Squeenix Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster - New Remasters of Final Fantasy I-VI

[Multi-headed Cow]

It truly was the Final Fantasy Two.

Obviously took a long break while playing this one, definitely not as good as FF1. Enemy compositions weren't as fun, leveling system (Even tweaked) was pretty fucked even though the basic idea's nice, but still a reasonably fun adventure. Music's probably better than 1 as well. I'll move on to 3 eventually but I've been in the mood for some BG2 so I've been dicking around with that, FF2 did sour me a bit but if that's the low point it wasn't TOO terrible and if the rest of the series goes back to FF1 smooth slick monster smacking I'll definitely be fully on board.

 

[Multidirectional]

FF3 is like a better version of FF1. I am slowly going through these myself, except I skipped FF2. And second half of FF1, because it felt like I was doing 99 percent of battles with autobattle and regular attacks even on my mages while barely getting a scratch of any of party members so I got bored. To be honest I was mostly interested in 4-6 anyway, but figured I gotta give at least some of the NES games a try. Not regretting doing FF3, as primitive as it still is, it's at least a much better challenge than 1. And it gets going faster, with having better map traversal options from the start so that's nice too.

I haven't played a JRPG since I was a kid, I still have fond memories of games like Breath Of Fire II and Lufia II from SNES era. And I played a little of FF7 and 8 back then too but never finished, don't even remember why. I do remember enjoying them. These cute little games giving me some nice innocent childhood feelz I had forgotten for a long time.

 

[†††]

Seems like VI's pixel remaster is going to be a little bit more... ambitious. Notice the 3D elements:

 

[Lemming42]

FF2 is a lot of fun, just cool concept after cool concept, great music too. The battle system is completely insane but whatever, you can abuse it to become overpowered fairly quick and then it's not really an issue.

Wouldn't play any of these today without a hell of a good fast forward feature, which obviously can be granted by emulators.

 

[LESS T_T]

FF6 remaster is coming in February. https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1173820/view/4308254080116546232

FINAL FANTASY VI’s release date and pre-order bonuses
FF6 is planned to be released on February 2022

In order to bring you the best experience possible, we're giving ourselves the necessary time to apply final polish while finishing development on the game.

We're adding some new items for those that pre-purchase either the game individually, or have purchased the bundle (see details below).
We're looking forward to sharing the final title in our pixel remaster series with you all early next year and we hope you're looking forward to it.

Pre-purchase items for FF6 have been added as follows. These will be available at the time of title launch if you pre-purchase FF6 or have purchased the FF1-6 bundle.

*The bundle is available now. Please wait for a while before you can pre-purchase "FF6".

FINAL FANTASY VI Pre-Purchase items (Scheduled to be released on February 2022)
Special Soundtracks

• ・Locke's Theme (Timelapse Remix) [NOW ADDED TO PRE-PURCHASE ITEMS]
  
• ・The Decisive Battle (Timelapse Remix)
  
• ・Terra's Theme (Timelapse Remix)
  
• ・Searching for Friends (Timelapse Remix)
  
• ・Aria di Mezzo Carattere (Instrumental) [NOW ADDED TO PRE-PURCHASE ITEMS]

Special Wallpapers

• ・FF6: 2 types of wallpapers
  
• ・FF1-6: 2 types of pixel remastered series wallpapers [NOW ADDED TO PRE-PURCHASE ITEMS]

“Timelapse Remix” is a special soundtrack data that starts off with the original soundtrack version, but lets you also enjoy the reworked alternative soundtrack version as the soundtrack gradually transitions to the reworked alternative soundtrack version.

Each wallpaper is available with 5 different sizes: 3840 x 2160, 2560 x 1600, 1920 x 1080, 1280 x 1024, 1024 x 768

We appreciate your continued support on both FINAL FANTASY VI and pixel remastered series.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Started the ball rolling on FF3, and trying a different font rather than just replacing the English one with the Japanese one which was a small improvement in itself. FF3's looking promising, get to name the party like FF1 and it's odd everyone starting off as an "Onion knight" but then you immediately get classes and can rejigger everyone. Right now going fighter/monk/black mage/white mage just to be generic as hell after my experiment of zero white magic in FF2 but I gather you get a variety of classes over the course of the game so I don't doubt I'll change them around. Still not entirely how it works since it appears there might be no penalty for changing class and I'm not really sure if there's any benefit to leveling a class and then changing it, also not entirely sure how it works with spells since changing class takes all your equipment off and leaves you naked so I dunno if you forget memorized spells. Speaking of which, looks like casts-per-day are back! Not sure if I have a finite number of spells I can learn per-level but I guess I'll see.

