VI is back

[redsliver]

Mild spoilers, read this if you've played the SNES version.

Neglecting the studying I should be doing I dropped a little over four hours into the GBA remake of FFVI today, just got Phantom, Bismark, et al. in the Magitek Research Facility and am about to flee via the train car Cid pushes you on.

I have to say, Celes, Cyan and Edgar's lines are a lot more satisfying, Ultros's lines seem slightly more perverted and there seems to be a greater amount of continuity between conversations. Also they kept the old American Character names (Sabin and Terra over Mash and Tina) however my two favorite characters seem to be watered down.

Locke loses all his great lines. "Call me a treasure hunter or I'll rip your lungs out!", being the one that stands out the most for me, is gone. I wish I had written down the discrepancies because they're rampant. The only other one I recall with certainty is when Terra casts magic in combat and Locke and Edgar stop to in awe. Locke used to say "This kid's loaded for bear." but now says "She's really something."

Next is Setzer who suffers from a milder version of Locke's loss of testicular mass most notable when he says that Celes is "cuter than Maria" and not "even more beautiful than Maria." However he does keep his signature introduction line "My life is a chip in your pile, ante up."

The Opera lyrics are different, and that jarred me. However I don't think they were worse, except for when they call Draco "a soldier of the West" rather than "The West's great hero."

Sabin is relatively equivalent. Except I did miss his "Confound it all! I'm starting to talk like you!" When he and Cyan were climbing into the M-Tek armors. Oh and they kept Magitek instead of going to Magitech, I liked that.

Other things are different, primarily item, move, monster and esper names but those are insignificant in any other reason than trying to recall which rages do what.

All in all, I think the step down in Locke's lines are greater than any of the benefits of a reinterpretation of the original Japanese.

[Guest Big Samurai]

Normally, Red, I'd've been the first to post about FF6A, but ... there are several reasons why I am not particularly happy with this port, especially in comparing it to the extremely well-done FF5A.

1.) The dialogue is ... more or less the same as the PS1 and SNES versions, though, as you have noted, it's been cleaned up in several spots, some for the better, some for the worse. Many of the signature lines are gone.

2.) There is lag in the battles! I can understand that happening with the PS1 version, since that had to make do with loading from a disc, but this is a cartridge, and that makes it inexcusable.

3.) The sound quality is -- forgive me -- utter shit. FF6 has the best soundtrack in the series, IMO, and this version makes it sound terrible.

4.) Square Enix removed Sakaguchi's name from the credits and added Nomura's, even though Nomura had pretty much nothing to do with the game. Talk about a slap in the face!

5.) This is the most popular game in the SNES FF trilogy, yet availability on it is extremely. I got my own copy easily enough, since I had it pre-ordered, but finding a second copy for my girlfriend took me to three different stores. It was not because they sold out, mind you, it was because they did not receive many to start. What the heck? They got plenty of FF4A and FF5A; why does the big one get shafted?

Don't get me wrong, this is still a great game, as it was thirteen years ago, but there's a lot of things that stink about this rerelease.

[TerraBreaker]

I won't be lining SE's pockets by purchasing this... again.

I played the rom version ages ago, it was great, and is one of my favourite FF's.

I bought the PS1 version, the added bonuses of non-integrated FMV's and the ever handy load sequences did not amuse.

Ultros's lines seem slightly more perverted and there seems to be a greater amount of continuity between conversations.

No! I must not be tempted by potential hidden tentacle rape scenes!

As the saying goes if its not broke, don't fix it, SE would do better to concentrate on some new titles rather the rereleasing old ones, I mean all the FF's will undoubtedly make an appearance on the Wii virtual console at some point in the future. It's just like with FFT:The Lion War being "remade"/ported to the PSP with additonal scenes (looks like they will replace the original sprite based scenes ala Valkyrie Profile:Lenneth) - It's pleasing in one way, but I'd still rather scene a new and original Tactics game, its almost like they're scared to try anything new.