Final Fantasy 25th Anniversary Reviews: Final Fantasy III

 

If you don't know the rules of these reviews please read this first


Two years after the controversial FFII, Square released the third entry in the series, hoping to make up for the mixed reactions toward the last one. It was deemed by both fans and critics as the best FF yet. It sucessfully brought elements from both previous games together to create what I think is the best NES JRPG. It's also kind of important because of introducing various job classes that would become staples in the series, as well as introducing us to moogles.  Unfortunately, the game doesn't receive much recognition. This is mostly because of the fact that when Americans think of Final Fantasy III, they actually think of VI, which was originally retitled "Final Fantasy III" back in the 90s since it was the third game in the series to be released there. Let's check the game out shall we?:

The Story:

  The story of this game is pretty good. It goes back to the "Light Warriors have to stop the Darkness" formula and expands upon it, giving personalities to the NPCs and motivations to the villains. Unfortunately, this story is very inferior to the one in the previous game. The playable characters are for the most part just empty vessels that accept their destiny without any question. The story is also much less involving. There are character deaths, but since the dying characters are not very well developed, it's hard to be emotionally invested. After the great story of FFII, this definitely is kind of a letdown. I can't help but feel that this should have been the plot of the second game and the plot of FFII should have been in this game.

Overall, though, it was a nice story with good characters, but it definitely could have been better.

6/10


The Gameplay:

Like I said before, this game takes the core gameplay from Final Fantasy I and adds elements from Final Fantasy II, but also brings something new to the table: Job switching. Throughout the game, you will occasionally receive jobs that you can give to each of the four heroes at any given time. Having an efficient party that can defeat the various monsters you find (Some monsters are next to impossible if you don't have a character of a certain job) is essential in getting through the game. You can't just switch all the time though. Besides money and items, your party gains Capacity points by winning batles. Each time you want to change someone's job, it costs you a few CP and if you don't have enough, you won't be able to switch. You also have to mind Job Levels. The more a character fights using a specific job, the more his level for that particular job increases, and every time that happens, the stats used by that job increase in value. The bigger the job level, the less CP you'll need to switch to that particular job. It helps a lot when you want to change the character's job to his usual one. Also, you have to be careful with your stats. Each time a character levels up, the stat values increase depending on the job he's using. For instance, fighters get stronger physically and mages get stronger magically. Switching an experienced fighter to a mage will get you a mage with very poor magical stats and the opposite also applies. This impedes the player from abusing the system and getting an overpowered party easily. It's a fantastic system that, despite the limitations I just mentioned, gives the player a lot of freedom when it comes to what you can do in a battle. Thanks to this system, FFIII achieves what the previous game failed to do: Having a very realistic and complex character development system that's still user friendly.

10/10


The Music:

Once again, the soundtrack is fantastic. The previous soundtrack set the standard for music in the series, but this one raises the bar even more. Unlike the previous games, we have a different theme for each town instead of just a single town theme. The soundtrack has everything: catchy upbeat tunes, triumphant fanfares, epic battle themes and emotional pieces. All of them are extremely memorable and pleasant to listen to. Definitely one of the best in the series.

10/10


The Graphics:

Even back in the NES era, Square was pushing the graphical limits of home consoles. The environments are colorful, varied and the animations are fantastic. I love how they make character sprites jump around when they're happy. It's a smart way to hide the limitations of the NES.

10/10


Overall, Final Fantasy III is a fantastic game. The gameplay manages to have depth while still being acessible, the music is wonderful and the graphics are pure 8-bit awesomeness. The story could have been better, but that doesn't ruin what is in general a great JRPG gameplay experience.

Final Grade: 9/10

Join me next time when I review Final Fantasy IV as we enter what I consider the golden age of the series: The SNES era. Bye.

Final Fantasy 25th Anniversary Reviews: Final Fantasy II

If you don't know the rules of these reviews please read this first


After the unexpected huge commercial and critical sucess of Final Fantasy, Square's financial problems instantly disappeared(Yes, the sales were that good) and the developers started working on the sequel immediately. It came out about a year later and even though it was another huge sucess there was controversy(Man, what is it with NES sequels and controversy?) for one main reason: It dropped the exp based development system and replaced it with a new system that to this day still ticks people off. The fact that the remakes didn't make any substantial changes to it didn't help either. Is it as bad as some people say or are they exaggerating? Let's find out:

The Story:

This is the main reason to play the game. Taking inspiration from the original Star Wars movie, Final Fantasy II is a huge step up in story when compared to the first one. It tells the story of 3 warriors wanting to join the rebels lead by Princess Hilda in their fight against the Empire that invaded her kingdom. In the process they also are looking for their friend Leon who recently misteriously disappeared during a battle they recently lost agains the imperial troops.