Still surprising me how I'm enjoying these, but after a 10-ish day break after finishing FF2 it felt good to play a few minutes of FF3. I occasionally think I should try the originals just to see if I'd still dig them, but I feel no pressing urge since a huge part of what I'm liking about these is how relaxing and easy they are. Even broke down for a Christmas miracle to Japan and bought the set since if I got around 30 hours of play from FF1 and 2 and had a good time (Despite some bitching at 2 near the end, with 2 apparently being the worst game of the bunch and maybe the worst FF period) I figure I'll cough up the ridiculous $75. Even if I only get 15 hours a game like I did from the first two and it sounds like the others may be longer, that'll be 90 hours total so to hell with it. Also feel easier about that price given I hadn't played 'em before anyway.

Did have the most powerful piece of Final Fantasy music spoiled by a buddy though, so I'll have that to look forward to in the next game.

 

[Thac0]

FF III is a great game.
The class system is like very flawed prototype for FFV, there is no benefit or drawback to changing classes. Later you will get some classes which are effectively elite versions of your base classes, so then you are incentivised to change, but there is no reason skill inheritance or anything.
I only played a version of FFIII with mp, the quite difficult 3D version, currently I am waiting for a proper difficulty mod to come out for 3PR so I can get vancian casting with SNES difficulty.

(Despite some bitching at 2 near the end, with 2 apparently being the worst game of the bunch and maybe the worst FF period)

Yeah II, VIII, XIII are the unholy trinity. And honestly, saying that II is the worst of the three is a quite respectable opinion. It goes for a lot of stuff at once, and fails at most.

 

[Duraframe300]

FF III is a great game.

(Despite some bitching at 2 near the end, with 2 apparently being the worst game of the bunch and maybe the worst FF period)

Yeah II, VIII, XIII are the unholy trinity. And honestly, saying that II is the worst of the three is a quite respectable opinion. It goes for a lot of stuff at once, and fails at most.

To be fair, we technically got the SAGA series out of FF2 and exactly that approach. So, all's well that ends well.

(IMO) I do think there are silver linings to every *bad* Final Fantasy.

 

[Thac0]

(IMO) I do think there are silver linings to every *bad* Final Fantasy.

It has become fashionable to hate on it, but Final Fantasy is a very high quality series. Even the bad ones are better than many mid tier JRPGs.
FF2 has created SaGa, FF8 has a very interesting progression system and amazing cgi, FF12 has the best rtwp combat ever, FF13 has Blinded by Light, FF15 has the warming glow of a trashfire.

 

[newtmonkey]

Right now going fighter/monk/black mage/white mage just to be generic as hell after my experiment of zero white magic in FF2 but I gather you get a variety of classes over the course of the game so I don't doubt I'll change them around. Still not entirely how it works since it appears there might be no penalty for changing class and I'm not really sure if there's any benefit to leveling a class and then changing it, also not entirely sure how it works with spells since changing class takes all your equipment off and leaves you naked so I dunno if you forget memorized spells. Speaking of which, looks like casts-per-day are back! Not sure if I have a finite number of spells I can learn per-level but I guess I'll see.

I haven't played the remaster so I can't say for sure, but in the original Famicom version there's a "proficiency" stat which increases the longer you stay in a single job (in other words, it penalized you for switching jobs too often).

Again, I'm not sure about how this is handled in the pixel remaster... but I assume they have removed it.

 

[LESS T_T]

SQ: What is a pixel density?

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Yeah II, VIII, XIII are the unholy trinity. And honestly, saying that II is the worst of the three is a quite respectable opinion. It goes for a lot of stuff at once, and fails at most.

