LogFAQs > #974899861

action52 posted...

It runs because the people in charge at Square hired professional, experienced programmers to do things like graphics, sound, and the game engine. They knew they were fucked if that wasn't working, so they paid to make sure all of that was done right.

But when it came time to do things like character stats and the magic system, they decided to save money by having their own staff (who knew little to nothing about programming) do it themselves.

That's why the magic, stat, and combat systems have so many bugs in the first few Final Fantasy games (especially FF1) but everything involved in making the game run properly has no problems. They were programmed by two different teams of people, only one of which was really qualified.

I assume you mean nasir.

Yeah, he was qualified, but unfortunately wasn't familiar with the RPG genre and wasn't given a lot of time. It's amazing that he was able to get the game to run at all given the NES wasn't built with that kind of game in mind. It's a little more complicated than a simple side scrolling platformer or racer. Most of the bugs in FF1 are more a matter of the code being unfinished than flawed. Though a good example of a genuine oversight is how it saves the game before restoring spell charges.