Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster - NES Era (I, II, III) [Review]

Square Enix recently released the “Pixel Remaster” collection of old Final Fantasy games. Basically, it makes them somewhat cohesive between one another visually (so all of them look more or less like a SNES game), while retaining all of their original mechanics and adding some QoL upgrades.

While there's a packed version that has all the 6 games, the Pixel Remasters are actually sold separately on the digital storefronts. I've decided then to divide them by eras, so it is not that big of a post.

Final Fantasy - Pixel Remaster

Impressively simple game but with lots of nice moments and sweet characters. It has a big difficulty spike on the last dungeon, but the journey itself is pretty simple and straight forward -- sometimes with a bit too much of go there and then return here

the Pixel Remaster new features are great and make this first game be a bit faster than expected. It has almost no side activities and the job system is pretty simple, but impressed that has job upgrades.

FF1 is ok, a good starter, but not groundbreaking, be it at the time or today. It is a simple and short game – so I'll score a simple and short 6/10.

Final Fantasy II - Pixel Remaster

Most of all, what FF2 represented to me is the whole spirit of the franchise, changing many of its systems and settings from one entry to the other. While still fantastical, the characters are a bit more grounded and the expanded cast are always involved in high stakes situations that made me want to keep progressing through the story.

The battle system is worse in many ways when compared with the first game, unfortunately, and while the dungeons are indeed prettier, I wouldn't call them better than the previous one. Lots of empty rooms and pointless mazes. The leveling system is not that well executed, although nice in its conception.

This game introduces a bit more depth to the world. Be it with the chocobos or iconic classes like Dragoon, FF2 felt more FF, while having some issues in some of the newer systems that introduces. Either way, it is charming to see how different it is from the first game, and better or worse in some ways. Also, the Emperor Matheus deserved more screen time.

All in all, solid, but not that better than the first. Still fun, and with the QOL of Pixel Remaster, really accessible. FF 2 has a lot of hate, but I commend to be already so much more different than 1. It is not better, but also not worse.

A 6/10 as well.

Final Fantasy III - Pixel Remaster

Final Fantasy 3 was the closure for the NES era that the series needed. After a somewhat experimental entry with the previous title, FF3 is basically the best of everything they tried before with some much-needed improvements.

The inner cast are basically four characters that act as one, and are player created with some cool (and novel!) job system that has a lot of different ways to play. Not everything is really super developed – there are some jobs that are outright bad – but I needed to change jobs for different dungeons and bosses, so it added a tactical side to FF that I really enjoyed.

This game added a lot of charm to the FF world, with some pleasant moments here and there that make the cities and places you go more realistic and immersive. The world makes more sense outside the main party, but still isn't great, but better than what I had before.

What was great was the difficulty. While the previous games were easy until the very last encounter, here, all the bosses are challenging and interesting, and you often need to rethink how you play at each encounter. The dungeons were super simple, but at least not filled with empty rooms, and the new “hidden frames” are fun to find and explore, even if sometimes counterintuitive.

While there aren't side “quests”, this is the first FF that I actually went to dungeons and bosses that were truly optional (on the pixel remaster collection). The expanded cast again is a bit forgettable, with some cute and delightful moments at least but nothing stellar. Moogles, Bards, Scholars, Summons, and many other iconic FF things were introduced in FF3 and finally the world shaped by the crystals started being more than just a D&D clone.

FF 3 has very cool music and challenging bosses, it feels like it is the definitive vision of these old NES games. It is fun, although a bit forgettable. A bit of a cold 7/10.

Now hoping to have better antagonists on the SNES Era.