Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls (2004)

Going back to see where this series originated sure was an experience. If you ever hear people talk about how modern games are a lot more forgiving, (see: easier) they really aren't kidding. I'd be lying if I said it was always incredibly fun... The story's pretty simple. I spent an awful lot of time wandering the map, trying to figure out where to go next... But it did fill me with a sense of accomplishment to beat it.

3.5/5 Dawn of Souls contains both of the first two final fantasy games with a good number of quality of life upgrades, then adds a good deal of additional content! I had only ever played a little bit of the originals back on the NES days but recently decided to go through and play the entire Final Fantasy series. These seem to have been the recommended ways to play both of the first two iterations (at least prior to the recent pixel remasters). The games still hold up pretty well and it's fun to see where the series came from, and the origins of all the staples that are in every release. The first doesn't have too much of a story, the second one expands on this a good bit and has a pretty good story throughout. They definitely do some more experimenting with 2 than 1, and while some of it works out great some of it does fall a bit flat. The fact you can play two of these full adventures in one game cartridge is a heck of a deal. If you have somehow only played the originals back on the NES I would say it's still worth your time to replay them through this to see the great updated graphics, and experience the extra content added.

Played through a lot of 2 a few years ago when I first got the cartridge (maybe 10 or 15 years back), I don't think I looked up guides or even a manual- I should load up the save to see where I left off. I remember making a lot of progress but then having opened up much of the world losing track of what I needed to do next, and then not putting much effort into figuring it out and stopped playing. Probably I'll start playing from the beginning again.

Almost done with 1, started out not using walkthroughs much but then realized that this caused me to explore a lot more, which means a lot more battles and experience and gold gain which made the main dungeons not very difficult- it's a strange thing to both punish and reward exploration like this. Haven't tried any of the bonus dungeons, I wonder if I can beat the game then still go into them, or have to keep a save around for that?

I had always gravitated toward RPG's but it wasn't until the original Playstation that they became my favorite type of game to play. Sure, I had played Wizardry on the NES and Warriors of the Eternal Sun on Genesis but when the RPG scene exploded on the ps1 I was hooked. A large part of that was the Final Fantasy series. I actually played FF8 first, then 7 (which is probably why I liked 8 more than most people seem to). From there I played FF9 and continued to play almost any FF game that was released. As I got more "serious" about collecting RPG games I realized that I had never played any of the first 5 FF games. Well the other day I set out to rectify that situation. I started FFI on the GBA. I understand that graphics of this port have been enhanced a quite a bit from it's original NES release and they do look nice. I found myself grinning and enjoying the simple story and grind. Battles tend to be quick and levels have come somewhat frequently so far. New towns providing new gear and spells also helps propel my playing forward. So far I'm quite enjoying it.