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Final Fantasy Anthology - Retroview |
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For Whyyyyyyy?
By: Andrew Long
Review Breakdown |
Battle System |
2 |
Interface |
3 |
Music/Sound |
2 |
Originality |
3 |
Plot |
6 |
Localization |
5 |
Replay Value |
3 |
Visuals |
4 |
Difficulty |
Medium |
Time to Complete |
30-60 hours for each game
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Overall |
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Criteria
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Ever since Square released its infamous tech demo featuring
Locke et al attacking a monster, which was shortly before the N64 and
PlayStation consoles became ubiquitous, fans of the company's Final Fantasy
series had been slavering over the prospect of a new release of their
cherished SNES favorites. It made perfect sense, in view of the tech demo;
obviously, it could be achieved graphically, and while patience generally
isn't a big thing with most people, there was a certain willingness to
wait. Which was a good thing, since it was four years thereafter when
Square finally announced the long-awaited remakes. And then they dropped
a bombshell- no Final Fantasy IV for the North American collection. This
was later remedied with the release of Final Fantasy Chronicles earlier
this year, but in the intervening stretch, gamers were left to deal with
only Final Fantasies V and VI. Oh, well. Final Fantasy V had never been
released in North America. It was a brand new game! And besides, Final
Fantasy VI would be great! ...Unfortunately, reality then reared its ugly,
ugly head. Square, rather than doing a decent port, opted to cram their
games into the PlayStation media through the easiest means possible. Instead
of paying any attention whatsoever to little things like quality, the
company concerned themselves only with pumping out the titles as quickly
as possible, which resulted in a moderately abhorrent port.
Perhaps the most noticeable achievement Square managed
in their badly mangled port was making the PlayStation chug like an overworked
mule in many areas of both games. Final Fantasy V and VI for the SNES
featured no loading times before battles, no discernable sluggishness
during battles, and a generally fluid pace. Since the PlayStation is a
CD-based medium, some load times are to be expected; however, the example
provided by Suikoden shows that these load times need be neither long
nor burdensome. Lamentably, they're both in Final Fantasy Anthology, and
there's really no reason why they should be. If the PlayStation can manage
to grind out polygons at reasonable rates, a few sprites should be well
within its means, but they simply aren't. Upwards of ten seconds of loading
takes place before each battle, and the fun doesn't end there. Once in
battle, any level of activity whatsoever immediately slows things down
to a snail's pace. Spells execute slowly, moving the cursor between menu
options takes place more ponderously, and a sort of lag is apparent in
many battles. The problem is particularly evident in Final Fantasy VI,
but Final Fantasy V is by no means inculpable in this regard. All in all,
the pace is slowed very noticeably, and it makes battles much less enjoyable
than they should be.
Most gamers will remember Final Fantasy VIII with some irritation, since accessing
a menu was usually a task presaged by several seconds of staring at a blank screen?
Anyone who can recall how long it took to move between screens there will note the same problem
here. While Final Fantasy VIII's pre-rendered backgrounds provide some
excuse for this sort of languid transition, the fairly simplistic graphics
of both titles in this compilation just shouldn't- and yet, they do. Menus
suffer much the same slowdown as is found in battles, and while a few
improvements are made- the ability to transfer between characters through
using the R and L buttons in the case of Final Fantasy V, and some slight
efficiency enhancements in the case of Final Fantasy VI- the overall impression
is of a badly converted system which the PlayStation is apparently unequipped
to deal with.
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Ex-Death's helmet gets
great reception |
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Kids Run Through the City Corner, the town theme in Final Fantasy
VI was such a nice peaceful song, originally. Not so now; sadly, through
the miracle of screwing around with the sound emulation until it sounds
tinny and off-key, Square has managed to botch even the sound and music
emulation in Final Fantasy Anthology. The aforementioned track, by virtue
of some sort of whiny-sounding instrument, previously kept to the background
(with good reason) but now thrust into horrible, horrible, audibility,
is just one example of the music gone wrong. Several other tracks have
noticeable musical discrepancies (particularly including the prelude,
which warbles ponderously as it tries desperately to grind out its composite
notes), and even some sound effects, such as the Imp spell or Mog dancing,
are subtly changed. Oddly, Final Fantasy VI was the game to suffer the
most from this; Final Fantasy V, whether as a result of me not noticing
(given my lesser familiarity with that game's original version) or of
actual technical achievement, sounds relatively the same. Even so, there's
just no excuse for the abysmal quality of sound in Final Fantasy VI.
Since this compilation is, after all, a remake, the
majority of the material is a retread. In an effort to create the impression
that purchasing the game somehow affords the player the opportunity to
enjoy a new experience of some sort, a few half-hearted FMVs have been
tossed in, effectively bookending each of the games with one to two minute
collections of brief scenes. Unfortunately, although the quality of these
videos is rather good, they lack continuity, or any real purpose. Yes,
it's spiffy to see the game's cast in fully rendered 3D, but since they
only get this treatment for a few seconds, the effect is mostly lost.
