Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls

"The founders of Final Fantasy return to Nintendo on the GBA"

Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls are back once again but this time on the Game Boy Advance. These are the very first Final Fantasy games that were ever made. If you have ever played Final Fantasy Origins, you will see that this game is practically the same, just portable.

Final Fantasy

Ah, here we go. Final Fantasy. The game that started one of the best and most successful franchises of all time. Final Fantasy was an interesting case. Square was on the verge of going extinct and so they focused everything they had into one game – Final Fantasy. With help from Nintendo's huge marketing campaign, Final Fantasy became an instant hit and Square has been a successful company ever since.

“When darkness veils the world, four warriors of Light shall come.” This prophecy from Final Fantasy 1 sums up the classic storyline quite nicely. The world is starting to decay and so it's up to four chosen warriors of light to save the world. This game has no regular characters which isn't entirely bad because this allows you to name your characters to whatever you want at the beginning. You start with a party of four characters and at the beginning of the game you have to assign each one of them a certain class. There are six classes to choose from. First is the Warrior which specializes in regular attacks and has good defense. Second is the thief who is less strong and tough than the warrior but is quick and agile. Next is the Monk who is a fighter that uses just fists. Also there ae the three mages being Black Mage, White Mage and Red Mage. Black Mage uses black magic like fire, white mage uses white magic like cure and the red mage has a bit of both magic. This was really huge back then and it still manages to convey a sense of a personal aspect even today by naming your characters and choosing their classes.

As you know from RPGs, you get stronger by defeating enemies and earning experience points. When you get enough experience points, you will grow a level. Growing levels is key because it raises your stats ranging from attack to magic to HP. You also earn gil from battles which are used to buy more powerful weapons, magic and items. Your characters go by a turn-based system in which every turn each character has several options to choose from. First is you can attack which you usually won't do too much with the mages but it's the main source of damage from the warriors and monks. Magic is what the mages use but unfortunately that takes up MP and if you run out of MP, you'll be forced to attack with crappy staffs. Oh well, magic usually does a good amount of damage. You can also use items which can do several things depending on the item. They can remove bad status effects, heal HP or restore MP. You can also equip during battle which you can't do in many Final Fantasy games. I also should mention that unlike many games, magic is actually bought at stores like weapons, armor and items. I suppose the irritating part of this game is the excessive, frequent, annoying encounter rate. Really, I am not that big of a fan of encounter rates but the game really suffers and loses that “fun factor” when the encounter rate is high. Had the encounter rate not been so high I can guarantee you this game would be more popular today. This isn't to say he game isn't fun, it's just the high encounter rates can kill you when you least expect it. A thing to note is that the theme of elemental shrines, specifically the four main elements (Fire, Earth, Water, Wind) really were an important part of this game and the elemental shrines would be used in many video games to come.

The soundtrack to this is classic. Nothing really outstanding by today's standards but it was a big deal back then. You must remember that these graphics are not today; it was at the very beginning of the NES. The graphics were good for their time, the towns and world map were drawn well, the creatures you fight were out of proportion but I liked it as it allowed you to see a creature with vivid colors and shapes. I was impressed; this game was a notch or two above other NES games. Like many NES games, Final Fantasy does prove to be quite difficult. You'll spend a lot of time level grinding which will get annoying after a while. I suppose it wasn't that bad back then when “level grinding” was a relatively new concept.

The NES was the birthplace of many popular series. Final Fantasy, Zelda, Metroid, Metal Gear and Mega Man all debuted on the NES as well as Mario games that were actually good. Final Fantasy will go on to become one of the best series out there. While Final Fantasy VII really got the Final Fantasy series to a higher state, it was Final Fantasy that but the original fanbase and that original foundation is still what drives not only the Final Fantasy series, but RPGs in general today. For an NES game, Final Fantasy is damn impressive. It is quite obvious that Square really utilized the NES to its maximum potential for this game. And it's a good thing they did because the future of Square was riding on this single game and this single game is what saved Square from the depths of Hell. Or bankruptcy.

Final Fantasy II

Final Fantasy II was originally released for the NES only for Japan. It was to follow up the game that saved Square from bankruptcy, Final Fantasy. Places outside of Japan were able to play Final Fantasy II first on “Final Fantasy Origins” for the PSX but soon afterwards Final Fantasy II was part of Final Fantasy: Dawn of the Souls for the GBA. At this point, pretty much everyone had access to Final Fantasy II. Unfortunately, Final Fantasy II ultimately ended up getting rather bad reviews and is often seen as one of the worst Final Fantasies. Having played Final Fantasy II, I really don't think it's that bad. I can see where the complaints are coming from but I feel they are blown way out of proportion. Final Fantasy II still isn't a great game and I'd say it's on the lower end of the Final Fantasy spectrum but it still wasn't terrible. It's almost as good as the original actually.

