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

[Ash]

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.

You are mediocre my friend. Weed has rotted your brain.

 

[Morenatsu.]

Be like me and bind fast-foward and rewind to your controller so you can cheese the game in record time. I love save-scumming.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

You are mediocre my friend. Weed has rotted your brain.

At least it's enhancing a fun series of games.


Speaking of which, been slow on my FF3 play but I got the water crystal and done a tiny bit of dicking with new classes. Evoker appeared to have access to black magic (As well as summons I guess, though I don't have any) but then the bastard didn't have spells during a fight. I could've been confused about the interface I suppose, even though it was listing him as having access to casts of varying black magic spell levels (Since I was flipping my BM to evoker) I guess it's possible it leaves previously memorized spells memorized in case you change jobs again, and if I had rested after changing to evoker I would've lost them. Suppose I may try geomancer out but I might also keep BM and WM as the main core and then fuck around with the other two. Haven't been overly impressed with knight so I'll probably try out black knight and dragoon. It's a shame the game doesn't have a description of the classes since I just end up eyeballing them and running one for a bit to check it out, and while class level 1 isn't as awful as getting a new spell in FF2 was they're still usually a bit weak.

Edit: ALSO, rambling about classes made me forget to mention THEY KILLED OFF ANOTHER CHARACTER. Not FF2 levels of NPC death but Desch kicked the bucket and then Tits McGee took an arrow for me (Can't remember her name since she was with me all of 5 minutes or some damn thing). Digging FF3's world, too. Similar to how FF1 would gate you off from higher level areas until you opened something up or gained access to a new mode of travel, they're just being wild with it with floating islands and the water crystal lowering the oceans and restoring the land and shit. Just another oddity with FF2 having so much open which leads to situations where if you go left instead of right you get hit with massively higher level enemies even though the terrain itself looks identical.

 

[perfectslumbers]

Been playing through the FF1 remaster and it's interesting how much it feels like a D&D campaign. Also interesting how different the interpretations of RPG's are coming from Japanese devs vs western devs.

Ultimately it ends up being a super grindy slog with no difficulty, with trash fights so trashy that you can auto battle through the entire game. It's fun playing it through very small bits at a time at least. Shame that later JRPGS all ended up being cutscene simulators when old ones were so promising.

These are expensive as shit though so i'm gonna emulate the rest 25 dollars for a seemingly low effort NES remake seems like a lot.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Shame that later JRPGS all ended up being cutscene simulators when old ones were so promising.

This. I used to really like JRPGs and then FF7 happened and turned everything into story time. I'm starting to dip my toe back into them whether for older games or ones where the game to cutscene ratio is better. Anything where you can put your controller down for 10+ minutes should have the developers shot.

 

[†††]

I used to really like JRPGs and then FF7 happened and turned everything into story time

I don't think FF6 and 7 are that different in their insistence to favor story over gameplay, I don't get why is it always 7 the one getting singled out. FF8 however, went full retard with story over gameplay segments, doing away with dungeons until the very end.

 

[mediocrepoet]

I used to really like JRPGs and then FF7 happened and turned everything into story time

I don't think FF6 and 7 are that different in their insistence to favor story over gameplay, I don't get why is it always 7 the one getting singled out. FF8 however, went full retard with story over gameplay segments, doing away with dungeons until the very end.

Yeah, I can see why you'd say that and it had occurred to me. The big thing that sticks out in my mind though is that FF7 is the one that had all the FMV cutscenes for everything. Story beats, summons, etc. They were so concerned with showing off the new tech that they had all these stupid movies and cutscenes everywhere and when it did so well financially by being a launch title with nice pre-rendered video, everyone started doing it. FF6 didn't have the same pull, imo.

 

[Thac0]

Ultimately it ends up being a super grindy slog with no difficulty, with trash fights so trashy that you can auto battle through the entire game. It's fun playing it through very small bits at a time at least. Shame that later JRPGS all ended up being cutscene simulators when old ones were so promising.

