Gaming - Chrono Trigger HD?

Random screenshot!

A week or two ago, I started playing through Chrono Trigger in order to get footage for a video I planned on making. Despite only needing footage from the first dungeon in the game, I continued playing the game.

And it was totally worth it.

Chrono Trigger (CT) is a JRPG, but with enough of a difference from the rest to make it unique. Most battles take place in the actual environment, rather than on a separate battle screen. Additionally, characters can combine powers to create super powerful attacks. I'm sure I'm not the only one that spammed Crono and Ayla's "Falcon Hit" attack on the last boss fight. The fact that CT is about time travel only sweetened the deal for me.

Another thing that I like is the influence that the player can have on the world map. Unlike certain Final Fantasy titles, it's not static. For instance, if a player encourages a certain NPC to plant a seed, an area in the future will be affected, and again in another era. By completing a side quest, a desert in 1000 AD can be made into an extensive forest with a new building to enter.

Plus, the characters were fun and silly - quite fitting from the artist, Akira Toriyama, well known for his work in the Dragon Ball series.

Chrono Trigger is something that merits a remake - even more than Final Fantasy VII, or its predecessor (both of which have been ported several times). It is the opinion of this author and gamer that CT simply doesn't need a remake, HD or otherwise. The art style is engaging and interesting, despite the limitations of the native hardware (SNES). Plus, the New Game + feature preempts the drive for duration and/or replayability that so many people demand of games now. There's multiple endings, and even an optional super boss to try.

While I wouldn't complain about a HD Chrono Trigger, I do not believe that it is necessary. Having only played it this year, I have relatively little nostalgia for the game itself. (I mean, there's some for the SNES itself, but still...) Plus, CT has been ported to PlayStation, DS, iOS and Virtual Console.

In the recent blossoming of indie games, the 16-bit classic look of Chrono Trigger fits in amongst the likes of Shovel Knight and 1001 Spikes. Adding the fact that CT is already a solid JRPG, further alterations are unneeded.

Now, Final Fantasy VII on the other hand... :P

YouTube - 16ths: Manoria Cathedral Organ

Gaming Chronicles - Earthbound... Finally.

It only took several years of having various emulators, and one of my favorite LP channels doing a play through of its sequel, but I've finally gotten to play Mr. Itoi's magnum opus, Earthbound.

Apparently, this RPG doesn't push the envelope for what RPGs could do. However, having grown up with limited RPG experience (Paper Mario 2, then Final Fantasy in college) that point doesn't mean much to me. Similar to my interest in Final Fantasy, I was playing Earthbound mainly for the music and story. And the dialogue wasn't that bad either!

So instead of reviewing the game, or writing a typical "Gaming Chronicles" about my progress in it (I'm almost to the final "dungeon.") I'll just share some weird/funny bits I found while playing!

One of the best parts of the game are the many zany enemies you'll encounter. For instance, upon arriving in the sunny city of Summers, you might be assaulted by a Mad Taxi! Even previously stationary objects, like lamps or even street-signs:

Not their "real" names - these guys are Ness, Paula and Jeff.

Giygas' power isn't just limited to just stray animals or random people, apparently!

I also appreciated the self-awareness present in the game. That is, the game will acknowledge that it is a game, and play it up for either humor or plot purposes. That trick can get a bit annoying, if it is used too much. There does come a point where there's too much "Hey hey, this is a game," but Earthbound keeps its fourth-wall-breaking to a tasteful level. For example, this sign outside of a building in the city of Fourside:

Soooo meta.

 I don't know if this is a bit of humor from the developers or the translators, but a sequel to Earthbound eventually came to be. (Unfortunately, this game, known as Mother 3 in Japan, was never  *officially* translated to English.) Also, Earthbound did multi-layer dreams decades before Inception:

*cue loud fog-horn sound*

The dream-within-a-dream situation reminds me of the general trippy-ness (pun intended) of the game. All the battles feature undulating, colorful backgrounds. The picture above (with the attacking Crazed Sign) does not accurately illustrate this point. Some enemies, like Sanctuary bosses, feature their own unique battle screens. Eventually, I'll have to face the nightmare-inducing battle screen of Giygas. But not for a while!

I sure don't!

Earthbound has been an entirely enjoyable experience. I did have to grind once or twice, but various circumstances in-game made it enjoyable, like PSI Teleport and the lack of random encounters. In a genre where most main characters wield swords and wear chain armor, Earthbound is a different take on the conventions of said genre. Ness is just a kid (who happens to have a terrible, terrible neighbor - more on that in Mother 3!) who is thrown into his adventure by a meteor and the arrival of his terrible neighbor, the total Jerk with a capital J, Porky.

It's an experience I would recommend to anyone with an SNES or Wii U. I'm not sure that I can endorse emulators, but I'll just say that Google will lead you to some solid ones which can be made to support joysticks.

Anyway! It was pretty easy to write about Earthbound, as it is a very good game. Its predecessor, Earthbound Zero, or simply Mother, is a different story entirely. And an article for another day!

