Final Fantasy 2 (PSP)
Just like Final Fantasy I, only less interesting!
Tags: Final Fantasy 1 & 2 (PSP) Categories: PSP Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Craig "American Idle" Hansen on Sep 11th, 2007
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Final Fantasy 1 & 2 (PSP) (title page) | 1 | ||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Role-Playing | No | ||
Playing Final Fantasy II, one wonders how the series ever survived to reach XII. Of course, gamer expectations were much lower back in those days and often a sequel simply meant, “Here’s more of that stuff you liked so much last time.”
And that’s pretty much all Final Fantasy II is, when you come right down to it, even today. That’s why some remakes of the two titles pair them together so that the company is guaranteed to sell well on both titles.
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SquareEnix chose not to do that with the PSP remake, much to their chagrin, I’m sure. The truth is, Final Fantasy II simply isn’t strong enough to hold its own these days. It’s not a bad title so much as it seems to be not much of a title at all.
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As with Final Fantasy for PSP, the real downside of all these remakes is that while the core of what made the game interesting originally is still intact, not much has changed since the games first made their debut. Final Fantasy II is nearly imperceptibly changed from its Game Bay Advance outing, so you’ll find yourself grateful SquareEnix decided not to be greedy and are charging a reasonable price for the remake.
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The gameplay and graphic enhancements are largely unchanged from Final Fantasy for PSP, or from Final Fantasy II on GBA. There’s not a lot wrong with that, other than there’s a lot wrong with it. The characters are dry and the situation not as intriguing as the first title. Sure, it’s quicker and easier to meet Cid, get an airship, get a boat, etc. But the game still takes forever to level you up to a point where you can venture beyond the immediate surroundings of a town, let alone take on a dungeon.
Just for a lack of fun, they also toss in that old favorite, the “impossible odds” battle in which creatures you can’t kill jump you in a random attack and proceed to lay waste to your party if the first time you set foot on swampland or anything else that’s not simple grassland. Yeah, I just love the nostalgia of starting a game over from the “game over” screen about five billion times.
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Are you in to retro gaming? Try Final Fantasy II on PSP. It may just be the thing you need to trash that old NES and put that ol’ Colecovision in the trash compactor. Playing old games this true to how they were originally is the perfect antidote that’ll help you get motivated to run to the stores and buy anything new, like, now man!
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
| + Final Fantasy II has mildly updated graphic battle effects compared to the GBA version. | 6.0 |
| What Doesn't | |
| – Yaaawwwwwwwwwwnnnnn! Huh, wha-? | |
| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| Final Fantasy II for PSP is more of Final Fantasy for PSP, only without the nostalgia and fun. Until Square Enix decided to REALLY remake these games from scratch, let me sleep in. Been there, done that one too many times, at least! | |
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Tags: Final Fantasy 1 & 2 (PSP)
Posted by Craig "American Idle" Hansen on Sep 11th, 2007 and is filed under PSP Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
