I see, then maybe the review is outdated? Square revamp their DRM methods? Or Amazon and Google Play have different DRM?

Anyway thanks for your info.

I dunno myself; hence why I asked and also why I provided this information. Anyways no problem.
No problem!

The touch design surely helps the gameplay on an Android device, while the new art is hardly a rightful evolution from the original.

You can compare both versions in motion to see for yourself, naturally.

Old :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XF2cski7Q7M

New :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEItYMfddyE

i would say more literal/direct translations of japanese(or chinese) text is always bad form but whatever. if gamers want to pretend to be japaneses with their translations, why shouldn't translators cater to them? language is subjective.

if you mean the GBA version of FFVI. that's easily emulated too.
http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/930370-final-fantasy-vi-advance/58082953

No, I'm not going with Tom Slattery's translation because its closer to the Japanese, but because its inherently better. The Japanese translation has a less annoying Kefka and Celes being interrogated with violence, both of which are also non-existent in Slattery's, so yeah. Plus Ultima Weapon sounds better than Atmas Weapon.

Yes, you can emulate the GBA version. However, it comes with a soundtrack that is a bit degraded in quality and less features, and most notably a smaller screen area (you see less of the game). The Android version fixes all of these issues and presents more features over its predecessor versions.
Yes, the touch design does, especially the two types of battle options that are available. As for the art, I'm finally able to tell what the hell is Terra wearing and I can now tell that Kefka is a clown as opposed to some fancy looking general. If that is not a rightful evolution, I don't know what it is. It even changed Edgar's uniform from green to blue, just like the concept artwork.

FFV's sprites and artwork are the problematic bits, but these have been there since the SNES release, so that's a worse can of worms there.

i think you've just convinced me that the android version is a flaming piece of shit, even if it didn't have DRM. thanks. i know what i like.

and eddy was ALWAYS very blue. unless you mean the green trimings.
http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Edgar_Roni_Figaro

the concept artwork doesn't match the IOS/android version either. you can't get small sprites to match the colorful concept art.
http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Edgar_Roni_Figaro

Because of the superior translation? No problem!!

Edgar looked more green than blue in the sprites. Either way, the Android version is closer to the concept than the others.

Sadly not available for most of the game, would be awesome to have this the whole time so that random battles would be a choice throughout the game. Then again, people would just run past any low level areas and powerlevel in higher level areas which would considerably shorten the game, analog to restarting Chrono Trigger where you can get seriously OP - but there it makes sense because you just want to go and experience alternate endings and not spend the same amount of time as for the first playthrough.

If you don't like lengthy story sequences then FF6 obviously isn't an ideal game for you to play (FF7 even more so) but that's personal preference, not a flaw in design. Personally, I very much enjoyed the lengthy dialogues because it really fleshes out the more important characters and their backstories, to a larger degree than in Chrono Trigger. Chrono Trigger keeps things lighter which is perfectly fine but I found the deeper characterization in FF6 more memorable. And I thought it was entertaining and immersive, if I wanted pure active gameplay I would choose a strategy game over an RPG or adventure 9 times out of 10 anyway. RTS, TBS, managerial, anything really.
Drawn out storytelling is quite common in Japanese comics/animation, and even though it's often a gratuitous kind of drawn out that seems to "offend" Western story pacing sensibilities, I prefer the drawn out style. It interestingly feels way more organic to me because it doesn't have that "edited down to maximum efficiency" feel and doesn't follow a clearly noticeable structure like Shakespeare or the Greek classics. I can get more easily immersed if there is less obvious story structuring and more rambling and random stuff and everyday bits and pieces. Characters eating a pineapple in Yesterday only, things like that. Chrono Trigger doesn't do too much of that and feels more compatible with Western style storytelling. Just my observations.

Such annoyances exist in many games, it always comes down to your personal pain tolerance. In Unmechanical, I encountered one aggravating twitch-based puzzle that I almost couldn't get past, it was most likely bugged on my system because the game didn't behave remotely the same way when I checked out that part in various playthrough videos. At that point, I was ready to quit and if I'm generally not having fun with a game then something like that is the last straw. It comes down to a 0 or 1 decision, continue or quit. In Unmechanical, I decided to suffer through that part because I loved the rest of the game but in most other games it would have marked the end - another game for the abandoned pile. I'm glad I didn't do that to Unmechanical because it's a lovely game till the end.

I'm glad those final parts weren't longer, at that point in the story there was enough told, Kefka already maxed out his douchebaggery and there was no need to pull a "can't resupply during long final extremely hostile descent à la FF7". The final fight against Kefka is massive enough so there was no need to force the player's presence in those rather drab last couple stages for longer than necessary. Once you have gathered everybody, might as well get down to business SWAT team gogo boomboom finish.

