I played the original Final Fantasy on the NES and thought it was an okay game, but nothing I was overly thrilled with and then a few years later I played Final Fantasy II on the SNES and really enjoyed it as it made me a FF fan! Then years later I find out that the Final Fantasy I played was actually part IV and that there were two FF games I had not played. Well, three, as Final Fantasy V was also not released in the United States initially either. So, I got this game on the PSP system and I have finally played through it and have to say I enjoyed it more than I did the first game in the series and I am a bit perplexed as to why it was not released here. A lot of the earlier role playing games were so vague as to what you were supposed to do. Look at Hylide, Mother and a host of others, heck, even the original Legend of Zelda was a bit vague at times. Even on the Sega Master system and Genesis the Fantasy Star series was incredibly vague. This one actually points you in the right direction, develops a story and you never feel lost. It also does a better job than its predecessor of creating its characters as they have personality. Of course, this is just a preference as I had a friend who loved the original game because you could build your team however you wished and he did not like the fourth game while I wasn't wild about the first, but as I've stated loved the fourth game.
The story has a group of four youths being taken down as they try to flee their hometown of Flynn. An evil emperor is trying to take over the world and his soldiers overrun the land. Three of the four youths find themselves in the rebel hideout where their wounds have been tended to and they are soon begging for the chance to work with the rebels to not only retake Flynn, but stop the emperor and his devious plans which include building a giant flying fortress to rain terror upon the land. Every time they thwart one of his plans, he devises something new to terrorize the denizens of the world. Hell itself cannot seem to hold back this fiendish man in his plans to rule the world!
The game play is a bit different than other Final Fantasy games as far as the leveling system goes. Other than that, it plays out much like any other Final Fantasy game of the era as you go from town to town buying equipment, learning clues and then proceeding through dungeons and caves to try and get what you need to progress. The leveling though is very different as in this game it is not done on a point system, but rather, if you get hit and lose so many of your hit points your HP at the end of the fight will increase at the end of the battle. Same with MP and nearly all attributes. You get targeted by a spell, your magic defense increases and if you use a weapon or spell and their level goes up as well. It is different, but it is a bit strange too. By the end of the game the most effective way to increase HP and MP is to literally attack your own players and cast Osmose on them!
So, this FF game was rather good and I am surprised it was never released in the United States when it first came out. I had to play it on the PSP hand-held system, so that is what my review stems from. However, I can say that I am pretty sure the graphics and other things were upped in this version of the game as it looks more like an SNES game than a NES game. Still, I would think the story and stuff are all the same, so I don't believe it to be too vastly different. Things that appear here that would later return and become series regulars include Cid and Chocobos. Though the Chocobo does not really factor too much into this one, you could go the entire game without riding it and you don't really miss anything by not using it. So I enjoyed this game, more story and more reminiscent of the fourth game so it was a nice diversion.
The story has a group of four youths being taken down as they try to flee their hometown of Flynn. An evil emperor is trying to take over the world and his soldiers overrun the land. Three of the four youths find themselves in the rebel hideout where their wounds have been tended to and they are soon begging for the chance to work with the rebels to not only retake Flynn, but stop the emperor and his devious plans which include building a giant flying fortress to rain terror upon the land. Every time they thwart one of his plans, he devises something new to terrorize the denizens of the world. Hell itself cannot seem to hold back this fiendish man in his plans to rule the world!
The game play is a bit different than other Final Fantasy games as far as the leveling system goes. Other than that, it plays out much like any other Final Fantasy game of the era as you go from town to town buying equipment, learning clues and then proceeding through dungeons and caves to try and get what you need to progress. The leveling though is very different as in this game it is not done on a point system, but rather, if you get hit and lose so many of your hit points your HP at the end of the fight will increase at the end of the battle. Same with MP and nearly all attributes. You get targeted by a spell, your magic defense increases and if you use a weapon or spell and their level goes up as well. It is different, but it is a bit strange too. By the end of the game the most effective way to increase HP and MP is to literally attack your own players and cast Osmose on them!
So, this FF game was rather good and I am surprised it was never released in the United States when it first came out. I had to play it on the PSP hand-held system, so that is what my review stems from. However, I can say that I am pretty sure the graphics and other things were upped in this version of the game as it looks more like an SNES game than a NES game. Still, I would think the story and stuff are all the same, so I don't believe it to be too vastly different. Things that appear here that would later return and become series regulars include Cid and Chocobos. Though the Chocobo does not really factor too much into this one, you could go the entire game without riding it and you don't really miss anything by not using it. So I enjoyed this game, more story and more reminiscent of the fourth game so it was a nice diversion.