vs. Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light

So, here I go again with another one of my attempted 'review' blogs. Even though this time it's less of a review, and more me thinking about the games series I'm apparently a fan of, Final Fantasy. I say apparently because, despite the fact my entire blog is made out like the menus from that game, and even my spiffing new logo is based on it, I haven't actually liked a mainstream entry in the series since Final Fantasy IX, which a quick wikipedia check tells me is now nine years old at least.

So, I found Final Fantasy X's setting poor, the story rubbish, and the main character irritating, the only fun from Final Fantasy XI came from playing with Marc, Boote and Pete and some...questionable...character choices on my part that led to a lot of funny moments, Final Fantasy XII suffered from similar problems as X, except added to the mix a main character who had no relation to the actual story whatsoever, making it boring too, and XIII was the prettiest, most epic running in a straight line I think I've ever done in a video game, but that's all it was.

A lot of my Final Fantasy love then came from being able to revisit the old games. So, especially given the nostalgic gaming mood I've been in lately, when I found out a new Final Fantasy spin off had been released for my favourite console, the DS (I'll do a 'vs. the DS' blog some time to explain why), and that it was specifically designed to be an old school style Final Fantasy game, I thought I'd better check it out. Even if it has a rubbish title.

Despite the cute graphics and silly description on the box, it really is clearly inspired by the NES Final Fantasy games, not even going as far as to incorporate many of the Super Nintendo's FF elements. In fact, it's (probably) the first Final Fantasy game since Final Fantasy VII to dispose of the 'classic' logo they've used ever since and reverts back to the old retro font style used on the NES boxes.

And one thing that means is that it's hard. But not in the typical way games are hard these days, in that old school RPG way where half the time your only hint on where the hell to go is the fact every villager seems to be talking about a 'haunted cave to the North' or whatever. That, and battles are over very quickly, either with you winning or losing. Relaxing even against ordinary foes can get you killed.

Sadly, the game's not properly turn based like the old games, and the battle system more feels like, well, like the NES game developers had suddenly been given DS technology, I guess. It's still turn based, but there's no targeting (which is odd), and you use 'action points' to do stuff instead of the usual MP and such.

All of this was made up for though by the unfortunate story plot twist that had me stuck playing as the spoilt princess I'm-not-a-white-mage-by-default-because-this-game-has-a-job-system-but-I'm-obviously-meant-to-be who, on top of that wussyness, had been turned into a kitten. Usually, this may have caused a problem, but I got very lost, levelled up ridiculously trying to find out where to go, and became a fireball casting, tsunami causing slaughtering murderous kitten of death and destruction that wreaked havoc on everything I came across, and that was pretty damn funny.

Actually, the characterisation in general is fun. You have four characters who, despite the title, are incredibly dysfunctional and spend more time splitting up with each other and adventuring solo than they do together. The job system means you can select any class (seriously, the job system is one of the best innovations in these games, and really needs to be re-used in a proper Final Fantasy title), but they still have personalities. The aforementioned princess is, at least, probably an RPG's first accurate depiction of a princess. She's not the soft, cute and sweet person you normally get. She's the greedy self centred one who literally goes hunting for treasure purely because the room she's staying in isn't up to her palace standards. And then there's the great 'asshole' character, who manages to defy the usual RPG trope of being the badass with a heart of gold, and instead is actually just a regular ass, dumping his companions constantly because they do stupid things like, well, as I mentioned, hunt for treasure to make their rooms look better. That really has nothing to do with the nostalgic theme though, and more just stems from writers probably not being forced to take their job so seriously.

It's weird to play a game that's nostalgically designed but not nostalgic in appearance though. An easy way out for this might have been to make the graphics 16, or even 8-bit. They didn't. It just has the same sensibilities as an old game. No tutorials for example. Read the instruction book or work it out, just like you used to have to. To be honest, in today's Wii-inspired world of sitting through tutorials to bloody walk, this is quite a nice relief. Although it makes the game harder at times, it also introduces an element of 'am I meant to be doing this yet?' which I've always thought is the great feeling of freedom old games (Final Fantasy and Legend of Zelda especially) used to offer you that you don't get any more. Today, freedom in games always feel manufactured. You feel like you're doing what the programmers wanted you to do, and where's the fun in that?

So I like nostalgic games, and hey, I guess I am a Final Fantasy fan, because revisiting this reminds me that I've enjoyed almost all the spin offs (DS ones especially) that I've played. I guess it's just the main series I don't like anymore. Which given most FF fans these days complain about the market being saturated with shitty spin offs is kind of ironic.

And because I'm still keeping track of my life as a video game, today I had a fight with a sealed door. I got to kick it down and send wood splintering everywhere. This is probably the closest to being in a cop show I'll ever get, so I'm giving myself +20 experience points! Especially thematic for Marc, given he may remember my track record with Final Fantasy bosses shaped like doors...