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Final Fantasy I & II Remakes Confirmed For GBA
Thanks to 1UP for its story revealing Square Enix has announced a Game Boy Advance compilation of Final Fantasy I & II, due to debut in Japan this July. The article mentions: "That's the same pair of 8-bit RPGs that came to North America for the PlayStation as Final Fantasy Origins. However, the GBA remakes will feature a few new extras on top of the content from the original games", including new dungeons and substories - the remake also "seems to use the magic point system from later games in the series", and a U.S. release is likely but unconfirmed.
Actually the GBA doesn't feature version encoding.
You can play Japaneese games on a US game boy and vice versa.
Actually, the GBA has emulators (pogoshell) which you only need a flash cart and USB cable to transfer games over. I've been playing the NES version of FF1 on my Game Boy for quite a while. It's the only way I was able to get through some boring lecture classes. Google for Flash Advance for the cart, and Pogoshell for the OS (of sorts)
Many of us who were used to a MP systems in other RPGs of the time (Might & Magic on the Apple II for me) found the magic system of the first Final Fantasy to be part of the challenge, not a misfeature. Spell management is significantly different, as you explain, and I found myself conserving high-level spells for bosses much more than I would in an MP-based game (where MP can usually be refilled with items at any point during travel or battle).
One other thing that I actually liked was being forced to go without every spell in the spell list for any given level. Contrasted against Final Fantasy VI, where everybody can know every spell (making bosses a breeze), I absolutely loved both the magic system in the original FF and the challenge that it introduced into the game. It's why my fondest FF memories are of playing through the first game when I was 10, even more memorable than the great storyline of FF6.
FFTA is not a remake of Final Fantasy Tactics, the PlayStation game. It's entirely new - new story, new enemies, etc. I mean, it uses the same battle system, and the graphics are a bit similar, but it's about as far from a remake as you can get. An easy mistake, though.