Current Events > Image dump comparison of old and new FFIX...

(+) Yeah! (+)

New FFIX being the smartphone version, of course. It annoys me to no end that since it was directly ported to Steam and PS4 with no changes whatsoever, the UI is atrocious.

However, it looks absolutely beautiful.

Here's what the layout and design of the menu should look like.


And here's what it actually looks like. Looks more HD, which is nice, but I hate the layout and design of it.


Classic item screen with help moogle.


New and improved HD moogle, but uglier item screen layout.


How the battle menu should look.


But instead, we're constantly reminded we're playing a smartphone port.


Naming screen gets a complete and total overhaul.



But on the subject of the FMVs... Holy shit. Did they completely re-render those? I honestly didn't realize they still had the assets for those. I doubt they were originally rendered at this resolution and scaled down to fit the PlayStation 1. Maybe they still had the actual 3D animation files and rendered them over again?













You can see those houses in so much clearer detail now. It's insane just how nice some things about the smartphone version looks. It's just a shame Square was too lazy to make the menu layout look like the old game when they ported it to Steam and PS4. Because that is seriously bugging me.
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the thing that drove my love of ffix was nostalgia, and seeing them destroy the UI killed my desire to play the PC port

never got out of the evil forest

Looks the same to me
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Thank you for providing this TC, I thought about buying it but after seeing this..I can't believe they didn't bother to use the PS1 Version since it's UI & graphics did have a certain charm to it.

The upscale would have been enough to warrant a re-buy, but damn their phone-happy selves is seriously getting annoying, fuck off Japan with that shit already.
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UnfairRepresent posted...

Looks the same to me

You should get glasses
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The mixed FMVs in the field look like hell. They didn't scale well at all. Considering technical limitations of the original, though, I can't really be upset. It is how it is.
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I'll stick to my original discs thank you
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As long as the menu is blue and I can see the character portraits, I'm good.
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I bought the game on ps4 bit aftwr seeing the shit UI here and elsewhere im contemplating not even bothering to play it

Kisai posted...

Naming screen gets a complete and total overhaul.

that was semi-present in the original already.
if you just let it run on the start menu that picture shows up, along with some weird quote that is never said in-game
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That naming screen looks flipping awful.
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The UI wouldn't look nearly as bad if they at the very least got rid of the box lines.. but yeah.. that UI looks pretty awful.

The FMVs look pretty damn good based on those screenshots though.
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This also makes me kind of worry for the upcoming anniversary collection. Like... Are they gonna just shovel all these mobile ports onto it instead of the originals?
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Robin_Dude posted...

The FMVs look pretty damn good based on those screenshots though.

The font is ugly as shit in the opening credits FMV in the remaster, though.

is the PC version the same UI as this?
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ROBANN_88 posted...

is the PC version the same UI as this?

yes
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NibeIungsnarf posted...

Robin_Dude posted...

The FMVs look pretty damn good based on those screenshots though.

The font is ugly as shit in the opening credits FMV in the remaster, though.

Different than the text in the screenshots op posted?
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Sure, it looks nicer, but this is like the fourth time they've released this game. It's my second favorite FF but I'm not going to buy it again... not until I can no longer play it on my PS3.
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The difference is enough for me to not want to buy this on PS4. I'll have to go back to older versions I own if I decide to play it again.
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Some of y'all nitpick over the dumbest shit
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DezCaughtIt posted...

Some of y'all nitpick over the dumbest shit

Yea I don't get it.
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Looks good to me. :o Don't like the font but everything else is better.
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Maybe it's because I never played the original, but I don't really see the issue with the UI. Except on the battle screen where they take up more of the screen than they should on a monitor or TV (it makes sense for them to be that big on smartphones).
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MegaTech posted...

DezCaughtIt posted...

Some of y'all nitpick over the dumbest shit

Yea I don't get it.

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It's nostalgia like others have said. When you market nostalgia even a small change can make a big difference to the feel of the game. Especially when that change is done to a menu that you see through the entire game.
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Whoa. Is that how the PS4 newest release looks too? Looks pretty nice.
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Melonfarms posted...

It's nostalgia like others have said. When you market nostalgia even a small change can make a big difference to the feel of the game. Especially when that change is done to a menu that you see through the entire game.

It's not nostalgia. It's something looking decidedly worse than in another, 20ish year old version of the same product.

I think it looks fine. I'll probably get it.
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I didn't have an issue with anything they updated in the PC/smart-phone/tablet version at all. It's a great update.

What really sucks is that Square lost the original pre-rendered backgrounds. They were a very high quality, and when made for the PS1 they had to be compressed. Some are still around, but imagine how fantastic the game would look if they still had those...
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Caution999 posted...

I didn't have an issue with anything they updated in the PC/smart-phone/tablet version at all. It's a great update.

