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Should've been a GBA port

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 8 / 14
Date: January 12, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Final Fantasy Origins is a nice game really...but not for the playstation, and not because the PSX doesn't receive any new games... but this agme is all 16-bit and everything. Which means it would've been better served as a GBA port rather than a PSX port.

The graphics, as I said are 16-bit. I like that they're not 8-bit graphics anymore, which is a big plus really. I don't mind 16 bit on a 32 bit console, but the GBA is already receiving several 16-bit ports as it is. The PSX is also last generation. If this had been ported to the PS2 I suppose people would've been expecting more of an upgrade.

The sound has been changed for the worst it seems. It isn't bad in FFII but in FFI it doesn't sound great. The original NES version had much better sound. FFII has great music and tunes even if it was changed from the original.

The gameplay is another thing that strikes me. I'm sure that for the time of these two games release they were exciting and fun. But in this common era they don't exactly stand the test of time like other classics would. The gameplay is kind of boring, with FFI's slow paced story and FFII's annoying character raising system. It's just hard to get into these two games. FFI you get ambushed too much and FFII doesn't use the 'level up system'. Instead FFII has a sort of 'whatever you do is what increases.' So if you use a lot of physical attacks your attack goes up. If you take a lot of damage your defense and HP go up. Sound good right? Not exactly. For each time stats go up, other stats go down. If your character has a lot of strentgh then they won't be able to use much magic. It's annoying to play an RPG where you can't balance a characters stats.

The story of both games can be enticing. FFI has an interesting story and all but it paces to slow. FFII has a fast paced story but it doesn't hook you. Also, these are first generation RPG's. They're great for the early days of the late 80's and early 90's but its surprising that a game like Super Mario Bros. 3 can stand the test of time and these can't.

FFI has been ruined considerably. The sound has changed and while a few small tweaks have been fixed (you can now dash and it auto-targets) Square didn't do enough to revamp it for this new era.

So I say these could've faired better on the GBA. I'm sure that they could've made better use of the hardware that way. FFOrigins also doesn't have many extras like Anthology and Chronicles did. This isn't a bad buy but it suffers from its bad replay value, slow story pacing and the fact that it just can't stand the test of time as well as other remakes have.

Classic fun is a must for FF lovers

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 7
Date: April 20, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Final Fantasy Origins is a new release for the Playstation that lets you enjoy the fun of the original NES Final Fantasy game (8-bit) plus Final Fantasy 2, which was only released in Japan.

To begin with, the original Final Fantasy, which has spawned an empire and MMORPG. Its roots were pretty basic, but many gamers remember fondly their first adventures in Final Fantasy with those cute 8 bit graphics.

Your classic group of fighter, thief, black mage and white mage are out to rescue a princess and save the world. Each character in your group has his (or her) own skills and grows in experience and levels as the game progresses.

The graphics have been revamped up to a level that appears to fall between 16-bit and 32-bit on the classic scales. Some find this an improvement, but some miss that old-style look. The sound's improvements are generally loved, giving a reasonably good background to the game.

Final Fantasy 2 was only released in Japan. This game doesn't set you up with four set character types - instead, you get four 'teammates' and then can choose to specialize to match your gameplay. If you're a magic lover, have most of them cast spells, and that's what they'll get good at. Fighter-types can build up a formidable combat team!

Newly created videos help get you into each game, giving new faces and realism to each adventure.

A must-have for any Final Fantasy fan that wants to enjoy each stage of this fantastic game's development.

The Squaresoft vault is opened once again.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: June 07, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Final Fantasy Origins is a gem for collectors, considering it has the first 2 games in the most successful RPG franchise ever. While most people will buy it for nastalgic purposes, I highly recommend it to new school gamers, so they can see where modern RPGs have evolved from.

I remember beating the first Final Fantasy back in 1990, and was surprised to find that I remember very little of it. It is a great game, and the 16-bit upgrade suits it well (I doubt it would fare so well in 128-bit). The story is linear and simple, and the characters are a bit wooden, but considering how old the game is, I didn't mind too much. Final Fantasy 2 is also a decent, garden variety RPG, but not as good as the first one. I imagine that this will be like the Final Fantasy Anthology, where people buy it for pary VI, than complain to no end about how part V is not as good. They are both good, quality games that can please both casual and hardcore games alike.

The Playstation version comes with breif CGI movies at the beginning of the games, which are nice but do not make it worth the cost alone. The games are what make the package. What I particularly like about the Origins package is that it doesn't contain the excruciating load times that the Anthology and Chronicles packages had. That is a plus.

