A Return to Yore -- of Sorts

I had to attend a commencement ceremony this morning, so I took my Game Boy Advance (the DS batteries were dead) to bide my time awaiting the procession. I dug out my Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls cartridge for the occasion, based on the logic that I could slap around some random encounters and save when it was time to roll. I have spent most of the rest of the day with the gussied-up version of the title that launched a thousand airships. In the process, I noticed a glaring example of a fact which 'serious' gamers have been lamenting for years: stuff ain't as hard as it used to be.

I plowed through the first half of the Earth Cavern today (I think the statute of limitations on spoilers here expired while I was working on my master's degree), and the dungeon is decidedly less deadly than I recall. Rather than facing flocks of petrifying cockatrices and squads of insta-kill sorcerors (my increased maturity now recognizes those abominations as poorly-masked mind flayers), I fought a small army of divers and sundry snakes, with a few of the sorcerors' weaker antecedents sprinkled into the mix. I also noted that my NES 'default party' of fighter, thief, monk, and red mage were at about level twenty-four; if I recall correctly, the old Nintendo Power strategy guide for the game recommended characters at level twenty-six to tackle the final boss. These levels occurred without a massive amount of grinding on my part, aside from garnering the money for equipment upgrades. A part of me recoiled at the game's re-re-release when I learned the the D&D-inspired spell system had been replaced with a modern mana pool, and this does alter the experience.

Do these changes 'taint' what my memory considers the elegance of an old favorite? My heart says no, as I still had fun smacking monsters about the face-analogues and neck-analogues. Perhaps I should rephrase the question: is the maintenance of essentially ancient mechanics necessary to enjoy a classic game? Would I forgive a modern title which clings steadfastly to those same ideals of 'challenge?'

Oh, wait -- I already did.

Game well in the days to come, and may you figure out why all the high-level attack spells seemed so much more important back in the day.