Preview: Final Fantasy II Anniversary Edition PSP
Please help me in welcoming our guest author, G. Lord from the brand spankin' new game site, CasualCore Gamer Press as he forays into the revamped world of Final Fantasy II for the PSP.
Final Fantasy II Anniversary Edition by G. Lord
Over this past weekend I spent some time in Santa Monica hanging out with fearless leader Fruit Brute and his sidekick gorgeous companion Tiny Dancer as part of the post-E3 festivities. While I was lazing around watching them write articles the Fruity-one tossed me his PSP and asked me to take a look at Final Fantasy II. Scratch that. He pulled out his bull-whip and ordered me to preview this (such a task master he is). Lesson learned: if you're idly sitting around in his presence you get put to work. Oh well, it's better than forcing me to work in a salt mine. After tending to the welts I set in and monopolized the Fruity PSP for the remainder of the weekend. I guess I'm a rather complacent slave.
My first thoughts on this were mixed between "They remade yet another old Final Fantasy game?" and "Shiny new graphics!" You see, most of the older titles in the Final Fantasy empire franchise have seen more costume changes than Broadway. While this particular remake isn't exactly a revolutionary new costume, I was still a little amazed.
For those of you who picked up Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls on the GBA this particular revision of Final Fantasy II will look and feel very familiar. The most obvious change is of course the graphics. While everything there has been touched up, the most obvious change is the character sprites. They now feature many more details, most noteably gigantic cute eyes. For whatever reason the eyes remind me quite a bit of the Powerpuff Girls, which I've yet to decide on being a good or a bad thing.
The second big obvious change comes shortly after when you first step out into the overworld map. New details of the terran emerge in the rocky and swampy areas which look bland and dull in comparison to the GBA version. The color palette on the PSP version of the overworld has seen drastic improvement, and the top-down view of appears to have a slight sense of perspective giving a little more of an impression of 3d in a 2d game. Overall the overworld has taken on a somewhat more mysterious tone and definitely feels much larger than previous iterations.
The music in this version seems to have also seen some touchups over the GBA version, but having never played Final Fantasy Origins on the PS1 I cannot draw a comparison to that iteration. It may simply be a difference in the limitations of the GBA compared to the PSP. Either way, the music is good, as I would expect of a modern Final Fantasy game.
The other changes are relatively minor in comparison to these two. The number of save files is greater than the GBA version's limit of three, as would be expected given the greater available memory on the system. Also, accessing the menu is now available through the triangle button instead of awkwardly accessing it through the start button as was the case on the GBA.
Overall this is a very nicely done 2d remake of Final Fantasy II. At $29.99 it might not be enough of a change to justify buying again if you already have it, but if you've missed out on the previous iterations or you're a huge fan of the series it's definitely worth a look.
Fruit Brute
Posted to Miscellany, Video Games on 20 July 2007
Other stuff like this: anniversary, final fantasy II, psp
