Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls

"RPGs for the soul"

By now, you should know what Final Fantasy is, or at least be marginally familiar with the name. People buy Playstations just for this franchise! But before there was X-2 girl power and a Cloud Strife fanboy overhaul, Final Fantasy represented something simpler. It was the start of the RPG genre and an important part of many people's NES and SNES childhoods. If you miss any of that, then you're in luck, because the original Final Fantasy is back and in much better form than you might remember.

Graphics:
First off, the graphics have been greatly improved from their NES roots. Battle backgrounds are now fully-painted landscapes, and characters are comprised of much smoother edges. Many of the monsters have even received visual upgrades to make them look less ridiculous. The whole package feels more similar to the FF games on the Super Nintendo now, but the move is so fitting that it may take you half the game to realize this isn't what Final Fantasy used to look like.

Sound:
The music seems to have gotten treated as well. The leap from NES to GBA doesn't change the quality too much, however, because the Game Boy chip still produces a lot of scratch and noise. Fortunately, all the familiar tunes are intact plus a few new ones for certain areas. That battle theme is always classic.

Gameplay:
And classic, as you know, is what this compilation is all about. Final Fantasy doesn't bother with many of the elements that have started to bog down its current-generation sequels. This is pure, unadulterated RPGing. Well, not totally unadulterated. Some changes have been made, but all for the better. The magic system works more like every other FF game to date, and many of the glitches and typos have been fixed. There is even a new "save anytime" function, so you no longer have to be in a town to save your data. Not only does this save your butt before confronting an unexpected boss, it makes the game more accessible to take on the go. So Final Fantasy still plays great, as one would hope and expect.

Frustration:
But Final Fantasy isn't perfect, even if it is Final Fantasy (does that make any sense?). I'm not going to hound on random battles as I usually do, because they really aren't that annoying in this game. What does annoy me is just how difficult it is to flee a battle. You have to select a "flee" command for each character, then wait and hope they can escape on their turn. It rarely works, giving the monsters an extra chance to smack you around. As such, it's always easier to just fight the monsters than try to run, even if what you are fighting is incredibly weak and not even worth the effort.

My second biggest problem with these early FF games is the over-abundance of status ailments. Dark. Cursed. Poison. Stone. Paralyzed. Confused. Who thought of all these?! Some ailments wear off in battle, but others linger even after you rest up at an inn. Antidotes are cheap, so it's no problem carrying around 100 of them to cure poison. But what about the others? You either have to have an expensive item or a rare spell. Okay, so maybe you have a lot of money to buy this stuff, but having to repeatedly stop and cure everybody's ailments is extremely tedious. For the record, though, this is more a problem with FFII than FFI.

I should note that FFII isn't even that great of a game. FFII is all about sending you on fetch quests back and forth across the map. Not to mention its leveling up system is quite drastic and makes no sense. Characters' skills, hit points, and abilities to use certain weapons rise at different rates and for different reasons. Needless to say, I never figured out how to get anybody's MP over ten. And even if your character is super strong, there are times when they will do zero damage. Not miss. They actually do zero damage. Imagine getting stuck in a boss battle where everybody can't do any more damage than zero! Yeah, I finally just had to quit playing.

Lasting Appeal:
That's a shame, too, because FFII is a much longer experience than FFI. But FFI by itself still makes Dawn of Souls worth a look. The main quest may be over in under eight hours, but there's a lot of content here. Several new--and completely optional--dungeons have been added as well as some familiar monsters from other games. It's also fun to play through the game again with a different cast of characters. Maybe all red mages or no spell-casters at all! On top of this, you can always just consider FFII an extra bonus.

Overall:
If you at all remember the old Final Fantasy games--and liked them--this is a must. Whether you keep it forever or sell it on eBay, it's worth playing through a classic and traditional RPG when today's RPGs are getting ridiculously long and boring. But I am far from a Final Fantasy fanatic, and what has always bothered me about the series is still present, just in smaller form. And as a total compilation, the inclusion of the not-so-great FFII brings down the overall experience a notch. Still, this one's recommended.

Points:
+ Classic, no-fluff RPG
+ Polished and extended from original
+ New save function
+ Tons of content
-- FFII isn't that great
-- Fleeing battles is too tedious
-- Too many status ailments (especially in FFII)

Score: 8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/30/06