Any re-release of an older game is hit and miss (like the Resident Evil series on Gamecube), but this package hits the bullseye. Younger gamers might be turned off by the graphics, but to anyone who can look beyond that, a great time is assured.

Very good yet frustrating

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: August 23, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I love all final fantasy games, with the exception now of final fantasy 2. Both of these games are surely classics, they brought the biggest RPg saga into the world. Final fantasy 1 I always wanted to play, and my friend had it but he had no NES! I finally got it and played it and it was a great game, even though it was missing a storyline. I loved the final boss. Then I started playing final fantasy 2. That is the hardest frickin' game I have ever played! It utilizes a new battle system, where attacking yourself will make you gain HP, and there is no exp. Even so, I am stuck in this one dungeon called the dreadnought. I lose every time I go in there! And sometimes, you get to the end of a dungeon, all your guys are almost dead, and they say, "Wait, we need to go back and get the item" or something! And then you go back and you lose! It really makes me mad! And sometimes the last boss you fought is a random enemy in the next dungeon! You would like this game if you like hard games, because this one was only previously released in japan. It is worth it for that. And if you can beat this game, I salute you. But at least get it for FF1. You should not pass up this great offer, even if you can't beat one of the games (Although I bet I just suck at it). If you like these games, get FF7 and FF8. Those ones are great, too.

FF1= 5 stars FF2= 3 stars

Excelent Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: March 15, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This is an excellent game. A must have for any rpg lovers, especially those fans since the beginning of the final Fantasy Series!!!

It features remasted editions in full 16 bit of the original nes (Final Fantasy I y Final Fantasy II). Also it has a collection where you can view all the beast you had defeated so far and the ones left. All the item you have collected, and so much more. Also there are to level of dificulties (Easy And Normal). If you want to have a good time with a game, This is a must have.

I myself had started the journey of beating every Final Fantasy game of the series. I had beated Final Fantasy I but there is still a long way to go!!! (FF2, FF3, FFIV, FFV, FFIV, FFVII, FFVIII, FFIX, FFX, FFXII). Long live FINAL FANTASY!!!

5 out of 5 in my opinion

9.0 IGN
9.0 GameSpot

What else you can think about? hehehehe!!!

The one That Started it All

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: August 03, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Once upon a time, a little company called Square was about to just plain DIE. At the end of it's rope, they looked at the somewhat confusing popularity of a game called Dragon Quest, and said, ''Well, let's see if we can do this one better. No, wait, let's see if we can do this four or five better. What have we got to lose?''

The rest is history, as the single most enduring franchise in gaming history was born.

Final Fantasy. So named because if it hadn't taken the gaming world-- at least the gaming world in Japan-- by storm, there would be no more Square

Graphics 9

For both games the graphics had a major upgrade, compared to the Nintendo. Each of the characters are shown with great detail, they even have art work you can get while going through the game, along with the monsters you come across. The towns have a new look to them also, with each of the npc's with great detail too. The detail they put into the background was really amazing compared to the older one. Being able to tell where the towns are and the game not freezing up on you is a great upgrade. The magic has been well designed too. Some of the stronger magic's glint the entire screen and even some of the older Final Fantasies have better magic than most of the newer ones. Why you ask, because I said so and that's all there is to it.

The monsters are more of a wide variety also, even though you will run into the same enemy just different colors its good to be able to tell which a stronger version is. The land seems to be detailed well too, because they are true colors instead of just random colors the system can handle. They even have really great videos in the beginning of each game, with the characters talking in the FF II beginning that was something even I wasn't ready for. It is just amazing seeing how much the graphics have improved since 87 makes me feel like an old person watching these amazing games grow up too.

Game play 10

A ten you say, well it shouldn't surprise you, because not only do these games have great stories, graphics, all of those good things, without game play it would just seem like a book. For Final Fantasy the battles are like they used to be, you go, they go, you go again, but it is nowhere near as slow as it use to be. But unlike Final Fantasy II, FF has the leveling system, which you should be used to. On the older version you could only get to level 50, but on this one you can reach higher, not that its necessary or anything. Instead of learning magic, or having a weapon to learn magic, in both games you have to buy it from stores they have in each town. They have two different kinds of magic's white, which is the curative magic, and black which is more of an elemental damage magic. While having those stores the magic goes with two different characters, the white and black mage. But wait there is more, there is an additional mage that can learn both magic's, and that mage is titled the red mage. Not only do you have these wonderful magic's to buy but, they have levels too, so as you increase your level in the game you can increase your magic level, to do more damage to enemies you encounter.

