PSN Load Times For FFV and FFVI

I refuse to blow $10 on either of these - and I REALLY want them - until I have confirmation whether or not the awful PS1 load times are still there.

I never had problems with FFV's PS1 load times, they seemed about right to me. While I can't confirm it (google is your friend) I'm 90% sure FFVI's load times are there. Something to do with them being true 100% ports (something about being "hard coded" into the file) means that the fact it's stored on a hard drive does nothing to the load times. There's actually an option in the PSP version of the emulator to enable accelerated loading but from what I've heard it's up for the developer to enable it, and I'm sure Square Enix has no idea what it is.

So, IMO go for FFV, but don't get your hopes up for FFVI.

Sadly, the GBA versions are probably still the best bet for portable SNES goodness, but now their getting a bit rare and expensive, not to mention some liberties were taken with audio and visual quality. Other than that, its either deal with FFV and its awful translation and VI with its awful load times, or wait for a remake/port on the 3DS or Vita.

How much are the GBA versions going for?

Used, about $15 to $30. New about $35 to $75 on Amazon. You can probably get a better deal at a used game store or Gamestop, but even then it will be an issue if they have them and I doubt they will be better than $10 PSN cost for the Anthologies version.

I have no idea about V, but VI is really manageable. The whole Chrono trigger PS one release has blown the load time issue way out of proportion. It's no where near as bad as you think it is. I haven't tried fast disc read emulation thing on the PSP, but like Bolivar said, I doubt SE used it. These are some of the best RPGs in history (definitely the best ones Square's ever made). Something like an extra second is not going to be detrimental to your experience.

The load times are only bad if you are accustomed to the cartridge versions, because you know how quickly it goes. VI isn't that bad, it's just annoying waiting for the menu to pop up when you want to save or customize a character. CT on the other hand is annoying, and I feel completely justifiable to call it a deal breaker. Its not just that CT's battle system was seamless and fast, it's also the fact the loading times are noticeable every battle. Like FFTactics loading times, I feel it's easy to get accustomed to it but it's hard to argue quality when there are better ports of the game available on another system.

It's not just because i'm accustomed to the cartridge speed, but also because the loading problems probably could have been avoided with a bit of smart caching. But that was apparently too much work for them to do.

A quick check shows me that the PS1 has 2 MB of system RAM, the SNES had 128kB. "Technically", this should allow the PS1 to keep the current area, menu, battle system, all enemies in a certain area, and every area connecting to the current area in RAM at the same time, if it was just coded in a way that made the game do this.

The load times aren't the worst thing to happen tot he world. I beat FFVI the first time on PS1 after having played a big chunk on SNES emu. But for a guy like me, I'm always going to the menu, re-equipping characters, switching Espers, and healing after almost every battle sometimes. It was definitely a pain in places like the Floating Continent when the difficulty spikes a little bit.