Requirements For A Remake- SNES Era

[Colonel Angus]

Many fans who’ve been with the Final Fantasy series from the earliest days consider the 16-bit era “The Golden Age” of Final Fantasy games. The games had a much more fleshed out narrative and more complex characters. Despite how great we remember them, if these games were ever to be remade, these are the things we’d like to improve in each of them.

Final Fantasy IV


Final Fantasy IV is widely viewed as the first of the Final Fantasy series to have a fully fleshed out narrative. It’s a story of redemption and friendship, of brotherhood and honor. The battle system improves greatly from the last three, and the characters are all distinct in their personalities and abilities. So what could be wrong with such a game?

First and foremost is the random battle encounter rate. My god, you can’t take five steps in some dungeons without being ambushed by the same damn monsters over and over again. How many Cait Siths do I have to fight in the Magnetic Cave just to get to the Dark Elf?

What’s probably meant to be a challenge only ends up being frustrating and tedious. On top of that, the drop rate for items is horrible. Rare items like the Lillith Rod and the Imp summon are once in a lifetime finds, unless you’re a lunatic grinder. It seems that Final Fantasy IV has a few tweaks to fix.

Final Fantasy V


Now here’s a game with little need of improvement! Or so we think. Despite having a solid cast of wacky characters that make the most of the simplistic storyline, Final Fantasy V could use a little work. Our nitpick for this game involves the Final Fantasy V Advance edition for the Game Boy Advance. This version is seen by many as the best since the original Super Famicom edition from Japan.

The issue with Final Fantasy V Advance is the four bonus job classes (Cannoneer, Gladiator, Oracle and Necromancer) come so late in the game (in particular, the later job). You can’t get the first three until you’ve collected the 12 legendary weapons, and the last you can get after defeating Neo-ExDeath.

While this may not seem like a big deal to some, these jobs add awesome abilities to the game and are kind of wasted not being available until late in the game. This is particularly true for the Necromancer, where you have to travel around, killing enemies for their abilities (think of the Necromancer as a homicidal Blue Mage). Unless you’re a completionist, you may just miss out on this.

Final Fantasy VI


Final Fantasy VI seems to have it all. There’s a big cast of excellent characters, a deep, complex storyline and a homicidal clown for the big bad (Holy Magicite, Batman!). To many, it’s the best of this era. To others, it’s one of the best of the series.

However, one thing has always been worrisome about Final Fantasy VI. It’s Gau. We’re not saying we dislike the wild child, by any means. He’s a fun loving scamp with a quirky sense of humor. What’s not to love? Well, there is the manner you have to collect his rages.

Find certain enemies you’ve defeated earlier, and there’s a chance they’ll appear in the Veldt. Not only is their appearance random, you have to use the Leap ability, and Gau exits the party. Then you have to randomly find him and convince him to rejoin the party. Oh yeah, even after all of that, there’s a chance Gau won’t even learn a Rage.

While none of the 16-Bit Final Fantasy games are bad, some more than others can use some kind of improvement. Perfect or not, though, we still love them.

[Omni-Odin]

While I like the snes era, it is definitely not my golden age nor do I think their characters are more fleshed out than 7 or 9 or 10. Just my opinion obviously, but as you said, there are faults. We most definitely need a ffvi remake however. Unforgivable we haven't had one yet.

[Colonel Angus]

I was actually referring to the characters being more fleshed out than the previous generation's games, not the PSX & later games.