8-Bit Chivalry: Dungeons & Dragons and Final Fantasy

So, it should be obvious that old-school Dungeons & Dragons was a colossal influence on video games, and directly led to the concept of the CRPG genre of video games (short for Computer Role-Playing Game or Console Role-Playing Game) and one of the greatest and most triumphant examples of this influence is the extremely popular Final Fantasy franchise, a series of Japanese video games and one of the most popular and long-running examples of the RPG video game genre.

While later entries in the Final Fantasy series would follow in a more science-fiction influenced direction, particularly from Final Fantasy VII onward, the early games of the 8-Bit and 16-Bit eras were very much done a more traditional pseudo-medieval fantasy more reminiscent of other popular fantasy works, most notably Dungeons & Dragons. In fact, it is often rumored online that the very first Final Fantasy game was originally intended as a direct licensed game based on D&D.

Not much evidence exists that suggests that Final Fantasy I was initially intended to be an officially licensed Dungeons & Dragons video game, but one thing is certain and that is the people at Square responsible for Final Fantasy I definitely were fans of D&D. The influence of the world's oldest tabletop role-playing game on the Final Fantasy franchise is most prevalent in the very first entry into the series, with several tropes that may seem weird to fans of the more modern games in the series, but would be very familiar to anyone who played D&D in the 1980's, or is a fan of the Old-School Rules movement within the greater hobby.

Hell, even more modern D&D players may pick up on some of the D&D influences in Final Fantasy.

First off, while every subsequent game would use Magic Points (MP) for casting spells, Final Fantasy I had a more Vancian-style magic system of spells per day that took up a number of spell slots, and could only be replenished by resting at an Inn or camping in a tent or cabin.

Gee, I wonder where I've seen that before? (sarcasm)

Second, a lot of the classes are based on early D&D classes. Most notable are the Monk (called a Black Belt in the original NES release) which is the typical martial artist familiar to D&D fans, along with the mages. Much like in Dragonlance, there are three types of mages: Red, Black, and White.

However, unlike Dragonlance, the colors are not indicative of alignment but of the kind of spells used. White Mages are healers, essentially a rendition of the Cleric class in D&D, they even are restricted to only using blunt weapons like hammers and staves, while Black Mages cast combat spells and Red Mages use a mix of both spells but not to the same extent or proficiency as either White Mages or Black Mages.

Other tropes is the presence of Bahamut, the Dragon King (based on Bahamut, the Platinum Dragon) and enemies such as the Evil Eye (essentially a Beholder with the serial numbers filed off) and even some throwbacks to OD&D such as robot enemies like the infamous Warmech and the Flying Fortress at the game's end being a futuristic sci-fi space station (later renditions of Final Fantasy I would make the Flying Fortress a more traditional fantasy castle and either remove or downplay a lot of the sci-fi elements in the late stages of the game)

My favorite Final Fantasy game is Final Fantasy XV (Noctis is my man-waifu), but the more I learn about Final Fantasy I and its ties to D&D, the more I want to make a D&D or OSR campaign inspired by it.

I might even make my own campaign setting as an homage to both Final Fantasy I and early D&D.