Final Fantasy Chronicles

Final Fantasy IV
This is one of those "so what's left to say?" reviews. It's like the Dance Dance Revolution review -- after months of unequivocal praise for a game, what does one do when it comes to write the final summation? Final Fantasy IV, after all, is universally regarded as one of the best console RPGs ever made. To harm one hair of its proverbial head would probably inspire violent bloodlust in our more unbalanced readers (note to more unbalanced readers: I'm not going to knock the game, don't worry). It's been feted, praised, and reminisced over throughout the years since its release for the Super Nintendo, and so anything said here is merely a very small drop in a very large bucket.

But then one remembers that there's a generation of gamers today who actually did not read a Toys R Us ad, see "Final Fantasy II" displayed for something like $80, and go absolutely [expletive deleted] bat[expletive deleted]. It is to them that this review is directed more than anything, because they missed something special, and they should take advantage of the second chance they're being offered right now.

Final Fantasy IV was of course called Final Fantasy II in the states, a consequence of the second two 8-bit FFs missing out on a localization. Thus, it represented a lot of firsts for American gamers: the first 16-bit RPG, the first active-time battle system, and the first heavily character- and story-driven RPG (although the later NES Dragon Warriors own at least part of that crown). It introduced concepts that have become commonplace in the genre today, especially the introduction of cinematic elements as an equal complement to gameplay, but which at the time were a downright astounding revelation. Even through the bollixed original translation, it had a real impact on players at that age, who'd never seen anything like that before. Final Fantasy IV had recognizable characters with their own little arcs of development. The plot was full of twists and turns. It solidly kicked off the Final Fantasy tradition of taking you everywhere: all over the world, through the air, underground, even the moon (to which even FFVII never quite made it). While Final Fantasy VII had the graphics that finally earned the genre a marketing budget, from an American perspective FFIV was the first big-ticket cinematic RPG.

Which is not to say that it wasn't compelling on the level of pure gameplay, though. Dragon Quest was then and is now the more effectively gameplay-driven of the two series, but Final Fantasy IV still offers plenty of fodder for min-maxers and stat-crunchers to toy with. The five-person party, in conjunction with still clearly-defined character roles (this being the last FF to clearly pigeonhole characters into classes), allows for more interesting battle strategy than something like VII or VIII, because there's a wider variety of attack and defense options to match the nastier cast of bad guys. Plot and gameplay work together to mix up that aspect of the game -- the story shuffles the party around frequently, so you're forced to learn new tactics.

For those who must have something pretty to look at, there is of course not much here by modern standards. It was a lovely game at the time, with surprisingly powerful attack animations in the battle sequences, and some of the 2D backgrounds are still a treat (the lunar areas, the Crystal chambers), but what's to be said? It's a 16-bit game at heart, with a few glitches in the Mode 7 to boot (albeit nothing to moan about) and the added FMV sequences, while rather pretty, are very infrequent. One thing hasn't changed, though: Final Fantasy IV still has a classic soundtrack. This is Nobuo Uematsu in his prime, and there are tracks good enough to match anything composed today. The theme from the lunar underground is as good as it was all those years ago.

That's true of the entire game. It hasn't changed, after all -- only the way we might react to it has. And so there are certainly those who might react to it negatively, given what it holds over from an older generation of RPGs. It has random battles, it demands a certain amount of combat for its own sake, and yes, it looks extremely 16-bit. But on the other hand, the new localization restores the depth of dialogue and gameplay that the SNES version lost in the proverbial translation -- there are new items, restored scenes, and a much smoother flow to the entire script. For an old game, in other words, there is plenty of new game to play here. Look beyond its age (and ignore the minute load times), and FFIV is a classic in its genre, an experience well worth reliving even for those who played the original.

-- David Smith

Chrono Trigger
Despite the fact that Square Electronic Arts should have re-released Chrono Trigger sometime before Chrono Cross hit retail shelves in America, as it would've had a greater impact on those that were planning to play Chrono Cross but hadn't yet experienced Chrono Trigger, there's no denying that we owe them a special thanks for bringing it out at all. Better yet, instead of simply releasing Chrono Trigger on its own, Square EA went the extra mile to give us two all-time classics a single package that's priced to sell.

At the time of its initial release I strongly believed that Chrono Trigger was a masterful RPG that was easily one of the best that I had played. And after putting it to the test once again nearly six years after I played it for the first time, I can say without any hesitation that it is indeed a work of art that was completely deserving of all the praise it had received and has certainly stood the test of time.

Sure, the graphics will make some people chuckle and surely don't push the boundaries of the PlayStation one bit, but the sprite based characters and hand-drawn design are still appealing as ever. Visually speaking this is a pretty exact port of the SNES game with the only noticeable change being the addition of new animated cutscenes, which are extremely well done and fit with the game nicely.

Outside of the addition of the new animated sequences, the only other perceptible difference between this version of Chrono Trigger and the original SNES version is that players will now have to suffer through some load times before battles that were pretty much non-existent on the cartridge version. However, this won't be a problem for people that have played a lot of PlayStation RPGs because the load times we get here are standard for most CD-based RPGs.

The story, combat system, and general game design are all exactly the same and that's definitely something that we shan't complain about. For those of you that played Chrono Cross without having played Chrono Trigger, you'll find that the brilliant idea of having enemy encounters with onscreen and avoidable monsters was done well before the masterful Cross. Plus, the battle system is insanely deep, allowing for the characters to combine attacks into Double or Triple techs for a crazy amount of damage.

The game's text appears to be pretty much unchanged as far as I can tell, but it wouldn't surprise me if I were mistaken here. Either way, Chrono Trigger has a solid translation that while not quite up to the standards of some of Square's more recent stuff like Chrono Cross and Vagrant Story, is more than passable and does a adequate job of pushing along the game's fascinating storyline.

Sure, it may be filled with every imaginable console RPG cliché, but Chrono Trigger manages to stand out among the pack because it doesn't slam the player with these huge moral dilemmas or overly meaningful themes. What we have here is a story that doesn't take itself too serious, which is very welcome in an age where most RPGs want us to deal with major issues regarding life, death, and other of life's big issues. That said, Chrono Trigger does this while still providing a captivating storyline that will take the player's emotions to the exact opposite ends of the spectrum.

One of the reasons that Chrono Trigger is able to capture the emotions of the player so well is that it features one of the best videogame soundtracks ever produced. Nobuo Uematsu of Final Fantasy fame provided a handful of excellent tracks, while Yasunori Mitsuda made his big debut by crafting some of the most memorable tunes in RPG history.

Even though that most people will overlook this game because it's a PlayStation game that's a re-release of a 16-bit game during a time when we've already moved on to the 128-bit generation, if you're an RPG fan that has yet to play either of these classics, it's a must-have title. With the multiple endings and fantastical game design and lovable characters, Chrono Trigger alone is worth the full price of admission. Add in Final Fantasy IV and you have an astonishing deal that you simply shouldn't pass up.

-- Dave Zdyrko