Final Fantasy Origins

"Where it all began..."

Intro:
Square goes back to the beginning with the first two games that started it all. Final Fantasy 1 and Final Fantasy 2. Both of these games are role-playing games for the playstation 1. These games are what started it all for at the time, a little known company called Square.

Gameplay: 8/10
I found that when I had played Final Fantasy 1, it wasn't too hard or too easy and it should provide just enough challenge for the average gamer. I found final fantasy 1 to be enjoyable especially since you get to pick from 6 character classes and these classes make up the basis for your party later on. These classes include fighter, blackbelt(monk), thief, white mage, red mage, and black mage. Later on you can promote these classes and become more powerful. The battles are turn-based and you earn experience points, which allow you to gain levels and become stronger. This is the basis for most rpgs. However, there is always something bad to go with the good, being an RPG lover, I was disappointed in Final Fantasy 2. The battles here are also turn-based and there are no ''real'' classes in Final Fantasy 2. This means there was no red mage or fighter. It just looks like 4 people who are just “there”.There is also no way to “level up” as in part one and there are also no experience points. So one probably wonders, how do you get stronger? For each stat you want to go up, you do a corresponding action with it repeatedly. For example, if you want your strength to go up then you attack, if you want your hp to go up then you get hit a lot. Basically, the game decides when your stats are raised. Also, you have 16 levels of magic spells and 16 weapon levels, which go up as well. After every so many levels, the spells change the way that they look, but that alone is not worth getting all 16 levels. To get all these to go up can take a long time and I found it to be just as such, a waste of time. There is one other thing that I can say that I am glad was put into the game, back in the day if someone killed a monster and the next person was supposed to attack it, then they would which meant that they hit nothing! This has actually been fixed in both games with an option called auto-target that will allow you to attack the next monster in succession.

Story: 8/10
In the first final fantasy, the story line was pretty good involving orbs which must be used to save the planet. Each one corresponds to an element. The game is pretty much linear and you go from town to town doing what ever needs to be done in the hopes of trying to save the planet since the orbs are what is causing the planet to die if they are not put back into place. It is your job to make sure it is done and of course, there is a plot twist near the end that I will not spoil for anyone. The same is said for FF2 however, it does not involve the orbs and this time it involves an empire trying to take over the world. In this game there is also a “keyword” system that is used at certain times however I found this to be quite redundant. At times, when you talk to people you have to “memorize” what they say and repeat it back to them. Honestly, I thought that was the stupidest thing I had ever seen considering that in most rpgs it is understood that the characters are automatically going to ask about where they need to go on their quest. In my opinion, the story for FF1 was much better than FF2.

Graphics/Sound: 7/10
In this remake, the graphics seem to have been touched up a little and the sound is better. It seems in FF1 and 2 there is more color and the music just sounds fuller. There are also opening cgi scenes, however, that is all they are scenes. They really don’t describe much except the one for final fantasy 2 where everyone is running and even that is average at best. I was hoping there would be more cgi movies throughout the game, but there were none.

Playability: 6/10
I found final fantasy 1 to be slightly replayable considering the fact that I had enjoyed it so much, but no matter what, once you play it and see the ending, that’s all folks. There’s not much in the way of going back and doing everything again. There is a gallery of yoshitaka amano’s stuff and bestiaries of enemies but I found that stuff not even really worth looking at, other fans might differ at this opinion.

Final Recommendation:
Is it worth it? I think it is. All in all, I would have to give this game an 7. It’s come a long way but it does have some extras and it has been slightly redone, I think this game would be good enough to get just for final fantasy 1 since I did not like final fantasy 2 that much. However, if you are in doubt then a rental should be made which might help you make your decision easier.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/07/04