In case you missed the announcement overnight, the Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster games are launching on PS4 later this month. We've been waiting on confirmation of that 19th April release date for a while, but that's not the only headline-worthy news with regards to the collection.
Indeed, Square Enix has also revealed that all six remasters will include brand new gameplay modifiers. A simple 'Boost' menu lets you turn random encounters on or off at any time, and you can increase the amount of experience points, money, and ability points that you earn from battle. You can multiply these values by up to four times, which pretty much eliminates any need to grind for levels or resources. Or at least, it makes the process much easier.
Oh, and if you're looking for a challenge, you can use these settings to reduce or outright disable things like exp and gil. It's a fully customisable experience, then.
Speaking of customisation, Square Enix has added the ability to switch between the remastered, reorchestrated music for each game, and the original tracks. You can even toggle between the new (rather divisive) font and the classic style. They've thought of everything!
We don't yet know if these modifiers will impact Trophies, but we're assuming that they won't. After all, the boosts in previous Final Fantasy re-releases don't effect the digital trinkets, so we don't see why it would be any different with these remasters.
Are you happy to see Square Enix put additional effort into the Pixel Remasters for their PlayStation release? Boost your own exp gains in the comments section below.
[source News: Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster Brings 1 Through 6 to PS4 on 19th April]
Comments 33
Great additions! Loved doing this on other Final Fantasy remasters. When you are on your Xth playthrough you probably don't want to grind like you did in the 90s and it can halve a 30+ hour playthrough. Definitely makes me more likely to pick these up sooner.
The one i'd love to see but isn't here is halving or quartering the encounter rate, instead of just turning it off.
I was waiting to see if the text had more options and this is exactly what I wanted.
Considering how quickly the physical editions ran out I'm really hoping they restock them... Or just y'know, not do a limited run of the normal edition?
Yep, this is all nice, but main thing for me woud be a restock of the physical print
Yeah, a boost to XP will eliminate pre-boss grinding (essentially like turning up the battle speed in the Bravely Default games), but turning off random encounters will be SUCH a godsend, especially when you're limping back to town from a massive boss battle, only to have your entire party wiped out by a Lv1 goblin or something...
Wow I was planning on skipping this collection, but those gameplay tweaks just sold me on it! I never finished any FF pre VII, and the grind and random battles have put me off wanting to play the old games again up until this point. FFVI here we come!
NO MORE GRINDING!! But now I wonder how it will work for ff2
@Rob_230 You can take the risk and buy the physical from playasia though they're notable for being late
These are great quality of life improvements!
I'm all for the modifiers.
When I was a kid, I wouldn't mind spending hours killing the same monsters over and over again to get levels and AP. But today? I'd rather turn on the maxmimum modifier, do one fight, get the boost I want/need, and move on.
This is going to make cutting through FF2 much more palatable, guaranteed.
Guh. I want these, but I just don't need these.
Oh man after I beat the remasters in my Steam Deck and got all the achievements, they want to make me to buy them again to go for the trophies.
In any case I am baffled on why this game does not have a proper physical release. It is Final Fantasy, come on...
Great improvements. Did they confirm speed boosts during battle? I saw the trailer had a fast forward icon, so a nice 3x speed while grinding is a good compromise to those who don't wanna use exp boosts, but also want to save time.
@Jayslow I believe that icon means auto-battle is enabled, which also happens to speed up combat. I don't think there's a dedicated speed boost.
@ShogunRok that definitely works as well!
A physical release in a normal store.
@ShogunRok I just dont understand gaming options to not play the game i guess I'm old. I was laughing when they did it on mobile now it's waiting untill it's monetized.
@themightyant If you don't want to play it anymore why would you do it again why not play something else?
@belmont On the waiting list on the Square Enix site it's so sad.
@Browny Agreed. Very much gone are the days where I could sit down for six hours grinding the same three mobs of enemies fuelled by nothing but Red Bull and wake up happy the next day.
I have to admit that my patience for such things has long since left me.
@Flaming_Kaiser Final Fantasy games, or most RPGs in fact, are filled with random encounters that eat up the clock. Padding out what is a 10 hour story into a 30 - 50+ hour game.
First time I played these on NES and SNES I had all the time in the world to get to Lv99, max out the clock and more. Now my time is more precious and this all seems like needless busywork. The 20 - 100+ hour playtime actively stops me replaying RPGs.
These sorts of boosts allow me to experience the story, music, gameplay and more but without the drag of hundreds of battles. 95% of which are just going through the motions, they aren't hard, and I have done a thousand times over.
As I said the perfect boost for me would be to keep random encounters ON but lower the frequency by half or a quarter while boosting XP, rewards and drop rate inversely by 2 or 4 times. This would balance out to keep you at around the right Level while also speeding it all up, but crucially without turning off encounters entirely. Which I don't think it the best solution.
@DrGonzo Good games are always good games and for many this will be the first time they've had the chance to play these titles.
What's the problem?
Does anyone know if there will be a separate platinum trophy for each game? I'm worried there will just be an overall platinum for all 6, but if there are 6 separate platinums I'll be all over this.
@Robbirtles given the games can be purchased individually then should be separate platinums.
@Robbirtles It's very likely six separate Platinums, if the Steam achievements are anything to go by.
@Robbirtles Some games don't even have platinum's. But if they do as they release separately it should be one each.
thank god they patched in the correct font. hard to believe they went with the same san serif font from the mobile releases as it completely destroyed the aesthetic of these 8/16 bit games. a little more interested in this package now, but only if the physical gets released at your standard best buy or gamestop locations. absolutely will not pay $100 on the s-e store and take part in their FOMO strategy. if they make this release exclusive, they can keep it.
Question is this like a collection of the older titles or just the first FF game? I haven't played anything under 7..... well I played 3 on the DS but I think that was 6 here or something?
@themightyant I rather would like to see encounters visible on the map. But to be honest if a game annoys me because it wasted my time time I'll probably wont even touch it again. But we all have our own ideas to remedy some issues don't say you are wrong let's be clear. I rather would see some other ideas branching paths extra unlocks, secret characters or endings.
Flaming_Kaiser wrote:
Sure but those are all a lot of work that fundamentally changes the game. Toggles like this are usually hooking into 1 or 2 values. They are super simple to implement.
I wish they would give you the option to have all of those "boosts" shut off
and when you do it, it's permanent.
no take-backsies
I'm torn, I know you can just ignore them if you want, but having options like that sat in the menu does play on your mind when you are trying to play the original experience.
Always love it when they add new features to older classics!
Ooooh hadn't heard of this until now. I don't need to tinker with stuff, I like the games the way they were, but this game is definitely on my wishlist.
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