See you later, for now.


[Disclaimer: I'm never good at these, but here goes: piracy is bad, games are good. Emulators are fun, as some games are too rare/over-priced for me to get the actual cartridge. But, if you have a Wii U and want to try a fun game, please consider buying Earthbound. That's all!]

Retrogaming - A Couple of Ironies?

The exact definition of irony aside, I would like to discuss two ... how shall we say, interesting situations? Throughout the course of video game history, many times a company would ignore an opportunity and later come to rue that decision. This is not limited only to the small companies or the larger ones, the software programmers or the hardware manufacturers. Two instances hold in my mind and have immense significance to the entire industry. The companies who were at fault are first Atari, then later Nintendo.

The year is 1983. Atari has a veritable corner on the market, both in software and hardware. Despite the events of the year, the company is still holding strong. A popular company from Japan wants to enter the market in the US. They approach Atari about licensing their first ROM cartridge based console. A deal is reached between the two companies, at the Consumer Electronic Show of 1983. Unfortunately, some controversy concerning a game, the two companies, and the Coleco Adam computer cause the demise of the deal. Later, the company released the console on their own. The company was Nintendo, and the console was the Nintendo Famicom, released in the US a couple of years later as the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Atari would regret this decision in the intervening years, as the video game crash of 1983 debilitated them. Nintendo goes on to sweep the market away from Atari, and achieve such a high position that the name Nintendo becomes synonymous with video game.

After this turn of events, you would think that Nintendo would do well after this. In fact, they did. However, they would soon make a similar mistake to the one Atari made.

The year is not important. (It's the beginning of the 1990s.) Nintendo is riding on its success from the NES and popular game franchises like the Super Mario Bros. and the Legend of Zelda. Previously, they had shown interest in and started up negotiations with another company for a CD add-on for the Super NES, successor of the NES. Unfortunately, Nintendo decides that the previous contract with the first company is not acceptable and changes to be allied with another company, Philips. Therefore, the Nintendo Play Station never comes to be. Later, the slighted company would rework the prototype and release it for themselves as the Sony Playstation. Other nasty side effects occurred too. Philips was able to release some games of the Mario and Zelda franchises for one of their systems - and from all I've read, they are horrible games. Nintendo here loses its first opportunity to enter into CD based consoles, and continues with cartridges in their next system, the Nintendo 64. Finally, a new rival is put into the market of Nintendo, Sega and the dying Atari.

The important thing to take away is this: Both Atari and Nintendo made a mistake. They underestimated the potential of the companies with whom they dealt. The author feels that it would be amusing if the same thing were to happen to Sony. A small company goes to them with a console idea, but are turned away for whatever reason. They then go on to sweep the market. However, that is but a dream. The industry now seems locked in a three company system. However, to conclude, I merely remind you to never underestimate the competition encountered: it might come back and haunt you one day.

Retrogaming - Some Thoughts

What is retrogaming? A fun hobby, or something more? Over ten years, I myself have engaged in this hobby, having collected over 15 different systems representing 30 plus years of video game history. Early on, it was merely incidental that I would get the different systems, as they were originally purchased during their main time on the market, their "generation" so to speak. Eventually, systems like the Nintendo 64 and Sega Dreamcast became last gen, paving the way for their successors and their successors' successors. Now as I look at my collection, I see many games that I won't play, purchased for the sole purpose of "collection."

Retrogaming, by definition, is slightly ambiguous. (Oh, a side note: I once saw something saying that Americans went by the name "old school gamers" and the term "retro gamer" was a European thing; whatever the case, retrogamer suited my tastes better.) The word combines the Latin word for "back; backwards," with the term "gaming." But just how far back does "retro" mean? There is no single consensus within the retrogaming community. Personally, I view systems two generations back as being the starting point from which to go back. Clearly, there are systems that are obviously retro games now, such as the Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, and the original Playstation. However, my fear is that a time will come when it will be increasingly difficult to tell the difference between one generation and the one before it - be it in graphics, gameplay, or what else. For now, my view of the seperation holds. But I digress.

One good point of retrogaming is that one can enjoy many good games, often for less than the current releases. It is true that some games become rare, but often they do not. Take for instance, Super Mario Bros for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It is was and is one of the most popular games ever released, and is fairly easy to find, either on its own or in the two-game or three-game cartridge with Duck Hunt and World Class Track Meet. The system itself can be found at a modest price, either at a local retrogaming store or on the sites of Amazon or eBay. (One can also get what is known as an "emulator" for their computer and play old games like that. Originally, I was throughly opposed, seeing them as 'cheating.' However, after getting several Final Fantasy games for an emulator, I see the benefits. The topic of emulators is lengthy enough for an entire article, so I will leave this topic here.)

For those reasons, and for the fact of the proven quality of the older games, I retrogame. Also, the interaction of the different companies, and the stories of the different consoles are quite fascinating, but something to discuss another day.