Final Fantasy I-VI Pixel Remaster Series
- Thread starter Lanx
- Start date
Loser Araysar
Chief Russia Correspondent / Stock Pals CEO
- 75,369
- 149,471
Somehow I knewChris would actually like FF2, the most widely disliked FF of all.
Whats the problem with FF2? This is the one with Cecil and going to the moon, right?
I played it and beat it a few times a long time ago but never really talked to anyone about it or looked anything up so it seemed alright to me.
Hateyou
Not Great, Not Terrible
- 16,301
- 42,371
No, that was 4, they called it 2 in the US because they didn’t release 2 and 3 in the US. 2 didn’t come to the US until a long time after release. It was 8 bit, didn’t have levels. You “level up” by using skills, getting beat on, etc. leveling up in magic at a reasonable rate meant you had to grind like crazy, many people resorted to beating on and nuking themselves to skill things up. It probably would have been ok if some skills leveled up faster than they did. Due to the shittiness of the leveling system it’s widely regarded as the worst 2D FF game.
Loser Araysar
Chief Russia Correspondent / Stock Pals CEO
- 75,369
- 149,471
Chris
Potato del Grande
- 18,230
- -320
It's miles better than FF1, at least the remaster is. It has a shot at beating FF3 too as I remember that the original job system was quite limited. FF4 will be interesting to compare as it has little choice in character building.
FF5 onwards are all better than it though.
- 1
Rajaah
Honorable Member
- 11,295
- 14,964
I imagine it isn't bad at all if you do your grinding in undead-heavy areas using the Harm spells (Dia in the remake, IIRC). Probably use Potions to heal like with every other party configuration (I usually don't even bring a WM) and save their MP for those undead fights. Once I get a couple of items that cast Fire2 and Lit2 then that'll simplify things.
Once they all learn Holy towards the end, then grinding should be super easy. I'm guessing the final battles will consist of one of them using Giant's Gloves and Masamune as per usual though.
I'm gonna try that some time in the near future I think.
That's a funny thing FF2 does, the guest characters never scale so they're always way underpowered (outside of maybe Minwu since he's so early and so well-geared).
The final fourth character you get, who you have for like the last 40% of the game IIRC, starts at like 1500 HP when my other characters are around 4000 at that point, so that's a bit of a drag.
Chris
Potato del Grande
- 18,230
- -320
Well... FF2 has a great story for the time and the dungeons really impressed me in their complexity - these are pretty much the best dungeons in the whole series.
The combat system is a breath of fresh air and it's fun experimenting with it.
One thing totally ruined it though, the encounter rate is too damn high. The massive dungeons are a chore with a battle every 10 steps and you level up way above what enemies can cope with.
Reduce the encounter rate and increase the rate at which spells level up and this would be a strong contender in any Final Fantasy ranking list. As is, it is broken and you just auto attack with your 99% evasion beasts with thousands of HP that has a bugged display that only shows 3 digits lol.
Kaines
Potato Supreme
- 16,879
- 46,026
The correct order of best to worst in this pack is 4, 6, 1, 5, 3, 2.
- 2
Arbitrary
Tranny Chaser
- 27,134
- 71,929
On Final Fantasy 2
Socksmakepeoplesexy.Net - Well, It Ain't Toothpaste!
socksmakepeoplesexy.net
The site has text reviews for almost the entire franchise. They're in depth and really good.
- 1
Chris
Potato del Grande
- 18,230
- -320
That list is fucking heresy.
6 is objectively the best.
Then you can argue 4 and 5 for second depending if you prefer story or gameplay.
I'm just starting the 2D version of 3, but I did play the 3D remake - I expect it to be objectively 4th place.
Then it's probably 1 then 2 just because 2 is broken, otherwise 2 would be better than 3 even.
The real FF ranking argument is how you rank the 6-10 because of how different they all are.
- 1
- 1
Rajaah
Honorable Member
- 11,295
- 14,964
I think the correct order is
Originals: 6, 4, 5, 1, 3, 2
Pixel Remasters: 6, 3, 1, 4, 5, 2
That's right, I think 3 gets a significant bump from the remaster. 5 is probably a better game, but it's a bit too long for me to do casual plays of it like I do with 1/4/6. 3 is so drastically improved over the NES version though that it's hard not to give it a high ranking in PR form. FF1 also gets a boost in PR form. They're all pretty much even visually now so gameplay is more of a factor, and I just like 3's gameplay. Except that one part where you have to shrink and play casters.
I also think 4 might be overrated just because we all have nostalgia for it. If I were to play it for the first time now, it's probably the shallowest of the first 6 in gameplay. No real customization. Great story though.
Chris
Potato del Grande
- 18,230
- -320
I love customisation but it does lead to broken games sometimes.
FF3 is a joy to play after FF1 and FF2 because it's actually balanced, so far so I've not had any wild difficulty swings yet.
Merrith
Golden Baronet of the Realm
- 18,117
- 6,923
By the end of the games, sure. But that's pretty much a staple of most of the FF games that your party can eventually get so ridiculously overpowered that even the final bosses are a joke. LIkely why they started putting in super bosses in later entries. Games like 7 and 10 where you can use materia and sphere grid to power up anyone to insane levels in any role you want trivializes most of the game if you have the time to power up that much. Even 6 to a degree with relics and different setups for Gau/Imp gear lets you turn virtually everyone into killing machines (even if the roles are a little more defined for characters in 6). Obviously you can break 8 pretty badly, too.
Chris
Potato del Grande
- 18,230
- -320
Yeah I think the ones with a bad reputation are the ones you can break early beyond normal grinding and it's pretty obvious how to do it so you feel stupid for not doing it, which is FF2 and FF8.
Chris
Potato del Grande
- 18,230
- -320
No. They remade them all again.
They are almost demakes, extra content is gone and it's as close to the originals in graphics as possible.
I think the GBA ones had fairly high res sprites, the mobile versions definetly did and lost some of the charm of the originals so everyone complained. The pixel remasters all have 16-bit SNES style sprites.
They also seem to have redone the music, but it's all orchestral and not using the 16-bit SNES sound.
Rajaah
Honorable Member
- 11,295
- 14,964
Nope. The GBA one got remastered on PSP, so if you want to play a nice-looking version of that, grab FF2 on PSP. That was my favorite version of FF2. I still think the postgame content was better than the main game, and only the GBA/PSP versions have it.
Pixel Remaster just goes back to the originals with better graphics.
I also liked the bonus stuff in the GBA/PSP FF1, like Whisperwind Cove and the other side-dungeons with bosses from other games.
Nothing that I know of, not even a rumor. Really lame. You'd think they'd be an obvious shoe-in for a Switch compilation at the very least. Enough time has gone by to milk the individual sales on phones so I'd figure they'd have announced something by now. I'm interested in playing the rest of these (only played all the way through FF1 PR and watched the rest on Twitch/YT) so if much more time goes by without a Switch port, I might end up getting more of them on phone even though I don't want to.
Has anyone played Final Fantasy Dimensions? Really cool phone game. Almost like an FF5 sequel. Similar visuals, same class system, similar world/story. I played through the first chapter of it and have been meaning to get back to it for a while. That one never got any kind of console release either. It did get a sequel, but the sequel looks totally different and not that much like an FF game (at least the retro FF that FFD1 goes for). In any case, anyone who likes these Pixel Remasters and wants something else to play, check out FF Dimensions and lemme know how it goes.