I wish FF Tactics would get a PC port; never played it.
FF5 was really good too; played that on PSX.
FF8 was good, but disappointing to me. Story and the whole Ultimecia storyline after the amazing reveal after Disc 1; felt like they really dropped the ball, IMHO. Plus, Squall wasn't always likeable and was often quite whiny, to say the least.
So, how are FF4 PSX versions? FF4 3D Remake w/ the DLC?
FF4 SNES (American FFII) was for some reason really dumbed down from the original and was released before SquareSoft had a competent localization team. It’s pretty easily the worst way to play the game today.
FF4 PSX restores the original difficulty and had a much better localization while preserving fan favorite lines from the original translation (most famously, “You spoony bard!”). Unfortunately it also introduces significant load times (though playing on a PS2, PSP, PS3, or emulator should help speed those up a bit). It also features a remastered CD-quality score.
FF4 GBA is probably roughly intermediate in difficulty between the previous two, has had some graphical overhauls that overall make it the best-looking version so far, and features some new bonus dungeons. It is, however, somewhat buggy, the music has been severely downsampled, and the colors have been oversaturated to make up for the dark, unbacklit screen of the original GBA.
FF4 DS (the 3D version on Steam is a fairly direct port of this) is the most radically changed version of the game, featuring more fleshed out dialogue and cutscenes, some minor changes to the plot due to these, and an even steeper difficulty level than the PSX version. Supposedly 3/4 of the original script had been cut from the original SNES Japanese version, and this version tries to work some of the lost material back in while also adding some entirely new events. There are also several mechanical changes, some of which are significant and attempt to add replay value.
FFIV PSP gets rid of all the new elements from both the GBA and DS versions, but adds in the sequel stories originally released on the Wii, an interlude campaign bridging the original and the sequels, updates the score again, and features redrawn backgrounds and sprites at a much higher resolution, though the artstyle they use is somewhat divisive. I personally am not a fan.
I haven’t tried the Pixel Remaster or heard much about it yet, though I think the spritework is slightly worse than the original’s. Backgrounds are definitely an improvement, though.
Personally, I kinda lean slightly towards the PSX version. Most of the extra content that’s been introduced since the original is of fairly questionable quality, and while the spritework and backgrounds are better in the GBA, that version’s oversaturation, lower quality sound, and bugs lose out against the PSX’s slow load times. If you like the look of the PSP version, that’s probably as close to definitive as the game has gotten, but I honestly find it pretty ugly, myself, and it’s also much easier than the Japanese original/PSX version. The DS version is interesting, though a bit of an outlier due to how much it changes.
This is without mentioning the Wonderswan Color or pre-smart-phone Japanese phone versions, as well. FFIV’s been on frigging everything.
