Final Fantasy 25th Anniversary Box Set

[NayusDante]

I can't believe the news (http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57504576-1/final-fantasy-hits-25-this-year-mega-box-set-planned/) today. Can't close my eyes, can't make it go away...

http://asset0.cbsistatic.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim/2012/08/31/001_610x201.jpg

http://asset0.cbsistatic.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim/2012/08/31/ff25anniversary_610x241.jpg

The exchange rate works out to $446, approximately double the price of buying these games individually today. The bonuses are a two-disc music collection, a video retrospective (wasn't this on the FF7AC DVD?), a short art book, and an in-game item for the relaunch of FFXIV. There's no developer commentary, making-of documentaries, spin-offs, multiple platform versions, or any real "bonus content" in there. It's missing things like X-2 and XIII-2, and the choice of platforms is questionable. I-IV should be on PSP, if they're choosing the PSP port of III. I wasn't aware that FFXI on PS2 was still even supported, and I thought the new expansion was going to be PC/360 only. It doesn't include FFXIV. There are so many strange things about this set...

I wouldn't complain if this were a $150 product, but I think they really missed the mark with this one. Anyone willing to spend that much on this probably already owns these games twice over already. I really want to be happy that there's finally a Final Fantasy box set, but this isn't what I was expecting. I love the consistent Amano art, but that's about the only thing I like about it. At the end of the day, it's yet another attempt by Squenix to double dip the fans.

[G-Boobie]

This set is considerably worse than the Street Fighter set for sure, and the SF box isn't great.

Kind of a bummer.

[kupomogli]

FF13 is included in this set sadly. It'd be much a much better collection if it wasn't.

If this is ever released to the US, which is highly doubtful, I'd buy it. The series has went to shit, but I can't help it, I'm still a fan of the previous titles and whenever a new one comes out, I can't help but once again purchase the same port/remake for a first, second, third, and now fourth time for the majority of games being released.

[Mister_Pal]

Sad to say but this is incredibly disappointing

[NayusDante]

It's like Squenix has become the Apple of gaming. They charge whatever they want for an inferior product and call it "premium." Then they expect you to buy it again next year.

[BlastProcessing402]

I didn't even know there was a PSP version of FF3.

[kupomogli]

I didn't even know there was a PSP version of FF3.

It was recently announced and is more than likely going to be Japanese exclusive. Really doesn't matter though since it's nothing more than a 16:9 port of the DS game, and one of the worst games in the series, DS or NES version alike.

[Rickstilwell1]

What is wrong with this picture? It shows four discs for Final Fantasy VII when that game only had three discs. FAIL.

[FoxNtd]

What is wrong with this picture? It shows four discs for Final Fantasy VII when that game only had three discs. FAIL.

Probably the bonus material disc from FF7i.

This series is dead to me, they just make slop now along with slop ports. What was that new PSP game, was it 4? It looked hideous and made me want to run back to SFC. I don't get the point of releasing this set (besides the 25th anniversary commemoration) especially with the price they put on it. Does Square believe they'll get a satisfactory number of sales on this item? :roll:

And FF3 is awesome. To pick one classic I want to do another run of, it's gonna be 3. :)

[substantial_snake]

This really doesn't surprise me much as companies in Japan seem to get away with selling any special edition for obscene prices. This just gets the Final Fantasy bump tacked onto it as well. :p

It would of been kinda nice however to get something similar but on 2-3 bluray/dvd discs wrapped in emulators for convenience's sake kinda like the mario anniversary disc released for the wii. The lone UMD and PS2 titles definitely sully this a bit since its not something you can just run through on one console. I'm sure "hardcore" fans though will make this sell out very quickly.

[BricatSegaFan]

It's like Squenix has become the Apple of gaming. They charge whatever they want for an inferior product and call it "premium." Then they expect you to buy it again next year.

Except they don't go around suing everyone in existence claiming they invented everything. Blahh I hate apple.

[NayusDante]

Except they don't go around suing everyone in existence claiming they invented everything. Blahh I hate apple.

