Final Fantasy Anthology

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Final Fantasy Anthology
North American box art
Final Fantasy Anthology's North American box art
Developer(s) Square
Publisher(s) NA Square Electronic Arts
EU SCE Europe
Series Final Fantasy
Platform(s) PlayStation
Release date NA October 5, 1999[1]
EU May 17, 2002
Genre(s) Console role-playing game
Mode(s) Single player, multiplayer
Rating(s) ELSPA: 11+
ESRB: Teen
OFLC: G8+
USK: Free For All
Media 2 CD-ROMs

Final Fantasy Anthology is a compilation of two Final Fantasy console role-playing games by Square for the Sony PlayStation. Final Fantasy V and Final Fantasy VI are featured in the North American edition, while Final Fantasy IV and Final Fantasy V are in the PAL region edition. The games were ported by TOSE from the original Super Nintendo Entertainment System versions. Final Fantasy Anthology was published in North America on October 5, 1999 by Square Electronic Arts and in the PAL region on May 17, 2002 by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe.

In Japan, all three games were released for the PlayStation both individually and packaged together as part of a limited edition box set called Final Fantasy Collection. Although all three games differ little from the original Japanese versions in terms of gameplay, graphics, and sound, a number of extras were added, including art galleries, bestiaries, and two full motion video opening and ending sequences not present in the original releases.

Contents

[edit] Gameplay


[edit] Development

The original Super NES version of Final Fantasy V wasn't previously released outside of Japan (although an English language software localization was produced for an abortive Microsoft Windows port). Final Fantasy VI had previously been released in North America as Final Fantasy III; Ted Woolsey's translated and localized script from the Super NES was used for Final Fantasy Anthology, with minor changes (e.g. the item "Fenix Down" was renamed "Phoenix Down" to match later games in the series), though his name was omitted from the credits in this release. Some images had been censored or modified for the original North American release, and in Anthology, all of the original Japanese graphics have been restored.

Neither Final Fantasy IV, Final Fantasy V, nor Final Fantasy VI had previously been released in Europe in any form. Fan translations of Final Fantasy IV and Final Fantasy V had been made by the J2e Translations and RPGe teams, respectively; they differ from their Final Fantasy Anthology releases only in terms of the script. Alternatively, this compilation was released in Europe also, titled Final Fantasy Anthology: European Edition.

[edit] Music from FFV and FFVI

Music from FFV and FFVI
Music from FFV and FFVI cover
Soundtrack by Nobuo Uematsu
Length 56:54
Producer Nobuo Uematsu

The Music from FFV and FFVI bonus disc contains a selection of tracks, taken from the original soundtrack releases for Final Fantasy V (track 1–9) and Final Fantasy VI (10–22), respectively. The CD does not contain the background music of the game's full motion video sequences and is only available in the initial release, not the "Greatest Hits" edition.


[edit] Reception

Final Fantasy Anthology was met with mixed reviews, especially from North American audiences, who tended to be especially critical of the loading time inherent in the CD-ROM format utilized by the PlayStation but not in the original cartridge format utilized by the SNES. Players could expect a 2-4 second load time when accessing the items menus, and the transition between fight scenes also suffered from lags.

As the North American release did not include the PlayStation port of Final Fantasy IV, that title was subsequently packaged with Chrono Trigger and released two years later as Final Fantasy Chronicles in 2001. The PlayStation port of Final Fantasy VI was released separately in Europe. Early versions of the PlayStation 2 console were incompatible with both the North American and European versions of Final Fantasy Anthology, although these incompatibilities have since been addressed in later hardware revisions. The "Fast" disc speed of the PlayStation driver in the PlayStation 2 can be used to decrease load times in Final Fantasy Anthology.[citation needed]

The game went quickly out of print,[citation needed] especially when Final Fantasy Chronicles was released in 2001. In 2003, Square Enix re-released Final Fantasy Anthology as a PlayStation "Greatest Hits" game, for under $20 USD.[2]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

[edit] External links