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[Ronin]

Looks like now i gotta get a GBA finally. Now I have to decide between Micro or SP+ dammit!

Would you really want to read all of that text on a Micro screen?

 

[Deku]

Would you really want to read all of that text on a Micro screen?

Have you read text on a micro screen? it's perfectly readable.

 

[cvxfreak]

Would you really want to read all of that text on a Micro screen?

It's perfectly legible (playing Fire Emblem).

 

[BorkBork]

It's really hard to say. AAA titles for GBA have comparable sound to AAA titles on the SNES. GBA also has a stronger processor, which can probably substitute for the lack of a soundchip. Especially when it comes to porting SNES games which were designed to run on a slower CPU.

Don't forget that FF VI was developed for SuperFami @ 16bit and 3.6 mhz. The GBA ARM is 32-bit @16 mhz. The GBA games that run into trouble with sound are original titles that tap out the CPU and have nothing left for sound.

Newbie sound question: Since the game is made for the GBA, will it still sound better when played on the DS due to the better speakers? or will there still be some loss of quality of the music just because it was remade for the GBA?

 

[cubicle47b]

It'll sound better played through the speakers on the DS (than on the GBA as they're better speakers) but it's still output at 8-bit.

 

[koam]

I don't follow the FF series much but I know that 1 and 2 are on the GBA, 3 is heading to the DS and 5 and 6 are going to GBA... My question is, what happened to 4?

 

[Red Scarlet]

4 was rumored/announced a week or two ago for the GBA, then whatever happened recently with the other news happened. 3 was thought to have been vaporware again, then a shot of 4 for the GBA was shown and then today all this 3-6 stuff happened.

 

[koam]

4 was rumored/announced a week or two ago for the GBA, then whatever happened recently with the other news happened. 3 was thought to have been vaporware again, then a shot of 4 for the GBA was shown and then today all this 3-6 stuff happened.

So basically, FF1 - 6 can all be played on the DS? (well when they're out).

 

[RevenantKioku]

So basically, FF1 - 6 can all be played on the DS? (well when they're out).

Yes. Now they need to do that with DQ1-7 because fuck, the Jaguar could probably handle DQ7.

 

[bummyhead]

I'm peeved that FF6 is for GBA and not DS. It's the best of the Final Fantast Games and deserves the full ramke that FF3 is getting instead.

 

[Red Scarlet]

That's like $900 I don't have, rev.

 

[RevenantKioku]

I'm peeved that FF6 is for GBA and not DS. It's the best of the Final Fantast Games and deserves the full ramke that FF3 is getting instead.

FF6 is great and all, but it doesn't need a damn thing done to it.

Squenix can do one of two things to make me unbelievably happy.
1) DQ1-3 for GBA/DS
2) DQ1-3 remake using the DQ8 engine.

 

[bummyhead]

FF6 is great and all, but it doesn't need a damn thing done to it.

Squenix can do one of two things to make me unbelievably happy.
1) DQ1-3 for GBA/DS
2) DQ1-3 remake using the DQ8 engine.

No FF6 doesnt need anything done to it, I agree. But I would have really liked to see it take advantage of the better sound of the DS.

 

[RevenantKioku]

No FF6 doesnt need anything done to it, I agree. But I would have really liked to see it take advantage of the better sound of the DS.

Luckily, I'm not cursed with the perfect hearing that so many people on this forum seem to have. I had no qualms whatsoever with the sound quality on Dawn of Souls.
I don't play FF for the music, but I do enjoy it.

 

[Red Scarlet]

1-3 on a single cart would be much better.....
It would be neat if the cell phone versions of 1 and 2 were put on, john_tv said there were a lot of new, neat additions to 1 (or 2?) in that, but didn't say exactly what those were.

 

[cubicle47b]

I seriously doubt we'll see GBA/DS DQI-III remakes because they were already made on the GBC *and* Square-Enix hasn't given a shit about Enix games outside of DQVIII. It's a nice dream, though.

 

[Jonnyram]

...Square-Enix hasn't given a shit about Enix games outside of DQVIII. It's a nice dream, though.

I don't really know what you mean by this. Drakengard, Radiata Stories, Grandia III, DQ spin offs like Slime Mori Mori and Itadaki Street were all from the Enix side. The Enix side has actually been more productive than the Square side for the past couple of years.

