“Winter of RPGs” pitch for the PlayStation Network

[Koby]

Square sprang a “Summer of Adventure” campaign on PlayStation owners back in 2000, starting with Legend of Mana and ending with the much-anticipated Chrono Cross. Eleven years later, the considerably changed Square Enix has a “Winter of RPGs” pitch for the PlayStation Network, and it begins with Chrono Cross this week.

As a sequel of sorts to Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross left a number of fans unsatisfied back in 2000. It's certainly a flawed game: the story sputters out a few hours in, the 40-plus lineup of characters is mostly annoying, and the battles, while cleverly structured, feel a tad stiff. But it's enjoyable through all of that, and, in my opinion, the colorful look and Yasunori Mitsuda soundtrack make it one of the prettiest games around—even eleven years after the fact.

The other games in the Winter of RPGs aren't as important, at least not in this form. They're the PlayStation versions of Final Fantasy V and VI, previously released in one go as Final Fantasy Anthology. They're certainly playable, but they're burdened by load times and, in Final Fantasy V's case, a substandard translation. Both were reissued on the Game Boy Advance, and Final Fantasy VI can be had on the Virtual Console as Final Fantasy III. For those who still want the PlayStation versions and their CG cinema scenes, Final Fantasy V arrives on November 22 and Final Fantasy VI hits on December 6.

[edgeofeblan]

I already own most of them on disc, thanks though.

[Kasoivc]

I already own most of them on disc, thanks though.

Never hurts to buy a remake in my honest opinion, or a virtual port.

As a video game collector I take great pride in noting that the condition of my video games are in excellent condition with minor/zero scratches, complete artwork with manuals and such/no tears/wrinkles, original cases, etc.

Thanks for the Heads Up Koby, Are there more games included in this "Winter of RPGs" are are we simply just looking at what you've noted? There are a few games that I haven't purchased original copies of yet that I've not gotten to try when I was younger and most certainly some of these games spark my childhood youth.

[Koby]

They're the only ones I read about so I'm assuming that is all of them during this thing.

[Kasoivc]

Doh, I suppose I'll keep tabs on this during the season just to make sure I don't miss out on any great deals. Would love to own some digital copies of the games that I already own.