It's a custom theory, I audaciously made it up based on my own experiences and hearing from other players.There is no exact number and it varies from game to game but 25 hours seems to be the max on average for any game to remain fresh, it can continue to entertain for several times as many hours but the curve will flatten out. Naturally, not everyone will experience this in the same way. I've spent considerably more time with some games but past that +/- 25 hours mark, something changes. It affects pretty much every game I ever played, including Baldur's Gate 1 & 2 which take a lot longer to finish. But after about 25 hours, they too lose momentum and I'm becoming more and more aware of repetition. Addiction can disguise itself as immersion for a lot longer, this was the case with Daggerfall which became repetitive a lot earlier than 25 hours into the game but I spent decidedly more than 100 hours with the game, no idea how much exactly.

100 hours is another time mark that I rarely ever passed, I hardly see a point to spend time with any game beyond that mark. Not for singleplayer anyway. Of course there are games that are very pliable and allow for hundreds of hours of experimentation and challenge but that's min-maxing and over-obsessive in my book, nothing that I would personally enjoy. On the contrary, I consider it a royal waste of precious living time, a very limited resource. On a rare occasion, there might be a game worthy of 100 hours and somewhat above but nowadays, I'm done at around 30 hours max and I don't care if I didn't click on every blade of grass in the game.

That is of course entirely subjective and what appears as OCD to me might feel normal in the mind of someone else. I prefer starting many new games and getting to know them up to the point where they are no longer fun and interesting and start feeling like a chore instead. Continuing past that point seems to me like admitting that one doesn't have anything better and more worthwile to achieve in life meaning one tries to find a sense of achievement by finishing a game, either that or some kind of ego stubbornness to which I fall prey to more often than I like, especially with adventure games that try to make me feel stupid (let's admit it, we all feel like that...) - so that would automatically turn into a negative thing in my mind. I also look at it that way when I see other people spending too much time on games but ultimately it isn't up to me to judge them, nor would I care to.

I'm well aware that RTS multiplayer is a never-ending challenge and you can keep perfecting your skills for hundreds and thousands of hours, especially if someone is a professional gamer (a horrible nightmare to me, I feel bad for anyone in that position as the commercialization of any passion can cause immense pressure, the bad kind).

My father still plays some Red Alert regularly, Diablo II and some Heroes of Might and Magic. In other thread I am discussing wonders of Might and Magic series (with VI part being quite famous for its size).

I think that current age made games look like some kind of consumables - you finish game once and never return, instead of looking at games as artpiece, valuing intricacies of game systems, replayability factors, etc.

And while shooters get their replayability just by their inner nature of provoking release of adrenaline, strategies get it with random maps, map editors, etc., i think it is a shame that most current RPGs disregard or subvert their main replayability factors - character leveling and loot hunting. Level scaling and no-respawn being the worst offenders in this genre, but I think I am going too much off-topic now.

The thing is that, for some players, things like this can be worse than an annoyance: they are roadblocks that prevent the player from ever seeing the rest of the game.

Chrono Trigger has a different example that can be a problem. Consider a gamer who only has use of one hand. Most of the game is quite playable, though you might need to reduce the battle speed and turn on Wait mode. However, the game, relatively early on, has a spot where you need to press a button combination, which includes both shoulder buttons and I believe 2 of the face buttons, to continue. A fully abled gamer who can use both hands has no trouble here, but someone with only one usable hand isn't going to pass that part without help from another person or some sort of tool.
(How do the smartphone versions handle this part and the button mashing part?)

Ha, my solution for this place on PC was to temporarily bind all the required keys to same button. You probably can do same with USB devices on smartphones, but it is going an extra mile and is probably not supported in "official port".

But I also found CT and all FF games with ATB to be PITA to play on smartphone. Timer keeps ticking and you keep "misstouching" wrong options in menu, then panicking and "misstouching" even more. The only good ATB system, which wasn't twitchy, was in FF XII, but we won't see it on smartphones anytime soon.

Oh man.
That question is like, "What organ in your body do you like better, the liver or the heart?"
They're both amazing in different ways.

Ah, sorry, kneejerk reaction. I liked V's battle system a lot, though I found the plot rather lacking. Still a great game overall, but in a game with that much dialogue, I consider story to be an important factor.

Meanwhile on a FFV vs FFVI scale, here is an argument you inspired me to do again with your 'rather lacking' point.

I'd argue the plot is deeper in FFV. When you have character development for 5 characters, none of whom you get to leave untouched, is much better than when you have 14 characters, some just filler, some getting character development, and some not even getting a good share of the pie. So the plot is probably more than worth it in V.