My thoughts on the Final Fantasy series (Review)

[Ravenfreak]

Hi, I hope this thread is allowed here. I wanted to write up a review on my opinions on the very first game in one of the most popular franchises known to gamers, Final Fantasy! If not, feel free to lock the thread mods. Note: This review is based around the Origins version of the game for the Playstation as this is the version I played. For those not familiar with the franchise, Final Fantasy is a Japanese Role Playing game that made it's debut in 1988 in Japan on the Famicom. It was later released in the US for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1990. In 2003, to mark the franchise's 15th anniversary, a collection of the first two games were released on the original Playstation. This marks the first time the second game was released outside Japan, but the second game will be mentioned in a future topic. Upon booting up the game, you're greeted with a full motion video showing the events that have happened. The world has fallen to ruin, due to the four crystals being drained of their power. Their powers have been drained by the four fiends, whom were summoned by Garland the main antagonist of the game. In order to restore life to the kingdom, four warriors of light must team up to defeat the fiends, restore the crystals, and save the world! This is where the game starts!

Once the cutscene ends you get the option to start a new game, load a game from the memory card, or load from a memo file. Of course this was my first time playing the game, so I chose new game. Once you pick new game, you're greeted with a menu and from here you get to choose what classes of players you want in your party! The choices are warrior, monk, thief, red mage, black mage, and white mage. Since you get to choose the party's classes, the game has replay value right away. You can literally have a save with only warriors, another with only monks, a mix of classes, etc. You're not stuck with the same characters each time you replay it which makes it very unique! Later installments of the games sort of plays off this concept, but you're stuck with who you got until the end. If you're curious, my team consist of a warrior, monk, black mage and white mage. Later on, if you've done a side quest you can upgrade your character's classes too! Your warrior becomes a knight, monk a master, thief a ninja, red mage into a red wizard, black mage into a black wizard, and white mage into a white wizard!

Since this is a enhanced version of the game, all the sprites and music have been remastered! There's also separate music tracks for certain dungeons, which don't appear in the NES version at all! As with most soundtracks from the franchise, the music is beautiful. Honestly there wasn't a song I didn't like! The 8-bit chiptunes do have their charm, but ultimately this version has the better soundtrack. The graphics look like the Super Nintendo Final Fantasy games, so the games aren't in 3D which might make some players look past the game. Though if you're familiar with Final Fantasy 6 or Mystic Quest, the sprites won't look different from what you're used to seeing. Plus the cutscenes added really add to the story and immersed feeling you get from playing the game.

The mechanics and items are still the same as the NES version. However, this version of the game allows you to choose either to play on Normal mode or Easy mode! The only difference between the two are the max levels, and I assume bosses are probably a bit easier in the easy version. I played the game on Normal mode, so the max level my characters could make it to was 40. Also the final boss in this version has more HP than the original NES version, but that makes for a bit more of a challenge. Also since this was the first game, items and spells that appear in later games aren't in the origins version. They do appear in the Dawn of Light version on the GBA and PSP. (Items such as hi-potions don't exist in this version. You're stuck with normal potions...) This was honestly the only con with the origins version. This might not be a con for some players though, I found it quite annoying...

Overall the Origins version of the first game is great! I would recommend it over the NES version, but overall I'd say the PSP and GBA versions are better. If you can't find the GBA/PSP versions Origins can be found brand new pretty cheap on Amazon! I bought a copy for only $20 for the PS1. The enhanced graphics look great, the music is fantastic, and the cutscenes really bring the story to life. Overall, Final Fantasy via Origins gets a 6 out of 10. If hi potions were added to this version, it would have made it a bit better IMO. Still go and play it if you love JRPGs! The later titles are much better, but if you want to see where the franchise started give Final Fantasy origins a chance.

 

[Aries]

Wow, what a great review! Thanks for sharing

 

[Demon_skeith]

I still remember playing the GBA version and loving it. I forget if I ever played the first one on NES but its still a great start to a long series.

 

[itommy]

I played this game (Final Fantasy 1) in the past and it is an interesting game and I still remember. At this time I tend to play games on smartphones, they are easy and attractive to play with friends.

 

[Nova]

You have written pretty much detailed review. I am sure that there are some of the FF fans here who would love to chime in and put their opinion too. I played the game on the dosbox long time back. And after that I didn't read much into it.

