Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster is an essential collection for RPG lovers

convincing visual

Available now for PS4, PC and Switch, Pixel Remaster is a collection of classics from the golden age of Final Fantasy. The pack features extensive content, including the first six numbered games in the franchise, covering major releases for the NES and SNES in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s.

Several of these games have already won re-releases for other platforms, mainly on Sony and Nintendo portable video games, but this is the first time that they all come together and with so much focus on reaching a whole new wave of players.

The first good news is that the visuals are beyond acceptable, really being a high point. Although the character sprites are not as detailed as in the versions made for the PSP, for example, they are much closer to the original games than those bizarre versions that were released for cell phones, where the magic of pixel art was thrown to the sidelines. The pixels here are visible, scenarios and characters are detailed and were redone thinking about the capacity of current TVs. Even on 4K panels the games look beautiful and there is even a filter that simulates the effects of old CRT TVs for the most nostalgic.

The font of the texts – heavily criticized when the PC version of this collection was released last year – now has a “pixelated” option, which does not clash with the look and is closer to the classic versions as well. It is a pity that the spacing between the letters, the so-called Kerning, was not well done and the readability is sometimes impaired by this. As the whole story here is told by text – now even with complete localization for our Portuguese – it is essential that even small details like this are taken into account.

Overall, everything has an air of improvement without losing the essence, which is usually the goal of a good remaster or remake. Special effects of spells, soundtrack, navigation through maps and, of course, the performance. On PS5, where we played the PS4 version, performance is excellent and fluid, which doesn’t seem to be the case with the Switch version at the moment, which should receive updates soon.

Quality of life is priority

The so-called quality of life improvements are changes made to remasters and remakes that bring options for players to spend less trouble with mechanics that can be considered dated or to correct problems in the original design. Here they are present in droves and are very welcome.

The first of these is the ability to completely turn off random encounters. Current generations have little experience with turn-based combat and tend to find them tedious, especially in the amount of dungeon battles in games of this era. You can turn them off for a while and enable them again whenever you want, just pressing a button, which will end up ingratiating itself with even veterans, as it happened to me.

Another novelty that helps to go faster through less fun parts is the possibility of accelerating the character’s movement. It only works in dungeons, but it’s handy, especially in NES-era games where area design was less inspired and more repetitive. Using these two options alone, you can finish the first Final Fantasy in just over 10 hours, a huge draw for kids who are eagerly waiting for Final Fantasy XVI and would like to know the origins of the franchise.

Other enhancements aimed at new players include the option of an orchestrated soundtrack instead of the classic 8-bit or 16-bit ones, autosave – this is perhaps the best modern option -, diagonal movement for the first few games, auto-targeted attacks in case the enemy dies , mini map and world map, separate trophies for each game on PlayStation, and more.

salty price

With all these improvements and the amount of content, these versions become powerful to reach a whole new audience and show how special Final Fantasy is. However, there is a big impediment at the moment, especially in our country: the price. On PSN and on the eShop, the collection in its console version costs a staggering R$374.50, an impractical amount for most Brazilian gamers.

As cool as the games are and the attention given to Brazil with the localization into our language, there was a lack of greater attention with the regionalization of values ​​and, at the moment, the most sensible thing ends up being to wait for a good promotion.

Conclusion

Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster is a powerful collection, which features above-average versions of the classics of this saga so beloved by players. The visuals are a high point, the quality of life improvements add up and the small changes in the gameplay add up without losing the essence of the originals. Indispensable for RPG fans of all ages and generations.

pros

• Convincing pixel art close to the original
• Orchestrated soundtrack is amazing
• Many quality of life improvements that are attractive to new players
• Complete localization in Brazilian Portuguese

cons

• Very high price in Brazil
• Missing some extra content from other versions
• Text font has improved, but still has problems

Grade: 8.5/10.0

A copy of the PS4 collection was provided by Square Enix for the purposes of this review.