If that ends up being the case then I may quite like the series then. I'm skeptical that the love train will keep rolling into 7 and on just because I doubt they'll be quite as laid back gameplay-wise and I'm paranoid about spiky hair and too many belts harshing my mellow but given that I didn't expect to be into these at all in the first place, lord only knows. Even if I bounce off of 7 or 8 I'll still try 9 since I heard that was kind of a love letter and grand send off to more classic Final Fantasy sword and sorcery party of adventurers shit, and since I'm digging that it'll be worth a look no matter what.

I haven't played the remaster so I can't say for sure, but in the original Famicom version there's a "proficiency" stat which increases the longer you stay in a single job (in other words, it penalized you for switching jobs too often).

Again, I'm not sure about how this is handled in the pixel remaster... but I assume they have removed it.

I think they might've, I wasn't seeing anything along those lines. I heard something about "Capacity" which was a resource you burned when you changed classes so you couldn't flip too much and apparently a different version of the game gave you a penalty for X number of combats after changing class, but that may not be the case in the pixel remaster. They do seem to balance these easier and sand down rough edges so class change penalties might've gotten the axe.

 

[Lemming42]

I'm glad that it's becoming more acceptable to talk about what an absolute shit-show FF7 is. It was a sacred cow in the jRPG community for the longest time, with only the occasional opposing voice.

Loved it as an impressionable Japanophile kid, but looking at it as a clear-eyed adult, the plot is jawdroppingly bad, like so bad that it doesn't even feel like it was written by a sane person. I can't get over it. It's like if someone who'd been hit in the head by a sledgehammer actually tried to write a terrible anime series using as many tropes as possible, and then the entire thing was machine-translated into English.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Some of us have disliked Final Fantasy VII since it was released in 1997.

 

[Morenatsu.]

Bad writing my ass. Hating on silly-edgy anime stories is just as dumb and childish as treating them like they're high art.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

The ooooooooooooooold "I'm an ancient with amnesia that was destined to protect this tower, pardon me while I jump inside this raging inferno" after banging the naive village girl, eh? Desch you dog we're adventurers you didn't have to suicide into that furnace. The lengths a guy will go to avoid a pitchfork wedding.

Fucking hell FF3 IS SO MUCH BETTER THAN FF2 I COULD SHIT. Combat's smooth simple fun, enemy composition's been fairly solid (Little bit of variety, almost no "Welp looks like you got ambushed by 6 paralyze enemies time to reload" insta TPK shit, bosses have still put up a fight), story's paper thin but like FF1 you're getting it all by wandering around and talking to everyone which makes that really simple text actually engaging and easy to keep track of, equipment progression's been nice, secret hunting has been a lot of fun and is really rewarding since you find absolutely shitloads of gold in secrets, class swapping during key moments in the adventure to cover your ass if you're miniature is neat, map's not as open as FF2 but dramatically more fun to explore. Still would say FF2 has better music than 3, none of 3's music is bad but 2 had some cool tracks I really liked such as the boss theme. FF3 may also have the weakest enemy sprites so far, again none of them are particularly bad but they haven't got the character of 1 or 2 to my taste. I'm absolutely nitpicking though, just trying to find small things to compare it in a negative light since by and large 3's absolutely doing everything I liked in 1 only better. Though I also miss FF1's more obvious D&D homages.

Story-wise I found 7 painful to slog through due to being dead set on telling me how cool and badass it is, despite a presentation and writing so poor it ends up feeling like an unintentional parody of edgy 90s fanfics.

Stuff like that does concern me a bit, but it's hard to say until I actually start playing something and experiencing it firsthand. The story in 3 would be god-awful if I was reading it in a vacuum, but the really light story with the pleasant music playing and the constant exploration and tweaking the party's items/spells/etc makes for a nice experience. And goofy shit like Desch is more enjoyable because with the simple graphical presentation and light writing your imagination fills in the gaps, so while some people might have a more adventurous "The mystical ancient sacrifices himself to save everyone" moment my brain turned it comedic after remembering the daughter sobbing in the village since he apparently boned her and ran off. I assume once they start focusing on the story more and especially when they start having snazzier graphics and cutscenes there'll be less wiggle room for my imagination to doodle in the margins.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

FF6 was completely unique in both music and art. The game was very unique in that only the first third was railroaded while the rest was completely open. Additionally, the cinematics of the game (Opening, traveling to Vector, the Floating Continent, and the Ending) were all amazingly done.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Final Fantasy 3 gets the award for best dressed lich in a videogame. Also realize now after I beat him it would've gone even smoother if I had 3 black mages and 1 scholar, but oh well. Hindsight.

