Square Enix Unveils Gargantuan Final Fantasy Anniversary Box Set

[Jeremy Wilkinson]

Square Enix Unveils Gargantuan Final Fantasy Anniversary Box Set

Celebrate a quarter-century of Final Fantasy with eleven pounds of Final Fantasy goodies.

Final Fantasy turns 25 this year, and to commemorate this milestone anniversary, Square Enix has something special in store: a huge box set spanning almost every Sony platform. The "Final Fantasy 25th Anniversary Ultimate Box" contains thirteen games, artwork and special soundtracks.

[gallery=885]

Here's a quick walkthrough of the gallery. First up, we have a piece of artwork depicting the main characters from each of the games throughout the series. This comes mounted in an acrylic frame, with a plaque underneath showing the box's serial number. Next come the games: every numbered Final Fantasy game from I through to XIII is here, on various formats: Final Fantasy, FF II and FF IV-IX all come on PS1 discs, FF III comes on a PSP-friendly UMD, FF X-XII come on PS2 discs, and finally FF XIII is on a PS3 Blu-Ray disc. The art on the face of each of the 22 game discs has been redesigned, too, and each game comes in its own slimline case. While XIV isn't included in the package, Square Enix has included a DLC code for a pair of downloadable Moogle earrings to use in-game.

The set also includes a two-disc soundtrack, featuring songs from throughout the series. The final disc in the box contains original piano arrangements by Nobuo Uematsu, who provided the score for most of the Final Fantasy games, and special never-before-seen video footage. Finally, there is a 128-page artbook by series character designer and illustrator Yoshitaka Amano.

The Ultimate Box, which weighs in at a hefty 11 pounds, doesn't come cheap. The entire thing will set you back a grand total of ¥35,000 (about $445, or £280). Preorders of the box through the Square Enix e-store [http://store.jp.square-enix.com/special/ff25th] run until the end of September, and the item itself comes out on December 18.

Source: Andriasang [http://andriasang.com/con2j4/ff_anniversary_box/]

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[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

Wow. It may not be cheap, but considering that the games alone would set you back $275 on Amazon (minus Final Fantasy XI, which isn't available for the PS2 version), you are basically paying $170 for a framed poster of all the main FF characters, Final Fantasy XI, the original piano arrangements for songs, never-before-seen video footage, a 128 page artbook, and a 2 disc soundtrack of, basically, "Final Fantasy's Greatest Hits".

On top of that, this is the only way to get Final Fantasy III on a PSP. If you are a Final Fantasy fan, this is definitely worth checking out.

 

[Redd the Sock]

The flaw in the formula is anyone that cares about the anniversary probably already has most or all of those games.

 

[Falterfire]

They could be bothered to collect them all, but they couldn't be bothered to make them all playable on the same device? Pass. If there was a "All of them for the PC" or heck even just a "All of them for the PS3" bundle, I might be interested, but on four separate consoles, none of which I own and one of which (The PS1) is not exactly common anymore? Nope.

 

[Tiamattt]

They could be bothered to collect them all, but they couldn't be bothered to make them all playable on the same device? Pass. If there was a "All of them for the PC" or heck even just a "All of them for the PS3" bundle, I might be interested, but on four separate consoles, none of which I own and one of which (The PS1) is not exactly common anymore? Nope.

Seriously this. My PS1 + PS2 died ages ago, and having the option to play those old games on my PS3 would've been quite tempting. But since that isn't the case this goes from "Hm, this is worth considering" to PASS.

 

[snekadid]

Thats basically my feelings on the matter, I mean really? We're supposed to cough up that much money and you guys couldn't be bothered to put them in a format we can play? Why not just give us FF1 on a nes cartridge?

 

[Covarr]

They could be bothered to collect them all, but they couldn't be bothered to make them all playable on the same device? Pass. If there was a "All of them for the PC" or heck even just a "All of them for the PS3" bundle, I might be interested, but on four separate consoles, none of which I own and one of which (The PS1) is not exactly common anymore? Nope.

To be fair, all of these except FFIII are playable on an early, backwards-compatible PS3. Even on a newer PS3 model, you can still play the PS1 and PS3 games.

But you're right. Even two platforms is too many for a single collection, unless you can ABSOLUTELY GUARANTEE backwards compatibility. If they'd remade or ported 3, 10, 11, and 12, this would be a much better set, because the PS3 could play it all.

Not to mention, the SNES ports of IV, V, and VI are really slow and laggy, and not very fun to play.

