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final fantasy maps: a ranking

alright - i've only played the first six final fantasy games. and the first one a handful of times. to be fair, its the simplest one! but they've all got good overworld maps. frankly, it's one of the more interesting parts of some of them. changing maps, looping around the world, over worlds, under worlds, other worlds. it's a fun way to experience the games. so i'm gonna rank 'em. let's see what i think!

spoilers beyond the wall! read with caution!

#6 - final fantasy 3

it's a bit unfortunate, as the floating continent is such a good map, probably the best individual map in the original games, but the lower world is... pretty bad. several locations only accessible via the invincible, several locations NOT available via the invincible, long winding paths you have to go in and out of multiple times, not to mention my several other issues with this game. floating continent is a wonderful map, but it's dragged down all the way to the bottom unfortunately due to the lower world. in a shorter game with only the first half, it would easily be the best map in the series.

#5 - final fantasy 1

it's a good map! good for the first game, a bit clunky and not explained too well, a tad vague, you gotta figure it out yourself, the walk back from the first dungeon is brutal if you're unprepared, mt. gulg and the ice cavern are in rough spots, and the dragon caves could be better, but overall, a good first go at an overworld! i like it. it's fun, despite my complaints. it's an NES game, it's meant to be archaic and weird!

#4 - final fantasy 4

the first of the SNES games, with the least best map in my opinion. it's not bad, by any means, some of it just feels a bit empty. the main overworld is great, you've seen maybe half of it by the time you get to mt. ordeals, and by that point the story's picked you up and you're into it until the credits roll. i guess if i had to pick something besides the bit of emptiness from earlier, some of the enemies around troia are way too strong. otherwise, great game, good map.

except bahamut's lair. why's he have like, 6 behemoths guarding him? that's overkill, man. you're bahamut. you can do better than that.

#3 - final fantasy 6

yeah! this one's pretty good, i love the world of balance, you can go through so much and meet so many people through it, the fact you can explore all of the top continent and everything comes back to narshe is fun. everyone goes there, sooner or later, or has already been there. and the world of ruin is fun too! navigating it is a bit trickier though, but it's still a great map! i don't have much else to say, but take my word for it. it's a good map

#2 - final fantasy 2

yeah, i thought the same thing when thinking about it. ff2 isn't the best game, let's be real, but if it did anything right, it's a tossup between paving the way for future games to pull mechanics from and replicate far better, and having a cool world map. this is the only game to require you to cross up and over the border of the world to progress the story, every other one is either island continents that don't wrap around the screen, or have walls that stop you. but the first time i saw it i thought it was kind of cool! and it still is! almost too cool of a map for what the rest of the game is, unfortunately, but we're not here to talk about the game itself. great map, in my opinion!

#1 - final fantasy 5

this is it! the best one! final fantasy 5 is chock full of stuff to do, in bartz's world alone. they could have contained it into just this and it would have been good. you get so much stuff to do and see in this world alone, and if you dont get to do it now, it's there for you in the merged world. villages, castles, mountains, caves, it's the same song and dance as all the rest of 'em, but its a ton in just this first world.

galuf's world is a tiny bit smaller, but there's still plenty to do, iirc the desert in the top right you have to navigate through precisely or else you'll get attacked by super tough enemies, so that on its own is a fun trick to do. big bridge, however, is probably the most iconic part of the whole game, some dude's antics in there make him keep coming back every so often, and he's just as fun as he was the first time.

and the merged world combines the best of the first two. most places you've seen and have been to are shifted around, gone entirely, or are completely new! crescent island is now a full connecting path around the world, north mountain now sits at the edge of the perilous desert from galuf's world, big bridge is there, everything is so much more scattered and frantic. it really plays well with the game itself.

and that's it! with only one bad map, and even more fun overworlds, the final fantasy games are pretty darn good at having interesting worlds to explore, places to see, things to do. they're good games! you should play em. maybe you'll think something differently

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY to these two underappreciated party members!!

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↳ for @sanctiichor

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Fun bit of trivia: the Explorer’s Handbook for the original Final Fantasy avoids using any gendered pronouns (even they) when describing the Light Warriors, meaning they have no canon gender.

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Golbez, Clad in Darkness

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the lobster and king crab themselves!!!