What really sucks is that Square lost the original pre-rendered backgrounds. They were a very high quality, and when made for the PS1 they had to be compressed. Some are still around, but imagine how fantastic the game would look if they still had those...

yea, the pre-rendered backgrounds are really the thing holding back the PSX final fantasies. :/ Upscaling can only do so much. You basically have to choose between pixelated or distorted. I wonder if it'd ever be possible for fans to recreate them.
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@_Near_ posted...

I think it looks fine. I'll probably get it.

Definitely buy it, you never finished the game.
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I heard they never fixed the bugs concerning this port if it's related to PC.
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Yeah it was the only ff game that I definitely wanted to finish.
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OpheliaAdenade posted...

Caution999 posted...

I didn't have an issue with anything they updated in the PC/smart-phone/tablet version at all. It's a great update.

What really sucks is that Square lost the original pre-rendered backgrounds. They were a very high quality, and when made for the PS1 they had to be compressed. Some are still around, but imagine how fantastic the game would look if they still had those...

yea, the pre-rendered backgrounds are really the thing holding back the PSX final fantasies. :/ Upscaling can only do so much. You basically have to choose between pixelated or distorted. I wonder if it'd ever be possible for fans to recreate them.

I'm kind of lost here, do you all mean the environments from the original PS1 release got lost back then? The game could have looked different?
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It is the best iOS game besides FFT so I'll take it even if the UI is shit.

Is the music remastered??
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Kaliesto posted...

OpheliaAdenade posted...

Caution999 posted...

I didn't have an issue with anything they updated in the PC/smart-phone/tablet version at all. It's a great update.

What really sucks is that Square lost the original pre-rendered backgrounds. They were a very high quality, and when made for the PS1 they had to be compressed. Some are still around, but imagine how fantastic the game would look if they still had those...

yea, the pre-rendered backgrounds are really the thing holding back the PSX final fantasies. :/ Upscaling can only do so much. You basically have to choose between pixelated or distorted. I wonder if it'd ever be possible for fans to recreate them.

I'm kind of lost here, do you all mean the environments from the original PS1 release got lost back then? The game could have looked different?

The original pre-rendered backgrounds are a much higher quality than what you see on the PS1 version. They had to be compressed to fit on the discs. The compressed versions of the backgrounds are all we have left.

The original versions of the pre-rendered backgrounds are a much higher quality, but most are lost.
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I don't see how the UI is in anyway "shit".
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Xelltrix posted...

I don't see how the UI is in anyway "shit".

Technically it's not, but it takes up to much room for the presentation of a battle & some of the original aesthetic that made up the UI had more charm to it. You can't just port something from the iOS to a console without making some necessary changes, that is just being lazy without making any quality changes to reflect the system it is on.

They just want a quick buck and it shows.

SE is really showing their colors lately.
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Covering up the last character is kind of lame, I suppose. But not having to slide to get to the extra moves seems like a good trade to me since the menu isn't always there. I remember I didn't even realize some of those choices were there for far too long when I first played the game.
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idk what is wrong, honestly this looks great.

they made the graphics sharper which looks great, and changed the menus so it's more based on clicking boxes rather than lines of text, which makes sense given that this is on a smartphone and you'll be tapping the screen. tapping individual lines of text on a 5 inch phone screen sounds like hell
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NibeIungsnarf posted...

The font is ugly as shit in the opening credits FMV in the remaster, though.

It's literally the exact same font, just less blurry.
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So basically nitpicking small changes and acting like they ruined your childhood. So sad.
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DezCaughtIt posted...

Some of y'all nitpick over the dumbest shit

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As someone who thinks FF9 is the best FF game and still replays it every couple years, these look fine and actually sold me on buying the PS4 version.

The Battle UI is the only one that's objectively worse, but it's not gamebreaking.
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creativerealms posted...

So basically nitpicking small changes and acting like they ruined your childhood. So sad.

Yup I really can't understand them.

well they do need to change the controls to be more touch screen friendly, thats just common sense, if you dont like it there are other ways to play final fantasy 9 on your smartphone
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You guys will complain about the dumbest shit. The UI is nearly identical and very faithful to the original

Goddamn that looks great.
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It's weird. It definitely looks more crisp, but it also looks too clean. The pixels gave the original a kind of grungy appearance that fit well with the medieval world. I wish developers took stuff like that into account for remasters. When you improve the resolution, that means the textures matter more, and if you just make them smooth then they look less convincing. Like that rug under Baku. It looks more like a real rug in the old version. And the moogle in the menu looked soft and fuzzy before. Now it looks like hard plastic.

Maybe playing the full game would win me over. I am kinda curious to try it now. The new formatting for the menus looks fine to me.
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Not a fan of the font but the font isn't really enough to tarnish one of the best games ever made
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