Final Fantasy II does place a much bigger emphasis on storyline and characters than Final Fantasy did. In Final Fantasy, you couldn't name your characters but in Final Fantasy II you can. The storyline starts off with empire of Palamecia and its ruthless emperor attempting to take over the world. When a rebel army from the town of Fynn rose to challenge the empire, they were crushed and four people found themselves fleeing from this incident. The main character is Firion. Firion reminds me a lot of Cecil from Final Fantasy IV although his character development is lacking. Of course, this was an NES game so it's quite alright. In addition to Firion, there is Maria who is a young woman looking for her brother Leon. Also joining you is the unique Guy, who is your gentle idiotic giant that can speak to beavers. How many characters can speak beaver? Final Fantasy II was a game of many firsts. To start, the tradition of Cid actually began in this game and not the original Final Fantasy. There was no Cid in the original Final Fantasy although they added a Cid in Dawn of Souls to FF1. Also, chocobos were first introduced in this game. Lastly, many enemies that would become tradition were first introduced in this game. Malboros and Hecteyes come to mind. The storyline to this game was a move in a different direction that would impact future games. There is a fairly high emphasis on story and characters, at least compared to most NES games.

The game play is what seems to be the biggest complaint about this game. Gone is the way of gaining experience from random battle. Gone are the levels of characters. Instead, the development system is implemented. I'll be honest, the development system sucks. Since you aren't gaining experience and growing levels through battles, there has to be another way to enhance stats. In the development system, for you to gain HP, you need to lose HP in battle. For you to increase your strength, you need to keep attacking in battle. Casting white magic would raise your sprit while black magic increases intelligence. Increasing magic in general helps to raise both Magic stat and MP. You can see how this isn't really fun. You really have to take damage to raise stats? Also, this system is very easy to abuse. If you haven't already guessed, attacking yourselves would really increase the rate at which you gain HP and strength as well as stamina. Skill Mastery is a better part of the game. All spells from Fire to Cure, from Blind to Ultima all start all level 1. The more often you use that magic, the more it will increase your gauge bar and when the gauge bar fills up, that magic level increases. The higher the magic level, the more effective it is obviously. This works with weapons and even shields too. For weapons, the more you use a certain weapon (Sword, staff, spear, knife, axe etc) the more it's weapon level will increase. A little extra feature is the learning system. Sometimes, important words or phrases will be said to you and highlighted in red. “You then can learn this phrase and ask certain people. Sometimes they'll know something and give you vital information.

The soundtrack still retains it's simple, concise, classic soundtrack that was found in Final Fantasy. While there wasn't anything overly impressive, there were a couple boss themes that I found to be pretty good. The graphics are a notch up from the original as the enemies have more color and detail. There are also the beginnings of rendered “cut-scenes” in this game. While they are a joke compared to say, Final Fantasy X, they were impressive during the NES era. Well, to the Japanese anyway. This game can be very difficult or it can de mildly challenging depending on how you raise your stats. It's very smart to take a lot of time to raise your stats at the beginning or even use the cheap method because this game does prove to be a bit challenging despite a broken battle system. Overall, I liked this game. I can say I understand the complaints of this game with the battle system. But to deserve a score of 2 or 3? I don't think so. Final Fantasy II still proves to be an important member of the Final Fantasy series.

Extras

Final Fantasy: Dawn of Souls has a Bestiary which you can do. The Bestiary is where you can view statistics on the enemies you killed. It really is a nice little addition. There is also two little extra things in both games as well. First is the "Soul of Chaos" which is four optional dungeons added to Final Fantasy. There is a lot of treasure and exploration to do in this. Not to be left out, Final Fantasy II also has "Soul of Rebirth" which is neat. "Soul of Rebirth" supports the plot of Final Fantasy II with old characters you know from the main storyline of Final Fantasy II with dungeons and new enemies from other Final Fantasy games like the Cait Sith. These extras are cool but nothing to really write home about. Overall, these are good games but if you already own Origins, maybe you shouldn't get this unless you really want classic Final Fantasy in portable form.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/30/04, Updated 12/04/06