Final Fantasy Celebrates 25th Anniversary in Big Way with 13 Game Box Set

So I’ve talked about a few other big anniversaries in gaming of late, but I think this one may be the biggest. Besides Mario, Final Fantasy is the largest retro gaming console series. To celebrate the franchise’s 25th anniversary, SquareEnix is releasing a massive 13-game box set.

There are however some oddities in the way SquareEnix are releasing the set. Firstly, right now it’s all in Japanese and only available on the SquareEnix Japan website, which is totally understandable. But rather than remaster the games for current consoles, they are straight up releasing them as they were on some of the systems they originally came out on (minus the Nintendo Cartridge titles, those games are getting the later PS1 conversions). So if you buy the set, to play all the games you would need an original Playstation, a PS2 and a PS3 (or possibly an early model P3S with full backwards compatibility) and a PSP. That would be like releasing a box set of Star Trek movies, but The Motion Picture and Wrath of Khan were on Betamax; Search For Spock and The Voyage Home were on Laserdisc; The Final Frontier, The Undiscovered Country, Generations, and First Contact were all on VHS; and Insurrection and Nemesis were on DVD. While the idea of that sounds crazy, the type of gamer interested in this set more than likely either has that early PS3 that is fully backward compatible, or still has all their old consoles laying around. Below is a list of games included in the set and the media they are on.

• Final Fantasy – PS1, 1 disc
• Final Fantasy II – PS1, 1 disc
• Final Fantasy III – PSP, 1 disc
• Final Fantasy IV – PS1, 1 disc
• Final Fantasy V – PS1, 1 disc
• Final Fantasy VI – PS1, 1 disc
• Final Fantasy VII International Edition – PS1, 4 discs
• Final Fantasy VIII – PS1, 4 discs
• Final Fantasy IX – PS1, 4 discs
• Final Fantasy X – PS2, 1 disc
• Final Fantasy XI Vana’diel Collection 2 – PS2, 1 disc
• Final Fantasy XII – PS2, 1 disc
• Final Fantasy XIII – PS3, 1 disc

That is a massive amount of games right there. It’s a little disappointing none of the spin off games are featured, like Tactics or Mystic Quest, or my personal favorite, Legends III for Game Boy. I loved that game. Yes I know it wasn’t really Final Fantasy, it was SaGa, but I liked it anyway. So while they couldn’t cram every Final Fantasy game ever in, the set does come with some sweet swag. It includes a 128 page art book including the work of Yoshitaka Amano and lots of character and original design art. Also included is a video disc summarizing the works of Nobuo Uematsu and his scoring of most of the series, including rare footage of him actually playing the arrangements on piano. There is also a 2 disc CD set of music and sound effects from the series, as voted on by SquareEnix forum users. Also included is a code to unlock some Moogle earrings for your characters in FF XIV. Finally there is a limited edition print by artist Yoshitaka Amano depicting the history of the franchise. So what’s all that gonna set you back? 35000 Yen, or about $450 American as of this writing. So if you have a bunch of old consoles laying around, and you’re Japanese is pretty solid, you might be interested getting this from the SquareEnix Store when it comes out on December 18th. No word yet on any plans for a release in English, but I wouldn’t count on it. But maybe if the internet yells loud enough, someone will listen. It’s worked before . . .

JohnScott is the proud owner of a life size replica Captain Kirk Chair. He is a hoarder of Comic Books, Transformers, and Star Trek action figures. He attended Space Camp as an adult. He has taken vacations to the closing of the Star Trek Experience and the final night Shuttle launch. He has been known to yell at his television when the kids can't put together the damn statue in the Shrine of the Silver Monkey. When not writing for InsufficientScotty, he is a Software Engineer for a major healthcare communications company. You can Email or follow on Twitter @NotEnoughScotty or Facebook