Remakes are the big thing now and until there is a slew of disasters from big studios, they will probably remain a good idea for companies.Dead SpaceandResident Evil 4were huge hits for the horror genre. Crash and Spyro got decent remakes for platformer fans everywhere although one could categorize those as just remasters.
Either way, studios are cashing in on nostalgia hard and that goes double, perhaps even triple, with Square Enix. While they have made remakes ofFinal Fantasygamesin particular, there have only really been six. Remasters are more their bread and butter, but let’s disregard those like and focus on the actual six remakes they have helped make so far.
Final Fantasy Originswas a collection that included the first two games in the series remade with more 16-bit graphics compared to their NES 8-bit counterparts. Technically, the first time these games were remade was for the WonderSwan Color which was a Japan-only portable console. This collection is based on those versions with further enhancements. The reason why this collection is a big deal for the West, in particular, is that it was the first time North America got to experienceFinal Fantasy 215 years after it debuted in Japan in 1988. Originally,Final Fantasy 4was released asFinal Fantasy 2in North America and it threw the whole series out of order untilFinal Fantasy 7showed up.
History and names aside, these two games are classics but couldn’t be more different.Final Fantasyallowed players to create a party of four from a few Jobs including Monks and Black Mages with a traditional turn-based combat and leveling-up system.Final Fantasy 2gave players named characters and leveling up depended on what actions were taken in battle which led to a wholly new series within Squaresoft early on:theSaGaseries. While this PS1 collection isn’t the best way to enjoy these games,Final Fantasy 1 & 2: Dawn of Soulson the GBA is better,Final Fantasy Originsis still important in the history of the franchise, again, especially in the West.
Final Fantasy 4was ported a few times before this but this was the first time these beloved characters were rendered in polygonal forms. The game was remade for the DS and it featured voice acting on top of new graphics along with some new content and gameplay tweaks. While not as bombastic as some of the console games, the in-game cinematics were well-directed. It was also an easier time than other iterations of the game which was a good jumping on point for new players.
The DS was like Square Enix’s excuse to go back into the well to remake and port classic games from their library on a lower budget. RemakingFinal Fantasy 4wouldn’t have made much sense on the PS3 but it made perfect sense for the DS. That said, fans of this entry in the series would surely love a bigger and bolder remake one day. It’s an important entry that pushed storytelling forward with a well-rounded and rotating cast ofparty members from Cecilto Tellah, so it does deserve respect.
WhileFinal Fantasy 4is a better game on the whole, Final Fantasy 3is a better remake on the DS. LikeFinal Fantasy OriginsregardingFinal Fantasy 2, this was the first timeFinal Fantasy 3was made available since it launched in 1990 in Japan. This was the only other version it got, so it remained lost to time until it came back from the dead to hit up the DS. This is the entry that introduced the interchangeableJob system to theFinal Fantasyseries.
Players could learn spells asa Black Mageand then take some of those concepts into their Job as a Thief. It’s a basic Job system compared to other, more refined entries that came after but it’s still a fun system to experiment with. For Final Fantasy fans, it was a delight to play this one for the first time. It, more so thanFinal Fantasy 4, needed and deserved a full-on remake because the NES version is a bit too clunky to sit down and play.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirthis part two in what will likely be a three-part series of remakes. It continues the journey fromFinal Fantasy 7 Remakewherein Cloud and the others finally leave Midgar and it ends in the City of the Ancients. Without spoiling anything, that should tell longtime fans of the original what transpires in the game concerning the story. The gameplay remains action-heavy albeit more refined with party combos and the addition of Red 13 and Cait Sith asplayable characters inFinal Fantasy 7 Rebirth.
It’s also a fully open-world game whereas the first part was restricted to Midgar even with the Yuffie DLC. Square Enix beautifully added so much attention to detail to make this an even bolder step forward in the remake process with tons of mini-games and laugh-out-loud moments. It’s easily one of the best RPGs of 2024 let alone games in general but it’s not quite as good as its predecessor.
Final Fantasy 7 Remakeshould be the lesser of the two remake games. It’s confined to one area, features less playable characters, and it’s shorter. However, this game uses those restrictions greatly to enhance what was otherwise just a four, maybe seven-hour section of the original game. There is some filler content for sure with fetch quests but it also shines a brighter light on side characters like theAVALANCHE comrades of Jessie, Biggs, and Wedge inFinal Fantasy 7 Remake. It was a game that Square Enix had to present to fans and make them believe they knew what they were doing.
To the surprise of fans, it went beyond expectations as it had a secret lying inside. It wasn’t a remake in the traditional sense. It was the beginning of a sequel within a time loop which felt fitting for the wild stuff that happened in the original game. Now the big question is, can they finish the landing with the third entry? Hard to say but there will never be a better feeling than what fans experienced the first time they booted up this game. It was a promise finally fulfilled over a decade later after Square Enix teased their PS3 tech demo ofFinal Fantasy 7running on the hardware.
