final fantasy1 and2 Anniversary Edition review

[psp15]

This is where it all started. The original Final Fantasy appeared on the Famicom in Japan 20 years ago and reached American shores three years later. Since then, it has appeared on a variety of systems, most recently as part of Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls on the Game Boy Advance. As a piece of nostalgia, Final Fantasy Anniversary Edition is a decent romp through a true classic, where random encounters rule and fetch quests are a way of life. If you haven't played it yet and can set aside modern expectations, you'll probably get a kick out of the earliest Final Fantasy game.

On the other hand, if you have played it on another platform, there aren't enough extras here to make it worth another purchase, especially for a $30 price tag. The visuals are the obvious enhancement, and at least in this regard, FF lovers won't be disappointed. Backgrounds and characters are rendered in crisp, colorful detail. Some small touches are bound to catch your eye, such as the shadows of passing clouds moving across your view. Of particular note are the new boss designs: Marilith has never looked so gruesome. It's still the same 2D look, so you won't be blown away, but it's easy to appreciate the high resolution and clarity of the new sprites, as well as the environments. In other words, it's exactly what you would expect a PSP version of the first Final Fantasy to look like. The soundtrack has also been enhanced with better quality recordings. They're still synthesized, but they're nice re-creations of the tunes you may have heard hundreds of times already.

There's an additional dungeon in this version, which is rather hard compared to the surrounding gameplay. You'll also be treated to the four extra dungeons featured in Dawn of Souls. But more random encounters and a shiny coat of paint do not add all that much value, especially when the game has been packaged with its sequel for other systems already. This is a remake of a remake of a remake of a remake, which is fine if you're aching for a trip down memory lane and don’t already own the game in another package. But if you've got the GBA or PlayStation iteration, this stuff isn't going to quite do it for you.



The game itself doesn't hold up terribly well in this day and age, but for patient gamers who know what they're in for, it manages to be fairly enjoyable. The Final Fantasy brand may be synonymous with great stories now, but you won't find one here. It's got the bare essentials: four heroes seek four crystals to fulfill a prophecy and save the world. This means you guide your heroes from quest to quest and area to area, fighting endless legions of random monsters until you reach eventual glory. Plenty of humor keeps things from getting too dry, but you shouldn't expect a deep narrative: This is role playing at its most basic.

Newcomers may be surprised by the openness of the world. You'll spend a lot of time wandering, boating, and air-shipping aimlessly until you find your destination. Not that any of it is real downtime: You will be constantly attacked every four or five seconds during your travels, so if you're bothered by random encounters, you'll find Final Fantasy I especially frustrating and tedious. Also, there's no quest log, so you need to talk to as many non-player characters as possible and pay attention to every bit of dialogue to keep yourself on track. The questing is relatively intimidating if you haven't already experienced it.

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However, the combat isn't as daunting, though some purists might long for the battle system of the original release where party members could waste an attack on an enemy that was already defeated. Like prior remakes, the Anniversary Edition reassigns such attacks. It makes battling in this version relatively easy and magnifies how simple the system is by modern standards. You can attack, cast spells, or use items, but you don't have to worry about any fancy leveling schemes or special moves. It's also not that strategic because the turn order is kept secret, making it easy to waste a sleep spell on a single remaining enemy or a defensive spell that is never needed. Yet, as simple as it is, it's still solid enough to keep you gunning for a better sword, the next spell level, or a better piece of armor.

Whether or not Final Fantasy Anniversary Edition is worth playing depends on your expectations. Like most anything viewed through the rose-colored glasses of nostalgia, Final Fantasy I was better in the past than it is now. If all you want to do is relive the good old days in widescreen purity, you'll get 40 or more hours of merry reminiscing out of it. On its own, it's all right, but there are more interesting RPGs on the PSP.



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Final Fantasy II's position in role-playing game history is a dubious one. On one hand, it bravely modified aspects of the original Final Fantasy and added a few new gameplay mechanics. On the other, the transformed leveling system was an exploitable and unbalanced mess, which makes the Anniversary Edition feel more like a case study in the evolution of RPGs than an entirely enjoyable game. You'll find plenty of random battles to ease your daily commute, but the frustration of the baffling skill leveling makes FFII a less appealing game than its predecessor.

Not all the changes from the first Final Fantasy are for the worse though. The story is more intriguing, though leading ragtag rebels through a series of quests isn't very exciting by today's standards. The quests are nicely set up, but you'll need to pay close attention to the dialogue because there's no quest log to remind you of your current goal. Another addition is a system of learning key words from non-player characters, which must be repeated to other NPCs to move the story along. These aren't huge improvements, but they're notable if you're interested in the evolution of the series and genre.

Final Fantasy II completely overhauls the leveling and skill systems of the original Final Fantasy. Rather than let you choose classes for your characters, you start with three characters that are more or less blank slates. They can use whatever weapons you want to give them and learn any available spells. In turn, as each member uses spells and weapons, he or she becomes more adept at using them. It's a lot of freedom, and on paper, it sounds like a great way to customize your party members as you see fit. In practice, it can be a disaster. For example, characters earn more hit points by taking damage, essentially forcing you to get beat up on if you want to increase your maximum health. Yet depending on your party formation, some characters will rarely be attacked in battle, which means their HP meters will grow much more gradually than others, and you'll need to mess around with your formation if you want to even things out. Or you can simply exploit the system completely by entering random battles then bashing other party members in an elaborate seesaw of attacking and healing. Alternately, you can head for the city of Fynn and exploit the guards there. Of course, you can do it the old-fashioned way by fighting progressively stronger enemies, but doing so is painfully ineffective and will leave you unprepared for boss fights, which can be surprisingly tough if you are caught unawares.

If you've already played the original Final Fantasy II on its own or as part of previously released compilations, you won't find many reasons to add yet another version to your collection. The Soul of Rebirth add-on found in the Dawn of Souls compilation for the Game Boy Advance is here, as is a complex dungeon called Arcane Sanctuary that cleverly uses key words from the main game. But the game is a relic, and its shortcomings make it less appealing than Final Fantasy I's Anniversary Edition. Considering that previous releases of FFII on the PlayStation and GBA included FF1, it seems especially egregious that a graphical update of such a flawed game would cost full retail price. Granted, it's satisfying in short spurts, and you'll easily squeeze 40 or more hours of gameplay out of it. But it still boils down to a succession of constant random attacks and simple battles that allow you to attack, cast a spell, or use an item in each turn.

The biggest difference between the Anniversary Edition and previous releases is the pretty visual overhaul. Its still consists of 2D backgrounds and sprites, but everything is crisply detailed, as well as beautifully drawn. Certain locales, such as the snowy hamlet of Salamand, are particularly nice, but everything has a vibrant luster that looks lovely on the PSP's widescreen. The updated cutscenes, such as the dreadnought's attack, are also fantastic. Even better, the short load time when pulling up the menu in Final Fantasy I's Anniversary Edition has been eliminated here. The music has also been modernized, so all of the tunes you know and love have been polished up a bit to sound quite pleasant in all their digitized glory.

Final Fantasy II: Anniversary Edition is a faithful remake of what was one of the most flawed games in the series. It's always fun to take a nostalgic look into the past, but the blemishes make this a tougher pill to swallow than its predecessor. If you haven't already experienced this bit of gaming history and can overlook the frustrations, you'll get some enjoyment out of it. But considering it's been packaged with Final Fantasy I in the past, it's hard to justify spending full retail price, no matter how dedicated you are to the series.