Sunday 13 January, 2008

Part 2

Gameplay

After continuing with Chrono Trigger for some time, I quickly got tired of wandering around in circles in the World Map. Unfortunately, the combat system alone is not enough to make up for the lack of coherent directions or dialogue, and the plot is, simply put, not compelling. I did appreciate some of the newer skills that you can learn along the way, and I like the Combo system that becomes available with some of these skills. (Two pary members can use different attacks on the same targets as long as one of them uses a Combo move) That was exciting for me, because I am used to a "combo move" entailing multiple party members using the same attack to great effect, but this Combo system is much more engaging and mutable, since you can use any other skills you want with the other characters.

Design

Chrono Trigger may well have been cutting-edge in 1995, and I appreciate it for what it is. Of course it does not stand up to some of the next generation games as far as graphics or sound, but as is the case with many older games, is still somehow fun to play. Chrono Trigger's combat system is engaging and fun to play with over and over again. And since you will be playing with the same combat system for a very long time with this game, that is definitely a plus. A good RPG requires two things, however: a good combat system and an engaging storyline. Unfortunately, Chrono Trigger's story is bland and uninteresting. After the initial shock of going backwards in time a few hundred years to the town you started in, nothing really happens for a good amount of time. Long enough for me to lose interest in the characters involved, sadly. Chrono Trigger is useful in that it shows us which conventions of older RPGs have been recycled and which ones have been pruned. It would seem that game developers would side with me regarding the story, as many more compelling and immersive games have emerged in recent years. Still, Chrono Trigger's popularity at the time shows that the truly essential piece to a solid game is the gameplay itself, not the fiction surrounding that game.

Excellent writing. I like how you use your gameplay experience to elaborate on the RPG genre as a whole. You explain what makes Chrono Trigger such an important RPG, while still acknowledging the evolution of the genre. Good in-depth analysis of the combat system, though more information on the time-traveling mechanic and how it affects the game would have been nice.


- David Seagal (Grader)