Topic: Nintendo Ships Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls

[Jonnyboy117]

Get your double shot of RPG goodness.

Nintendo Reinvents a Hit Series: The Fantasy is No Longer Final

"FINAL FANTASY I & II" Return with New Storylines and Bonus Areas

REDMOND, Wash.--Nov. 29, 2004--As you and your trusted companions enter the dark dungeon, a wave of deja vu sweeps over you: You've been here before, but somehow things feel different. Is it a trick of the mind? A spell from an evil sorcerer? Or have you just discovered the secret behind "FINAL FANTASY(R) I & II: DAWN OF SOULS"?

Anyone who loves role-playing games has likely spent countless hours immersed in the "FINAL FANTASY" universe, casting spells, fighting evil and embarking on heroic missions. Nintendo now resurrects the original installments of the multimillion-dollar Square Enix franchise that set the standard for role-playing excitement and adds bonus content to make the adventures new and fresh for even the most experienced players. "FINAL FANTASY I & II: DAWN OF SOULS," which launches today for Game Boy(R) Advance SP, lets players revisit familiar sagas before throwing new challenges at them. Both games are contained on one game pak.

"Nintendo has taken two great games, added some twists and made the first true `FINAL FANTASY' adventure portable," said George Harrison, Nintendo of America's senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications. "It's easy to guess how excited the dedicated `FINAL FANTASY' fans are about the new spin on their beloved games."

The "FINAL FANTASY I" adventure follows four young adventurers as they use swords and sorcery to help restore order to their chaotic world. Players will discover a series of four bonus dungeons not found in the original game. Inside, players will encounter and battle an array of monsters from "FINAL FANTASY" games III through VI before fighting the final boss; to keep things interesting, the layout of the dungeons changes every time.

In "FINAL FANTASY II," a band of orphans leads a resistance force to free the world from the clutches of an evil empire. After four characters die in the main game, a bonus storyline follows them into the afterlife as they fight to defeat the emperor of Pandaemonium.

"FINAL FANTASY I & II: DAWN OF SOULS," Rated E for Everyone, is available now at an MSRP of $34.99. "The Official Nintendo FINAL FANTASY I & II: DAWN OF SOULS Player's Guide," created by the editors of "Nintendo Power," is now available at retail. For more information about the game, visit www.nintendo.com/finalfantasy.

[Nephilim]

Its out in Australia also

[Rize]

I got FF Origins on the PSX.  I think the second game was left in Japan for good reasons, but the first one is just a classic.  I don't have much love for Final Fantasy these days, but I could play the first one forever.  I've beaten it with many party configurations including a single fighter  Just talking about it makes me want to go play it now.

Because of the tiny little bonuses over the PSX version they threw in here, I almost want to pick up this version too.

[TMW]

I had purchased Origins when it first came out...I only played it for a bit, and then let my friend borrow it.

And then she promptly lost it.  So...methinks that was just a divine suggestion that I need it on a portable.  'Tis a sign from above...I need Dawn of Souls....

[JonLeung]

If it were up to me, I would've released FF (I), II, & III on a single GBA cartridge (a Final Fantasy Trilogy?) and FF IV, V, and VI on a DS card (a Final Fantasy Second Trilogy?).

I guess Square Enix would probably do rereleases however they feel like it and whenever it seems like it would be profitable, but I think that separating the Famicom/Super Famicom trilogies this way not only makes sense, but also would allow oldskool Final Fantasy fans to carry the first six games wherever they go.

I heard that Final Fantasy III is making its North American debut on the DS.  Which seems kind of odd to me.  Would it come with IV?  Would they boost the graphics on both and make them about even?  The DS can handle N64 ports, apprently, so why should anyone be looking forward to one of the more obscure Final Fantasies from the Famicom?  It's not even the Super Famicom/Super NES.  Not that there isn't room for old games, but the GBA could easily handle it and if released sometime in the near future, probably sell better.

But I digress.  This thread is about (I) & II.  However, I still think III should've come with it (and the Super Famicom/Super NES ones all together on the DS).

