Nintendo Switch: Final Fantasy 1 Pixel Remaster – KILL CHAOS

Posted on July 21, 2025 by Aywren

This past weekend, I finally completed the Pixel Remaster version of Final Fantasy 1 on my Nintendo Switch. This was a game I’d started over two years ago, kept chipping away at from time to time, and really had no excuse to take as long as I did to complete it.

I’d been using my original physical copy of the 1990 FF1 Nintendo Power guide from the NES version of the game as I played, and there was a lot more than just the name of spells and translation updates that were changed. Items and spells cost a whole lot less than they used to, for certain. Still, I found there were points where farming gold was a blocking factor.

Really, finishing this game was only made possible by my new Project Capture Card Switch setup and my Gaming Journal. I’ve blogged about both of these in the past, and through a little dedication and the use of these two strategies, I was able to stay on track and finish the game by tossing some hours in each night.

KILL CHAOS

By the time I made it to the final boss, Chaos, my party was all level 50, and slicing through most normal monsters without much trouble. Even re-battling the fiends didn’t give me much trouble (I’m seeing the parallels with FFIV here).

But the fight with Chaos was a different story. It took me about 4-5 tries to finally down him. The battles were long and ponderous, with me chipping away at his health each turn, even with my best gear and spells.

Sometimes, I’d get unlucky and he’d heal himself for 9999 HP, undoing everything I’d just done in the past 9+ turns. And if Chaos killed my white wizard, it was game over – I struggled through several rounds of trying to phoenix down and hi-potion her back to health with no luck.

Chaos would either cast a group-wide nuke or straight out kill her before I could bring her HP high enough to survive and get the party back on track. I also only had 4 elixirs to my name, and that was the best I could do to keep restoring my MP points on my black wizard, who was doing the best damage of the group.

The final time I fought Chaos, I simply lucked out. He didn’t kill my white wizard, and most of my party was still alive when I hit the final blow. Man, was I relieved.

I’d finished the original NES version of this game years ago, and Chaos was never this hard. So, I took to the net to see what I’d done wrong.

Turns out, this version of Chaos has been beefed up from his original 2,000 HP to 20,000 HP. Not only that, but battles with him are totally RNG AI scripted. He can sit there and flare your party over and over every turn, cast haste on himself and then one-shot individual characters in your party with a melee attack each turn, heal himself for 9,999 HP (some say this still heals him to full health), or toss something piddly like an ice spell that hardly scratches the team. It’s all just a roll of the dice.

There are ways to cheese this battle, I discovered. Some requiring the use of the Giant Glove, or petrifying a member of your party before getting to Chaos, and using that party member as a melee damage sponge. All of it seemed like a lot of hoops to jump through, though.

The bottom line is, I am not the only one that struggled with his fight. Thankfully, the Pixel Remaster versions allow you to soft-save before a boss and restart from that point. So, every failure didn’t mean I had to run through the entire dungeon to get back to the boss fight.

Anyhow, what’s done is done. I’d forgotten that there was this whole weird time loop storyline in FF1 – I’d been a pre-teen when I’d beat the original game before. For its time, FF1 was certainly pushing the limits of RPGs for the NES, and deserves any praise it gets for doing so.

I’m very pleased that I’m already seeing “results” and higher engagement time with my Switch with this new setup. Now I just have to decide what game I’m tackling from my list next, and continue to spend time with the console via capture card and journal.

Comments