It's a common belief that legends never die, and in the video game world, that often ensures they get ported to many systems since their first release. Final Fantasy I Pixel Remaster is proof of this, and generally well executed.

First, a bit of history. The original Final Fantasy was one of the founding fathers of the JRPG genre, which is usually well known. A somewhat less known fact is that, albeit with some weak attempts to hide it, it's essentially a video game adaptation of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 1.0. Despite some ports overhauling the game to have more modern mechanics and backport some lore and other things from later titles, the essential elements of what was lifted from AD&D have generally remained in place.

It's important to mention this because unlike some prior ports, which outright replaced the "charge-based" MP system for spells lifted from AD&D with a non-charge limit standard MP system and also retained some well-loved bugs like the Peninsula of Power (an exploit to fight enemies from later in the game very early on where the player could level up very quickly), this port opts mostly for the original intended experience. To that end, all bugs (even the helpful ones) are now gone. The MP system is back to the charge-based system, but they did make a small concession to modern standards by retaining Ether items for recovering MP, albeit rebalanced for a charge-based magic system.

As to the core of the game, it's exactly the game all who played the original knew and loved story-wise. The world is going to pot, the various elements are out of order, and the only ones who can help are the Warriors of Light, who mysteriously appear at the time of the world's greatest need, bearing crystals meant to revive the shattered planet.

This rather scant intro sets the tone for what is standard fare for a JRPG. You explore the world, delve into dungeons, solve quests, and defeat various beings until you've saved the world. Being one of the games that codified many aspects of JRPG gaming, the Pixel Remaster stays true to this.

Graphically, this uses the same style as the 16-32-bit remakes, but with the art as close as possible to what was intended for the NES/Famicom port. For example, the red-haired Fighter/Warrior was a limitation of color chosen as a compromise for those platforms. The Pixel Remaster version defaults to the original intended scruffy brownish-blonde-haired version intended for the original concept. They did retain the change to the Phantom/Eye enemy to avoid a lawsuit (as the original was changed in the original localization since the Japanese version was too direct a ripoff of copyrighted Dungeon and Dragons art, a hilariously minor change since most of the most artwork is generally traced right from the AD&D Bestiary). Otherwise, the art style tries to cleave to the original intended concept artwork as much as possible. The overall colors are vivid and high fantasy in terms of general theme.

The sounds and music are almost entirely lifted from the original soundtrack if you pick the retro music (i.e. - the original NES/Famicom score albeit in higher fidelity) or retain the modernized score based on the remakes for 16-32-bit platforms. The modernized soundtrack also has new tracks from the later remakes for bosses that are not present in the original. Both sound very good and period-accurate.

This game can be played with a keyboard and mouse or with any Steam-supported controller. I recommend the latter for ease of play. Buttons can be remapped, especially on the keyboard, but I found the default buttons reasonably easy to adjust to.

Game stability is pretty solid. This will run natively on Windows and runs out of the box with Steam Proton on Linux. It is Verified for the Steam Deck and system requirements are super modest.

Morally, this has a few concerns.

Violence is RPG styled "give orders and watch it happen". This game has no blood and gore and remains disappear after death. All violence happens as a matter of self-defense only.

The language is going to be pretty clean. There is very little sexuality save for a few female monsters in slightly revealing outfits or with bared midriffs. It's worth noting that despite the Medusa enemies being topless in the original concept art, they default to the slinky and somewhat more covering dresses given them from the original localization. Otherwise, there is little to comment on.

There are many undead and demonic enemies you will have to fight, but the player will not use necromancy. All magic is rather generic and religion, if any, is not concretely specified. Morally, this is classic good vs. evil in its most basic form, so there is hardly anything of note to worry about here.

Overall, this is a good remake of the original Final Fantasy. While lacking a lot of bonus content from earlier ports, it still delivers a solid remake of the core experience with a lot of old bugs fixed. Technically, I find little to complain about. Morally, it's generally suitable for older children on up. I recommend getting this as a part of a sale when it is sold as a bundle with the other Pixel Remasters. As to whether it's a good game on its own, it's still just as fun as when I played the original version on the NES and I highly recommend it.