You know, when I played FF1 I had already played several of the later SNES games. And in a way the simplicity was refreshing.

I still remember going into this town and all the NPCs are saying "there are pirates" and "I don't like pirates". Then there's a pirate who says "we're the pirates!". And that's it, simple as can be, there are pirates and you beat them. No long narratives, no grand schemes, just beat the pirates. Sometimes it's nice to take a break from the grand arc kind of stories.