Those masters of coasting on past success, Square Enix, have announced yet another rerelease of their Final Fantasy games. Seriously, I think you’re out George-Lucasing George Lucas at this point Square. At least he slightly changes things (admittedly for the worst) every time he does it.
This box set, put together in celebration of the series’ 25th Anniversary, collects every last one of the main series Final Fantasy games, spanning multiple systems, all of them Sony. Here’s the complete rundown of what’s inside:
- Final Fantasy (PS1, 1 disc)
- Final Fantasy II (PS1, 1 disc)
- Final Fantasy III (PSP, 1 disc)
- Final Fantasy IV (PS1, 1 disc)
- Final Fantasy V (PS1, 1 disc)
- Final Fantasy VI (PS1, 1 disc)
- Final Fantasy VII International (PS1, 4 discs)
- Final Fantasy VIII (PS1, 4 discs)
- Final Fantasy IX (PS1, 4 discs)
- Final Fantasy X (PS2, 1 disc)
- Final Fantasy XI Vana Del Collection 2 (PS2, 1 disc)
- Final Fantasy XII (PS2, 1 disc)
- Final Fantasy XIII (PS3, 1 disc)
- Special anniversary video disc
- Crystal ArtWorks — an anniversary visual art collection
- A two disc anniversary music selection CD
- Final Fantasy XIV Mogu Mogu Earring item code
- Mini replica of Amano FF 25th Anniversary visual and stand
That is certainly a lot of things that everyone’s already bought. Note the absence of Final Fantasy XIV, presumably because it’s only available on PC at the moment. It does come with a code for a special in-game item for that one however.
Just how much will this fabulous chest of treasures of varying quality run you? Oh, how’s $450 sound? That’s in Yen mind you, because this is currently a Japanese exclusive available for purchase only through Square Enix’s e-Shop. There’s no word on if a stateside release of the collection is also planned, but considering the popularity of the series over here, it’s a safe bet something similar will materialize sometime soon.
Well, the new CD art with Yoshitaka Amano’s works is a nice touch.
Question is, for how long will Square Enix live off the old Final Fantasy games.
The series is stagnating, adding more games to the FF XIII collection, that nobody really likes anyway.
Contradicting with what made Final Fantasy; A completly different fantasy for the next game, putting effort and hope into it, like it really was the last game they would ever do…
They definitely need a reboot. They should stray away from the linear story telling, but that seems to be a thing in Japan now days.
This is a cool collectors item for the more hardcore FF fans…who quite frankly are old enough to be able to spend $450. I don’t think they expect to sell millions of these…
Would be cool if they were all placed on a current platform though, I’m sure lots of people don’t have a PS1/2 anymore, or even a gen1 PS3.
I would be surprised if they don’t bring this outside of Japan. Final Fantasy is actually more popular in the US and UK than it is in Japan.