The year 2011 saw the founding of the videogame developer and publisher Chucklefish Limited in London, specializing in producing retro-styled games. Among their publications, developed by Lunar Ray Games, was the Metroidvania Timespinner, taking heavy inspiration from Konami’s Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and financed through the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter in June 2014. It was initially to be released in November 2015. However, the project’s scope led to delays to September 2018, initially on computer and PlayStation-based media, but it would expand to the Nintendo Switch and Xbox One.
As the game’s moniker implies, Timespinner’s narrative focuses on time travel, with protagonist Lunais, a Time Messenger, needing to traverse the present and the past to defeat the evil Lachiem Empire responsible for the death of her parents. The story has a few derivative elements and a point where I had to reference the internet to find out how to advance. However, the way the game tells it is surprisingly effective and never feels forced down the player’s throat, as with most top-tier titles. Many documents add nicely to the game’s background, with a slight hint of LGBTQ+ themes and multiple endings that add some lasting appeal.
Akin to the godfather of the Metroidvania genre, Timespinner features 2-D side-scrolling gameplay. Luna can equip a Main Orb and a Sub Orb, between which she alternates when attacking; a Spell Necklace that allows her to charge and execute magic; and a Passive Ring that allows for continuous skills, such as a pair of blades swirling about her and attacking foes. She also eventually accesses Familiars, who do their own thing and attack enemies, leveling occasionally. Killing enemies may drop items, some of which are necessary to complete sidequests, with Lunais herself occasionally leveling as well, getting money from both defeated foes and breaking light sources.
Sheldon Cooper definitely wouldn’t like this kind of cat
Throughout the past and present, Lunais can also find items that permanently increase her health, aura, and sand, the last of which she can use to freeze time temporarily, often necessary to use enemies as platforms to reach higher areas. Lunais can further equip headgear, a piece of armor, and two accessories; she can also purchase various items from shops. She may further find items that can level her orbs, with repeated use doing the same. The game mechanics are virtually flawless, aside from knockback endemic to most Metroidvanias (which can lead to situations like being forced to different chambers), with occasional bosses impeding Lunais’ progress, the Dream Mode difficulty allowing her to avoid death and fully heal when she reaches zero health.
Control also serves the game well, with easily navigable menus, enjoyable exploration, helpful in-game maps where players can place markers of different colors, and pleasant platforming. While one could argue that, in difficulties above Dream Mode, the player can waste progress if killed far from restorative save points, a buyable item allows Lunais to teleport to the last safe zone, which is helpful when she’s close to death. However, there are issues like the lack of a suspend save (which I could have sworn was in other game versions I played) and poor direction (in which case I had to reference the internet). Regardless, Timespinner interfaces with players like a dream.
Jeff Ball provides a soundtrack stylistically like that of the Castlevania series, with good use of instruments such as the piano and harpsichord. Tracks like “Masquerade of Hedonists” sound like they came straight out of the iconic Konami series (and could easily pass as being written by Mozart), with other pieces like ”The Broken”, the first boss battle theme, evoking a similar feel. Some voice clips include Lunais’ grunting when attacking and occasional laughter. The sound effects are also good, and while there are some silent portions, namely most cutscenes, Timespinner is very much an aural delight.
Books–check ’em out
The visuals also evoke Timespinner’s Castlevania inspirations, with gorgeous pixel art, character portraits prominent during dialogues, enemy designs, colorful environments, and smooth animation. There are a few reskins in terms of foes, the sprites mostly don’t show emotion, and equipment doesn’t affect Lunais’ appearance, but otherwise, the game graphically excels.
Finally, finishing the core game can take as little as three hours. However, there is a plentiful lasting appeal in the form of a New Game+, multiple endings (many of which one can view within the same playthrough, and the ending credits become skippable after being viewed once), completely mapping every area, fully leveling Lunais, completing the game compendia, in-game Feats, Steam Achievements, and so forth, so absolute completion can naturally take far longer.
Overall, Timespinner is easily one of the high points of the Metroidvania gaming genre, given its superb gameplay, tight control, engaging narrative, excellent soundtrack, gorgeous graphics, and abundance of side content, surpassing others in terms of quality. While there are negligible flaws in aspects like control and the visuals, and one may argue that it lacks quantity, it quickly makes up for in terms of quality. The supplemental content will also appease those who habitually complain about short games. I enjoyed the various times I played through the game, and I very much look forward to its forthcoming sequel whenever it is eventually released, if ever.
This review is based on a single playthrough on Dream Mode of around eight hours on a Steam Deck of a digital copy purchased by the reviewer, with multiple endings viewed, and 7/37 Steam Achievements acquired.
Score Breakdown
The Good
The Bad
Superb Metroidvania mechanics. Excellent lore and narrative. Solid audiovisual presentation. Plenty of lasting appeal.
Typical Metroidvania knockback. Easy to get lost at times. Some derivative story elements. A lot of reskinned enemies.
Once upon a time, Sony had emerged as a competitor in the video game market with its PlayStation console, originally intended to be a compact disc add-on for Nintendo’s Super NES before negotiations fell through. Sega had also released its Saturn console to provide competition for Sony’s system, receiving a decent catalog of exclusive games like the Game Arts-developed RPG Grandia. However, due to Sega executive Bernie Stolar’s prejudice against Japanese roleplaying games, Anglophone gamers were denied a translated version, Stolar having had similar policies when he headed Sony of America.
