Final Fantasy IX
PS4, Square Enix, cert: 12
★★★★★
Originally released on PS1, this masterful RPG thankfully arrives on the PS4 in digital form and the passage of time has done it no harm. Square Enix’s touching tale of a thief, a princess, a lost boy and their ragtag friends remains a high point for the series. It follows Zidane – the thief – after he kidnaps Princess Garnet from her closeted home in Alexandria.
The hours that follow take players on a journey across worlds, dealing with themes of obligation, destiny and purpose, mixing elegant and nuanced storytelling with a turn-based combat system that demands players pay attention to character classes and individual skills. Always one of the best-looking PS1 games, this version benefits from a visual upgrade created for the recent PC release. While not a full HD remake, higher-res character models make the rich medieval aesthetic even more captivating, while speed boosters allow those alreadye familiar to revisit Zidane’s world at a brisker pace. A timeless fairytale. MK
Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds
PS4, Sony, cert: 16
★★★★
This expansion pack for arguably the prettiest game on the PS4 is both more of the same but turned up to 11 and a patch in everything but name.
The post-apocalyptic combat-driven RPG action that made Horizon Zero Dawn such a hit earlier in the year is blessed with better lip-sync and even more beautiful graphics; some of the icy landscapes are nothing short of breathtaking.
And with a handful of brutal and cunning new robot foes, it will take significantly longer than the stated 15 hours of missions actually to get through The Frozen Wilds in one piece. Never mind Level 30 – even at Level 45 you will probably embrace the shame of dropping the difficulty setting just to progress at some points.
As to the patch part – if (finally) being able to gather provisions without constantly getting off your steed isn’t one, then I don’t know what is. SP