They haven't yet, but that's because no one else has infringed on their ATB system patent (http://www.boliven.com/patent/US5390937). If someone released an RPG with a similar combat system, you can bet they'd mobilize their lawyers.

[SNESMaster]

So, it's for Sony consoles only, the games are on PS1, 2, and 3 discs and UMD, so you would need either a launch PS3 and a PSP, a PS3, PS2, and PSP, or, if the PS1 discs won't work with the PS2, a PS3, PS2, PS1, and a PSP. Wow. That's a lot of consoles you have to buy just to play a collection. It should be released for 360, PS3, and Wii U with either emulated games or ports. I can understand why so many discs, but why only Sony consoles, why do you need so many consoles, and why does it cost so damn much?!

[BlastProcessing402]

They haven't yet, but that's because no one else has infringed on their ATB system patent (http://www.boliven.com/patent/US5390937). If someone released an RPG with a similar combat system, you can bet they'd mobilize their lawyers.

That's gotta be close to expiring, at least.


So, it's for Sony consoles only, the games are on PS1, 2, and 3 discs and UMD, so you would need either a launch PS3 and a PSP, a PS3, PS2, and PSP, or, if the PS1 discs won't work with the PS2, a PS3, PS2, PS1, and a PSP. Wow. That's a lot of consoles you have to buy just to play a collection. It should be released for 360, PS3, and Wii U with either emulated games or ports. I can understand why so many discs, but why only Sony consoles, why do you need so many consoles, and why does it cost so damn much?!

Yeah, the PSX ports of the 16 bit games tend to show up with issues on some of the BC compatibility lists, so unless they've gone back and sorted things out (LOL) you probably would need every damn Sony system to play things properly.

[Hawksmoor]

SE has been a shambles for years now, but I was pretty sure they'd hit rock bottom. Apparently, I was mistaken. It's really disheartening to see such a storied and accomplished developer ruined by incompetent management and an utter lack of creativity. It seems like things started to go downhill right around the time of the Enix acquisition/merger. SE isn't alone though. I'd say Namco, Capcom, Sega, and a host of others are plagued by the same problems.

[NayusDante]

Now that I think about it, the price is probably inflated by manufacturing costs. If they went with emulation, they could use the superior original releases and put 1-VI on one CD. VII-IX could fit on one dual-layer DVD. The whole collection could fit on two BDs no matter how they did it, one for XIII and one for everything else.

I've tried to play FFV on two PS3s, and I get freezes on map loads about an hour in. FFIV has bad flickering in the intro when played on a PS3. I have no idea if the PSN releases fix these issues, and if so whether those fixes will make it to the new reprints.

To me, a real box set should be more complete. If they broke it up into trilogies and included more game variants and bonus features, I might actually be excited. I'd pay a premium for something like "Final Fantasy I-III Ultimate Collection" if it included the NES originals, regional localizations, MSX/PSX/GBA/PSP ports, and a healthy dose of production notes, retrospectives, interviews, commercials, and so on. Same for IV-VI, VII-IX, and X-XII. Instead, it's just the outsourced PSX versions that Tose did a craptastic job with, and which possibly have yet to actually go out of print.

I shouldn't complain that there's no bonus content, since the framed art is sort of neat. Still, I'd be embarrassed to hang it because anyone who knew what it was would think I either got ripped off or was a total otaku (in the negative sense of the word).

[joshnickerson]

That's insane. There is absolutely no reason they couldn't fit everything onto a couple of blu-ray discs.

[Nathander]

That's insane. There is absolutely no reason they couldn't fit everything onto a couple of blu-ray discs.

This is pretty accurate.

Hell. You think for the older games too they could have added more content to them as well instead of just slapping them on some discs. Maybe for the NES ones even add the NES originals for a remix things where you could play the original and then the updates. Add some of the bonus content that had been added to 1-6 throughout the years too, for God's sake, just add something other than the vanilla games/ports.

What really gets me is how asinine it is to have all of them theoretically playable on a PS3 but then adding the fucking PSP port of 3. That's nonsense and nearly offends me somehow.