There can be only one
However, Grandia would be ported to the PlayStation and receive a full English translation, seeing release in 1999 two years after the Sega Saturn version. Critics and audiences would extol it as one of the greatest RPGs ever made, given its unique battle system, but it had its share of detractors critical of various technical issues, the sloppy translation, and the horrible English voicework that would go for decades unaddressed, after which the game received a remaster, along with its first sequel, to the Nintendo Switch and Windows. This rerelease provided a prime opportunity to rectify the various issues of the PlayStation version, but does it?
Grandia opens in the city of Parm with Justin, an aspiring adventurer, having a “duel” with his rival Gantz that involves finding faux legendary pieces of equipment scattered throughout town. Justin also has an enigmatic artifact from his absentee father, the Spirit Stone. Thus, he searches the nearby ruins to gather clues, with the Garlyle Forces, led by General Baal and his son Colonel Mullen, expressing similar interest. The result is a grand adventure by Justin as he embarks on a quest to discover the mysteries of the ancient and hilariously named Angelou civilization with the help of others while dealing with the adversarial military.
The quality of the narrative is inconsistent, with the initial rivalry with Gantz being asinine, along with countless fetch quests that contribute little to the central storyline, not to mention countless tried tropes like an absentee father and an ancient civilization, as well as pitiful attempts at humor and glacial plot pacing. However, the game backstory is decent for Angelou and the inhabited world. Many plot beats work well also, like the different and sometimes animal races, a few decent twists, serviceable attempts at comic relief like the three female sergeants Justin and his party repeatedly encounter, and the satisfying ending. Regardless, the story is average at best.
While the Grandia series now falls under Square-Enix ownership, publisher GungHo sadly made no effort to update the sordid translation by Sony America that plagued the PlayStation version, intact and reused in the remaster. Terrible names such as Gantz and Tentz, compressed item names in the game menus, spelled-out laughter, crying, and grunting, overuse of ellipses and exclamation points, unnatural battle dialogue, lousy spell names like “WOW!”, poor writing like “I, (insert name here),” and so forth, heavily abound. The text is legible, and the translation makes some attempts at dialects for specific regions and races. However, the game localization is one of many areas where the HD remaster was a wasted opportunity.
The translation CHRONICALLY OVERUSES CAPITALIZATION in the dialogue.
The Game Arts franchise has received near-universal praise for its game mechanics, which remain unchanged from the original Saturn and PlayStation versions of Grandia. On fields connecting towns and in dungeons, visible enemies abound, with contact resulting in the game taking players to a separate screen for combat. However, rather than take cues from the visible encounter systems of previous RPGs like EarthBoundand Chrono Trigger, the inaugural entry instead has all foes that Justin and company draw near charge his party, regardless of how powerful they are, with a few enemies having cheap movement patterns such as disappearing from the field and reappearing somewhere else.
How contact between Justin’s party and the visible enemy occurs determines how combat begins. Justin contacting the foe when it hasn’t turned red to indicate alertness results in his party having the initiative, contact by the enemy on one of Justin’s allies results in them getting the upper hand, and contact by Justin with alert enemies results in battles starting standardly. Combat in Grandia is turn-based, with Justin’s party and various enemies populating the battlefield, and a gauge at the bottom of the screen, called the IP (Initiative Points) bar, indicates the order in which everyone will take their turns, its representative icons moving in real-time according to unit agility, meaning that the speed of their arrival at the Command segment can vary wildly.
When the icons representing Justin and his allies reach Command, the player receives countless options for whatever they want the character to do. These include two variations of standard attacks with a character’s equipped weapon: Combo, where they strike an enemy two times (or carry on their second attack to another foe if the first eradicates the original target); and Critical, which can cancel an enemy’s command if their icon is moving on the segment between the Command and Action points (units on either side carryout out their actions when reaching the latter). However, the timing of this is often incredibly tricky and requires excellent foresight regarding factors such as battlefield position, the rate at which an opposing unit is prepping execution of their commands, and so forth.
As with standard attacks, there are two types of defending against the enemy: standing one’s ground or evasively traversing the battlefield. Characters can also use items like in most other RPGs or attempt escape from battle, which is surprisingly reliable compared to other titles. The use of magic quickly becomes an option as well, with the player needing to acquire Mana Eggs scattered throughout the myriad enemy-infested fields and dungeons to grant a character one of four elements: Fire, Wind, Water, or Earth, which can hybrid into twin-typed spells.
Some issues abound with Mana Eggs. For one, finding the things in the first place can be difficult, given the frequent disorientation while exploring dungeons and fields, alongside the frequent loss of access to these previous areas as players advance the game. In that case, focus first on giving Justin and Feena all their elements, and only give them to Sue if you get more than three spare Mana Eggs since she eventually leaves your party. While players receive consumables to boost elemental skill levels when she and other guest characters leave your party, they are a poor substitute for an actual refund of the Mana Eggs. Regardless, if you follow this advice, the next permanent character, Rapp, will be at a huge advantage (and he joins with the Fire element). The final party member initially has all the elements, so there’s no need to worry about that.
