A Great Way To Showcase How Final Fantasy Started Out. Plus My Fave Ports Of These Classics.
User Rating: 8.5 | Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls GBA
I love Final Fantasy. The first game I remember seeing and playing was 6 *3 because it was on the SNES* at my friends house. I was around 8, and I also had a SNES but when I saw the sprites laughing and being shocked, the interesting story, and most importantly to me the music, my collection of games started to look a little grey. So, because I didn't have money to spend as a kid, I searched around for someone who would trade for my f-zero I think. One of the kids at school said he had the original Final Fantasy for the NES and we traded. Boy was I excited, I remember reading the book that came with it on the bus ride home. I pulled the old NES from the closet and popped that oversized brick of a cart in. I can still remember how angry I was, It was ugly, the fight backgrounds were completely black, you couldn't change target if the enemy was killed off before said characters turn. And more than anything that upset me was how challenging it was. You had to refer to the book for nearly everything about the weapons and armors and spells. The encounter rate was so high, it took hours to go small distances. The bosses were usually a surprise for me and I would get killed off because I wasn't prepared. And to make matters worse, the cart ran on a battery, so the hours and hours of slaving away to get somewhere vanished one weekend. After that I didn't pick up a final fantasy title until a friend sold me his 2 and 3 right after the release of 8. I didn't get a playstation until playstation 2 days, so I was a little late on the more popular titles, but to this day I will defend 6 as the greatest of the series. Any who how. Years and years later I picked up this set at target because they were giving away the nintendo power guide with the game. How could I pass that up for 30 bucks. I was VERY impressed. The graphics were updated to near SNES quality, the remastered music was beautiful, they toned down some of the encounter rate and placed stats on all objects. Some may argue they didn't add much to the PS1 ports of the games. I can I have played both completely, and the extra endgame dungeons, slightly better translation *still not perfect* and the fact you can carry it around with you was enough to merit it better. Years later they did re-release the games on PSP in another remaster, but it just didn't feel the same. This was my best experience of these classic titles, and in my opinion the best way to play. It goes for pretty cheap on ebay and at flee markets these days, so pick it up if you see it. It's a great way to see how the series got its wings.
