The Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster series is a series of remakes of the first six numbered titles in the Final Fantasy series. The titles all use one unified engine running on the Unity game engine.

Overview

Announced on June 13, 2021 as part of Square Enix Presents Summer Showcase for E3 2021 and published on iOS and iPadOS, Android, Fire OS, and Microsoft Windows via Steam^[1] between July 2021 and February 2022, the Pixel Remaster series was promoted as being the "ultimate 2D remasters" of their respective games.^[2]

The spritework appears to be partially based on the art featured in FF DOT: The Pixel Art of Final Fantasy, a 2018 art book that featured re-imagined sprites from many titles in the series,^[3] and Final Fantasy Dimensions. All six titles' character pixel art have been remastered from their original versions by the games' original pixel artist Kazuko Shibuya, who has worked on the Final Fantasy series since the first game.^[4] The remasters do not include some previous Easter eggs, nor do they include any of the bonus dungeons and features introduced in the Game Boy Advance ports and further releases based on those.^[5] Each release features a remastered musical score supervised by the original composer, Nobuo Uematsu, as well as some adjustments taken from previous versions. Several prominent bugs and glitches from the original titles have also been resolved.

On December 18, 2022, the 35th anniversary of the Final Fantasy series, Square Enix announced that the six games would be released on PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch in Spring 2023.^[6] On April 5, 2023, Square Enix confirmed that these versions would be released on April 19 with new options, such as changing the font to a pixel-based font and ability to choose new remastered or original version soundtrack.^[7]

The collection was also released on September 26, 2024 on Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC via the Microsoft Store, and Xbox Cloud Gaming. They may be purchased in a bundle or individually. This version includes "Xbox Play Anywhere", providing access on all of these platforms with a single purchase, although the Xbox Cloud version requires subscription to Game Pass Ultimate.

Final Fantasy was relaunched as an Apple Arcade title on January 9, 2025, offering free access to subscribers and near-universal compatibility across Apple hardware. It remains largely identical to the paid standalone version, save for the addition of external controller support and Apple-specific features.

Relationship to previous versions

With the release of the Pixel Remaster series, the previous Windows, iOS, and Android releases of Final Fantasy V and Final Fantasy VI, as well as the previous iOS and Android releases of Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy II, were delisted from their respective stores as of July 28, and are no longer available for purchase. Players already possessing licenses to previous versions can continue to install and play them until the operating environment changes, at which point full functionality of the older versions cannot be guaranteed. Meanwhile, the 3D remakes of Final Fantasy III and Final Fantasy IV, being established releases with more distinctive gameplay, remain available on all app stores, simply retitled and repackaged in early June 2021.

The Pixel Remaster versions are the first official PC release of Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy II, as well as the first international release of a 2D version of Final Fantasy III, with all prior international releases of the game being the 3D remake.

Version differences

Unlike previous versions of the games (where Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy II were typically ported at the same time, while other games were ported as individual projects), the Pixel Remaster versions were made at roughly the same time, on an engine designed to support features from all six games at once. As a result, beyond the normal minor adjustments that happen from version to version, the overall game design and graphical style is much more unified, and mechanics in the games now more resemble the appearances in later entries in the series. This can be most strongly seen in Final Fantasy II, which introduced several recurring mechanics, but which were often implemented in a way that does not resemble how the rest of the series would go on to use them; these mechanics have been adjusted to be more like those later games. Bugs throughout the games have also been fixed, including those that had been intentionally kept in other versions.

Although Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster keeps many items introduced in Dawn of Souls and reworks them to account for changes to how MP works, all new content that was added in the Finest Fantasy for Advance versions or later has been removed.

Updates

In addition to the changes made at launch, the PC and mobile versions of the Pixel Remaster have received balance adjustments and bug fixes since release.

Released on April 19, 2023, the PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch versions contain new features at launch, including a new pixel font, the option to change between arranged and original soundtracks, a reworked difficulty to be closer to the original ones, and modifiers for encounter rate, EXP, Gil, and ABP gained. On January 30, 2024, the smartphone and PC versions were updated to include these quality-of-life features in "Ver. 1.1.0".^{[8][9][10][11][12][13]}

Later, on March 5, 2025, the PC version received the "Ver. 1.2.0" update, which mostly included UI and control improvements as well as bug fixes.^{[14][15][16][17][18][19]} On March 12, 2025, this update was rolled out to most other platforms.^[20]

Gallery

FINAL FANTASY I-VI PIXEL REMASTER -FF35TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION- promotional photo

Japanese FINAL FANTASY I-VI PIXEL REMASTER -FF35TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION- promotional photo

FINAL FANTASY I-VI Collection（The downloadable version is FINAL FANTASY I-VI Bundle） PS4 and Nintendo Switch Japanese box art

FINAL FANTASY I-VI COLLECTION MEMORIAL PACKAGE PS4 Cover

FINAL FANTASY I-VI COLLECTION MEMORIAL PACKAGE Switch Cover

External links

• Official English language website
• Official Japanese language website

Citations