Finally knocking the first couple FF games. I only need to finish V and I’ll have finished every single player mainline game.
These were fun! They’re for sure going to be my “least favorites” of the franchise, but they’re still great little games. The GBA versions helped get me through them pretty quickly too. I is very simple and charming, II is interesting and makes for a super weird sequel for its time. Perhaps this version elevates a lot of the pain, but I didn’t have a bad time with it. I don’t dig II’s systems but it was a short experience that felt inoffensive. Not bad! I did try to play the first game authentically on my NES but I couldn’t go through with it knowing versions with less tedium existed. Maybe I’ll do it someday just to say I did, but for now I think it’s safe to say the GBA versions are excellent ways to play these.

A remake of both Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy II. By far the earliest versions of these games that I would personally recommend as playable although much of this review will roughly apply to any versions of these games released after this one as well.

The original Final Fantasy is one of the great Ur-JRPGs, a genre-defining classic. You created your party of adventurers, choosing from across a small range of different classes each with their own quirks to how they play, you drop down into a quintessentially "fantasy" medieval-style world. After rescuing a princess from a renegade knight the party find themselves thrust into a plot involving elemental fiends terrorising the world, although it spirals out from there in some surprising ways. The gameplay is purest old-fashioned JRPG turn-based battling, with the classes you chose at the start determining much of how you'll engage with battles, not to mention how difficult the game is. There's a ton of replayability hidden in the class system, inviting players to keep trying different setups, although the fluctuating difficulty might put some off. Provided you're playing one of the many remakes of Final Fantasy, I think this first entry in the franchise holds up marvelously well.

Final Fantasy II is a much more plot-oriented sequel; it's clear that this was an attempt to flex the team's writing muscles and experiment with a more long-form and driven storyline. Our principal party of Firion, Guy, and Maria (plus a rotating 4th slot) joins a band of plucky rebels waging war against an evil emperor - it's all very fantasy Star Wars. Final Fantasy II is most remembered for its utterly cracked leveling system that on paper tells players to use individual skills in order to get better at them (in theory an intuitive and somewhat ahead of its time system) but in practice can be broken merely by looking too hard at it, turning the game into a wildly skewed mess. II was also innovative in its dialogue system, which offers players a tree of "remembered" prompt words, all of which can be used on every NPC to get some sort of new response and clue as to where you need to go next. It's another idea well ahead of its time but wonky in execution and I think that sums up II. It's very nearly a good game, but remains the black sheep of the franchise - still, failing because you've tried too many new ideas at once is preferable to not trying anything new at all.

A remake of the first two Final Fantasy games, this is a pretty good package for those who want to try the games that started the iconic franchise. Each game looks and plays well, fixing many of the bugs and exploits of the original titles while also adding some extra content for the veterans who have played these games before.

The downside is that these games were not fully rebalanced, especially Final Fantasy II. Also, these are remakes of very old games so the stories here are pretty barren. For me, It was pretty hard to get invested in the first game's plot, and for the second game, I did not enjoy the combat system.

If you are looking to replay either of the first two Final Fantasy games, this is a good package. Otherwise, your milage may vary. These are important games, but they are old school so keep that in mind when diving in.

This is my first time playing both FF1 and FF2 games.
FF1 is just a masterpiece. It's like playing D&D with your friends without the Gen Z humor. The story is cliche but good.

FF2 it's the icing on the cake: It's a really mature, chaotic, sad and hopeless story, packed with heroic and terrifying moments. The gameplay its like life itself: discusting , completely unfair, but worth of give it a try. You grind, you think you're good to go the dungeon, you just barely clear it up, and the next one requires 3 times more preparation.

ff1 is pretty standard and nothing particularly special, but as jrpgs go, it's still a really fun adventure with a surprising amount of scale. i'll never stop enjoying the feeling of easily defeating an enemy that would have destroyed me earlier in the story. the sense of progression in this game is great. ff1 supplies you with a steady stream of increasingly cool items as you level up and clear new areas. it does lack a bit of direction, and is frustratingly obtuse at times (no, i don't remember that guy from four hours ago that told me a cryptic piece of information about where to go next), which makes it hard to recommend, but i had a great time with it overall.

2's a mixed bag. i love the addition of cute little pixelated cutscenes and its increased focus on narrative. the way this story plays out feels great and is surprisingly dark, given the game it's based on. i even like the leveling system; it was fun building the weakest starter character into an absolute powerhouse by using her skills properly. however, the dungeon design, particularly in the midgame, is terrible. between the numerous rows of identical doors that lead to empty placeholder rooms, dead ends that span multiple floors before making you backtrack to the start, and invisible walls lacking any sort of indication, many of the caves, towers, and fortresses you'll raid on your journey seem deliberately designed to waste your time. the loot within isn't even particularly good until the endgame, and most items you'll find in chests can be purchased in stores even if you miss them. in ff1, i only used a guide when i felt completely lost in the overworld and unsure of where to go next. by the end of ff2, that guide was open the entire time. despite that, i still really enjoyed this game. it's arguably far more memorable than the first game, despite its numerous shortcomings. i was really rooting for my little guys.

i haven't played ff2's extra content, but the extra content included in ff1 is not particularly great from what i've played. the new endgame dungeons are mostly made of randomized, trivial levels culminating in crushingly difficult boss fight cameos from other final fantasy games. it feels strongly like nostalgia-baiting padding, and after the first two i decided they weren't particularly worth the trouble.

overall, this compilation is a very mixed bag that's hard to recommend to anyone, but it sucked me in, and i had a great time anyway. i'm very much looking forward to continuing the series after this.

