we can say that releasing such titles by Square Enix and the recent bombardment of PSP owners by such remade titles inst
As the releasing time for the first exclusive PSP final fantasy title called "Crisis Core" gets nearer then ever before, Square Enix the developer of the series is busy remaking its previous titles for the PSP as a memorandum to the 20th anniversary of the final fantasy games series. Talking about FF series especially when you consider the presence of its huge population of fans around the world is not an easy task. FF series are definitely a turning point in the history of video games which evolved the story telling capability of games into a new era and introduced a kind of new gameplay characteristic into RPG genre called Turn Based RPGs , but if you look into the recent remaking of FF titles for PSP and even DS consoles without any pre-judgment you will admit that the good reaction to the re-release of the series by fans around the globe is merely because of their personal enthusiasm to the series especially in Japan not because of their capabilities to represent the same playing value they showed two decades ago based on today's standards of gaming.
Graphics of the game even when you consider the limiting factors which affects the PSP is not something brilliant but, because this game is just a remaking of the original title which has been released for the SNES in 1988 in Japan! you can not blame the developers. Anyway, the 16 bit textures and the upgraded graphics with higher resolution sprites makes the PSP version of FF II the best looking one among other console releases of the game which seems to be a good reason for fans of the series to add this one to their collection. The game looks great on PSP widescreen TFT monitor and the fully 2D representation of the game with scrolling like camera revives the atmosphere of classic gaming era and FF II looks great even after these years. But even with these enhancements you won't see anything beyond first generation games for PSP graphically. Even the infamous demos which Square Enix seems to use them as one of its advantages over the other rivals in the industry is looking a little inferior to previous works by SE for the PSP including Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth. Unfortunately the developer's insistence to keep the old and original gameplay system of FF II leads to a major decline in re-playing value of the game for new generation of gamers. The major problem with the gameplay is the lack of a map or any other navigation tool which makes it time consuming, boring and sometimes even impossible to find required locations in the huge world of the game so the gamer should dedicate much of his time to find these locations instead of making a progress in the story of the game. Sometimes these aimless journeys cause the gamer to be lost in the world or ultimately get killed thanks to ridiculously high amount of random encounters and eventually force him/her to re-load the game from the starting point! Another negative aspect of the gameplay is the lack of a log book or any other means to record the objectives of the game so if you don’t pay enough attention to the dialogues during the game you will not be able to continue the story and to go to the required places anymore. The fighting system is very primitive compared to the standards of modern turn-based RPGs and there are no special attacks or combined moves between characters like the other common turn-based titles. You will not be able to know the amount of enemy HP during the battles and this causes the gamer to be unable to adopt its fighting strategy according to his/her enemy's. You can add the very very high rate of random encounters to these disadvantages of the game which makes you to fight sometimes 5 consecutive battles before you can exit from a tiny room!!! Finally it can be said despite the presence of some innovative gameplay elements such the learning and asking system which enable characters to memorize the keywords and to ask other ones in order to unlock new missions and locations and the simple but effective way of upgrading skills after the battle (despite its negative aspects too like you have to lose high amounts of your HP in the battle in order to be able to higher your character overall HPs), and the addition of " Souls of Rebirth" new campaign as an addition exclusive to the anniversary edition of the game, unfortunately the mentioned negative points above have a real negative impact on the game which makes it un-appealing especially for non-FF fans to complete the game even for once.
The sounds of the game are also nothing extra-ordinary too. At the best you can say hearing the first works of legendary Nobuo Uematsu in a modernized remix style is nostalgic for the fans, especially the main menu music which is successfully induce kind of a fantasy feeling but the lack of voice-acting adds another reason for the new gen gamers to ignore the title. Considering the story which FF series gained their reputation because of it the FF II is one of the weakest. The lack of dialogues for characters, the inability to show characters feelings through their dialogues and repeated stops in the process of story telling thanks to the poor gameplay system makes this one the most un-successful remade title for the PSP among two other ones (FF I and FF Tactics).
Finally we can say that releasing such titles by Square Enix and the recent bombardment of PSP owners by such remade titles instead of releasing a new exclusive one for the PSP won't help them to raise their reputation among PSP owners anymore and if they won't release their promised "Crisis Core" title of the series exclusively for the PSP they definitely lose their superiority in the RPG genre among other active companies in PSP platform at least. For this title, I assure you if this one didn't have the Final Fantasy logo on it no one would even reviewed it anymore! So even if you are a hardcore fan of the FF, you can not beat the game without the help of relaxing pills and a glass cold water plus a printed walkthrough to just find your way in the world of game and if you are not a fan of FF then I can guarantee you won't miss anything sleeping in your bed instead of playing or even renting such a boring game.