Review of Final Fantasy

It's hard to review a re-release of the first Final Fantasy.On one hand, the game is pretty good; great for it's time.The keywords being: For it's time.On the other hand, with yet another re-release of Final Fantasy, you kinda wish by now that Square-Enix would do something to make it more "modern."Regardless of where you fall, Final Fantasy is a good game.The problem is that for the more modern day gamer, there's no assurance that you'll really get into this if you can't deal with the 20 year old mechanics.The other bad thing about Final Fantasy on the PSP is simply that if you've already got Dawn of Souls or Origins, then there's no real incentive to pick up the PSP version.The fact that the other re-releases included Final Fantasy II can also be a sting to the PSP version of the game.

Final Fantasy is a simple basic storyline.Four warriors must come forth and save the world by using the power of the crystals.Your main characters don't say a word, and you begin the game by choosing their character classes.There's no narrative to drive the story along either, and like a ton of RPGs made in the 80's and early 90's there's also no way of telling where you're supposed to go next without talking to lots of people and then running around aimlessly, while gathering tons of levels in the process. To me that spells fun, but if you're an RPGer who began with the later games in the series (particularly from the Playstation era), it's hard to say you'll really love Final Fantasy if you can't let those little tidbits slide.The game is also incredibly slow paced.Again, it's something that RPGers who began with later Final Fantasy games or later RPGs will have to take time to get used to.

Gameplay wise, Final Fantasy hasn't changed a bit.Not in the slightest.Battling is as basic as ever.Completely turn based.However, Final Fantasy is usually pretty fun to battle in.Provided you don't mind that sometimes combat is sluggish (or that you could be attacked by nine enemies at once).The music in battle is upbeat, and the enemies are really nicely drawn.Just the same, it's pretty strategic.You choose a class for each of your characters at the beginning of the game.You can make them a Warrior, White Mage, Black Mage, etc.It makes a huge difference in how hard or easy the game can be as a whole.For example, only Red and White Mages can heal, but only White Mages can learn the more advanced White Mage spells.So battling remains pretty fun, even if it is pretty straightforward.

What will probably annoy gamers is the unforgiving random encounter rate.There are times when you just don't feel like battling.It also doesn't help that the failure rate of running is also somewhat high.If you've been playing RPGs since the SNES days, the slight dip in difficulty might annoy you.The game is still challenging, but not nearly as challenging as its 1987 original, or the 2003 version.It's even easier than the Dawn of Souls remake.

The biggest problem that Final Fantasy on the PSP suffers from is that if you've already played through the adventure in one of the other remakes, there's really nothing here that justifies doing it again.Final Fantasy is a gem; a game everyone should play at least once... but some of its aspects have not aged very well.For PSP owners the only plus they get (aside from all the extras in the GBA version) is one new dungeon.It also doesn't help that the other re-releases of the game came with Final Fantasy II, and they were priced at the same value.

On the positive side, however, the PSP version is the best looking version of the game yet.Everything is given a lot of artistic detail.The sprites and enemies have never looked better.It doesn't quite push the PSP to its limit, but it's still really beautiful to look at.Just the same, the music also sounds really good.It's also really cool that you'll be seeing the game in widescreen too.

Really, the only big problem with Final Fantasy is that it's a remake of a remake of a remake that doesn't offer enough new content to justify a buy to those who've already played it before.Also, like the re-release of Final Fantasy III, its age is really starting to show.There are just some aspects of the gameplay you wish Square would've thrown in for the sake of updating the game.What it boils down to is simple: You're buying an NES game.Expect the NES limitations.

Regardless of whether you believe it needed a more "modern" update or not Final Fantasy isn't a bad game, but investing in another remake if you've already got Origins or Dawn of Souls?That's hardly worth it.

Even if you haven't played Final Fantasy before, the PSP one is hard to justify when you put into account that the other remakes also came with Final Fantasy II, and they were priced at the same value.If you absolutely MUST play Final Fantasy and you haven't done so, I suggest heading on down to your local used game store and picking up the GBA version.It may not be as pretty, but you get Final Fantasy II with it, and it's cheaper.

Pros:

+The prettiest version of the game yet
+Still sounds good
+There's a bonus dungeon

Cons:

-The pacing of the story is really slow
-The random encounter rate is really high
-There are just some aspects of the game that don't age very well
-It's another remake of Final Fantasy... but this one offers little in the way of new content.You get all those GBA extras, but the only PSP exclusive extras are some enhanced graphics and a brand new dungeon.It's hard to urge a gamer that already has the GBA version or even the Origins version to go out and get his one.



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