Square Enix has today announced the release date for its remake of the original Final Fantasy on the PlayStation Portable, and the first title to be released under the banner of the series' 20th Anniversary celebration. 19 April is the date for Japanese (and importer's) diaries, with Final Fantasy II following shortly afterwards in the latter part of May this year.

Unlike the GBA’s already-rehashed versions, the PSP editions have both had huge graphical overhauls, with the in-game environments updated from the blocky, limited palette of Nintendo's first home console to a much more PSP-user friendly, sharpened 2D appearance. Furthermore, computer generated images first used in the PlayStation versions of the game will also be included.

The announcement might come as somewhat of a surprise to Final Fantasy veterans, since the original game was released on 18 December 1987, which isn’t quite 20 years ago in our book. Perhaps someone at Square Enix just has their numbers mixed up... by near enough a margin of eight months.

There is currently no concrete news or details on the Anniversary editions arriving anywhere other than Japan, but knowing just how popular the Final Fantasy series is across the world (no matter how numerous the rehashes) it might be a good sign of things to come. We’ll let you know!