 

[Ash]

If that ends up being the case then I may quite like the series then. I'm skeptical that the love train will keep rolling into 7 and on just because I doubt they'll be quite as laid back gameplay-wise and I'm paranoid about spiky hair and too many belts harshing my mellow but given that I didn't expect to be into these at all in the first place, lord only knows. Even if I bounce off of 7 or 8 I'll still try 9 since I heard that was kind of a love letter and grand send off to more classic Final Fantasy sword and sorcery party of adventurers shit, and since I'm digging that it'll be worth a look no matter what.

You like how barebones the first handful of FF games are? Games put me to damn sleep. Gameplay, art, story, everything. There's a certain charm to them but I cannot fathom why they were ever popular, as nothing stood out or inspired me in any way. I imagine the Japanese were just largely ignorant of RPGs in 1987. At best I can say I appreciated how hardcore FF1 was with its mazes sometimes, but it's a double-edged sword because it can get tedious real fast and the mazes are pretty bland even if an interesting navigation and resource attrition challenge. As streamlined cRPG the first few games don't offer much of anything unique in turn. The series however becomes quite a different beast starting with FFV, some of my favorite games of all time, up until FF13 when it morphs into decline degeneracy, overall quality reduction, dumb as fuck gameplay, and the lamest of anime tropes galore.
To me, FF prior to V is too barebones to have value, and everything after 13 is not even FF at all and utterly retarded. But the middle era is really something special.

Don't worry about "spiky hair and belts". Outside of FF8 and the newer iterations of the past decade or two, this series used to be one of the most westernized JRPGs there is. The anime cringe factor is pretty low, while still present to some small degree. Art is beautiful and highly detailed. Gameplay evolves in complexity quite notably, and the soundtracks are god-tier stuff. Your view of what Final Fantasy IS is undoubtedly skewed by recent media like FF7 Remake, Advent Children, FFXV and whatever other dumb decline shit, but forget what you think you know. I promise you the idea built in your head by Square Enix, the fanbase etc of say FF7, is misrepresentative.

I'm not sure what you mean by "laid back gameplay"? Challenge or complexity? 5 through 10 certainly do not offer a hardcore challenge, yet it's not braindead either. Complexity however is quadrupled compared to FF1, with engaging and often flexible RPG systems, a wide variety of charming (and some not so charming) mini-games, a bit more interactive environments, more rewarding exploration if you look for it, and at times interesting level design offering unique challenges, as well as more elaborate combat. There's even some story C&C from time to time.

I envy you, as you're in for some great games. There is no other media in existence quite like them, including other JRPGs. Even among each game in the franchise there is major differences.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

FF6 - Epic God tier game upon which all other FF games should be measured.

 

[Ash]

I prefer FF5, maybe. 5-9 all hold a special place in my heart and gaming library. 6 certainly is epic. But each of these is equally epic and have some pros and cons the other does not have.

5 beats 6 in RPG systems, challenge and dungeon design. 6 beats 5 in story (including C&C), art, characters, and late game non-linearity. Collectively, this middle grouping all are god-tier and set some very high standards for the genre, but also are not without flaw (e.g not as open-ended as some cRPG but this comes with the benefit of pacing and different method of storytelling, is on the easier side unfortunately).

 

[Morenatsu.]

I thought 1-3 were charmingly cute, but when the mazes in FF1 were ultimately pointless, FF2 is severely broken, and actually all the games have significantly broken mechanics, it's kind of...

Well, regarding FF1's dungeons, I liked the sense of scale they gave, but they essentially just gave you the choice between wasting all your time going to dead ends to collect items you don't need guarded by inescapable bosses that'd make you either grind to have enough resources or leave to rest after each fight, or trying to find the exit as fast as possible without caring about other stuff because you'll just buy something better at the next town anyway. Of course if random encounters were actually fun, it wouldn't matter, but they aren't, they're just filler. It seems like 80's JRPGs are entirely designed for people who have nothing better to do than get interrupted every five seconds. At least FF3 was fine.

