Final Fantasy Anniversary Games for PSP: Yay or Nay?
Having recently replayed the Final Fantasy I & II GBA remakes, I've been contemplating about getting the PSP Anniversary editions. I'm wondering if it's worth it. I know the graphics and sound are improved, but I don't know about the gameplay in either of them. For those who have played it, is there a significant improvement in gameplay to make it worth getting, or should I just stick to the GBA version?
Completely worth it. The extra dungeons are sweet. The difficulty can be adjusted. Also, Final Fantasy 4 is available so you can have more PSP Final Fantasy goodness after you're done playing 1 and 2 again! I love them all. If only I could get FF6...
I suppose I should clarify a teeny bit. I get that there is a lot of added content that GBA lacked, which is great. I'm a little more interested in improving the core mechanics. For example, the leveling system in FF2 -- despite having some fixes made in the GBA version -- still felt too clunky and encouraged grinding in all the "wrong ways." Also, the mechanics behind the Ultima spell in that game were way too confusing for me to ever put it to good use; I found that a high-level Flare spell was more effective.
I figure there isn't a whole lot of gameplay issues that needed to be addressed in FF1, so I'm not so worried about that one. But since FF2 is on my mind, I wanted to know if they took any steps to make the leveling system more user-friendly.
My method of getting around grinding in the wrong ways (self inflicted wounds we're talking about here) was to go ahead and battle slightly stronger enemies than you should be battling. Let yourself get hit by them then blast them with high level magic that you trained on weaker enemies to survive the fight. Then your HP goes up. Right now I am grinding on those enemy soldiers in that town that was conquered. I gain HP, strength and defense every time I fight them now, and also MP and spells leveling up when I use the magic against them.Originally Posted by Alpha2099
[quote name='Shidou Mariya' date='Nov 17 2010, 10:05 PM' post='4889940']
I'm a collector, but only to a certain extent.
Not as extreme as Rickstilwell though.[/quote]
They're mostly the same as the GBA game with better graphics. One thing I dislike about them is that when in dungeons, there's basically a dark/colored circle around the border, an effect I really dislike but not in the GBA version. There's one additional dungeon for the first game, not sure about the second game. Bosses use music that's from the game the boss is in. Gilgamesh uses his actual music for example, but the four fiends use the normal boss music in FF4 instead of Dreadful Fight.
If you're interested in replaying the games, then I'd recommend Final Fantasy Origins for PSX. The GBA version of Final Fantasy 2 is better than the PSX version so no reason to play that, but you should get it because of the original Final Fantasy. Final Fantasy on Origins is the NES version with better graphics, bug fixes, and the min/max damage average is much closer. No extra dungeons, just the regular game but it's better I think.
Last edited by kupomogli; 01-06-2014 at 12:57 AM.
Everything in the above post is opinion unless stated otherwise.
It's a bit closer to the NES version than the GBA/PSP/whatever else has come out recently, but it's still not the NES version with just a few tweaks.
Not that I'd ever want to play the NES version again. In 1990 it might have been fun, but in the 21st century I'll take the changes from the GBA version (or later) any day. F not having MP.
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