Battles can require a lot of foresight, but regular weapon and elemental leveling and use of their respective skills can often circumvent things.
Leveling a weapon or spell level, alongside learning new spells with level conditions satisfied, gives characters a bonus stat increase, which can be a godsend given that standard experience levels (with typical JRPG experience points acquired after battle alongside money and items) rise glacially. The game mechanics work harmoniously, combat rarely dragging on aside from unskippable and overly lengthy ability and spell animations that frequently stop the action in its tracks, and other issues abound like the unclarity of if moves, be they weapon or magic-based, can cancel enemy actions (and those of certain foes, chiefly bosses, can’t be invalidated no matter what). Regardless, the battle system deserves the praise it has received then and today.
As mentioned, significant disorientation can abound when exploring dungeons, which is most common after battles. Given the dungeon design, Grandia would have seriously benefited from in-game maps, which would have singlehandedly shaved significant superfluous playtime from the game, especially for those who want to explore every corner of dungeons. Viewpoints come where the player can receive a skyward view of where they currently are but are a poor substitute. Other control issues include the inconsistent placement of save points (but these recover all health and magic), and whichever developer decided to place them after boss battles should never be allowed to work on video games ever again.
Other issues regarding the save system include the absence of autosaving when transitioning between areas and a suspend-save. Another is the parsimonious inventory limit, with players regularly needing to decide which items to dispose of and which to keep; while Stashes to place excess goods exist, the ability to send things directly to them without being at them would have been more than welcome. However, positives exist, like the remaster never crashing when I played from start to finish, the Switch Home button halting all the action and game clock, a soft reset, the ability to trade current equipment with newer gear at shops, and the always-welcome view of stat increases or decreases when shopping for new weapons and armor.
Alongside the game mechanics, the aural presentation is another high point of Grandia, beginning with a sweeping, epic central theme with numerous remixes, alongside countless other emotional pieces with superb instrumentation. However, many tracks sound unusual, like one where vocalists repeatedly shout “GUMBO!” and endless ambient themes. Lamentably, the same sordid janitorial staff-quality English voicework from the PlayStation version returns, but players can mercifully select the Japanese voices, which are a million times better. Ultimately, the aurals are good, but new rerecorded English voice acting would have been more than welcome.
One area the remaster luckily addressed, however, is the visual presentation, significantly upscaling and adjusting to widescreen the original’s graphics consisting of two-dimensional character sprites with three-dimensional scenery, which appear smooth and polished. FMVs that hybrid CG environments and anime characters also return in upscaled glory. However, there is still much environmental pixilation and blurriness, the sprites often look weird and have chibi aspects like line eyes despite their proportions, and countless character portraits look asinine and occasionally gross regarding things like Rapp picking his nose and Pakon’s nasal drippage. Still, the graphics do their job.
Move over, Joe Camel, here comes Joe…Giraffe.
Finally, the remaster is another Japanese RPG that puts quantity well above quality, with my final playtime a little over seventy hours; however, one can blaze through it quicker if lucky. Given the overdrawn longevity, alongside the lack of lasting appeal other than three extra dungeons, maxing every element and skill level, and the frequent absence of enjoyability due to the lack of numerous basic quality-of-life features and enhancements like in-game maps and the need to reference the internet to do everything (with no New Game+, no achievements, no narrative variations, no postgame content), one playthrough will be more than enough for a lifetime for most mainstream gamers.
Overall, Grandia HD has incredible aspects like its game mechanics and soundtrack. However, it is far from the masterpiece critics and audiences have extolled it to be, given its myriad issues regarding the control, narrative, English voicework, and localization, which the remaster sadly failed to address (and even the best aspects have notable flaws). Artificial longevity is another primary issue, inexcusable given the almost strictly linear game structure, with Grandia excessively overstaying its welcome. Regardless, the “iconic” Game Arts title demonstrates that video game quality, positive or negative, is a point of view. While it is often fun, it’s hardly a bucket-list game, and mainstream gamers can easily live without experiencing it.
This review is based on a playthrough of the version included with the Grandia HD Collection to completion purchased and downloaded to the reviewer’s Nintendo Switch.
Score Breakdown
The Good
The Bad
Fun battle system. Lacks PlayStation version’s technical issues. Some decent plot beats. Great soundtrack. Remastered visuals show polish.
Requires foresight at times. Very user-unfriendly. Needs maps badly. Awful translation and English voicework. Finite lasting appeal.
The Bottom Line
Has many positive elements but is hardly the masterpiece critics and audiences have called it.
I’m in the past of Aeolus Vale and got the Sacred Stone from the sanctum, afterward returning to town for a few cutscenes, and I intend to make a pit stop back to the present to bank all the gold I earned. The Hero is a Paladin, Ruff a Armamentalist, Sir Mervyn a Druid, and Aishe a Luminary.
