Review : Final Fantasy Origins for PSOne

Yesterday I got my hands on the fresh of the CD press new Final Fantasy Playstation game. Well new as in it just came out but Final Fantasy : Origins is in fact a updated version of the first two Final Fantasy games. Pure Squaresoft magic.

First some history. Start Flashback Waves
You see there were originally three Final Fantasy games on the Japanese version of the 8-Bit Nintendo, The Famicom. But the concept of a mass market roll playing game on a video game system was a rather unproven concept in the late 80s in the US market so the US only saw the first Final Fantasy game much later than it came out in Japan. Then when the Super Nintendo hit the scene The Japanese game Final Fantasy IV was translated and renamed Final Fantasy II. And it was good. Then the fifth Japanese game was ignored by Squaresoft USA and the sixth game was released as Final Fantasy III on the US Super Nintendo.

Then Square jumped from Nintendo over to Sony and their magical Playstation and Final Fantasy VII was called just that. It lead the uninformed of the US gamers to question Squaresoft USA math skills. But luckily Final Fantasy VII, VIII and IX broke records, sold out and proved that the US loves Japanese RPGs when they are presented right. Then Square brought out the 16 bit Final Fantasy games to the US in two volumes including Final Fantasy V that the US has never seen officially. Now the truly devoted US gamers got the Japanese version and played it with a script that they got of the Internet or played amature translated Rom Hacked version on a PC Snes and Nes Emulator.

Then in the late 90s Japanese toy maker Bandai thought it would be a good idea to make their own hand held game system and try to compete with Nintendo and the Gameboy Color and SNK with the NeoGeo Pocket. So Bandai made the WonderSwan and the WonderSwan Color. It was interesting but it didn't make a big enough dent in Nintendo market numbers to get released anywhere out side of Japan. Then the Gameboy Advance and it rise to market domination at launch was the final nail in the WonderSwan coffin. But Squaresoft remade Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy II with new updated 16-bit graphics and sounds for the WonderSwan Color. The Japanese RPG freaks at it up but it was crippled by the minuscule market share for the WonderSwan Color.

Got all that? If not just remember that it has something to do with Moggles and Chocobos.
End Flashback

Yes these are the old school games that web comic 8-Bit Theater are based on.

So that brings us to Final Fantasy Origins. Square ported the WonderSwan games to PSOne. It came out this week in the US and is quite a steal at $30.

So. What is up with Final Fantasy Origins.

First off all there is a new CG animated movies for the prolog that proves that Squaresoft is home to some of the finest CG animators ever.

The music is a brilliant remix of the original 8-bit tunes that are recreated in the 32-bit Playstation sound chip and is infused with digitally recorded sound clips of real musical instruments into the mix. I found myself humming to the classic Nobuo Uematsu compositions.

They added save to Memo feature that is a bit weird. What it essentially is you save a game to the Playstation RAM so you can revert to a previous saved game in a soft reset with out having to touch the Memory card. That is just weird and I have yet to find a good use for that. But you still have to use the memory card to save your game before you turn it the system off.

The graphics were redone at a 16-bit resolution and 16-bit color pallet for the WonderSwan Color games. They look good but they still look like really old school. I just know that there are going to be stupid kids who are going to complain that these games were not done in 3d. The animation has not been changed and is almost frame for frame the same as the NES games but they are done with the new 16-bit sprites.

Final Fantasy isstill the classic game that is still hard enough and they did not change the battle system to the more automated version that we saw in the later Final Fantasy games. So if you have all your peeps attack one bad guy and that guy dies then your other three guys will swing in the air where he was standing for that turn.

The story and writing are left as is and is word for word. Oh and they added vibration support. That is "a good thing" as Martha would say.

Update: Oh yeah I forgot to mention the unlockable goodies. As you play the game you unlock the production art by Yoshitaka Amano for the baddies that you find. This is really cool and I wish that more RPGs did this. It is sort of like extra behind the scenes stuff that you will find on a good DVD.

Final Fantasy II is a story about a revolution against an evil emperor and features a lot of the stylistic revisions in game play that make Final Fantasy what it is. I haven't really gotten in to this game yet but for those hard core Final Fantasy fans who have played the NES game to death than Final Fantasy II is like a recently uncovered gem dug up from an ancient civilization.

Will we see Final Fantasy III remade for the Gameboy Advance or Playstation and officially translated for the English speaking market? Who knows? I hope so.

If you only play 3d games and think that old 2d games are boring. Than step away from this game and get back to your copy of Halo and NFL 2k3 Street Extreme Halo Hoops on Xbox.

If you love Final Fantasy games than get off your ass and play the good people at the game store for this game. You should be honored that you don't have to shell out a hundred bucks on Ebay for this baby...yet.