It's Here! Greatest Game of all time returns today.

[locke]

Chrono Trigger is out on the DS.

*happy*

[Crono]

Well, someone's gotta reply to this. Kudos to SquareEnix for bringing the Chrono franchise back from the dead. It's only been 8 years, after all. (Hmm... how many Final Fantasy games have come out in that time?) Anyway, I'm glad that a new generation will get to play this for the first time, while loyal fans will get to relive it again. I still have my old SNES and PSX, despite having only one game left for each system - Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross, of course. And hopefully, once SquareEnix sees the massive cash flow coming in for this DS game (which I'm guessing they expect - has any other DS game ever been slapped with a $40 price tag?), they and Nintendo will still release the original, unchanged version on the Wii Virtual Console. Hardcore fans would buy it even after buying the DS version. And even more hopefully, the cash profits will encourage them to finally, finally make a completely new Chrono game. We'll see.

So in a nutshell, yes indeed - to me, Chrono Trigger is the greatest video game of all time. To any who have never played it but have a DS, buy it. It will be worth the price. It is an epic adventure that transcends time and has a memorable cast of characters that, by the end, you will feel very close to - very reminiscent of the Enderverse.

(Unfortunately, I preordered mine and it wasn't shipped out till today for some reason. Since I can't get it tomorrow, I'll have to wait till Friday...)

[Jayelle]

Oh, comeon, locke, did you really have to invent a newbie just to have a conversation with?

[Crono]

What? I did no such thi - I mean, he did no such thing! (I'm so desperately lonely... )

[jotabe]

On a completely unrelated note, i am trying to find a working DS emulator.
For educational purpouses, honest! :O
Nothing to do with the release of Chrono Trigger, nothing at all. No sir, not me.
I hope that much is clear.

[lyons24000]

What is the Chrono franchise? Is that a children's game?

[jotabe]

*fumes at Lyons' bait*
*huggles Chrono saga*

[lyons24000]

If it love it so much why don't you marry it? *Sticks out tongue and runs off as if I said something drastically nasty, original, funny or all of the above*

[Marle]

Oh, hush, Jayelle, I think the new guy's kyOOT!

[locke]

Final Fantasy IV has a 40$ price point, and Guitar Hero DS has a $50 price point I think. iirc Chrono Trigger was $70 SNES game (and hey, there's been inflation since 1994) because the chip set was so expensive. That meant I never bought it despite renting it, at a $5/week price point probably 15 times at least.

I walked to WalMart for this game and walmart wasn't stocking it. feeling anti walmart I went to one of the mom and pop videogame stores and they weren't stalking it. Now I may be putting off purchase of it for a few weeks because I got a guy who is standing in line at Best Buy who's going to try to get me one of those 80GB PS3s with a Rachet and Clank game and Casino Royale blue Ray for $399. *crosses fingers I get the doorbuster*

[Crono]

My bad, Locke. I just know that most DS games go for $30 or $35 when they first come out. So, Chrono Trigger's in the minority, at least. And yes, $70 indeed. I still have my receipt for it in the game's box (nerd).

Of all games, Chrono Trigger was one of the only games I didn't buy the day it came out, back in the mid-'90s. In fact, I'd never even heard about it until a few months after its release, at which time I saw it at a rental store and rented it. And it's funny, because if I'd known it was an RPG beforehand, I probably never would've rented it - I wasn't a big fan of traditional RPGs. But a half hour into the game, I was hooked. One thing that helped ease me into the RPG genre was the fact that, unlike all the Final Fantasy games, Chrono Trigger didn't randomly draw you into battles - you could see almost every enemy on-screen, and could choose whether or not to battle. I still like that concept.

Oh, and Marle, if you are indeed a new person here, who by an unbelievable coincidence registered the day after I, Crono, did - right back at ya, cutie! (What else would Crono say, other than "..."?) However, if you're Jayelle, and wanted to have a discussion with yourself - tsk, tsk, tsk. I played along with your joke / suspicion, but in truth, I am quite separate from Locke, as he already knows. In fact, I had 'Crono' registered on here way back in 2002, but hadn't visited in years, and didn't realize that everyone had had to re-register back in 2006. Luet told me there was a Chrono Trigger thread on here - hence, my return. But I remember all you Speakers for the Dead, with your witty banter. Good times...

[Luet]

Crono was actually at EnderCon with me, so he and Locke met there. Ah, good times...

[Luet]

Double post...

Jota! Crono just pointed out to me that you have "Part of Your World" as your your sig. Go Little Mermaid!

[neo-dragon]

So,

I have a DS and have never played Chrono Trigger. In fact, the only traditional RPGs I've really played are FF VII - IX, which I enjoyed for the most part. How does Chrono Trigger compare?

[zeroguy]

FFVII? Just garbage compared to Chrono Trigger.

Okay, exaggerating, but maybe only a bit. It's pretty similar; some parts of linearity with a lot of side quests. Magic ("techs") are a bit more traditional, though; no materia/espers/jobs; each character just learns techniques at certain levels. Music is pretty good, too (I own the soundtrack).

