Load times in the USA PS Final Fantasy 4 port

[Cthulhu]

I just picked up the Japanese Final Fantasy Collection (a local store near me had it new, and I figured what the hell) and I'm starting FF4 again. I love 4. :D

Anyways, I seem to recall there being a lot of complaints about loading times between the overworld maps and battles in the PS FF ports, but I'm not noticing anything more than a split second blip in the Japanese version. I'm playing on a PS2, but I'm not playing with the loading times adjusted feature. I have played the US release, but it's been too long for me to remember whether the load times bothered me or not...

Or was that FF6 that was supposed to have loading time issues? Maybe Chrono Trigger? ... *wracks his brain* ^^;

[Tetsu]

FF 5 and 6 both had loading time issues, as did Chrono Trigger. FFIV was the only re-release that does not. Even FF Origins (FF 1 and 2) have some loading time issues.

[Cthulhu]

Ahh, okay. Thanks for the clarification. I'll give 5 and 6 a shot soon and see... I'm sure the JP version has the same issues as the US one, but I can always hope. LOL

[hezeuschrist]

I've played through every game on all 3 US releases and I never had any issues with load times. They never bothered me at all, and it's fairly absurd that anyone else may have been bothered. They're hardly noticable, if at all.

[DDCecil]

I've played through FF4-6 on the Japanese Collection AND the US releases. Both are exactly the same (minus the text, of course). The loading isn't too bad, but if you have the SNES carts of 4-6, you might as well play those (FF5 is missing sound effects on the PSX releases, and even emulators can't duplicate the sound 100% perfectly).

[Cthulhu]

Yeah, I popped in 6 just before hitting the sack last night and the load times are definitely there. *sigh* They're not too bad, but they're still annoying. Way, way shorter than Tengai Makyou 3 though. LOL

[Xantan the Foul]

I'm playing on a PS2, but I'm not playing with the loading times adjusted feature.

What feature is that?

::is clueless:: :?

[Aussie2B]

Well, at least you have the awesome packaging of the Final Fantasy Collection. :) I don't have the US Anthology or Chronicles yet, but I can't imagine their packaging is as nice as what Japan got.

[Gapporin]

What feature is that?

::is clueless:: :?

Turn on your PS2 without a disc in it. When you get to the main menu, press Triangle. Highlight "PS1 Driver" and press Triangle again. You now have the option to tweak the loading times for PS1 games, and also the option to smooth textures in PS1 games (which look really good in some games).

[Cthulhu]

Since we're talking about it, has anyone tried using the accelerated loading times with the PS FF 4-6 games?

Yes, the Japanese packaging is quite nice - blue water-patterned box with a 90-some page color manual. Too bad there's nowhere to put the spine card... the card is oversized and is over the side and the back of the box, so it's too large to actually fit in it (without folding it to hell).

[DDCecil]

Since we're talking about it, has anyone tried using the accelerated loading times with the PS FF 4-6 games?


FF5 on Anthology likes to screw up the menus (You can't see any of the text) with fast disk speed. It happens about 75% of the time. I just tried fast disk speed on FF5 on the JPN Collection and the menus seem to work great. No difference on the battles. I didn't notice anything different on FF4 or 6 on either versions.

[Cthulhu]

FF5 on Anthology likes to screw up the menus (You can't see any of the text) with fast disk speed. It happens about 75% of the time. I just tried fast disk speed on FF5 on the JPN Collection and the menus seem to work great. No difference on the battles. I didn't notice anything different on FF4 or 6 on either versions.

Wow, thanks for the quick and comprehensive answer. :) I'm not sure why the menus would mess up in the US version but not the JP... probably due to text length or something. Or the PS2 just likes Japanese more than English. LOL

I suppose since the loading times are mainly taken up by the fade-in/fade-out animations, the loading accelerator won't do much. Ahh well. I'm glad I have the thing anyway.

[Aussie2B]

Yes, the Japanese packaging is quite nice - blue water-patterned box with a 90-some page color manual. Too bad there's nowhere to put the spine card... the card is oversized and is over the side and the back of the box, so it's too large to actually fit in it (without folding it to hell).

If you keep your PlayStation games on a shelf, you can just tuck the spine card around the box. That's what I did. The games to the left and right of it keep it in place. It's pretty cool looking too because it makes it resemble the spines of normal Japanese games.

[SoulBlazer]

That's funny, on MY system I've been able to speed up the games loading times with the 'fast drive' option. Maybe my new 32 inch HDTV helps in some way?

In any event, the load times are not THAT bad, and it's certinaly not worth not buying the great collections for.

Although Orgins was done in by the better version of Dawn of Souls for the GBA. :)