P.S. Thanks

P.P.S. If this comes to the US, will it include Chrono Trigger? It was originally sold together with Final Fantasy IV in the Playstation package Final Fantasy Chronicles.

 

[Falterfire]

you know a ps2 doesn't cost much same for a ps1 memory card as well

Well yes, I could go and buy the necessary consoles to play all of it. But at that point, why am I bothering to pay $455 for a collection? May as well just go buy them individually. Why would you bother collecting all of them if you're not going to make it any easier to play them? The few places near me that I'm reasonably certain carry PS1s and PS2s probably have the original versions anyways.

 

[Scrustle]

Wow, now that's a pretty impressive package! That's really how you celebrate a game's 25th anniversary. Although the different disc formats seem kind of weird to me. It gives me a suspicion that they just got a bunch of old copies of the games that they had left over. I mean, why else would they release games for a system that hasn't been sold for a whole decade?

Nevertheless, an entire franchise released together at once with all that extra stuff is pretty cool.

 

[NLS]

In other news: Peter Jackson has announced that once The Hobbit trilogy is complete, they'll release "THE TOLKIEN MEGA PACK". It will include some artwork, The Hobbit: There and Back Again on 3D Blu-Ray, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey on Blu-Ray/DVD combo, LOTR: Return of the King on HD-DVD, LOTR: Two Towers Extended on DVD, and LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring on VHS. It will also include the animated movies on Laserdisc and Betamax, a downloadable code for the third Hobbit movie trailer (expires on January 1st 2016, must be redeemed through iTunes), and finally, "soundtracks" written with a permanent marker on a MiniDisc.

 

[drkchmst]

Won't be able to scrounge $500 by the end of September :'( too many bills need to be paid

 

[Tiamattt]

They could be bothered to collect them all, but they couldn't be bothered to make them all playable on the same device? Pass. If there was a "All of them for the PC" or heck even just a "All of them for the PS3" bundle, I might be interested, but on four separate consoles, none of which I own and one of which (The PS1) is not exactly common anymore? Nope.

Seriously this. My PS1 + PS2 died ages ago, and having the option to play those old games on my PS3 would've been quite tempting. But since that isn't the case this goes from "Hm, this is worth considering" to PASS.

you know a ps2 doesn't cost much same for a ps1 memory card as well

In that case I might as well just save the $445 and play the older versions. Either way this thing gets passed on.

 

[Gizmo1990]

I see a few problems and I am sure they are problems that other fans will have.

1. I already own FF VI to XIII (VI,VII,VIII and IX off the PSN as well as on PS1 Disc)
2. I will die before I give SE any money for FF XII or XIII. I already hate that I gave them any money for these the first time.
3. If I did buy this I would be unable to play it as it would mean either starving to death due to having no money for food or have no power due to me not having enough cash to pay my energy bill.

 

[NightHawk21]

Same problem as other people, its not all on one device. Granted I have a good old fat PS3 so it can play everything, but still. Also I would never get it at that price. If they dropped it to say $100 or lower I'd jump on it, but its just not worth it right now.

 

[sinsfire]

This is more for collectors then people who still play these games. First they really should have made these playable on the current generation consoles. Second, a savy gamer could find these games for much less.

That being said I kind of want it. If I still owned all of the systems necessary to play these then I would be sorely tempted. Fortunately I do not, and I hope that those who are parted from their money to purchase this collector's edition becelieve that they spent their money wisely

 

[GAunderrated]

multiple formats? Sorry SE i'll pass. Price tag is way too high for you to be lazy and half ass the anniversary package. Put in some work and i'll consider buying it.

 

[Veylon]

I'd like to reference the Megaman Collection [http://www.amazon.com/Mega-Man-Anniversary-Collection-Playstation-2/dp/B00019HNNC] and Megaman X Collection [http://www.amazon.com/Mega-Man-X-Collection-Playstation-2/dp/B0009XBWY6] here. Despite both of these having games that were on a variety of platforms (NES/SNES/PSX), they managed to consolidate it all onto a single format (PS2). And they cost me $20 a piece.

So why was this so bloody impossible for Square to do for something that costs more than twenty times as much? I'm fairly sure (if nothing else) that they could have the PS3 just straight up emulate anything on the PS1 or PSP. And would it be that hard to just recompile the PS2 ones? This is sheer madness.

 

[Shinsei-J]

Is this only available in Japanese, or is there an English version as well?

That's what I want to know.
I don't want to buy a japanese version if there's going to be an english one out in a month or two.
The same applies the other way aswell, I don't want to wait for an english one to then miss out on any version of it.
But by god I want this set.