Final Fantasy 4 Pixel Remaster Completed! - Mr. P Reviews Stuff - Ep. 06

Though it took me a little longer than originally desired due to life getting in the way of gaming (the nerve of it), I have finally finished the Final Fantasy IV Pixel Remaster. It would have been done sooner had I not screwed up at the end and had to replay the last third of the game at least three times due to messing up completion criteria. That's more of a me problem though than anything else.

There really isn't much that was changed in this version though I'm not sure which difficulty this follows whether it was the original Super Famicom release, the difficulty of the 3DS version, or some mixture of the various ports, and there have been a lot of ports over the years.

The game still retains its charm after all these years and it's been making me want to finally get caught up on the FFXIV main scenario since I don't think I've really played since patch 6.1. I've got time though.

Anyway, FFIV is what introduced us to the Active Time Battle (ATB) system which was the first in many alterations to the battle system that would lead to things like the battle systems of FFXIII, FFXV, and now the upcoming FFXVI with its emphasis on straight-up action.

This game also solidified the trope of "killing" characters only for it to be revealed that they weren't really killed off as we suspected. While I understand it can be frustrating to newcomers to the series and especially those who aren't familiar with the anime-esque tropes the series has been indulging in quite some time, the fact remains that Final Fantasy IV has been going down this road for decades.

Getting overpowered in this game doesn't take that much effort compared to previous entries and there have been some patches to up the drop rates for things like secret summons and pink tails, making farming these much easier.

Overall, it's a good opportunity to see Cecil and the gang again, or for some of you, the very first time.

Final Fantasy 2 Pixel Remaster Completed! - Mr. P Reviews Stuff - Ep. 04

 

As promised I finished playing through the Final Fantasy II Pixel Remaster on PS5 and it was everything I forgot it was!

Don't think too hard about that one.

Anyway, there was a lot that changed between the first and second game, the battle system being the most obvious. A lot of people didn't care for it and the series never used it again except in the Final Fantasy Legend series on gameboy which was really the first entries in the SaGa series. Still, it's even more easy to abuse this time around especially with boosts. The encounter rate is still horrid and the dungeon design is mostly trash what with all the pointless empty rooms, but Jareth the Goblin King the Emperor makes for a decent enough villain and the soundtrack has some bangers. A lot of what is in this game can easily be seen to be reused in Final Fantasy IV to some extent, but that's really what the first three games did, they set the stage for the greatness of the next three.

Final Fantasy 1 Pixel Remaster Completed! - Mr. P Reviews Stuff - Ep. 03

As many of you may have figured out, I'm a bit of a nerd. Well, it just so happens that the remastered editions of some of my favorite RPGs of yesteryear have just been released on console. I of course mean nothing other than the Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster series which covers the original six games on Nintendo (NES) and Super Nintendo (SNES). These came out on PC back in February of 2022, but just launched on console in April of this year (2023). Not wasting any time, I went ahead and purchased the bundle of all six and tore through the original game over a couple of days and watned to present my review here.

As expected, there have been numerous quality-of-life changes, including the ability to adjust up or down the exp and gil gained from enemies, as well as the ability to straight up turn off random encounters. Pixel art looks great on 4k and the remastered soundtrack is phenomenal, though one can always turn it back to the old chiptune music if desired.

If you haven't ever played them and always wanted to, this is the bundle for you. I don't think there are any physical copies available anywhere anymore unless you don't mind getting gouged on E-Bay.