"It's good that Square learned from their mistakes early.."

Let me begin by saying that in my opinion, this is the true low point of the Final Fantasy (which I will hereafter refer to as 'FF') series. Those of you who think FF8 is the RPG bottom-of-the-barrel gunk, you ain't played nothin yet.

Story:
The land has been peaceful for quite some time (sound familiar?), and it is interrupted as an evil emperor summons demon spawn to take over the area.. first targeting the castle of Phin. You take control of four young heroes from Phin who barely make it out with their lives. It's your job (as in nearly every other RPG) to win back your land, and defeat the evil emperor. Sound easy? HA! The story is actually a lot darker then any of the other FF titles. You deal with deception and a lot of deaths. Much more deaths than any other FF.

Gameplay:
Ouch. Where do I begin? Let me start with the good, since I could probably write a book with the bad. This game is actually revolutionary.. in a twisted sort of way. It introduced a lot of things into the Final Fantasy saga. Like females (only 1) in the party, Mithryl equipment, the Ultima spell, chocobos, boss music, temporary playable characters, etc. But the most unique.. and probably the worst part of the game, is the leveling-up system. On this title, Square did away with the usual gather-exp.-until-you-gain-a-level deal, and introduced a whole new method. Characters gain stats and abilities by making use of these certain stats and abilities. For example, say you take a lot of damage in a fight and your hit points become low, you'll most likely gain more hit points from the attack. Same with magic points.. use em up, and you get more. If you attack often instead of using magic, your magic stats will go down and your power will go up. Same goes for the other way around. Sorry... no super-strength, skilled magic users in this game, folks. There is only one version of each spell, but it is your duty to strengthen these spells to their max levels/potential. That's the headache part: leveling up spells so that they're actually useful. Even if you use the cheap stat-building tricks (which I won't go into), it still takes a good while for magics to become stronger. Now that I think about it... that probably explains why I had only one magic user in my party. Like FF8 (the other Final Flop), it's possible to make your characters into near-gods. But the difference, is that when you do so in FF8, the game actually gets easier. In my opinion, this is one of the more difficult FF titles, folks. But unlike FF8, it's not because monsters gain strength as you do, it's because you get attacked often. And I mean often. There are some points where monsters will attack you at every few steps. And we all know that games like that can wear your characters, as well as your patience, down quick. Overall.. this game is a cess pool of plastic and data. But, like I said in my synopsis, it's good Square learned early, because almost every FF title after this one has been one great role playing achievement after another.

Audio/Video:
Actually, this part isn't half bad. The overworld and dungeon music is actually pretty decent for it's time, and it fits the game's dark mood well. The battle music is pretty much just a catchier version of the original, but bosses have their own music this time! Hooray! The chocobo music teased me, though. And if you play this game, you'll see why.
The graphics aren't bad. Mainly recycled sprites from the original Final Fantasy. However, the enemies are much more detailed, and even resemble some baddies in FF4. Now we know where Square got the inspiration for some of the monsters in that one. Character pictures now accompany the status screen (another FF first), as well.

Replayability:
In my opinion, there is none. If you've played it once, you've played it all. No secrets or side quests.. this game almost seems more linear than the first. To sum it up, this game is just not that fun. Strengthening your characters is a pain you probably won't feel like doing over again.. at least not for a while. I doubt I'll play this game again any time soon. I don't really recommend playing this one, unless like me, you're a die hard Final Fantasy player/RPGer.

Buy/Rent
Don't think you'll be able to find this one anywhere. Well, at least not the english version. There is only one way to go about getting that one... But, if it were possible to do either with this game, I wouldn't. Square smoked a liiiittle too much dust before they went into the planning stages of this one.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 09/29/01, Updated 09/29/01