How Many Times Has A Final Fantasy Game Been Remastered?

Summary

• Multiple remasters and versions of each game make it confusing to keep track of all the Final Fantasy games.
• Pixel Remaster updates the original games with quality of life improvements, speeding up combat and fixing bugs.
• HD remasters for 3D Final Fantasy games like FF10 and FF12 are exceptional, updating graphics and adding features.

There have been fifteen main Final Fantasy games released over the years, not to mention plenty of side games, spinoffs, mobile games, and so much more. With all these games, it can be difficult to keep them all in order, especially when there have been a ton of remasters, remakes, and reimaginings too.

Is The Original Final Fantasy 7 Still Worth Playing?

With Final Fantasy 7 getting a new coat of paint with Remake and Rebirth, is it still worth playing the original?

Looking back at Final Fantasy’s storied history begs the question, exactly how many remakes have there been, and which game received the most? Let’s break down all the different games and their different versions, and see which ones come out on top.

So, Exactly How Many Times Have These Final Fantasy Games Been Remastered?

Here's where things start to get confusing, or at the very least complicated. Many of the early games have seen plenty of rereleases over the years, but not all of them have been remasters. Most games, like the first Final Fantasy game, were released on multiple platforms at the time, and then each subsequent remaster would also see multiple platform releases. At times, these releases would be staggered over the course of a few years, or once a new platform was released.

This gets further complicated where multiple instances of a game get smaller upgrades when moving from one platform to another, which brings into question whether or not its worthy of being considered a remake, remaster, or anything in between. An example of this would be with the 2015 Nintendo eShop release of the original Final Fantasy game. Technically this edition of the game is based on the PlayStation Portable version of the game, with some 3D stereoscopic upgrades, compared to the first release of the PSP version, which had higher resolution graphics, FMV clips, a remixed soundtrack, and bonus dungeons. For the sake of simplicity, we tried to boil down all the various versions to just the main remakes of each game.

Game Name

Number of Times It's Been Remastered

How Many Versions Are There?

Final Fantasy

Four

• Final Fantasy
• Final Fantasy Remaster
• Final Fantasy: Anniversary Edition
• Final Fantasy Remaster (mobile)
• Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster

Final Fantasy 2

Three

• Final Fantasy 2
• Final Fantasy 2: Anniversary Edition
• Final Fantasy 2 (mobile)
• Final Fantasy 2 Pixel Remaster

Final Fantasy 3

Four

• Final Fantasy 3
• Final Fantasy 3: Pixel Remaster
• Final Fantasy 3 (mobile)
• Final Fantasy 3: Crystal Edition

Final Fantasy 4

Three

• Final Fantasy 4
• Final Fantasy 4 Advance
• Final Fantasy 4: Pixel Remaster
• Final Fantasy 4 (3D Remake)

Final Fantasy 5

Three

• Final Fantasy 5
• Final Fantasy 5 Advance
• Final Fantasy 5 (mobile)
• Final Fantasy 5: Pixel Remaster

Final Fantasy 6

Three

• Final Fantasy 6
• Final Fantasy 6 Advance
• Final Fantasy 6 (mobile)
• Final Fantasy 6 Pixel Remaster

Final Fantasy 7

Three

• Final Fantasy 7
• Final Fantasy 7 HD
• Final Fantasy Remake
• Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth

Final Fantasy 8

One

• Final Fantasy 8
• Final Fantasy 8 Remastered

Final Fantasy 9

One

• Final Fantasy 9
• Final Fantasy 9 HD

Final Fantasy 10

One

• Final Fantasy X
• Final Fantasy X HD

Final Fantasy 11

None

• Final Fantasy 11 Online

Final Fantasy 12

None

• Final Fantasy 12

Final Fantasy 13

None

• Final Fantasy 13

Final Fantasy 14

One

• Final Fantasy 14 Online
• Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn

Final Fantasy 15

None

• Final Fantasy 15

Final Fantasy 16

None

• Final Fantasy 16

What Is The Best Way To Play The Classic Final Fantasy Games?

This is going to be completely subjective, as you might be more of a purist than others who are looking to experience the games any way they can. Over the years, some remakes have been a little subpar compared to the original experience, while others have been exceptionally good and made vast improvements over the original games.

One of the best ways to experience Final Fantasy 1 through Final Fantasy 6 is through the Pixel Remaster. This takes the original games and makes some quality of life updates to keep the game feel better, and then some bug fixes that caused issues with the original release. Perhaps the best part is that there's a way to speed up combat in many of the games and their encounters, which makes leveling and random battles a little less of a slog.

The big downside is that certain rereleases and remastered versions of the games included extra content that are missing from the Pixel Remaster.

What Is The Best Way To Play Some Of The More Modern Final Fantasy Games?

Past the original six games, the HD remasters of many of the 3D Final Fantasy games are the way to go. The HD remake of Final Fantasy 10 and Final Fantasy 12 are exceptional, bringing the games to the modern era with updated graphics and adding the Trophy/Achievement system, depending on the platform you're playing on.

One of the more interesting remakes to come out of the Final Fantasy saga is that of Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin. This game ended up being an alternate universe prequel to the first Final Fantasy game, but doesn't directly tie into the main story. Instead, Stranger of Paradise is more of a reimagining of the original game, which takes tons of inspiration from the game, including characters and the overarching plot, though it varies greatly on the events of the game.

How Many Hours To Finish Every Final Fantasy Game?

You guessed it: you will need a lot of hours to beat every FF. But maybe not as many as you would think.