It may not look like it but the plot is actually fairly envolving and mature, especially for its time. There are a lot of characters each of them with genuine personalities and motivations, there are character deaths and a dialog mechanic that really makes this world feel real. It's hard to describe the plot anymore without going into spoiler territory which i won't do. I loved the story and the way it was told.

8/10


The Gameplay:

The gameplay is pretty much the same as the first game except for 2 major changes and some minor ones. First the good: like i said above this game has a "Word Memory" dialog mechanic. During conversations a lot of times you will be able to learn a certain word or phrase that you can then say to everyone else. Sometimes you'll find a person in need of a certain piece of information and if you have it with you, you'll be able to give it to them. This mechanic is key to interacting with NPCs in this game. There is also a similar way to show items to people or use them in certain objects to achieve certain goals. It's a great mechanic that really helps in making this world feel real and the characters envolving and i wish it were kept in later games.

Now the bad: Like i said before the exp based level up system was replaced by something different. Each character stat increases in value each time it is used. For example, if you get hurt your max HP increases,if you attack your Attack stat increases etc. If you prioritise physical stats your magical stats will increase slower and the opposite also applies, which means you will have to choose between making a character physical or magical. This also happens with equipment and spells, the more you use a certain weapon/spell the better your character becomes at using weapons/spells of the same type. Even though this makes the character development realistic it also makes it very slow and tedious. The NES JRPGs are incredibly harder than modern ones and require a lot of grinding. Combine that with this system and you get a very tedious experience that takes too long. Also this system is broken: If you cancel an already assigned command the game still keeps record of it and levels up the correspondent stat. Because of this, careful and pacient players can level up their characters significantly in just one battle.

There are also some minor changes like the fact that now you can have other party members besides the main characters,the addition of chocobos(Yes they made their first appearance in this game): birds that can help you cross the world map without random encounters, new vehicles and the introduction of the "front row(attack priority) and back row(defense priority)" mechanic.

6/10


The Music:

For this game Uematsu gave us a soundtrack that's twice as extensive as the first one. It helps a lot during the emotional scenes and the catchy tunes help making the tedious grinding more bearable. It set the standard for the series when it comes to music. Overall it's a fantastic soundtrack by one of the best composers in the industry.

9/10


The Graphics:

The graphics were also improved from the first game. The environments and sprites are much more varied, the monster design is also more creative and the animations also recieved an upgrade. They're still not as good as the graphics in Final Fantasy III but the game still looks great for its time.

9/10

As the game ended i was glad i played it because of the great story and the fantastic music, but the level up system seriously damaged the gameplay experience diminishing my appreciation for it. It's a good game with one serious flaw that can ruin the entire experience depending on the player.

Final Grade: 8/10

Fortunately Square listened to the fans and brought back the traditional level up system for the next game. Join me next time when i bring to you the best NES JRPG: Final Fantasy III. See you next time.

Final Fantasy 25th Anniversary Reviews: Final Fantasy I

If you don't know the rules of these reviews please read this first.

That's right, it's been 25 years since the original Final Fantasy hit the NES courtesy of SquareSoft. Since then there have been ups and downs and throughout this summer, I'm gonna show them all to you. The series was originally created by Hironobu Sakaguchi to try to save the company from bankruptcy. When asked what type of game he would like to make, he said: "I don't think I have what it takes to make a good action game. I think I'm better at telling a story". Together with Nobuo Uematsu, Yoshitaka Amano and Hiroyuki Ito, they created one of the most important games of all time. Has it stood the test of time? Let's see:

The Story:

The story is very simple and...well, actually, it's both incredibly simple and complicated at the same time. It revolves around the 4 Light Warriors who were chosen by...eh...someone...to defeat the 4 fiends in the 4 shrines to return the light to these 4 magical orbs and restore the balance of the world.

Seems simple, right? Well, turns out someone sent these 4 fiends from 2000 years ago to the present time and after that the fiends sent that person back in time 2000 years ago. By doing this, a time loop is created and this person will live forever. I will not say who that person is because it's the plot twist of the game and I don't want to spoil it. Yeah, the story is pretty stupid, but for the time, it was groundbreaking. Even though the story doesn't hold up, I personally loved it. It's stupid, but it's the funny kind of stupid in my opinion.

