The first game in the enormously-successful RPG franchise holds well today in spite of its shortcomings.
Seeing how later Final Fantasy games placed a greater emphasis on story and character development, this Final Fantasy's tale is a simple one---the world is veiled in chaos by four elemental fiends, and four player-created Warriors of Light descend upon the land---each possessing an Orb----to fulfill an ancient prophecy. You're given the opportunity to build a party of four characters--selecting one of six classes for each---ranging from a Fighter, to a White Mage, a Black Belt and a Thief. Each character has their own unique, distinct traits and can use different weapons and abilities. Though Final Fantasy can be forgiven of its shortcomings as a game released in 1987 (long before extensive changes were made to the formula in order to better streamline gameplay for contemporaries), it was also notorious for its difficulty--especially instances of high monster encounter rates, sluggish pacing, and the inability to save anywhere in the world map. Fortunately for this Virtual Console release, saving isn't a great concern--- all you need to do is exit the game midpoint and resume later from where you precisely left off. Combat is turn-based just like any other traditional role-playing game. Keep in mind that this was seemingly light-years before the advent of the revolutionary Active Time Battle system of Final Fantasy IV which would forever change the franchise. While the combat system of this particular Final Fantasy presents many problems (including the infuriating lack of an auto-targeting feature), you can clearly admire the side-view perspective as it was quite revolutionary around the time of its release.
The graphics haven't aged all that well, but for the most part, environments such as dungeons, ruins and caves retain much of the old-school Final Fantasy charm. Unfortunately, there are no Chocobos to ride, but vehicles are available during later instances throughout your adventure---like canoes, pirate vessels, and even the good old airship. Some of the more distinguishable Final Fantasy tunes got their start right here-like the Prelude, the Battle Victory theme and, of course, the Final Fantasy theme itself---and everything sounds pretty good through the NES' tinny speakers.
Perhaps a great deal of irony to be had in the surprising success of Final Fantasy is that it was first intended to be an exit strategy for a then-troubled game developer---a seemingly doomed house that would eventually grow like a beanstalk to become one of the most influential corporate entities on Earth. For all intents and purposes (as well as the blessing of exceedingly good fortune), Final Fantasy was well enough on its way to span thirteen-plus incarnations over the course of several storied decades--with a fourteenth installment as of this writing merely a few months away. It also exposed a skeptical gaming audience to the idealistic fun of a console role-playing game, dispelling some preconceived notions of the genre being boring, ill-contrived and uninteresting. In its own merit, Final Fantasy NES could be described as a classic game---the first of many to come---but that would only be stating the obvious. For traditional gamers accustomed to newer Final Fantasies, this game might be a curious endeavor, but it depends wholly on your tolerance of its shortcomings and frustrating difficulty curve. For any and all Final Fantasy fans that are looking to complete their archives and willing to endure the heightened challenge that it presents, by all means; make this Virtual Console download your own.