jeremy1456's Full Review: Final Fantasy Chronicles for PlayStation 1
Final Fantasy Chronicles
I rumors of a new Final Fantasy collection a long time ago, ans when I heard that the two games included in the package were Final Fantasy 4 and Chrono Trigger I immediately became interested. These are two of the games that I was raised on, Final Fantasy 4 was the one game that got me interested in RPGs, and Chrono Trigger is one of my favorite games of all time, next to Final Fantasy 4 and 7.
It is pretty obvious that Square should have spent a lot more time on this project, the loading times are sometimes ridiculously long in Chrono Trigger, I mean come on! Why is it that Sega was able to emulate tons of games for the DreamCast Smash Pack with little to no load times, and SquareSoft emulates 2 games to the PlayStation and the load times are extremely bad? Final fantasy 4 doesn't take half as bad a hit as Chrono Trigger does in the load times, in fact the only loading that I noticed for FF4 was when the system was loading cutscenes, and when a new piece of music starts up, but Chrono Trigger has horrible load times, especially the loading times required for loading battles.
Final Fantasy 4 is in my opinion the greatest game ever, and I have played a LOT of games. I really don't know why I love this game so much, I first played it when I was in the second grade, and I enjoyed it the second I turned it my SNES on. Now if I (as a second Grader) could understand the story and concepts of Final fantasy 4, then I believe anyone can.
I didn't get to experience the joy of playing Chrono Trigger until 2 years ago, I can't believe I went that long without it! Chrono Trigger was revolutionary, I believe it is the game that showed the beginning transition of the old SquareSoft, into the new SquareSoft. Time travel is heavily implemented in this game, you travel from one point in time to the other a lot, you travel to the prehistoric ages, the medieval times, the ruins of the future, and many more times.
Final Fantasy IV
I have fond memories of playing FF 4 in my childhood, I can remember renting it every weekend. But what made FF4 so appealing to me? I really don't know, but it was the first RPG I'd ever played. FF4 was the first SNES offering from Square, and definetly Squares best!
This game has undergone some noticeable changes, for one thing not it seems more like a Final Fantasy game, most spells names were slightly altered in the US version on the SNES, and special moves names were changed, but now the spells sound normal to the Final Fantasy world. For example: the spell Bio was called Virus in the SNES version, and the spell Esuna was called Heal.
Graphics 4/5
What can I say? I dig the colorful graphics just as much as I did when I was a kid. It is very obvious that Square was eager to test out the bright color palette of the Super Nintendo after they had been confined to using dull colors on the NES. Overall the games graphics are sweet, and the new FMV sequences fit the game nicely.
Character design is great for this game, but it seems like Square Designed SPOILER Paladdin SPOILER Cecil way to prissy, I hope that his hair isn't supposed to be like that naturally! FF4 incorporates some familiar faces, the black and white mages.
Story 5/5
Wow, I was in the second grade and actually enjoyed a love/romance story in a game. Yup, I was never to fond of Romances, but there are just so many plot twists and unexpected occurences that you gotta love it! The vocabulary has also been kicked up a notch, characters use words with more than 6 letters now!
WARNING: Massive spoilers in this paragraph The game begins as the Red Wings air force flies through the sky and lands in a city called Mysidia. The commander Cecil steals the crystal of water from the innocent people, and returns it to his king. When Cecil arrives he is relieved of his position as captain of the red wings, and is sent on a mission to deliver a ring (Package in the original) to the village of mist.
Control 5/5
This game has flawless control, it's 2d isometric so how could it be difficult to move around and stuff? Probably the only halfway difficult thing to do is to learn which button closes and which button opens the menu.
Sound 5/5
I have to admit it, this is my favorite soundtrack ever! I have downloaded tons of tracks from the game to my computer so I could listen to them over and over. I would have rated the sound off the scale, but I just couldn't do it because of the horrible sound effects.
The sound effects have been hacked through emulation, I have a copy of the original game and the sound effects don't sound like they are muffled in the least. Sure it doesn't take much from the experience, but then again, it doesn't help it.
MultiPlayer 2/5
I haven't had much two player action on this game, but I can already tell you that it kinda sucks. I would have written more about MultiPlayer, but I haven't fully tried it out.
TOTAL: 21/25
Chrono Trigger
I think that SquareSoft included this game in the package because they thought they might be able to lure fans of Chrono Cross into purchasing this game. Well, good idea SquareSoft, but could you have at least taken the proper time to bring the whole Chrono Trigger Experience without the load times?
This game hasn't undergone any serious changes, the colors seem a little brighter, and the load times suck. It is extremely bad when load times can ruin the experience of the game! Well, I didn't actually play Chrono Trigger until 2 years ago, when I was playing it I kept saying to myself, "Self, I really missed out on a good game, didn't I?". This game is reason enough for most gamers to purchase this package!
Graphics 5/5
What was so pretty is considered "Trash Graphics" to others, but I am rating this games graphics according to how other games of the time looked. It looks like the colors may have um, well faded a little when compared to the original, but maybe it's just me that thinks so.
Some of the characters are original, Chrono, Frog, and Lucca are all original in my opnion, but I think Marle and Ayla could have used more work. Chrono and Frog are my two favorite characters, Frog is bright colorful green, while Chrono has dark red hair.
Story 4/5
The story is very original, this is the first time I have ever seen time travel implemented into an RPG. There aren't really a whole lot of plot twists though, and some areas seem predictable.
WARNING: This Paragraph Contains Massive Spoilers The game is about a boy named Chrono that lives in a peaceful small village. Chrono runs into a girl one day at a fair, and Chronos friend Lucca has just invented a teleportation device, so the girl Chrono picked up (Marle) tries it out and is warpe to another time period. Thus begins Chronos time travel adventures.
Control 4/5
While not quite as good as FF4, the control of this game is pretty good. You can navigate by foot, and airship pretty easily, and battles are fought easily with the almost perfect control.
Sound 3/5
I just didn't enjoy the music to this game much at all, not few if any tracks I liked. My favorite song from the game is Luccas theme, it is cool!
The sound effects weren't hacked through the emulator, so everything sounds just right. Even though the swords make funny noises when you attack with them, sound effects aren't shabby at all, I just wish that the music was fairly good, but oh well, if I want something good to listen to I will turn down the volume so I shoudl stop complaining, right?
MultiPlayer N/A
Haven't even tried it yet, but if it is anything like FF4s then it is not even worth mentioning.
TOTAL 16/20
If you have played these games on the Super Nintendo then you won't find a whole lot of new stuff. This game is perfect for beginning RPGers.
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