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Final Fantasy I: Randomizer

have you ever felt that FFI is too easy of a game?

would you like to make it easier? what about harder? want to remove the world map? what about completely redesigning the world map? what about changing entrances around, moving from Gaia to Mt. Gulg in a single doorway?

then you should try the Final Fantasy Randomizer!

the FFI randomizer will completely restructure the classic NES RPG to however you wish to play it, completely new ways to play it in any way you can think of.

there's a selection of randomization preset options, between "beginner" selections to make the randomization more easy if you're newer to the game, to "intermediate/expert" options if you're more familiar with the world of FFI.

Improved Vanilla and Beginner are the best selections for starting the randomizer. Beginner works by changing the game just enough to get you to be more familiar with how the randomizer works and functions, while IV fixes bugs that were present in the original, as well as adding quality of life fixes present in the later FF games.

Procedurally Generated Overworld is just what it sounds like - your stock-standard FFI experience, but the world has been completely randomized, areas will never be in the same spot twice.

Floaterless removes the airship, adding extra docks to the upper continent near most noteworthy areas.

Oops, All Loose! and Shard Hunt add key items and completion objectives into the item pool, chests will now carry items you need to finish the game! Shards themselves are the objective rather than the Orbs you need to collect to reach the Temple of Fiends.

Entrance and Floor Shuffle is exactly that. Doors will never lead to their original locations, you can go from one area to another without knowing where you go until its too late.

the beginner options are all simpler, they make the game just tricky enough to add a new challenge, and improve EXP and gold gain accordingly! but that's not all, the intermediate/expert options make the game all the more confusing.

Chaos Rush unlocks the Temple of Fiends immediately. your classes are pre-selected, and all methods of travel and upgrades unlocked. you level up much faster to compensate the end of the game being thrust upon you. how fast can you beat Chaos?

Deep Dungeon turns the game into a dungeon crawler. Coneria Castle turns into a 52 floor dungeon with Chaos waiting for you at the bottom, and different towns peppering the floors to make your trek a bit easier.

Free Enterprise models the experience after FF4: Free Enterprise. you start with 2 party members, and you get the opportunity to recruit more as the story progresses. there's quite a lot to this one!

Over Randomizer changes everything! new weapons, spells, enemies, bosses. anything that can be changed will be.

Hidden Chaos is my personal favorite. where is Chaos? who knows! you have to find him, trapped in a random chest somewhere in the entirety of the world!

Lich's Revenge changes the story, with the Fiend of Earth taking over, rather than Garland. all of humanity has fallen under the necromancer's plague of death, attacking you once their job has been done. bikke will strike as soon as you recieve his ship, as will the dwarves under mt. duergar, and even the king of dragons will challenge you once you prove your might as champions.

NOverworld is the final preset - not as a final challenge, but probably the hardest in my eyes. every village, castle, and dungeon is connected via staircase. the challenge comes from memory, and exploring every nook and cranny of the world to find out where the hell you need to go to get to Mirage Tower.

overall? FFIR is an incredible experience. all the presets change the game in a fun way, making everything so much more than the original game. not to say the original FFI is a bad game, it's a blast! but you should take some time to try FFIR, experiment on some of the extra options as well!

transmooglification? custom sprites? melmond zozo-fication? random vampire attack? major item shuffling? the world is yours to randomize - play FF1R with your own legally acquired ROM.

have fun!

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waw

i forgot to come back to this after my vacation. i still plan on fully reviewing the first 6 pixel remasters, but for now, i plan on talking about the new thing i've discovered in the last few days!

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“So be it… I shall honor you with titles befitting your valor.”

BAHAMUT - KING OF THE DRAGONS

FINAL FANTASY I

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went ahead & gave everyone my own defined designs ^_^ still going to tweak and stylize a lot more but that's going to come with individual explorations

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So I decided to go in a project that I've been meaning to do for several years and that's make illustrations for EVERY mainline Final Fantasy game. Here is the first batch featuring the first four games. More to come!

You can also buy these as t shirts, mugs, and refrigerator magnets at my shop!

https://www.teepublic.com/user/artofsara

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final fantasy iv ds complete guide

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Call me Kain Highwind the way this man won't get out of my head

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Final Fantasy IV Pixel Remaster - Battle II

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Assorted Final Fantasy IV & V Telephone Cards (1991-1992) Illustrations By: Yoshitaka Amano

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almost finishing ff6, i plan on doing a series of personal reviews of the games once i finish this one. i might come back to play all the ones After 6, who knows, but i won't do it yet. gotta finish 6 and review it first!