About Final Fantasy Randomzer

Welcome to the Final Fantasy Randomizer (FFR), the best way to play your favorite 8-bit RPG! We're excited to introduce you to our community and our randomizer, and to do that, let's go over everything you need to know to get started with FFR.

This randomizer takes the original 8-bit Final Fantasy game for NES (USA edition) and allows you to shuffle important aspects like the location of key items, the difficulty of monsters and fiends, and even the location of towns and dungeons. Part puzzle and part speed-run, it's a fantastic way to breathe new life into one of the most influential games ever made, and requires very little to get started.

All that's needed now is to get you setup with the randomizer and our community:

Join the Community Discord

Your first stop should be over to the community discord where you can say hello and join up with other players of the randomizer! You'll find plenty of veterans, as well as beginners just like you, all available there to chat with, ask questions, and get help as your take your first steps with the game. The community discord is a great place to few to plan races, share tips, and get assistance with any questions you may have.

There are some fantastic resources available for beginners conveniently pinned in the #new-player-duck-pond channel under the "FFR Discussion" . The "duck pond" is our home for new players, and once you get settled in, you're welcome to head into the #role-requests channel, under "Welcome", and assign yourself the role of "duckling", our title for new players looking to learn the game and join in on community events (we even host a twice-yearly "Duck Derby" where our ducklings get their flippers wet and race each other to show their stuff).

By being a part of the community you'll stay abreast of new developments and upcoming community events (like the Spring Tournament, Summer Co-Op Tournament, Fall League, and Winter DAB Tournament, along with our Duck Derbies). There's no better place to start than by hopping into the Discord and becoming part of our fabulous community!

Get Into the Game

Once you've joined the Discord, you'll need a way to play FFR. There are plenty of NES emulators out there, but we recommend BizHawk and FCEUX (or, if you're on a Mac, try these instead). Each of these emulators are great, and plenty of our players use these for our various competitive and non-competitive races.

In addition to the emulator, you'll need a ROM. For legal reasons we can't link a download for you, but if you're savvy enough to make your way here you should be able to find a usable copy. Note you will need the USA edition of the game (NES, not Famicom or MSX games) to work with the Randomizer. We recommend you have your own, legal copy off the game to stay above board with copyright.

It's totally possible to play on your emulator with a regular keyboard, but many of our community members also suggest purchasing an NES or SNES USB controller (or compatible controller). They usually range from $10-20 USD and can easily be found on a number of Online retailers.

Some of our players have also been known to play on original hardware (the NES deck). To do so you'll need an emulation cart, like the Everdrive, that will work with the NES. This is not a requirement, but some have found they prefer the look and feel of the original hardware over computer emulation. Of course, for races you'll need a way to stream your NES hardware to your computer (via a video capture device) and those can range in price (and quality). If you're just looking to dip your toes into the FFR scene, start with emulation before you start really shelling out for more complex equipment setups.

Randomize Your Adventure

With your game in hand and a setup that allows you to play, you'll next need a randomized version of the game. For that you'll want to head over to the Randomize! page on this site. There are a number of ways to start playing, but we recommend starting with the "Default" flag-set on the Preset tab, which is (conveniently) automatically generated whenever your first open the site (or go to that Randomize page). This will keep the changes to the NES game light: the contents of magic shops will be shuffled, the locations of a number of key items will be shuffled, and you'll have early access to a few places and non-player characters (NPCs) -- specifically Sarda, the Crescent Lake Sages, and Castle of Ordeals.

Of course, we highly recommend that you beat the original Final Fantasy at least once before trying out the Randomizer so that you know what's going on. While you can jump in blind, some basic knowledge of the layout of the world, what key items will do, and what it takes to beat the original game is useful so that you aren't totally lost in the game. If you've never played Final Fantasy before, you can load up a walk-through of the game and play the "Improved Vanilla" preset (which you can load from the Presets tab) to run through a (bug-fixed and speed-up) version of the original game that's friendly for new players.

