Competently made port rendered unplayable by two issues – FINAL FANTASY (Old Ver.) Review

There is not much to say about this port on a technical level. It is a high resolution, competent port of the game boy advance version of final fantasy with a new dungeon. If you’re familiar with the original game, you know what you’re getting. However, there are a few fundamental design flaws that make it borderline unplayable 1. Your stats at level up are completely random, and the variance between a good and bad level up are huge. A good level up would be something like 15 HP, 10 MP, and an increase to 3 base stats. A bad level up would be 2 HP, 1 MP, and no stats. If you get a series of bad level ups, you’re done, the game can’t be beaten or even played. So you are forced to save before each level up, check to ensure you get a good mix of stats, and reload if you don’t, especially early on. I have had to spend 10-15 minutes “fishing” for a good level before and it destroys the pacing 2. The black mage has such low HP he is literally worthless. Of no value at all. I know this was something of an issue in the original game, but the bonus bosses all have brutal attacks and the black mage simply dies instantly. Use a red mage if you want magic 3. The random encounter rate is utterly broken. It is worse even than the original game. It is not in any way uncommon to be attacked within a second of starting to walk around, which makes the basic task of moving through the game a painful chore. I can’t overstate how much this ruins the pacing of the game
Review by JesseT on FINAL FANTASY (Old Ver.).