Blinge wrote:
So there was never a III on ps1 then? Interesting.
FF3 never came out in English until the DS version. There's no GBA version either.
I'll add my own thoughts to FinalBaton's on the remakes of FF games, even though I haven't played most:
PS1 ports of the SNES games: Avoid all of them. As people have already pointed out the added loading times makes them unbearable. The "hard mode" bonuses of FF4 are not worth it, considering the game received at least two remakes (for DS and PSP, bundled with After Years) which both did that and more.
Speaking of which, the DS version of FF4 is probably the hardest FF game I have ever played, and in a good way - you need employ a lot more strategy to win even random encounters than normally, and the bosses usually require you to make use of a good arsenal of supporting magic, apart from simply boosting attack, speed and defense. Grinding will only take you so far.
The voice acting also fits surprisingly well, and the graphics are serviceable, though I'm not a fan of DS 3D and would have prefered beautiful 2D sprites.
The DS version of FF3 looks comparable to FF4, but honestly I think primitive super-low polygon graphics like this leaves me with the exact same impression as (bad) NES graphics such as in the original game, and this somehow managed to feel more like a port to me than a remake. Considering it's the only legit English version of the game (I think the Steam version is the same?), I think it's worth playing. At least there are no downsides to this version that I can think of, even though I still would have preferred 2D graphics.
FF5 on GBA is really excellent. It has a post-game dungeon, greatly improved battle graphics (making it look a bit more like FF6), dialogue portraits using Amano artwork, two(?) new jobs, a run button, and a lot of other minor additions that just work well with the original game.
FF6 has similar additions, though it feels like less of an upgrade than FF5, as the original game looked much better in the first place. In fact the graphics look more visibly downgraded due to the lower resolution and bright color palette. Unfortunately I haven't spent much time with this, but my initial impressions are positive, even if I'd still consider the original SNES version the best version of this game.
It lets you run from the beginning of the game rather than waiting for the accessory that does it, also adds some more post-game stuff. But I think the most important addition is that it fixes the famous evade bug, that made that stat do absolutely nothing, and by extend also made the blind status effect completely pointless.
