The word on Twitter (by this I mean some dude Tim Rogers retweeted) is that they are remakes upscaled for widescreen display but otherwise with the original sprites (or close to it), the latter important because the PC versions available now are mobile ports that have redrawn awful-looking sprites. My hope is that they have some quality-of-life improvements—like toggling on/off random encounters—seen in some of the other modern remasters because I’ve been wanting to replay FFVI for a few months but can’t stand the high random encounter rate. Such things are not present in the current FFVI version on Steam.
I had what I had in my heart was the answer, but @Dissensus just confirmed it. You must have not seen the “remakes” to come to mobile (and then to other platforms, such as Steam), with these kinds of sprites. Here is Final Fantasy VI (originaly FF3 in the states) on Steam.
Here is what it looked like originally, and what I believe this will more closely resemble:
So if this indeed the original pixels remastered for modern screens, I’m in so fraking hard. Very cool. I wonder if it’s a single SKU?
Correction: FF3
The US got the original Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy IV, and then VI, VII, etc…
You’re mixing FF VI and FF IV there @Scotch_Lufkin.
Anyway, here’s an exhaustive breakdown of the failures of the last release:
Oops, hold on, let me fix that. Okay, yeah, I meant FFVI but I meant FF3 in my update. I blame Japan.
EDIT2: Oh, crap, I used FF2 screenshot. Dammit Google Image Search.
Here’s a comparison screenshot of the airship deck from the SNES version of FFVI:
That’s perfect, thanks man. I updated my post to make it less confusing and use your image. I could NOT find a good shot of the SNES version, which is honestly gorgeous (just formatted poorly and low res). If they can bump up the pixel resolution, give us wide screen, and update the games a bit (I assume like many emulators have been doing for ages now, from what I’ve heard from my cousin) I’ll be super happy to replay these.
I’ll be shocked if they’re under $20 per game. SE knows they can milk Final Fantasy… And I’ll still buy them (again) on sale if they’re good remakes.
So yeah, I had kind of a negative reaction to FF IX. But apparently the game has huge fans, so it’s interesting to read about this attempts to remake the game:
Final Fantasy games are on sale on Xbox this week. So I couldn’t resist getting the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy. XIII, XIII-2, and Lightning Returns.
I know they are also on Game Pass, but I can’t possibly get through massive games like that before they leave game pass. Hopefully I’ll get to them and won’t abandon them like I did with FF9.
I replayed XIII which I had quit after about 20 hours originally, and made it pretty close to the end this time around. I enjoyed it more this time; the battle system enjoyable and the difficulty level kept things interesting. At no point did I ever feel overpowered and this is what kept me going but also what ultimately got me to quit this time. The section I was in near the end of the game was just too damn tough and each battle took way too long. Overall, still a disappointing entry in the series, but it wasn’t as bad as I remember it. It’s a solid game.
I did start playing the sequel which from the beginning feels like a much better game, but I put it aside to play somethin else. I think I’ve started all the post FF6 games on Xbox/Vita/Switch and never finish them.
FF9 and FF12 are still fantastic games and my faves of the series (along with FF4 and FF6) and I actually got pretty far with them recently, just never enough time and always some new game around the corner! But I intend to go back to them soon.
I actually never finished FF8 or FF9 though got pretty close to the end when they released.
Rumor is that Square is remaking FF9. Interesting.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/1424ffl/jeff_grub_final_fantasy_9_remake_is_real_and/
I sure hope it’s turn-based. I can’t stand the real time combat of the latest titles.
But… Active Battle Turns, or whatever the acronym is, was a stapple of the whole game series!
I played through FF9 on PS1 and didn’t care much for it. It’s most similar to FFIV in terms of structure. You are rarely given free reign (like say…in FFVI) to explore, you simply jump from one story point to the next with different characters shuffling in and out, which I guess is par for the course. /shrug
I like FF8 a lot better than 9. The final boss battle (actually several bosses in a row without rest) in 8 is one of the best in any game I ever played (maybe the best!). If the combat would’ve been in real time it would’ve been utter shit!
I’m a lot more intrigued by FF8 now that the series seems to be all real time. Suddenly the turn-based older ones look really attractive to me.
I’ll probably play FF6 next, then FF7.
Is my Vita version of FF6 the better way to play or the pixel remaster on PC I wonder?
I’m waiting for the prices to come down on the PS5 versions of the pixel remasters to play 1-6, which I missed back in the day because I was a PC only gamer back then. I wish it would come to Xbox but I doubt it.
Can we go back to the 16 bit, pixelated Final Fantasies? Those were the best.
If the first 6 games come to Xbox, I will definitely buy them there.
I played a few of them briefly on a modded Xbox with an emulator, and I really enjoyed the beginning of FF4, FF5 and FF6. But then I played the beginning of Chronotrigger and got pulled in until I finished it.