last of the Japanese onlies.

Years ago I had played this game for the PS1 version when it came with FFVI. It was my first look at job selection for your characters (aside from the first game). It had a learning curve for me that took me a while to get used to. Sadly, at the time I really didn't like this part of the game. There were a lot of things that I hated about this game. But then I got it for my GBA collection. Finally I had a purpose for doing the jobs. I became addicted to getting every little ability. But therein lies the problem I STILL have with this game. While some of the jobs and their abilities were most useful, I found a number of them that were just tedious and more hurtful than helpful. Still, I labored on and got all 111 abilities for the four characters, mostly to see what they did rather to use them. You need all your characters to have these abilities, whether they stink or not, to get the final job (Necromancer, which in my opinion is one of the worse to use by far). Yeah the last job is more harmful to you than anything, seeing that if you heal yourself in battle while using this job you literally hurt yourself.

The story to this game is this: Meteors come crashing down to the earth and monsters are let loose. Supposedly, this really bad guy is using the meteors as a source of energy to resurrect himself. At one time a group of fighters fought against him and put him in a prison, but now he is feeding off the bad energies and is soon to break out. One of your party members has amnesia and you have to help him regaiin his memories. The members from the original group are slowly being killed off by minions of the evil creature, who escapes his binds and goes back to the planet from whence he came to prepare its destruction. The team follows and helps their amnesiac friend. Tragedy strikes and the two worlds are merged. Now the team prepare for the final battle and to avenge their fallen comrade and loved ones.

The upside to this game is that its not so much hack and slash as the previous four games had been. You now have several jobs to acquire many abilities from and like FFIII for the DS your party has many combinations to choose from to keep this game exciting. There are several optional boss fights that make or break you, including the Omega boss fight. I would avoid him at all cost, unless you have a strategy that I don't know about. There are two bonus levels after you complete the original game, though they don't necessarily add to the story. The first feels like a rehash of the third chapter of this game. The second one is just a collection of increasingly difficult boss fights.

Where have you been all my life???

Yep, this is another one of the games that originally was Japan-only. In fact, when Square released several of the games for the PS1, it slipped through the American market again. What??? No GBA version either. It took some 13 years from its original release on the Super Famcom in Japan to arrive in America. What did we get? One of the greatest things next to slice bread, that's what.

The game got a 3D makeover with high quality CGI graphics and many new upgrades in the story, gameplay and everything else under the sun. You play as four warriors who have been brought together by chance. As the game goes along, your characters learn about the balance between Light and Darkness. Too much Light in the world and the Darkness must correct the balance. Vice versa for too much Darkness, which is happening in the world during this story. The four main characters are joined by non-playable friends that will lend a hand every-so-often. Each of these non-playable characters have their own seperate story that must be fulfilled to continue the story. The warriors come to a conclusion that there is something in the universe that is constantly off-setting the balance and plan to permamently fix the problen rather than giving it a temporary solution. The team meat the Warriors of Darkness and face off with them. After defeating all four, they enlist their cooperation in the hopes implementing their goals.

Though this is a visually great game with good story, it is perhaps the hardest of the FF franchise. You have to ration out your Phoenix Downs, lack of saving anywhere makes this game difficult on later levels of the game, and the friends that join the team, you mostly forget that they are there unless they decide to show up during the battle. I love the Job system implemented in this game, though you the task for getting the Onion Knight was stupid. The game lacked a bonus stage and you could only access the bestiary from one person in the game rather than the Configure screen as is the case in the GBA games. Once you entered into the Crystal Castle, there were no more save points to access and had to rely on a quick save to hold you place if you had to quit for any reason.

If you are looking for a challenge in difficulty, this is a sure bet. The battles differ depending on which character is assigned which job; the combinations are endless, and every character has their own unique spin to the job's costume (one red mage does not look like the other red mages). If you haven't played this game, you should pick this one up, because who knows when there will be another American release of this game.

The Bane of Kain

I love my handheld, it allows me to return to some of my old favorites, like the early FF series, and to play some older games that I never got to play when they came out.

I have to come clean on something (and this'll make me sound more like a noob than I already am), when FFII came out for the SNES back in 1991 I thought that this was one of the best games ever (it was my first plunge into the franchise and what got me really started playing other RPGs later on: IoG, SF, CT, etc.), but then I got to the boss fight with Zeromus, and no matter what I tried, I couldn't beat him. I tried leveling up higher, I tried using Protect/Shell spells, nothing I tried seemed to work, I still got killed by the Southern Cross move. It frustrated me to know end. Finally I gave up; my first time I ever gave up on a game so close to the end.

