Gameboy Advance - Final Fantasy I-II: Dawn of Souls

Format
Gameboy Advance
Publisher
Square Enix
Developer
Square Enix
Country of origin
Japan
Genre
RPG

Final Fantasy I-II : Dawn of Souls

By David Rasmussen
6th Oct 05

Final Fantasy I-II, of course NOT the I-II that Nintendo released but two games that didn’t make it to our shores until… say, didn’t the PSOne release these games as Final Fantasy Chronicles or something? Anyway here you are, classic late 80’s Final Fantasy for your gaming pleasure.

The first one, Final Fantasy, is abit on the generic side. Your basic RPG pure and simple.
You are given four heroes, and the task of saving the world from darkness.
To do this you need to bring back the light to four crystals, each representing an element that is noted on your menu screen. The elements are Earth, Wind, Fire & Water if I understand correctly, and each have abit of work that needs to go into bringing them back, which is why while the game sounds easy it’s not as easy as it first looks… at least for me in anycase it wasn’t so easy.

When we come to the second game you’re given for more specific characters, and abit more depth with the use of “Key Words” which you have to first learn, the use. As you speak to certain people you’ll hear a chime and see a highlighted word and the option to “Learn” that word. Once you learn that word you’ll note that certain people give you the option to “Ask” that word of them, and maybe learn some new info.
Not everyone allows you to “Ask”, and not every “Key Word” yields results (sometimes they just go “?“ when you ask them something they don’t know) but if you go about using “Key Words” and “Items” you find along the way (like a Ring you are given early in your adventure) you’ll be able to move the story along and yes, there is a story. You and your friends (of which only three are available at the start of the game, with a fourth possibly captured by the enemy) are all the survivors of an evil invasion by a bad bunch of people which has killed your parents. Deciding to fight back against these bad people you go and join the local rebel group, working to resist the enemy and their giant flying “dreadnought” which is laying waste to the civilized areas of the land in an attempt to overthrow the remaining free lands.

Set up is easy. For the first game all you have to do is pick four classes, which is represented by character designs that smack of the character designs you’ve seen in Final Fantasy Advance Tactics, and you start adventuring. In the second game you don’t even have that option since the characters are preselected. Just pick names and start playing.
The game should be easy to pick up on, though there is an instruction booklet should getting into this game prove to be a little trying. But for me I took to this game quite easy so you should have no problem.

As for combat? It’s the usual turn based Final Fantasy combat system, so if you’ve played older FF games you got a pretty good idea on how to work this. Otherwise you just explore, travel the lands, fight enemies and explore vast dungeons and small towns. Basically the idea of the game is to bring you a pocket FF and it does it well. The only change of pace comes in Final Fantasy II with the useage of “Key Words” and “Items” which you need in order to move the story forward as you play.

Is the game too easy though? Well It’s not a pushover if that’s what your worried about. Despite the fact that the first Final Fantasy seems easy (you should have a large stockpile of stuff and a load of gils in your pouches after only 10 or so hours of gameplay) the second game is the exact opposite (while you’ll eventually be making good time on the earning of much needed gils for stuff you need you won’t be making 100,000+ gils just like that as in the first Final Fantasy).
Then there’s the gameplay. The first game seems to go at a fast pace at first but once you start really getting into finding those crystals the game begins to slow as you struggle to learn each new location and what you need to do to move ahead in the game, which is a stark contrast to the second game which seems to move at a faster pace than the first since it’s a little easier to figure out what you need to do to move along in the game, and your goals aren‘t as difficult to achieve ala the first Final Fantasy.

Anyway if you’re wondering the game will keep you at your GBA for hours and feed your Final Fantasy needs on the road, so that’s gotta be a good thing. That and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance are two Final Fantasy portables that I think will make your time away from your PS2 more bearable as long as you have these two FF GBA games to keep you company.

The rest about the games, the gameplay and the Bestiary you can learn on your own since the game is easy to pick up, easy to learn, and easy to get into. Nuff said’. Let’s break it down now.

Final Fantasy I-II : Dawn of Breakdown
What’s Hot?
It’s easy to play right out of the box and you shouldn’t have too hard a time getting into the game.
But just because it’s easy to learn that doesn’t mean it’s an idiot game. FFI-II is a nice bit of fun that you’ll be able to pick up easy, get hooked on, and enjoy. The GBA is the system you goto for RPGs, and when it comes to RPGs you can’t go wrong with the Final Fantasy series. Now if only they come out with ports of Final Fantasy to Final Fantasy III (original NES to SNES) on the GBA, well then that would be something I’d love to play… wouldn’t you?