[Procession]

"Nintendo Reinvents a Hit Series: The Fantasy is No Longer Final"

I wasn't aware Nintendo were developing this.

[Bill Aurion]

FFIII is being remade, that's why...

[Ian Sane]

"If it were up to me, I would've released FF (I), II, & III on a single GBA cartridge (a Final Fantasy Trilogy?) and FF IV, V, and VI on a DS card (a Final Fantasy Second Trilogy?)."

If it were up to me I would have included both the original NES version of each game (for historical purposes) and the new updated version.  And then I would have split them into seperate cartridges and used the inclusion of the originals to justify seperating them and thus selling twice as much product.  HA HA HA!

Even without including FF3 this is still a good value.  Most GBA ports are just one game.  This is two and these are RPGs which have much longer game length then a barebones NES Classic port or even updated ports like Super Mario Advance.  Most of the time with any sort of re-release you either get a compilation of barebones ports or a single updated port.  Here you get a complication of updated ports.  With or without FF3 this is from a pure value perspective one of the best GBA ports released.

[Pale]

Are these identical to the ones released on Final Fantasy Origins?  Better? Worse?

[Bill Aurion]

Complete remakes...

[Rize]

The PSX remakes were just ports of the wonderswan color versions mostly.  However, they featured only minimal gameplay adjustments and you could actually turn all such adjustments off and play the game in its original form (though with updated graphics music and sound).  The updates you could turn off were things such as not worrying about targetting dead enemies.  It also had an easy mode which featured normal magic points instead of the usual FF1 system.  It sounds like Dawn of Souls has a much less faithful version and no way to turn off the enhancements.  You'd have to read the review later for details though because I've only played the PSX version.

[ib2kool4u912]

Just out of curiosity (never having played FF1), what is the "usual FF1 system" for magic?

[Myxtika1 Azn]

You have to buy a spell in a set of 4 in order to use them on the battlefield.  It's quite frustrating.

[Jonnyboy117]

Quote
Originally posted by: Procession
"Nintendo Reinvents a Hit Series: The Fantasy is No Longer Final"

I wasn't aware Nintendo were developing this.

They didn't.  That press release title is misleading in another way, too, in that the fantasy hasn't been "final" for a long time and probably won't be for a long time to come.

Square Enix developed Dawn of Souls and released it themselves in Japan, but they seem to give most of their games to Nintendo for North America...who knows why.  Square Enix did the English translation too, by the way.  I checked on that with the Treehouse guys.

[ruby_onix]

For FF1, there were multiple levels for the magic, and they were all seperate.

It's like, at the start of the game you could go into a White Magic store and buy any of the Level-1 spells Cure, Harm, Fog or Ruse. But you can only hold three out of the four available spells. You have to skip one of them. Permanently.

And then you have, lets say 3 Level-1 magic points. That means you can use any Level-1 spell in your arsenal three times before you run out.

You get to the next town, and you find that they have the Level-2 White Magic spells for sale. You have to choose again, now between Anti-lightning, Invisible, Lamp, or Mute.

And by now, you probably earned some levels (of experience), so you might have something like 5 Level-1 magic points, and 2 Level-2 magic points. Each spell just uses one point of it's specific kind of magic point.

The different levels of magic points are not interchangable.

It's much easier in other games where each spell just has a set value, and you have one ever-growing pool of magic points as you earn more demanding spells.

[KDR_11k]

Kinda reminds me of D&D, you have a certain number of slots per spell level and have to fill those slots to "memorize" spells, you can use each spell as often as you have memorized it (doesn't apply to sorceror class, which uses a different system).

[PaLaDiN]

It seems like the magic system in 1 was made that way to give the impression that magic actually meant something.

Unlike in later games where characters hit each other with magic all the time like it's a piece of cake then forget completely about it when they get out of battle.

Does the magic hurt a lot more than attacks though?

[Caliban]

I just got my copy. I got it mostly because when I had the NES I never had the chance to play any FF but I did play Dragon Quest which me and my brother loved to death, so I'm just trying to feel nostalgic I guess. But will it be as addictive as Dragon Quest? I hope so.