Finally Final?
Final Fantasy Anniversary marks what seems like the umpteenth time the game has be re-released. But is this one the last? Or the best?
Published: June 26, 2007
It would be easy to take one look at Final Fantasy Anniversary's $30 price tag and scoff at such a seemingly obvious rip-off -- especially when a nearly identical re-release was sold bundled with Final Fantasy II. After all, this is little more than the core Dawn of Souls Game Boy Advance remake with slightly updated graphics and the PS one remake's ho-hum CG videos. Yes, you do get a bonus dungeon (and it's a bitch considering how much of a cake walk the rest of the game is), but the feeling that it's a quick-'n-dirty port is unavoidable.
The question, then, becomes a simple, "have I played the original Final Fantasy enough times yet?"
Chances are if you played Dawn of Souls about two and a half years ago, there's not a whole lot here to bring you back. Oh, don't get me wrong, the PSPs screen has never made sprites pop as much as they do here, and the retouched 2D art that Square Enix worked on will be instantly obvious the second you jump into your first fight; backgrounds ooze detail and revel in their use of a wide palette. It even looks cool when your guys attack, it's that clean. In fact, I appreciated little effects like cloud shadows or mist or rays of sunlight crawling across the screen more than I thought I would, but a high encounter rate and low difficulty still give the impression that this is a simple port job.
In fact, Squenix didn't even bother to strip out the little Nintendo in-joke that changed the original "Here Lies Erdrick" tombstone in the elf village to "Here Lies Link." It's that straight a conversion (though if one were to get technical, the Link joke was in the PS one remake too, athough the wording was different if I remember right). And of course as pleasantly updated as the localization is, the storyline in Final Fantasy was never that great to begin with, and you know what they say about polishing a turd.
Maybe that's a little harsh. Petty name-calling aside, there is... well, there's just something about Final Fantasy that keeps me coming back. The same thing happened when Dragon Warrior I and II were re-packaged for the Game Boy Color. Though the adventure here is maybe a couple dozen hours if you take your sweet time or challenge the game's re-balanced difficulty with an all-mage party or something, running through it all again was still compelling -- at least enough that I wanted to play through to see this new PSP-exclusive dungeon, but constantly draining health meant I never did bother to push all the way through.
So back to that question: Do you want to play Final Fantasy yet again?
Normally I would say Square Enix probably won't be re-making the game again, but I thought that with Dawn of Souls, and this is the definitive version as far as I'm concerned, but $30 is a little steep -- even by PSP standards. It's possible that when Final Fantasy II is released there might be a bundle thrown out to appease fans, but for most the allure here is going to be more nostalgia than anything else. If you haven't played the game in the better part of a decade -- or better still not since the original release, then there's reason to consider shelling out thirty bucks. If you started the series with Final Fantasy VII, it's likely you'll just end up bored.
For me, seeing the game running on the PSP screen pretty much sold me -- but only just. If this really is the final Fantasy, then it's the version you'll want to get.
The question, then, becomes a simple, "have I played the original Final Fantasy enough times yet?"
Chances are if you played Dawn of Souls about two and a half years ago, there's not a whole lot here to bring you back. Oh, don't get me wrong, the PSPs screen has never made sprites pop as much as they do here, and the retouched 2D art that Square Enix worked on will be instantly obvious the second you jump into your first fight; backgrounds ooze detail and revel in their use of a wide palette. It even looks cool when your guys attack, it's that clean. In fact, I appreciated little effects like cloud shadows or mist or rays of sunlight crawling across the screen more than I thought I would, but a high encounter rate and low difficulty still give the impression that this is a simple port job.
In fact, Squenix didn't even bother to strip out the little Nintendo in-joke that changed the original "Here Lies Erdrick" tombstone in the elf village to "Here Lies Link." It's that straight a conversion (though if one were to get technical, the Link joke was in the PS one remake too, athough the wording was different if I remember right). And of course as pleasantly updated as the localization is, the storyline in Final Fantasy was never that great to begin with, and you know what they say about polishing a turd.
Maybe that's a little harsh. Petty name-calling aside, there is... well, there's just something about Final Fantasy that keeps me coming back. The same thing happened when Dragon Warrior I and II were re-packaged for the Game Boy Color. Though the adventure here is maybe a couple dozen hours if you take your sweet time or challenge the game's re-balanced difficulty with an all-mage party or something, running through it all again was still compelling -- at least enough that I wanted to play through to see this new PSP-exclusive dungeon, but constantly draining health meant I never did bother to push all the way through.
So back to that question: Do you want to play Final Fantasy yet again?
Normally I would say Square Enix probably won't be re-making the game again, but I thought that with Dawn of Souls, and this is the definitive version as far as I'm concerned, but $30 is a little steep -- even by PSP standards. It's possible that when Final Fantasy II is released there might be a bundle thrown out to appease fans, but for most the allure here is going to be more nostalgia than anything else. If you haven't played the game in the better part of a decade -- or better still not since the original release, then there's reason to consider shelling out thirty bucks. If you started the series with Final Fantasy VII, it's likely you'll just end up bored.
For me, seeing the game running on the PSP screen pretty much sold me -- but only just. If this really is the final Fantasy, then it's the version you'll want to get.