What’s Not?
Ok. It’s the earliest Final Fantasies so it might not have all the bells and whistles a Final Fantasy for the PSP might have, and for the life of me the gameplay seems to remind me more of Lord British‘s Ultima series (with the notable exception of the combat) than of Final Fantasy, but it‘s still good to go so it‘s not a bad thing. Anyway it‘s not like Sony/SquareEnix are killing themselves to release any kind of Final Fantasy port to the PSP so as of right now the GBA is the only system in town for portable Final Fantasy fun.
Anyway if you enjoyed the first Final Fantasy on the NES you’ll enjoy the nostalgia of Final Fantasy I-II : Dawn of Souls on the GBA.

Then there’s the combat system. Yes, the combat is short and sweet, which means it’s not the detailed dance of death the combat system of Tactics Advance is. There you played combat like a fantasy war sim, moving to outflank and outthink your opponents, while in this game it’s quick turned based combat that is quickly resolved. Definitely like night and day when it comes to the combat system.
Which is best for you? Well, if you like your combat frequent and fast then Dawn of Souls if your choice.
However if you like a long thought out process of battle similar to that in Yu-Gi-Oh Monster Coliseum (only longer with more combat) then Tactics Advance is your game.
Then again I personally think both games will be good for your pocket gaming needs.
I may not be enamored with the clunky and slow “story” of Tactics Advance, or how a lot of the “jobs” you take in that game is seemingly pointless, but it’s still got a great combat system and that’s the selling point of the game in my opinion, which makes it and this game worth having.

Moments to Remember?
Hmmm… it’s a good game, but GBA games aren’t exactly known for having a ton of memorable things happening during the game… well, just remember it’s a solid port and fun… that and one of your characters can speak beaver, as in the animal and not… uh, oh-kay, that’s one of the few memorable happenings.
There’s more but I’ll leave them for you to find…. Ok, bend my arm, one more.
Look for the completely non-exciting seduction scene in Final Fantasy II! It’s mediocre and goes nowhere yet damn… oh, well, that’s another thing to look for amongst the handful of memorables.

What to Ignore?
Uh… did they recycle Cid from Final Fantasy II for FFVII? Is that really the same Cid? Sheesh… does every Final Fantasy game that feature an airship have a guy who runs it or is somehow associated with an airship by the name of Cid?!? There’s a Cid here (Final Fantasy II), there’s a Cid if I remember right in Final Fantasy VII (who ended up in Kingdom Hearts) AND a Cid in Final Fantasy X (who returns in Final Fantasy X-2) (and lord knows how many more “Cid”s are out there!!)
Maybe I should just forget that since I’ll never be able to interview a Final Fantasy creator to find out for sure, and I’m not in the mood to count the “Cid”s, but still… what’s up with that!!

Overall?
When it comes right down to it you can’t go wrong with these portable Final Fantasies.
It’s a small collection of classic Final Fantasy and right now nostalgia gaming is all the rage, except in SEGAs case when the nostalgia of Sonic Mega Collection outsells most of their present day games since quite abit of their present day releases suck.
Of course this doesn’t mean I’m a total fan of old Final Fantasy. There is one Final Fantasy I don’t like, and that’s the Final Fantasy for the GameBoy slash GameBoy Color which I have to see as any good. I haven’t played the later games, yes, but my experience with those weren’t very good (to say the least).
Still when it comes to these two for the GBA I have only nice things to say (for the most part.
The games are nicely done, they will feed your Final Fantasy needs nicely while you‘re on the road, and they have their merits which warrant your attention. Anyway it’s not like Sony is going out of their way to put together a PSP Final Fantasy game (I know they have the movie coming on the PSP but that doesn’t excuse them for slacking on a Final Fantasy game)!

The point? Final Fantasy I-II : Dawn of Souls and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance are a combination worth pursuing. Sure, the two games are basically the Madden ‘06 of the Final Fantasy genre… in that you don’t really have any other options since there isn’t much else out there for you to pick from in terms of Final Fantasy portable ports… but is that really such a bad thing?
Combine these two together and you’ll have two keepers that’ll make for wonderful traveling companions on your next trip away from your PS2 and your copies of Final Fantasy VII, X, X-2 and XI.
And if Sony will wake up sooner or later and put out a Final Fantasy port (dare we dream if they port Final Fantasy VII from the PSOne) to the PSP then we’ll be that much happier Final Fantasy fans.
Lord knows it’ll make us forget their delays with Final Fantasy XII.

-- David Rasmussen 6th Oct 05

Gameboy Advance Final Fantasy I-II: Dawn of Souls Images