I'm in somewhat of a lull on my motivation to play on my Xbox 360, beyond not wanting to play any of my games for it (they're all so DAMN expensive, especially because I don't have a job right now) I'm just starting to get into PC gaming. I have a couple of games in my steam backlog, like Broken Sword, The Witcher, Recettear, Alpha Protocol, among others, but I also have a real itch to play some of my older Final Fantasy games (an itch started by Theatrhythm that doesn't want to go away).

So here is my problem; I have copies of every Final Fantasy on Playstation I could find (6-12), a Playstation double linked to my HDTV via a component lead (Y/Pb/Pr; meaning 420p games looked nice from when I played a bit of SOTC last year) But the games certainly show their age with visible pixels the size of my fist. I wonder if I could have a better experience, (load times, data management, resolution management) by emulating the games using my PC. With 4GB of RAM, a 512MB Graphics card and a wired 360 controller, my set-up is good enough and a window would make jaggy edges a little more bearable by keeping the area smaller.

Long-story-short; compared to the jaggy-as-hell PS2 image on my HDTV, would spending the time finding an emulator to run my PS2/PSX games be worth the time?

Seeing how you already own the game, I say go for if you want. It depends how bad it looks, but this problem does annoy me. I was unable to enjoy Xenoblade because of it.

First off, the best versions of FF IV through IV are actually the GBA versions. I am in a similar situation of wanting to go back and play/replay a couple FF games. Your best bet is to HDMI your PC and get that PS3 controller bluetoothed up. That way you get better save options since the FF bug can last for minutes or days. If you have a DS with a flash cart you might be able to transfer game saves to it and back if you have a flight or commute. Then again I own FF VI Advance and FF Anthology and even I can't stand the load times added to a SNES classic on the PlayStation One.

ya why not. You might be able to get it to look better but it al depends on the program u use to run it and if the game even has the ability to look better.

I would wait to play FFX, as that's getting an HD version. The others though, go for it.

I've been researching into buying one of the original PS3's that do backwards compatibility. Apparently they clean up the image somehow

@RuthLoose: I have 6 on the GBA SP too. It certainly is a pretty good version! doing fireballs on the d-pad is a little awkward and the sound quality is a little lax, thanks to the small speaker but I can live with that. I was thinking more about 7, 9, 10 and 12. I despise eight because of it's junction system, which made me super scared to use any magic ever because of it's potential effects on my stats and the prison on disc 2. Who the fuck designs the prison to have twenty identical floors? Who thought that was fun?

@CL60: Saw that at the top of the FFX forum and while it makes me giddy, I don't have a PS3 or Vita to play it on (will likely still end up buying it for when I DO get one in a year or two and to tell Squeenix MAKE SOME FUCKING HD REMAKES OF OLDER GAMES, THESE FUCKERS ALL SELL. I'm of the mind that the FF7 PC game due out will sneakily have updated graphics and that the trailer is just a parody/re-release of the older trailer from 1997 updated with new release info at the end. I can hope... and I know I'll buy it regardless.

@ItBeStefYo: Too expensive an option for me at the moment, and I never noticed their upscaling to do much of anything when I have done it. Plus I have plenty of horror stories of my own from when I owned a 60GB of losing all of my data to randomly corrupting save files (which would corrupt at point of save). Happened on Odin Sphere (13 Hours) ZOE (3 hours) and Persona 4 (49 hours), the latter of which is how I started on Giant Bomb, watching their endurance run to experience the rest of the game.

@ImmortalSaiyan: Inorite?

@Evercaptor: Wow, that's put me off now. I actually wanted one to specifically play persona 4 myself, I guess I'll just get a normal ps2

PS2 Slims are still the best bet for playing your ps2 games. If you buy a PS3 memory card transfer kit you don't have to worry about PS2 mem cards dying on you if you are diligent. Plus you can then backup your saves to your PC via USB thumb drive.

Go for it.

If you already own the games I see no reason to not go the emulator route. They definitely make my playing N64 titles a much, much better experience.

@RuthLoose: the battery in my FF6A has died...

Ya you should wait for FFX on Vita. Not only will it be HD, but with any luck it will be the extended cut version that us Americans never got. Though if you're European fuck it do whatever you want. I personally am a huge fan of 2's mechanics, but 1 can also be fun if you do a challenge run like all monks or all wizards.

@ImmortalSaiyan: @McShank: @ItBeStefYo: @RuthLoose: @SlapHappyJesus: You guys all seemed the most know-how on this. It certainly works (took a bit of time finding BIOS and stuff, since I don't have a homebrewPS2 to rip it from. Loads my discs just fine (after a little messing around with plugins and settings). The thing is, whenever there are some heavy effects, Demi caused it to slow down loads in FFX (the first boss) and in Persona 4, the main menu isa bit too much, in both cases dropping the framerate below 10 (making the whole game slow down, I could otherwise deal with low framerates; technical details and graphics, you may have guessed, don't really mean much to me)

Would upgrading my Graphics card (currently ruinning an Nvidia Geforce with 512MB of video RAM) fix the issue? I've been looking into getting a card with 1GB already, even if I can't afford it yet.