 

[mediocrepoet]

If that ends up being the case then I may quite like the series then. I'm skeptical that the love train will keep rolling into 7 and on just because I doubt they'll be quite as laid back gameplay-wise and I'm paranoid about spiky hair and too many belts harshing my mellow but given that I didn't expect to be into these at all in the first place, lord only knows. Even if I bounce off of 7 or 8 I'll still try 9 since I heard that was kind of a love letter and grand send off to more classic Final Fantasy sword and sorcery party of adventurers shit, and since I'm digging that it'll be worth a look no matter what.

You like how barebones the first handful of FF games are? Games put me to damn sleep. Gameplay, art, story, everything. There's a certain charm to them but I cannot fathom why they were ever popular, as nothing stood out or inspired me in any way. I imagine the Japanese were just largely ignorant of RPGs in 1987. At best I can say I appreciated how hardcore FF1 was with its mazes sometimes, but it's a double-edged sword because it can get tedious real fast and the mazes are pretty bland even if an interesting navigation and resource attrition challenge. As streamlined cRPG the first few games don't offer much of anything unique in turn.

If you're mostly just replying to MHC's like of playing these now, that's fine, but regarding your bolded statement, it's because I assume you're looking at them from today's standards and not from when they were current.

Back when they were released, computers were mostly impenetrable to a lot of people and the NES had better graphics for gaming than a lot of contemporary computers - compare it with your usual IBM PC 4 colour CGA system. The other thing is a lot of kids who had never played any CRPGs or even heard of them had a NES and started getting introduced to games like Final Fantasy, Dragon Warrior, etc. and from that standpoint, they seemed revolutionary and cool. I remember a kid going off about how awesome it was that you could make a party of thieves that become ninjas, or wizards, monks, or whatever. It blew his mind. Just because it seems quaint now doesn't mean it was then. Furthermore, although there were more customizable CRPGs with progression systems and the like, there was no internet to discuss these things, so if you've never heard of or seen any of them, what are you comparing it to? The C64 wasn't overly common, nor were computers like the Amiga or Atari systems. IBM compatible PCs eventually took off, but the NES was ubiquitous, and Final Fantasy was the first RPG that many people had ever seen. They have a pretty significant part in gaming history and the history of RPGs.

 

[Ash]

If you're mostly just replying to MHC's like of playing these now, that's fine, but regarding your bolded statement, it's because I assume you're looking at them from today's standards and not from when they were current.

I suppose 90s standards primarily, not modern. Of course not modern. Final Fantasy V for example was 1992. Ultima Underworld 1992. Darklands 1992. Leagues ahead of FF1.

I played FF in a somewhat reverse order, starting with the late 90s PS1 releases, trying out the SNES classics, then the NES. Then whatever after.

good post, anyhow.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

I'm not sure what you mean by "laid back gameplay"? Challenge or complexity?

Both, though challenge more than anything. When I started off with FF1 I mentioned how it was hitting the sweet spot with games like World of Xeen where there's almost no challenge and just moving forward at a constant pace and improving a party and seeing new enemy sprites and listening to new music. I'm not playing them for deep tacticool combat or mind-bending puzzles or deep character building, it's for sitting down after a long day and going "Oh cool I found a new sword for my fighter!" and/or getting high and bashing monsters. Being a good casual RPG is a hell of a lot harder than it sounds, oddly. Playing something like Baldur's Gate on easy doesn't translate to the same experience as Xeen or FF1-2-3. Some of the feeling might also come from the sense of "Lawn mowing" that Xeen absolutely has and I still get from these. Even though the FF games have infinite random encounters I'm enjoying talking to every NPC, crawling over every dungeon, etc. Not the same as mapping every square and killing every monster and spawn point but it's another really simple "Essence of RPG" component for having a relaxing time.

And as always, this is talking about the pixel remasters. Not only does it sound like they reduced the grind and probably made the games easier (Except for chaos in FF1 apparently) they've also got auto-battle that increases the game speed so even the absolute trash enemy encounters go by quickly. I'm fairly sure I wouldn't be having nearly the same amount of fun playing the originals that I am with these, if nothing else interface issues like attacks not transferring to a different target if the first target died would drive me nuts.