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Game Review - Final Fantasy
May. 8th, 2006 10:26 pmTitle: Final Fantasy I & II - Dawn of Souls
Genre: RPG
Platform: GBA
Price Paid: $29.99 new
Would Pay: $34.95 (for the cartridge)
Complete: Sort of. Final Fantasy I complete
As someone who's played RPGs for the last 20 years or more (Temple of Apshai, Bard's Tale, Dragon Wars, Eye of the Beholder,...), Final Fantasy was not something I could turn down. it's the quintessential console RPG.
Ultimately, it's a hack and slash. The story is near non-existent. It's barely enough to get you from point A to point B. There is a nice little twist at the end however, not one I expected. But this game isn't about the story, it's about the level grinding and trying to mop the floor with the next boss.
This is actually my second attempt at Final Fantasy. I also purchased the equivalent game for the PlayStation, Final Fantasy:Origins. It's a toss up which is better, because each has it's pluses and minuses. The PS version has new, nicely rendered cut-scenes. It also has a checklist of the treasures, so you know what you've missed. First and foremost, the GBA version has portability and save anywhere, giving it a bit of an edge. It also has several new dungeons. The dungeons are a nice touch, with the bosses being bosses from later Final Fantasy games. The difficulty of these are insane, as I got my ass handed to me by a couple of these bosses and I was somewhere around level 80. The payoff for these dungeons, especially without the checklist, is rather small, so after trying a couple, I just wrote off the others.
On to Final Fantasy II. From the first hour and a half, this is what began the tradition of the Final Fantasy's being different. It is much more story driven, with more strategy in the character leveling.
This was a busy weekend (for various values of "busy"), I finished another game as well and will try to get that review up sometime soon.
Genre: RPG
Platform: GBA
Price Paid: $29.99 new
Would Pay: $34.95 (for the cartridge)
Complete: Sort of. Final Fantasy I complete
As someone who's played RPGs for the last 20 years or more (Temple of Apshai, Bard's Tale, Dragon Wars, Eye of the Beholder,...), Final Fantasy was not something I could turn down. it's the quintessential console RPG.
Ultimately, it's a hack and slash. The story is near non-existent. It's barely enough to get you from point A to point B. There is a nice little twist at the end however, not one I expected. But this game isn't about the story, it's about the level grinding and trying to mop the floor with the next boss.
This is actually my second attempt at Final Fantasy. I also purchased the equivalent game for the PlayStation, Final Fantasy:Origins. It's a toss up which is better, because each has it's pluses and minuses. The PS version has new, nicely rendered cut-scenes. It also has a checklist of the treasures, so you know what you've missed. First and foremost, the GBA version has portability and save anywhere, giving it a bit of an edge. It also has several new dungeons. The dungeons are a nice touch, with the bosses being bosses from later Final Fantasy games. The difficulty of these are insane, as I got my ass handed to me by a couple of these bosses and I was somewhere around level 80. The payoff for these dungeons, especially without the checklist, is rather small, so after trying a couple, I just wrote off the others.
On to Final Fantasy II. From the first hour and a half, this is what began the tradition of the Final Fantasy's being different. It is much more story driven, with more strategy in the character leveling.
This was a busy weekend (for various values of "busy"), I finished another game as well and will try to get that review up sometime soon.