Differences
Everything listed below are the changes between the old versions and the 'new' versions on Final Fantasy Anthology.
Final Fantasy V:
-Galuf is vulgar, much like Barret in FF7, all throughout the game. In the original version, it is never bleeped out with @#$% symbols. Galuf says "Shit", Crap", and "Damn" many many times throughout the game in the original version. In the FFA version, you never see any of those words because they are replaced with symbols.
-The map of the overworld appears in a new random location each time you play, in FFA. In the original, it is in a preset never-changing spot every time.
-The puzzle order for the Phoenix Tower is random every time you go through it, in FFA. In the original, there is nothing random about it at all. Preset stairs, doors, rooms, never-changing, no matter what, in the original.
-There are a few monsters they changed the names of. The first you will come across that has a different name is "Cool Dust"(FFA), instead of "Crew Dust"(FF5j), located in the Fire Ship on the south shore of Karnak. In all, there are approximately 12 monsters they changed the names of. To explain why they changed the names of these monters: I'll use Crew Dust as the example. There were two monsters with this name. One is level 12, 420 hp, the other is level 50-something with 4700 hp and naturally hits much harder due to its level. You do not come across the 'harder' one until much later in the game, but it causes some confusion since they look exactly alike and have the same name. The name changes are not all that drastic, as they all have roughly the same names as previously. This only matters because if you are trying to find some info about them on a 'monster list' or a 'steal list' or what not, look for something with a very similar name. Thats all..
-If you have a FF7 save file in "memory card slot one" when the game loads, then there is a very rare and random chance that Cloud will walk across the screen instead of a FF5 character/townsperson.
Final Fantasy VI:
-When the world is destroyed, just after completing the Floating Continent scenario (when the World of Balance becomes the World of ruin), there is one
cut-scene where a Mt Zozo type of mountainous background with semi-green hazed grasses is shown. Kefka's magical laser beam goes right through this mountain, and
it shows several people running opposite ways from the center of the screen in effort to avoid the divide and to not plunge to their deaths. While everyone is fleeing
in FFA version, an Imp jumps from the top of the mountain, almost intentionally it seems, and lands smack middle of the divide to plunge to its death. I never knew Imps had a tendency to commit suicide..
-With his last breath, before Kefka kills him, just before to fully completing the Floating Continent scenario, Gestahl casts "Melton". I think the coders messed up and it should have been "Merton". They didn't screw that up the first time around. The coders must have been bored.
-A very obvious difference is in Mog's Dance list while in battle. The "W" is missing from "Wind Song" making it "ind Song" when selecting among the Dances during battle. It is, however, "Wind Song" in the "Skills > Dances" list, in the menu screen. Some coder must have been drunk when he transferred the dances over from the old to the new version.
-This change really really irritated me, especially because it means that you don't have the option to see a slightly different ending for Celes. You don't have the option to let Cid live or die by means of feeding him Bad fish or Good fish. Guess what your only option is? You get to kill him. You have no other choice but to be a murderer by making Celes go back and forth from his death-filled house and the shores. I might add that you can only get one fish at a time since they made it where now there is only one fish in the water at any given time. Trust me, I spent a long long time trying to find a "Good fish". All 4 trillion of them were slow and stupid and poisonous. Poor Cid.
-There are very few times when this occurs, but, certain towns people that appear to be bandits, like the bandits you see in Gau's cave in the WoR that are sitting around a campfire talking about some guy with wierd hair on the Veldt. Anyhow. They refer to "Kefka" as "The Cult of Kefka" instead. Check out the Magic Tower's entrance for an example. There are a few bandits hanging out in the top left corner of the screen.
-In Kohlingen, in the original version, there is an old woman standing on the right side of the first house in the Town, with a patch of flowers next to it as well. When you talked to her she would say "Those beautiful days will never return", and the screen would fade out and then back in with a WoB setting of the town instead, birds flying, and kids playing, etc. On FFA version, she is just like any other towns person. You talk to her, she says something, and thats that. She still says the same phrase in both versions though.
-In the WoR, the way you 'view' Sabin's storyline of the past, when the Figaro King, his father, died, is different. The original, you would talk to "Matron", the keeper or maid so-to-speak of the Castle. She is in the left building, outside the castle. You would talk to her. She would do something much like the original version in Kohlingen. "I remember those days.." and it would shoot to Sabin's storyline. In the FFA version, you have to go to the Inn, also located in the buildings outside Figaro Castle, and select "Yes" when you are prompted "Would you like to rest?". I guess Matron got sick of telling the story so many times that she handed it down to the twenty-year-old maids, so they can pass it down to their children, and their children.. so that for all time, the Final Fantasy world will know how Sabin cried and fled the castle and Edgar was left to rule it alone.
-This is another change that really got to me. It almost brought a tear to my eyes, from rage, that of all things, they would change this: In the original version, in Daryl's Tomb, there is a puzzle which you must put four tombstones together to make out "The World is Square". These tombstones were "ERAU", "QSSI", "DLRO", "WEHT". You put them in the right order and you got a little trinket from a treasure chest. In the FFA version, the tombstones read like this: "THEW", "ORLD", "ISSQ", "UARE". This makes me think of, lets say, FF8, where everything that you must do is flat out told to you. Brave Fencer Musashi is the same way. "Why let the gamer figure out the puzzles when we can just tell them the answers?"..
-The Esper "Sraphim" is found a different way. It used to be that you could buy it off of a bandit right outside of the Relic Shop in Tzen for a few thousand gold. In FFA, it is just handed to you upon first finding Terra in the little house at the north east tip of the Serpent Trench in the WoR. The coders won't even let us find the Espers on our own anymore, they just give them to us.. What is this world (of square) coming to?
-At the Magic Tower, there is a group of bandits just hanging out at the top left corner of the screen. If you talk to one of them, he will ask "100,000 gold for a secret?". In the original version, once you gave him the gold, he would tell you his little secret and then scatter off of the screen after telling you. He's a smart bandit, making sure he keeps his stash of gold. In the FFA version, you can ask him all day over and over again, and give him your gold over and over again, and he doesn't budge. You've got too much gold on your hands? Spend a few minutes at the Magic Tower. It shouldn't take too long to get rid of it.
-I am not confident that this is true, but it certainly seems so. In Dinosaur forest, where you fight the "Tyrano" and "Brachosaur" monsters, the Brachosaurs seems to appear less frequently in FFA, and you have a lower chance of getting Economizers from them. -Old version, I could have my Economizers maxxed out at 99 by the time I finished leveling up everyone. I had three when I finished leveling up everyone, on FFA. This is a good thing, however, since it is supposed to be a "Special Item"
-The Cursed Ring trick with the Ragnarok esper in the Gold Dragon's room does not work in any way shape or form on FFA, as it does work in the original version. Likewise, there are two monsters you can steal Cursed Rings from in the original, which these two now no longer have anything to steal. "Doesnt have anything" every time. Bummer.
-If you have a FF8 save file in "memory card slot one" when the game loads, then there is a very rare and random chance that Squall will walk across the screen instead of a FF6 character/townsperson.