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Thursday 24 January, 2008
2780 A.D.
THE END HAS COME FOR US ALL! Poting on all site the end has come for us! The zombies are coming, if only we had learned in the year 2008 that we could-
Bzzzztztztzt!
2008 A.D.
2nd Review of Chrono Trigger
4 and a half hours of total gameplay.
-Summary-
After four and a half hours of play on Chrono Trigger I know why it is a classic. There is never a point in the game where you aren't doing something new! Nearly every level has its own minigame and the plot-
INCOMING FROM YEAR 3008 A.D.
The mystics command you humans to disregard the statement two paragraphs up. Just keep on with your lives and everything will be fine.
-continues to entice me. The story seems to have very distinct points of stopping, but the continuation of the story seems continually necessary. The fact that as soon as you get the fourth member of the party you can attack the last boss is a major innovation, the fact that you get an ending for losing against Lavos-
INCOMING FROM YEAR 3008 A.D.
Correct the grammar of the above statement to "Great and Mighty Lavos."
-is an unexpected path that added learning curiosity and replay elements to see how many different endings I can get. The fact that nearly every boss requires a unique strategy that you must learn through practice and story is interesting in itself.
GAMEPLAY
That being said the tyrannical rain of Gandhi from the last game was stopp-
-Gameplay-
As you can see by the above messages in time travel I'm highly surprised I hadn't grabbed a copy of this game earlier. The time travel aspect is of course impossible by every scientific means, but then again with a game this fun does it need to?
YES FILTHY HUMANS EVERYTHING MUST HAVE A PURPOSE!
There's the answer I suppose. In any case where we last left off Crono had just traveled 400 years into the past and gotten lucky with Princess Marle. Since then she invited Crono over to meet the folks for dinner and one thing led to another and he was eventually thrown in jaihormation you need to defeat your first "boss monster" but nonetheless sets you up with what to expect for future fights.
After Crono Goes mdieval and aparently cuts tank armor off with his sword you get chased out by the guards... into th year 2300! (how can you not love this)
This post apocalyptic future gives you insight into what you need to stop, what the human race is becoming, and what events in history it is your duty to change. But while we're in the future... might as well pick up a robot!
The magic system is introduced as a simple concept at the End of Time and the game keeps its appeal even after I gained my first ending by losing the fight against Lavos. The wacky game mechanics, and statistics that make no sense (Rock sword is stronger then a Ray gun, no exceptions.) adds an unrealistic, but fun element that is enforced from the very beginning by the fair. This combine with a large assortment of mini games and new battle systems makes this game revolutionary from level 1!
DESIGN:
Apparently UCSC screwed up thus far in getting my e-mail correct. Thus I didn't check when the comments came in for the game log, now that I have recently fixed this issue it is time for the Design section!
Innovations in the game included an Active Time Battle System or the choice of a traditional RPG system. The story elements that allowed for many different endings or play troughs of the game. Last was the amount of mini-games which allowed the player to play completely different games inside the core mechanics of the game, while this isn't new to this game, none take it quite to the level that Chrono Trigger did. The game creates conflicts by setting a disturbance in history, rather the desire to change the future is what causes the characters to act. The gameplay keeps changing the mechanics of the game, or requires more then brute force to defeat even common enemies later. Forcing the player to think about how to defeat the opponent, rather then just clicking attack. The space within the game is intentionally limited, however what occurs there keeps shifting due to the different timezones you visit them. The actual space of the world map is somewhat small for an RPG, however the fact that you visit it over and over again in new and vibrantly different scenarios makes it seem exciting each time.
The tone, as stated above is somewhat cartoony, but serious enough to get the player involved int eh story and caring about what happens to the characters. The very beginning and sheer amount of mini-games helps create this tone. The game doesn't really do anything for social relations other then provide a fun story, and providing decisions for multiple characters, which as all RPG players know is still really 1P game.
This game did help us come up with some goofy concepts for the future game project, the amount of mini-games and very goofy characters and villains helped us conceive some of our own creations.
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