E3 winding down but we’ll still be posting more of what we saw from the show.

Considering Square Enix’s recent move to put Final Fantasy XIII on the Xbox, its “My Life as a King” entry on WiiWare, several re-releases on the PSP and DS — including ”Dragon Quest IX” slated for Nintendo’s powerhouse handheld — it seems that the company is really trying to expand its presence on all consoles. It’s certainly going to be a rich year for the company’s fans — no matter what console or handheld they own.

The “Dragon Quest IV,” “Chrono Trigger” and “Final Fantasy IV” releases played nicely. “Chrono Trigger” is essentially a port. Employees at the expo were pretty close-mouthed about it — apparently news will be released on the company’s Web site — but there will be some sort of multiplayer available in the final release, as well as a new dungeon that somehow ties into the story. No word on possible new endings, but I’d bet we’ll see at least one.

The top screen is the traditional game view, with all the info and targets cluttered up on the bottom screen. It gives a nice view of the play area, which really underscores the fact that this game is old. Klee Kuo, a public relations senior associate at the company’s meeting room, said that the company chose not to tinker with the graphics because of the game’s unique status — it was the first North American Square release to really give flair and life to Akira Toriyama’s art. I understand that — we game nerds have been known to over-react to changes to our nostalgia — but still, it would have been nice to have even just smoothed out the textures.

FFIV will be out on July 22, and it looks great. It’s a revamp using the DS “Final Fantasy III” engine, but keeps the title’s signature Active Time Battle combat. I only got a few minutes in Cave of Eblan, but it looks like this version — like the “Final Fantasy III” release — is very faithful to the original. Of course, some changes had to be made — it’s been confirmed that item duping’s gone now.

The PSX version’s movies were folded into the game, but they’re much clearer and lag-free this time around. Now we can all forget the PSX release ever existed, thankfully.

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