Getting a little work done on my Grandia HD Remaster review…
Before Square and Enix merged, Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, along with Yuji Horii and Akira Toriyama, the respective architect and character designer of the Dragon Quest series, banded to develop an RPG under the former company’s banner heavily utilizing content excised from the planned debut of Secret of Mana on the Super NES’s aborted CD add-on when Nintendo sought partnership with Sony when their negotiations fell through. The final product was titled Chrono Trigger, seeing original release on the Big N’s 16-bit console and future ports to platforms that include the PlayStation, Nintendo DS, iOS, and most recently, Steam. Does it still hold up today?
The game opens in 1000 AD when the protagonist Crono’s mother awakens him on the day the Millennial Fair, which celebrates the founding of the kingdom Guardia, begins. At the festival, he bumps into a mysterious maiden named Marle, whom he takes to test his friend Lucca’s teleportation device, which strangely resonates with her pendant and mistakenly sends her four centuries into the past. Thus, Crono gives chase, discovering various temporal events and conspiracies culminating in the destruction of the world in 1999 AD by an entity called Lavos and recruiting others to secure the timeline.
Even in the original’s time, Chrono Trigger was not the first Japanese RPG to emphasize time travel, with that honor going to SaGa 3, which received the phony moniker Final Fantasy Legend III from Square’s North American branch when it was translated years before. However, the game weaves its story effectively, with the characters being endearing and often having intricate backstories, the various substories being interesting, events in historical periods impacting the future, a few plot differences dependent upon the player’s party composition, and different endings that depend upon actions taken throughout the quest.
The first of the Magi
However, many negative plot beats abound. Among them are Guardia’s soldiers leaving Crono with his weapon and armor on when incarcerated early in the narrative, the tale of a “legendary hero,” and elements derived from literature like the repair of a broken ancestral blade, a plot point from The Lord of the Rings. Other unoriginal elements include a dystopian future and an evil queen; other tropes from previous RPGs, like a character having to relearn all powers from scratch when joining your party and a doomed floating continent also appear. Additional “why” moments like cavemen in hiding emerging to glimpse an approaching tidal wave before returning to safety are also present. Fortunately, these don’t heavily dent an otherwise enjoyable plot.
The original translation by Ted Woolsey was one of the better ones in its era, receiving much of the polish it had when ported to the Nintendo DS. As is expected of any RPG released today, the dialogue is legible, and very few spelling and grammar errors exist. Most Japanese-to-English name changes were also for the better, like the names of the Gurus of Zeal, renamed after the Magi that visited the infant Jesus after his birth, with their original names being far more comical. Magus’ generals, furthermore, had the names of condiments in the Japanese dialogue, although Woolsey changed their names to Ozzie, Slash, and Flea after musicians well known to Anglophone gamers.
While Chrono Trigger features an overworld, it relegates enemy encounters to dungeons, with foes visible to fight in most of them. Contacting enemies or coming near them triggers combat, but many cases come where they’re hidden and emerge to engage Crono and his party. Battles bequeath the active time system of the Final Fantasy franchise, with the three frontline characters having gauges that, when filled, allow them to perform commands. As in Hironobu Sakaguchi’s flagship Square franchise, players can choose between active mode, where the battle action continues while they peruse Tech and item menus, or wait mode, where the action stops during navigation of said inventories.
However, the wait mode doesn’t work universally, for example, not while targeting monsters to attack or execute Techs against or anytime outside the Tech and item menus, even when all three characters’ active time gauges fill, which would have been welcome. Attacking using equipped weapons, using MP-consuming Techs, and consuming items are the primary battle commands, but a typical RPG staple, defending to reduce damage, is oddly absent. Players can escape by holding the L and R buttons on whatever input device they use, which usually works except during mandatory battles or standard boss fights.
Lavos parties like it’s 1999
Winning battles nets all participating characters experience for occasional leveling, money, TP to unlock more powerful Techs, and maybe an item or two. Depending upon the player’s party composition, characters can learn Double and Triple Techs that allow combination skills targeting all allies, one enemy, or all enemies, which can help hasten even the most daunting battles. Many bosses require a specific strategy to defeat them, whether exploiting an elemental weakness or offing boss units in the correct order (critical to the absolute final battle, hint, hint). Other issues aside from those mentioned include the existence of Techs whose range depends on a character’s current location but the lack of any means to move them across the battlefield. Regardless, the game mechanics form a satisfying whole.
In contrast, control is a mixed bag. However, the Steam port has numerous quality-of-life additions, like autosaving, a suspend save, and autodashing. Other positive usability features from previous versions remain, including diagonal character movement, an in-game clock the player can view at any time and not just while saving (which oddly seems endemic to many contemporary Japanese RPGs for some reason), the ability to walk around while minor NPCs are talking, sortable item inventory categories, being able to see how weapons and armor increase or decrease stats before purchasing them, item and magic descriptions, and overall polished menus.
However, those in charge of the Steam port could have addressed issues that include a potential glitch when booting the game that can prevent it from even going to the title screen, the absence of an auto-equip feature for the player’s party, the lack of dungeon maps, no pausing outside of battle, no fast travel in the early portion of the game, the inability to speed up increasing item quantity when purchasing consumables from shops, the pause feature in combat not muting the volume (and heaven knows I hate having to fiddle with my television remote), many secrets being tedious to discover without the internet, and a late-game missable sidequest dependent upon interacting with a minor NPC earlier in the storyline. Even so, the controls aren’t absolute dealbreakers when pondering a purchase.
