Square Enix delisting old Final Fantasy 1/2/5/6 from iOS, Android, will not include bonus content from those in new releases.

[Zero-ELEC]

With the confirmation that the new Pixel Remasters will not included bonus dungeons, jobs and story content introduced in the GBA versions of these games, as per the Steam bundle page:

FINAL FANTASY I-VI Bundle on Steam

store.steampowered.com

＊These games are newly developed remaster editions based on the original titles. Some of the changes and additional elements found in other remakes of these games are not included."

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and with confirmation that the iOS versions will no longer be purchasable:

‎FINAL FANTASY (Old Ver.)

‎********************************** Due to the release of the pixelated remaster of "FINAL FANTASY," this application will no longer be available for purchase. Those who purchase this version of the game before it is discontinued may continue to play and/or redownload the app. Please note that sho…

apps.apple.com

this means we will no longer be able to access the following content in a modern port of these games:

• Soul of Chaos bonus dungeons (Final Fantasy)
• Labyrinth of Time bonus dungeon (Final Fantasy)
• Arcane Labyrinth bonus dungeons (Final Fantasy II)
• Soul of Rebirth post-game campaign (Final Fantasy II)
• Sealed Temple with story boss Enuo(Final Fantasy V)
• GBA exclusive jobs (Final Fantasy V)
• Dragon's Den bonus dungeon (Final Fantasy VI)
• Soul Shrine bonus dungeon (Final Fantasy VI)
• Additional Espers. (Final Fantasy VI)

That's... kinda bull? Say what you will about the graphical quality of V and VI (which I think is overstated) but the games themselves played well, and they're not the only ones being delisted. The iOS coversions of FF and FFII are based on the much lauded PSP conversions.

Years of revisions and accumulated bonus and post-game content is no longer available on modern systems, and I think that's a net loss. They could have easily kept these versions purchasable, they already marked them as "(old ver.)", perhaps just increase their prices compared to the Pixel Remasters to encourage the new ones, but I guess the idea that they're selling new competing products with less content at the same time wouldn't sit well with them.

I am slightly miffed.

 

[bombermouse]

"Some of the changes and additional elements found in other remakes of these games are not included"

Why jump to conclusion? Even if it's no there I think that's fine.

 

[jonjonaug]

Outside of the Soul of Rebirth campaign in FF2 most of that is no great loss.

 

[Cheezeman3000]

As one of the few who is happy that the new releases are more true to the originals without the extra dungeons and jobs, it is definitely BS that they're removing the versions that DID have those. I understand not wanting to confuse consumers with two versions though.

Edit:

Outside of the Soul of Rebirth campaign in FF2 most of that is no great loss.

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This is also true.

 

[Quinton]

FFV and FFVI are being robbed here.

 

[Perkin_Warbeck]

Some people on twitter have been pointing out how incongruous the razer sharp modern text looks with the old sprite graphics. It's too bad they didn't give more attention to that aspect of it.

EDIT:

 

[Zero-ELEC]

Outside of the Soul of Rebirth campaign in FF2 most of that is no great loss.

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Meeting Enuo in V was a big deal. And the bonus dungeons were fun.

 

[AuthenticM]

Hopefully FF5 has the extra jobs and the extra boss.

 

[Shadow2222]

Ff6 would be missing extra espers, right? Those were added in the GBA version I believe

 

[Zero-ELEC]

Hopefully FF5 has the extra jobs and the extra boss.

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During the Pixel Remaster panel (which they took down) they showed off all of Bartz/Butz job sprites, and there were no extra Jobs.

Ff6 would be missing extra espers, right? Those were added in the GBA version I believe

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Indeed Diabolos, Gilgamesh, Leviathan, and Cactuar.

 

[Belthazar90]

A shame, the mobile ports of FF1 and 2 looked GREAT and quite better than the new remasters.

 

[-Le Monde-]

Did it get pulled already?
Would like to get them before it's gone.

 

[Altered]

SE didn't waste any time delisting those games from the ios store. couldn't purchase ff1 but I got ff2.

edit: had to use my other iphone to buy ff1

 

[Gradon]

As one of the few who is happy that the new releases are more true to the originals without the extra dungeons and jobs,

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Never have I seen anyone actively advocating for less content in a newly remastered version of a previous game before until this Pixel Remaster nonsense.

 

[Berordn]

Did it get pulled already?
Would like to get them before it's gone.

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It's all still available for now, but they're already labeled as "OLD VER" on the store.

