25 Gaming Experiences You Must Have Before You Die - Part VI: SNES Square RPG Trilogy

 

Final Fantasy IV (SNES - 1991)

Final Fantasy VI (SNES - 1994)

Chrono Trigger (SNES - 1995) 

Why You Should Play It
For a few years in the mid-to-late 90s, Squaresoft ruled the world. They didn't really—in fact, Square's grasp on the industry was rather tenuous, but to the JRPG fan coming of age at the time, it certainly seemed that way.
Of course, it's easy to see why we naïve and doe-eyed fanboys and fangirls thought JRPGs had taken over after Square's performance on the SNES. Square truly revolutionized video games as devices for delivering narratives in the 16-bit era, and their SNES exclusivity gave Nintendo a major edge over the primarily RPG bereft Genesis during the days of “Genesis does what Ninten-don't”. Not to discredit Sega entirely, as Phantasy Star definitely had a major role in the maturation of the RPG, but Square really brought the genre to the forefront and put it in a glossy, blockbuster package that began to draw attention from gamers that weren't even RPG savvy.

It was a glorious time where we raced home from school or other mundane activities to get back to things far more important: revolting against the oppressive Magitek Empire, saving the future from Lavos, or helping a Dark Knight redeem himself and become a Paladin. The characters in these games weren't just pixels on a screen or digital projections of our childhood wish fulfillment fantasies, they were our friends. They had feelings. Sometimes, they'd do amazing things we'd never imagined video game characters doing before, like crying, becoming braver or more mature, even contemplating suicide, thoughts and dynamics that even now seem too poignant or vulnerable for games to deal with.

This venture toward Square's zenith begins in 1991 with Final Fantasy IV, infamously toned down and released as Final Fantasy II in the States (on account of the real II and III never having made it here due to the fact that the first FF didn't come stateside until 1990 and by then, the fourth game was already in development on Nintendo's new hardware). FF4 was the biggest and most narrative-heavy JRPG since Phantasy Star II. It tells the story of Cecil, a Dark Knight, champion of the Kingdom of Baron. Unfortunately, working for the King isn't as fun as it used to be, that is, since he began sending Cecil out to commit wholesale slaughter in the pursuit of a quartet of crystals that control the four elements (and thus, the world itself). The once benevolent King's recent attitude change seems highly unusual, and as Cecil's loyalty wanes in relation to his growing suspicion, he is set upon a path that will have him uncovering a conspiracy that runs far deeper than he can imagine.

Apart from the twist-heavy plot, FF4 also introduces the ATB battle system, which allows you to enter each character's commands as their turn comes up, rather than the old, archaic round-based system that would have you entering your entire party's commands at the beginning of the round and hoping everything turned out for the best. It was a dynamic new system that allowed for greater strategy and faster paced, more reactive combat.

Final Fantasy VI (released here as III: again we leapfrog over a title and give FFV a miss) hit in 1994, and this is where things really begin to pick up for Square. FF6 chronicles a revolution against a corrupt empire wielding forbidden technology that once threatened to destroy the world. As Terra, an amnesiac girl with strange powers, Locke, a heroic thief, Edgar, a lecherous king, and a host of other unforgettable characters, you must form an alliance and stop the Magitek Empire from taking over the world. FF6 was much bigger, much prettier, and far more dramatic than any RPG before it and many that came after. It spans a much longer quest, a cast more than twice FF4's size, and boasts an epic story that will take you places you wouldn't even dream of at the outset of your adventure. It's been called a masterpiece on many occasions and truly transcends merely being a great game like so many others on this list.

And even after all that gloating, FF6 is not Square at its best. In 1995, there was a once-in-a-lifetime convergence of fortunes. The planets aligned and God himself, for one brief moment, smiled down on gaming, as two teams of elite RPG developers, the Final Fantasy team led by Hironobu Sakaguchi, and the Dragon Quest team led by Yuji Horii, united under Square's banner (a prophetic union considering the two companies would eventually merge in 2003) to bring us Chrono Trigger, a game that I, without any reservations, would call the greatest RPG ever made, and undoubtedly one of the finest pieces of software you'll see on this list.

