Final Fantasy Origins

"A well-done port of a classic RPG, and another that's likely a new experience"

Square Enix's Final Fantasy Origins brings the original Final Fantasy, previously found on the NES, and the unreleased-in-North America Final Fantasy II to the PlayStation. The overall experience is a good one, with many improvements that fans of the original FF will find welcome.

Gameplay:
The gameplay in Final Fantasy is largely unchanged from the original; form a party from six classes, buy some weapons and spells, and bash monsters. There are only three major gameplay-related changes: first, combat moves much faster, largely because spells that target whole groups of monsters no longer play the spell animation, pop up three text boxes, and then repeat the sequence until all the monsters have been hit. Now, the spells will animate one time, and then effects (if any) will pop-up under each monster. Secondly, the bosses (and WarMech) have been ''beefed up'' with extra HP (thereby helping to prevent one-round battles with lategame bosses). Thirdly, the monsters no longer have ''spell lists'' that they cast in order; a monster can now cast any of its spells at any time, thereby taking a bit of predictability out of many battles. On a whole, the game holds up well, though it moves quite a bit more slowly than most modern RPGs. Players who expect to blaze through dungeons in one go, grabbing all the treasure and nuking off the boss on the way out, may find themselves frustrated by the difficulty of such a task; the game is geared toward multiple strikes per dungeon, rather than one big sweep.
Gameplay (Final Fantasy): 8

Final Fantasy II is worlds apart from its predecessor in gameplay. Anyone who has played the Final Fantasy Legend games on the Game Boy is familiar with the advancement model used in FF2; instead of gaining XP and levels, as in the original FF, characters find their stats going up as a result of certain actions. For example, if you attack, your strength may increase. If you take damage, your endurance and HP may increase. Also, the game does not feature classes; the characters have predispositions toward certain roles, but the player is free to dvelop them in any direction he pleases. Also, interaction is handled differently; the player can learn various keywords through the course of the game, and can ask various NPCs about them (the closest parallel that comes to mind is the SNES game Shadowrun). This adds a bit of depth to what is basically talking to the screen, but can also be frustrating if you've missed an important keyword and have to trek halfway across the world to retrieve it. The only major beef I have with FF2's gameplay is that monster power level doesn't scale very smoothly; many times you'll find yourself with monsters that are far weaker than your party, and monsters that are far stronger, and nothing in the middle.
Gameplay (Final Fantasy II): 6
Gameplay (Overall): 7

Story:
Final Fantasy doesn't have much in the way of a story. It provides just enough background and detail to give you a reason to be hacking through all those monsters, and then sends you off you do your thing. That's all the story I find to be strictly necessary in a game, but many players will be turned off by its lack of complexity.
Story (FF): 3

Final Fantasy II has a story much more like that of the later games in the series. In fact, one may say annoying like the later games: evil empire, rebel forces, airships, world domination. If you've played any of the later games, you know the drill. Unline FF, however (but like the later games), the characters have predefined existences and relationships, and are actually involved in the events of the world, rather than being ''mysterious travellers'' who never speak or actually get involved in the goings-on. The keyword system allows a touch of extra depth, also, since one has to ask the right people the right questions in order to move on.
Story (FF2): 7
Story (Overall): 5

Graphics & Sound:
Final Fantasy looks beautiful. If you've played the original game, you already know what the monsters are supposed to look like, and they look mostly the same, only bigger, higher-detail, and higher-colour. It's possible to recognise almost all of them from picture alone. The spell effects are changed from the old ''inch-long stream of colour'' into something more like what one would expect had one played the SNES games. The character models themselves are the only point of contention I have with the graphics; in the original FF, after class change, the characters look significantly more powerful. In FFO, they look different, but still have that ''little kid'' feel that they lost after class change in the original version. In all, a minor quibble.
The sound is also excellent. The music is basically the same, but fleshed out a bit for the modern hardware. And the annoying buzz that plays when speaking to people has been removed! The only issue with the sound is that certain attack sound effects (hammers, fists) sound very out-of-place, almost as though the wrong sound is playing.
Graphics & Sound (FF): 9

Final Fantasy II doesn't look nearly as polished. The models seem smaller, lacking in detail, and more pixellated. The animations are less fluid. The backgrounds feel a bit washed-out compared to FF's lushness. And the map is hideous, especially in ''globe'' mode. The sound, however, is on par with that of the original. I quite like the boss battle music (rather mysterious and Arabian), though it seems rather out-of-place as battle music.
Graphics & Sound (FF2): 7
Graphics & Sound (Overall): 8

Replayability:
Final Fantasy has, to my mind, quite a lot of replayability (it must, since I've been replaying it for fifteen years now). Once the game is finished, one can go back with a whole new party and try again. Or play with a smaller party. Or without changing class. And the game's new Easy Mode makes those sillier parties (one black mage?) more viable. Also, if you're into that sort of thing, there's the Collections feature. Gotta catch 'em all, I suppose.
Replayability (FF): 9

Final Fantasy II doesn't strike me as being nearly as replayable. The game always unfolds the same way and provides you with the same characters. Granted, the characters can be developed differently, but that seems to me to be the biggest downfall to the game's system. If you can do everything the first time through, what's the point of playing it again?
Replayability (FF2): 4
Replayability (Overall): 6.5

Features:
Final Fantasy has a lot of new features that veterans should welcome with open arms. The most noteworthy to my mind is that it is now possible to buy in quantity. This makes the early-midgame, when 99 potions at all times is a must, vastly more playable, as it eliminates the twenty minutes of leaning on the A button that was once necessary to stock up. Everything that was broken has been fixed (LOCK, SABR, TMPR, weapon elements), and many things now have different names, since they are no longer required to be quite so short (and since the threat of lawsuits from TSR has all but vanished). All the ''extra'' features from Final Fantasy are still present, as well: the ''secret'' world map, the slide puzzle (now with BIG PRIZES), ''monster alley'' northeast of Pravoka. Many useful new features have been added, such as a run button in towns and dungeons, the ability to cast LIFE, LIF2, and SOFT in battle, and auto-redirection on attacks (no more ''Ineffective'' bubbles). And, for the purists, all of those features can be disabled. It seems to me that a few monsters have been rebalanced, also - most notably the Sorcerers in the Ice Cave. They seem to show up less frequently and in smaller numbers, they move more slowly, and their chance of instant-kill seems to be lower. The end result is that the Ice Cave is playable now! Eureka!
Features (FF): 10

Final Fantasy II I am less able to gauge, since I never played the original. But the only feature that seems to be missing is the ability to buy items in bulk. However, since items aren't held in bulk in FF2, this is most likely an intention omission. And, for series fanatics, FF2 marks the first appearance in the FF series of a character named Cid.
Features (FF2): N/A
Features (Overall): 10

The Verdict: If you're a fan of RPGs, or a longtime fan of the original Final Fantasy, it's definitely worth your $30 for a copy of Origins. It breathes new life into an old favourite, and brings us a something that (to most of us) is a whole new game.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/25/03, Updated 07/25/03