Lord. Is it review night for remasters and remakes? Feels like it. And, hey, I’m okay with it, especially if a game turns out as well as it did with Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster from publisher Square Enix. Certainly, one of my most pleasant surprises in 2024.
What’s interesting about my time with Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster is that I didn’t know how much I missed traditional turn-based role-playing games until I fired this collection up. There’s just something about good puzzle-solving, an even amount of grinding, and a nice payoff in the story. Games like these prove that traditional gameplay and small budgets can create a profound and fun experience with all the glim and glamor that typically comes with AAA games these days. The games featured in this collection are so pure and hit all the right notes that it doesn’t take much to get engaged with them.
While not all the Final Fantasy games in Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster are gold, you will certainly get a lot of time and fun from them, have the pleasure of listening to a remade orchestrated soundtrack, enjoy easy-to-use retooled UIs, additional extra goodies, and pixel fun that is mostly left untouched.
So, sit back, get in that 80s/early 90s mood, and let’s talk about pixel goodness.
The Collection
What?! No 64DD game is included in this collection?!!! C’mon, Square. Give us the demo! Jokes aside, and a drink poured for Nintendo’s disastrous zip drive add-on for the N64 that never made it to these shores, the games you do get with Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster are mostly impressive.
The Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster features Final Fantasy I-VI. If you have never played any of the early Final Fantasy games, then you’re in for a treat. They’re magnificent, groundbreaking, and were ahead of their time. Yes, they were arguably better than the Legend of Zelda back in the day, a hill I will die on if need be. The first three games especially showed signs of early innovations with a complicated and diverse cast of characters and an easy-to-use battle system that was menu and selection-driven and featured some cool vehicle movement that opened the world.
I didn’t know how I was going to take going back into these classics, as sometimes games age out due to modern gaming experiences. I mean, I am now used to traveling huge lands, talking to NPCs, and scouring mountaintops for monsters and treasures. The flat 2D world has long since been left behind, so what could it possibly have for me? Well, this collection proved that while the 2D world is simple in design, maybe plain in its presentation, it still has a lot to offer with its puzzles, story, and short stints of gameplay. For example, I spent about 15-20 hours on the first game alone before moving along to the next. I was hooked when I started it and it brought back such wonderful feelings for the RPG genre that I haven’t felt since the first time I popped in Phantasy Star in the Sega Master System in 1988. Just like that moment with PS, the moments with Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster were just beautiful and pure.
Turn-based combat and puzzle solving, while slowly and surely building up your characters during the grind makes for an easily engaging time. The fact that it was with games that most of you reading this weren’t born with is a huge tip of the hat with how they survived the test of time. This collection is a gem! Of course, not all gems are perfect, as I didn’t quite connect with Final Fantasy VI very much, and I think you could tell from its gameplay that it needed Final Fantasy VII badly and all the newness that came with a CD-based experience.
Regardless, the classic gameplay hit the spot. If you’re looking to experience that, then you’re in the right place with Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster.
New Sounds, re-tooled graphics, and UI
Now, while getting all that old classic goodness back into modern times is one thing, sprucing it up without diminishing or changing the gameplay is quite another. Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster leaves the base gameplay of the classic titles alone. It does improve speed but doesn’t do much with the gameplay. And why should it? The games were perfect the way they were when released.
The collection is named after its original driving essence, ‘pixel’. Everything was pixelated back in the day, as the NES hardware could only push so many things on the screen at once. Decisions had to be made, and ideas had to be adjusted. With this collection, the pixelated parts of the game have been re-tooled and updated, though the original visual feeling of the game is still intact. You will still get pixelated, oddly colored enemies that look like something out of the 80s. You will get that raw graphical feeling but also a smooth feeling that everything isn’t as messy as it seems. It looks like a classic but also has a layer of smoothness about it that screams remade. It’s a change of visuals without compromising the original feeling and intent. The visuals were handled nicely, as was the UI.
The UI is no longer bleak and pixelated, rather it is smoothed out and easy to understand. Those who aren’t used to these games or have never seen them in action shouldn’t have an issue jumping right in and understanding the structure. Everything is easy to use and understand. From the action menu to inventory, everything is clear and concise, which makes concentrating on the gameplay so much easier. You can jump right in as the UI doesn’t seem visually overwhelming.
What has also been improved is the music. You will get a fully orchestrated soundtrack that takes the old, limited NES sound chip capabilities and turns it on its head. One of the best parts of Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster is how good the music is, and we all know how passionate Final Fantasy fans are about the series’ music. Super passionate. It’s nice to see that Square took that important element of the game and gave it a bit more love and care. And they improved the sound effects as well, though the music is number one on my list between the two. I would listen to all the music on these games every day, especially in the form they come in now. All the games sound gorgeous.
Outside of these important improvements, the games are left alone. There is an updated Bestiary, if you’re into that sort of thing, and that was equally treated well, especially with how it is organized. I guess when you have had decades to think about how to improve such things, eventually you can institute them.
Anyway, the improvements are great. They don’t bother with the classic part of these titles.
On that sweet note, let’s wrap this up.
Conclusion
While not all the games featured in Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster are gold, what you do get is some love and care shown to some classic titles, a completely retooled UI and soundtrack, and all while leaving the core gameplay untouched.