@ItBeStefYo: If you own a PS2, use the emulator. Having set it up, I got PCSX2 working after a bit of fiddling, it's practically a HD Collection unto itself. You can opt to Output at any resolution you want and it looks real slick, despite the Poly count (which isn't something I go to games for anyway).

@Evercaptor: Is that the illegal thing on PC? I assume that's why you said "If" I own a PS2. I don't though, may aswell buy one though since I've already bought Persona 4!

Or what would you suggest?

@ItBeStefYo: If you own all the hardware, you're licensed to use the software that came with it, the BIOS. I own a PS2 and all the games I'm using with the emulators (booting off of the discs via my DVD drive, rather than downloaded ISO files) I just want to be able to look at something that isn't blurry, have that little bit more control over the resolution.

You could always get a PS3 component cable (Y/Pb/Pr) because it fits into the same port as the SCART lead and your PS2 will the option of changing it's rendering style to suit the new cable better.

@Evercaptor said:

@RuthLoose: the battery in my FF6A has died...

And 2 of the 3 slots were data corrupted when I bought my cartridge so I know that feel, bro.

I did manage to snag a pristine in-box copy of Final Fantasy Advance VI last Christmas for $14 so I feel less angry about the whole thing..

@RuthLoose: you can change the battery on carts but the cost is prohibitively expensive!

@Evercaptor said:

@RuthLoose: you can change the battery on carts but the cost is prohibitively expensive!

is not just a case of getting a screwdriver and a wrist watch battery? or is that just for Game Boy games? :/

@Soap: the watch battery, yeah, but the screw is real fucking weird on my GBA cart. three headed. then I need to solder it on. for a single game, it's a large investment.

@Evercaptor said:

@ItBeStefYo: If you own all the hardware, you're licensed to use the software that came with it, the BIOS. I own a PS2 and all the games I'm using with the emulators (booting off of the discs via my DVD drive, rather than downloaded ISO files) I just want to be able to look at something that isn't blurry, have that little bit more control over the resolution.

You could always get a PS3 component cable (Y/Pb/Pr) because it fits into the same port as the SCART lead and your PS2 will the option of changing it's rendering style to suit the new cable better.

Do you have a link for this emulator? It would save me hassling my friends to let them borrow their PS2. And morally I feel fine since I'm gonna use the actual Persona 4 disk (I also HATE ISO's)

How's the emulation going, OP? Did you ever get it up and running?
 
I started playing an emulation of this game last night and I was floored how much better it (and all my other PS2 games) looked playing on my computer compared with playing at native resolution on the PS2. I couldn't believe it. I didn't realize how sophisticated PS2 emulation has gotten. All my PS2 games looked better than any of the HD remakes that I've seen to date.
 
As for Final Fantasy X, I'm psyched about finally being able to play it. My backwards compatible PS3 croaked over a year ago.

@Evercaptor: Have you tried Lost Odyssey? It should be pretty cheap these days and was exactly a Final Fantasy game, just without the name.

@Jrinswand: Yup, got it all running really damn well! Turns out most of the awkward stuff in FFX I was very "eeeh" about is FFX having awful modelling/animation. Persona 4 on 2x Resolution is gorgeous and I'm upgrading my graphics card soon so I can crank it up to 4x with no problems. I would honestly recommend it over the original hardware if you use your PC to game on. My preference is for Discs since I already own all the games I want to play, Persona, Baldurs Gate (which I have never played), among a few others.

PS1 Emulation is another story, as Abe's Odysee and FF7 looks like shit (due to the pre-rendered backgrounds optimised for a 320x240 screen) but the models come out okay. FF9 is alright and Tomb Raider is too, again, if you don't mind looking at old-ass models, which I don't.

@MattSchwabby: Yup, I completed it in fits-and-starts (just check my achievements). There needs to be more JRPG action and certainly more Metroidvania action on the consoles. I feel like AoS, OoE, DoS and PoR, would make an astounding compilation, (or two compilations, metal gear style. Sorrows on one, the others and symphony on the other) or a fantastic set of downloadable games. Hell, make a "25 years of greatness" collection and put the originals on there too.

I ended up ranting, I apologise.

@RuthLoose said:

First off, the best versions of FF IV through IV are actually the GBA versions.

Maybe if you're deaf.

The battle music alone drove me insane when trying FF6 Adance. There's a music patch out there though for those going the emulator route...

@BlackLagoon: Music aside it is the best version if you value portability. I will agree that the music is super tinny, even grating to my ears. Please do share a link to the music patch if you know of one.

Having owned the GBA version for over a year with 2/3 EEPROM save slots corrupted, I am highly interested in going back with all slots available.