FFIII and IV look blocky and pixelated, awkward and ugly on DS, and I would hate to see FFVI receive that treatment.  Nevermind how unlikely it is that the soundtrack would be done justice, much less improved upon.

FFXIII-style graphics would indeed be a costly endeavor and I don't think even FFVI has enough fan support behind it in Square Enix's eyes to warrant it - it would be far more likely to happen with FFVII.  Aside from that I as well wouldn't WANT to see an FFXIII-style remake.  FFXIII seems as much about guns and high technology as it does swords and magic, and though FFVI certainly has those to a degree, I could certainly see SE going overboard in an attempt to swank-up a PS3 FFVI remake.  I can't even imagine enjoying an FFVI remake with modern FF-style character proportions.  I suppose Dissidia did a decent job of rendering Terra and Cefca in that form but they don't possess the charm of the original designs (I'm sort of excluding Amano's work here) and it's hard to imagine playing through the game with the entire cast of characters being portrayed in that style.  It's possible it all could somehow work but it'd be very unlikely.

Which is why I hope they will hold off on remaking FFVI till the next round of portable hardware - not quite as glitzy and expensive to develop as for PS3 but better-looking and better-sounding than the DS.  Somewhere around Gamecube level perhaps?  They could keep the SD designs (maybe even take them in a Spirit Tracks cell-shaded direction), render the environments in decent 3D detail, and deliver the soundtrack in streaming audio with some potentially quality arrangements.

This is pretty much what I had in mind.  For the record, I don't mind the overall look and style of FFIII/FFIV DS; the idea would be to keep the SD designs as is, but punch them up with a higher poly count and smoother animation. 

I guess the closest comparison I had in my head was something that looks and feels akin to FFIX, at least in terms of character designs.  The environments could conceivably work as CG-rendered, but a 3D engine would probably work better for FFVI.

My only problem with an FFVI remake would be if they did the character models in a super-deformed/SD/chibi fashion; FFVI was thematically very serious, and dare I say, artsy, but without being pretentious or condescending.

I guess it worked for FFIII and FFIV, but those were never very serious games; just your classic fight-against-evil fantasy shtick.

Seeing character models that look like they could just as easily be plushies that you could pick up at the local crane game would be an insult to the original work.

An FFVI in at least FFVIII caliber graphics, I'd be able to take seriously. Still budget friendly, but still realistic-looking.

I'm having a hard time imagining FFVI looking like anything than what it is now. I'd certainly want Ted Woosley's original SNES translation back with the only thing retained from the GBA port being the added sidequests.

Actually, I have to agree. Despite all the hype, in the end I didn't care for how Wild Arms was "re-imaged" - more like "soul ripped out" - in Wild Arms Alter code:F outside a few added scenes. Additionally, there was some talk by the series producer about remaking Wild Arms 2, something that never materialized - which tickled my fancy for about five seconds until reality set in. If you're going to put WA2 in a WA3 shell I'm out.

Additionally, what has media.vision been up to lately? I haven't heard anything about new Wild Arms game (not that I'm really interested - WA5 proved that I was done.) Last thing I knew they where working on some DBZ game, which is just great, working on some cash-cow IP instead of their own. I didn’t think XF did that bad unlike RIZ-ZOAWD (or for us Americans: The Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road.)

And FFVI is all that much more 'serious' than FFIV? Hardly.

I think I know what Bernie is refering to. It's not to say that FFVI is more 'serious' than FFIV, it's just in the way the certain issues are presented in FFVI that make them seem a lot more 'pointed' in their attempt to make the player think of their impact on the characters. For example: Celes' suicide attempt. I really shouldn't have to hide this, should I? If you haven't played the game by now, god help you.

I remember they were involved in Valkyria Chronicles, and it was rumored, MGS4 as well (not confirmed by myself). So their respective PSP sequels (or spin-offs) are likely. In case you don't know, they founded a new studio for the former WA producer (Kaneko) to make a RPG so I guess WA officially discontinues.

Wha!?  I've never heard anything like that, and there's no mention of those whatsoever on their webpage (http://www.media-vision.co.jp/soft/).

Edit: Also, I totally forgot about the existence of Heavy Metal Thunder and had no idea that Media Vision was involved.  Anybody here ever play that?

At this point, I don't have anything to prove, but isn't it such surprise? I don't think it's so uncommon a game company doesn't list an outsourcing project or a small involvement. For instance, Monolithsoft was involved in Smash Bros. or Dirge of Cerberus, but doesn't mention either of them in their discography page. In reality, when I watched the staff role of Valkyria Chronicles, I think saw their name. It also corresponds with the story from Sakimoto regarding why he scored RIZ-ZOAWD.

The way this thread derails is amazing, but I'm not ashamed of it!

Have you played FFIV DS and looked at the cutscenes? They went to the trouble of creating different models for the cutscene animations with shading and more detail, which make for some very impactful scenes.

You also seem to forget that the original FFVI characters are SD/chibi sprites and that doesn't seem to have hurt the tone at all. For a more "realistic" style, would you really want Nomura to redesign FFVI characters? As a reminder, Setzer from Kingdom Hearts: http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/kingd … Setzer.jpg

Not really. It's not like they looked like Duplo people, or anything like that...

And, yes, Nomura really messed up Setzer. Don't really like that. And whoever scripted his roll in KHII made him sound like a completely arrogant jack-ass. And then he REALLY looks like a joke when a 15 year-old kid beats him in a whiffle bat competition.

the SNES graphics allowed you to interpolate your own idea of what the characters actually looked like. Especially when they would attempt to convey the characterse emotions through facial expressions with only 80x80 pixels.

take for instance, when a character would laugh. What made it so comical was the fact that they had to do it with their limited graphics. i cant imagine it being anywhere nearly as funny or entertaining in 1000% rendered near perfect CG. Just seeing the intro and ending movies on the PSX port took away some of the feeling. It's like taking your favorite character in your favorite tv show and switching the actor.

Isn't that just a matter of time? I mean, we're talking about RapeThePast... err, I mean Square-Enix here.

This. Feelings for Square-Enix aside, Final Fantasy is their cash cow, and if there's even the slightest sign they can make money off of revisiting an older series with a solid fanbase, they'll do it eventually, even if it's delegated to retro-styled outings similar to FFIV: After Years.

At the very least, it'd be a good business move. There's a lot of love for the older FF titles, if the recent attention FFIV's been given is any indication. Does anyone know how well FFIV DS and After Years sold?

Considering that FFIV DS is one of the best games to come out of Square in a long while (and After Years isn't), it's more a sign of the way Square and their games used to be, and what will never come back.

I know that, I just mean that I wouldn't be at all surprised if they ended up revisiting the FFVI universe in at least some capacity.

I told you, they're going to make a mech warrior style game, in which they cover the story of Terra while she was still enslaved by the Empire!

It'll be all emo like, because Terra's killing people, and destroying places she doesn't want to kill or destroy!

I would kill for FF VI plushies.

Ironically, Nomura was supposedly the one responsible for the chibi FF VI designs. I wasn't a fan of the KH2 Setzer redesign, but keep in mind that he had to make him fit in with the overall look of the game. I thought he did a much better job with the Dissidia art.

I thought After Years was a great game. Crap. Me and Sami just DON'T jive.

I hadn't noticed.

Didn't care for the After Years? I'd said that was their best game in years. Sure the story didn't live up to its promises, but the look was classic and the new band system was cool. I also like how they kept the original difficulty with the ChimeraGeist enemies.