Final Fantasy I and Final Fantasy II were RPG games on the NES, both being exceptional, popular among players both in the US and Japan. Back then they were the longest and most complete games for the NES. No other game before them was as impressively complex and interesting. While the story was almost nonexistent, the sheer variety of places and people you could meet simply blew every other game out of the water. A large amount of strategy was required to get into these games. This is fact that it sold many copies and encouraged SquareEnix to stay in business when they originally planned to go out of business after FF was released. Surprisingly, despite the fact that FF sold very well, SE never released FFII outside of Japan. However, you can now play it in these two games on one cartridge game for the GBA. Mind you though, this is not the first time SE re-released FF and FF II together and updated the graphics and sound. They released the updated games on a console called the WonderSwan color, which I almost knew nothing about in 2000. They did it again on the original Playstation in April 2003, and now this is the third time. Now people who never owed a PSX or the so-called WSC can get this easily. One question is, is it just as good as the ones on the NES? Read on to find out.

(Note: The comparisons I make in this Review are to the NES version. I’ve only seen a few screenshots of the games on WSC and PSX, so anything different in those games, I don’t know about.)

Story: 7/10

You have to remember that back on the NES, very few games had good storylines in them (that is unless you read the manual). It was just basically go to this and do that without much explanation. You will start with a small and easily accomplished quest like rescuing a princess from a bad guy or getting an item, which will then take you into a far greater quest on which you will need to save your world. However, with no storyline to help you on your way, you’re pretty much left on your own to figure out where to go next and how. This is how RPGs more or less were made then, though not always. Anyway, FFI begins with four adventurers that you choose (and name) in the beginning of the game, before you meet up with the king of Corneria. He tells them that the knight that turned evil, Garland, has kidnapped his daughter, Princess Sara. You must defeat him and bring the princess back. After doing this, you won’t know what’s going on until you learn later on that the elementals of power, Earth, Fire, Water, and Wind, are being corrupted and that you must collect the crystals they have with them to save and restore the earth. The plot does take a twist later on, but it’ll mean a spoiler. FFII storyline isn’t as good or original as FFI. It starts off as four young adventurers named Firion, Maria, Guy, and Leon. Their home village is attacked and raided by a empire called…The Empire (oh god), which wishes to destroy the rebels. While trying to flee, they are ambushed and injured. When they wake up, they are being healed at Altea, a rebel city. They were saved by Hilda, commander of the Rebels. FFII’s story line is slightly better and takes on more of a darker storyline than FF I (and maybe even any other FF while we're at it!).

Graphics: 6/10

The graphics that have been remade are good though not very impressive. While the characters, backgrounds, and places are more detailed, colorful, and realistic (while still keeping their basic look) they are outdated for the GBA. For sprites and backgrounds that were redrawn and respirited for WSC and PSX, it should have evolved more. Even just some new colors or looks would have made the game better. Not all of the graphics are bad though. Some of the fight actions look better, especially when someone casts a spell. The monsters, sadly, don’t move, as if frozen like a statue in battle. The backgrounds, caves, and castles are probably the most improved when it comes to graphics. They're still outdated though. This would have been acceptable if this were a SNES game or VERY early GBA game. Overall the graphics are good, but SE could have put more effort, even if just a little bit.

Music/Sound: 7/10

The music is a mixed bag throughout the games. Obviously, the songs have been orchestrated and made more efficient… sorta. While the fight song is action-packed, the victory song is nostalgic and cool, and the overworld theme is catchy, not every song has this plus. The theme in the Gurgu Volcano for example, has changed a lot. In fact, I didn’t know it was supposed to be the original tune until I looked it up! One or two other songs are like this too. The battle songs when you fight bosses are now different than the regular battle music. This applies to both FFs. FFII has slightly more orchestrated and well-tuned songs, but they're not nearly as hummable and memorable as the originals. The sound effects generally sound better, but that’s just it.

Control: 10/10

There isn’t much to say on the controls. You push the direction pad to move the characters, one button to perform an action like talk, fight, open a treasure chest, etc, and another to cancel a commend. It's much like the NES except it’s on your GBA. I guess it’s perfect. It’s a bit Slow and unresponsive at times, but cool.

Gameplay:
For the two games, I'm going to divide up the gameplay for each one. Note that I will explain the changes that have been made to the gameplay in a separate exclusive section. I’m explaining this to those unfamiliar with FF I and II.

