Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls

"I won't ever get tired of remakes!"

Man, you can blame me as much as you'd like, but FF: DoS has been one of the games I was waiting the most: since I firstly heard about it from a FF site, I was very excited even because of the new dungeons which were said to be implemented, featuring bosses from other FFs... and so it was: finally the game was released in Europe and I ran to the shop to buy it... It was like being in heaven: I wasn't tired of this game not even after having played the original NES version, the WSC remake and FF Origins... the overall score is still a 10, as they highly improved difficulty and challenge while worsening graphics a bit...

GRAPHICS: 7.5/10

I knew they weren't going to modify them for this release... and the results are those: you get pretty graphics but nothing outstanding. Battle backgrounds and some magic effects (some even worsened though) are what makes the game shine... of course they removed the FMVs from the PSX version but that was obvious. Apart from that, taking them alone, they're the basic FF style: allies on the right, monsters on the left (no back attacks yet, just monsters' preemptive attacks), menu and stats below; when you attack an enemy, you either see your character swinging his weapon at the enemy (while remaining 20 metres far from it) or casting the spell. The towns are well made and so is the world map but let's face it: it's just your everyday FF feature... maybe this is the only thing you'll get tired of... after all, you may end up thinking you're fighting the same monsters over and over again, as they're merely differently coloured but that's another RpG basic (even FFX had it). So the final score is 7,5 because they didn't modify them for the GBA, they even worsened some battle effects and such...

As for FF2, things get slightly better, as magic effects finally are beautiful, except the high-level ones. Also there are many more monsters and they're just so well designed! Too bad the game was so hard to clear but in the new dungeons (regarding both FF1 and FF2) you get... well, even more differently-coloured monsters, bosses and some new ones especially for the secret dungeons... surely you won't be disappointed by them as they'll likely cover the whole monsters' part of screen!

AUDIO: 8.5/10

This is surely going to be boring: I'm sure that every one of you has already learnt by heart every FF theme, since they're very, very and very (did I say very?) repetitive, but they're also so great to listen to! Especially the World Map theme and some dungeon themes... they're always the WSC and PSX musics only tuned down a bit in order to be ported in a GBA (even if in my opinion it could handle PSX music without any problems). Sound effects also got tuned down but you won't notice it often. In overall, the score is high because the music themes are as great as always but everything has been modified just to be ok with the GBA sound quality. As for FF2, things are better (as always): musics really make you feel in the game (just hear the theme that plays when Minwu is reviving you) and it won't almost seem a remade game.

STORYLINE: 8/10

At this point of the review you may think: how could the ranks sum up to a 10? Just wait a little longer. Anyway, the storyline is always the same: we've gone through it countless times and even if translations tried to make it sound better it's always the same: as for FF1, 4 Light Warriors must begin a journey to defeat the evil menace that is embracing the world in darkness (there's some interesting time loop theory in there...) while in FF2, 4 young guys escape from their hometown when it's burnt down by imperial soldiers and begin their journey to find Maria's brother Leon who disappeared in the escape and to defeat the evil emperor of Paramekia... while FF1 storyline is... let's face it: a bit crappy, FF2 story actually is a story itself with many twists and surprises... in FF1 you mostly do this: go there, pick that, bring it to pinky, pinky gives you bloopy and with bloopy you can open that and advance in the storyline... all that guessing what to do where and when. In FF2 you're actually told where to go (and you can only go there because if you take a wrong turn you'll be slaughtered by strong monsters) and everything is more FF stylish (if they don't put in a rebellion against a big force they're not happy).

GAMEPLAY: 10++/10

I know I cheated a bit, since this counts as a 12... man they improved it like hell, in both games! There are a lot of new weapons (most of them are held by secret bosses) but also great armors to have to defend from early bosses! And the biggest change takes place in FF1: there are MPs! Normal MPs like FF2 and almost all the others! That's really a relief, because magics get more useful and you can use them more (well in some cases you won't but at least you pick magics from only a big cauldron) and it's great to see another number near the characters' HPs. You still have magic levels though, and you can always buy only 3 spells per level. In FF2 there are no big changes... there aren't at all... the insane level up system is still here, (insanely) smiling at us and there always are MPs like the original game. Weapons, shields and spells always get those 16 levels and such. However, Square added 4 secret dungeons to FF1 and 2 bonus dungeons to FF2. To have access to FF1 dungeons, which are located in new places (if you see something that doesn't appear in the original game or in the PSX remake... ok, that's the entrance to a secret dungeon) you've got to beat up some bad guys and then their statues which block the entrances will shatter... you'll find many more items (they got enhanced as well... now there are many more) and weapons and armors as well as secret bosses and GREAT (and I underline GREAT) puzzles and enigmas. As for FF2, after completing the game you're given the chance to do a new piece of story using other characters... like Minwu and others (get it?)... actually the dungeons are only differently-coloured, reversed versions of the original ones but they're still great and filled with HUGE and POWERFUL monster, more powerful than any of the original game! These are just the changes, as you should be already familiar with the battle system.

DIFFICULTY - FF1: EASY - FF2: MEDIUM

Normally I'd have scheduled FF2 as hard like hell (like I did in my PSX review) but speaking of the GBA version it'd be a lie: now that you can save everywhere the game gets easier, and so if monsters keep slaughtering you you can always save, then go on, find easy monsters, save, go on and such... FF1 (remade) is always one of the easiest game ever made, as for 99% of the game you'll keep pressing X. Some secret bosses can actually be a challenge though. In FF2, the secret dungeons finally are challenging, a lot more challenging than the main game (and that's saying thins) but again: you can save everywhere so you shouldn't have problem. Bosses are tough, very tough.

FINAL WORDS

If you're a FF collector, stop reading this rubbish and buy this at once before they run out of copies... if you like FF and you never tried the early ones, that's one of your chances to get them... if you like RpGs in general you may find FF1 a bit easy but FF2 will greatly entertain you.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 02/08/05