Less than three years after the launch of Apple’s handset, Final Fantasy, the role-playing classic that practically defined its genre, has arrived for the iPhone. And with the exception of a few tweaks that could be made, has arrived in fine style.
A port of the original game, Final Fantasy places you in the role of the Light Warriors, four youths prophesied to vanquish evil throughout the land by lighting the four elemental orbs they carry in order to restore peace to the land. Like the original, you’ll fight monsters in random encounters, work on leveling up, buy or find new weapons and armor, learn new spells and complete quests to advance the storyline.
Even if the idea of playing Final Fantasy on the iPhone is a bit strange, Square-Enix ported it well. The touchscreen controls are responsive, the graphics are crisp and inviting and top-notch music makes the most out of the iPhone’s speaker as well as a nearby pair of headphones. Start the game, name your characters and it’s easy to dive into the initial quests, gain experience points and begin enjoying the title for what it’s worth.
Still, there are some rough edges to work out. The game’s frame rate, though fairly consistent, can become jerky at times. Occasional crashes to the iPhone’s home screen make you glad the save function works as well as it does. And while previous ports of this game featured an option to bring up an ever-present map of the overworld to let you know where you’re going, the iPhone version presently lacks such an option. So you’ll spend some time getting your bearings when trying to find the next town or dungeon for your current quest…
Square Enix is off to a good start with Final Fantasy. With cleaned up graphics, good interface, driving plot, fun strategic elements and outstanding graphics and sound, this is the classic brought back to life. The app’s bugs aren’t anything a few updates can’t fix and at $8.99, the price tag is reasonable.
If Square Enix can figure out the overworld map issue, they’re golden. Until then, I have bosses to fight, spells to learn and am getting closer to some awesome new spells with each monster vanquished.
FINAL FANTASY 1.0.0
COMPANY: Square Enix
CONTACT: http://www.square-enix.com/na
PRICE: $8.99
REQUIREMENTS: iPhone or iPod touch running iPhone OS 3.0 or later.
Great graphics, terrific sound, all the fun of a ground-breaking classic on your iPhone or iPod touch.
Occasional crashes to the home screen, directional pad controls need tweaking, and an available World Map would help immensely.
briand
March 23, 2010 at 12:03am
There is a world map. Tap and hold the little status window at the bottom right of the screen. This brings up the world map.
This little trick is told to you by a broom at Matoya's Cave. Its the first place I came to after rescuing the Princess Sarah a.k.a., completing the very first quest.