Chrono Trigger marked the musical debut of composer Yasunori Mitsuda, who, with help from resident Square composer Nobuo Uematsu, provided an endearing soundtrack. The titular main musical piece has several remixes throughout the game, with each character also having a musical motif, including Marle’s lullaby, Lucca’s triumphant anthem, Frog’s whistle-along refrain (which somewhat resembles “When Johnny Comes Marching Home”), and Robo’s techno tune, whose resemblance to Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up,” as Mitsuda noted when informed of it, was coincidental.
It all started with a pendant and a teleportation device
Other notable tracks include the Fiendlord’s battle theme, which has an orchestral flamenco feel (as does that during the penultimate final boss fight), and “Corridors of Time,” the theme for the floating continent during the Ice Age, which utilizes digitized Indian instrumentation. The minor jingles have pleasant melodies, like the sleeping theme, with the sound team adding quirks like Frog’s croaking and Robo’s beeping and buzzing. However, the musical variety, especially regarding the standard battle theme, can often be minimal, many areas lack unique themes, and a few “why” tracks like Gato’s jingle and the prehistoric “Burn! Bobonga!” abound. Regardless, the aural aspect is a boon to the game.
Its original version having been of the final Japanese RPGs released on the Super NES, Chrono Trigger featured polished visuals with vibrant colors, beautiful environments, character sprites having reasonable proportions and emotional spectra, fluid animation by the player’s party and enemies, stunning battle effects, and the anime cutscenes introduced in the PlayStation port and onward, mostly readjusted for contemporary television screens. Akira Toriyama provided the character and monster designs, most being well-designed, even if most human characters have similar faces typical of the artist’s work, alongside many reskins among the latter.
Other graphical issues include countless recycled nonplayer character sprites, a few that have odd appearances such as those for the old green-haired women, hints of pixilation even with upscaling and smoothing enabled, character sprites not facing diagonally, many NPCs absurdly walking in place, and Mode 7 graininess especially evident during the ending credits. The porting team further left maybe a few anime cutscenes from the PlayStation and Nintendo DS ports out (but mercifully, the one appearing after the ending credits, which adds to the game’s story and slightly connects to sequel Chrono Cross, remains). Otherwise, the graphics serve the game well.
Ayla entertains a trio of pterodactyls
Finally, playtime will vary, depending upon the player’s skill, with 24 hours being an average time for an initial playthrough, even with most sidequests partaken in. Chrono Trigger was the first RPG to term and popularize the New Game Plus, even if a handful of Japanese games before featured similar modes. Combined with significant extra content, like potential plot differences, around a dozen different endings, and discovering every secret, the time-travel RPG is the epitome of replayability.
Overall, Chrono Trigger, pun intended, does indeed stand the test of time, given its enjoyable aspects that include its solid game mechanics enhanced by contemporary features such as a turbo mode, the intricate narrative with potential variations and around a dozen different endings, the beautiful soundtrack, and the upscaled visuals. However, while inarguably a classic, “masterpiece” is an overstatement since there are numerous issues bequeathed from prior releases, like the slight inaccessibility to those experiencing it for the first time, given the difficulty of discovering helpful elements without referencing the internet and coasting through the game in general.
Furthermore, while contemporary quality-of-life features such as auto-saving and a suspend save exist, the game could have used more polish in the usability department. The localization quality is also inconsistent, musical variety can be lacking, and some aspects of the visuals haven’t aged well, even with the upscaling and smoothing. Regardless, it was in many respects a turning point for Japanese RPGs after its original release, especially with the significant lasting appeal that its various endings and New Game Plus feature contributed to the realm of roleplaying games, and, while imperfect, is easily a bucket-list title necessitating at least one playthrough from those with a passing interest in Eastern video gaming.
This review is based on a single playthrough of a digital Steam copy purchased and downloaded to the reviewer’s Steam Deck, played on a television through the Docking Station.
Score Breakdown
The Good
The Bad
Great gameplay with new features like turbo mode. Excellent story with variations on plot and different endings. Enjoyable soundtrack. Good graphics with choice of higher resolution. Plenty lasting appeal.
Can be difficult to cheese through in initial playthrough. Some usability issues. Inconsistent translation quality. Musical variety can be lacking at points. Some aspects of the visuals haven’t aged well.
Although Square, now Square-Enix’s, Final Fantasy series, has been around since 1987 (at least in Japan), it wouldn’t occur to them until the turn of the millennium to develop upgraded rereleases of earlier series entries like rival Enix’s Dragon Quest franchise had since it entered the 16-bit gaming era. When Square did get into the remake game, they initially did so for the doomed portable WonderSwan system before wising up and focusing on more mainstream systems such as the PlayStation. After merging with Enix, they found a cash cow in countless ports and upgrades of older Final Fantasies, a trend that continues today. In 2021, Square-Enix announced another series of upgraded rereleases, the Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster collection, whose release was initially limited to Windows, iOS, and Android; however, they expanded it to the PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch. Does this latest round of remakes warrant a playthrough for modern gaming audiences?