Another set of characters is the monk, whom goes against everything, unlike a warrior this type of character can have better attack and defense without having any items equipped to them. The warrior is one of the most basic characters which are one of the best. He can equip any item and still be strong. Along with these is a thief, whom you can have run from enemies. But they have nowhere near the attack of the warrior, all they seem good for is luck and their speed, but with that luck and speed they can help you escape from battles easier. When you advance farther in the game you can have these characters upgrade, which will make there stats go up a large amount. There is a little mini game you can play on a boat which you get later, where you try to get the numbers to go in order they are all mismatched. The name of it is the tile game, and if you are short on money all you have to do is beat the records they have on their little hall of fame thingy and you can get a lot of money in return for beating a simple time limit.

In the beginning of FF II you notice there are four different characters running from their town which has been set on fire, they are the four main characters you see. The first one I will mention is Firion he was orphaned at a young age, he was adopted by the parents of Maria and Leon, and he grew up with them and considers them his real family. Maria is Leon's sister, Leon goes a separate path at the beginning of the game and you are to track him down. The last one is Gus, he was a childhood friend of the three and he tends to use his muscles more than he does his brain, he is one of the strongest of the group, but he isn't very bright. Unlike FF this game has actual characters to fit a story line, which can be a good thing but, if you have a game with no names you get to change it to what you see fit, unlike some of the other FF's that have names for the characters so there is no reason to change there given name.

In FF II as I mentioned earlier there are no levels you just kind of gain more status as you move on with the game. But like FF there is the same kind of magic, you buy it and you can equip it to anybody in this game really. But there are not separate classes in this game so it goes with who gets it first keeps it. They all have their own sort of weapons though. The battling isn't much different than any other FF except you don't get any experience at the end of the battle. But your characters attributes also increase like they would, even though there are no visible mastery points. There are links between the actions taken and the stats raised aren't quite as clear. One thing that both games do share in common and I think should be in most Final Fantasies is that there are memo files you can save, which is like saving the actual game except you can save it wherever you want and you can start your game over from there, but it only stays on your game while it is on. If you reset your Playstation the memo file will be erased which can be a bummer, but oh well.

Sound 10

The sound is really great in this game, it's mostly all the soundtrack but hey as long as you got good music who needs noises from the characters right? The soundtrack on FF is better than of FF II in my opinion, but that is because I have played through FF more than FF II. The best thing about these soundtracks is when you own them and you just listen to them, it reminds you of the areas you where at in the game, and that just shows you how powerful music can be. The voice acting on the FF II video was really good, their voices seemed to match the movement of their lips pretty well, but other than that the rest of the noises where ok. Except for the magic, some of the noises definitely let you know something cool is going to happen. Other than that you just need to go buy the soundtrack it's worth it.

Graphics 9
Game play 10
Sound 10

Overall 10

This is a really great game and if you don't have it I highly suggest that you go out and buy it. It is released for the Playstation so it shouldn't be too hard to find. If you can go and buy the soundtrack along with the game. The game play is one of the key factors to this game and should keep you occupied for a while. So enjoy the game and I hope you enjoyed reading.

The origin of Square Enix

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 8
Date: August 25, 2004
Author: Amazon User

A great collection of the games that started THE greatest video game series of all time. The first chapter in the series is a great game but still not as great as the second which is a lot more story involved. I loved them both they show that they are the games that defined the roll playing genre. Loaded with special fetures, there really is no reason not to buy this collection of RPG greatness.

Is Square selling out?

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 5 / 9
Date: April 17, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Fans of the original 2 FFs might be angry to find that these true classics have been changed sooo much that you can barely see the similarities. Some are good and some are very bad. The good:

-Improved graphics
-Ability to play FF2 for the first time if you are unfamiliar with emulators or don't have the Japanese version
-umm, that's it unless you want to count some small things such as added dialouge, ability to buy multiple items at once, and introductory movie scenes. The movie scenes are pretty cool, I must admit, but there are too few of them.

The bad:

-Music! Square usually does good music with its games, but this enhanced music really stinks! I'd rather listen to the "bips" and "beeps" of the originals.
-Monster stats and names have been changed, not staying true to the originals. This is a big problem with me. Normal mode on FF1, in Origins, should really be the easy mode it has on it.
-The "improved graphics" I mentioned should really be down here. Why? They are sub-snes quality. I didn't expect 3d anything, but the graphics are horrible for a playstation. Both games also look like FF5 [imitations].
-Should have included FF3 if they were going to charge 30 bucks for it. I'll tell you why they probably didn't in a sec.

