Many people in the SNES days remember the huge RPG that thundered down the tracks and was considered one of the best, and is still considered the best by some people. That RPG is Final Fantasy 3 (6 in Japan and in the Anthology). It had everything an RPG enthusiast could want; good graphics (excellent for their time), characters that you could truly remember, and killer music. Then there was the other RPG that only Japan got to play which was FF5, considered the 2nd best in the series, that lets your creativity flow. Now that Final Fantasy is at its height with 7, 8, and 9, Square decided to release these two epic games in one pack called Final Fantasy Anthology. Whether you missed the FF3 (6) train back then or hopped on aboard for a great ride, you can have a second chance to board that train again and relive those memories and even play the epic FF5.

The Graphics which look very outdated now were top tier in their time. FF6 was one of the first RPGs to use 256 colors to make it seem more realistic than other RPGs of that date. Many of the characters are drawn in fine detail, and the world maps even look good and are fairly large at that. Square pushed the SNES to the limits with this one and it was well worth the effort put into it.

Then there is FF5, which doesn't rely on good graphics as much. But once you consider FF4 (FF2 in America, we got the hacked up easy game. Get the ROM of it to find out what America missed out on), it was a step up and seemed fairly good for its time. Now many people weaned on FF7 and FF8's graphics would probably get sick from seeing the battles and use FFAs CDs as Frisbees from those outdated graphics coming out of the PlayStation. But bear with it and remember that they were #1 RPGs, and that those graphics were top notch back in the day. And to make these old RPGs stand out so they don't look so crusty, Square also added new FMV movies (that look like what a modern RPG would use) to spice things up in some important scenes such as the opera in FF6. There is also a bonus in FF6, Square made a special art gallery for the games' art. So even though they are outdated I have to give them an 85% since they were the best of the old with some new tied into it to add some flavor.

In FF5 as well as FF6, the music was also the best for the time. Though compared to FF7 and FF8s full orchestra music they may sound like a transistor radio, but they were and are still considered the best for the SNES. In FF5 the music was good but not very memorable, yet for some strange reason Square put it on the music CD included in FFA (some songs you didn't really want on are there). But for FF6 the music took a giant leap from the previous titles. Each character has his or her own theme song that sticks in your head for years to come. The battle music was very well done, and even the towns' mellow music was pleasant to listen to when walking around. For this I have to give Final Fantasy Anthology a good 85%.

Now for that strange music CD that was included instead of FF4. It does have some songs on there that are good, but they're not good enough to hear separate from the game. I was disappointed with it due to it not having the songs that people loved to hear such as the battle music, while including the Ghost Train and the Pirate's hideout theme (not a very good selection of songs that's for sure). For this I only give the music CD 10% of the 90% that I rated for music. It could have been better, but it sounds like it was thrown together in a last ditch effort to replace FF4 (which even if it was good, it could never replace FF4).

Now on to the games' story lines. FF5 was more of the sword slashing, save the princess type of game, which only gave you few memorable characters and some overused story lines from the past. Even though right off the bat it sounds rather dull, if you look into the plot you can see it's a Square story line. Though it is quite weak in a sense of exploring the characters' pasts and so forth, it does hold its ground enough to be considered good.

Now, Final Fantasy 6's story line is one of the best, I think, and hasn't been touched in any other Square title. Its main theme was a clash between modern technology and good old swords and sorcery, which works very well. Every one of the characters is memorable for the whole game, and each has a totally different personality ranging from Locke's charm to Shadow's cold personality. You grow to love each and every character. For this I have to rate FF5 and FF6s story a good 90%. I would give them more but since FF5s story was sort of rusty in a sense it lowered the score

And now for the control in the games. It may seem odd to see a 76% in all those 90%s but I'll explain why I gave it this. The games are very responsive at the touch of a button. But sometimes characters' turns tend to overlap due to a spell being cast which makes it so when you want to change your mind, you are stuck with what you chose which leads to some problems. And in some places it looks like your character can walk there when he really can't which gets annoying. In Final Fantasy 6, characters' abilities such as Sabin's blitzes or Setzer's slot machine attack, the game sometimes doesn't register that you pushed a diagonal button on the pad or hit the A button when you did which is enough to mess up the attack. But other than that each game is good in the control department, though only above average overall.

Now for where FF5 and FF6 really shine: the gameplay department. Each game is totally different from the other and past Final Fantasy games as well. In FF5, you are given the job system that was first introduced in FF3 for the Famicom, only a lot more expanded. FF5 lets you customize your characters in whatever way you want from jobs to abilities. For instance, you can create a samurai that can cast black magic or a dragoon that can steal. You are given total freedom. But this does lead to some problems later on since your characters get so many jobs and abilities you can't use them all (or even come close to using them all, let alone finding 1/4th of them) so you have to pick and choose which ones you want to expand on, thus adding replay value in a sense.

Now in FF6 each character is always the same in abilities no matter how many times you play it. However, instead of being able to change abilities, FF6 offers a lot of characters to choose from. Each character has his or her own personality, ability, and theme music for important parts of the story and you may grow to like, or dislike that character. Whether you have Edger's ability to use tools and his wanting to date all women to Relm's ability to sketch the enemy and use their special power for an attack, you have a wide range of characters to use that have... well, character. For this I have to give FF5 and FF6 a 95% here, since both games differ totally from past Final Fantasys and have their own feel of play that makes them unique.

Now one thing that bugs many Americans right now is how Square didn't include FF4 in Final Fantasy Anthology and gave us that strange music CD that only a die hard fan would love. The reason why Square didn't include it is because FF4 hard type was never translated to English, which would have taken some time. And there is some material in it that's not appropriate, such as the game designer's room and the "book" you find in there, and in FF2 the phrase "you spoony bard" isn't exactly the same in FF4, if you know what I mean. So Square didn't feel like taking time to translating and editing it and instead put the music CD in its place. So you'll not see Kain or Cecil making a comeback in FMV scenes, unfortunately, unless you know Japanese and import Final Fantasy Collection.

Even though the epic FF4 wasn't included, FF5 was included which was what was highly desired here in America, but die hard Final Fantasy fans expecting FF4 in the Anthology collection will probably remember Square's bad move here for a long time to come. But there are ROMs out there with FF4 hard type in English if you are dying to play what America missed out on, so have fun searching for them since they're rare.

Above all this Anthology collection is worth buying for these great classics. So whether you missed the FF6 train thundering through America the first time, or want to catch the FF5 train making its first stop here in America, you have a chance to hop on and enjoy what many loved back then on the SNES (and Super Famicom) and to see what all the commotion was about. And for only $40 this is one of the best buys you can get if you don't care about everything being fancy graphics and go straight for game play, story lines, and characters. This is a must buy.