Fans were generally disappointed with Square Enix’s lazy Final Fantasy 7 PC port from last year, but apparently it sold decently, so Square is going to do the same thing all over again with Final Fantasy 8.
According to a report from Japanese gaming mag Famitsu (translated by Siliconera,) the new re-release of FF8 will feature higher resolution graphics than the original PS1 version. It’s currently unknown if that means Square is simply going to upscale the renders used for the game’s backgrounds (likely,) or if they’re actually going to remake the game with brand new graphics and content (don’t hold your breath for that one.)
Last August Square re-released the PC version of Final Fantasy VII with some minor upgrades: the game now sported 36 achievements which could viewed from Square Enix’s website, the ability to upload your saves to a cloud server, and a “Character Booster,” which let players boost their statsĀ (read:cheat) in order to make the game easier. Unfortunately, Square also added the infamously annoying SecuROM copy protection to the game, which caused problems from some users when the finicky DRM refused to work on their PC’s.
The re-release of FFVII was also only available on Square Enix’s website, and the game’s new achievements could only be viewed from there as well. Achievements have always been pretty pointless (but fun to collect! I admit it, I’m an achievement/trophy whore,) but they’re even more pointless when they’re only posted onto a network that nobody uses; here’s hoping Square switches to Steam for FF8’s re-release.