MOD THE GAME.
https://www.nexusmods.com/finalfantasypixelremaster/mods/20
If you properly install this mod, then xp, gold and monster stats will be equal to the NES version.
It will not make a difficult challenge out of the game (I cleared FF1 in this modded state without a single full game over), but it is much more fun than the extremely neutered Pixel Remaster default difficulty.
Roughly equal to early Dragon Quest in that state, a bit easier perhaps.

 

[Ash]

I used to really like JRPGs and then FF7 happened and turned everything into story time

I don't think FF6 and 7 are that different in their insistence to favor story over gameplay, I don't get why is it always 7 the one getting singled out. FF8 however, went full retard with story over gameplay segments, doing away with dungeons until the very end.

Fake news for all this new year. He said fake news. You said fake news. Story to gameplay ratio is very reasonable in these these games. Sure there are the occasional lengthy story segments, but there are even lengthier gameplay segments especially if you go looking for them. I'll use Triple triad as an example, of which you can invest a lot of time into, and it's just one branch of the RPG systems.
As for FF8 dungeons, Tomb of the Unknown king is an early dungeon, and it's a pretty cool one with a couple puzzles to figure out. Simple design, but fun nonetheless.
Sewers under Galbadia is another that qualifies as a dungeon.
But dungeons or no, level design on the whole is what is the actual concern, and it's never bad. There's always at least some non-linearity, some interactivity, some navigation challenge, some hidden rewards, or some puzzle keeping things fresh as with all 90s FF. With only the occasional linear static bit for story pacing/presentation/combat focus.

If you need incentive to actually properly engage with the great gameplay more of these games, check out the hardtype mods for each respective game. They do need more challenge to have their potential met and numerous simple hacks made over the years can offer that.

 

[mediocrepoet]

I used to really like JRPGs and then FF7 happened and turned everything into story time

I don't think FF6 and 7 are that different in their insistence to favor story over gameplay, I don't get why is it always 7 the one getting singled out. FF8 however, went full retard with story over gameplay segments, doing away with dungeons until the very end.

Fake news for all this new year. He said fake news. You said fake news. Story to gameplay ratio is very reasonable in these these games. Sure there are the occasional lengthy story segments, but there are even lengthier gameplay segments especially if you go looking for them. I'll use Triple triad as an example, of which you can invest a lot of time into, and it's just one branch of the RPG systems.
As for FF8 dungeons, Tomb of the Unknown king is an early dungeon, and it's a pretty cool one with a couple puzzles to figure out. Simple design, but fun nonetheless.
Sewers under Galbadia is another that qualifies as a dungeon.
But dungeons or no, level design on the whole is what is the actual concern, and it's never bad. There's always at least some non-linearity, some interactivity, some navigation challenge, some hidden rewards, or some puzzle keeping things fresh as with all 90s FF. With only the occasional linear static bit for story pacing/presentation/combat focus.

If you need incentive to actually properly engage with the great gameplay more of these games, check out the hardtype mods for each respective game. They do need more challenge to have their potential met and numerous simple hacks made over the years can offer that.

It's always funny seeing a true blue Final Fantasy fanboy on the Codex.

 

[Ash]

And why is that, exactly?

Also to be clear, I greatly enjoy approximately 5 of the games, think three or so are good for what they are, and think the other 30 or whatever are complete trash; the absolute opposite unfortunately. But those 5 (mostly all the 90s ones in hindsight, unsurprisingly), yeah I adore them, just as I do hundreds of other games. And? Do you not like good things too? You like poetry and identify as mediocre so probably not.

 

[Morenatsu.]

hurr durr story bad

Games, especially RPGs, are simulated adventures. And JRPGs are the streamlined version of that, typical of Japanese games. There's story where it needs to be and gameplay where it needs to be. Doesn't matter what the ratio is if it makes for cool fiction. But of course you guys hate anime so you don't like it anyway.