As the anthology’s moniker suggests, the primary selling point is its “remastered” visuals, which aim to be more faithful to the graphical styles of the original iterations of the first six Final Fantasies, chiefly regarding the character sprites, while avoiding appearing too dated graphically, and the results are inconsistent. While the sprites, colors, and environments are beautiful, the eponymous pixelation evokes the expression “Beauty is the eye of the beholder” since visual smoothness is rare; however, those who term old-school graphics infallible will appreciate the aesthetics. Regardless, many lazy graphical decisions from the first six games remain, like the player’s characters making no contact with the enemy when using standard attacks, the inanimate foes, and the reskins that recur throughout the collection.
Original series composer Nobuo Uematsu returned to remaster the soundtracks, a consistent high point of the collection, gloriously reorchestrated with contemporary video game instrumentation. Players can switch to the original digitized versions of the music for a more authentic old-school aural experience.
The Pixel Remasters sport numerous quality-of-life improvements that make the first six games more accessible to series newcomers. Among these are autosaving during transitions between areas, diagonal movement, and helpful in-game maps for towns and dungeons, in addition to those for the overworlds, which even indicate how many treasures remain in each visited area. Features from previous versions of the games, like suspend saving, also return.
While all six games have notable differences in their core gameplay, the collection improves them with features across all. Among them is the ability to toggle random encounters on or off outside combat and auto-battling that can speed up battles, soften the temporal burden of grinding, and shave superfluous playtime. New to the PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch ports are Boosts that can modify the games’ base difficulties to be lower or higher, chiefly through experience and money acquired from combat victory.
The central narratives of the collection’s entries remain unchanged (although the third game’s Pixel Remaster reverts to the plot of the original 8-bit version instead of retaining the DS remake’s), and their translations contain plenty of polish.
The collection features appeal in the form of PlayStation Trophies and whatever sidequests are within each game.
Overall, the Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster collection does warrant a playthrough from modern gaming audiences, especially the PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch versions, given the added options to modify the difficulty to accommodate their skill level. Granted, those who deem previous iterations of the game to be infallible or have exhausted themselves on said prior versions won’t find much to celebrate by reexperiencing the titles. The remastered soundtracks are inarguably the highlight of the anthology, but depending on how one looks at them, the visual remastery doesn’t always excel, given the lazy graphical aspects retained from the original versions of the games. Even so, the Pixel Remasters are the definitive versions of the first six Final Fantasies, making them far more accessible to mainstream gamers than ever.
This deep look is based on playthroughs of digital copies of all six remasters purchased and downloaded to the reviewer’s PlayStation 4 to their standard endings.
Though Squaresoft’s (now Square-Enix’s) fabled Final Fantasy franchise began in the 8-bit era of video games, I had no exposure to it until the release of Final Fantasy III on the Super NES, which I happily enjoyed and replayed endlessly to the point of exhausting all its secrets. I would discover it was the sixth entry of the series due to Squaresoft’s American branch renumbering the games because of the absence of many earlier entries in English. The company would eventually rectify the numbering, and especially after merging with Enix, milk most of the earlier games financially. The Pixel Remaster collection would be among the latest iterations of the first six entries, with the sixth, Final Fantasy VI Pixel Remaster, taking the most time to release due to some fine-tuning, but was it worth it?
The game occurs a millennium after the War of the Magi when rival entities known as the Warring Triad enslaved humans and transformed them into magical beings called espers before realizing their errors and emancipating them, the Triad petrifying themselves as well. Afterward, the espers exiled themselves to another realm, magic becoming a myth and humans advancing their society through science and technology, creating a steampunk world featuring opera and the fine arts. In the decades preceding the main action, the Gestahlian Empire, headed by its namesake Emperor Gestahl, has dominated the world with a few exceptions.
The ”present” begins with three imperial officers piloting Magitek Armor: Biggs, Wedge, and the enigmatic ?????? (which I pronounce like a Tim Allen grunt), eventually identified as Terra Branford, a magically gifted maiden with a mysterious past, traveling to the city of Narshe to investigate a frozen esper. Several events follow that result in her alliance with the Returners, an insurgent organization opposed to the empire. Imperial Court Mage Kefka Palazzo plots with the emperor to hunt for espers, unseal their realm, and bring magic into the world to tighten their clutch on humanity.
From the beginning, the narrative’s Star Wars inspirations are apparent, given the adversarial empire and rebellion against it. A few plot holes and video game illogic also abound, which include three characters sharing one diving helmet to traverse an underwater trench and cranes from the imperial palace rising to grab the player’s airship when it could have just flown higher. Other tropes like amnesia exist, and the developers excised a scene that had surprisingly remained in the Super NES version’s English localization where imperial soldiers repeatedly punch turncoat general Celes Chere, as it had been from the Game Boy Advance and original mobile versions.
However, the plot has endless harmonious beats, such as the intricate backstory for most playable characters, with each receiving a notable blurb when introduced into the narrative. In the original game’s time, the greater emphasis on the steampunk genre was also a welcome break from the largely fantastical atmospheres of previous series entries. Most luminaries and their interactions are nothing short of endearing, such as the womanizing King Edgar and his martial artist brother Sabin, the mysterious Shadow with connections to Strago and his granddaughter Relm, and the clownish but maniacal Kefka as an antagonist. Despite its derivative aspects, the sixth Final Fantasy’s plot was and remains a pinnacle of Japanese RPG storytelling.
