Dreaming of a Final Fantasy Collection

NOTE: None of this is real! All images shown are mock-ups to give you an idea of what could be.

Back in 2016, Square Enix set up a website to celebrate Final Fantasy’s 30th Anniversary. If you were like me, you probably got pretty excited about the anniversary and curious to see what SE would release for it. If you are also like me, you probably ended up being let down by what came from it all. Also in 2016, a leak came out about a collection of Final Fantasy games for the PS4/Vita, which all sounded way too good to be true and ended up just being rumors.

So to this day, I’m still dreaming about a Final Fantasy Collection and this article is an attempt to dream that up for the Nintendo Switch. Now, I don’t think SE will ever make something like this, but go ahead and dream with me!

Case design for the physical release and launch icon. The Collection would be made up of 10 games from Final Fantasy to Final Fantasy X. I was trying to go for a minimalist design, something to the point. A crystal is a good representation of the franchise, even if many of the later iterations had nothing to do with crystals.

Launching the game would lead you to a nice simple title screen that is again minimalist. You could either select a game or change options, like language, from here. I’d love to see a Moogle over on the right side dancing and yelling “Kupo!” at you too.

The “Select Game” screen would showcase each game’s logo and give a brief description of the game. Hitting left or right on the left thumb-stick would slide in the next game’s logo. Starting a game would take you to that game’s title screen with New, Load, Options, etc.

Final Fantasy would be the PSP remake brought over to the Switch. It has the best version of the sprites and art and looks really clean, even in today’s gaming world.

Final Fantasy II would also be the PSP remake brought over to the Switch. It is probably the best version of FF2.

Final Fantasy III would be a port of the 3D version from PC as there isn’t really a nice 2D version of the original FF3 (In the US, FF3 for the SNES was actually FF6).

Final Fantasy IV would be the “Complete” version from PSP, which has some of the best sprite work ever done in a Final Fantasy game. I would also take the 3D remake version of FF4. Also, they could leave out “The After Years” and I wouldn’t lose any sleep. The core game is so much better.

Final Fantasy V would be the “Advance” version from the GBA. This actually isn’t ideal, as the mobile remake has better enemy art and backgrounds, but horrible sprites. I personally prefer the “Advance” version over any other version of FF5.

Final Fantasy VI would also be the “Advance” version from the GBA. Again, there’s the mobile remake of FF6, but the sprites make me sick, so out of the versions of the game out there, the GBA version is probably the best (except for the music quality). Maybe SE can fix these issues and finally give us a good version of FF6 for the Switch.

Final Fantasy VII would be the PC version ported to the Switch. It is much crisper than the PS1 version and still holds up and plays well today.

Final Fantasy VIII would also be the PC version. FF8 still hasn’t made its way to mobile, so the best option would be the version currently available on Steam.

Final Fantasy IX would also be the PC version ported to Switch. Also, let’s leave out the cheat options included in the Steam/Mobile version. This is one of the best FF games ever made!

Final Fantasy X would be the HD version currently available on the PS Vita. It’s a really good remake of the original that should run just fine on the Switch.

If Square Enix did something like this, would you buy it? Would you pay $60 or more? What else would you want to see as part of the collection? There are likely technical limitations to consider, especially when you take into account the size of each game and available space on a Switch cartridge. Regardless, I personally would love to see something like this happen. The Nintendo Switch could be a monstrous portable Final Fantasy machine if SE decided to make it happen. Thanks for dreaming with me!