More than an entire decade passed before I would ever see that game again (now it is called FFIV and it comes with CT, sweet a bonus), this time for the PSone. I thought, "Great, I got an old score to settle, and this time I'm going to beat it." So, I load it up on my PS2, and about two weeks later I finally get to the final boss fight, I really worked hard to get to this point, I even checked the internet for some helpful hints (some helpful--including the one about stealing the Dark Matter, some not-so-helpful) along the way. I print them out, I follow them to the letter (the helpful ones), and what happens, I still am not able to beat that bastard, Zeromus. Once again, I give up on the game and it goes into a dark corner of my room to collect dust. I eventually find out what I did wrong by coming to this wonderful site [Gamerhelp], and I learn a few more tricks, but alas, my poor PS2 had burned out and crashed (I had bought it used at a gamestop by trading in my old tried and true and very faithful SNES--sorry old friend--and about $60 or so, plus tax) after only two years of use.

A few more years go by, and I had settled down to playing on the GC, learning about the horrors of RE and going over to a friends house occasionally for my fix of PSone and PS2 games, Silent Hill, Star Wars, whatever. Finally, I was able to get a DS Lite and the first game I got for it was GBA virsion of FFIV, and the quest to beat that one FF series final boss I was never able to beat, continued. I made all the preparations, and again after two weeks of playing, I get to Zeromus--here it is some 15-18 years; almost 20 years that I have been plagued by this--and I am happy to report, that on 01/01/2008 I finally, finally beat Final Fantasy II/IV. Now, if I can only get through FFVII...but that's another story to tell for another date.

Where it all began

This is the game that started it all; the game that all other RPGs get their roots. Originally for the NES, it was the game that saved Squaresoft from bankruptcy and made it into the global comglomerate it is today. The game would later find a home on the PS1 in a collection with FFII called, Origins, and is now on both the GBA as the Dawn of Souls, and has been upgraded even more with more content for the PSP.

You start out this first game choosing four fighters from a possible six jobs and name them. The story is simple: your group of four go from town to town helpiing out those in need. On their travels they encounter Garland, a wizard from the future. They kill him and try to repair the damage done to the land by him. Soon, they fulfull a prophecy and become known as the Warriors of Light. Eventually, they encounter the four Warriors of Darkness and defeat each in turn. Not long after, they find the truth out about the evil in their world and discover that Garland has been revived in a Star Trek-esque paradox. He is now twice as strong as he was before, his only goal in life is to exact his revenge on those who killed him the first time.

I loved the story for this game, it had a really nice surprise ending, you really don't see that everyday. Not even the other games that followed in the series copied it. In addition to the story you eventually opened up four bonus levels where you could collect tons of new treasure including weapons found in the other games. Aside from the occasional optional boss fight, the fighting was pretty repetetive hack n slash. Also, a down side to the game was (thankfully this was fixed im the games that followed) that your characters HP and MP capped out at 999, and your Gil stopped at 999,999. About in the middle of the game, you found yourself either buying extra curatives and weapons you did not need, or just simply avoiding battles altogether just to do something with that Gil.

The second game was originally a Japanese-only game and didn't get released in the US until 1997. From here on out, you have preset warriors, no more building teams from a list. You begin the game in a battle you can't win. Once the fighting is done, you have been seperated from one of your comrads. The game progresses on a code word system and has a different type of AP system in which your attributes and weapons and magic earn points according to how they were used. There are three main characters in your group where a fourth can be added throughout the story. As the story continues, several of the people who fight at your side get killed. Eventually, The warriors find their friend and in a twist in the story find out he has been tricked by this demon to help take over as emperor. Once their comrad has been brought back to his senses, he rejoins the group and they prepare to defeat the demon.

Upon completing this game, you get a bonus story where you play as four of the warriors that got killed in the original story. They quckly learn thatt they have been sent to a Hell type world and that a demon is causing chaos within the realm. Again, there is much repetetive game play here. The developers, however have gotten rid of the cap on the HP, MP, and the Gil. The enemies tended to target one particular warrior, and I often times found myself reviving him constently. This game also introduced the chocobo and magicks that leveled up in power and visually.

I would say that this game is not exactly a must-have, it is certainly dated, I am sure if you haven't played RPGs, there are others to try. If you really want this game then I would prabably go with the PSP version, even though this is good to have in your collection, too.

What a game should be.

Being a fan of the franchise for years, I was totally amazed on how well put together this game was. The graphics weren't state of the art, but it doesn't need them to be a great game. The soundtrack was awsome and inspiring. I couldn't find anything wrong with the gameplay. Prime had just the right amount of control, level difficulty, and inginuity. The button reaction timing was spot on and the puzzle solving to proceed through each level was balanced. I was surprised at how well certain atmospheric and invirons reacted with Samus's helm such as mist, or condesation collecting on her screen, to a blast from an enemy's cannon fire causing her own reflection to appear momentarely on her face plate. All information was easily accessible to her HUD screen and stored for later use. Though there were times that I became frustrated with certain areas of the game, it was nice to know that the mistakes I made were of my own rather than poor game construct.