 

[Deleted member 721]

soul of rebirth is really a good story

 

[AlexFlame116]

Can't forget about Final Fantasy IV's GBA dungeon. Unfortunately it was never released on PC or Mobile.

 

[BassForever]

Never have I seen anyone actively advocating for less content in a newly remastered version of a previous game before until this Pixel Remaster nonsense.

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Yeah, even if you don't like all the new content, it's not like it was forced down your throat or poorly incorporated into the main game. For the most part they were all either new extremely late game side quest or post game areas.

 

[Mars People]

Nobody in the world is sad to see the back of that last garbage version of FFVI.

 

[Disclaimer]

Pixel Remaster really turned out to be a huge monkey's paw. Par for the course with SE and FF.

 

[Quinton]

Yeah, even if you don't like all the new content, it's not like it was forced down your throat or poorly incorporated into the main game. For the most part they were all either new extremely late game side quest or post game areas.

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Aye.

I like the look of these remasters overall but if IV through VI lack the prior ports' bells and whistles that's just a crying shame.

Especially for VI, because I'm never touching that old mobile version with a six-foot pole. <_<

 

[shoptroll]

Of course this would be a monkey paw.

 

[Altered]

Did it get pulled already?
Would like to get them before it's gone.

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They're still there as of this post. they just pushed an update for 1,2,5, and 6 with the description reading

the title of the app has been changed. Purchases of the app have been suspended.

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[Dary]

They've been taking notes from Game Freak, obviously.

 

[Kouriozan]

FF V Pixel not based on the GBA version is super disappointed.

 

[Kemal86]

It sucks there's really no definitive version of 6, that includes the new content, but without the compromises in the GBA port or the awful sprites from the mobile port.

 

[Lukar]

There may be a workaround for folks who miss out on the mobile versions of FF1 and FF2. You can buy those versions as in-app purchases from the FF Portal app— they're played within that app instead of on their own, but they're otherwise identical to the versions from the App Store / Play Store. Since it seems that these are being delisted very soon, if you miss out on them, check the Portal app before giving up hope. You may still be able to get them there.

 

[Deleted member 81119]

This just makes no sense. The only thing that would make sense is if this content is there in some form, but has been changed. So like Enuo still there but not the sealed dungeon.

But the GBA jobs were not shown. So..

Eugh this is SOOOO Square Enix.

 

[Arithmetician]

Congratulation Square, you finally convinced me to pull the trigger and buy all of them.

 

[Hippopuncher12]

Square gonna Square.

 

[DimitriLH]

For a game that's known and loved for its job system, it weirds me out seeing people not care for the extra ones in FFV....

No reason why SE can't add the new stuff.

 

[timrtabor123]

This is why I'm not big on additional or changed content in games framed as ports or deluxe editions from a preservation standpoint. It almost always leads to one version of the game getting framed as the canon one and you either lose some historical game design context or the new content in itself becomes abandonware. KH2 and KH3 for example are infamously poorly balanced in their original releases but the final mix and DLC add ons/patches overhauled ability progression you'd never know that from playing the games on modern releases). If your a hobbyist or greenhorn game designer wanting to learn from KH's combat design you aren't getting the full story from one version of the game. This especially bad with something like Persona 3 or Street Fighter 2 where you have like 300 versions.

 

[pikachief]

Are there any FF games I should pick up from here before theyre gone? Or do they all have better versions elsewhere?

 

[Dary]

For a game that's known and loved for its job system, it weirds me out seeing people not care for the extra ones in FFV....

No reason why SE can't add the new stuff.

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The main problem is that they don't show up until the endgame (beyond even the Mime!), and the final one is locked behind the final superboss, so they don't see much use. Most players wouldn't even know they exist!

Of course, if Square was truly invested in these things, they might release a definitive version of FFV with built-in randomiser options...

 

[Keym]

I think I'll actually miss iv's bonus content the most.

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

Nobody in the world is sad to see the back of that last garbage version of FFVI.

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I've recently come to appreciate the high quality of the redone monster sprites buuuut that's about it.

 

[Lukar]

Are there any FF games I should pick up from here before theyre gone? Or do they all have better versions elsewhere?

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• FF1 and FF2's mobile versions are based on their PSP versions, so they have all the extra content ever added to the games across their re-releases up until now. These aren't sold anywhere else— the PSP versions were physical-only (at least in the US; not sure about elsewhere), and they were never released on PC.
• FF5 and FF6 are remakes with all of the content included from previous re-releases. These were released on PC and can still be bought on Steam for a few weeks. These versions don't look the best, but they are content-complete, and can at least be modded on PC to look however you prefer (at least, I think they can be).

