Your favorite remakes?

[Sefie1999AD]

FF1 and FF2 NES have got tons of remakes. Which of them do you think is the best? I'm not including NES versions in this poll because they'd most likely be voted as the best versions due to the fact that they were the original versions, especially with FF1. So only remakes are included in this poll. Here's the deal: Choose the remake version of FF1 which you like the most AND the remake version of FF2 which you like the most. So this is a multi-choice poll.

Before I let you vote, I'll introduce each remake a bit:

FF1 WSC - I love this version. I played it many times, and the gameplay is fast and fun. I played this with a fan translation which was very true to the original NES translation, with the exception of adding FF-ish translations like "Lali-Ho!" for dwarves, Holy, Flare and other things like that.

FF1 PSX (Origins) - There's an easy version which gets really boring since it's so easy. The game feels a bit slow, and for some reason I can't be bothered to play it that much non-stop. The translation is a bit dodgy. It's professionally done and polished, sure, but it doesn't catch the original style of FF1, so it just doesn't really fit the game. Yeah, I'm one of those puritans who prefer some of the original town names and stuff. :p The remade music is very nice, though. Excellent quality and great rearrangements. The music sure follows FF1's spirit nicely. :)

FF1 GBA (Dawn of Souls) - I haven't played this one yet, so I can only say what I've heard. It seems the translation is now closer to the original FF1 NES, though it still keeps the professional quality. I've also heard Garland's famous "You impertinent fools! I, Garland, will knock you all down!" line is back. Sounds good. :) However, I've also heard the magic system has been replaced with MPs, the items, equipment and magic in shops are cheaper, the max level is 99 and many other changes that turn FF1 more into new-school style. Not sure if that's a good thing at all. There's also some hidden dungeon(s) where you can fight bosses from FF4-6. Not a bad idea. I've listened to the music a bit, and though it's not the quality of the PSX version, it's still okay.

FF2 WSC - Let me get this straight. This annoys me even more than the NES version. The battles might be a bit faster, but the game is still annoying to play. The fan translation is also really horrible. Maybe I should just learn Japanese and play it without the translation. Meh. It still wouldn't save this WSC version. This one isn't for me, really.

FF2 PSX (Origins) - This is better, and the new sounds and music are really excellent. The translation annoys me here too for the same reason as it did with FF1 PSX. Firion, Gus, Gareth... blarg. I still have a problem with the leveling up system since magic takes forever to level up. You need to swing weapon about 10-20 times to level it up (you get about 5-10 weapon points every time you swing a weapon, and 100 points get a level-up), but you need to cast a spell 50 times to level it up (you get 2 spell points every time you cast a spell, 100 needed to level a spell up). That gets really annoying, and I find it tedious to level even one spell to level 10 or so. And if you want to do that leveling up to all your 16 spells individually... blarg. Spell development is what makes me dislike the battle system.

FF2 GBA (Dawn of Souls) - I haven't played this one yet, but I've heard the system has been a lot more tweaked, and the names have got a slightly better translation this time. I searched through other threads in EoFF, but I can't get a really good picture about how the battle system of FF2 has been improved after the PSX version. If someone can explain more about the battle system of FF2 GBA or the bonus features, then feel free to explain more in this thread.

Okay, now that I've added the descriptions, it's time to vote. What are your favorite FF1 and FF2 remakes?

[Necronopticous]

The Dawn of Souls remakes are hands down the best, best quality.

[Sefie1999AD]

Okay, I played FF1 and FF2 Dawn of Souls both for about 15 minutes, and here's what I can tell.

FF1 seems a lot like the Easy version in the PSX at least with the way how you'll gain levels super quickly and how everything is cheaper. You also have some (very lousy, though) equipment at the beginning of the game rather than having to start the game with no equipment at all. The magic uses MPs this time. Cure takes 3 MP, Fire and Bolt take 5 MP. Your mages have 10 MP in the beginning. Wanna know how quickly you level up here? I started to march to the Castle of Fiends. I fought 3 battles against Goblins. Level-up. I defeated Garland. Level-up. Already at level 3. o_O You can also save anywhere, even in dungeons. There's also no chance of enabling the Ineffective feature. :/ Meh, I hope the game gets challenging later or this will be a total cakewalk. What I like is that the loading times are pretty much nothing. This game plays even faster than in the PSX version! BTW You can choose to auto-name your characters. It seems every character has their own set of random names. White Mage had mostly female names (though also a few male ones), Monk had mostly male names (I can't actually remember female names for monks) and other classes had both.

FF2's battle system seems a lot better so far. Every action takes faster in battles and menus, which is a good thing. What I like is that whenever someone speaks, that character's face and expression shows up in a textbox along with the dialogue, similar to Chrono Cross and Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. :p A very nice addition. Just like in FF1 DoS, you can save anywhere, even in towns, and I assume dungeons too. The weapons and spells level up a LOT faster this time. I got my weapons to level 2 by attacking with them twice, and to level 3 by attacking with them a bit more than 5 times. I also got my Cure spell to level 2 by casting it about 5 times. Very nice. This is how it always should have been, weapons and spells leveling up faster in the beginning, and later requiring more work to level up.

My first impressions of the GBA version was very good. Even the sound and music quality seemed pretty good. Not the quality of PSX version, but it's still high quality, and each sound and instrument is clear and distinguishable. :)

[commodorejohn]

The GBA version is good, though I prefer the old-school D&D-style gameplay that the NES and Wonderswan versions had.

[Flashback007]

Dawn of Souls is by far the best. Although I did like Origins a bit tough. But Dawn of Souls, with the cool intro's and other things. Nah, even FMV cannot win from them.

[Rase]

Dawn of Souls for both here. I prefer the straighter translation, as well as the nice little tweaks. Also, the four new dungeons in FFI are pretty fun, though attempting the bosses too early is just begging for death.