Also, if DQVIII takes off in the West, I think Square Enix will bring the DQ assault pretty quickly. I'd love remakes or ports of the older games, having almost played through DQVIII now.

 

[Deku]

DQ assault for Revolution BC

 

[Chrono]

Hey, since most people here already played these FF games: what is the average time for a play through? I read long ago (don't remember where) I/II take about 20 hours each and 4-6 are 30 hours or so.

I'm thinking of playing them on PS2 (psx versions) and GBA like a year or more later so if they're not 50 hours that seems possible.

 

[mutsu]

Don't bother with the PSX versions, just wait for the GBA version.

 

[BobbyRobby]

Hey, since most people here already played these FF games: what is the average time for a play through? I read long ago (don't remember where) I/II take about 20 hours each and 4-6 are 30 hours or so.

I'm thinking of playing them on PS2 (psx versions) and GBA like a year or more later so if they're not 50 hours that seems possible.

FF4 is about 18 hours long. I did so much tweaking and leveling up in FF5, that I can't be sure, but I'd say around 40 hours. FF6 is about 40 hours as well.

FF5, and FF6 on the PS1 have terrible load times. FF4 is cool.

 

[Chrono]

Thanks. I've decided to just get the GBA ones. I'm horrible at making decisions but I'll stick with this one heh. I already have Anthologies and Chronicles so I think I'll trade in Anthologies but keep Chronicles for Chrono Trigger and since IV is with it I'll play it too. If it's as good as people are saying it is then maybe I'll buy it again when it comes out for GBA.

 

[Red Scarlet]

The GBA versions of 4 will be #7 and #8 for me, give it a whirl. 4 may take you a little longer than 18 hours, depending on how you like to progress. It may be anywhere from 15-60 for your first time through. On replays it's a bit shorter (about 7.5ish for me now).

But it's very fun, either way.

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

On the one hand this is pretty cool news... on the other hand I'm disappointed it's come so soon. I only recently started saving up JackFrost2012 quotes for teh funny when/if FFIIIDS became official again and hadn't yet searched for old ones, so I don't have a very large collection. Oh well.

Why port 5 and 6 to GBA though? Stick em all on the DS they'll have to do it eventually anyway.

Doing a total remake and doing what's essentially a port take completely different levels of work. If they're not going to go all the way on updating things, there's not a lot to be lost by being on GBA hardware.

they should do a dual release on the DS and the GBA, they'd make more money off of the DS version anyway as the carts are cheaper to mass produce. All they'd have to do is put a status screen down the bottom or something and i'd be happy.

Ahh, the Mega Man EXE / Pokémon Mysterious Dungeon / Star Wars Episode III route. Yeah, that would be pretty nice... but that really goes for any GBA game as far as a DS owners is concerned.

One the one hand : Yeah, these Announcements are good, but will these games make it to Europe ? Or even to the US ?

I think the days of mainstream FF titles on mainstream platforms not leaving Japan are far behind us now.

All 1-6 FF on a handheld system? holy s**t priceless!!

I remember years ago when Square seemed to be talking about porting the early games to handhelds and remaking the later ones (VII-IX at the time). This started up the speculation about Square working on GBA, which was shortly followed by a Yamauchi statement that Nintendo had no intentiosn of that happening. What a mess! But I guess all is well now.

I'm really looking forward to when the FFVII DS remake speculation starts.

Obviously you missed the long-ago discussion about how feasible it would be for them to try to do so on a 128 MB DS card.

And thus FFIII becomes the oldest new-school Final Fantasy. What a strange beast that game is. Think they'll include an old-school version on the card, a la Metroid:Zero Mission?

Hard to predict when companies actually go through with things like that, but if they chose to it shouldn't take much effort or card space.

 

[Zerodoppler]

Obviously you missed the long-ago discussion about how feasible it would be for them to try to do so on a 128 MB DS card.

I still say it's possible.
2cd RE2 -> 64mb cart
4cd FF7 -> 128mb cart

 

[mutsu]

I still say it's possible.
2cd RE2 -> 64mb cart
4cd FF7 -> 128mb cart

Agreed. If they can fit Xenosaga I and II, which is like 2 dual-layer DVDs, on DS by remaking it into 2D, then anything is still possible for FF7.

I mean, Bio Hazard Deadly Silence is being converted to the DS, nobody thought that would be possible.

