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Are you sick and tired of buying remakes of old video games yet? It seems any more all we are seeing, for portable gaming systems, are old games being remade with better graphics and a few new additions. This seems to be an ongoing trend and it doesn’t look like it will slow down any time, especially for the little portable system from Sony.

When I first heard that Final Fantasy was coming out for the PSP I started to cry, I thought the remake for the GBA was the last one and I enjoyed it. Why would I cry over another remake, for a game that I still love to this date? I had to buy the game again, but this time it didn’t come with Final Fantasy 2. Why would Square Enix do this? Most likely they see die hard fans spending the thirty dollar price tag for each game.

Final Fantasy for the PSP is a good game, even though I hate having to buy it again. The graphics are top notch, they may not be 3-D, but having a classic RPG with high resolution 2-D graphics, it makes me so happy. With the nice new graphics the game almost seems new, you will forget about the remake for the GBA once you get your hands on this version.

This version of Final Fantasy has all the bonus material from the past remakes plus an all new dungeon called the Labyrinth of Time. In this dungeon only the strongest will survive, you have a set time limit and you health points constantly decrease with the time. It might not sound that great in writing, but hardcore Final Fantasy fans will enjoy it, you can test your skills and see how good you are at this classic RPG.

The game play for Final Fantasy is just like all the other 2-D RPG games, walk around, fight, jump for joy, buy weapons, and so fourth. To me 2-D RPG games were the best, they had deep story lines and hours of game play. Final Fantasy might not offer what its bigger brothers do, but it does offer an experience that you won’t forget anytime soon. I still find this game fun, after playing it over a dozen times I can still pick it up and find something new I love about it, something in which is hard to do with some of these new role playing games, cough Valkyrie Profile 2 cough.

Now like I said before this is the ultimate version of Final Fantasy, but it does come at a price. You might be lucky enough to find Final Fantasy: Dawn of Souls (Final Fantasy 1 and 2) for less than the price of this game, plus with the PSP version you only get one game, the GBA remake came with Final Fantasy 2 as well. This may turn off some people and at first it did for me, but if you take the plunge into it you will pack up your Dawn of Souls and pretend that remake was never released.

Everything you remember from the classic is here, with a few minor tweaks, this RPG is ready for anybody to pick up. I strongly recommend Final Fantasy for the PSP. It might not show off what the PSP has to offer as a portable system, but the game play is what truly counts. Final Fantasy might not be the longest game, I was able to complete it in less than ten hours, but new people to the series could spend a good amount of time on this one.

With the new graphics and dungeon I think it is safe to say that this will be the last version we see of Final Fantasy. If it wasn’t for this game my PSP would still be collecting dust, thank you Square Enix for bringing this classic RPG to the PSP. Oh yeah if you don’t know by now either the second game in the series will be out on the PSP at the end of July. Hopefully Square Enix will keep up the good work with these remakes, I wasn’t too impressed with the 3-D remake of Final Fantasy 3, but this is not the time for me to get started with that game.

Final Verdict

Even though I enjoyed this game a lot I still can’t give it a perfect rating, mainly since the GBA did this before and they offered two games for the same price. I enjoy this version of Final Fantasy the best, but I think they could have made this game at least ten dollars cheaper. It’s still work it in my mind, but when compared to the last remake, the price does play a factor.

Overall Score: 9/10