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Final Fantasy I and II Are Coming To the iPhone and iPod Touch
jonasvdc tips an announcement by Square Enix that Final Fantasy I and Final Fantasy II are being developed for the iPhone and the iPod touch. The graphics and UI have been modified to look and run better on the touchscreen devices, but everything from Cecil to the classic Black Mage is clearly recognizable. The announcement did not include any information on a price or release date.
Cecil isn't in any of the screenshots...because he isn't in either of the games mentioned. That's Final Fantasy IV, which has been known by that name in every release except for the US SNES version.
I can see being confused by the renaming, but how do you see a character in the screenshots who just isn't there?
I don't mind exclusive deals, but it'd be nice if they wore off after a few months.
All exclusive deals wear off no later than 1,151 months.
I personally never played any of the FF series, only because I hadn't heard of it until like 7 or 8 came out, and I thought I'd have a lot of backstory to catch up with (though people have reassured me that I really don't).
Final Fantasy is a brand, not a series. With a few exceptions (e.g. Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy X-2), each game has nothing to do with the last except being a role-playing video game made by Square.
These seems like as good a time as any to ask...is the iPod Touch worth buying just for games available on the platform? It seems like there are a ton of cool games out there for it, but I don't really want to plunk down the cash if it isn't worth it from a gaming point of view...
Opinions?
Living With a Nerd
SquareEnix re-released Final Fantasy IV outside of Japan on the DS as Final Fantasy IV, so that's what they're calling that now.
Cecil is not in Final Fantasy II (as the numbering scheme now goes) so he's not clearly seen.
Reviewing just the first hour of video games.
This will surely cause an epidemic of people's legs falling asleep as they have a much more in depth game to play on the toilet at work.
I prefer to replace one of the fighters with a blackbelt. Not as powerful at the low levels, but he gets some incredible damage later in the game.
upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time
"So how long till it makes its way to Droid - if ever at all?"
:)
I assume you mean aside from playing it through NESoid? I'm currently in the middle of a game of Nobunaga's Ambition on my Nexus One. (I might have started up a game of FF1 instead, except i was already playing that on the Wii Virtual Console =) Even if you want to be entirely ethical (since you apparently don't already have an old copy lying around) i personally wouldn't feel any qualms about buying a copy for some other system (even an old used copy) and then d/ling the rom.
"I personally never played any of the FF series, only because I hadn't heard of it until like 7 or 8 came out, and I thought I'd have a lot of backstory to catch up with (though people have reassured me that I really don't)."
I wouldn't suggest playing FF1 for the first time now unless you're already very familiar with how clunky those old NES games could get. FF1, along with Dragon Quest 1, were both exploring how to do RPGs on the console format, and there's a lot of UI issues that got resolved in later versions. (In particular, having to buy each item one at a time, no descriptions for any items, no way to view stats without equipping an item and switching to the status screen.) And even aside from the difficulties the UI imposes it's probably the most challenging game in the FF series. (It's hard to say if the fact that attacks targeted on enemies that die before that character's turn don't get re-targeted to another enemy is a UI bug or just an unneeded increase to the difficulty, but in either case they got rid of it in later games.)
I still think it's a great game despite all that, but i admit that i come pre-equipped with a pair of rose-tinted glasses which you would be lacking
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
Now look, I understand that Square Enix republishing games for new platforms is both financially savvy and also a boon for those of us that may have lost our old games, but really? FF1 has been published for no less than 3 platforms already (NES, GBA, PS-nevermind emulators), and I still have copies 2 of them (NES and GBA, though to be fair the GBA version was to get the first official US version of FF2).
I have nothing against exploiting existing intellectual property if it'll make you money, especially when it'll make people happy, but you'd think-at least on a place like slashdot-that there would be a significant percentage of people that boxes up their old games the same way "normal" people box up old pictures and such (like me). If you do that, and you have the urge, then you don't have to pay for the new version. Of course, then you have cases like Chrono Trigger for the DS which has a new ending; of course you have to give in then. (That said, I still have my original SNES CT cartridge in my closet.)
It doesn't always mean better when graphics are a substitute for gameplay, but the exact same FF gameplay with updated graphics? Yes that's better! It's not like the original developers went with a 16-color palette and pixelated graphics as a stylistic choice. They made it as pretty as they could, and did a good job, but would they rather have had SNES graphics capabilities or more? Do the screenshots look like what they would have gone for, had they been able? Yes and yes.
Other games that were better after a graphical update include Kings Quest I and Heroes Quest (I mean Quest for Glory) when they were updated for VGA from EGA. Super Mario Brothers was improved by its release as part of Super Mario All Stars. Quake was vastly improved by the switch to OpenGL (oh god and how!), and today open-source mods improve it further just by adding shader effects. Star Control II is improved in its Ur Quan Masters form by the simple expedient of anti-aliasing the rotated sprites.
In summary: Same game play, with better graphics that are in the same spirit as the original? Yes please!
The enemies of Democracy are
I point you in the direction of Muramasa: The Demon Blade, which was released just a few months ago, uses sprites for all in-game characters/enemies, and is quite a beautiful game. Here are a couple screenshots:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_NXLKQR2FNpY/SwitorQly1I/AAAAAAAAAGs/unJ2YjKwJ3M/s1600/muramasathedemonblade-3.jpg
http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/2009/06/custom_1244093929468_Muramasa2.jpg
It looks even better in motion, I highly recommend you look up some videos of the game in action. Using sprites doesn't necessarily mean it will look pixelated, it just means it isn't a fully rendered character. Considering the quality of 3D back in the PS1 days, it was a mistake to move the series to 3D then. I know that it would have eventually happened, I'm just questioning the timing of the move.
