In the Square Enix range of final fantasy When remasters for PC and mobile were first unveiled a few years ago, fans were quick to notice something: Not only was the game’s traditional pixel font replaced, but they had been replaced by new tiny little letters that were onen attack on the senses.
To recap, here’s how bad the fonts were:
Purchased individually, the games are priced at $95.94. Luckily, Steam offers a bundle option, but that only brings it down to $74.82, which feels a bit high for a collection of decades-old games. It doesn’t help that Square Enix saddled up all the games a text font that’s both overly clean and claustrophobically compact, making it impossible to look away because it feels out of place. Many, many people pointed out the tiny, tiny writing.
“My god, this font is the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen in a video game,” wrote author and podcaster Heather Anne Campbell said on Twitter. “This is the worst thing ever”
“[Seriously] Guys, I literally opened typography dot com in a tab right now.” wrote current youtube guy and former my city Video type Tim Rogers. “You’ve got a lot of good ones in there guys.”
With the same games coming to PS4 and Switch later this month, Square Enix decided to celebrate by correcting these fonts. Or, attempt to fix them.
New features include the ability to switch between original and rearranged soundtracks and turn off random encounters, there’s also a “Change Fonts” menu option that gives you “the ability to switch between two different fonts: the default font and a new pixel-based font that replicates the feel of the original games.” Which in a way it does, but it is quiet too small and condensed, so while it’s not that bad to watch, it is in many cases very difficult to read.
That sucks, but on the plus side, some of those other changes are welcome, including the fact that Square Enix has been very quiet in restoring Final Fantasy VI Intro credits that were previously removed, resulting in an eerily hollow opening sequence.
The PS4 and Switch versions of the remasters will be released on April 19th.
