Final Fantasy (MSX2) Review
How slow can you go?
~by tankMage (June 2026)
Score: 70/100 (Decent)
I love me some Final Fantasy, so I was excited when I learned it had been ported to the MSX2. Better yet, fans translated the port a few years ago, so the game is easy for English speakers to access nowadays. A few things stood out when I first loaded this baby up. First, the graphics were beautiful. Just about every asset had been touched up with more color and possibly more detail. At the same time, the visuals still retain their 8-Bit charm. The same goes for the sound, which had also been upgraded.
Everything went great until I started to notice the load times and choppy scrolling. See, Final Fantasy was released on floppy disk, which means the MSX2 has to read the disk to fetch any info that is not stored in RAM. Consequently, you will get a blank screen every time you enter a town, dungeon, and change floors in an area. Worse yet, the game loads whenever you get in a random battle. At the same time, since really large areas like the world map and big dungeon floors load into RAM, which makes the game chug as the machine struggles to generate the visuals while trying to keep track of everything else.
I can’t really fault Microcabin for all of Final Fantasy’s technical issues. After all, they were tasked with converting a game made for totally different hardware to the MSX2 in an era where there was a huge rift between gaming consoles and home PCs. The MSX2 could do things the NES could not, but it was a two way street and the latter was better at handling horizontal scrolling and its cartridge based media was just faster.
Sadly, this version of FF1 requires the patience of a saint to play, because it is so brutally slow. Final Fantasy for the MSX2 would have been an amazing port if not for its technical issues. There’s a lot more to to talk about with this game, so buckle up.
The Floppiest of Disks
Before I get into the the usual review topics, I have to talk about this game’s performance on the MSX2. The original version of Final Fantasy was made for the cartridge based NES, which loaded lightning fast even in the old days. This meant Square didn’t have to worry about that aspect of performance when they designed their RPG. While the MSX2 supported cartridges, Microcabin (who handled the port) decided to go with floppy disks. I’m not exactly sure why they went with disks, but I’ll go out on a limb and say it was because floppies were far more accessible to consumers. In turn, this would have meant more sales.
At any rate, floppy disks were extremely slow compared to cartridges. This speed differential becomes painfully obvious when you compare the MSX2 to the NES version. The game has to load every time you go into or leave a town. It loads when you bring up the status screen. It loads when you go up or down steps. And, worst of all, it loads every time you get in a random battle. If that’s not enough, you have to change disks to save, which is also time consuming.
You may be thinking, what’s the big deal? Aren’t there plenty of great games with loading screens? Well, the amount of time it takes to load and sheer frequency of loads make this game a chore. Final Fantasy is notorious for its high encounter rate and the amount of grinding it takes the average player to prepare for dungeons. Adding a six second load time to the start and finish of every battle makes the experience punishing.
I did the math (because I have no life) and it turns out that the game makes you sit through twenty minutes of loading for every one hundred battles. Factor in all the other instances where the game has to load and you’re looking at hours of staring at a blank screen while the disk hums away.
Final Fantasy is slow in other ways too. The MSX2 is infamous for its awful horizontal scrolling, so I expected issues with FF1, but I soon learned that all the scrolling sucks in this version. Large areas must gobble up a lot of RAM, because the screen DRAGS whenever you have to walk around the world map or in large dungeons. Worse yet, there’s the constant threat of random battles as you drag your ass around a dungeon at a snail’s pace. Even the airship didn’t help, because the game massively slows when you’re flying.
There’s no clock that tracks play time in FF1, but I’m petty sure it took me roughly fifty hours to beat this game. I’ve played a lot of FF1 over the years and I can beat it in fifteen hours on average. That means that all of this port’s performance issues triple the time it takes to beat the game.
There are a few things that can help. First off, using a RAM extender seems to speed scrolling up a tad. FF1 may also run better on different hardware and it’s hard to say what model is best to play it on since MSX gave consumers a lot of options. Secondly someone in an MSX group told me about a performance patch that also helps a lot. Unfortunately, I didn’t use it, because I feel like I have to play the games I review the way they would have been played when they came out.
When all is said and done, these performance issues make this game awfully tedious. In fact, I considered giving up at points, because it was so painful to play this port. I grew up with floppy disks and lived through the CD ROM era, so you know it’s bad if I find the load times excessive.
Ch-ch-ch-changes!