Living With a Nerd
The sad part is that I have been alive for all of these and have purchased over 50% of them!
Source: Final Fantasy Release Info
I believe the GBA version of FFI also had 4 new lengthy bonus dungeons. I assume this content might also go into the iPhone versions.
Square has also done updated cut-scenes for many of their remakes.
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
Considering the quality of 3D back in the PS1 days, it was a mistake to move the series to 3D then. I know that it would have eventually happened, I'm just questioning the timing of the move.
Yeah I can see your point there. Games like Castlevania SotN showed what a 2D powerhouse the Playstation was, and a 2D FFVII would have been beautiful. Though some things like the change of perspective to look down the field of battle as Leviathan's gigantic tidal wave towering over the enemies that a moment ago towered over you were pretty awesome and hard to recreate in 2D. On the other hand, that was what introduced the strategic tradeoff between the damage a Summons would do to the enemy vs the time wasted watching the unskippable summon animation for the 1000th time.
I agree VI was the best in the series, but I don't think VII "jumped the shark". It was a good game. Even if they did go to 3D perhaps prematurely.
The enemies of Democracy are
We'd like a way to play this game on a console with bloodlines to the original, without having to resort to emulators to do so.
FF I+II GBA Cart on a NDS or DS-Lite (just not the DSi where they took out the GBA slot)
The reason I pinpoint the series jumping the shark with VII is because that was when the games went from having complicated, mature, fully believable characters to whining brats. Placing the emphasis on technology while fantasy was placed in the backseat didn't help either.
I suppose I should clarify...for me, the series jumped the shark and has just never been the same since it went 3D. The series going 3D isn't necessarily the cause of it (although it is a contributing factor), they both just happened to occur at the same time.
Living With a Nerd
The remakes are also MUCH easier than the original. Some of them even go so far as to get rid of the x # of magic points per level and go with the now-standard "each spell costs x mp" system. Some also modify combat so that if you assign your character to attack an enemy that is now dead they will attack another enemy instead of just attacking the air. They also toned down the difficulty level in general, I played a few of the remakes and I don't think I can recall getting a game over once. For starters, 9 ghouls/ghasts/whatevers can no longer take down a healthy party if they surprise you, they seemed to have lowered the probability of getting paralyzed significantly.... I beat the original once and have never even attempted to do so again, even beating it once was just plain luck(managed to have a thief run away from the zombie dragon with 10 hp, Chaos never cast cure4 etc)... you have to be pretty hardcore to replay it without save states or game genie.
Monstar L
Ok, I don't know where the rest of you guys are coming in, but everyone I know was in awe with how good the graphics for FFVII were at the time. I mean come on, this was 1997, 13 years ago.
Feh...maybe console-only gamers were in awe. It didn't really do that much for me or other pc & console gamers. Yes, it was 1997, but also remember the visual difference between console gaming and PC gaming was WAAAAAY bigger than it is now. (For reference, I'm 26 and started playing games on a Commodore 64 when i was four years old.)
but that was the first game I remember that had FMV and multiple camera angles during summons.
If you mean FMV in a Final Fantasy game, then ignore this last part of my post....
Final Fantasy VII was the first game you noticed that had FMV?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_Jedi_Knight:_Dark_Forces_II
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantasmagoria_(video_game)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wing_Commander_(video_game)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Command_and_conquer
Just to name a few. There is also the HUGE number of Sega CD games that had FMV.
Living With a Nerd
I like the idea of technological levels in a game being different from the levels of fantasy. What I mean is that I don't think a fantasy game is required to be set in a medieval time. I always felt like the higher technology worked nicely in 7; the core of the series is still about life-force, magic, etc, it just has a different flavor with the addition of technological elements.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
I always thought Cecil was a pretty whiny bastard, and that's not to mention the spoony bard. :)
True, but that was the whole point of their characters. When the entire cast is like that though...
Technology (and angst) played a big role in VI too.
They certainly did, but the tone of the story focused on the fantasy elements. An example: technology was used on the Espers to exploit their abilities for Magitek, also a technology. The focus, however, was placed on the fact that the Espers were used, rather than why they were used and the results from it. An entire segment of the game takes place in a giant Magitek factory, yet we learn very little about the actual process or the potential technology that can be built from it. However, considerable time was spent on establishing an emotional connection to the atrocities committed against these creatures, and why what was happening was such a horrible thing.
Even the MagitekArmor was like this...we knew, based on the name, that they had to be created using the life force of the espers...but that's it. Were it not for the name, they could just be any other mech. The focus wasn't on the fact that they were mechs, but the fact that they were powered by the essence of an Esper.
This is the sort of focus on fantasy that I mean, rather than focusing on technology.
But yeah, there were definitely thematic changes in VII and I can understand being put off by them.
It's not just VII...I have tried and really wanted to enjoy all of the numbered entries in the series from VII on, but with the exception of X, I just couldn't. Even with X, I was only marginally kept interested. It's kind of frustrating, since the first 6 entries are some of my favorite games of all time. It's frustrating and a little disappointing seeing all these people so enamoured with the latter half of the series, while I can't stand it. i really want to...I just can't :-/
Living With a Nerd
Yeah. That's why nobody liked Symphony of the Night. Oh, wait, it's one of the most beloved games in the Castlevania franchise.
The enemies of Democracy are