Traditionally, a 20th anniversary with your spouse might come with gifts of fine china or, in the modern tradition, something made of platinum. Square-Enix, on the other hand, likes to celebrate the big two-oh by offering you yet another chance to own Final Fantasy I and II on yet another platform: the PSP. Square-Enix announced fairly recently that, amongst a slew of other ports for the handheld en route, the first two Final Fantasy titles would make another appearance to mark the 20th anniversary of the series. This latest port will mark FFI's 7th revision. No, seriously.
And as a special anniversary gift to you, the loyal Final Fantasy fanbase, Square-Enix is releasing the games separately, IGN reported last week. That's right! Two games almost twenty years old that you probably own three to four times over by now, both served hot and ready for $34.99 a piece. The games -- branded as "Anniversary Editions" -- will be retooled to fit the PSP's larger, widescreen resolution and include cinematics from the PSX's Final Fantasy Origins as well as the additional dungeons and features from the GBA's Dawn of Souls. If you ask me: unless it also waxes the car that I don't own, it's not worth buying for the 7th time.
Update: Okay, I guess it
is worth buying for the 7th time. Looks as though Square-Enix has really pulled out all the stops in revising the graphics for the PSP port -- much, much more than a simple upscaling in resolution. Dig the screenshots below, pulled from the latest issue of Famitsu. If you're curious, check out
this image comparison detailing the same battle screen from all seven versions of the original
Final Fantasy.
Pretty though it may be, does it make for a worthy purchase? Hit the comments and let us know!
Contest:
12:48 AM on 01.23.2007
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Agreed. I'm playing through the FF catalog for the first time thanks to the GBA and DS releases. But what if I didn't own a GBA or DS? What if all I owned was a PSP? Until now, I couldn't play those games on a handheld. It might seem like SE is milking the franchise for all it's worth, but it makes sense to offer the games to the widest audience possible. (Plus it's the 20th anniversary. You had to know they were going to do something like this.)
Yeah putting it on PSP is not a bad thing but why do you have to pay $35 just for FF1? For cheaper then that you can get both FF1 and FF2 for the GBA. I'm not against it going to PSP, but I am against the way they are doing it; which IS trying to milk us for all we are worth. Trying to defend $35 for a 20 year old game, not even an original copy, is just fanboy/fangirl argument material.
I also have some other unnecessary crap on it.
3.03 OE-B ftw
Wait, did I read that correctly, the PSP has games?
You hear me, Square? Take the GBA versions, and put them on VC! Easy!
"And no kid wants to play FF1. It's too hard and the graphics aren't good enough. Kids want Gears of War."
Sadly, that's probably not the whole reason. I love the FF series and I loved FFI when I played it on the NES, but it's not that great of a game by todays standards at all. There are some games that are 20+ years old and can still be a lot of fun to play, but FFI isn't one of those. It really is only good for nostalgic purposes.
Now if they gave, say, FFVI this treatment, I would actually consider getting a PSP. I know it's coming out for the Advance next month, but I hate the idea that it's going to be sticking out like a sore thumb of my DS for months on months (though don't get me wrong, I won't really notice because I'll be having too much fun playing it). If SE gave FFVI the same treatment they have FFI, it really could be something great.
I agree, but not just VI but for all of the old FF games. Seriously, up until now the remakes of the old games were pretty minimal when it came to improving the graphics. It looked almost the same as the orginal and thus didn't really warrent buying it again. All of the old games have great potenial for imporved graphics. Picked it up one notch and you got what we have here with FF1, pick it up another notch and we got something more like FF3(ds), piack it up again and now were looking more at PS2 graphics. They all pretty much warrant a remake of atleast what we see here with FF1.
God knows though, another game i would damn well loved to see is a PS2 remake of FF7 (PS3 remake would be asking too much)... That one deserves a good remake almost about as much as the games that came before it. Bot to mention we know damn well that it would sell well.
2 years from now when it's being sold for 15$ in the bargin bin once the PSP is well and dead
I think the general consensus is that we would all love the FFVII tech demo to be real. That will probably sell PS3s.
I'm not justifying the price at all, nor am I a fanboy of the series. I'm simply justifying the existence of the games on the PSP.
Should SE receive scorn for re-releasing two classic games, especially during the 20th anniversary ? In my opinion, no. However, should both games comes on one UMD? Yes. And should the price be lower? Yes.
Anyways, they look so awesome now. They had better be animated awesomely, like I'm imagining.
Doesn't really matter. I already have the PS 2 pack which I'm working on the first game on. Being the me I am, I just HAD to set it to hard mode. Only 2 hours needed to level up!
Luckily, with the PSP's internet browser I can read wikipedia and snopes while pressing up and down repeatedly, followed by mashing the X button until I hear the victory music. As long as I check my health from time to time, I'm fine.
@Snaileb
If I had a PSP I wouldn't trade it, I need something to play my roms, but it is definatly not as good as a Wii.
If the PSP's games were more then ports then I would consider a purchase. I don't really care about it's other functions though; I buy a game system for games.
Also, I'm not buying this crap. My $40 would be better off buying Daxter.
(Okay, so Battlefront II is a port, but I didn't pay for it, and it sucks, so it doesn't count. >.>)
Oh BTW the path to perfecting your videogame discussion ways is long and boring. Usually sidetracked by porn.
Wait a minute... that's not all too far fetched. Mac users have been doing it for years. Har har.
At the very least, they should include Final Fantasy I, II, III, IV, V, and VI. It's their 20th anniversary, right? Why should they be the only ones celebrating, then? With our money?
What WORK did they DO?!
http://magical-savior.livejournal.com/2007/01/23/
Final Fantasy sucks.
Squenix, meaning Square + Enix, owns Dragon Warrior, don't they? If they're going to re-release some crap to celebrate twenty years of work, I want all of them. All of them on Nintendo, if nothing else. 1 thru 4 of DQ, 1 thru 3 of FF. 7+ games. it's the freakin' industry standard, now.
Why should we be satisfied with a praphically updated re-release of a re-release of a re-release? I want 7+ games on that disc.
Boycott that crap.
they have great sagas n keeping with the damn ff...
gezz square...u are really square,,,
we want front mission
we want romancing saga 3
we want want bahamut lagoon
i dunno,,,
einhander !!!!1111
damn it!