 

[†††]

You said fake news

I should've said "mandatory dungeons". I used a bit of exaggeration but the first "real", mandatory dungeon in the game is the Galbadia Garden in disc 2 (the sewers are a mini dungeon if anything), which is a place you visit before so it doesn't infuse you with a sense of wonder. Then you have the lunatic pandora... with all enemies locked at level 1 for some reason, so another missed opportunity. And Ultimecia's castle. The rest (The tomb and the research center where you get Bahamut, and the ruins with King Tonberry and Odin) are optional, and they don't have the greatest design. There's also the problem of not having loot thanks to the junction system, so the levels don't feel satisfying to navigate, you get an excuse to do some battles, and the battle system in VIII is far from the greatest.
Have you replayed FFVIII recently? I did 3 or 4 years ago and the characters simply won't shut the fuck up, the stops are everywhere, it's difficult to get large chunks of continued gameplay. Even FFIX, far from my favorite, gives you more dungeons and gameplay segments to have fun.

 

[Volourn]

FFS FF8 has two 'non optional' dungeons early on. Both Ifrit's cave and the garden with T-Rex are dungeons. HOLY FUKK NUTZ.

Bottom line if you diss FF8 you are not just a shitty RPGer, you are a shitty human being.

DO YOU WANNA BE A SHITTY HUMAN BEING?!?

CELEBRATE FINAL FANTASY EIGHT LAUGH AT THE MORANS WHO BASH IT!!!

 

[mediocrepoet]

And why is that, exactly?

Also to be clear, I greatly enjoy approximately 5 of the games, think three or so are good for what they are, and think the other 30 or whatever are complete trash; the absolute opposite unfortunately. But those 5 (mostly all the 90s ones in hindsight, unsurprisingly), yeah I adore them, just as I do hundreds of other games. And? Do you not like good things too? You like poetry and identify as mediocre so probably not.

Holy smokes, did you just make fun of my user name? I'm literally so triggered right now, I've never seen that before. E for effort, scrub.

It's because, at least historically, few would openly identify as fans of an openly degenerate consolefag series. But since you wanted more information:

Story to gameplay ratio is very reasonable in these these games. Sure there are the occasional lengthy story segments, but there are even lengthier gameplay segments especially if you go looking for them. I'll use Triple triad as an example, of which you can invest a lot of time into, and it's just one branch of the RPG systems.

You justify the length and amount of cutscenes by the fact that there's a minigame of cards that you can spend all your time playing and that doesn't have cutscenes. Brilliant. It certainly doesn't reek of coping or dumbfuckery.

If you need incentive to actually properly engage with the great gameplay more of these games, check out the hardtype mods for each respective game. They do need more challenge to have their potential met and numerous simple hacks made over the years can offer that.

So, the mechanics are great if you mod the game. You're being a disingenuous Bethestard tier fuckwit. What a great start for the new year!


tl;dr

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Been playing through the FF1 remaster and it's interesting how much it feels like a D&D campaign.

If the original Final Fantasy feels like a D&D campaign, it's probably because it rips more heavily off D&D/AD&D than any other computer/console RPG prior to Pool of Radiance, starting with the classes (which are effectively the fighter, monk, thief, cleric, magic-user, and multi-classed fighter/cleric/mage), the spell system (a semi- Vancian magic system only slightly modified from D&D/AD&D), the actual spells available (e.g. 3rd level D&D spells fireball and lightning bolt appear as 3rd level black mage spells FIR2 and LIT2 that affect all enemies, and 4th level D&D spell ice storm appears as 4th level black mage spell ICE2), monsters (to such an extent that trolls are green with regenerative ability and weak against fire, while D&D-original beholders, mind flayers, sahuagin, otyughs, and the Type V Demon Marilith are all present), and just about every other aspect of the game.

Also, Amano's concept art is similar to illustrations for a D&D campaign:

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

I used to really like JRPGs and then FF7 happened and turned everything into story time

I don't think FF6 and 7 are that different in their insistence to favor story over gameplay, I don't get why is it always 7 the one getting singled out. FF8 however, went full retard with story over gameplay segments, doing away with dungeons until the very end.

Yeah, I can see why you'd say that and it had occurred to me. The big thing that sticks out in my mind though is that FF7 is the one that had all the FMV cutscenes for everything. Story beats, summons, etc. They were so concerned with showing off the new tech that they had all these stupid movies and cutscenes everywhere and when it did so well financially by being a launch title with nice pre-rendered video, everyone started doing it. FF6 didn't have the same pull, imo.