FFI: 8/10

The game is like many other RPGs: it’s a turn-based game. Between each turn when you fight, you select what each party member will do, and the computer invisibly selects its actions. This requires you to use strategy in order to win battles. Once your selections are made, the round of combat is carried out with each party member and monster performing their selected attack. As you complete battles, you slowly level up your stats, which gives a boost to your Strength, Intelligence, and so on to help you. It's pretty much like any other RPG. The battles are easily played, the magic system is quite easy to understand, and after a while you will manage to use both the strong and the weak points of your characters. You start off to select four characters from six classes. You can have a Fighter (called Warrior in this game) who has incredible strength, high hit points, defense, and can equip most armor and weapons but lacks in spells. There’s a Thief that is more likely to be able to run away from battles than anyone else, but can’t equip many weapons or armor. There’s also a Blackbelt (called Monk in this game) that, like the Thief, can’t equip many weapons or armor, but after some levels, he can use his bare hands and start dealing out as much damage as a Fighter. Then there’s a Black Mage, who is the weakest character, physically speaking, has the lowest HP of any class, and has pretty much no offensive power at all. However, his strength comes from his unique skill in wielding black magic, which can deal a lot damage. Then there’s the White Mage, who is much like the Black Mage except her spells mostly consist of healing and defensive magic. Finally there’s a Red Mage, who is the jack of all trades, making him very well balanced, but he won’t excel in any area (i.e. can’t learn high level black magic or equip any advanced armor). You can later upgrade your characters. They'll look better, fight better, and have access to more equipment than before. Unlike some Fantasy RPGs, you don’t gain spells be leveling up; you have to buy magic from a shop and your guy (or gal) learns it automatically. This does cost you money, and you have to be at a certain level in order to learn it. So you can’t learn that level 9 Nuke spell at the beginning of the game. This gameplay is better than its sequel…

FFII: 5/10

FFII is… different… very different… in the leveling up system that is, and I don't mean that in a good way. FFII is like FFI except for the storyline and the leveling up system. I haven't seen another system like it. The level system on FFII isn’t very good as although more like real life, it doesn’t work out as well. Take this: There are NO LEVELS! That’s a right folk! No levels, which means you have no idea how to get stronger at the start of the game because you're not told. You'll eventually learn it, but in a semi-bad way. For example, you will never be able to have a jack-of-all-trades character that can do both spells and fight very well at the same time. So how do you level up? Your weapons and skills will improve based on what happens in the battles. For example, if you use an axe a lot, your character will be stronger when he uses an axe, causing more damage. If he suffers a lot of hits, he’ll gain more hit points and increase his defensive power…. which is weird. Or if he has a wand, his magic will increase. The spells used in this game are a bit weird though. For example, you can buy FIRE, but if you wanna learn FIRE2, you have to use FIRE over and over again so note that it will consume a lot of MP. This isn’t that bad, but it’s quite flawed as a wrong move can make your character WORSE. You will have to worry about that as the random encounters in this game seem tripled. I swear, without the random encounters, the time I beat this game could be cut in half. So be prepared to do a lot of fighting (and ones with unpredictable fighting styles, mind you). FFII also comes with a new interface; you must memorize some important things from the phrases that people say to you, and then use them in the conversations that you face later on. If you do so correctly, you will spot new events that may help you advance in the story, otherwise you will just listen to some unnecessary points things. Also in this one, you won't be able to choose the class of your characters, but all of them are somehow good for you using them. FFII is the first FF game to feature Chocobos, an ostrich-like bird that you can ride on that is seen in many FF’s, as well as the airship-loving Cid. The gameplay is not good and I wouldn’t play this one unless you really REALLY like to play it… in that case I won’t stop you.