Chrono Trigger is a beautiful, sweeping adventure across time itself, thrusting a trio of misfits into a portal that eventually leads them 1,300 years into the future—a future where mankind hinges on the brink of extinction at the hands of a gigantic alien organism that has been manipulating the destiny of the planet for millions of years. To change this seemingly inevitable fate, you and your cohorts, a cast of some of the most charming characters ever assembled, will have to leap through time and rewrite history.

Chrono Trigger is insanely deep, offering a multitude of possible outcomes while still delivering one of the most streamlined and tightly wound RPG experiences ever produced. Some have argued that the game is too short, and compared to many of its contemporaries, this argument could have some validity. To me and many others, however, Chrono Trigger is the perfect length, long and progressive enough to feel appropriately epic, but lean and minimalist enough to not overstay its welcome or bog its adventure down in the toils of grinding and other artifices of oldschool RPGing.

While each of these games take place in entirely different worlds, one thing ties them together: incredible music. If you compiled a list of the greatest video game soundtracks throughout history, Squaresoft would dominate most of it. Final Fantasy IV and VI in particular boast what are undeniably the greatest soundtracks of the 16-era, composed by the greatest video game composer of any era: Nobuo Uematsu. Nobuo also did some amazing work for Chrono Trigger, but the lion's share of melodies are the work of the then rookie Yasunori Mitsuda. This combination of geniuses, one established master and one unproven young man still in his 20s with an immense amount of faith placed in him, gives Chrono Trigger a very distinct soundscape, and in all honesty, I'd probably go as far as to say Chrono Trigger has the most unforgettable soundtrack I've ever heard. But even then, it's only hairs better than the soundtracks for FFIV and FFVI, both haunting, affecting masterpieces that sell every moment of their respective games.

In short, these three games represent Square at their A-Game, at a time when the company was bursting with talent and innovation. Square at their A-Game was not to be trifled with, and while that era may be long gone for both Square and JRPGs in general, it, with these three games, left what is and probably always will be the high watermark of the genre, and quite possibly gaming as a whole.

Potential Barriers
Well, they're RPGs. And not RPGs in the Skyrim/Fable/essentially-an-action-game-with-more-numbers-involved kind of way. We're talking turn-based, selecting commands and reacting to enemy actions. The first two have random battles, something you may never have encountered if you grew up playing PC-style RPGs like Diablo and Baldur's Gate. In this age, where you're being spoon-fed advice for your encounters and beaten over the head with frenetic, high-octane action at every turn, going from a lifetime of Gears of War or Halo to the plodding, deliberate pace of a turn-based JRPG may seem intolerably cryptic. Oh well! For these three games, get the fuck over it. Open your mind, employ some patience and you'll soon find yourself immersed in a world you'll have difficulty leaving. Even if JRPGs truly aren't your thing, this trio of games transcends time and genre, and as a gamer and a human being who appreciates mankind's dramatic endeavors, you owe it to yourself and the masters who created them to experience these games.

Current Availability
Square is typically pretty good at keeping their software available on current hardware. Final Fantasy IV in particular has been rereleased a ridiculous number of times. First, it was re-translated and packaged with Chrono Trigger as “Final Fantasy Chronicles” on PSOne. FF4 fairs pretty well with this release, though Chrono Trigger is bogged down with somewhat wonky emulation despite the addition of animated cutscenes. Next up is the GBA edition, which has some slightly vamped up graphics and new backgrounds for battle sequences on top of a new dialog translation and a few other perks. In the current gen (or last gen with the Vita and 3DS out now, I guess), FFIV has been released on both pieces of hardware, with a full-blown 3D remake available on the DS and an HD remake available on the PSP. The DS remake is a solid effort, using the same engine as the FFIII remake, though the remixed music doesn't sit right with me. The PSP version is more or less the definitive version of FFIV and also comes packaged with the previously Wii-exclusive sequel “The After Years”, if you find yourself particularly enamored with the game.

