One of Square Enix's big announcements at E3 2021 was the reveal of the Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters. The Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters remaster the first six games in the franchise. As the release for the Pixel Remasters of Final Fantasy 1-3 approaches, Square Enix showed off a few short videos showcasing some of the graphical improvements made.
These remasters will include updated 2D graphics for all of the games, with the characters pixel art designs being as faithful to the original as possible. There will also be arrangements of the original score overseen by series veteran composer Nobuo Uematsu, and a bunch of quality of life options made to smooth out the gameplay. The showcase of these new updated graphics can be seen in the videos that Square Enix showed on Twitter.
The video showcases the player leaving the city of Cornelia, travelling by rowboat to the open sea. It then cuts to the other methods of travel in the game, such as the classic airship. As the airship is flying around the overworld, it shows that the ocean sprites now have a shimmering effect to them, as if the sun was shining on the ocean as they travelled the world. While Square Enix has shown screenshots of the remasters before this, this is the first clear footage that fans have been provided with showcasing the remastered graphics.
As the first three games of Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster approaches their release date, Square Enix has been doing its best to drum up hype for these remasters. The Twitter account in particular has been sharing various new animations and effects that have been done. Not only did it share this clip of the ocean shimmering, but also a spell attack, Diaga, being used on an undead enemy in a beautiful display.
Even with the various re-releases of the first games in the series, these remasters seem like they will be the one that Square Enix is aiming to be the definitive editions of the games to play. This is evidenced by the upcoming removal of the versions of Final Fantasy 5 and 6 currently available on Steam, which will be delisted a day before the release of the Pixel Remasters.
Final Fantasy 1-3's Pixel Remasters release July 28 on Mobile and PC.