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A Weak Fantasy AND How To Fix the Load Time Problem

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 10 / 26
Date: June 03, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I've noticed a couple people complain about the load times (especially during battles). There's a quick and easy fix for PS2 owners: In the main menu under the PS1 Driver, there's a setup option for "Fast Loading". When you turn that on, the game will load as fast as the original cartridge did. Problem solved.

.

And now for the games: I wasn't too impressed. Technically, FF1 and FF2 are good games. The graphics were upgraded from the 1980's 8-bit Nintendo to 16-bit Wonderswan graphics (think portable Super Nintendo). You choose your characters, and then you go out and fight monsters, again and again (random battles). And so the games, technically, are well-made.

But that alone is not enough for me. I play mainly for the story, and I need a good solid story to make all those random battles worthwhile, but both FF1 & 2 are extremely sparse on story. You spend 5 hours of game, for about 5 minutes of story. Sparse.

I finished both games, but there came a certain point where I was bored, no longer having fun, and playing just to finish the game. A chore. I can think of better 8-bit RPG/Adventure games I'd rather play & better recommend: Atari's Adventure, Activison's Pitfall, Activision's Hero, Sid Meier's Pirates, (all available in various retro-compilations).

I kept FF Anthology and FF Chronicles, but sold FF Origins. It just didn't impress me. Interesting history lesson, but not worth keeping.

Oh Square, where did you go wrong???

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 91
Date: March 15, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Okay, let me start by saying I'm the biggest FF fan in the world. No question. But this game was like all old and {edited} and stuff. Nothing near the greatness that is FINAL FANTASY 7. The graphics are all terrible, nothing like FF7's. Did they think us super fans wouldn't notice how terrible this was if they just put two terrible games in the package? Shame on you Square. I don't know how I'm ever going to forgive you...

Final Fantasy

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 39
Date: March 11, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This is my final FF game. I hate it. I play it. It makes no sense at all. I would never buy this game again. cuz it sux homie g. rolll with the punches cuz the klingon rockz my sockz off sincerely fooll.

The games that launched an empire....

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 28 / 44
Date: November 19, 2004
Author: Amazon User

It pains me. Only when all nine planets are in perfect alignment is it possible for me to hate a Square-Enix game. For the game to come from the much-loved Final Fantasy franchise, there has to be a lunar and solar eclipse at the same time. Anyone's heard the story right? Square was a struggling developer back in the eighties facing bankrupty. They made a RPG styled after Dragon Quest, Japan's top-selling RPG, which turned into a mega-hit, saving the company and launching one of the most revered videogame series ever.
It's strange that I never played Final Fantasy when it first came out on NES. I know that my family owned the cartridge, but I'd never played it. I figured that the first game would be something special. Final Fantasy to me has always been the epic stories, the memorable characters, and the solid gameplay mechanics. Those were the qualities that just enthralled me when I became hooked on Final Fantasy II (the 4th one really) for the SNES. Unfortunately, the story is barely there and the characterization is nil. You are a band of heroes that is plopped down in a medival fantasy world and given the task of restoring the four crystals which will save the world. That's it. Most of the time you are wandering about aimlessly, trying to figure out where you are supposed to go. The method of exploration is go into cave, if monsters kill you in one hit, leave cave and find another. There are some towns you can visit and be treated to wonderful dialogue like "Bless the Crystal!" only thing half the idiots in this world say.
If that weren't frustrating enough, this is a really hard game. Unfortunately, the difficulty feels like it comes from poor game design than actually being meant to challenge you. Perpare to spend tons of time leveling up. You'll be attacked often, after one or two steps sometimes, the monsters appear in droves, and your attacks will miss as much as they hit. In dungeons, there are no save points for you to save and restore your health with a tent. The healing items and magic is woefully inadequate most of the time. The magic system is also messed up. Instead of having magic points to use as you please, Magic is divided into 8 levels and you can buy 3 spells from each level. You can only use magic from each level a certain number of time. This annoying because by the time you reach level ten most of the low level spells are practically obsolete but you'll have tons of them and few higher level spells. There are also no items to revive fallen party members, so you have to leave the dungeon, track back to town, and get a priest to revive you. This is really annoying when the town doesn't have a priest and you have to go halfway around the world to find one.
I managed to play for 10 hours before I could stand no more. Final Fantasy II is a little better. You play as a group of youths fighting for a rebel resistance movement. The characters have personalities and the game actually gives you missions to accomplish. However, I didn't like the leveling system. Depending on how you fight, your stats increase and decrease accordingly. You'd think that would have the characters highly customizable? Wrong! The characters are still inclined towards certain jobs and weapon types. Maria has low HP and can't hit the broad side of a barn, so she has to be a mage. Give her a javeline instead of her bow and arrow and some animals will have gone extinct before she lands another hit. It takes forever to get the stats to increase.
The presentation of the games are pretty good. The graphics and spell effects are bright and attractive. The music is still exceptional. If you loved Final Fantasy I when it first came out and have been itching to play it again, ignore this review and buy this right away. These games have never looked better and they come will a host of unlockable extras. For everyone else looking to play the RPGs are yesteryear, get Final Fantasy Chronicles or Anthology, as Square has perfected the formula for RPGs by then.
Final Fantasy Origins is a relic of a long-ago era in gaming that has aged like Buddy Hackette. It's a definitely a historic benchmark for the industry, but for me it's only novelty is that it shows that "You've come along way, Baby!"

