Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls

"The origins of a legend still stand up pretty strong."

There are a few series with a bigger pedigree than Final Fantasy. Mario, Zelda, Megaman, maybe a few others, but few series are as internationally popular or have the history that Final Fantasy does. Americans have been a bit short for years though. After the success of the original Final Fantasy, Square churned out two sequels nearly immediately. By the time the original Final Fantasy was brought to the America, work was underway on the fourth title, with the first three already released. As such, Final Fantasy IV was brought over as FFII, and we were mostly oblivious (especially ironic considering that the original FFII was actually programmed in large part in California). After the correction with FFVII, the cat was out of the bag. Final Fantasy II was brought over for the first time along with Final Fantasy (again) in the PS game, Final Fantasy Origins. But since it was a PS1 game in 2002, many may have missed it. If you did, Final Fantasy I&II: Dawn of Souls for the Game Boy Advance has been released, and what you have is a classic bit of gaming goodness. Do they hold up all these years later? Eh, sorta.

Dawn of a Gaming Legend

Dawn of Souls contains two separate games, the first two Final Fantasy games, Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy II. Oldies are probably already aware, but this Final Fantasy II is not the Final Fantasy II you may have played on the SNES. This Final Fantasy II has never been on the SNES, only the NES, the PS1 (in Final Fantasy Origins), Wonderswan, and now here on the GBA (Now there's also a PSP remake). What we DO have here is essentially the same remake that you may have seen on the PS1. There are a few additions and there are some subtractions as well. This really makes it difficult to declare a definitive version, but it all depends on what your looking for. This still uses the new sprites from the PS1 version, but lacks the fancy CG from Origins. Most noticeably absent is the option to play the near original version. Origins allowed you to play the games either with their original difficulty and magic systems, or a reduced difficulty version that used MP, like every FF past III (though levels were retained). Dawn of Souls only contains the more simplified version of the game. Now, in truth, it's a better game probably this way. The original had obscene item and equipment costs and would require huge amounts of grinding. Furthermore, that Leveled Magic system was never very smart. But I still miss the originals on principle. This is the biggest point of contention for me. On the plus side, both titles include a wealth of bonus content. Final Fantasy features four huge (well, the last couple) dungeons that contain incredible equipment and incredible bosses. As a nice little feature, the bonus dungeon bosses are all pulled from later Final Fantasy games. Reverse Homage? Final Fantasy II features an all new quest made up of characters from that revolving door of a fourth slot.

While who participates in battle (and the roles they play) varies between the two game, the basic gameplay does not. The signature ATB system wasn't introduced until Final Fantasy IV, and so these two remain on the more simplistic turn system. Input all the commands for your characters, then watch as events unfold. Somewhat unique to the franchise is the idea of multi-hits. While your characters will increase in strength and damage as they progress, a large part of the damage increase will come from the number of hits that they put out. More agile characters will hit more often, and this will allow (at least at times) even weaker characters to do more damage by hitting more. It's a nice way of making Agility worthwhile, which is good, considering the somewhat random turn order that seems to plague each turn. Higher agility character certainly go first more often, but there seems to be some random factor, as not every turn played out the same way (which it should if things were static). This really messes with your planning, and it was quite irritating for me.

Two were made for each other

Over the years, these two Final Fantasys have been packaged together a few times. This makes sense because of the historic nature of them. Huge parts of what would because later Final Fantasy Standard can be found here. But despite all this, Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy II are two radically different games. It would be impossible to review the meat of the games, the gameplay, together so I'm going to break up this review at this point…..

Final Fantasy

Final Fantasy is where it all started, and if you haven't played it, you really need to. Modern RPG enthusiasts may become irritated by some of the antiquities, but it is aged remarkably well considering. The game starts by having you create your party of four characters and naming them. These four characters can by any combination of the six classes the game offers. These six classes are Fighter, Thief, Black Belt, White Mage, Black Mage, and Red Mage. Each class has its own advantages and disadvantages. It's been shown that basically any combination is possible, though picking a balanced party is smarter and will make your life easier. But if you want to go in with four White Mages, be my guest. In this system, we see the bare bones of the Final Fantasy Job system, but it lacks on important feature of the later games, the ability to CHANGE your job. While fairly late in the game there is an opportunity to upgrade your classes, the upgrades serve essentially the same role as their non-upgraded counterparts. Whatever you pick at the start of the game is what your stuck with. Pick at your own peril. Outside of that, you're left with what is now considered a fairly standard RPG. Travel from town to town collecting important artifacts and disposing of troublesome monsters. If you played the original, you'll note that this version gives you a lot more breathing room. There's no need to take 5 trips outside of town building up enough until you can defeat Garland. Maybe one or two, but that's it. He'll fall. Additionally, the thief job has been upgraded to where it's an appropriately viable option this time. It's still a solid, fun experience, but compared to these days, there's nothing particularly fancy about it.

Final Fantasy II

Final Fantasy II is where a LOT of what became Final Fantasy tradition got put in place. But ironically, it's quite different from most of its brethren. Oh, you still follow your predictable RPG pattern of find a new town, find a new dungeon, beat a boss, repeat forever. But FFII kicks EXP to the curb, basically. Rather, characters will gain stats as they use abilities. Attacking will raise Strength, getting hit will raise HP, using magic will raise MP. It's a nifty idea that tries to mimic reality a bit more than the arbitrary level system. Sadly, however, it just doesn't work that well. The version in this FFII is softened a bit from the NES days, and you can gain stats without sacrificing other stats as a result (of course, if you do one thing more than the other, that will be higher, but in the original stats would actually go down). Additionally, each character has weapon proficiencies and spells level up as you use them more. That Fire spell will do you the whole game. No Firaga or Fire3 here. The problem is that this system just leads to a lot of grinding. Getting a new spell is painful, as when you already have level 10 Ice, you have to train up that level 1 Holy up to speed. Additionally, there seemed to be some element of randomness in statistical gains. I had one character use magic fairly constantly, but they would only occasionally get an MP boost. A different character, however, seemed to raise MP at a much higher rate (and it wasn't even the one that was pre-disposed to magic growth). Perhaps if it grew faster it might be more interesting, but as it is, there's a lot of room for improvement. FFII has other problems too. The game keeps the original Final Fantasy's four person roster, but mostly in spirit. You start the game with only three members, and a fourth will join shortly thereafter. But then leave shortly after that. That fourth spot is a revolving door of characters, and in a game that requires so much grinding to build up, this is very annoying. You won't acquire your final fourth member until just before the end of the game. It's quite the chore to bring him up to speed with the rest of your party (in fact, I didn't even really bother). FFII is still a pretty good game, but it's got some issues.

Summary

Pros
+++ Two Classic games in one package
++ Final Fantasy still holds up as a unique and fun experience
++ A good amount of new content for both games

Cons

--- While Interesting, many of FFII's ideas fall flat.
-- Where's the original modes?
-- We've seen almost all of this before

This is really great pack for those who haven't experienced the beginnings of Final Fantasy and want to do so without sacrificing too much playability. Dawn of Souls offers a smoother experience of the first two Final Fantasy games and throws in a lot of extra content. If you already played Final Fantasy Origins, this might not be worth picking up unless you're a real die-hard, but for others, if you don't mind the simplification, this is the package to get.

8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 09/08/08

Game Release: Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls (US, 11/29/04)