About the game

Many years ago, on a Floating Continent hovering high above the surface of an unnamed planet, a technologically advanced civilization sought to harness the power of the four elemental crystals of light. They did not realize that they could not hope to control such fundamental forces of nature. This power of light would have consumed the world itself had the light crystals not had their natural counterparts: the four dark elemental crystals. Disturbed by the sudden interruption of the careful balance of the light and the dark, four warriors were granted the power of the dark crystals in order to re-contain the power of the light crystals. These so-called Dark Warriors succeeded in their quest, and restored harmony to the world. But their victory came too late to save the doomed civilization that had foolishly tried to harness the power of the crystals to begin with. Their once-proud culture was reduced to ruin, though their floating continent remained, a reminder of what had come before. And on that very continent, the circle of Gulgans, a race of blind soothsayers and fortune-tellers, predicted that eventually things would come full circle. Just as the power of light can be abused, so too can the power of darkness. And when that occurred, the crystals of the light would call forth their own champions to restore balance to the world....

One day, an earthquake opens up a previously hidden cavern in Altar Cave near the village of Ur on the floating continent. Four orphaned youths under the care of Topapa, the village elder, go exploring and come across a crystal of light. The Crystal of Wind. The crystal grants them a portion of its power and their first several Jobs, and instructs them to go forth and restore balance to the world. Not knowing what to make of the crystal's pronouncements, but nonetheless recognizing the importance of its words, the four inform their adoptive family of their mission and set out to explore. Together they journey to Kazus, the village cursed by the Djinn. They seek out Refia, and all three journey to Castle Sasune to see the King and retrieve the Mythril Ring. They are granted access by the royal guard Ingus, who becomes their fourth companion.
The four journey back to Kazus and enter the Sealed Cave. There they find Princess Sara, who has the Ring and with her help, they are able to defeat the Djinn. She returns to the castle while they are transported to the Altar Cave, where lies the Wind Crystal. It bestows upon them its light and several Jobs, and officially makes them the Warriors of Light. They are instructed to restore the other crystals and bring equilibrium back to the world.

Back at Castle Sasune, Princess Sara uses the Mythril Ring to break the curse and free the people. The warriors say farewell, Ingus promising to return to visit Sara, and then go and find Cid in Kazus. He uses his airship to aid them in ramming the boulder that blocks their way. Unfortunately it comes at the cost of the airship, rendering the party land bound. In order to fulfill their destiny they must find King Argus, however, they must first find a ship.
In the mean time, they journey to the town of Canaan and meet Cid's wife and a strange girl named Salina. She mourns the disappearance of her love, Desch. The four, hearing that he bought the last Mini spell which they were searching for, journey to Dragon's Peak where he was last seen. After scaling the peak, they encounter and are kidnapped by Bahamut, who drops them off at its nest. There they encounter the mysterious Desch. They learn that he has lost his memory, and so he decides to join them in hopes of regaining it

They journey to the Nepto Temple, and there they find that an idol of the Nepto Dragon is missing an eye jewel. They shrink down in order to work their way through the tunnels inside the Temple walls, and fight enemies along the way. Eventually they find the missing eye in the horde of a rat, and after defeating it, the four take the eye. After this, they return the eye to the socket it was stolen from, and appease the angry Nepto Dragon. In gratitude, the Vikings bestow upon the heroes the good ship Enterprise.
The Overworld is a swirling mess of darkness with a few large landmasses visible here and there. They fly the Enterprise to a wrecked ship and find an old man tending to a young girl inside. They aid her with a Potion and immediately she recovers. She instantly recognizes them as the Warriors of Light and asks if the world is no longer frozen. Hearing that it is not restored, Aria, the girl, journeys with the warriors to the Temple of Water and recovers the shard of the Water Crystal. Using the shard, she opens the way to the Cave of Tides.

She reveals that she is one of the last Priestesses of Water. They make their way to the Crystal, and Aria returns the shard. As she stepped from the altar, she instructs the warriors to return the light to the crystal. As they approach, Aria suddenly pushed Luneth out of the way of a blast of magic. She falls, and Kraken reveals himself. The four battle him, and once he falls, light is restored to the Crystal and the World is returned to normal, as Aria slowly dies.