Hey, maybe, just MAYBE, DS games can run off both a DS cartidge and a GBA cartidge! :lol

 

[DDayton]

Hey, maybe, just MAYBE, DS games can run off both a DS cartidge and a GBA cartidge! :lol

Actually, that's possible.

Not very practical, mind you, but...

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

I still say it's possible.
2cd RE2 -> 64mb cart
4cd FF7 -> 128mb cart

You can't just look at a number of CDs and extrapolate... clearly if RE2 worked well at 64 MB it's crazy that it ever required 2 CDs in the first place. I'd even guess it was done just to make it seem like a bigger game.

Also, FF VII is only 3 CDs, though it's the same ~250 MB of game data on each disc, accompanied by ~400 MB of unique FMV.

 

[speedpop]

Well personally I'm just happy that we (i.e. PAL gamers) will finally have the entire Final Fantasy I-VI catalogue on cart with no loading times. Hallelujah.

 

[BlueLegs]

By the time FFIII comes out for the DS i'd wager that they'd be on to 256 meg cards. Plus i'm pretty sure the DS uses compression techs that the ps never had. Also remember that they managed to get 40+ minutes of video and sound onto a 32 meg gba cart and apparently they have made great leaps in movie compression since then. FFVII had like 120 minutes or so, that = 96 megs in video (in the onld compression format) which would leave 160 meg for data. So i'd never say it couldn't be done.

Not that i think FFVII would be released for it anyway, bring on the ps3 remake instead.

 

[Timen]

A game could use a GBA pack for saving games and two (or more) DS carts for game content & material.

 

[Ruzbeh]

I still say it's possible.
2cd RE2 -> 64mb cart
4cd FF7 -> 128mb cart

Yes. Compression has come a long way. What would cost 2cds or 4cds back in the day won't cost so much space now. Though I can't imagine the game won't suffer and sacrifices.

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

By the time FFIII comes out for the DS i'd wager that they'd be on to 256 meg cards. Plus i'm pretty sure the DS uses compression techs that the ps never had. Also remember that they managed to get 40+ minutes of video and sound onto a 32 meg gba cart and apparently they have made great leaps in movie compression since then. FFVII had like 120 minutes or so, that = 96 megs in video (in the onld compression format) which would leave 160 meg for data. So i'd never say it couldn't be done.

Not that i think FFVII would be released for it anyway, bring on the ps3 remake instead.

Mostly agreed with all this. It's possible, but if they wanted to go the easy route like they have for FF 4, 5, and 6 on GBA, VII just makes a lot more sense as a PSP game. FF VII had about 1 hour of video rather than 2 (Gotta love PS1's 300 kilobyte/second video, eh?). I've always assumed for any potential DS port that would almost all be snipped, but you make a decent point about video compression on the portables coming quite a way.

For further reading, here is the old thread where this topic came up. It was in late December when DS had sold several more hundred thousands than most would have guessed.

 

[isamu]

I seriously doubt we'll see GBA/DS DQI-III remakes because they were already made on the GBC *and* Square-Enix hasn't given a shit about Enix games outside of DQVIII. It's a nice dream, though.

EXCELLENT point!

Psst.... Square and Enix merged. They're one company now.

Uh huh, yeeeah....and I just hit the lotto

 

[BlueLegs]

Mostly agreed with all this. It's possible, but if they wanted to go the easy route like they have for FF 4, 5, and 6 on GBA, VII just makes a lot more sense as a PSP game. FF VII had about 1 hour of video rather than 2 (Gotta love PS1's 300 kilobyte/second video, eh?). I've always assumed for any potential DS port that would almost all be snipped, but you make a decent point about video compression on the portables coming quite a way.

I don't see the point of a remake on the psp as it may as well be on the ps2 if they are going to be doing the graphics up (and if they were going to do that i'd want it on the PS3 cause PSP games are going to start looking really shitty by the time the PS3 comes around). At least on the DS all they would have to do is downsample the background images and add texture maps to the 3d characters and items (maybe even touch up those models as well).

It just seems smarter (and more cost effective) to me to make it for the DS as opposed to the PSP, as you'd only need a programer and a couple of artists in a room for a few months porting over all the assets and code bases. FFVII was never a graphical powerhouse so i doubt they'd even have to hack the program up to get it running at a reasonable frame rate, those RE screen shots that we've seen for the DS contain more complex geometry etc than FFVII ever had on the screen at once and the DS's RAM is more than enough to hold those animated background images in place.

btw personally i'd still much rather see it on the PS3, i didn't wait for X number of years to get a remake on a system that is just as powerful as the system it was originally released on.

