Epic tales of magic, war, legend, heroism, dispair, love, hate, triumph, and camraderie have been weaved in these video game experiences that transcend their names to be great works seemingly embelished from the pages of literature both classical and contemporary. We have traveled to far off worlds and distant times to materialize the effects of our imagination. Does an endearing hope for the future lie within the greatest RPG's ever made? Those who have played and remembered these games will know what it is to be a magician, king, warrior, knight, hero and to be savior of all that is true and just. In retrospect of these masterpieces I, Video Gamer X, salute these works of art as being the greatest series of thought-provoking RPG's ever made for any system. Let there be no doubt that as we pass into a new millenium the end of the 20th century will be remembered for the time when our imaginations came to life! I present to you Final Fantasy, a legacy that will stand the test of time.

And so it began. All great stories have a beginning, and this game became the forerunner of many great adventures and epics to follow. Originally developed for the Japanese Famicom, and American Nintendo Entertainment System, by Squaresoft, this game set many new milestones in the history of RPG's, released on December 18, 1987, in Japan then about two and a half years later in the United States. This game was the first to use the now famous Final Fantasy "flowing harp" theme. The plot centers around the planet decaying from an at first unseen force. According to prophesy four Light Warriors each holding an orb will come in this time and rebuild the turmoil of this time. In the game the main characters must perform certain duties like saving a princess, awakining the sleeping Elf King, appeasing a blind witch, and dethrone an usurping pretender. A more ominious threat comes to the forefront when it is discovered that, Four Fiends, incarnated from the elemental forces 2000 years in the past, are the source of the deterioration of their world. Lich was the Fiend of Earth, a skeletal undead figure. Kary was the fiend of Fire, an female looking similar to a Hindu god. These Fiends are in turn controlled by Choas, an evil force able to alter time and and bring distruction to all in the future. Choas is actually a knight Garland sent back in time by the Fiends to re-establish a foothold of power in the future. Your goal in Final Fantasy was to bring peace back to these kingdoms and re-establish order by destroying Choas and altering time itself deleting the actions of your adventure and leaving the behind a legend.

The characters of Final Fantasy were pretty straightforward, without distinct personality, and very remeniscent of basic Dungeons and Dragons principles. You had a Fighter, a Theif, a White Mage, Black Mage, a Red Mage, and a Black Belt. White Mages used curative magic while Black Mages use destructive magic. The Figher was powerful in hand to hand combat with weapons and the Thief was quicker. As the game progresses these characters develop into Knights, Wizards, etc.

Final Fantasy set an example for those to follow with the Turn based attack system.