magic and abilities would always go through a certain order. For example, in the first encounter with Lich, he always uses Blizzara as his first magic attack, and then he uses Sleepra, Haste, and so on. In the Pixel Remaster, all attacks instead have a random chance to be selected, regardless of their status as magic or enemy ability. This can be either a blessing or a curse depending on your RNG : whereas you could previously prepare for Lich's potential actions by memorising his routine (casting NulFrost at the start of the fight to counter his Blizzara, then casting NulShock and NulBlaze once he begins using the corresponding spells), you are now completely left to the whims of RNG. However, in the Pixel Remaster, you can theoretically get lucky and have the bosses keep casting weaker spells like Slow(ra), or instant death spells that everyone gets immunised against at the end of the game, and avoiding more powerful moves.

• Some changes were made regarding to trapped tiles/chests. Dawn of Souls (and every other previous version of FF1, as far as I'm aware) used a system of "spiked tiles" : tiles that, when you stepped on them, would always trigger an encounter against some enemies. One such exemple would be the infamous Piscodemon/Wizard encounter right before getting the Crown in the Marsh Cave. Pixel Remaster gets rid of them and replaces them with "trapped chests", which start an encounter when opened, and enemies represented by a hooded figure awkwardly waiting in place until you interact with them to start a battle. Also, again strangely enough for a "faithful" remake, the randomness in deciding how many enemies would spawn at a fixed encounter has been completely removed, for the first time since the Famicom/NES version. (foreshadowing...)

All battles commentated (video)

I will soon make a video in which I will showcase every battle that we have to do in this variant run, with commentary.

Chapter 1 : The Four Warriors of Light

I began the challenge by choosing my characters' classes and naming them after characters which you may or may not recognise :

The choice of character classes may surprise you. Only a single physical character ? Two white mages ? Let me explain.

As you may already know, there are 6 character classes in Final Fantasy :

• The Warrior/Fighter has a high strength stat, a lot of HP and can equip most of the weapons and armour available in the game. Unlike what many "guides" can say about the Warrior, they are actually not expensive to equip, as you can usually find the best equipment for them in chests (this is important).

• The Thief has a high agility stat, which results in more Accuracy and a higher number of hits, but has lower strength and a lower selection of equipment. Due to the very low progression of stats we'll face in this challenge, the thief is actually not worth it, especially because they are quite frail for a physical class.

• The Monk/Black Belt entirely revolves around the gimmick of fighting with no weapon or armour equipped. They are known for being very overpowered at higher levels - that we will unfortunately never reach. Despite having the highest Vitality stat and very high HP, the Monk isn't that resistant due to their low Defense in the early game. This probably the class that suffers the most from this variant, considering that its power increases primarily with level, and not equipment which you could get regardless.

• The White Mage is primarily a healer and a buffer, although they also have a rather decent amount of HP (more than the Thief at level 1, although they get less guaranteed as they level up). The white mage is essential to this challenge ; not so much because of their healing power, which is outdone by simple Potions and Hi-Potions for most of the game, but because of their many useful buff spells. Namely, the Blink, Invisi and Invisira can make the characters almost impossible to hit given enough casts. Heal and Healara are also really nice to have, even though the former is rendered somewhat useless by the two Healing Armlets that you find towards the end of the game.

• The Black Mage is supposed to be a glass cannon. They have the lowest HP as well as low stats all-around (except for Intelligence), but they compensate that by having access to all black magic spells in the game ; though level 8 spells are reserved to the upgraded Black Wizard. However, the main reason we are interested in having one for our team are the buffing spells Temper and Haste. Temper allows us to increase one ally's Attack stat, while Haste doubles the number of hits they deal per attack. These become absolutely crucial for the run pretty much as soon as they are available, as many of the later bosses have high enough defense so that even a well-equipped Warrior will only deal single-digit damage. The effect from Temper can be stacked, meaning that the damage dealt to the enemies can reach well into the hundreds ! The Black Mage, having the highest Intelligence in the game, also has a higher healing potency than the White Mage when they use the Healing Armlet.

• The Red Mage is a mostly all-around class, although they suffer from very low HP (only 1 more guaranteed boost than the Black Mage !). They have access to both white and black magic up to level 5 (with some exceptions, which I'll get into later), but they gain access to it at a later level than the other mage classes. They also have a relatively decent selection of equipment, being able to equip armours like the Chain Mail. The main drawback of the Red Mage, besides their low HP, is their unability to learn Blink, Heal and Healara, which is why I didn't take one on my team. Their lower Intelligence would also make their spells, and their healing potency with the Healing Armlet, less effective.

Realistically, I could maybe have replaced on of my White Mages with a Red Mage, who would most likely be tankier - thanks to their better armour - in the early game, before good armour becomes available to the other mage classes. Having more than one Warrior (or other physical class) would not be useful, as you need Haste + several casts of Temper to even scratch some of the later bosses, and you wouldn't have the time to buff two fighters at the same time. Moreover, even though you find plenty of equipment to equip a single Warrior, the second one would get lesser weapons and armour for most of the game. And considering how difficult one specific fight is in the early game (not spoiling anything yet !), I don't think that you could get away with using less than two White Mages.

It's also worth it to mention that Final Fantasy allows us to upgrade our classes by accomplishing a side quest during the mid-game. We will not be doing this, as it isn't really "mandatory" to finish the game (despite there being an achivement on the Pixel Remaster for doing it !). Upgrading your class doesn't actually do much, besides unlocking some magic spells, increasing the Monk/Master's Attack and Defense when not equipped with anything, and having a higher Accuracy and Magic Defense gain per level. None of the other stats are affected compared to the "regular" classes, and they don't get more HP or MP/spell charges. Unfortunately though, many of the late-game equipment is restricted to the upgraded classes, which will make it more difficult to keep our Warrior "up to date" with the best weapons and armour available.

After ranting about classes for so long, it's time to finally start the run :

The beginning cutscene is atrociously long : it takes 2 whole minutes of waiting, with no way of skipping it or making it faster (get used to this). At least I had fast-forward when playing on GBA ! I can't believe this game was released in mid-2021 and has no way of skipping cutscenes at all.

Anyway, after this mild annoyance, we spawn right outside of Cornelia, the first town in the game. I immediately open the menu in order to disable random battles, before proceeding into the town itself.