5/10

The Gameplay:

Alright. First, the good stuff. This game has an impressively huge open world to explore, especially for the time. Even though there's not much to do besides the main quest, it is remarkable how huge this game was for its time. At the beginning, you get to choose which class each of the Light Warriors have. There's a Fighter (Your physical powerhouse), a Black Mage (Who uses offensive magic), a White Mage (Who uses defensive magic) and a Red Mage (Who can do everything, though not as good as characters with just one specialty) among others. I personally recommend the party I just mentioned since it allows for a lot of solutions when you're in trouble. The combat is classic turn based fare. There are 5 commands: Fight (Your physical attack), Magic, Drink(For using healing items), Item (For using weapons that have special abilities when used with this command) and Run. Aside from that, it's your typical JRPG stuff: Equipping Weapons and Armor you buy at shops, resting at inns, Exploring dungeons with a boss fight at the end, classic stuff. One thing modern gamers might find weird is that you don't learn magic. You buy it. Now, don't ask me how exactly you buy something like a spell that has no physical form at a store; you just do. Speaking of magic, there's no MP in this game. Instead, there are magic charges. There are 8 levels of magic spells and each mage can learn a maximum of 3 spells of each level, which means you have to choose carefully what spells to buy. Each spell level has a certain number of charges, which indicate how many spells of that level you can cast. When you run out of charges, you can restore them by resting at an inn or by using Houses (One of the resting items you can use in the world map).

Now for the bad stuff. The game's most glaring flaw is that when 2 or more characters target one monster and one of them kills it before the others have a chance to attack, they just attack the air instead of attacking one of the other monsters automatically. This will lead to a lot of wasted actions and spell charges. True, this was the first time you were controling more than one character in a JRPG, but come on, how did no one think this was unfair during playtesting? Also, like I mentioned before, there's not much to do besides the main quest, which makes this huge world feel empty. There's one optional dungeon that rewards you by making your characters stronger, but that's about it. Of course, you might say that was probably because this game had a low budget because of Square's situation at the time, but that doesn't change the fact that it is a problem.

7/10

The Music:

Even though this is not Uematsu's first soundtrack, it was definitely the one that put him on the map. The soundtrack has a lot of catchy tunes, including, of course, the prelude, the victory fanfare and obviously the intro theme that evolved into the series main theme we all love so much. It's not perfect, though; some tracks are kinda repetitive and get old fast when you're in a big dungeon. I adore the battle theme though. Even in the first game, Uematsu was already showing how awesome he is. It should also be noted that it is a quite extensive soundtrack for the NES, boasting about 20 tracks.

8/10

The Graphics:

The graphics, while not pushing the NES limits, are pretty darn good for their time. The battle animations were groundbreaking and the environments are colorful and charming in their simplicity.

Monster design is also cool and creative. Yoshitaka Amano is a great artist.

8/10

Overall, I love this game. Does it hold up? No. Is it fun and challenging? Yes. The game has a classic charm to it, which impedes me from disliking it. However, modern gamers should try out the remakes on the PSP, GBA or PS1, which fixed the flaws and added new features.

Final Grade: 7/10

Join me next time when I tackle the controversial Final Fantasy II. See ya.

"The Muppets" Movie Review

Warning: This review not only talks about the story but also skips some scenes so make sure you see the movie before reading this.

Last year a new Muppet movie came out.
It was a work of love by Jason Segel and other Muppet fans to revive the beloved franchise that was pretty much dead before this movie got greenlit.
Pretty much everyone loved the movie,including me.
However i find myself loving the movie way more than others mostly because of how smart i find the script and music to be.
This will not be a traditional review because i will not talk about the humor and the acting since i have nothing to say that hasn't been said already: it's fantastic.
I will basically talk about the script and all the important scenes explaining why i think they're brilliant.
I will be skiping the comedic scenes since those shouldn't need reviewing by this point. Well here we go.
The movie starts with a flashback scene explaining the life story of 2 brothers: Gary(Jason Segel) and Walter(A muppet by Peter Linz):

Since these are new characters that play a significant role in the plot it makes sense to establish their story and motivation right away.
Of course,one who thinks deeper will pretty much see that this is also an alegory for Jason Segel's childhood.
Jason Segel grew up worshiping the Muppets and was heartbroken to see that they were forgotten by the world.
Right off the bat you can see that it's Segel's most personal script.

After that we see the first musical number "Life's a Happy Song" which is delightful and very muppety,but more importantly it quckly tells us what the brothers do together daily and establishes Gary's 10 year relationship with a woman called Mary(Amy Adams).
Mary is sad that Gary doesn't give him enough attention but she's hoping that Gary will finally ask her to marry him soon.
This subplot apparently seems to have nothing to do with the Muppets but will later be revealed to be a significant part of a grander thing later on.

After that we see our 3 new characters arrive at the Muppet Studios and find it to be completely empty.
Walter finds out that soon the studios will change owners in 2 weeks unless the Muppets can raise 10 million dollars.
The new owner Tex Richman(Chris Cooper) wants to wreck down the studio so he can drill for oil.
Our 3 new characters decide to look for Kermit. After much searching they find him and tell him about it.
We find out that Kermit is very depressed and we find out why in this second musical number "Pictures In My Head":

It is here that we find out what this movie is: A kids adaptation of "Sunset Boulevard".
For those that don't know that's an old movie about a man that helps a long forgotten movie star from decades ago come back from retirement to return to her well deserved place in the spotlight. Sounds familiar right? Not to mention that the idea that nobody cares about the Muppets anymore is absolutely heartbreaking for any fan.