The other bonus materials-a bestiary, colosseum battle chart, and esper
listing- are available only after beating the game, rendering them mostly
useless. Final Fantasy V, incidentally, gets none of these things, and
in the end, the extras seem just that- extraneous.
When Lunar was remade, Working Designs took the trouble
to update the script, going so far as to make Nall's jokes contemporary.
The game's plot was completely reworked, and while it retained enough
connection to the original to remain more or less the same game, it was
evident that some effort went into the work. Final Fantasy Anthology,
on the other hand, keeps Final Fantasy VI's script verbatim. This is largely
a good thing, since the localization for that game was arguably one of
the best ever by Square. The game's plot, while rather open-ended in the
second half, is sufficient to hold its own. The same can't quite be said
of Final Fantasy V. Square had an old translation lying around, and they
used it. Now there's nothing wrong with this- it's just that the plot
to Final Fantasy V seems terribly repetitious. It would have been nice
if Square had done something, anything, to mix things up a little. Even
so, the plots in both games, remaining untouched, are acceptable.
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Terra serves up Magitek, lightly braised |
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As mentioned, Ted Woolsey's translation for Final Fantasy
VI is one of the best ever done for a Square game. Unfortunately, Final
Fantasy Anthology chips away at this a little bit, with such inexplicable
irritations as decreasing the character limit from 10 to 9 for names.
Adamanchyt becomes Adamcht. GhostTrain becomes GstTrain, and throughout
the game, various niggling little changes are made, which, while not particularly
earth-shattering, are nonetheless enough to irritate. The same can be
said of Final Fantasy V, a game riddled with character-limited badness.
While never utterly incoherent, the abilities and their explanations are
definitely Spartan. Also, while Final Fantasy VI's localization was a
good one, Final Fantasy V's was somewhat less so. This is not to say it
was riddled with errors, since it wasn't (although several major cringe-worthy errors did find their way into the translation). It was just a weak translation
which would have benefited from more time and effort, much like the rest
of the game.
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Setzer gets dealt a lousy hand |
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Time and effort are two things not worth putting into
either of these games if you own the SNES version of either. The load
times are a non-factor, and the lag issues and other technical failings
are not an issue either. If you're really interested in using Sabin 100%
of the time and being rewarded with seeing that number emblazoned under
his feet in the Bonus area, by all means, do so. Just realize that's the
sole advantage to be reaped from such a course of action, unless killing
time can be counted as a benefit. The only real reason to replay either
of these games is to see the slight variations in the ending of Final
Fantasy V. Beyond that, it's more or less a waste of time.
So is there anything good about this game? The FMV sequences that sandwich
both games are reasonable, but beyond that, there is no graphical improvement
to either Final Fantasy V or Final Fantasy VI. In point of fact, the sluggishness
created by the poor processing speed that plagues the battle scenes causes
some visuals to look even lousier than they did on the SNES, and it may
have just been my TV, but flying in the airship actually caused the edges
of the screen to start wavering, as opposed to maintaining their usual
straight edges. All in all, it's not a good thing when a superior system
makes stuff look worse.
There are a total of four unique FMV scenes, with a fifth being comprised
of the slapped-together detritus of two others and dubbed over with different
music. Even though their content is acceptable, the videos are nothing
special by 1999 standards. Previously released games looked better, and
subsequent releases did as well, so any hopes of distinguishing the remake
graphically are futile in the face of this lacklustre video. This isn't
to say it's bad, because it isn't. It's just not top notch, which is strange
given Square's dedication to improving video technology.
Unlike Final Fantasy IV, re-released two years later as the Hard Type
version, Final Fantasy VI and V were left relatively the same in terms
of difficulty. This isn't too great a problem- Final Fantasy V, by virtue
of the encounter rate remaining the same, was more challenging than the
average Final Fantasy game. Final Fantasy VI, however, retained its largely
easy combat system. It just would have been nice if Square had considered
beefing up the game slightly, if for no other reason than to make it take
a little longer. As for how long it takes to complete, that's largely
a mystery left to speculation; while both games have an in-game timer,
neither includes load times in this count. As a result, the alleged 30
hours it took me to finish Final Fantasy VI was in all likelihood closer
to 45 or 50.
The remake that could have been just wasn't, in the end. Square's growing
affinity for profit as opposed to quality reared its ugly head in truly
noticeable fashion for the first time here, and what should have been
a great remake ended up being worse than mediocre. If you're in the market
for a good remake, pick up Lunar instead. Otherwise, don't touch this
offering with a ten foot pole; trust me, the pole will thank you later.
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