 

[Ravenfreak]

Hey everyone I beat Final Fantasy 2 the other day! So I decided to write yet another review! I figure I will make this topic a place where I share my thoughts on the Final Fantasy games I complete. I'm starting to play FF3 for the NES, so once that's done I'll write another review. Anyways onto the FF2 review! Final Fantasy 2 you either love it or you hate it, and more people tend to hate it. Do I hate it? Continue reading to find out! Let's start off with the basic rundown on how this game works. Like any other turned based RPG, the goal is to defeat monsters, and save the world! Though this one does things quite differently, and that's the main reason why you see this game on the bottom of many Final Fantasy fans lists of the best games in the series. Just how different is it from your typical RPG? Well, there's no leveling system! Instead you master the use of weapons, and the way your stats increase depends on how much damage you take, how much magic you use in battle, etc. But you see, this game has a huge flaw with the system. If you continue to attack yourself, and keep selecting a target to attack your stats will increase! Anyways, I think that explains the basics of the battle system without going into too much detail. Because this is a review after all, and I'm sure you're more interested in what I think of the game!

We'll look past the battle system for now and focus on the characters. Right at the beginning we start with four characters, Firion, Maria, Gus, and Leon. However the player quickly realizes that the party of four will soon become a party of three. You lose Leon right at the beginning! We also learn quickly that Maria and Leon are siblings, and our main objective is to find him. Gus seems to be the slow character as he speaks somewhat like a caveman. Maria tends to be the red mage of your party if we're going with the old class system from the original game. For most of the game you're only stuck with Firion, Maria, and Gus with the occasional fourth party member joining in from time to time as the story progresses. We don't get too much of a back story for the three main characters, but this was an original NES game and you can only do so much with what limits you have. We know that each character comes from the same town, because we see this in a cutscene in the beginning of the game. The other characters you encounter don't have much of a back story either, aside from one or two. So the character development is really lacking in this title.

Alright enough of the characters, how about the story? Well the story is pretty similar to Final Fantasy 4 ironically. I say ironically, because Final Fantasy 4 was released as "Final Fantasy 2" in the states, because Squaresoft thought we couldn't handle 2 and 3 so we didn't get those on the NES. However, 4 came out later of course, so I think Squaresoft might have made 4's story a bit similar to 2's since the west didn't get it. Or I'm just reading into things, and they just accidentally made the stories somewhat similar. I don't want to give anything away, since there might be people who wish to play both games. I'll just say this, two characters have almost identical storylines. But what do I think of the story? It's a decent one, but I honestly like Final Fantasy 1's
story better.

So let's get back to that odd leveling system. I've already explained it earlier in my review, so feel free to look back at it if you need to. I'm one of those few in-between fans who actually quite enjoys the leveling system! Just the whole aspect of having to literally make the characters hit themselves to get more HP and better stats made it really enjoyable to grind rather than having to keep encountering monster after monster until you're at the "perfect" level. Don't get me wrong, I love turned base RPGs, but it was a nice refreshing break from the normal turned base RPG system. There's no way the game would be beatable IMO if you don't use the exploits to your advantages though. Most strong monsters would kill you instantly if you tried to play the game legitimately. I'll get more into that later on though.

Alright I think I've explained the many pros I have with Final Fantasy 2. So let's take a look at some of the cons. First, the most annoying aspect of the game is the inventory system. You only have 63 item slots, and items do not stack on each other! That means if you pick up three potions, those three potions just took up three item slots! Also most of those slots will be taken over by key items, which even after they serve their purpose you can't do anything with them! So you couldn't sell or toss them, they sit there for the rest of the game. Also in order to actually use items in battle, your characters must be equipped with said items! You can't access your inventory during battle! This really was my biggest complaint about the game. I also found the bosses to be quite easy, but I did have fun grinding so I was probably over powered for the entire game. Plus, I had the best weapons in the game so the final boss was a joke.

So do I love it or hate it? Honestly, despite the stupid inventory system Final Fantasy 2 was quite enjoyable. The fact that you could have your characters master the use of different weapons rather than relying on levels was a new, fun take on the traditional RPG. Plus, the whole entire leveling system was unique and fun! I did forget to mention the music, the soundtrack is decent but honestly I like the first game's soundtrack better. Overall if you like bizarre leveling systems, you will possibly enjoy this game. If you're used to the traditional system, you might find this one to be too odd. I rate Final Fantasy 2 a 7 out of 10.

 

[Demon_skeith]

another that I played on GBA, I just remember its music being really good.

 

[Nova]

Hows your experience on android version of the FF series. Have you enjoyed those games? I have found out that some people didn't like the android versions and some are kind of feeling good that some games of that series are being ported. So I wonder what's your opinion about it?

 

[Ravenfreak]

Honestly I haven't played the mobile ports, but I heard FFVI on mobile isn't that great. I'll have to play them sometime to give you an opinion on the ports.