Well, as the title goes, "is Square selling out?" I'd say so. This is a truly mediocre title for Square and that's being nice. If I weren't such a big fan of the series I'd call up Squaresoft myself and demand my money back. The only reason I won't is because, as a FF fan, I think it should remain in the FF collection I have amassed.

I'm guessing Square released this title either prematurely or incomplete for 3 reasons. 1 for the money, 2 for the show (jk) - to hold us over until the next FF comes out and 3 for the money. I expect that they will re-release FF3 just as soon as they translate it. I hope they learn from their mistakes, make a quality game, and not just sell us the name recognition.

You want to buy this game only if you have never played FF1, FF2 or both. You shouldn't be too disappointed if thats the case. Even then, expect to be sent back a couple generations graphically. And don't get me started on the music again... Grrr...

A Weak Fantasy AND How To Fix the Load Time Problem

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 10 / 26
Date: June 03, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I've noticed a couple people complain about the load times (especially during battles). There's a quick and easy fix for PS2 owners: In the main menu under the PS1 Driver, there's a setup option for "Fast Loading". When you turn that on, the game will load as fast as the original cartridge did. Problem solved.

.

And now for the games: I wasn't too impressed. Technically, FF1 and FF2 are good games. The graphics were upgraded from the 1980's 8-bit Nintendo to 16-bit Wonderswan graphics (think portable Super Nintendo). You choose your characters, and then you go out and fight monsters, again and again (random battles). And so the games, technically, are well-made.

But that alone is not enough for me. I play mainly for the story, and I need a good solid story to make all those random battles worthwhile, but both FF1 & 2 are extremely sparse on story. You spend 5 hours of game, for about 5 minutes of story. Sparse.

I finished both games, but there came a certain point where I was bored, no longer having fun, and playing just to finish the game. A chore. I can think of better 8-bit RPG/Adventure games I'd rather play & better recommend: Atari's Adventure, Activison's Pitfall, Activision's Hero, Sid Meier's Pirates, (all available in various retro-compilations).

I kept FF Anthology and FF Chronicles, but sold FF Origins. It just didn't impress me. Interesting history lesson, but not worth keeping.

Finally.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: April 23, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I first played Final Fantasy back in 1990 when it came out for the NES. I have been hooked on the game series ever since, buying each Final Fantasy game since then as it is released. I have been waiting for both the remakes of Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy II to come out to the US for quite some time and after playing them both I am quite happy with the excellent job Squaresoft (Or should I say Square Enix now) did on this awesome package.

First of all I shall start with my gripes, which are small. My first, and major gripe is the exclusion of Final Fantasy III. Yes, I know the remake of Final Fantasy III (Please note I am talking about the Japanese Famicom Final Fantasy III, not the ill named Final Fantasy III that was released here in 1994 for the Super Nintendo, which is actually the great Final Fantasy VI) was abandoned in Japan but I am still a bit upset over this. Final Fantasy III is the ONLY Final Fantasy game NEVER to see a re-release. It was released once in Japan and that happened in 1990. But perhaps we shall one day see this game completed and brought to the consoles (No portables please!) Another gripe, and this is minor, is that both games are on the same CD. I would have preferred each game to have its own CD. After all, the past Final Fantasies games re-released in collections like this were given their own CDs. My final gripe is that I have been told that the original 8-bit versions of the game are not included, which is a bummer as I would have loved to play the 8-bit version of FFII (This is the first time that game is being released outside of Japan.) But enough about the bad lets go to the good!

I am nearly done with Final Fantasy and have not started a game on Final Fantasy II yet. Both games feature stunning FMV intros (And I am sure they have FMV endings too.) The games have been given a major graphic update. Many will find that the battles feature an FFVI graphic style, while town/world map graphics is on par with FFV. The music has also been enhanced as well and rivals that of some of the recent Final Fantasy games. Some of the annoying limitations of the original version of these games have been turned into options that you can turn on/off as well. There are also special features, including a monster list and art gallery, which you can unlock as you play through each game.

This game will be really enjoyed by all people who played RPGs before Final Fantasy VII, as this is what we were brought up on. For those who came with or after Final Fantasy VII then as long as you do not let the taboo of 16-bit graphics get to you, then you too will be in for a grand treat.

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