Customer Reviews
Two games for one! Pretty good deal, right? You bet it is!
Final Fantasy I Review
8-Bit in all it's glory! Final Fantasy I is an amazing game, considering how old it is! it started the series that is still popular even today. The Final Fantasy series... You see, you start the game as 4 characters. You can choose these character's classes and names to start your journey. The classes are Warrior, Thief, White Mage, Black Mage, Red Mage and Monk.
Each has their own strengths and weaknesses, when you start the game, it tells of a terrible problem. The planet is in peril because of four fiendish monsters. "The world lies shrouded in darkness. The winds die... The seas rage... The earth decays... But the people believe in a prophecy, patiently awaiting it's fulfillment.
When darkness veils the world, four Warriors of Light shall come. After a long journey, four young travelers did at last appear... ...and in the hand of each, was clutched a crystal..." So then, your journey begins. You start off as the four characters you picked at the beginning, so I hope you chose wisely! This game invents many things that will continue to appear later in the series. Equipment, Magic, items like Potions and Hi-Potions, and many other things.
It's a great storyline, but you have to play the game to find out what is really happening. So, I won't spoil anything for you.
Story: 4.5/5
Simply an amazing game. I would say that the original NES version invented the term RPG.
You're wandering around in the field, just exploring when suddenly, you stop and music starts to play! You know what comes next! A battle! Your enemies appear in the battle and you take turns striking. Your team strikes, the enemy team strikes, and this process continues until one team is defeated.
In the battle you have a few different commands. Attack attacks a selected monster, Magic casts spells on you or your enemies, and so on. There are two main types of magic in this game. White, mostly healing magic, and Black, mostly offensive magic. White Mages can learn White Magic, Black Mages can learn Black Magic, and Red Mages can learn a combination of both. Different classes are stronger in different ways during battle.
Warriors have relatively high attack power, but can't cast magic. Thieves are speedy and hard-hitting, but they can't use magic either! The three mages can learn their type of Magic, up to level 8, but the Red Mage can learn both! The downside to them though is the fact that they can't learn the higher-leveled White and Black Magic like Flare and Holy.
Monks are great physical attackers, but aren't the greatest with HP. Each class is good in it's own way, but you need to pick the ones best suited to you for battle! Let's just say you can't beat the game with a team of White Mages, unless you are extremely lucky. So, you want to use a well-balanced team of Strength and Magic.
Battle: 4/5
A very simple battle system with some cool animations and such.
Final Fantasy I Battle Theme Plays Wow! The sound for this game is great! The weapons and spells all have separate sound effects, the music is very fun to listen to, and all the different tracks are great! I love the sound in this game! The GBA, (or Nintendo DS for even better sound) does a great job playing all the music and effects! I was very impressed with the Sound Quality!
If you've played Final Fantasy before, you know that the music plays a big part in battles as well! From when you're fighting Sephiroth in FFVII, to the Battle Theme in FFI, you're going to want to keep the sound on this whole series!
Sound: 5/5
Perfect. I love the fast-paced tracks, and all the sound effects.
8-Bit Graphics? Yes, but very good ones! The graphics for Final Fantasy I are surprisingly good, and even though they are so simple, they let the story move so well. The graphics are perfect for this kind of game, and I couldn't ask for any more.
Graphics: 4/5
Great! I loved these graphics, but they were just a teeny bit lacking.
Replay Value! For this game in particular, I'd say it has a LOT of Replay Value. You could start the game with different characters and different spells, and you could do many other different things. It's a great idea to beat the game, then play it again! Let's keep it simple and say that there's much replaying to do here! So, if you have an urge to replay it, I would suggest you do so!
Replay Value: 4.5/5
Very, VERY high Replay Value.
Alright! It's time for the overall rating. I'll just average these together real quick, and we'll have our overall rating!
Story: 4.5/5
Battle: 4/5
Sound: 5/5
Graphics: 4.5/5
Replay Value: 4.5/5
Overall Rating: 4.5/5
what a game! If you haven't taken the plunge yet, now's the time to do so!
Final Fantasy II Review
Two games for one! Pretty good deal, right? You bet it is! Final Fantasy II is much like the first, but now, there is a deeper storyline. Your characters can actually TALK! And now, you actually start with 4 pre-made characters, each with their own name, instead of a random one.
In FFII, you start as Firion, Maria, Guy and Leon. They are four youths from the city of Fynn. But one day, all was not well there. The Emperor began to attack Fynn, and eventually took over the city. This made our four heroes try and escape, but to no avail. They are caught by four knights, and are defeated in battle.
When they finally do wake up, they find they are in the rebel base in the town of Altair. Princess Hilda, and the King have taken refuge here, as well as many of the people who once lived in Fynn. The princess wants a group of scouts to go to Fynn and find out what is going on.
