Squaresoft released Final Fantasy IV for the PlayStation with Chrono Trigger in 2001 under the title Final Fantasy Chronicles. I found that a little weird. Wouldn’t they rather release Final Final Fantasy III with IV? I mean, we never got the third game for a release until Final Fantasy III for the DS. We did get Final Fantasy Origins, the one with Final Fantasy I and II, the following year. So then, was Origins an afterthought? Did they think, “Hey, since we’re chronicling the series for PlayStation, might as well add the origins of the series“?
Wouldn’t it make more sense to release Final Fantasy III under a Final Fantasy compilation disc? Did they just not think we’d appreciate it? I guarantee we’d buy the original Final Fantasy III, just to see what we were missing. Maybe it was because Final Fantasy III was an NES game, and they didn’t want to bother updating the graphics? Funny, Final Fantasy IV was originally an NES title. The developers enhanced the graphics and brought it to a new console.
I know Chrono Trigger is good, but why not release it separately? Or bundle it with Chrono Cross for a special edition release? Chrono Cross came to North American in 2000. They could have resold the game. Did they really need Chrono Trigger to sell Final Fantasy IV, or was it the other way around? Even back then, we could have come up with common sense marketing.
Anyways, I’m getting off track. I remember purchasing just this disc from eBay. Nothing against Chrono Trigger, I just wanted to play Final Fantasy IV. But I only had a PlayStation 2 at the time, where weird things would happen. First, the battles would freeze before the victory dance. I had to eject the disc, push it back in and wait for it to load. Already, a mostly 20-hour game seemed to take longer.
But this was the Final Fantasy that seemed closer to the modern games. The main theme sending off Cecil and Kain on their grand adventures set the mood. But it also gave me nostalgia for the first game, when the Warriors of Light cross the bridge.
Every Final Fantasy title evolves from the previous games. Final Fantasy IV takes a decisive cinematic approach to the series. From the opening title, you can tell the story was going to be epic. And it was. You traverse the entire world beyond descending to its depth and traveling to the moon. I don’t think we’ve ever done this in a Final Fantasy before, or since. We also never had a five-member party until here, and never had one ever again. While, unless you consider Final Fantasy Tactics.