Fortunately Walter manages to convince Kermit to at least try.
After some funny scenes the Muppets reunite,find a network willing to air the telethon,clean up the studio theater and rehearse some new acts.
The only problem they run into is Miss Piggy who refuses to come back because after Kermit divorced her she made a life for herself in Paris.
She is still hurt that Kermit keeps saying things like "We need you". She knows Kermit still thinks more about the gang then her.
"You can't even say i need you, can you?". Segel's knack for heartfelt romantic comedy writing does wonders in giving the relationship depth and realism.
You know other romcom writers are terrible when Segel manages to make love between a frog and a pig feel more real and sad then most human relationships.
She later changes her mind and returns temporarily until it's over but there's a problem: the network boss only agreed to air it if they got a celebrity host.
Kermit can't find someone who's willing to do it, so he tries appealing to Tex Richman's heart by asking to not go ahead with his plan.
He of course refuses which makes Kermit give up,convinced that it's no use. Miss Piggy takes over and comes up with a plan.

Afterwards Gary is wondering why Mary is mad at him and remembers that he forgot their anniversary.
Meanwhile Walter is feeling divided between his life with Gary and Kermit's offer to join the Muppets and perform in the Telethon.
After that we have the smartest musical number made for a movie in years:

Oh boy where to begin? I suppose the symbolism is a good way. Notice how when they look at their reflection they see their Man/Muppet form.
You can see the "Man or Muppet" dilemma is actually an alegory for "Man or a Child" since Gary was always more of a child than a man.
Notice how in the piano part at 1:52 both of their forms are singing.
After that they decide who they are and now we notice that when we see the piano part again only the form corresponding to their coice is the only one singing now.
And after that we see Walter's human reflection disappear symbolizing his choice to be a "Muppet".
Also this is of course 2 brothers finding their destiny and following their paths in life. Darn,never thought i'd see such an artsy scene in a Muppet movie.

After that Miss Piggy and the gang kidnap Jack Black and force him to be the host. Kermit is reluctant at this but ends up being convinced to return.
The telethon finally starts and after some acts we get this scene:

Kudos to Jason Segel for making this relationship feel so relatable.That takes skill.
Afterwards we have a pure moment of nostalgia for Muppet fans:

The Muppets joining together for a possibly final performance is very touching.
After that that the gang needs only one more act but they're out of ideas.
It seems all is lost but then:

Notice how Gary says that Walter is all grown up, ending the character development of both brothers.
Unfortunately even after all their hard work the gang couldn't reach their 10 million dollar goal in time and get thrown out by Tex Richman.
After that we get our ending:

Not only does Kermit's speech have a very inspiring message for anyone in the entertainment industry,
but notice how Kermit invites Walter to join them.
If you remember the first clip i showed this is Walter's dream come true.
He finally found his place in the world where no one will question his love for the Muppets.
Just like the first scene of the movie was an alegory for Jason Segel's childhood,
this scene represents him finally seeing the Muppets being on the front of family entertainment like he wanted and being thanked by the Jim Henson Company.

Overall this was the best Muppet movie ever made and one of the best family movies ever made.
Thank you Jason Segel for everything.

Well,that's my review. Hope you liked it, See you next time ;)

Final Fantasy Review Marathon

I am a huge Final Fantasy fan. Ever since I was, like, 13 I've been playing these games on emulators, since FFVII was the first one to be officially released in Europe where I live. I call myself a classic fan meaning I got into the series not via VII like modern fans. The first one I played was the 1st one on an old NES emulator for DOS (That thing we used before Windows was invented xD). As I experienced the franchise's evolution, I fell in love with FFVI, which I still consider to be the best in the series, even though my personal favorite is still FFIX. Despite my love for these games, the truth is that I don't like some of them. I've decided to review all of the games throughout this summer. I will only be looking at the main series, though. I might change my mind along the way and review some spinoffs,but I won't promise anything. I also want to list right now other exceptions:

-I won't review the sequels X-2 & XIII-2 for 2 reasons: They're not considered by Square to be part of the main series. Also i personally refuse to pay 40 bucks (plus 10 for DLC Eps) for XIII-2. Why? Well you can check my friend Tman's review of it for details.

-I won't review XI & XIV because I'm not really into MMORPGs, so I don't think I will be able to give them a proper review. I will say that they have fantastic soundtracks though.

That's pretty much all I have to say about how this marathon will go. Right now I'm busy with my final exams so I won't start until 2 weeks from now.

See you guys later ;)