The world is veiled in
darkness. The wind stops,
the sea is wild,
and the earth begins to rot.
The people wait,
their only hope, a prophecy....
'When the world is in darkness,
Four Warriors will come....'
After a long journey, four
young warriors arrive,
each holding an ORB.
Platform: NES
Date: 1987
You began by choosing a party of four, of any class. Each class would, eventually, undergo a class change:
Typical parties consisted of the Fighter, White and Black Mages, and either the Thief or Black Belt. The Thief cannot steal in this game (all later Thiefs can, though).
The game begins outside Coneria. You learn that the Princess has been kidnapped by Garland. Kill him in the Temple of Fiends, rescue the Princess, and the king has a bridge built for you.
Afterwards, you travel to Pravoka, a town controlled by pirates. Beat the pirates and you get the ship.
With the ship you can go to Elfland, where you learn the the Elf Prince is sleeping and won't wake up. The Dark Prince in the North Castle says he can help you if you get his Crown from the Marsh Cave. The Marsh Cave is really hard, and you have to kill some wizards to get the Crown. Bring the Crown to the Dark Prince and he turns into Astos, the Dark Elf. Kill him and you get a Crystal, which you can take to Matoya the witch, who needs it to see. She'll give you the Herb to wake the Elf Prince. When he awakens, he'll give you a Key, which will unlock all the rooms you've encountered so far.
Go back to Corneria, in one of the chests you'll find TNT. Take the TNT to Nerrick in the Dwarf Cave and he blasts a channel for you to pass through to the west.
The first port you encounter should be Melmond. The town's been ravaged by a Vampire in the Earth Cave. Kill the Vampire, he drops the Ruby. Feed the Ruby to the Titan in another cave and he lets you pass, where you will find Sarda the Sage. He gives you a Rod, that you can use to pry up a Plate in the ground behind where you killed the Vampire. Continue farther into the Earth Cave and you'll find Lich, the Fiend of Earth. Kill Lich, yay.
You can then go to Crescent Lake and get a Canoe (river travel) from the Circle of Sages. With your canoe, you can go to the Ice Cave to get the Floater, which lets you unbury the Airship. Now, you can do whatever you want.
After all that, go back to the
Temple of Fiends and use the
Lute you got from the
Princess and go back in time 2000 years. Venture down into the temple, kill the fiends all over again and then kill
Chaos, their boss. Oh, by the way, this part is
hard as hell.
Return to the Final Fantasy Metanode....