In 1997 when the playstation had not long been released, this game was a 1 of a kind game, with CGI enhanced intro vids, and bit part movies for the storylines. The gameplay itself was incredible, and the characters were enjoyable to see, especially that thieving little madam Yuffie and chainsmoker Cid. The bosses were amazing to see, especially the Weapon's. Also having the ability to go underwater, fly in an airship which as time passed and gameplay advanced, the ship was upgraded. It brought the whole genre to a new high, and was advanced even further with FF8, showing just what they can do. It was and still is a classic game, and it is my personal favorite. It does have it's faults what with the whole *I am mr block man, fear me* kinda look to it, but still it was a good game, and I enjoyed hours upon hours of it and can still enjoy it even today.
Could it be stretched that way to be viewed on Youtube itself? It is possible that the vid itself was 1980 x 1080 and simply shrunk down to make it fit. I dont know, but even if that is the true resolution, I actually dont mind it as much as some I have seen. I prefer not to have black bars either side of my screen thats for damn sure or top to bottom.

Stepping in, that looks leaps and bounds better then the PS1 version. LEAPS AND BOUNDS. The only FF I refuse to play due to the horrid use of (early) 3D modelling and CGI. Sure the backgrounds need work, but without dedicated, official modding tools they've done one hell of job. You want dreadful? Play the ps1 version running through HDMI on a 42' tv.

Eyes bleed.

You don't really need me to explain what you're doing wrong there, right? :P

Vanilla looks ok, but it would be better if either the modders can rework the skins of the game itself, or Square does it.

"Then obviously classic games like this are not for you" if black bars bother you.

The game is 4:3, play it on a 4:3 monitor or put up with bars. :P

lol trying to play me at my own game eh....Touche. However I said that to YOU because graphics themselves bother you. It wont work with me because it is just the black bars that bother me, not the gameplay graphics themselves. Black bars annoy me like they do with films that have them, but that does NOT stop me from watching them, and after a while they no longer bother me. The only thing that bothers me is trying to play a game with a native resolution of 800 x 600 and under because it causes me physical headaches. Besides, not having the black bars is a preference, not something I am adamant about.

Nah you don't, the PS3 offers some smoothening and up scaling, problem being it's a useless piece of junk tech used for the purpose. They seemed to have thought the dvd up scaling was good enough for games and left it at that, asshats.

Other options are non-exsistant, dont have a psp, old tube tv died years ago and my monitor is used for the pc. Leaves me with the PS3.

But the tech itself is ancient, FF8 and 9 have higher resolution backgrounds, characters, art and miles better cgi. Both look better on the tv as well, especially 9.

9 I will admit looked good, but the game itself was so awful I actually took it back to the shop 2 days after buying it to swap it for something else. And yes, I had completed it.

Total opposite for me, 9 is a gaming highlight for and arguably the best rpg I've played. In fact it has defined me to an extent with Zidane's take or virtue. FF7 to 9 had industry setting writing and characters I dearly wish more devs take inspiration from. Sure the mechanics are present to this day, but I hate how anime has dominated the art style of modern JRPG's.

Anyway, going back to FF9, yeah people who played 7 generally seem to rate the other 2 lower, which is fine since I never played 7 to begin with.

Ah, but it's not the graphics of the game that bother me, it's the (ill thought out IMO) mods. Anyway, give me the game running at the original resolution on a CRT any day. ;)
I find the natural slight fuzziness of a CRT TV better than any fancy filter for smoothing low resolution graphics.

On a side note, while black bars aren't ideal I'll never understand why some people prefer the picture stretched. Thank god my (CRT) TV has a good 4:3 mode. ;)

8 was also a personal favorite tbh. But 7 will always that little bit higher for me, as it broke my Final Fantasy Cherry :P I had never played a Final Fantasy game till then, and took me a long time to find and play the originals afterwards.
I dont have it stretched. I can watch a movie with the black bars, I just prefer them not to be there. So if and when I can, I make sure it is my full native resolution before I buy, or at least I do now I have this monitor. It is only 6 months old, so still amazed by how good everything looks :P

Squeenix doesn't want to spend the money to tinker with the source code and fix the games.

And I doubt they'll let GOG have the source code to do that.

That's assuming they even *HAVE* the source code anymore.

Although, that said, it's obvious looking at the re-releases of Dungeon Siege 1 and 2, that they have no problems with tinkering with the source code, even if it is just to remove elements and update the copyright message.

Knowing them they just opened up a configuration file in a text editor and called it a day. :p

Rather, I think the original Dungeon Siege dev still exists, so the source code might have still been around.