Final Fantasy I-VI Pixel Remaster Series

There are physical copies. Only on squares site as far as I can tell. Anniversary edition is $260.

Gavinmad said:

lol bullshit

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I mean, I beat FF4 in like one workday last time I played it. The SNES version is really easy outside of the final boss. I'd go take a picture of my final time, but I went and farmed Pink Puffs for about 16 more hours (and never got their drop)

Falstaff said:

This seems like an easy buy as soon as I finish Chained Echoes... Rajaah you played them all right? I forget your criticism/downsides to this but I'm certainly no purist and this will be a purely nostalgia buy for me, so maybe I won't care about the changes.

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Yeah, these are pretty close to the originals. They don't have the optional dungeons and super bosses that got added in later (DS and PSP) versions, which is sometimes a bad thing and sometimes doesn't matter. They look like the originals, just sharpened up and wide-screen.

Worth getting all of them but if you gotta choose X amount, the order I'd buy them is probably 6/4/5/1/3/2.

Chris said:

Just going to quote myself since play time is coming up, didn't do much grinding or extra stuff, was usually underlevelled on final bosses:



None of them were 7 hours.

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Yeah, I exagerrated. FF1 PR and FF4 SNES took me like 12 and 8 hours respectively on a replay a few years ago, both were waaay shorter than I remembered. I didn't play any of the others at the time.

If sub-10 on FF4 is so unbelievable, maybe I'll set a day aside and do it again.

Chris said:

You know that the SNES "Final Fantasy II" in the US is a port of "Final Fantasy IV Easytype" in Japan?

It's purposefully dumbed down and made very easy for young Japanese children and Americans. They didn't think that Americans would get JRPGs. The first Final Fantasy game released in the UK was Final Fantasy 7.

My playtime is longer because I had to hit a minimum level for Zeromus and every single battle was longer.

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Oh yeah, good point. The FF4 that I posted such a low time on was the SNES version. This one is gonna be the SFC version and significantly tougher.

Gavinmad said:

You didn't just say sub-10 though, you said 7 hours. It's not unbelievable, I even speculated that I could clock a sub 5 if i took the time to study and practice the route. 7 hours is still such a fast pace that it goes well beyond having played through the game multiple times and into the beginnings of full speedrun optimization like skipping through dungeons and/or knowing the exact minimum level to be able to win boss fights. I've played through FF4 probably 20ish times on multiple platforms and the only time I ever came close to a 10 hour clear was a 3D newgame++ run where my dudes were all fully and optimally augmented, because even when I'm playing for the umpteenth time I don't rush through it.

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7 hours, 10 hours... I don't remember exactly what my time was. Just that I reached the final boss with a single-digit time and I wasn't even particularly trying to go fast. Hell it might have been 9 hours. But I think it was 7 or 8. Just knowing what elements to use on which bosses, and running from fights (except fights you can one-shot with, again, a weakness element) makes the game fly by. I remember Kainazzo and Dr. Lugae being really tough back in the day, and this time I rolled both of them in like a minute. Wasted no time at all.

Then I grinded to level 99 in the Pink Puff room which got the timer up to...13 or 14 I think? Which was also shocking because I thought getting to level 99 took an age and a half and never tried it in that game before. Then I kept grinding to try and get the Pink Tail, and stopped at...21 or so hours I think. Went like a full 7-8 hours beyond when I got level 99. That was about as much fruitless non-EXP grinding as I could stomach. Damn Pink Tail is impossible. I hope there's a cheevo for it in the PR so I finally have to do it.

For anyone wondering about trophies:


PS4 version is most likely going to be the same or very similar trophy sets to these lists.

Interesting and logical sets here, though I'm a bit concerned about the "Get 100% of the treasure chests" ones. Especially in FF1 which has a TON of chests (many of them empty) in every area.

Leveling one magic spell to 16 in FF2 is also gonna be a bit of a pain. Then again, IIRC Cure is always at like level 9-12 by the end of the game anyway from normal use, so getting a few more levels on that one towards the end isn't terrible.

I've never even seen Joker Doom activate in FFVI in like 7 runs through the game so that's a little concerning, lawl. I also tended to avoid Setzer in later runs though.

Normally I'm not into the cheats they add to these remakes like "4x EXP and AP" type stuff. Looking at these lists though... all of them have a major grind at the endgame and I think I'd gladly put the 4x on for those at this point. Chances are none of the grinds will be that bad aside from the Pink Tail and FF5's "master all classes".

And yes, the Pink Tail is indeed an achievement in FF4, so I'll finally have to do it. No way to speed that one up either. Kinda glad I didn't stick it out farming one with the SNES version now cause it's definitely something I only want to do once ever. It's sorta a 30 year journey for me at this point.

Chris said:

I dunno, you just end up evading everything in FF2 if you give everyone a sheild and keep them unarmed, you take little damage.

