Games of the Past REVIEW: Final Fantasy Anniversary Edition

The graphics are colourful and crisp, and some of the spell effects really help to bring the battles to life. The enemy sprites are extremely detailed. The visuals work well to retain the look and feel of the original, while being updated enough to be more palatable for the modern gamer.

Sound:

Final Fantasy was the origin of some of Nobuo Uematsu’s classic tunes. What else is there to say? The music is catchy, and many of the tracks are true video game classics.

Story:

The story is extremely basic. There is one big plot twist, but aside from that, the story is that of a quintessential JRPG boiled down to its essence, which makes sense when you consider that Final Fantasy was one of the genre’s pioneers in the first place.

Gameplay:

The gameplay follows the JRPG formula to the letter, which, again, makes perfect sense, since the series helped to write that formula. As I mentioned previously, the random encounter rate is quite high, which could be a turn-off for some. In addition, the battle system is very simple, with all the characters and enemies attacking in order based on their agility. There’s no ATB here! If you depend on magic, you might find your MP running low, but later in the game, that high encounter rate makes Gil easy enough to come by, so you can easily stock up on ethers.

The six character classes provide some decent tactical variations between them, and they can be upgraded at a certain point in the game, but the quest to do so can be easy to miss. Fortunately, I don’t believe it expires.

Conclusion

Final Fantasy Anniversary Edition is a faithful remake of the original NES game. This can be either good or bad. Some may enjoy the game as a throwback to the classics with a fresh coat of paint, while others may be frustrated by many aspects of the game’s dated design. If you’re a big RPG fan (Like I’m sure most of oprainfall’s readers are), or if you’re a big Final Fantasy fan, you’ll probably find something to like in this game. However,  if you’re easily frustrated by high encounter rates, or by being sent wandering from lack of clear direction, you may want to avoid Final Fantasy Anniversary Edition, or else think long and hard about whether or not you want to take the plunge.