Final Fantasy Anthology

"Missed out on FFV and FFVI during the SNES era? Well, look no further."

Final Fantasy Anthology is another two-in-one deal much like Final Fantasy Chronicles. Final Fantasy Anthology includes Final Fantasy V, a game that never reached American soil during the SNES era and Final Fantasy VI, a masterpiece of a game formerly known as Final Fantasy III in America. Like Final Fantasy Chronicles, the games were done better on the SNES. The lag is what kills this game but the lag in FFV or FFVI isn't nearly as bad as the lag from Chrono Trigger in FFC.

Final Fantasy V

Final Fantasy V did not impress me but a lot of people like it. It isn't a terrible game but it was the worst of the SNES Final Fantasy trio. However, Final Fantasy IV and Final Fantasy VI are some top notch games. There were some terrific aspects of this game but alas, there were also some horrific aspects of this game. Final Fantasy V uses the Job System. Now the Job System is downright excellent. This is the best aspect of this game. You have 4 characters and you pick out jobs for that specific character. What are jobs you ask? Well, let me tell you. Jobs include Black Mage, White mage, thief, lancer, monk, ninja, summoner, blue wizard and knight plus much more. Each jobs has their own specific weapons to use and abilities to learn. For example, a black mage would attack with a rod and would have the ability to learn black magic such as fire, ice and thunder magic. A monk would attack with bare fists and be able to counter attack. Another spiffy twist is that you are allowed a second ability slot. This second slot will permit you to use abilities from another job. So, you could potentially have a black mage with white magic as well or a knight that can summon Ifrit. The game play is phenomenal and is without a doubt, the best feature of this game. Unfortunately, the characters are mediocre and storyline flat out sucks. The main character is a character named Butz (Which was translated to Bartz fortunately) To put it bluntly, the characters have little development. They kind of just plow through the game. There is an attempt at some development in all of the characters, so it isn't all bad. The storyline is worse though. Yes, another Final Fantasy involving crystals. The crystals sealed the evil lord Exdeath (Stupid name, I know) and once he is freed, he wrecks havoc upon the world and it is up to the four warriors of light to stop them. This type of story has been used before so it isn't really anything special. There are a few select scenes, which are amusing, but it is kind of hard to get into the storyline. The characters are decent but there isn't a good storyline in this game.

The sound is just fine; the attacks can be heard nicely. The music is really not so good though. The regular battle music can get on your nerves, the regular boss battle is dreadful and the town and dungeon music is decent. There are two good songs in the game though, the battle with Gilgamesh and the battle with Exdeath come to mind. Unfortunately, these songs rarely come up in the game. It was disappointing. The graphics on the other hand aren't too shabby. Unlike this games predecessor, Final Fantasy IV, you can actually see the facial expressions of the characters throughout the game. They aren't spectacular mind you but they were a notch up. The creatures you fight are colorful and vivid which is nice and even the regular world map wasn't too bad. As far as difficulty goes, this game can be quite difficult if you don't utilize your jobs good enough. During my first play through, I was unable to complete the game due to my poor job training. However, once I applied myself and did a great job using the job system, this game was cake. So this game can be really hard or really easy. Just be sure you're smart from the very beginning, if you aren't, you won't make it through the game. Final Fantasy V lacks in the replay value department. There are a few plot twists and legendary moments in this game but when you play this game a second time, it isn't so good. A neat thing you can do to counter this is have different jobs each time you play. Fighting bosses with different jobs (Or no jobs if you want a challenge) can make the replay value much better. Final Fantasy V is a game that gets lots of love. As I've said, I didn't care for it but some people do. The fact that this game is now accessible to anyone is easily a plus.

Final Fantasy VI

Final Fantasy VI is considered by some to be the best Final Fantasy and considered by many to be a masterpeice. FFVI is the big gun of Final Fantasy Anthology.You start the game out with a green haired girl named Terra. She is under control of the Empire and is being used to obtain an esper. Soon it will become a journey to defeat an evil madman from ruling the world. There are a LOT of characters you will encounter. In my opinion, there is a little bit too much. You may like a lot of characters; I would have liked the number to be smaller because when there are a lot of characters, it detracts from the development and background of the other characters. Still, Square did a great job of giving each character a unique purpose and personality. You have a king, a ninja, a thief, a gambler and a moogle! And that's only a few of the many characters you will encounter! The main villain is Kefka. He is arguably the best FF villain. (Yes, he's better than Sephiroth) The story is magnificent and the characters are great. The game play starts out nice and simple. You'll have the basics. Attack with a weapon, use and item or use your special technique (Edgar, a character you get early, can use tools such as a drill or a chainsaw!) However, as you get further into the game, the true game play will be revealed; the Esper system. Espers are basically the deceased summons of FFVI. Throughout the game, you will obtain the crystals, these espers that allow you to some pretty spiffy stuff. If you've played FFVII, you will see it is fairly similar to the materia system. You can only equip 1 esper per person but when you equip them, you can summon them and they will either do damage to your foes or they will help you (Restore H.P., put a barrier around you etc) Also, when an esper is equipped, you start learning certain magical spells. When you defeat enemies, you gain experience to gain levels but you also get Magic points. Once you get a certain amount of magic points, you will learn the spell. My biggest complaint is that this only works well for characters with high magic. Some characters have low magic and can't really use the esper system to it's greatest potential. I found it to be a decent system but some people absolutely adore it.

Graphically, you may not be impressed with the graphics. Let me remind you that this was a game for the SUPER NINTENDO. Yes, and Super Nintendo Graphics are not Play Station 2 Graphics. So how do you determine the graphics? Well, you compare them to other Super Nintendo graphics. Final Fantasy VI's graphics are about as good as they get. If you look at the other SNES Final Fantasy graphics (a la Final Fantasy IV and Final Fantasy V) you'll see that there is a huge difference. For example, in the other Final Fantasies, when a character would attack, they would just move their weapon up and down and damage would appear for your opponent. In Final Fantasy VI, it becomes more realistic as the characters will actually move up and attack the enemy. The colors are vivid and exquisite and the background is lovely. You can see the facial expressions of several characters. Honestly, the graphics are just about as good as they get in Final Fantasy VI. Musically, the game is a masterpeice. Final Fantasy VI has arguably one of the best soundtracks of all time. The themes, battles and towns all work together in harmony. Let's also not forget the famous Kefka laugh. Heh. Musically, the game is a masterpiece. The game isn't hard at all, especially compared to FFIV and FFV but it won't really make too big of a difference. You still have to level up and be smart with the esper system.

Overall you just got to love Square for releasing these two games on the PlayStation. We can only hope that the future releases on the GBA of FFV and FFVI will be good too.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/06/06