Final Fantasy Anthology

"Timeless classics are lived once again, as they should be"

First, be advised that this will be a LONG review, so bear with me til I'm done.
FF Anthology is a collection of Final Fantasy V, which was a good game despite small setbacks (and was never released before in the US), and FF VI (released as FFIII for the Super NES), which was quite possibly the best in the series (with VII being a very, VERY close second).

First, FFV. The graphics are the same as the SNES, which is not really a bad thing, since many game companies when re-releasing these types of games, tend to mess with what would've still been a very good game into something that suck big time. Unfortunately, the graphics then aren't really good to begin with, although not too bad, either. The characters are tinny, and hard to tell who's who. However, the dungeons, towns, etc., are typical FF fare, and will not fully disappoint.

The music isn't as bad as many have said. As with all other FF games, Nobou Umatsu (sorry if I spelled that wrong. I can never spell Japanese names, regardless how well known they are, right) tries to set the music to the mood that the game is in. It is alright here. The battle theme could've used improvement, but the boss battle theme sound a bit like FFIX's was like). The sounds were excellent, however. Every swoosh and explosion was, for the most part, very well done.

The gameplay is pretty much what you would expect out of and Fantasy. It's unfair to compare this to any other FF game, since all the FF games had their own style and their own way of gameplay. FFV is no different. You are trying to stop a disaster called X-Death from occuring by protecting the four crystals, Earth, Wind, Water, and Fire. As they are destroyed (that's no secret that they will, though. The story gets somewhat deeper than that), you get the powers of the crystal shards, which in turns enhances the complex job system that the FF fans here didn't get to officially enjoy. You can set ''jobs'' of people like a black/white/red/blue mage(s), thief, Trainer, etc. The more you get into the game, the more jobs you obtain. Chocobos, airships, summon magic, enemy skills (the blue mage job is the enemy skill mage), and ''Cid'' make an apperance. Also, for anyone who played FFVIII, you'll be familiar with one NPC in this game, Giglamish (he IS in this one).

Overall, FFV isn't as bad as some have made it out to be. But be advised that it isn't the best, either. But don't compare this to the other FF games (unfair to compare any FF game to another one, since they have so much different between each other to do that). FFV doesn't impress, and neither does it try to impress. It's just a plain good game.

Now, FFVI has got to be, by far, the best out of the FF series. Every character has their own reasons of joining you, and you don't have to keep the main ''squad leader'' in the active party, like the later installments did.

You're following the story of the Espers. 1000 years have passed since the War of the Magi, an awful war between humans and espers. Fast forward to present time. You first follow Terra (wait till you see her role in all of this), bt the playable characters expand to 16 in all (14 regulars plus 2 side characters), the most of any FF game. As you progress throughout the game, you end up gaining Magicite, the remains of an Esper, and what allows you to use the Esper system of learning magic. As you equip the Esper (one to a character at a time) and battle, you slowly earn magic points (FFVI's ''Ability Points'') that will eventually allow you to learn the spell permanitly (you CANNOT use the spell AT ALL, even with the paticular Esper equipped, until you get 100% learned, unlike what some others will tell you).

The main villian is possibly the sickest bastard of a villian out of any FF game, or any game what-so-ever, Kefka (the only one to have rivaled him is FFVII's Sephiroth, the COOLEST villian in the FF games). This guy ends up being pure evil (wait until you see some of the stuff he ends up pulling). His actions will cause one of the regular plot-lines that the FF games seem to follow. Before the game is done, you will be wanting these characters to kick the living you-know-what outta Kefka. Mostly because these character have such deep and riviting plot lines that you'll care about all of them until ''The End'' comes up on the screen (and because you'll hate Kefka so much you'll want to go through your TV screen and take him out yourself after seeing the stuff he pulls).

The graphics on FFVI are up to SNES standards, but not PS standards. This is both a blessing and a curse, since some people will be glad to see hat Square didn't chance ANYTHING with the main game, while others will feel like something is missing now. However, once you get into the story, you'll see why graphics aren't everything in a game.

The music has got to be one of the best soundtracks that the FF games have ever gotten. Every music score fits the mood (sometimes even setting the mood) of the scene, not missing a beat. The sounds, while losing a bit of strongness in the translation from SNES to PS, are still top-notch.

The gameplay is all there. You won't be able to put this game down for a minute from beginning to end. The storyline is so rich and deep that you probably won't find everything your first or second or even THIRD play through (one paticular character, Gau, has a ''Rage'' command, but getting every single last Rage is something in itself). They crammed everything here, and it shows how well it came out. The PS translation does show slowdown that wasn't on the SNES version. However, this is mostly unavoidable because of the pheripheral that the game is on now (CD), and the amount of time between going to the menu and back to the game isn't that big of a deal once you get into the game. You'll be able to overlook this with great ease. Everything is so easy to get to, with the fluent controls. The only thing I wish they'd had done was to let you use the shoulder buttons to scroll through the item and magic menus during battle, when you're able to do this in the regular menus.

All in all, FFVI is a MUST HAVE, even now. You will be amazed what a game with 16-bit day graphics can deliver. If you played this one before, no better time than now to relive the past.

The FFA bonus CD is actually good, but would've been better if the battle musics were on the CD, as well. Fortunatly, ''Terra'' (the world map theme on FFVI) is on it, which is an EXCELLENT track.

FFA is a wonderful collection of two great FF games. FFVI is perfect, while FFV, although many people say it's the worst of the FF games, is still very good in it's own right (I got into it). Both of these games are worth the playthrough, and the music CD makes it all the more worthwhile. Buy this right away. It'll be worth the 40 bucks.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 06/02/02, Updated 06/02/02