Make the villain a clown, expect a circus
The latest localization, with the original Super NES version’s script a hallmark of translator Ted Woolsey, breathes life into the narrative. The naming conventions are sound, starting with the initial homage to Biggs and Wedge from the Star Wars series (with Woolsey originally mistranslating the former as “Vicks”) and continuing with other reasonable choices such as changing Tina to Terra (since the former sounds exotic only in Japan), Lock to Locke (like philosopher John Locke), magic-based armor to Magitek armor, phantom beast to esper, and so on. Corrections of Woolsey’s other errors like “Merton” to “Meltdown” and Setzer’s opinion of the empire regarding his finances (due to misinterpreting a Japanese idiom) remain from the Game Boy Advance and prior mobile versions.
However, the latest translation isn’t entirely untouchable. For instance, many nonplayer characters have the same dialogue; some lines also come across as awkward, like those during Kefka’s initial scenes when approaching Figaro Castle, along with others by the villain such as “Son of a sandworm!” (where “Son of a…” would sound better) and where he enjoys the sound of voices “screaming in unison” (when “in agony” wouldn’t have been as ridiculous). Lines also abound that Ted Woolsey wrote better like Edgar saying that Shadow would “slit his momma’s throat for a nickel,” retranslated as “He’d kill his own best friend for the right price.” Another is Locke chastising as rude a merchant who calls him a thief instead of a treasure hunter, which was faithful to the Japanese script, but Woolsey rewriting it as threatening to rip said salesman’s lungs out sounded cooler.
Even so, the script lacks spelling, grammar, and name consistency errors, and many iconic quotes flourish. Among them is the running gag of Locke terming himself a treasure hunter instead of a thief, and some of Kefka’s lines like inviting Edgar to “enjoy the barbecue” when incinerating his castle, noting to his troops why oppose rhymes with dispose, and saying the playable cast “sound like pages from a self-help book.” Many characters also sport dialects like Cyan’s Renaissance-era usage of “thou” and “thy” (which leads to Gau, who speaks in pidgin, calling Sabin “Mr. Thou” when the former word comes up) and Setzer’s utilization of gambling terminology. Ultimately, despite its issues, the localization is well-executed and doesn’t impede the plot.
Mechanically, the sixth Pixel Remaster is like its predecessors, but many differences exist. Initially, players control Terra and her two guardians from a galaxy far, far away as they pilot Magitek armor through Narshe, encountering several enemies that hopelessly try to off them. The active time system, with players still able to select between Active and Wait modes, the former letting the action continue as they navigate menus and the latter pausing it as they do so, returns and follows the same rules as previous games. Users of Magitek armor can use several laser and missile-based abilities to slaughter the enemy, with Terra initially able to cast MP-consuming magic.
There are about two other times throughout the game where the playable characters pilot Magitek armor, but the player’s active party of up to four characters will mostly fight on foot in random encounters that the Pixel Remaster mercifully allows them to toggle on and off at a whim outside combat. Battle commands in this mode include attacking with equipped weapons, with damage depending upon what row a character is in (although flails and boomerangs deal equivalent damage regardless of position); using an ability inherent to specific characters, like Locke stealing items from enemies or Edgar utilizing various Tools; casting different types of MP-consuming magic, with espers eventually allowing everyone to learn and use it; or consuming an item.
Characters can also defend to reduce damage, retaining their stances until they execute a different ability once their active time gauges refill, change their row, or attempt to escape simultaneously, which usually works except against bosses; however, evacuation time may be higher versus more powerful adversaries. Victory rewards all characters still alive or not zombified experience for occasional leveling, money to purchase goods, and later, Ability Points to acquire magic from espers. Death necessitates reloading a prior save file; luckily, autosaving occurs frequently, alongside standard save points where players can use Sleeping Bags and Tents to restore their party, reducing wasted playtime.
Ya ba dibba dibba dibba dibba dibba dibba dum
Another combat mode aside from pedestrian encounters and those in Magitek armor is strategy battles, which occur twice early in the game, where the player controls up to three parties with a maximum of four characters each, first with Locke and numerous Moogles, among them being Mog whom the player later recruits officially, and second with all mainline allies acquired up to that point, albeit lesser in number. In these skirmishes, the player can switch between parties and move them around the battlefield, able to contact advancing enemy sprites to trigger combat, which works as it does in standard random encounters. An adversarial sprite reaching the target the player must defend results in needing to reload the last save while defeating one representing a boss yields victory.
A plot point comes where the player’s characters split, and they must choose one of the parties to advance the storyline until they reunite. Other moments come, including the final dungeon, where the player must divide their party into teams and make it to the end, with party swapping working as it does in the strategy battles. Other dungeons sport quirks like the Cultists’ Tower, where players can only use magic and items. The final boss battle sequence features a structure where players must choose a base party and backup characters from the rest of the accumulated cast that replace them should one be dead when a tier ends.
