Final Fantasy Anniversary Edition

"Oh Boy, a Remake of FFI! Who would've ever thought of that?"

Okay, don't get me wrong. I LOVE Final Fantasy. ESPECIALLY the first one. It combined excellent fantasy with a great battle system. But c'mon! How many remakes do I have to suffer through? Off the top of my head, I can think of no less than 5 re-releases. FIVE. At what point do you say "Well, we've milked this cow dry. Lets come up with something original,"?

The game itself remains the same as it's original variant. Four Light Warriors must go on a quest to stop the ultimate evil, etc. There isn't anything wrong with this, however. The original Final Fantasy was a true classic and remains one of my favorite games to date. So no point deduction here.

As far new content goes, this game introduces new graphics, a new dungeon(Also the four new dungeons from the GBA remake make a reappearance.) and several minor features, such as an Art Gallery, Music Player, a Bestiary, and so on. It also offers a brand new translation. They also changed the magic system.

The new graphics do look very good. They took the Graphics from the GBA and PS1 releases and made them not look like sprites but like little pieces of art. While I appreciate it, I've heard many say they disliked it because, and I quote, it "looks like a flash animation". This is somewhat true, I will agree, but the games many sprites do look just fine.

They bring back the four bonus dungeons from the GBA release, which is okay(It would have been pointless to take them out, so they did do something right) Unfortunately, the dungeons are not very interesting at all. You go through a dungeon with pointless types of maps(You'll go from the middle of an ocean to an oasis in the desert) That start and stop you in various places(With no real sign on where, meaning you have to buy the strategy guide if you even want to attempt these) and they're long. Really long, like 5 hours to run through long. The worst part is, once you get to the bottom, there are four bosses(4 from each final fantasy, starting with 3 and ending with 6) Now, I wouldn't mind having to fight the bosses, IF I DIDN'T HAVE TO BACKTRACK THROUGH THE ENTIRE DUNGEON ONCE I BEAT ONE! After you kill one, they send you back to the top of the dungeon. Pointless. There is no reason why you shouldn't be able to fight all four before leaving. I never even bothered with the other three bosses in each dungeon for that fact.

They add in a brand new dungeon as well, the Labyrinth of Time, which is honestly nothing more than a huge pain in the ass. You're forced to sacrifice one ability at all times in this place(That ability can be the fight command, the magic command, even items.) Which is extremely frustrating(Although I gotta admit, it does make sense to add in a place like this, as now this game matches every other Final Fantasy, cause they've all done this) It simply feels long and unnecessary, and I honestly have no desire to go back and play it again now that I've beaten it.

The extra features, such as the bestiary, music player, and other stuff, do make the game seem nicer. It collects the stuff for you as you play the game, which is enough to drive me to try to find all the hidden enemies and such. Little features like that are what make a remake good, if you ask me.

The game has suffered a re-translation, but it's not that bad. Several of the most popular quotes still remain(Such as "I, Garland, shall knock you all down!") and several of the things that made the game difficult to understand were replaced. No complaints about this, either.

Back in the original game, they used an Magic Level system, where magic level one would have 20 points, and contain weak spells, while magic level two had 15 points and had several stronger spells. Each spell cost one point in it's magic level and really added a level of strategy to the game(They continued this system until FFIV) They updated it this time to have the basic Mp Cost system(They updated this in the GBA Remake too) Which is okay, I understand they wanted this to match up with the other games in the series, but also kind of saddening how they'd replace one of the things that made this game seem great. If you're a real old-school kinda guy, you'll dislike this change too.

OVERALL:5/10
So, in the end, Final Fantasy Anniversary Collection doesn't really hold up too well. If you've played any variant of FFI before, skip this one. If you haven't or are a major fan, then do your self a favor and pick this up. I believe it's down to $20 these days, which isn't bad at all.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 12/01/08

Game Release: Final Fantasy Anniversary Edition (US, 06/26/07)