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Final Fantasy Negative One has always been the ultimate hack of Final Fantasy that stayed true to its storyline and gameplay. The six new classes were nicely balanced, and the four new dungeons all unique and challenging. Many other slight improvements were made, like taking out the bugs, to making all spells worth having, to letting your ship land on all land.

Version 2.0 improves the game in a dozen or so ways. This might or might not be reason to play the game again, but here's my opinion of the improvements.

• Graphical bug when choosing character fixed
• Being able to scroll back when choosing a class
• Quicker menu screen and entering buildings
• Stone and death doesn't change party formation anymore
• Clinics fully revive characters
• Melt doesn't hit as often, while Pois does more damage to enemies
• The Rod and Lute now activate like they should

These are sound improvements I believe everybody will like, but they don't change the game experience much.

• Dash button added

Yes!

• There's a hidden 'coliseum' where a string of battles will get you to the end boss.

Since this place does not feature any material rewards, the only reason for going here is to skip content (mainly the Temple of Fiends Revisited). It's not very exciting, and getting through depends largely on luckily avoiding instant kill attacks.

• Slight improvements to map layouts

Not to be overlooked, the game places quicker exits, changes the location of magic shops, and readjusts dungeon difficulty, in slightly better ways. They all feel like they should have been there in the first place.

All in all, the many differences lead to definite improvement on the original, but not necessarily an amazing one. Anybody planning on replaying this game really should do so with this version. But if you weren't moved for the original hack, you won't likely be moved by this one either.

Some criticism: Although I still think Final Fantasy Negative One is the best reworking of Square's original RPG, there are still some things I personally find annoying (and will likely mod the next time I play).

• Enemies have very strong, but unclear, elemental resistances when it comes to weapons, leading to your melee classes often doing only 1 damage when attacking. You therefor have to keep multiple weapons on you and sometimes start a fight over because your melee character is so heavily nerfed. I don't recall this being such a problem in the original
• Although there are 12 different classes, most parties play in similar ways. This has to do with classes being alike (the Knight/Viking and Rogue/Monk play almost identical and classes sharing characteristics (eight of the classes are casters which can cast between 25%-50% of all spells, meaning a lot of overlapping). In other words, a party consisting of a Thief, Paladin, Ninja and Sage will, for the most part, play a lot like a party with a Viking, Red Mage, White Mage and Time Wizard. Different sprites, same choices. This I felt was a problem in the original hack, and I hoped this would be addressed in this version. I would like to mention, though, that there's a certain elegance to seeing all the classes so articulately balanced, which some may enjoy.
• Since characters often get instant killed or stoned in this game (which is not a balance problem due to the ample Life spells and the occasional clinic in dungeons), it would have been nice if slain characters received XP after battle. This, on the other hand, does make single character runs more doable.

Overall, I though that this was a well thought of hack that could use a bit of further refinement.

The main features I suppose could be compressed into these four aspects: 1. A new class system 2. A revised spell system 3. New Weapons and Armor 4. New maps and revised maps with corresponding new bosses and enemies.

Despite not having a readme file, the first three are adequately explained in-game through a circle of mages who have conveniently inhabited Corneria.

As advertised, there are 12 classes to choose from right at the very start with 4 pure melee classes, 4 pure magic classes, and 4 mixed classes.

My thought however is that some classes in particular such as Thief and Ninja peak earlier in the game due to the 255 hit percentage cap. The result is that they lose their advantage over the course of the game as the other characters catch up.

The Sage and Time Mage class also peak rather early at level 24 but the drawback is that they are more frail and are less viable as melee attackers than the Black and White Wizard.

The weapons and armor are all tied to their classes and perhaps this is where some rebalancing could be done just so that the agility characters wouldn't be deprived of their advantages by end game.

There are at least 4 new maps from scratch in this game and all four with their own enemies and bosses. However, I have to voice out my displeasure in the Dark Shrine map. This is a map where the player has to literally feel the way around in the dark due to invisible walls and paths. It's extremely frustrating and redundant detracting from the gaming experience rather than adding to it. Perhaps a large maze would have been better.

Other possible bugs I encountered.

1. I couldn't access the Waterfall for some reason completely halting my progress. 2. I can face the the Seraph boss in the Mirage Desert or near Gaea. 3. I remember having difficulty in accessing the airship requiring hackster intervention.

Overall, there are enough new material to warrant a playthrough but I hope that the author would take a look at the bugs and squash them.