A couple hours before the Square Enix E3 presentation my colleague Kevin and I were discussing what we were hoping for during the presentation. I said something along the lines of “It’d be nice if they did a Final Fantasy IV-VI or even better Final Fantasy I-VI collection that uses the 2D versions of Final Fantasy III andFinal Fantasy IVand not the awful sprites in the Steam version ofFinal Fantasy VandFinal Fantasy VI. Pretty sure that won’t happen though.” I can admit when I’m wrong, and this is one of those times I’m glad to say I was since Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster was one of the more exciting announcements from their presentation. Now getting to purchase these games yet again is something that sounds appealing, but some of the details of what this series entails are still unknown.
Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster was introduced to the world through a trailer that was devoid of any real information aside from that these games will exist and are coming soon. What we could gather from the trailer was the first six Final Fantasy games are coming to PC via Steam and mobile devices at some point in the future. While there are a few different incarnations of each of these games, the ones included in Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster appear to be remastered versions of the original versions. This could be an interesting opportunity for Final Fantasy fans, but without any concrete details, what this collection contains is entirely speculation.
The release of Final Fantasy games in the US has a scattered history. Final Fantasy was released for the NES in 1990, Final Fantasy IV was released as Final Fantasy II in 1991 for SNES and Final Fantasy VI was released as Final Fantasy III in 1994 for SNES. Final Fantasy V didn’t get released here until 1999 as part of Final Fantasy Anthology on PlayStation. Final Fantasy II was remade for inclusion in Final Fantasy Origins for PlayStation in 2003. Final Fantasy III was given a drastic 3D remake and was released for Nintendo DS in 2007. So without having concrete facts to back up this guess, this could be the first time western gamers could something resembling the original Final Fantasy III (without importing a Famicon or using fan translated ROMs).
To clarify, this is not a single collection like I was hoping for, but six individual releases. This is still good news to an old Final Fantasy fan. Final Fantasy IV is only available on PC now as a port of the DS 3D remake, which isn’t terrible but for when the nostalgia itch flares up I want the 16-bit version. And speaking of 16-bit versions let’s talk about the Steam port of Final Fantasy VI. I coincidentally started playing it a few days before E3, and while there are positive changes such as being able to charge Cyan’s advanced Bushido techniques while assigning actions to other characters, the redone character sprites are awful. Their terribleness is only made worse when they are compared to the PSP version of Final Fantasy IV. There aren’t any screenshots and getting a good look at the gameplay in the little squares during the trailer is difficult. Final Fantasy I looks like it’s more in the style of the 2003 remake than the 8-bit NES version. Final Fantasy IV and V look like they’ve been touched up but overall pretty faithful to the original. Gameplay footage of Final Fantasy VI is conspicuously absent.
Despite this being overall good news, there are a few questions. The first is why not just bundle them all together in one collection? The newest game getting the Pixel Remaster treatment is 27 years old, and it’s a safe bet the majority of people purchasing any of these won’t be purchasing them for the first time. Secondly, why are they only being released on Steam and mobile devices? It’ll be great to get 2D version of Final Fantasy III and IV on Steam and proper versions of Final Fantasy V and VI, but what about other consoles? These would be a great Switch release, especially when you consider that all Final Fantasy games available on Switch are PlayStation Final Fantasies and none of the Nintendo Final Fantasies are on Switch.
There are a few other miscellaneous questions too, like will these games be the original released versions or will they include the additional content that was added in subsequent re-releases, like the bonus dungeons in the Game Boy Advance re-releases? Will Final Fantasy VI have the Woosley translation? Will Final Fantasy IV be the easy or hard version? Will glitches like accelerating attribute growth in Final Fantasy II or the Vanish/Doom trick from Final Fantasy VI be present? Will the graphics be the original uncensored Japanese version or the sanitized American releases? Will any of the quality-of-life improvements be present, like holding cancel to run or being able to save outside of an inn in the original Final Fantasy? Will Final Fantasy use the original MP per spell level system or the more universal MP system they added in the GBA release? Will the music receive a similar remastering treatment? I have theories as I’m sure you all do, but we’ll have to wait for confirmation.
There are still some questions to be answered, but just the fact that we’re getting the first six Final Fantasy games in their 2D pixelated glory is reason enough to be excited over this announcement. The trailer does raise more questions than it answers as to what exactly these remasters entail, but I’m trying to remain optimistic that these will be the games we love with an HD facelift that makes them look good on our 4K monitors, but maintains the essence of the original art style. Most of the details about the Pixel Remaster series are unknown, but I’m looking forward to eventually learning what they are.
