Alright, now that the purists are over at iTunes, let's really talk about Final Fantasy I. Based on the PlayStation Portable and Game Boy Advance remakes, Final Fantasy I for the iPhone is a hair easier than the original and includes extra dungeons, such as the Soul of Chaos. The story has not been changed, which means it's still very thin. The plight of the kingdom of Coneria and the battle of the Light Warriors just lacks the power of better, later yarns.
On the iPhone, you control the action via the touchscreen. Weirdly enough, this actually slows the game down a bit. Remember how you used to be able to hammer through easier battles by just laying on the A button? Now, you must select the action then choose an enemy. Without a default button, you spend a lot of time tapping here, tapping there… and after a while, that time adds up.
Because Final Fantasy I is an older game, I'm not going to level my general complaint about random battles. With the slower touchscreen controls, they can really grate, but this is a remake not a revision and Square never said it was doing anything more than that. To be sure, I think it would have been cool if Square did something about that and populated the world with actual monsters.
Final Fantasy I borrows its new look from the 2007 20th anniversary edition for the PSP. Though it's almost three years old, it still looks great. If you like retro style, you'll appreciate how Square stuck to the designs of the 8-bit classic but nudged them into razor-sharp, colorful 16-bit territory. Really, it is a visual pleaser.