The Pre-me-maybe-beating-it-for-once-review:
Back in 2019 I was crazy enough to say this was (in my opinion) the "most replayable JRPG" which was 100% clouded by the context of what JRPGs I had access to at the time I got this game on the Virtual Console and even what I was playing during the time I was weird enough to say something like that.
Today I really see this game as being a defiant example of what makes this series fundamentally different from Dragon Quest, a series that plays on an idea having some form of RPG complexity whether it can be a detriment or benefit.
This very conclusion I came to was part of the reason I felt that this game was "replayable", because starting up a new file felt like being given the keys to what would probably be the middle of an RPG adventure like Dragon Quest without having to grind there (but also you are absolutely grinding there). You can start this game and get a boat within the first hour, shops straight up sell incredibly high level magic/weapons/armor that you can only dream of buying, and right at the start you can set up your own party to have completely different experiences (good or terrible).
As I said before, Final Fantasy is about having some sort of appearance of complexity and I think this is evident with just HOW MANY enemies appear in this game during random encounters compared to other JRPGs at the time. Battles in this game take a long time but also can have a decent amount of strategy involved (because of the weird math or maybe something intentional) and investing into the proper equipment and spells is incredibly important.
I was about 12 when I got this game and I'm still (as I'm going through this game to finally finish it) wondering how I even found it to be so enjoyable that years later I'd be saying it's more replayable than a lot of JRPGs that are just better but I think there is a lot of charm that comes with it being Final Fantasy.
(Dragon Quest 3 better tho)
Back in 2019 I was crazy enough to say this was (in my opinion) the "most replayable JRPG" which was 100% clouded by the context of what JRPGs I had access to at the time I got this game on the Virtual Console and even what I was playing during the time I was weird enough to say something like that.
Today I really see this game as being a defiant example of what makes this series fundamentally different from Dragon Quest, a series that plays on an idea having some form of RPG complexity whether it can be a detriment or benefit.
This very conclusion I came to was part of the reason I felt that this game was "replayable", because starting up a new file felt like being given the keys to what would probably be the middle of an RPG adventure like Dragon Quest without having to grind there (but also you are absolutely grinding there). You can start this game and get a boat within the first hour, shops straight up sell incredibly high level magic/weapons/armor that you can only dream of buying, and right at the start you can set up your own party to have completely different experiences (good or terrible).
As I said before, Final Fantasy is about having some sort of appearance of complexity and I think this is evident with just HOW MANY enemies appear in this game during random encounters compared to other JRPGs at the time. Battles in this game take a long time but also can have a decent amount of strategy involved (because of the weird math or maybe something intentional) and investing into the proper equipment and spells is incredibly important.
I was about 12 when I got this game and I'm still (as I'm going through this game to finally finish it) wondering how I even found it to be so enjoyable that years later I'd be saying it's more replayable than a lot of JRPGs that are just better but I think there is a lot of charm that comes with it being Final Fantasy.
(Dragon Quest 3 better tho)
Dalaamclouds
4 months ago