20 years ago a small software company released a title in a last hope effort of staying in business. This company, then known as Square, laid the ground work for one of the most successful game series to date. Final Fantasy 1 not only saved the company, but created a model after which other RPG developers would often try to copy.

In honor of this 20 year anniversary, Square-Enix has decided that, instead of the traditional gift of fine china, they would release Final Fantasy 1 on the PlayStation Portable system. While this isn’t the first time it’s been re-released, it’s certainly the best version to date. Other versions can be found on the PlayStation, (1999) Wonder Swan Color, (2000) Game Boy Advance, (2004) while the original can be found on the Nintendo. The PSP release comes during a very Nintendo DS dominated time, and may help spur some sales for the portable gaming underdog.

Once again, the four "warriors of the light" must fulfill their destinies by finding 4 crystals scattered across planet in various dungeons – and in turn defeat a great evil. With 6 initial classes to start with, you can customize your party in any combination of Fighter, Thief, Red mage, Black mage, White mage, and Monk. These classes later can receive an upgrade to a newer more powerful class. Class choice is completely up to you and doesn’t affect storyline whatsoever. In fact, a huge difference from most modern RPG’s is there is no character development aside from leveling up and gaining new skills. There are just 4 warriors, without any sort of back story, ready to save the world and bring peace to the land.

Some may be wondering what possibly sets this version apart from the rest... Well, to start there's a huge graphical update, noticeable even to those who have played the GBA version of the game. The game makes good use of the PSP’s beautiful screen and 16:9 wide screen aspect ratio. The characters themselves have been redrawn and the battle scenes as a whole use a lot of hand drawn sprites, moving away from pixilated graphics and making the whole game much more defined and sharper. The world map has been enhanced and is much smoother as well, but is still basically the same as the old versions, just prettier. The music grabs an update too. But don’t fret Nubuo Uematsu fans, the music is the same, it just gets a sound update for the PSP. As for the actual game and story line… it's pretty much the same game, except for a few dungeons to spice up things for veterans.

One thing that players will notice is the lack of difficulty the game presents. Whether the difficulty of monsters was actually changed I'm not really sure. But the game levels you up so fast that many gamers may not get a chance to see a wiped out party unless they force it to happen. As a result, some of the battles you’ll face while backtracking old territory can get a bit tiresome. Due to this, the biggest challenge you are faced with will be figuring out how to get through different levels of dungeons. Aside from that, you may find yourself unsure of where to go. Without any kind of quest log or journal that many new games have, you're going to have to pay attention to what all the characters are saying. You can generally find someone to tell you where to go next, it’s just going to take a bit of asking if you weren't paying attention the first time around.

Possibly the biggest problem with the game is the packaging itself. The PlayStation and GBA versions both came packaged as a single unit, allowing you to play either the first or the second game on a single disc or cartridge. This time around Final Fantasy 2 will is a different package, and will be released a month later. While many will argue that the game is worth the price tag, it may seem unfair to others to shell out another 30 bucks for a game available on a few different systems.