Is Square selling out?

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 5 / 9
Date: April 17, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Fans of the original 2 FFs might be angry to find that these true classics have been changed sooo much that you can barely see the similarities. Some are good and some are very bad. The good:

-Improved graphics
-Ability to play FF2 for the first time if you are unfamiliar with emulators or don't have the Japanese version
-umm, that's it unless you want to count some small things such as added dialouge, ability to buy multiple items at once, and introductory movie scenes. The movie scenes are pretty cool, I must admit, but there are too few of them.

The bad:

-Music! Square usually does good music with its games, but this enhanced music really stinks! I'd rather listen to the "bips" and "beeps" of the originals.
-Monster stats and names have been changed, not staying true to the originals. This is a big problem with me. Normal mode on FF1, in Origins, should really be the easy mode it has on it.
-The "improved graphics" I mentioned should really be down here. Why? They are sub-snes quality. I didn't expect 3d anything, but the graphics are horrible for a playstation. Both games also look like FF5 [imitations].
-Should have included FF3 if they were going to charge 30 bucks for it. I'll tell you why they probably didn't in a sec.

Well, as the title goes, "is Square selling out?" I'd say so. This is a truly mediocre title for Square and that's being nice. If I weren't such a big fan of the series I'd call up Squaresoft myself and demand my money back. The only reason I won't is because, as a FF fan, I think it should remain in the FF collection I have amassed.

I'm guessing Square released this title either prematurely or incomplete for 3 reasons. 1 for the money, 2 for the show (jk) - to hold us over until the next FF comes out and 3 for the money. I expect that they will re-release FF3 just as soon as they translate it. I hope they learn from their mistakes, make a quality game, and not just sell us the name recognition.

You want to buy this game only if you have never played FF1, FF2 or both. You shouldn't be too disappointed if thats the case. Even then, expect to be sent back a couple generations graphically. And don't get me started on the music again... Grrr...

didnt like it

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 5 / 24
Date: October 08, 2003
Author: Amazon User

maybe im just crazy, but i didnt like this game very much. i thought it was boring and tedious. but thats just me.

Primative Games

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 24
Date: February 07, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Final Fantasy I & Final Fantasy II are nothing special to me. They are very primative, made in 2D. Final Fantasy II is a lot better in it's origanal form on "Super Nintendo". Also the story lines are different in those two versions. It,s for little kids.

Worst FF i've ever played

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: May 11, 2003
Author: Amazon User

*First of all I'm not going to tell you what the game is about because there's already a ton of review here that have that.*
When I rented this game I was really excited, but once I played FFI I was really disappointed. I didn't care for FF2 either, but it was a little better than FFI. FFI's story was pretty boring. The characters had no personality, or good dialogue.
The bad graphics didn't bother me too much, because it's the story line of a game that I'm interested in. And both of these games failed in having a good one. The story for FF2 was a little better, but it was still boring.
I liked the CG movies (I think that's what they're called)in the beginning of the games (especially FF1's). I guess that it was a good idea for squaresoft to come out with FF Origins. I'm sure it brings back good memories to the older gamers (I wouldn't know they came out with it when i was a year old). And if you enjoy having the whole seres to complete, then it would probably be good for only those reasons.
I don't recommend you purchase this game though. If you really do want to play it, rent it first. I always rent a game before I buy it.