Final Fantasy 7 didn't just happen to do will become it was a launch title, it did well, and in this case doing well was being one of the best selling games of the '90s, because of those FMVs and stuff. In fact being a launch title had nothing to do with how good it sold because it wasn't even a launch title. The game came out in '97, by that point the PSX had been out for a couple years and stuff like Tomb Raider and Resident Evil had already come out.

I wouldn't blame FF7 for other stuff having lots FMVs. That's just where things were going. Look at something like the Blade Runner game from the same year. Could probably blame CDs more than anything.

 

[Ash]

It's because, at least historically, few would openly identify as fans of an openly degenerate consolefag series.

Degenerate...because they're Japanese or what? Come now don't be closeted, elaborate.

Yes believe it or not console games can be good. Who would have thought it? I mean looking today you wouldn't think so I suppose, but the 90s was a very different time.

You justify the length and amount of cutscenes by the fact that there's a minigame of cards that you can spend all your time playing and that doesn't have cutscenes. Brilliant. It certainly doesn't reek of coping or dumbfuckery.

I take no issue with games that want to tell a story, no, providing there is adequate, engaging gameplay focus to accompany. In the 90s games there is plenty. Triple Triad was merely an example since it is popular side content that you can sink many hours into, not sure why you'd fixate on that.

 

[mediocrepoet]

You justify the length and amount of cutscenes by the fact that there's a minigame of cards that you can spend all your time playing and that doesn't have cutscenes. Brilliant. It certainly doesn't reek of coping or dumbfuckery.

I take no issue with games that want to tell a story, no, providing there is adequate, engaging gameplay focus to accompany. In the 90s games there is plenty. Triple Triad was merely an example since it is popular side content that you can sink many hours into, not sure why you'd fixate on that.

Because it's literally the only thing you cited, you abject retard.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

FF3 continues to be the greatest thing since sliced bread. Another airship lost, another airship gained, hilarious backstory uncovered where the god-wizard blessed his immortal students with powers and gave one of them the gift of mortality and it pissed him off so bad that he's the one fucking everything up now, fun combat encounters, FUCK. Split second I got access to my submarine I went to that triangle island since I remembered some NPC hours before saying THERE'S BURIED TREASURE OFF THE COAST OF TRIANGLE ISLAND which led to a fun mini-dungeon. Just a few levels deep and no boss, but some relatively durable enemies and a cool wrinkle where physical attacks made the enemies duplicate but magic didn't so it was black mage's time to shine. Might've been underleveled for the area since everyone gained something like 3-5 levels by the time we cleared it but it was cool. Another point in FF3's favor is the fact that the story and writing IS so light that some random NPC saying "Treasure off triangle island" hours of gameplay before and probably a day or two in real time earlier was still memorable enough that it immediately sprang to mind once I got a submarine. Keeping shit like that in mind is much harder when every random character wants to tell you his life story, and the world map is memorable and basic enough it's easy to keep landmarks and directions like that in mind. Which works well for when you're playing a goofy-ass RPG and you get the buzz of finding treasure and little hidden areas and shit. I continue to seriously dig the secret passages and shit in FF3 too, FF2 had illusory walls but either I was completely blind or it didn't telegraph them in the textures, but in FF3 there'll be little details of cracked walls and shit to indicate secret passages and of course the occasional hidden switches.

For show and tell I bring THIS SILLY FUCKING CRAB SPRITE.

Amano's concept art

Can't remember if I got into that when I was rambling about FF1, but it chaps my ass how cool his concept art is and how little of it (Other than enemy sprites, usually) gets translated to the games. I think I did ramble about it before since I recall saying something like I understand it's hard to get too wild with the NES graphically but still. His concept art is miles better than how basically ALL Final Fantasy games look in reality and it bums me out a bit. I do appreciate that it's included in the pixel remasters though.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Amano's concept art

Can't remember if I got into that when I was rambling about FF1, but it chaps my ass how cool his concept art is and how little of it (Other than enemy sprites, usually) gets translated to the games. I think I did ramble about it before since I recall saying something like I understand it's hard to get too wild with the NES graphically but still. His concept art is miles better than how basically ALL Final Fantasy games look in reality and it bums me out a bit. I do appreciate that it's included in the pixel remasters though.

