Forums > Submission Feedback > holdthephone's Final Fantasy: Anniversary Edition review

Final Fantasy wasn't merely competent at the time of its original release, worthy only of an insulting place on a refrigerator. It was actually one of the most polished RPG experiences available on consoles (look at the "classic" Ultima: Exodus to see how bad things got in the hands of other developers of the era), with depth and accessibility that still afforded a challenging fantasy adventure. The available world at the time felt larger than the hardware should have reasonably allowed, and a great deal more dangerous... which I recognize now was a larger part of the appeal than I once gave it credit for. The game's pacing and structure were reasonably close to exemplary, and many subsequent RPGs that have strayed too far from some of the core design principles featured in the original Final Fantasy have suffered mightily for it. I think we'll have to agree to disagree in this case, but I still enjoyed your review.

I don't think I disagree with you at all. The game is historic, revolutionary, and mind blowing for what it accomplished. I truly am impressed with how functional and expansive it feels for something out of 1987. But this review is geared towards today's gamer, and I think it's a hard game to recommended in the year 2014. It's not a hot item anymore, though it's influence will be forever relevant.

I just really dislike reflectionary Final Fantasy reviews, so maybe I'm being bone headed in how I'm approaching my own, but I'm sticking with that angle for each game, no matter how old.

Thanks for reading.

Mobius 1, engage...

Yeah, I could see a reflectionary review for the NES version, but the PSP port needs to be reviewed based on the time it was re-released in. Is this one just a straight port of half of the PS1 Final Fantasy Origins?

I can avoid death by not having a life.

And were there any extras, even if they were like the bonus dungeons on the GBA remake of I and II where you had painfully easy treks leading to absolutely brutal legacy bosses?

Or is this just an aesthetically-enhanced remake of I with some gameplay tweaks to make the grinding less tedious? Because if it's that, it deserves to be panned for being nothing more than a cheap way to keep cashing in on the name of a near-30-year-old game.

I only dabbled in the original game before concluding I couldn't tolerate it. The PSP version makes things playable by buttering down the leveling and walking speeds, as well as the battle difficulty. But it also abandons elements that the original was more interesting for, like spell stocks (the remake uses standard MP) and its DnD rooted random number generation.

I'm not sure what they could have kept to make the remake a better game, but I think the goal was simply to give FF fans an opportunity to see the original world and some of the ideas that were in place way back when. In either case, the game is just too old-fashioned. I could play it as a piece to study, but I couldn't honestly recommend it as a piece of entertainment.

Mobius 1, engage...