And you haven't played FFVI? Play VI!

[jotabe]

*cheers Luet*

Btw, neo, how can you talk about traditional rpgs and not having played ff4-6 or CT, or SoM, or DQ... or even Phantasy staaaaaaar...

*goes boom!*

*dies*

*gets better*
Well i hope you got my point

[Crono]

Jota, I assume SoM stands for Secret of Mana. In which case, here here. That's a classic, AND it was recently released on the Wii VC, thank goodness. Good releases are few and far between on the Virtual Console, unfortunately. After all, they still haven't released CT for the VC, but what Sega Genesis game did they release this past Monday? "Boogerman: A Pick and Flick Adventure." I kid you not. There is no justice...

[zeroguy]

Btw, neo, how can you talk about traditional rpgs and not having played ff4-6 or CT, or SoM

SoM is an awesome game (as is its successor, Seiken Densetsu 3), but I don't know if I would even call it a "traditional" RPG. I'm not aware of any other games like those two, but maybe I'm just ignorant.

[lyons24000]

I just scanned the rest of the thread but are all of these games on the DS? Should I even invest in getting a DS?

[neo-dragon]

So if I wanted to get one RPG for the DS this holiday season, should I go for CT or FFIV? Let me know ASAP!

[locke]

I have both, I prefer CT, though FFIV is very good too. it's got a more modern feel since FFIV was completely reworked (sorta reminds me of Earthbound) while CT is an enhanced port that maintains the look of the SNES original.

otoh, I played FFIV for about three weeks and lost interest as I forgot about it or didn't have time. then again I played CT in the car for thirty-forty minutes before stopping because the beginning of the game involves a lot of reading. or at least does because I was enjoying wandering around everything talking to people.

playing through the first hour or so of CT is sort of like the first hour or so of Ocarina of Time, a bit tedious but then it starts to get awesome.

[Crono]

Zeroguy - you are correct. Secret of Mana is not really an RPG, it is of the "adventure" genre, like the Zelda games. (You don't stand in one spot on the screen selecting moves during battles, you just fight as you walk around the screen.)

Lyons - no, we've been talking about games on all sorts of systems, past and present. Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, and FF IV/V/VI, for instance, were all originally on the Super NES. Chrono Cross and FF VII/VIII/IX were on the Playstation systems. But some of these games have been re-released for the DS - specifically, Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy IV.

And to follow up on Locke's comments - yeah, Chrono Trigger can potentially start off slow. Old fans of the game like myself like to thoroughly explore everything and talk to everyone before moving forward with the story. But it doesn't have to start slow. You can actually jump right into the 'boy meets girl, girl vanishes at the fair, boy ventures to save girl' story immediately. (That's really just the prelude to the real story, though - trying not to spoil too much...) But Locke is right - once you make the story move forward at the beginning, you'll be hooked, and the story will move right along.

And Neo, if you can only buy one... - you fool! Buy Chrono Trigger! You must! It's the greatest game of all time!!! But, ya know, it's cool, whatev...

[locke]

good point, iirc, when I started my first game, wandered around the fair did absolutely everything wrong (no kitty, ate the lunch, wouldn't wait for her to get candy, grabbed the pendant before helping her up) and blasted straight through to the past in about ten minutes.

I didn't even find out you could save on the world map until I'd been playing for about ten hours, I kept trying to find save points.

[zeroguy]

did absolutely everything wrong (no kitty, ate the lunch, wouldn't wait for her to get candy, grabbed the pendant before helping her up)

I always debate which way to go. On the one hand, it's funny to see almost all of the jurors say "innocent" and Chrono gets thrown in jail anyway; on the other, it's funny to make Chrono seem like a horrible person.

[neo-dragon]

One more question: what's the approximate length of the two games (CT and FFIV) for a first play through?

[jotabe]

Hummm SoM is an action-rpg... but despite i don't really like it that much, it laid foundations for most of Square's action-rpgs. Including KH :O Probably the best thing it did were the ring menus, a right step into how to handle menus in an action rpg when the keys you can assign to spells and actions are limited.

Despite i never finished SoM, the first rpg we got translated in Spain (by then, i didn't know english) was Secret of Evermore, which is basically a different story using the same game engine as SoM. The speed with which you can perform so many actions as changing gear, summoning, casting spells... is amazing, and never need to go to a menu-screen.

Edit.- Unless you are trying to force your way underleveled, i'd say that both CT and FF4 are worth 40 hours in the first playthrough. CT has a great replayability on its own (because of the multiple endings that require at least 2 playthroughs to be unlocked), and the remake will add new dungeons. Dunno about the replayability added for FF4.
I'd advice CT over FF4 ONLY if you must absolutely get only one of them.

[locke]

my first play through of CT was about 70 hrs. and I don't think I beat it that time. I was leveling somewhere in the ocean palace but not playing Zeal or Lavos because they scared me. that was when my mom stopped renewing the rental for me. I later beat it on a friend's game.

granted I was also 11-12 at the time.