Just beat the first FF via this version. Very enjoyable. As spartan as it gets, but I mean that in the best possible way. There's no mucking around in this game: you ask around locales for information, you find the sources of their troubles, you slay it, you progress. All killer, no filler. There's a few frustrating moments of backtracking and wandering all over the world map for an obscure MacGuffin to help you progress, but it didn't hinder my overall enjoyment. It's easy to see how this blew so many minds back in the day and set the course for an entire series and genre.

Final Fantasy II

Das Leveling-System ist durchaus ungewöhnlich für ein JRPG. Da ich es schon Elder Scrolls aber nie unintuitiv fand, kam ich damit gut zurecht. Man sollte nicht versuchen hier das System zu überlisten, sondern einfach ganz normal und organisch spielen und eine Standard-Charakterkonstellation anstreben. Dann entstehen Charaktere, mit denen das Spiel absolut kein Problem ist und HP grinden ist absolut überflüssig. Einen gut trainierten physischen Angreifer dann mit Berserk pushen, nebenher heilt ein Weißmagier fleißig alles, was die Gegner an Schaden austeilen - und alles ist easy. Es gibt dann eigentlich kaum einen Kampf, der nicht nach wenigen Runden beendet ist.

Das neue MP-System ist eine deutliche Verbesserung gegenüber Teil 1, auch werden hier erstmals die serientypischen Chocobos eingeführt.

Einzig bei Renaissance musste ich anfangs ganz schön knabbern, das waren bestimmt 30 Game Overs bei mir, ehe die Charaktere so stark waren, bis der falsche Random-Encounter nicht mehr den sicheren Tod bedeutete. Am Ende war aber auch hier mit der bewährten Beserker-Taktik alles easy.

Das Spiel ist sicher nicht überragend, aber deutlich besser als sein Ruf. Die Story mit dem Imperator macht Spaß.

Mi primer acercamiento a los Final Fantasy clásicos fue gracias a la GBA y estaré eternamente agradecido. El primer Final Fantasy me ha encantado desde siempre, nunca me ha parecido que haya envejecido mal ni que se sintiese arcaico y desfasado, aguanta muy bien el tipo. Tiene una historia más simplona pero muy interesante y sí que es cierto que no hay personajes protagonistas como tal, que actúan como avatares, pero aún así es un verdadero juegazo.

Y el segundo... No me gustó tanto como el primero. Sí que es cierto que tiene una trama mucho más marcada y desarrollada, con unos protagonistas con personalidad y desarrollados, pero aún así se siente todo muy apresurado y en algunos tramos el juego no tiene ningún sentido. Además de que su sistema de combate es peor.

Pero al final, es una verdadera pasada que metiesen ambos juegos en un cartucho y les diesen ese upgrade visual adaptándolo al estilo SNES, que es lo que solía imitar la GBA. Un primer acercamiento a lo que luego Square haría con los Pixel Remastered

The games in the collection are based off the beautiful Wonderswan Color versions, and add features and fixes onto all the additions that version had as well. For both games that means the merciful ability to save whenever and wherever, as well as a lot of streamlining and various bugfixes that bring the games more on par with the SNES era Final Fantasy games.

Final Fantasy I in this version is very approachable for the most part, but as with the 2nd one there's plenty of really bad design decisions. At times it's pretty clear what you should do and where you should go, but other times the game seems to think you'll find it fun to wander aimlessly for hours to happen upon where you should be going. The dungeons aren't well designed or interesting, but usually aren't too terrible either.

The second one is way more compelling story-wise, with a whole new approach to characters and storytelling that laid the foundation for what future games would aim for. The stat progression system, however improved by the Wonderswan/GBA improvements, is pretty counterproductive and obtuse. The dungeon designs are also horrible, you should take no shame in using the very well-made fan maps that are available online. Some constellations of enemies will just obliterate you in the later dungeons, so don't be shy to use that save system either.

I played this on my DS Lite, and while the sound is ok I recommend using headphones from time to time when you can, as the music is much better when you've got the left and right properly separated.

2 amazing classics that I should have played sooner
Individually id give 1 a 7/10 really fun game and amazing start to the series. The part where the world opens up and you get the ability to go anywhere in the map with your ship is an amazing moment and seems like one of the first jrps to do it but the world is way too big for how little areas there are to explore. Aside from that it has a pretty cool story and the party creation is pretty fun
As for 2 id give it a 9/10
I really enjoyed my time playing this game and dont really get the hate for the mechanics. A lot of people complicate it by saying you need to hit yourself to get hp and that everything having its own xp bar is unnecessary but I never found the system to be annoying or as complicated as people make it out to be: you use a weapon so you get better at using it and you get hit by an enemy which gives you more hp, these 2 things are gonna happen anyway so I don't really get the problem. Maybe a different version has its own problems but to me the GBA version is great. Aside from that I loved the interactable story which was filled with a lot of great characters and the gameplay was even better than 1 which I already liked.