It's been 17 years since the Japanese release of the original Final Fantasy game, and now Square is looking back on its series' roots ... for the fourth time. After stints on the Wonderswan Color, PSone, and DoCoMo cellphones, Final Fantasy I and II return on the GBA. For those that have already purchased the PSone compilation, Final Fantasy Origins, there might not be enough new here to justify another purchase, but RPG fans that haven't owe it to themselves to pick this one up.

As the title clearly indicates, Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls contains the first two Final Fantasy games. Of course, being the first games in the series, the crystal-clutching heroes and evil empires weren't quite as clichéd as they are now, but there is nothing here you haven't already seen regurgitated since then. Final Fantasy I and II hold to the series' long-forgotten "tradition" of alternating gameplay-driven and story-driven games; odd games are all gameplay, and even games are story-driven.


The first game is practically story-free, letting players assemble whatever party they wish from six basic job classes and then working through a series of increasingly difficult dungeons. While there are no wrong choices, there are certainly more difficult combinations to experiment with, giving the game a huge amount of replay potential for the hopelessly idle-handed. The magic system is simple, forcing players to make strategic decisions about what spells to buy to fill a limited number of slots, but works fine. Additionally, once high-level enough, jobs can ascend into Master classes, offering an additional layer of customization.

Sure to feel more familiar to recent fans, Final Fantasy II is the first story- and character-centric game in the series. The game follows the exploits of Firion and his band of orphaned heroes as they fight the evil empire, who, of course, seeks to conquer the world. While you can't create the actual characters and their jobs, Firion and Co. are like digital putty in your hands, waiting to be shaped by the player. Every character can learn every spell and use every weapon, and repeated uses of each develop proficiencies. This system was much-maligned in its day for incentivizing players to attack themselves for stat upgrades, but this version no longer rewards such behavior and has since been implemented in many RPGs, including Square Enix's ongoing Final Fantasy XI MMO. It's a solid enough system once you get used to it, and pretty rewarding too, as most battles will produce character growth.