Final Fantasy Chronicles (PlayStation)

For all of Square's explosive growth over the last few years, Final Fantasy Chronicles proves that the company hasn't forgotten its roots. Like 1999's Final Fantasy Anthology, which saw the release of Final Fantasies V and VI, Chronicles is a repackaging of two of Square's greatest triumphs from the golden 16-bit era--here, Final Fantasy IV and Chrono Trigger make their return. But in the 21st century, when games are as often based on polygons as plot, can a couple of good old 2D epics make a new mark? The answer depends largely on your perspective.

Informed gamers will know Final Fantasy IV was originally released in the United States in 1991 as a scaled back and poorly translated Final Fantasy II. In addition to realigning the title of the game with subsequent releases, Square has remade Final Fantasy IV into the game it should have been 10 years ago. To begin with, the game's text has been retranslated; gone is the simplistic and sometimes broken English of the Super NES version. The new translation also gives us vastly deeper insight into the characters and plot than we ever got before--Cecil's struggle with the nature of his dark knighthood is much more fully developed, for instance. This translation has thankfully been applied to the original Japanese edition of Final Fantasy IV instead of the dumbed-down "Easy Type" version that was originally released in the States. American gamers finally have a chance to see, in English, all the missing items, battle commands, and other removed features that they missed out on the first time. This is surely the version of FFIV that will endure for years to come.

Final Fantasy IV tells the story of the dark knight Cecil, commander of the kingdom of Baron's elite force of airships, the Red Wings. Something is amiss in Baron, however, whose political aims have exceeded its capacity for peace. Soon, Cecil and his friends are forced to rebel against the tyranny of their ruler, and they discover that Baron's evil is merely a front for a much larger force that threatens their entire world. This is, of course, very typical Final Fantasy stuff, but it hasn't been done better since. Series newcomers will want to note that Final Fantasy IV revolves heavily around the elemental crystals they heard so much about in Final Fantasy IX.

Chrono Trigger came later in the Square time line, after the company had begun to solidify its popularity in the United States. The original Super NES game therefore featured a fully developed translation and was generally identical to its Japanese counterpart. As such, the PlayStation release of Chrono Trigger doesn't really bring any new elements to the game itself. It does feature a new anime introduction and ending, as well as several anime clips interspersed Final Fantasy VII-style throughout the gameplay. More interesting among Chrono Trigger's additions is the extras mode. It gives you movie and sound tests, extensive information on the game's monsters and attacks, maps of dungeons and item locations, and an artwork viewer. The catch is that initially, only the movie and sound tests are accessible, and only a few of each can be played. To unlock more features in the extras mode, you'll have to finish the game multiple times, as each of the myriad endings opens up more stuff to play with. Of course, only the hard-core will ever see all the toys in the extras mode, but that's the type of player such features are targeted at, anyway.