Final Fantasy

If you are an American gamer and you own a WonderSwan, there's a good chance Final Fantasy was the reason. While Nintendo was steamrolling over the competition, Bandai had a coup in the way of Square games exclusively on their WonderSwan. One of Square's first titles was Final Fantasy, an update of the Famicom (Japanese Nintendo Entertainment System) game that started one of the biggest, most influential franchises in video game history.

It would have been easy enough for Square to make a pixel for pixel port of Final Fantasy, but that's not what was in the cards. Fans who import this Japanese game will be rewarded with much improved graphics, and easier interface, and a much better playing product. The story, and essentials are the same, but the game looks stunning compared to its 1987 original (see the supplement below to compare the Famicom version to the WonderSwan).

The game itself is extremely simplistic, and isn't all that much of a challenge, especially given today's standards. But then, it's unfair to compare the original Final Fantasy to, say, Final Fantasy X or any other of the sequels. The game is extremely linear, and basically revolves around you needing to battle a boss to retrieve a special item that furthers the story along.

While the game is entirely in Japanese, this shouldn't affect your experience too much. Yeah, you probably won't get the story elements, but let's face it, the story of the original Final Fantasy can't compete in any way to what we see these days. Even without reading a word, fans of the series will be treated to dozens of wonderful environments, lots of baddies to dispose of, and quite a bit of intrigue.

New fans to the series may be surprised by the simple nature of the game. You won't have too much trouble figuring out what does what, mostly because there aren't that many option to deal with. While in battle, the actions are pretty much limited to the basic Attack, Use Item, and Magic, and everything else is pretty straightforward. You won't get lost, because you do things in the order of where you are on the map, and for the most part can't veer too far off course.

You can't deny that Square has done everything they possibly could to bring back the magic of the original Final Fantasy, a game that is limited, but still a lot of fun. If you've been itching to go back and play through the classic Final Fantasy titles, then this is both a great place to start, and a great way to experience it.