Hands-onFinal Fantasy Chronicles

Square's latest compilation of classic games will bring to North America two titles that the audience has been yearning for, for quite a while--Chrono Trigger, and Final Fantasy IV. Both games are regarded as classics in the RPG world, though each for different reasons--Final Fantasy IV because it introduced Square's brand of RPG (as it appears today, at any rate) to American audiences, and Chrono Trigger for its then-innovative gameplay systems, and comparatively visionary narrative.

Final Fantasy IV was originally released in 1991 for the Nintendo's SNES console. It was the second true Final Fantasy game to be released in the United States (hence it's misleading stateside moniker, Final Fantasy II), and it really did much to set the tone for the rest of the series. In it, a Cecil--a dark knight with a big heart--becomes disillusioned with the cruelty of his liege, and begins to questions his orders. As you'd imagine, he then becomes embroiled in a quest larger than both himself, and his brave party of comrades. From a technical standpoint, the game is quite modest. Everything is composed of 2D sprites, with superdeformed characters, and iconic gameworld elements. Given its age, though, that it is quite unimpressive is to be expected. The quality of the emulation is pretty questionable. While the game is certainly playable, it seems hard to get used to the compromised parallax effects, muffled sound production, and harsh load-times. Players without a point of reference certainly won't feel as slighted by the less-than-perfect translation, though, so anyone who hasn't played this game before should definitely welcome the chance to check it out. Our short time spent with the game does allude to its narrative being faithful to the original Japanese story; when Cecil visits Mysidia, the object he carries in tow is actually called a "Bomb Ring," as opposed to a innocuous "package." While this may not say much to those unfamiliar with the game, it'll speak volumes to those who're familiar with both the original story, and the elements of it which were compromised by the original US translation. The game also features sharp, new FMV sequences, which will pepper the game's intro and ending. While they aren't of post-FFVIII quality, longtime fans will no doubt get a kick out of seeing their old comrades rendered in full 3D.

From a technical standpoint, Chrono Trigger fares much better than FFIV; the emulation is much more faithful, and the game really does look and sound like its SNES counterpart. While we haven't gotten far enough to see a good many of them, it's evident that a whole bunch of animated cutscenes have been littered throughout the game, in order to highlight key moments in its wild plot. Some of the game's load times are painfully long, however--accessing the status menu is way longer than it should be, and the game literally freezes for several long seconds before most battles. Remember Final Fantasy VII's menu load times? Chrono Trigger's often feels several times worse. Still, the game is rightly regarded as one of the best console RPGs ever created, and no quirk in its emulation will affect that too drastically. A handful of small extras will round out the package, including a theater, music box, and art gallery.

Final Fantasy Chronicles is set to ship early next month, so keep your eyes here for a full review soon.