Final Fantasy Anthology

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Final Fantasy Anthology
Final Fantasy Anthology's North American box art
Developer(s)	Square TOSE
Publisher(s)	NA Square Electronic Arts EU SCE Europe
Series	Final Fantasy
Platform(s)	PlayStation
Release date(s)	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
Input methods	Gamepad

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 1 Gameplay 2 Development 3 Music from FFV and FFVI 4 Reception 5 See also 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Gameplay

This section requires expansion.

The gameplay in both Final Fantasy V and VI use many standard role-playing elements; characters grow in strength by gaining experience points from random encounters with monsters on the overworld or in a dungeon. Experience culminates in a "level up" in which party members' attributes, such as hit points or magic power, increase. Like previous Final Fantasy installments, the games consist of four basic modes of gameplay: an overworld map, town and dungeon field maps, a battle screen, and a menu screen. The overworld map is a scaled-down version of the game's fictional world, which the player uses to direct characters to various locations.

Active Time Battle (ATB) system, in which time flows continuously for both the player and enemies during combat, is used in both these games.^[2] The first game to use this system was Final Fantasy IV.

Final Fantasy V uses the Job system, expanded from Final Fantasy III, while keeping a predetermined amount of characters in the party at all times, whereas Final Fantasy VI has a large number of selectable playable characters which often leave and reenter the party, or the large party splits up and you must play through the segment as that party, then switch to another, then the other, etc.

[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
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

Reception
Aggregate scores Aggregator Score GameRankings 85%[4] Metacritic 80 of 100[3]
Review scores Publication Score Allgame [5] GamePro 4 of 5[6] GameSpot 8.1 of 10[7] IGN 9 of 10[8]

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. 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.^[9]

[edit] See also

• Music of Final Fantasy V
• Music of Final Fantasy VI

[edit] References

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2007)

[edit] External links

• Official site (North American version)
• PlayStation.com game page
• Final Fantasy Anthology at MobyGames
• Differences between FFAnthology and original versions of games

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