The quality of sound I think. The GBA version had to be made to fit the GBA which meant less quality on sound and graphics looks a little "washed out" compared.
FF6 has a wonderful soundtrack. TOSE did their best with the GBA version given their limitations, but it's of noticeably worse quality than every other version of the game. It didn't bother me that much, but if I'm asked for information, I'm not going to provide it halfway.
I appreciate that! And the music in FF VI is some of the best in any FF from my taste. I love Terra's Theme.
Terra's theme is my hands-down favorite piece of VG music. I guess I give the GBA version a lot more credit over the SNES. I've heard people criticize the music in the GBA FFVI before, and I never got it either. To my (VERY untrained) ears, I actually preferred the GBA tracks -- I saw the biggest improvement with the opera, which sounds so much more believable. I understand that the SNES is objectively better, but it wouldn't surprise me if others thought the same way I do. Now, to be honest, I never noticed or even knew about the graphical differences before Shaun's post just now, so perhaps my opinions are not very trustworthy. The bugs in the SNES were pretty game-breaking. One character was entirely unplayable, because their special skill runs a high risk of causing a glitch that can even reset your saved game data! Additionally, one stat was rendered accidentally rolled into another, making some pieces of armor unbelievably powerful and others conpletely worthless. Still, if you don't happen to use that one character, and you never notice the stat thing, you might not be bothered by the glitches. For me, though, the additional content makes a HUGE difference, for a really specific reason. So, in FFVI, characters can boost their permanent stats by having various summons ("espers") equipped at the time they level up. Each char can have a single esper equipped, and each will boost a single stat: HP, Vitality, etc. So, depending on your party setup (3 mages and a fighter? A tank, two fighters, a mage?), you'll have different espers equipped to boost their different stats. The issue is: there's only one esper that boosts speed, and speed is incidentally the only stat that NEVER increases naturally. Yet it plays a huge role in determining the sequence of combat, and there are some characters who are just always going to be slowpokes. There are two espers that boost magic attack, and two that boost regular attack -- but, of the latter, one can only be obtained by essentially trading in the one that boosts speed. So if you have two fighters in your party, the only way to have both progress optimally simultaneously is to give both one of the attack-boosting espers, which means giving up the chance to boost speed, from that point forwards. The GBA version added several new espers, one of which increases speed (by more than the original!), and one of which is another strength booster, so the problem is solved from both directions. Now, I'll grant that this is pretty specific... and assumes a level of min-maxing which is totally superfluous in VI. I myself don't min-max in any other game, really, but something in VI brings that out in me, and my SNES playthroughs always left me frustrated once I got to grinding levels in the endgame. The GBA additions were a dream come true, and there's no way I could go back to the SNES after playing the GBA.
I will grant: the opera does sound better in the GBA version. Some tracks come out alright, too, like Terra's Theme. The key point is that Uematsu used his own library of samples extensively in FF6's soundtrack, and I'm fairly certain TOSE didn't have access to them. So they approximated what they could, and the rest... ehn. I think the horns are really lousy on the GBA version, no oomph to them at all. And again, no shame in it. The SNES sound chip was one of the finest sound chips ever designed for a console. The GBA, on the other hand, literally did not have a sound chip. It's a miracle TOSE did what they did. And for what it's worth, I think their version of FF5's soundtrack is better than the original almost all around.
Wow, had no idea about any of that! I've listened to SNES and Genesis soundtracks for the same games back-to-back, and it's shocking how much worse the Genesis sounds, but I had no idea that the GBA was in the same boat. Well, I'll take a cue from you and just be impressed at how well it came off. At least someone else agrees with me about the opera!
Beat DQ II today. Had to try the boss a second time, but I could beat him at last. I think I was quite high in level? Above 40. It was fun, but I see the faults with it too. Still the games are more even than FF, probably because they usually just improve, not change everything. I enjoy both series though
Congrats! DQ2 is one of the tougher DQ games, in my opinion. Depending on the pattern he slips into, the last boss can be an absolute nightmare. The iOS version is easier than previous ones, but I think that makes it a better game all around.
Thank you! Agreed! I liked it better than the first. It was more to do and I liked the colour palette more. The last area was stunning. At least on my brand new ipod, it looked so good! Love the portrait mode too. Started FF II last night, exited to see how I feel about the battle system. Do you have to beat your own party members to beat it or is that just something people discovered went quicker? I love the graphics for the iOS version too! I love my ipod as a gamingdevice in general actually, it's so easy to just take everywhere and most games I can jump right into action with a click.
FFIII mobile is super awesome If you don't have it def pick it up This pic says how far I am into it II isn't bad at all better than I but 3 is very very good On mobile I rate then diff than console On mobile my fav is 9,3,6,7 in that order Only FF I have never played is 12 and I want to play it really bad hope it comes to mobile or steam soon! Edit I went back to make sure and yeah I liked I better than II on mobile II is one I have prolly played least and I have over 20 final fantasy mobile games including all the Japan App Store ones II hasn't got me into it yet but it may just be me. It's FF So I can enjoy It just least of all the number series ones on mobile Other FF players would love to see which FF you think is worst on mobile in the number series versions?
Nice! I would have to agree with your list too. I think I may have put more hours into VII than VI, but VI is made for mobile. Great port, only topped by IX. But III was my first mobile Final Fantasy title, and I love the simplicity of it. It just feels like a great game for on the go. I only wish I could change their names back to the default names.
That's a lot of grindage to get that far haha I'm hooked on FFVIII on steam right now it's a very decent port and the one I've played most in general so it's good to relive it years later
I beat I earlier this year. Liked it a lot. Final Fantasy III for DS was actually the first FF I beat! Crazy enough. X were my first one, but I never beat it. Now I'm holding that one off 'till I cAn buy a Vita so I can play X on the go. I am extremely pumped for IX after reading review here. Also have it on PS3/PSP, but I want this version. I'm beating down my backlog though. FF V I will play with my sister when she's done with Master degree and a couple of other games. I played through most of VI on gba years ago. I had an issue with rpg's earlier where I would get completely lost when the game opened up. I could never remember what people said. Now I have a book and as I talk to people I write down objects and cross off as I go. Helped me immensely. Suddenly I have seen the end of three rpg's just now! My beaten FF is III and I. Almost VII though, just had left the last boss lol. From what I have played: 1. FF VI 2. X 3. IX? 4. V 5. VII 6. I 7. IV 8. III 9. VIII 10. XIII Not played enough II and XII to rank. I'm hoping XII gets the X-X-2 treatment. Do you guys think that't likely? I think my rating of VIII might rank higher after beating. I'm curious to how maybe my ranking changes after I beat everyone of them!
Impressions from II so far: I really like the look of it! The snowy town of Salamander was gourgeous! The combat might be a kittle iffy, but it works so far. No headwhacking my teammates yet. I like it as for now!
I hope so! Poor VIII... I think it's definitely the most underrated FF. I wonder why? It's certainly not my favorite, but probably in my top three.
I think it matters less in III than in most other games; the default names were only added in the DS version -- they're not original. I didn't feel bad at all changing them.
In the NES version of FF2, you really were better off beating your own party members. That was mitigated in later versions by guaranteeing you receive an HP increase at regular intervals of fights. So nah, you don't need to beat up your guys anymore. You might want to self-Osmose to increase your max MP now and then, though.
Battlesystem. It's not intuitive and fun to me to make sure I don't level up. I want to level up.. They could have just put in a basic FFI system and that to me would change it's ranking at once..
Cool The game has a bug where it freezes randomly when you talk to a shopkeeper. Is there a place to report bugs that you know of Shaun?