The most notable change that was made to this port is likely its upgraded graphics. There are a lot of remakes, and remasters of FF1, which all have their own graphical styles, but this one is my favorite in terms of looks. Microcabin added color to every sprite and I swear they added some details too, though the latter may simply be a byproduct of the enhanced hues. The end result is a beautiful looking 8-Bit game.
They also improved the music greatly without changing it in any major way. All of the songs have a lot more texture and verve, so they sound really nice. At the same time, the MSX must use similar sound hardware to the NES, because both versions share tones. Regrettably, some tracks, like the one used in the Marsh Cave, were left out of this port.
Changes were also made to the game’s overall balance. The most obvious are the alterations made to the Black Belt, which were for the worse in my opinion. In the original game, the Black Belt did extra damage and had inherent defense if left totally unequipped. This made the class very interesting and useful, especially in a game were inventory space came at a premium. In the MSX2 port, the Black Belt lacks his inherent bonuses and has to equip weapons/armor like everyone else. Consequently, the class is garbage and I’m not really sure why this change was made.
They also gave each class considerably more HP and the stat bonuses they get on level up seemed more random. I’m not sure why they made this change, but I’m kind of grateful for it. I was already sick of grinding by the time I got to level 34, which is a bit low for challenging the last boss in my opinion. However, I had enough HP to withstand his most powerful spells and beat him at that level, so the buff saved me a lot of time.
The effects of elemental spells seem to have been changed and some classes start getting spell levels before their class change. If you don’t know what I mean by class change, I recommend playing the NES version or pixel remaster before trying this game. While I don’t think either of the changes were good or bad per se, they were strange nonetheless. Using ice magic to destroy undead and fire magic on foes living in a volcano felt weird.
There are also a lot of bugs which may or may not have been fixed in this release. Many spells were notoriously bugged to the point of being useless in the NES version. Some weapons were also bugged and lacked special effects intended to make them more useful. It is also believed that the Intelligence and Wisdom stats were meant to increase magic damage, but did nothing due to a bug. I could not confirm whether or not any of these issues were addressed. Oddly, Microcabin did away with the Wisdom stat, yet spells did not appear to get stronger as my Int score increased.
Finally, I read that this version of FF1 did not have the famous bridge interlude near the start of the game, but it played in the translated copy I have. I’m not sure if the person who noted the version differences made a mistake or if the translation team threw the interlude in. It would hurt the unaltered port a bit if it lacks the interlude, because it added a lot to the story.
Let me know if you managed to figure out more version differences since the record is incomplete. Sadly, I’m not surprised that no one has really taken the time to test this port, because it’s so painful to play.
Why button no work?
There’s another problem with this game I almost forgot to address. For some reason, the F1 and Spacebar keys would not work in dungeons after battles. This only happened sometimes, but it was common enough to notice when trying to heal or open a chest. The problem is easily fixed by waiting a few seconds after pressing the button or by taking a step, but it’s strange and bothersome all the same.
Also, I could not figure out how to view the world map for the life of me. I pushed all sorts of buttons and even button combinations, but the world map would not display. Maybe I just suck at games and missed it or it was simply left out. However, I’m not sure if it’s really a bad thing that I couldn’t use it, because it would have been another thing to load.
It’s sort of a translation…
Don’t go into the translated version of this game expecting a brand new interpretation of the text. The fans who made the translation patch merely took the NES script and applied to it the MSX2. Honestly, I was a bit disappointed, but I can’t read Japanese and I would not have been able to play this version without the efforts of the fans who made the patch, so I’m still extremely grateful to them. Plus, the NES script is serviceable even with its errors.
It’s still FF1.
Underneath the hood, the MSX2 version of this game isn’t all that different from the original despite all the changes. The dungeons are still great to explore. The classes are still cool. And the overall mood of the game hasn’t changed. I didn’t go over the gameplay too much in this review, because I covered it on the NES years ago, so read that if you want details.
It’s enough to say FF1 is a great RPG. However, all of the problems with this port hurt the experience. I really hated the GBA and PSP versions of FF1 (Yeah, I know a lot of people like those versions, but opinions are like a certain body part everyone has) that said, I grudgingly have to admit they weren’t as tiresome as this one.
As much as I appreciated the graphics and sound, I really can’t recommend this port to anyone. It’s just too slow and too finicky. If you’re a critic, a guide writer, a streamer, or some kind of pro-gamer, FF1 on MSX2 might be worth looking at. Otherwise, you’re better off with the NES, PS1, or Pixel Remaster versions.
Thanks for reading my review of Final Fantasy for the MSX2!
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