Should've been a GBA port

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 8 / 14
Date: January 12, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Final Fantasy Origins is a nice game really...but not for the playstation, and not because the PSX doesn't receive any new games... but this agme is all 16-bit and everything. Which means it would've been better served as a GBA port rather than a PSX port.

The graphics, as I said are 16-bit. I like that they're not 8-bit graphics anymore, which is a big plus really. I don't mind 16 bit on a 32 bit console, but the GBA is already receiving several 16-bit ports as it is. The PSX is also last generation. If this had been ported to the PS2 I suppose people would've been expecting more of an upgrade.

The sound has been changed for the worst it seems. It isn't bad in FFII but in FFI it doesn't sound great. The original NES version had much better sound. FFII has great music and tunes even if it was changed from the original.

The gameplay is another thing that strikes me. I'm sure that for the time of these two games release they were exciting and fun. But in this common era they don't exactly stand the test of time like other classics would. The gameplay is kind of boring, with FFI's slow paced story and FFII's annoying character raising system. It's just hard to get into these two games. FFI you get ambushed too much and FFII doesn't use the 'level up system'. Instead FFII has a sort of 'whatever you do is what increases.' So if you use a lot of physical attacks your attack goes up. If you take a lot of damage your defense and HP go up. Sound good right? Not exactly. For each time stats go up, other stats go down. If your character has a lot of strentgh then they won't be able to use much magic. It's annoying to play an RPG where you can't balance a characters stats.

The story of both games can be enticing. FFI has an interesting story and all but it paces to slow. FFII has a fast paced story but it doesn't hook you. Also, these are first generation RPG's. They're great for the early days of the late 80's and early 90's but its surprising that a game like Super Mario Bros. 3 can stand the test of time and these can't.

FFI has been ruined considerably. The sound has changed and while a few small tweaks have been fixed (you can now dash and it auto-targets) Square didn't do enough to revamp it for this new era.

So I say these could've faired better on the GBA. I'm sure that they could've made better use of the hardware that way. FFOrigins also doesn't have many extras like Anthology and Chronicles did. This isn't a bad buy but it suffers from its bad replay value, slow story pacing and the fact that it just can't stand the test of time as well as other remakes have.

Buy it for FF1!

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: April 11, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Just to start out,this rating is more like 3 and half stars; borderline on 4.Well,first let me talk about the good stuff:

If you grew up playing ff1 on the 8-bit nintendo;then you will love this game.The remake of ff1 is amazing;beautiful musical soundtrack(enhanced with string instruments and such),wonderful 16-bit super nintendo enhanced graphics,and of course the classic
gameplay.You have the option of playing this version with easier improvements(auto targeting,instead of just attacking nothing when the enemey dies),or you can play the original game format;
which I forgot how CHALLENGING that can be! There is also alot of nice bonuses like the movie cinematics,and of course unlocking goodies for beating the game.

Now for the bad:

Well,in my opinion ff2 leaves alot to be desired.I was kinda disapointed;in fact I can now understand why it was only released in Japan.If you are expecting ff2 to be like ff1 only with a diffrent story and characters,then you will be sorely mistaken.The gameplay is VERY diffrent with it's rpg format! To start with,no one has any numerical levels nor will they ever. Also,anyone can use any type of magic;but there are limitations.
Depending on what actions you take,certain stats will always go up or down.In other words,if you fight alot,then you will be a lousy spell caster and vice versa. Basically you just have to decide who's going to be doing what; don't think that you'll be able to create a character who can do a little bit of everything. Also another very bizarre feature is that you gain more hp soley depending on how often you get attacked.(Hint:Just keep attacking yourself to gain more hp!)Yeah I know,weird....
This is all kind of a let down after getting two great classic games in final fantasy anthology and final fantasy chronicles.

In the end though,if you were a fan of ff1 and are curious to see the new makeover,then that's more than enough reason to buy this title.Also,I was suprised to learn that this game is alot cheaper to buy new then I thought it would be(maybe cause both games are on 1 disc?)So just think of it as you are paying for a great remake of ff1,and ff2 is more of an added gimick.A page of the ff history to own,rather than play.Well,what are you waiting for?Go play ff1!

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