Final Fantasy Origins - PlayStation

Final Fantasy... has there ever been such a contradictory title for one of the industry's longest running game series? In a word, no. And with the launch of Final Fantasy Origins in Europe, the PAL community is about to discover why Sakaguchi-san's supposed final project was anything but that.

Never before seen in Europe, this Square compilation is a 2-disc bundle of joy containing the first two Final Fantasies of the series from the late 1980's on the NES.

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.

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.

We're not quite sure why Squaresoft seems to be paying so much attention to Europe and retro-gaming in general, but it's most certainly a welcome change. So now there's just Final Fantasy III left to make it to European shores. We live in hope. more