These have been on PC for a while now, but console ports have finally arrived. They’re available individually on storefronts, but there’s also a bundle option which mirrors the physical versions with all 6 games ready to go.
They all look pretty great, and they sound even better - adding in these big orchestral arrangements over the top certainly helps modernise them. PC folks were able to take matters into their own hands and modded the hideous half-width fonts out, but thankfully they made good with the console releases by giving a ‘Classic’ option that’s much more visually pleasing. From a presentation standpoint, I think the only real complaint I can levy is that taking the collection as a whole, they’ve all become pretty indistinguishable from one another and have lost a fair bit of individuality. This was already partly the case with previous remakes, but these are even more uniform than before. Not a huge deal for me personally, but also something you can't help but notice when jumping between them.
Platinum trophies are available for each game for those who care, with pretty straightforward - and again uniform - checklists of things to do; open all chests, visit all areas, complete the bestiary etc. One thing worth noting is that it really does not want the challenge of any of these games to get in the way of you enjoying them. There’s a ‘BOOST’ menu where you can add multipliers to your EXP / Gil gains, but even if you don’t go looking for help you’ll still likely spot that by default R3 is set to toggle encounters on/off, which can trivialise some of those tight spots you can find yourself in. Lose to a boss? Don’t sweat it, we auto-saved for you at the start of the current dungeon floor. All of the games have an auto-battle which speeds things up too - all of this adding up to a pretty streamlined way to experience these games.
The other big criticism I see levied at these is that they're all based on the original versions of the games rather than any subsequent remakes. This is holding some people back from labelling these as the definitive releases, as if you're looking for bonus content from Dawn of Souls, 3 DS, or 4/5/6 Advance, you're out of luck.
Personally, 1-3 were the only mainline games in the series that I’d never finished (bar 11) so I’ve just taken this opportunity to correct that. As it's my first time I can't comment on any gameplay changes, but from these, it's 2 that's surprised me the most, with a much bigger focus on story than the two games either side of it, a complete departure from standard EXP -> level up system, and a battle system that quite honestly falls apart towards the end. The usual song and dance about acquiring Ultima is made, yet you're left with no time to bring it up to any kind of usable standard, whereas one weapon I was advised to use against the final boss killed it in two hits
Not sure if I’m going to carry on with 4-6 just yet, particularly as I only just played 5 in GBA format last year, but I certainly like having these modern ports widely available as my new preferred option for them.
They all look pretty great, and they sound even better - adding in these big orchestral arrangements over the top certainly helps modernise them. PC folks were able to take matters into their own hands and modded the hideous half-width fonts out, but thankfully they made good with the console releases by giving a ‘Classic’ option that’s much more visually pleasing. From a presentation standpoint, I think the only real complaint I can levy is that taking the collection as a whole, they’ve all become pretty indistinguishable from one another and have lost a fair bit of individuality. This was already partly the case with previous remakes, but these are even more uniform than before. Not a huge deal for me personally, but also something you can't help but notice when jumping between them.
Platinum trophies are available for each game for those who care, with pretty straightforward - and again uniform - checklists of things to do; open all chests, visit all areas, complete the bestiary etc. One thing worth noting is that it really does not want the challenge of any of these games to get in the way of you enjoying them. There’s a ‘BOOST’ menu where you can add multipliers to your EXP / Gil gains, but even if you don’t go looking for help you’ll still likely spot that by default R3 is set to toggle encounters on/off, which can trivialise some of those tight spots you can find yourself in. Lose to a boss? Don’t sweat it, we auto-saved for you at the start of the current dungeon floor. All of the games have an auto-battle which speeds things up too - all of this adding up to a pretty streamlined way to experience these games.
The other big criticism I see levied at these is that they're all based on the original versions of the games rather than any subsequent remakes. This is holding some people back from labelling these as the definitive releases, as if you're looking for bonus content from Dawn of Souls, 3 DS, or 4/5/6 Advance, you're out of luck.
Personally, 1-3 were the only mainline games in the series that I’d never finished (bar 11) so I’ve just taken this opportunity to correct that. As it's my first time I can't comment on any gameplay changes, but from these, it's 2 that's surprised me the most, with a much bigger focus on story than the two games either side of it, a complete departure from standard EXP -> level up system, and a battle system that quite honestly falls apart towards the end. The usual song and dance about acquiring Ultima is made, yet you're left with no time to bring it up to any kind of usable standard, whereas one weapon I was advised to use against the final boss killed it in two hits
Not sure if I’m going to carry on with 4-6 just yet, particularly as I only just played 5 in GBA format last year, but I certainly like having these modern ports widely available as my new preferred option for them.
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