Final Fantasy Chronicles
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| Final Fantasy Chronicles | |
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| Developer(s) | Square Co., Ltd. |
| Publisher(s) | Square Electronic Arts |
| Release date(s) | June 28, 2001 |
| Genre | Role-playing game |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Teen (T) |
| Platform(s) | Sony PlayStation |
Final Fantasy Chronicles is a compilation of the computer role-playing games Final Fantasy IV and Chrono Trigger, released for the Sony PlayStation. Both games were enhanced remakes of titles originally released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Although both games differ little from the original versions in terms of gameplay, graphics, and sound, a number of additional omake sequences are included, including art galleries, bestiaries, and full motion video cutscenes.
The original Super Nintendo Final Fantasy IV had previously been released in North America in edited format as Final Fantasy II in 1991. The Final Fantasy Chronicles version of the game is a complete re-localization, featuring several elements not present in the earlier North American release, and an retranslated English language script. The Final Fantasy Chronicles version of Chrono Trigger, on the other hand, is essentially identical to the North American localization of the Super Nintendo game, originally released in 1994, and uses the script produced for the original localization by Ted Woolsey.
Both PlayStation remakes were originally released seperately in Japan. The compilation was released in North America as a followup to Final Fantasy Anthology, a collection of the PlayStation rereleases of Final Fantasy V and Final Fantasy VI, which was criticized by many fans for its omission of Final Fantasy IV, which was included in the Japanese Final Fantasy Collection, especially in light of the substantial omissions from the "easy-type" version of the original game that had been localized for North American audiences as Final Fantasy II (which omitted several monsters, items, and magic spells) and the widely percieved poor quality of the original English language script.
Like Final Fantasy Anthology before it, however, Final Fantasy Chronicles was met with mixed reviews from North American consumers, who tended to be especially critical of the load time inherent in the CD-ROM format utilized by the PlayStation, but not in the original cartridge format utilized by the Super Nintendo. Players could expect a 2-4 second load time when accessing the items menus, and the transition between fight scenes also suffered from lags. Nonetheless, load times in the Final Fantasy Chronicles release of Final Fantasy IV had been substantially improved from the original Japanese PlayStation release.