Final Fantasy I

• It's a good idea to kill imps in the forest until you've leveled up a couple times before thinking about fighting Garland.

• If it's your first time, just do Fighter/Black Belt/White Mage/Black Mage. The only thing thieves are especially good at is running away, and Red Mages are a little hardier than the other mages, but get outclassed substantially by the endgame. Jack of all trades, master of none, etc.

• Most of the spells are broken (meaning they don't work that well, not make you more powerful). There's about a dozen different spells that are all just instant kills that don't work on anything they'd be useful against, though this is pretty in line with all the sequels.

• Once you reach the elven lands, there's this dungeon you have to go to, the marsh cave I think, that is way harder than it should be, even given the game's grindy nature. After that, shit starts to balance out and you'll find yourself getting murdered a lot less.

• The best spot for early game grinding is northeast of the second town in the game, it's a tiny little peninsula. The encounters are obscene, but shower you with XP if you emerge victorious.

• About halfway into the game you'll start getting items that have unimpressive stats but (I think) mention a low to mid-tier spell. They are infinite use and a far better use of your mages' time than just doing piddling damage with melee attacks when they inevitably run out of MP.

• The game doesn't really reward dungeon exploration. There are miscellaneous items tucked away sometimes, but mostly it's just dead ends and traps. Most of the good stuff is on the main pathways.