N-Philes

Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls

Posted by Ken B..

In this day and age, it seems that most people feel the requirements for a good RPG experience include a breakthrough battle system, an intense story line with so many characters and plot twists you need Cliffs Notes and, most importantly, flashy 3-D graphics. Fortunately, Square Enix said "bunk that" and decided that now would be a great time to remind the gaming community of just what it is that makes a great RPG. Not only that, they decided to make it portable. This, of course, isn't Final Fantasy I&II's first appearance in the modern gaming era, but they have never been available as they have now on the GBA. So, unless you have a Wonderswan and can read Japanese or you have the patience of a saint, which is needed in order to wait through the insane load times of the PlayStation port, you may have just passed this title by. You may even be considering passing over the GBA port because, after all, the game is over ten years old. Trust me when I say that that would be a mistake. In more ways than one Final Fantasy: Dawn of Souls can hold its own against any other handheld RPG on the market, and even some of the full-grown ones.

Storywise, both quests have a pretty basic plot. In FF I the heroes are the fulfillment of a prophecy involving mysterious orbs that have the power to deliver the world from the all-encompassing darkness that is plaguing the land. The antagonist in FF II takes the form of an evil empire bent on total world domination. Fortunately, you join up with the resistance in an effort to stop the empire before it's too late. It was nice to get back to the basics and have a storyline which was neither too deep nor too simple. Both quests are different enough to keep you from feeling like you are playing the same game twice, one of my fears from the moment I first picked this up. One complaint of mine would be the fact that in FF I you could not choose your own name, as you basically had to chose from a predetermined set of rather lame and forgettable names. This kept you from forming any real connection to the characters. FF II seems to have cleared all that up, but I couldn't help but to feel it would have been easy to allow the same choice in FF I. Final Fantasy I does, however, give you the luxury of choosing your heroes' classes right from the beginning. You get to choose from warrior, thief, monk, red mage, white mage, and black mage, all, of course, with their strengths and weaknesses, forcing you to weigh your choices carefully.

I really like the fact that you can save anywhere. This makes it much easier to play for a just a few minutes at a time if that is all you have time for, but you may want to make a little time for Dawn of Souls because you are not going to want to put it down. While, graphically, it still shows its age, it's easy to get absorbed into the world of Final Fantasy while trekking through the world map and the well-placed dungeons. The classic 2-D look is most noticeable in the second quest whereas, with the first quest, the graphics seem more dated than "classic." I really think that the graphics could have been updated with more attention to detail on the first quest. I caught myself grumbling on more than one occasion about the fact that more detail could easily have been added without significantly increasing production time, but graphics really aren't that important when it comes to a good RPG experience - it's all about the gameplay.

If you are like me and find yourself craving old school random battles, then you have come to the right place. Nothing's complicated here and most of the battles can be fought by just rapidly hitting the A button, although after a while that tends to get a little boring. However, the pacing of both games seems to be able to keep it from getting too tedious. I never really ran into any spots in the game where I felt unprepared because of the number of battles, but that's not to say you can easily stroll through either of the games. There were a few times when I was pretty much limping into the nearest town to rest up and revive fallen characters.

Where there are random battles, you'll also find leveling up. In Final Fantasy I, the level up system is fairly straightforward and you seem to level up rather quickly. Sometimes it feels like the game was dumbed down just a little too much because even the weakest of foes will reward you with a sizeable amount of experience.

The same goes for Final Fantasy II, but with a little added strategy. You still level up fairly quickly, but the area where your stats are increased is completely up to you. So, for example, two of my characters do not carry shields and tend to take more hits so they usually level up in HP and Agility points. Also, if they use weapons more then magic these characters will have higher Strength points. It's the exact opposite with any character you primarily choose for magic. They will have higher Intelligence and MP but lower HP, so sometimes you will be forced to try and concentrate on one particular character just to get them up to par with the rest of the group in terms of HP. One strategy that works is to put one character on the front lines, so to speak, as they will take more hits, deal more damage, and as a result level up quicker then the rest of the party. It's important to make sure you take a little extra time to level up your characters or you may be surprised by the strength of some of the bosses. The gameplay may not exactly wow you, but it certainly won't leave you as frustrated as the countless nuances of some modern battle systems and character stat systems.

Finally, as with any memorable RPG, a key aspect of the Dawn of Souls experience has to be the music. While the soundtrack comes through just fine over the GBA speakers, headphones will really beef up the clarity and help you to appreciate the use of actual instruments. I can't think of another handheld game to date which tickles your ears as playfully as Dawn of Souls.

This game gets an N-Philes score of B-.

In the end, what you get here are two excellent games. While the graphics (or lack thereof) may be a turn off, solid gameplay and storylines free from excessive details help keep Dawn of Souls from derailing like so many RPGs out there today. A save anywhere function for ease of portability completes the package, making this a must buy for RPG fans and handheld gamers alike.

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