The widescreen implementation in FFXII:ZA is poor.

[linksquare]

When Final Fantasy XII was originally released on PlayStation 2 there were two display modes: the original 4:3 mode and a widescreen option. Likely due to hardware limitations the widescreen mode produced a zoomed/cropped image. This was something that was actually fixed via a patch in the PCSX2 emulator which granted a true widescreen display (screenshot below) by patching the 4:3 mode to full widescreen, the way it should have been and probably would have been if the PS2 was powerful enough.

For FFXII:ZA they have inexplicably stuck with the original PS2 widescreen implementation, instead of implementing true widescreen expanded from the original 4:3 resolution.

Rather than picking up the PS4 version I decided to wait for the PC release with this being one of the issues I hoped would be fixed or modded by the community. Strangely I haven't seen many people mention this so I guess not many people are aware of the issue (or just don't care!), although I've seen a few comment on the 'narrow' field of view and this is the reason why.

It seems that the issue still exists in the PC port (I've yet to pick it up), has anyone looked into or made any progress with this?

I've found some images that illustrate the issue for those that are interested-

PS2 widescreen mode: https://i.imgur.com/L75uCM3.png
PC and PS4 widescreen mode, same as PS2!: https://i.imgur.com/3LAaOnJ.png
PS2 original 4:3: https://i.imgur.com/78bUq0E.png
PS2 version with widescreen patch (PCSX2 emulator): https://i.imgur.com/ZTAd2f1.png

[Ɲøƈ]

Just adjusting FOV shouldn't be too hard I would think.

[drae]

Bump for visibility.

Here's another gif to illustrate how the original looks in PCSX2 with and without the widescreen fix: https://i.imgur.com/hw10V7f.gif

[Kule02]

Originally posted by drae:

Bump for visibility.

Here's another gif to illustrate how the original looks in PCSX2 with and without the widescreen fix: https://i.imgur.com/hw10V7f.gif

This is solved by using a FOV patch. The Insurgent's Vision automatically changes the fov to 60.

[Casurin]

Originally posted by neonsquare:

This is solved by using a FOV patch. The Insurgent's Vision automatically changes the fov to 60.

Yes? but imo OPs original point still is valid: The 16:9 "support" is just cropping the image, which is in general not a good idea. The game was developed around 4:3. Cropping that just means you are losing information and screenspace.

But the reason why it was done that way for the remaster:
Remaster - not remake. It is still the old game with some fixes, changes and enhancements slapped onto the old PS2 code.