A Remake of a Remake of a Remake of a Classic

If you think I'm exaggerating that title, I'm not. Going backwards, there's this PSP version, there's the GBA remake: Dawn of Souls, then there's the PSone remake: Final Fantasy Origins, and finally there's the original source material on an NES cartridge. Actually, it gets even more complicated if you really want to dig into it because there was a WonderSwan Color remake and a Final Fantasy I & II compilation on Famicom. The point is, this game has been around. I'm referring to the PSP version in this post.

Has Final Fantasy withstood the test of time? Well, as this remake illustrates, aspects of it have. Other aspects, however, have simply been dropped for the sake of modernization. This game meshes new and old very well. So well, in fact, that you don't really get one or the other. Whether or not that's a good thing is subject to debate.

The main HUGE change is that this game is much, MUCH easier than the original. In fact, it's beyond, "easier," it's just plain, "easy." You can pretty much coast through the game only battling whatever you encounter on your main quest without having to level-grind. That's the "newer" feeling part of the game. The older feeling is the high encounter rate and large areas that you have to explore without a map. At least the battle with Chaos was still pretty satisfying.

Now, while I say the game is easy, I should clarify that the bonus dungeons really aren't that easy. To be honest, because of how many other games I plan to play, I just skipped them. The 2 that I explored a bit of seemed to go the same way: Lots of random encounters, all pretty easy and then BITCHSLAP TO THE FACE Boss. You're dead. At least when you died in these situations, the game just threw you out of the dungeon back into the overworld. This was appreciated because when you enter these bonus dungeons, if you don't have the "exit" spell, you're either going to be leaving the dungeon triumphantly victorious or in a body bag. Unlike every other location in the game, the moment you set foot in one of these bonus dungeons, you're trapped in it. I wish I would have known that.

I've decided to keep this "review" fairly short since everyone already knows what Final Fantasy is. Plus, I need to get on to some more games. In short, this was a lot of fun in that classic "save the world" kind of way. I feel like I haven't really payed my dues though since I haven't played through the original NES version, so I intend to do so at a later date. Keep your eyes peeled for my frustration! I'm already swearing in anticipation of that damned Warmech... which if you didn't know, randomly appears right before you encounter the 4th and final elemental fiend and is nearly as tough as the final boss. Of course, your journey to get to this elemental fiend was fairly long, so if this warmech comes and nukes you, you're going back to the last town you saved at. I can't fucking wait.