Hi guys,
I feel obliged to share this with my fellow Final Fantasy fanatics! I recently had the urge to play through FF7 and FF8 again for pc and decided to search any enhanced graphics mods and what I found...
MIND.
BLOWN.
FFVII
There is what is called a "remixer" available for FF7 which you simply download and install onto your FF7 (assuming you already have FF7 installed on your system and it has to be the normal version not Ultima edition kays). It allows you to put the game resolution to anything you like, has a complete graphical overhaul, complete character model overhaul, majority of NPCs have been remodeled, majority of the world map has been remodeled, a selection of new animations for spells/abilities... but my favourite part is it contains not only the higher quality playstation MP3 instead of the crappy pc midi files, but the majority of the OST has been replaced with tracks from OCremix.org and the Black Mages!!!
So for all of you that like me are holding out on a remake some day, this might just be good enough for you. Simply dl the remixer from this link (contains all technical details and info on remixer) and install it (remember you need FF7 on your system first). It's a large file so I suggest overnight dl.
http://www.finalfantasy7pc.com/mods/remix-patcher/
Sample
FFVIII
Ok unfortunately there is not an equivalent remixer for FF8 but there is a launcher program which allows you to alter resolution up to a ridiculous setting making the game look absolutely beautiful and also fixes the 8 bit pallete textures problem that causes so many issues with modern gfx. I have also managed to replace some of the music with tracks from the orchestral album Fithos Lusec Wecos Vinosec ^^. Now there are a few different sources for the launcher some of which I would be wary of so if anyone is interested in FF8 add me on msn or drop me a pm.
Ok so here is a link to the launcher, just dl and unpack it into your FF8 directory, then click on launcher.exe instead of the original FF8.exe (you will need winrar or winzip etc to unpack the dl). If you don't feel comfortable dl it pm me your email and I can send you my dl.
http://rapidshare.com/#!download|161l32|78672746|ff8_launcher_v1.1.rar|25
If you want to go a step further and replace the music with the wonderful orchestral tracks go to this website http://ffsf.aaron-kelley.net/download_8.html and dl the Samuel Slight FFVIII DLS v1.39/ Unpack and transfer all the files into Your FF8 directory\data\music\dmusic and select yes to all when asked if you want to replace any existing files. That should be you ready to roll^^
Sample (taken at 1280x960)
Remember this is PC version only guys, I downloaded the .iso files and used Daemon Tools to mount the game on a virtual drive. Here are the links to the torrent downloads (Use at your own risk but they have been 100% working and clean for me).
I've taken out the torrent links to stop the thread going under, but if you want to know where I got them from, I can't tell you >_> coughisocough because coughhuntcough anyway. PM me if you want specifics, just be careful and always check the user comments first on torrents.
Final Edit: I'm running Windows XP, my friend has successfully run these on Vista, Windows 7 on the other hand has known compatibility issues with FF7 in particular although it should still work with the remixer. Good luck, any issues pm me.
UPDATE AUGUST 2012: Some of the links provided in this post are now dead, so you might have to google your way to success.