Once you've dived into a randomized version of the game, don't worry if this first attempt takes you four or five hours to complete; getting used to the game, learning its randomized quirks, and figuring out the fastest ways to play will all come naturally over time. Once you've played a few randomized seeds (our term for the specific version of the randomized game you've generated), your times will likely come closer to the one- to two-hour mark (depending on the difficulty of the flags you've generated and the options you've turned on). Learning and strategizing is half the fun of the randomizer, and even if you tend to go in for longer games the joy of exploration is its own reward.

Before you know it, you might be gearing up to participate in one of our beginner-focused “Duckling Derby” tournaments.

Watch the Races, or Join Them

When you're not running your own seeds, why not join the community for our streamed races and learn a thing or two? You can find us broadcasting two to three times per week (at least) across the Speed Gaming family of channels, the Randomania family of channels, and RPG Limit Break. Check the Discord for our full schedule and to keep up when new races are starting up.

Looking to watch on your own time? Our YouTube channel has tons of great past races available for you to watch on demand. We have play-lists dedicated to each event, dating all the way back to 2017. You can also find new player tutorial videos, and our "Duckling Boot Camp" series of vod that can help train you on the randomizer. Everything you could ever watch is right there, within easy reach.

In addition, runners will frequently plan independent races and then publicize them on the #race-organization channel, found under "Race Administration", allowing you to participate in the race, or simply watch using a site like MultiTwitch.

We can't wait for you to start running the Randomizer. Please come to the Discord and ask any questions you may have. And don't forget to BREAK THE TIME LOOP! Chaos is waiting and it's only through the power of you, and your four Light Warriors, that his evil can be cleansed from the land.

Frequently Asked Questions

I think I'm softlocked in the early game. I can't find either the BRIDGE or the SHIP. Help!

Try walking from the starting area to the Dwarf Cave. This usually happens the first time players try the "Open Progression" map tweaks with Main NPC Items Shuffle on.

There's a second Bridge over the Canal?!

If NPC Shuffle options are turned on, a Bridge will be left behind after the Canal is blown up. This is done to prevent soft locks when you get a very early Canoe and could potentially end up stranded on the wrong side of the Canal and unable to get back to your Ship.

I've played a few seeds with NPC items and Fetch Quest rewards shuffled and it feels like I have to check every treasure chest in the game. Is my luck terrible?

Make sure that you don't have a lot more Items incentivized than there are Item Locations to put them. Any incentivized item that doens't make it into an incentivized location ends up in a random chest somewhere. If 4 or more required items are in random chests you're going to need to check a lot of chests!

How many items do I have incentivized?

It will depend on the flagsets, but in general here are the approximate counts:

If you shuffled Treasures only (not shuffle Main NPC Items or Fetch Quest Rewards): You have 4 items in the base pool, plus one for each checkbox in the Items column.
If you shuffled Treasures and Main NPC Items but not Fetch Quest Rewards: You have 10 items in the base pool, plus one for each checkbox in the Items column, plus 2 additional if you have 'Other Quest Items' checked.
If you shuffled Treasures and Main NPC Items and Fetch Quest Rewards: You have 10 items in the base pool, plus one for each checkbox in the Items column, plus 8 additional if you have 'Other Quest Items' checked.
If you shuffled Treasures and Fetch Quest Rewards but not Main NPC Items:You have 4 items in the base pool, plus one for each checkbox in the Items column,plus 2 additional if you have 'Other Quest Items' checked.
Other flags may alter this slightly, including the Early Sage convenience flag or Open Progression map flag.

I found a Bridge in a loose chest and thought that was the only loose item in the pool, then I realized I missed one. Why?

If you have a loose Bridge set in your flags you can find it loose anywhere. While it is a Key Item (for experience counts and the like), technically it's not in the "Key Item Pool". It required so early (generally) in the game that it's just not included in the pool for item calculations. If you find a loose Bridge, keep checking chests just in case.

I tried to shuffle all Entrances and Floors, but the randomizer isn't giving me a seed with those locations randomized. What happened?

For the Entrance and Floor Shuffle logic to work you need to have Shuffled Treasures and Shuffled Main NPC Items enabled or this option won't work. Make sure you have those flags selected and try again.