How Stranger Of Paradise Connects To The Original Final Fantasy

thegamer.com:

In 1987, Squaresoft launched a little role-playing game called Final Fantasy. You may have heard of it. The higher-ups at the company reportedly had no faith in the project, and director Hironobu Sakaguchi was convinced it would be his final game, hence the name. 34 years later and Final Fantasy is one of the biggest RPG series in the world, and Sakaguchi—who has since gone independent—is still very much making games.

The original Final Fantasy tells the story of a group of adventurers called the Warriors of Light, who are on a quest to vanquish four elemental monsters and save the world. It's pretty standard fantasy fare, and a far cry from the character-driven melodrama of more recent games in the series. But remember, this was the 1980s. Video game narrative was still in its infancy, especially on home consoles like the NES.

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If you want to play the first Final Fantasy today, seek out the Game Boy Advance version. Released alongside Final Fantasy 2 in a collection called Dawn of Souls, this remaster is a lot easier to play. It adds an MP system in line with other games in the series, the ability to save anywhere, and extra dungeons. Some purists prefer the more punishing original, but the GBA version is a lot more palatable in the year 2022.

Early in Final Fantasy, the Warriors of Light fight an evil knight named Garland. This is the first boss battle in the game, and it's pretty easy if your party is well kitted out—which you should be in the GBA version, as you start out with a lot more money. You defeat Garland and rescue a princess in his captivity, but that's not the last you see of him. He returns later as a monster called Chaos, the game's tricky