Returning to unique character skills, improvements from the original mobile ports remain with further refinement. Unlike the Super NES and Game Boy Advance versions, the player no longer needs to sit and do nothing as Cyan’s Bushido skills charge and can control other characters until he ultimately executes them. In the Pixel Remaster, selecting one of Sabin’s Blitzes opens a box with the button combination necessary to use it; if they err in input, they can restart until they get it right and let him unleash his fury. Turbo auto-battling from the previous collection remakes returns, with some quirks like not needing to repeat said Blitz inputs for Sabin to reuse them.
Characters can eventually equip espers that grant stat bonuses whenever they level while allowing them to learn various magic through acquiring Ability Points after combat, with each spell having a multiplier that dictates the learning rate. Depending on how one plays their cards, this system can grant them an advantage later in the game. Boosts from the previous PlayStation 4 and Switch ports of the Pixel Remasters return that can modify rewards from combat and reduce the old-school grind and brutality that the original Final Fantasy VI could often feature, making the latest iteration more accessible than ever to modern audiences.
The mechanics work pleasantly, given the agile pace of combat, diverse ways to slaughter the enemy, fun tricks like using Phoenix Down and Holy Water to off undead enemies instantly, and the mentioned Boosts to accommodate players of different abilities; however, there are a few issues. For instance, some innate character abilities can backfire, like Celes’ Runic ability that absorbs the next cast magic (even healing cast by other characters); Gau’s use of specific Rage abilities is also random and uncancellable until he dies. Other nitpicks include the inability to view enemy status benefits and detriments and some unskippable cutscenes before critical boss fights, including the last.
The final Pixel Remaster inherits most quality-of-life improvements from its predecessors, which include autosaving during transitions between areas, a suspend save, and helpful in-game maps for the overworld (which shows unvisited locations as gray dots and how many treasures remain in each location) and the myriad dungeons. Positive usability features from the previous versions, including a sortable inventory, unlimited space for different item types, optimizing equipment for each character, and an in-game clock viewable any time outside battle, also return. However, issues abound in the lack of fast travel before acquiring an airship, the difficulty for newcomers in finding many secrets without a guide, and (with rare exceptions) the unskippable cutscenes.
Bushido in the Bedroom probably wouldn’t be said literature
Nobuo Uematsu’s soundtrack for Final Fantasy VI was one of the highlights of his musical career, gloriously reorchestrated in the Pixel Remaster, with some surprises. Beginning with a title screen theme inspired by “Thus Spake Zarathustra” and sporting tracks indigenous to the series, like the prelude and overture, the soundtrack features endless variety, with every playable character having a musical motif and sundry remixes, like Terra’s theme, one of which doubles as the first overworld music. Other notable tunes include the “Spinach Rag,” of which Scott Joplin would be proud, most noticeable at the Opera House, which has a surprise as actual English vocals for the game’s iconic opera scene, consequentially sounding better than before. The sound effects are never out of place, with Kefka’s iconic digitized laugh returning. Aside from frequent silence and the slight derivation of a few pieces, the sixth entry’s sound is near-note perfect.
That the original version featured taller character sprites without battles as within could explain its lengthier remastery compared to the previous collection entries. Plenty of pluses are present, like the superb art direction, with character sprites reflecting their respective designs, the characters showing vast emotional spectra, the environments having harmonious color schemes and occasional weather effects, and so forth. The Super NES iteration utilized Mode-7 visual effects, which its respective remaster still does mostly on the overworld, but even more so in scenes like the opera performance. However, the heavy pixilation from the previous remasters returns, and the buildings on the said overworld appear flat, reversing the 3-D effects of the the last mobile version. Laziness further abounds in the battle visuals, with most issues from prior entries returning; despite flashy ability effects, the telekinetic attacking by the player’s characters persists, along with inanimate foes (many being reskins) that merely flash when executing their commands. Ultimately, the graphics don’t detriment the experience yet fall significantly short of perfection.
The sixth is the longest of the Pixel Remasters, taking beyond twenty-four hours to complete, with nods to lasting appeal as PlayStation Trophies, sidequests, mastering every obtainable spell from espers, and constantly attempting to beat the step record the game tracks. However, most unversed in prior versions may need to reference the internet to find everything, and a New Game+ is absent.
In summation, Final Fantasy VI Pixel Remaster is inarguably amazing, given its harmonious gameplay mechanics, the quality-of-life improvements over prior incarnations, the rich narrative with endearing characters, the above-average translation, the beautifully remastered soundtrack, and the solid visual direction. However, it has issues that make labels like “one of the greatest games of all time” and “masterpiece” aberrations, given the handful of scrappy game mechanics, some unfriendliness to those who have never touched previous versions, some unoriginal narrative elements, a few oddities in the localization, and many lazy visual choices bequeathed from past iterations. Regardless, it is the best way to experience the classic and ends the Pixel Remaster collection on a high note.
This review is based on a playthrough of a digital copy downloaded to the reviewer’s PlayStation 4, played to the standard ending.
Score Breakdown
The Good
The Bad
Engrossing game mechanics with adjustable difficulty. Some quality-of-life improvements. Rich narrative with endearing characters. Great localization.Superb remastered soundtrack. Good remastered visuals.
A few scrappy mechanics. Some direction can be vague for newcomers. Story on derivative side. Translation has occasional oddities. Many graphical aspects are lazy.
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