Son of a Submariner, this game is good!
This is a good remake, and different than its counter-part, FF Anthologies(for the PS1). This doesn't have any loading times, the translations are a whole lot better(Most of the funny quotes kefka had, are taken out, since they were mistranslations, and that scene with Celes makes sense now), and you get extras(like a Bistary, and a music player).
The story is great. From the first time you meet Locke, to the end, and everything inbetween, this game will keep you on edge to see what happens next. You start out as Terra, a girl who is valued to the Empire(the bad guys) and the Returners(the good guys), because she has a power no human has....magic. You are then throwned into a war between the Empire and the Returners(a resistance group to protect the "people"). You first start out with Terra, but you will get more members to join you(actually you get two more characters in the first 30 minutes in the game).
You have to remember that this is a GBA game, so the graphics aren't going to rival games on the DS in it. For a GBA game though, the graphics are amazing. Square-Enix smoothed out all the jags, and put more detail into the textures. When you get a Chocobo(or Airship), the world is in 3D, which looks good for a GBA game, and suprised me when I saw it( I didn't know a GBA game can have something in 3D and I didn't know the GBA could run a part of a game in 3D). There are still a few blocky areas when it's 3D(like the mountains are a little choppy), but it won't take away from anything.
The sound is very good. The character themes and the battle music has been redone and sound very good. Kefka's laugh still sounds realistic, but not as clear as it was in the SNES and the PS1 versions. Yes, the Opera scene is still really good, but it isn't clean as it was in the other versions.
Nothing has changed from the core gameplay. It is still turn-base, which is cool. Every character has a specialty ability(not like a limit-breaker, but similar to it), which goes by their specialty in the game. Example, Locke is a thief(sorry Locke, I meant to say "Treasure Hunter":roll: ), so he can steal from an opponent, unlike Sabin who can do the martial arts he learns like Raging fist. The interesting thing is that some of the abilities make the player get into doing them, instead of pressing A on that ability and watching it happen(liek you have to input the code to Sabin's Raging Fist before you can perform it, and if you don't put the code correctly or you take too long, Raging Fist is invalid). Most of your characters can't use magic in the beginning, but when you start getting Espers(the summons in this game), you can equip them, and the character can learn the magic the Esper knows. The characters don't automatically learn the spells from the Espers, you have to get a certain amount of APs to get the spell to 100%(which then you learn the spell, and you can use it without having that esper equipped). Of course, you get APs from battle, but the numbers vary(some monsteres might give you 1 AP, while others can give you 3 or 5 APs). You also have an "AP learning rate", which helps a lot. What it does is, when you get any AP from battle, it will multiply the Battle AP by the learning rate(which varies from each character). example, if Terra gets 2 AP from a fight and the Learning rate is 10, then she has learned 20% of the spell already(which helps, because I don't want to do 100 battles for each spell). I really like this feature, since you can customize your team to whatever strategy you want to use(want 3 healers and 1 attackers? It can be done. Want an all offensive team? It can be done too).
I have to say that this game was very innovative for its time. I'm very glad that Square-Enix remade this, so I can enjoy this game again. The story is amazing, there is a whole lot of character development(you will love these characters, I guarantee it), and the customization with the espers is very cool and innovating( I think that's where they got the idea for the Materia system in FF7 from). This is one of the best GBA games I've ever played. If you have a GBA or DS, you MUST get this game, you will not be disappointed. Enjoy, and happy gaming.