Changes for FFI: 6/10

The biggest change in the entire game for FFI is the difficulty. It seems SE made the game easier so you won’t have the frustration of the earlier game. I guess that’s okay, but they really turned it down way too much. Take this: levels are now gained at a much faster rate than the original game. This means you can quickly beat the game without having to level up a lot. People who like to level up their characters for fun won’t find much of it here. Also, any character that was selected to attack a monster that has since died or fled will now automatically select a new target. Many people will likely welcome that, but it does remove some strategy from battles. Another thing is every item, spell, and piece of equipment is sold at a 30-40% discount to reflect the rapid level up rate. This lets you get spells and items much more easily and conveniently than before. The save system has completely been changed to where you can create a save at any time, both in the overworld and in a dungeon. One of the new changes made in this version is a plethora of new items sold at the shops (to include Ethers, Phoenix Downs, and items to cure several status ailments). This makes it easier so that you won’t have to worry about dieing or running out of magic. That brings down the fun factor because now I know nothing bad will happen to me: I have a bunch of Phoenix Downs so I don’t have to worry about dieing even the middle of nowhere! There have been significant alterations to initial stats and stat growth for some classes. Among other things, this serves to make the formerly weak Thief class now a bit overpowered, as they hit many more times than the suddenly outgunned Warrior. I think the biggest changes of all aside from the difficulty, is the magic system. The Intelligence stat works significantly more when dealing damage or healing party members, so a Black Mage casting a spell or using its item equivalent would produce significantly better results than a Warrior using the same item. Also, the spell level-based Magic Points are gone in favor of a more traditional Magic Point system. This causes significant unbalancing when combined with the ultra-quick leveling system. It almost seems that Mages can now quickly get a bottomless pool of MP, allowing them to blast their way through any dungeon. This leaves out the point of buying items because your mages can get a good chunk of MP to cover that. I mean, why bother buying cheap potions when my White Mage has it covered for a long time! Combine that with the Eithers that restore some of your MP and you got yourself a game that’s a piece of cake. The main bosses of the game have higher HP, but that's not even a concern due to the low difficulty of the game caused by the other changes. There are some new bonus dungeons which give you a good reason to play this game. It’s good a thing to see this. The problem is that they are huge mazes. I got easily lost in the second one after completing the fire volcano and it took me an hour or so to find the boss. So be prepared to do some wandering around if you plan to do these. One more thing is the dialogue has been changed and reworded to give you a better sense of direction. New cutscenes have been included too.

Changes for FFII: 7/10

Final Fantasy II fared slightly better in its changes. The so-called select/cancel glitch, which allowed for quick weapon skill boosting, has been removed. Its much-maligned stat gain system has been retooled, and party members gain stats quicker than in the original game. This rate seems to be a tad too quick though, as the difficulty drops off vastly as you go on. Also, opposite stats are no longer aconcern. No longer will you lose points in a magic stat from raising your strength too much. Other notable new features include item stacking (which removes the limited item space issues the original had), auto selection of a new target when the original one becomes invalid, and a steady HP gain every so many battles no matter what occurs in them. The end result is a game that's significantly more playable than the original, but also noticeably easier, like it’s older sister, FFI.

Diffculty: Medium-Low

The difficulty has been downgraded thanks to the new magic system and the ability to gain levels more quickly and easily. Somehow, the things and systems from other FFs, like items and the magic points, don’t work that well in an old game like this. It simply wasn’t made to. This gives too much power and too little length to complete this game. I managed to beat FFI in only tenhours and FFII in 15 hours. How about that? Even the new dungeons don’t make it any more difficult (unless faced at a low level). I assume that’s what the new graphics, sound remix, and the new dungeons are for. It's a little like putting steak sauce on tofu: if you pour enough of the glop on, maybe it'll distract you from the fundamental lack of “flavor”.

Fun Factor!: 7/10

Well I had fun despite the low difficulty. Anyone who is a fan of RPGs will have a ball with this one… especially for people who are not at good at RPGs or love FF to death. I consider it more of a nostalgia trip though.

Replay Value: 4/10

There’s really no reason to play this game again. For Final Fantasy I you can play it again with different classes and members to get a different battle system. FFII, though, you probably won’t touch again for another year. A thing included in this game to give the replay value a small boost is the monster gallery. Once you beat an enemy, it will appear in a gallery in which you can see it’s hit points, offensive power, defensive power, and so on. If you beat the game and haven’t beaten a certain enemy, you can play it again to see.

Recommendation:

I'd rent it, since you're more than likely to beat it within the renting time. If for some reason you feel like playing it over and over again, then buy it. But it’s not worth buying though. Why waste $40 on something that could be rented for half the price when you're probably gonna take like fivedays to beat it?

Overrall: 6/10

A mediocre port to the GBA. They should have ported the NES one for a classic style FF instead of remaking it. I gave it a 6, however, I encourage you to check it out. Maybe you’ll like it. I think those who are bad at RPG’ or are huge fans of FF will like this more though. If you're looking for a good hardcore RPG than seek elsewhere.

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