From left to right: Final Fantasy IV DS, Final Fantasy IV PSP, Chrono Trigger PS1

Final Fantasy VI was packaged alongside the previously lost Final Fantasy V in “Final Fantasy Anthology” for PSOne. The emulation of the game on the PSOne hardware is a little off and there's some nasty loading here and there, but it's easily accessible as this version is available on the Playstation Store. Like 4 before it, FF6 was released on the GameBoy Advance, with a new translation (much to the chagrin of its fans) and other added features. A port for Chrono Trigger, as mentioned above, is available for PSOne alongside FFIV or individually on the Playstation Store. Chrono Trigger was also released on the DS with touch screen capabilities and a few bonuses. Finally, all three games are available for the Wii's Virtual Console.

If You Really Dig It

The mid-90s was the golden era of JRPGs. While they were never quite mainstream, there was quite a breadth of them available across all platforms, but a few titles in particular stand out, especially if you're looking for an experience on par with Final Fantasy.

Phantasy Star II (Genesis - 1989)

Phantasy Star IV: End of the Millennium (Genesis - 1993)

As mentioned above, Phantasy Star was nearly as important in the development of JRPGs from their simplistic adolescence to their somewhat awkward but magical young-adulthood as the Final Fantasy series. In fact, Sega fans often tout the fact that Phantasy Star II in particular had some twists and thematic set pieces that would later become Square staples. Regardless of who did what, Phantasy Star 2 and 4 are great games and if you missed them because you didn't have a Genesis or just didn't care for JRPGs, they're well worth a visit.

Final Fantasy V (SNES - 1992)

By excluding FFV from the list proper, I'm not implying that it's not a wholly worthwhile experience. It just doesn't have the same gusto, the same spark. It's missing that blockbuster feeling. That said, it has one of the best battle systems the series has ever seen and is utterly addictive from the moment you get your first set of crystals. It's just not Square at its A-Game, but serves to show how impressive Square's A-Game was by demonstrating that it's B-Game was still pretty damn great.

Breath of Fire (SNES - 1993)
Breath of Fire II (SNES - 1994)

Breath of Fire has always been one of my personal favorite JRPG series. In the 16-bit era, it was probably the most able at competing with Square's offerings and was one of the few franchises that followed it into the next few generations. But make no mistake, Breath of Fire isn't an imitator. It is unique in that each game has echoes of the games that came before it. Each game stars the same hero and heroine, reincarnated after some unknown number of years, and each game has a very distinct, atmospheric world etched with history, and typically a very long story to tell within it.

Secret of Mana (SNES - 1993)
Secret of Evermore (SNES - 1995)
Seiken Densetsu 3 (SNES - 1995)

Square didn't just relegate themselves to plodding, meticulously paced traditional RPGs. They're also famous for a line of action RPGs, which actually began on the Game Boy. The second entry in the series hit SNES as Secret of Mana, which was a huge hit, mainly due to the fact that it allowed up to three players to adventure together. Toward the end of the SNES's life cycle, two more related games came out nearly at the same time in 1995, though under entirely different circumstances and by two totally different development teams. Secret of Evermore was actually developed by a group of Americans within Square's short-lived USA studio. The game was slammed unfairly and often given undue responsibility for Seiken Densetsu 3 (the true follow up to Secret of Mana) not being released here. In reality, Secret of Evermore is one of the great, unappreciated masterpieces of the 16-bit age and its incredible soundtrack launched the career of one of today's biggest composers, Jeremy Soule. Get it, play it, fall in love with it, because it's absolutely charming. Seiken Densetsu 3 still hasn't been released here, but there are fan translations available for the emulator-savvy. It's a pretty deep and wonderfully fun game, and probably the most beautiful game on the SNES.

Radiant Historia (Nintendo DS - 2010)

This recommendation is directed at those of you particularly enamored with Chrono Trigger. Radiant Historia is probably the closest we'll ever come to getting another Chrono game. It's another labyrinthine adventure across time, though it sacrifices some of Chrono Trigger's whimsy for a much more mature angle. It's a pretty fantastic game and solid proof that JRPGs are not quite a dead art.