In the new world, the four awaken in the Town of Amur. They find their ship tied with a chain, and so journey to Goldor's Mansion to retrieve the key and the Fourth Crystal. Goldor shatters the crystal, but drops the key. They return to Amur and free the Enterprise.

They fly around, visiting several towns, but are shot down over the Megalopolis of Saronia. They find the kingdom in uproar over the decrees of the seemingly mad king. The army has been divided against itself and shops everywhere have been closed. They find the King's son, Prince Alus in South west Saronia, who has been banished from the castle by his own father. Arc convinces the rest to aid him. Strangely, they are permitted to enter the castle upon their return but later that night, Alus wakes up to find his father standing over his bed with a knife. His father plunges the knife into his own stomach and is immediately free from the spell placed upon him by Garuda. They fight and kill Garuda, and Prince Alus becomes the new king.

Shortly afterward, scholars inform the party that the airship Nautilus has been unearthed. Using it, the party journeys the perilous skies to the Dalg Continent. There they meet Doga and his Moogle body guards in Doga's Mansion. He joins their party and he uses mini on them to enter The Cave of the Circle. When they reach the end of the cave, Doga uses a spell to make the Nautilus capable of safe underwater travel, making it a submarine in addition to an airship. He tells The Warriors of Light to go to the Temple of Time and recover Noah's Lute, which would awaken Unei, the guardian of the dream realm, from her eternal slumber. He then leaves the warriors, asking them to give Unei his regards.

Doing as Doga had asked of them, the light warriors use Noah's Lute to awaken Unei. She happily joins the party and together, they go to the Ancient Ruins and manage to take control of a large airship called the Invincible. After telling the Warriors of Light of its many uses, she bids them farewell.
When the party travels to the Cave of Shadows, they find the Fang of Earth, and they head back to Doga's Manor to visit Doga and Unei. Upon entering Doga's manor, they are teleported to a cave, in which Doga and Unei are waiting. There, they tell the Warriors of Light to defeat them in battle. Reluctantly, they do as they are told and are explained why they were needed to be killed. As it turns out, their souls were needed to power the keys needed to open the forbidden land of Eureka and Crystal Tower.

Before entering the Crystal Tower, they go through the Maze of the Ancients, which is where the final crystal was held. After receiving said crystal, the warriors travel through the Crystal Tower and attempt to cross over to the Dark World. Before crossing, they find themselves under the curse of the Five Wyrms, which holds the party locked in place. Doga remedies this by finding five past allies of the warriors to break the curse. The five allies are Princess Sara, Cid, Desch - who did not die upon hurling himself into the tower, King Alus, and one of the four old men from Amur. After interrupting the curse, the allies wishing the Light Warriors the best of luck, and the heroes reach the portal to the World of Darkness.

In front of the black vortex, the warriors confront Xande and defeat him. After he dies, they face the Cloud of Darkness, who was manipulating Xande without his knowledge to reduce the world to nothingness. They fail to defeat their enemy and are killed in the process. Fortunately, with the light of the five allies that had helped them before, they are revived and continue into the World of Darkness. Within, they defeat four malevolent beings, who were guarding dark counterparts of the crystals. These crystals reveal the four Warriors of the Dark, who stopped the Light from engulfing their world many years ago.

When they all face the Cloud of Darkness again, the four Warriors of the Dark sacrifice themselves so that the Warriors of Light are able to defeat their adversary. With one last battle, the Cloud of Darkness is defeated and the heroes and their allies all return to their homes. The old man returns to Amur, Alus returns to his kingdom, and Cid and Desch return home to their lovers. Sara on the other hand, does not want to leave Ingus, and stays with him a while longer. Each of the heroes end up going their own ways, with Ingus and Sara returning to Castle Sasune, Refia taking up blacksmithing again in Kazus, and Luneth and Arc returning to Ur. This conflicts slightly with the Famicom version, in which all of the main characters returned to Ur together.