So, the adventure begins. This is one great game! It's extremely enjoyable, and you constantly want to find out what will happen next! Most of the elements from Final Fantasy I are still around, but with many added features, II is a better game. Time for scoring!
Story: 5/5
A compelling storyline with the features to match! It's rare for someone to give this kind of score for story, but this is one awesome game!
Still as good, if not better than it's predecessor's, Final Fantasy II brings you great battles! With many of the elements from the first, with new ones like using 2 weapons at once, and leveling up your skills instead of just leveling up your party!
It's the same idea though. Pick your command, be it Attack, Magic, Items, or even Flee, and your characters will perform. Also, this time around, your Magic levels up, rather than you having to spend even more money to buy it again. Every time you use the magic, the Skill Gauge for that Magic will increase slightly.
When it fills, the magic levels up, making it cost more MP, but it is now stronger than before. So you could buy a Fire Tome for 300 gil, teach it to one of your characters, level it up, and then the result is an extremely powerful spell!
And, it didn't cost you 40,000 gil to get it! Also, there are now more types of weapons. Some of them are Swords, Knives, Staves, and Spears. Bows, however, can attack from the back row! Just move your character into the back ranks, and fire away, with less of a chance of your weaker characters getting hurt! Great, if not greater than before.
Battle: 4.5/5
Better than the first, but a few elements could have been refined to give this a 5!
Sound Quality! Pleasant to listen to, with plenty of tracks! I have to admit though, the boss music sounds kinda creepy. But still, the Game Boy Advance does a great job playing the sounds! Even better yet, is the Nintendo DS with it's Surround Sound speakers!
Each weapon even has it's own sound that it makes when a character strikes with it! One sword sounds different from another, and the spells all have different sounds of course! If you can manage to beat both of the games then you can unlock the Sound Test and hear the music you want to hear! The early Chocobo theme is also included in this game. Much like the later version, but shorter and it loops a lot.
Still, it's some great Music! Go buy the game and hear it yourself!
Sound: 5/5
Very enjoyable to listen to. That is, unless you are one of those I like to keep my sound off person like some people are. But they ruin all the fun, so don't listen to them!
These graphics are awesome! I gave Final Fantasy I's graphics a high score, but these are even better! They're more refined, and the characters are better looking in battle and in the field. The characters actually have faces too! They all look different, and you can tell who's who!
After playing the first and starting this, I realized that graphics had taken an amazing leap in that one year since the first. I'm sure the Game Boy has something to do with this, but that's another story, so I won't get into it.
Anyways, graphics are essential to an enjoyable game, and these definitely take the cake!
Graphics: 4.5/5
These are awesome. The animation seems to just flow with the graphics, and that's why this section scores so well!
I hate to admit it, but this game may not have quite as much Replay Value as the first. I mean sure, you beat the game, you get to play Soul of Rebirth, you beat that and then... nothing.
When you play through it once, and beat Soul of Rebirth, you've really seen all there is to see. I'm not saying it has bad Replay Value or anything, just not as much.
Replay Value: 4/5
A lot of Replay, but alas. Not quite as much as Final Fantasy I.
You know what time it is now! It's time for the Overall rating of Final Fantasy II! Let's just run through the scores real quick, and we'll get that rating!
Story: 5/5
Battle: 4.5/5
Sound: 5/5
Graphics: 4.5/5
Replay Value: 4/5
Overall Rating: 4.6/5
Simply great. Play the game! You get this beauty, plus the wonderful Final Fantasy I, so if you have a Game Boy Advance, (or a DS) this is the game for you!
Old School Fun
A nice port of the original SNES games with some extras added. For those of you who love the older fantasy games and are not hung up on having cutting edge graphics. This is after all a pair of pretty old games. The gameplay however is very fun and worth picking up. I would also recommend picking up Breath of Fire 1 and 2, Lunar, Lufia, Phantasy Star and the Zelda games if you enjoy this one.
A GREAT improvement over previous versions.
These versions of Final Fantasies 1 and 2 are by far the best of these two titles, and remedy the many shortcomings of the PS1 remakes on which they are based, namely the obnoxious level of difficulty. They also add new dungeons and items, where you fight bosses from other games in the series.
Despite these changes, the games retain the feel of the originals very well, particularly the first game. While the first one is not too in depth when it comes to story, it's very, very fun.
The second one, much less known in the U.S., is more unappealing to most players due to its highly innovative character building system, which is difficult to master. The roots of characters that can be molded in to anything, fighters, mages, etc., are found in Final Fantasy 2. The story is not too bad, and overall the game is enjoyable. Part 2 also introuces a huge number of recurring elements for the first time. Chocobos, Cid, Mysidia, Dragoons, Ultima, and many weapons, spells, and other elements are seen here for the first time.
This collection is a must have for anyone.