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Yeah, unarmed + shield is the way to go. Just be sure you properly switch it around for the left-handed characters. I steamrolled FF2 on the PS1 (Origins) version a while back by doing this.

Gavinmad said:

Pussy. except my multiple adamant armor save is gone. fuuuuuuu

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I'm gonna assume the DS version has much higher drop rates for Pink Tails if you were able to get 5 of them on one file.

Considering I farmed for circa 15 hours (give or take a couple hours) and ended up with zero in the SNES version.

SNES Pink Tail drop rate is about 1/4320 per battle in that room. 1/64 chance of encountering Pink Puffs, 1/64 chance of them dropping a tail. Which makes it the rarest item in the game, maybe the series.

Man, in 11 days my poor CRPG Crusade is gonna have to go on pause for a couple months. Hopefully I can get Baldur 2 and FO1 done by then cause I'd hate to leave them hanging midway through.

A few bits of advice for this series:

FF1:

-If you're gonna do any grinding in this game, do it early on in the sea before Elfland. Tons of big upgrades for all classes in Elfland, and you can farm really fast by bringing a Lit 2 caster or two into the sea and nuking everything.

-Thieves are actually really good in the PR so don't hesitate to bring one along if you want a Ninja. The Haste/Temper spells are worth their weight in gold against the final boss, and only Ninjas / Red Mages / Black Mages get them. Also said final boss has 10x HP now and is easily the roughest thing in the game.

-Fighter/Black Belt/Thief/either Red or Black Mage is a good party for plowing this version. Most of your healing later on comes from items (Heal Staff, Heal Helmet) so you don't really need a White Mage. Dunno whether Red or Black is better, your mileage may vary. I'd go Black Mage for the AOEs to get through the game easier. The lategame in PR is all about Haste/Tempering your main fighters and walloping everything, which a Fighter/Black Belt/Ninja can do very effectively via mage support.

FF2:

-As mentioned already, go Unarmed+Shield on everyone. Put Maria in the front row. You don't really need a caster in this game, and spells take forever and a half to level up compared to melee/evasion that you get from chunking things unarmed.

-Just give everyone Cure, Esuna, and Life and call it a day. Definitely do some attacking-self / healing the damage in battles early on to beef up HP and MP. Doesn't take long to raise stats in this game and once they're decent you're good for most of it.

-Don't worry about building up the side characters until you get the 4th character that you name. All the NPC fourth characters leave before long, and they all start underpowered. Just not worth stopping to build everyone up.

-Astaroth is the hardest boss in the game, but he's optional (might even be an optional superboss and we just don't know it). The final boss is also pretty strong, except the Blood Sword destroys him. So if looking for an easy win towards the end, avoid Astaroth and have the 4th character (who will have the best sword skill) chunk the final boss with the Blood Sword.

FF3:

-Not much for this one except that, as I understand it, the two huge back-to-back final dungeons are now much easier because you don't have to start at the beginning if you wipe.

FF4:

-Not much for this one either except that the underworld / eidolon lair has an enemy called Conjurer that can summon other enemies. Get one that summons easier enemies and just sit there mauling everything they summon until you're tired of it, then collect a bunch of levels. IIRC I went with the Conjurer variant that summons Arachnes. They spam Quake, which misses if everyone's floating.

FF5:

-Not much for this one. I've definitely played it the least, along with FF3. I will say that almost every boss in the game has a way to completely gimp the fight using one ability or another. Often Blue Mage abilities, so don't neglect the Blue Mage class.

FF6:

-The best one, so save it for last.

-Gau is MUCH better than he initially seems. There are all kinds of ways to break the game with Gau. Even just playing normally, his abilities tend to be way OP for the point you can get them. Early access to particular mega-spells, etc. I like the Templar rage early on cause it has Fire 2 and a strong physical attack. That usually gets me through the big Narshe war. Not sure when you can get Stray Cat rage, but it's even better, with the devastating Catscratch. I think it's fairly early in the game too.

-Vargas is probably the toughest early boss. Don't hesitate to do some level grinding when you reach Mt. Kolts (I think that's the name) outside South Figaro. Cause he's at the top of the mountain and he can roll a party that hasn't leveled up much.

-The Narshe war (about 3-4 hours in on a first playthrough, I think) is another trouble spot for a new player. You can actually get stuck there permanently if your characters aren't leveled or well-equipped, since you can save at the snowfield and then it doesn't let you leave. The fight with Kefka at the end of the snowfield is nasty on a first playthrough. Using Celes' Runic to block his casts helps a lot, for one thing.

-Pay attention to Esper stat bonuses because they're added at every level-up. A character that keeps a Magic +2 or Str +2 type Esper equipped level after level will pull way ahead of other characters on that kind of DPS.

-If you go really above and beyond with the game and try to get your favorite character to 9999 HP, be sure to equip them with Bahamut at some point. Most characters will end at around 8800-9300 HP at level 99 without HP bonuses. Having Bahamut equipped for the last 10-15 levels will ensure they hit 9999, probably even a few levels early.