Bill Steinberg of Zeboyd Games has given a break down of everything that he sees wrong about a single screenshot from the newly released version of Final Fantasy V on Steam.
First off, it’s worth noting that Steinberg makes a living out of creating pixel art RPGs such as Breath of Death VII, Cthulhu Saves the World, the Penny Arcade’s On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness series, and his upcoming game Cosmic Star Heroine. So he hopefully knows what he’s talking about.
The other thing to note is that the Steam version of Final Fantasy V is based on the Game Boy Advance version originally released in 2006 but it does have new character designs and hi-res graphics from Kazuko Shibuya. It’s these new graphics that Steinberg rips into, as you can see in the image he created below.
For reference, here is the original pixel art of Tycoon Meteor, and here’s a comparison screenshot of the same scene from Super Famicom version below. You can see where the changes have been made in an effort to give Final Fantasy V a more modern look.
