The Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters have launched today, bringing versions of the early Final Fantasy games to PC that we hoped would finally be prettier than the not so nice-looking mobile ports we’d been treated to in the past. They are prettier, indeed, and even have new music, but all that was slightly overshadowed by the frankly terrible interface font choice. Fortunately, fans work fast and there are already instructions for “fixing” the pixel remaster fonts just hours after launch.
Plenty of other folks have given a good ribbing over the Pixel Remaster font, so I won’t rehash too much of that for you. The bottom line is that its quite condensed, making it difficult to read, and not really stylistically in line with a pixel remaster. It’s an odd choice.
The important part is that folks are already sharing details on how to swap it out. You can snag the details on the slightly fiddly but totally do-able process over on RPG Site. They outline for you how to trade out the rather condensed default font for a much wider, more legible version. Thank goodness. My sad old eyes can’t stand all that tiny text.
That solution doesn’t really solve the fact that the chosen font doesn’t quite have the retro vibe, but this is a PC release, isn’t it? I’d say give it another 12 hours and there may yet be mods to just entirely swap the font with a new typeface.
Aside from the font gaffes, the Pixel Remasters seem to be an improvement on the whole. They feature redrawn pixel art for characters and backgrounds, new soundtrack arrangements overseen by original composer Nobuo Uematsu, and modern conveniences like auto battling and a bestiary.
“The vast majority of the game graphics have been re-drawn in an updated 2D pixel art style,” Square Enix say. “The playable characters, in particular, were re-drawn by Shibuya Kazuko, the same staff who has drawn our character sprites from the beginning of the series. We really prioritised keeping the same feel that the original pixel sprites had but re-worked the graphics so they display clearly on modern high-resolution screens.”
You can spot the Pixel Remasters for Final Fantasy I, II, and III over on Steam. The first two games are £7.19/$9.59 each while FFIII is £10.39/$14.39. The FFI-VI bundle is over here.