 

[Scott]

EXCELLENT point!

What? Most of what he said was wrong...

 

[terrene]

Uh huh, yeeeah....and I just hit the lotto

lol
Sir, you are the gift that keeps on giving.

 

[SantaC]

I still say it's possible.
2cd RE2 -> 64mb cart
4cd FF7 -> 128mb cart

they can go beyond the 128mb cart anyway.

 

[SolidSnakex]

I don't see the point of a remake on the psp as it may as well be on the ps2 if they are going to be doing the graphics up

If they were going to do it on a handheld (and they really shouldn't) it'd make sense considering they've released the sequel on it already (Advent Children) and the prequel to it is planned (Crisis Core) for the system. So you'd have the base story right there on 1 system. But after they showed the PS3 demo, it'd piss of the people who make FF7 popular anyway. That's who all these FF7 games are for anyway. A PS3 remake after they've released a game in the main series already would be huge for them.

 

[jarrod]

Jarrod doesn't like either series though. He's an Advance Wars/Sega fan

What? Yes I do, I love DQ especially. I like Fire Emblem quite a bit too, but it's not half the game Advance Wars is.

 

[cubicle47b]

I don't really know what you mean by this. Drakengard, Radiata Stories, Grandia III, DQ spin offs like Slime Mori Mori and Itadaki Street were all from the Enix side. The Enix side has actually been more productive than the Square side for the past couple of years.

Slime Mori Mori and Dragon Quest V not making it to the states = Square-Enix not giving a shit about Enix. It doesn't matter how good Enix is. The best of their games in the last couple of years have not been localized here. For that I give them a big fuck you.

What? Yes I do, I love DQ especially. I like Fire Emblem quite a bit too, but it's not half the game Advance Wars is.

See, I'm not crazy.

 

[heidern]

I still say it's possible.
2cd RE2 -> 64mb cart
4cd FF7 -> 128mb cart

Actually 3cd FF7. Also, the DS screens have a lower resolution than consoles so they may be able to make some savings that way, particularly with any FMV sequences in comparison to what was managed with RE2. If they can push for an even bigger cart, say 256MB or even 512MB then they should definitely be able to get this in. Also, with the carts being so cheap, what are the possibilites of a multi-cart game?

 

[cubicle47b]

Uh huh, yeeeah....and I just hit the lotto

Haha, I think isamu is more bitter than me.

 

[lyre]

Also, with the carts being so cheap, what are the possibilites of a multi-cart game?

No point. Just use a bigger cart (or wait until there's a bigger one), better compression, or all of the above. And like it's stated before, other than the FMV, FFVII didn't have a lot of unique gameplay data between the 3 discs.

 

[Pellham]

Er guys I really doubt FF7 will be ported to DS anytime soon. If anything, it'll hit the PSP only, simply because of technical reasons.

Although I really doubt that will happen either since a PS3 remake is in the works, and a handheld port would look nothing like it.

 

[..pakbeka..]

where does this FF7 DS port rumor comes from? was this ever actually posted in some magazine or is it simply GAF going crazy?

However I must admit that the idea of a 2d FF7 makes me feel warm inside

 

[jett]

EXCELLENT point!





Uh huh, yeeeah....and I just hit the lotto

You're a goddamn ignorant retard. They merged two years ago, and it's Enix who's basically in control. Now shut your moth.

BTW, the FF7 "rumor" originated from this very thread.

 

[Zeo]

where does this FF7 DS port rumor comes from? was this ever actually posted in some magazine or is it simply GAF going crazy?

However I must admit that the idea of a 2d FF7 makes me feel warm inside

I don't see how an FF7 remake on DS would be 2D when FF3 is being done like the PSX games.

 

[lyre]

where does this FF7 DS port rumor comes from? was this ever actually posted in some magazine or is it simply GAF going crazy?

However I must admit that the idea of a 2d FF7 makes me feel warm inside

Mindless speculation due to boredome. That's not against the TOS is it?

And it's (pretty) obvious that FFVII will hit PSP first/eventually/whatever (one way or another) due to cheap PS1 to PSP ports (Hello Capcom).

 

[Fix]

Mindless speculation due to boredome.

Two men enter! One man leaves to find something to do!