Final Fantasy... has there ever been such a contradictory title for one of the industry's longest running game series? And with the launch Dawn of Souls, effectively a re-hash of PlayStation's Final Fantasy Origins, the series is going portable good and proper, complete with new cut-scenes, better translation and additional gameplay.

In terms of storytelling and plotlines, Final Fantasy I and II are, like all others in the series, completely and utterly different. Granted, there are sinis ... more >>

Final Fantasy... has there ever been such a contradictory title for one of the industry's longest running game series? And with the launch Dawn of Souls, effectively a re-hash of PlayStation's Final Fantasy Origins, the series is going portable good and proper, complete with new cut-scenes, better translation and additional gameplay.

In terms of storytelling and plotlines, Final Fantasy I and II are, like all others in the series, completely and utterly different. Granted, there are sinister forces at work, global disasters in the making, and budding relationships within each title, but the similarities stop there. Final Fantasy I features an evil entity bent on world domination and Final Fantasy II has a greedy emperor fixated on conquering the world, but the characters and events that occur are entirely unrelated. They are faithful to their 8-bit counterparts, but both now of more conclusive endings.

More importantly though, these early Square offerings in many ways set a benchmark for other RPG developers to follow. Magic systems, experience points, hit points, summons and, yes, those random battles, make welcome appearances and have been left unchanged for the Final Fantasy Origins remake, making for some lengthy sessions of nostalgic pleasure to players of the originals. These battle systems and innovations have been reproduced by dozens of developers since.

What have been changed, however, are the graphics for both titles. Upgraded to 16-bit status, the 2D scrolling environments now look more detailed and are perhaps even on a par with some early 2D PlayStation games. Players who haven't had the pleasure of these two classics will not appreciate the improvements, but avid retro gamers and Final Fantasy fans will relish this update. << less