It's always struck me as odd that there is generally no resemblance between Amano's character concept art and anything in game. I always wondered what the point was of even making it when the game wouldn't even sort of look like that.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

It's always struck me as odd that there is generally no resemblance between Amano's character concept art and anything in game. I always wondered what the point was of even making it when the game wouldn't even sort of look like that.

All I can figure is it's evocative art to try to inspire the people working on the game to feel wonder/adventure/etc. But then they'll often use his monster and enemy designs almost verbatim (And to a lesser extent, character designs) so... Lord only knows. Unless they keep asking him to make the most basic generic fucking fantasy world art and then he goes pack-beetles in a caravan marching through the desert and shit and they're forced to bitch at him for making more weird art they can't use. Just doesn't seem to make sense, I probably should do some searching to see if there are any interviews or anything to explain what the fuck's going on.

But case in point, the Coolest Lich in All of Christendom is direct from concept art even though his sprite doesn't have the fine details like the glinting ruby ring. And even though he doesn't seem to fit stylistically with his manner of dress with absolutely fucking anyone else in the game, but who gives a shit he's cool. Having a skeleton wizard looking like that pop up absolutely leads to a memorable moment and it's nice when an enemy design makes you smile just by the look of it.

Out of curiosity since I hadn't gone through FF3's concept art yet, I just went through it and noticed he's got next to no world/area art now and is almost entirely major characters and bosses with a smattering of random enemies thrown in. Wonder if at this point they realized they couldn't really leverage his art for the bigger picture look of the games and instead had him focus on enemies and characters that they COULD crudely translate to them. One notable thing that did jump out as I was looking at it is he wanted more alien looking chocobos apparently.

 

[†††]

Tbh, Amano makes every single character blond. It's a good thing they don't follow his art verbatim.

 

[Hassar]

FF3 continues to be the greatest thing since sliced bread. Another airship lost, another airship gained, hilarious backstory uncovered where the god-wizard blessed his immortal students with powers and gave one of them the gift of mortality and it pissed him off so bad that he's the one fucking everything up now, fun combat encounters, FUCK. Split second I got access to my submarine I went to that triangle island since I remembered some NPC hours before saying THERE'S BURIED TREASURE OFF THE COAST OF TRIANGLE ISLAND which led to a fun mini-dungeon. Just a few levels deep and no boss, but some relatively durable enemies and a cool wrinkle where physical attacks made the enemies duplicate but magic didn't so it was black mage's time to shine. Might've been underleveled for the area since everyone gained something like 3-5 levels by the time we cleared it but it was cool. Another point in FF3's favor is the fact that the story and writing IS so light that some random NPC saying "Treasure off triangle island" hours of gameplay before and probably a day or two in real time earlier was still memorable enough that it immediately sprang to mind once I got a submarine. Keeping shit like that in mind is much harder when every random character wants to tell you his life story, and the world map is memorable and basic enough it's easy to keep landmarks and directions like that in mind. Which works well for when you're playing a goofy-ass RPG and you get the buzz of finding treasure and little hidden areas and shit. I continue to seriously dig the secret passages and shit in FF3 too, FF2 had illusory walls but either I was completely blind or it didn't telegraph them in the textures, but in FF3 there'll be little details of cracked walls and shit to indicate secret passages and of course the occasional hidden switches.

For show and tell I bring THIS SILLY FUCKING CRAB SPRITE.

Amano's concept art

Can't remember if I got into that when I was rambling about FF1, but it chaps my ass how cool his concept art is and how little of it (Other than enemy sprites, usually) gets translated to the games. I think I did ramble about it before since I recall saying something like I understand it's hard to get too wild with the NES graphically but still. His concept art is miles better than how basically ALL Final Fantasy games look in reality and it bums me out a bit. I do appreciate that it's included in the pixel remasters though.

Amano’s style conveys a sense of movement to the sprites while being stuck in a static pose. I would like to see his original concept artwork translated to 3-d. It would not be straightforward - his artwork often features quirky touches like unbalanced features and incorrect proportions such that making a direct 1-1 rendering difficult - but it would be worth it.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I recall the artist for this being interviewed and he didn't even remember drawing it because he was pumping out so much art at the time.