The Legend of Zelda

The 1986 release (1987 in North America) of The Legend of Zelda was a revolution in gaming. The open-ended play, enormous map, top-down view, and puzzle-solving elements were vast changes from the common side-scrolling games with a definite goal for every level. This first game sparked a long line of successors, all of which reframe the basic concept in any number of ways, and even a short-lived TV series. The connection between the games appears to be on a loose chronology that's nearly impossible to decipher without outside assistance, but each game can be played independently of the others. The innovation of the Zelda games has always been in the gameplay, rather than the story, yet Link, the silent hero of all the games, is consistently one of the most popular game characters of all time. Also worthy of mention is the memorable music, which can be heard here.

The evil Ganon has stolen the Triforce of Power—one of the three mystic triangles containing untold power—from the kingdom of Hyrule. The princess Zelda, before her capture, fractured the Triforce of Wisdom into eight pieces and hid them throughout the land and sent her nursemaid Impa out in search of a hero to help them. Ganon's minions catch up to her, but fortunately Link happens on the scene, saves her, and begins his quest to reunite the Triforce and save Zelda and Hyrule.

That's all there is to the story, and even that is only mentioned in the instruction booklet, but even twenty plus years later, the game draws back old fans and enraptures new ones alike. Later games have refined and expanded on the theme, but the skeleton of a gaming dynasty was built here.

Images:

Booklet art of Link with his collection of items
A classic screen and a phrase that's entered gaming history
The world of Hyrule (and where to find absolutely everything)
Game opening

Final Fantasy

The beginning of an era. This 1987 game, originally for the Nintendo Entertainment System, has generated a large amount of numbered sequels an un-numbered spinoffs. It's been remade and ported onto at least six different platforms (MSX 2, WonderSwan Color, PlayStation, Game Boy Advance, PSP, and a downloadable verson for some mobile phones), and even has a popular webcomic based on it. A game given a tongue-in-cheek name (it was the Final game they'd make, and a Fantasy RPG) by a dying company, it revitalized Square when it became one of the highest-selling games of all time.

The outline of the game is amazingly simple. You create a party of four characters from six available classes. They are the fabled Light Warriors (or Warriors of Light, depending on the translation), and need to quest for Orbs of the four classic elements (earth, fire, water, and air) to reenergize the corresponding crystal, which will in turn allow them to defeat the power of Chaos which has the world trapped in an eternal time loop. Being as close to a true role playing game as a video game can come there's absolutely no character development beyond your imagination, but in a time dominated by arcade-style games FF was a rarity of complex storytelling.

Images:

A random battle from the original NES
A random battle from Final Fantasy Origins for the PSX
Concept art by Yoshitaka Amano
Intro FMV for the PSX