Final Fantasy (Android) Review

In truth, Final Fantasy wasn't all that innovative or original, even at its initial release, since games like Ultima: Exodus offered a character creation system and classes long before. Even without innovating, Final Fantasy could still provide a solid experience, and it did exactly that, particularly during a time when there were so few RPGs on the NES.

Over the many iterations, the six classes, as well as the six upgraded versions of those classes, have been improved, but the imbalance known as "linear warriors, quadratic wizards" lies at the core, so no amount of minor changes can balance Final Fantasy. Six classes (because, really, there are only six) is a very small selection pool for a modern game, and there's no still no reason to experiment with some of the classes, because they simply don't hold up.

Sadly, the same aging has occurred to the story, which is no longer able to pretend that a series of miscellaneous fetch quests are an epic tale. It becomes apparent very quickly that there is no epic story being told here; there is just a series of fetch and kill quests that masquerade as an epic quest. This was sufficient for the original release, but it rings hollow now.

The battle system has seen improvements, though. While characters in the original would waste a turn if the enemy targeted was killed before they could attack, in the remake the characters will automatically pick a new target at random. The system, though, is still turn-based, and that's a drag, since actions have to be input for every character, even if the battle is only against a single goblin that will die in one hit. The speed of battles has been increased, which makes grinding much faster and easier, but the boring combat system still hinders the experience.

Only surface improvements have been made to Final Fantasy on Android; nothing has been done to update or enhance the core elements of the game, and the core elements are most in need. Graphics and audio are not the only aspects of a game that are massacred by time; gameplay itself undergoes the same degradation. As a result, Final Fantasy feels like someone stepped out of the eighties, donned modern clothes, and then began to wander the world, oblivious that they had been left behind.

The core of every game is its gameplay, and Final Fantasy is no different. Gameplay is wrapped in a package that consists of the graphics and audio, but these are only methods of communicating the gameplay to the player. No amount of improvement to these areas will resolve issues with the gameplay. What Final Fantasy needs is a thorough and in-depth update, but that is precisely what it is never going to receive.