 

[Lowblood]

I have 1, 5, and 6 on iOS, so I guess I'll keep access to these versions after delisting (for whatever good it does me on the latter two). I do worry about them eventually becoming unusable after an iOS firmware upgrade, since they won't have updates in the future. That's how we lost the English SMT1 of course.

I'm much more interested in the new versions, and I have the PSP releases for 1&2 if needed, but yeah, always sucks to lose something, even if it's not well-regarded.

 

[Weiss]

"This is good actually" - person who is definitely not a simp.

 

[-Le Monde-]

It's all still available for now, but they're already labeled as "OLD VER" on the store.

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:(

They're still there as of this post. they just pushed an update for 1,2,5, and 6 with the description reading

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:)

 

[chaobreaker]

Not a huge loss. Almost none of this bonus content is remarkable.

 

[ivantod]

Some people on twitter have been pointing out how incongruous the razer sharp modern text looks with the old sprite graphics. It's too bad they didn't give more attention to that aspect of it.

EDIT:

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How the fuck is it that after all these years, SquareEnix somehow remains entirely incapable of using a normal looking font on their RPG remakes? I mean they all have shit fonts, but this one genuninely takes the cake and actually hurts my eyes to read. Was there no one really to say anything at any point in the process? This is even more egregious when the PSP version of FFIV has perfect looking fonts, and all they needed to do was just use that. Just look how much better this looks:

Who is making decisions over there?

And regarding the other stuff (removing the extras) it seems to me that the only company that comes close to the level of mindbogglingness of Square is basically just Nintendo.

Also, I'm bummed that it's somehow still not possible to have an actual definitive version of FF6. It seems that right now, the best way to play it essentially the GBA version with patched in sound/music from the SNES version. All other versions are in some way compromised (SNES version has translation issues with item names and other stuff, GBA version obviosly has poor quality sound and I think also some issues with colours, mobile versions have horrible blurry graphics, PC version has also blurry graphics plus it retains the ridiculous touch menus from the mobile ver which make it borderline unplayable, and then this remake removes the extra content).

WTF, why is this so incredibly hard to get right?

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

It seems like the ability to sell multiple versions to completists is the sort of thing a company would like? Do they really think there will be enough customer confusion to make it not worthwhile, even with OLD VERSION in the titles and screenshots/descriptions making the difference as clear as possible?

 

[Cheezeman3000]

Never have I seen anyone actively advocating for less content in a newly remastered version of a previous game before until this Pixel Remaster nonsense.

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"Content," if not done properly, can make a game worse. More content is not always a good thing, and this applies to all games.

 

[Zero-ELEC]

"Content," if not done properly, can make a game worse. More content is not always a good thing, and this applies to all games.

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It's a good thing the content of these versions wasn't bad and did not make the game worse.

 

[Deleted member 81119]

"Content," if not done properly, can make a game worse. More content is not always a good thing, and this applies to all games.

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I can absolutely see how the Sealed Temple, The Labrynth of Time and Soul of Chaos might be considered bad content, and maybe even the Lunar Trials. They're weird and don't fit with the rest of the game.

But even if you hate those; Enuo, Zeromus EG and Kaiser Dragon in the Dragon's Den are legit good content that blend perfectly with the rest of the games. There is amazing content being taken away here and I can't work out why.

 

[BasilZero]

Oh wow

Glad I bought these last year when they were on sale

Sucks the content is not in the new versions and will likely won't see them again anytime soon :(

 

[Aeana]

I don't agree with delisting the games at all, but these versions were not being recommended to anyone who asked. In fact, if someone proclaimed "I'm going to play the mobile/Steam version of FF6" they would have been shouted down and begged to play any other version. That says to me that the extra content wasn't really valued that much by people over other aspects of the games.

 

[Zero-ELEC]

I don't agree with delisting the games at all, but these versions were not being recommended to anyone who asked. In fact, if someone proclaimed "I'm going to play the mobile/Steam version of FF6" they would have been shouted down and begged to play any other version. That says to me that the extra content wasn't really valued that much by people over other aspects of the games.

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And I think those people shouting them down were kinda dicks. They were perfectly acceptable versions. And the things those people complained about, the sprites and menus, also don't seem particularly stellar in the new versions so idk. Seems like a net loss.

 

[Quinton]

Oh wow

Glad I bought these last year when they were on sale

Sucks the content is not in the new versions and will likely won't see them again anytime soon :(

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Remove AoM and this is my Kindle Fire 10, haha.