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Saturday 26 January, 2008
Gameplay
I have to say, the character Frog is probably my favorite of the cast of CT. The nobleness of his character, with a little snappy humor tossed in here and there, creates a great heroic atmosphere reminiscent of samurai movies. How badass Marle is revealed to be is pretty cool, too. I mean, come on, a princess who fires a mean crossbow and can kiss your wounds to heal them. Oh yeah, and you saved her. The range of characters that all have at least a little depth to them is a pretty refreshing thing to see, too bad some of today's game designers have forgotten that in lieu of pretty graphics.
The way the battle activation system works is pretty much my favorite system of any RPG I've ever played. Random boss battles are a pain in the butt and increase the time it takes to go from point A to B by a factor of (insert approximate rating of how sadistic your console is feeling today). The way you can avoid danger by choosing the right course of action or by remembering where you've encountered monsters in the past is really helpful if I'm just too engrossed in the story to want to fight a billion imps.
DESIGN
I really appreciate the tiered rewards system the game presents to the player. Like many RPG nuts, I like to go for bigger booms by getting the best items possible, and the way the game has a range of interesting and visually appealing spells, spell combos, items, and enemy attacks really hooked me into the game without even considering the other factors.
Like I mentioned, the battle system is amazing, from the ability to choose whether to use timer based or turn based battles to the game's treatment for the drudgery of random encounters. The somewhat interactive and location based way the characters fight is pretty enticing. Area of Effect spells and skills are abundant, so this system adds that degree of randomness that seems necessary for an RPG.
I really liked the game's use of decent music, as well. Chrono Trigger is the only SNES game I still listen to musically arranged versions of. I'm picky so I'd say that's high praise. Music provokes moods in the player, which is important for him to feel in the role. There was no shortage of examples of this observation, and coincidently I haven't found many games since I originally played it that could pull me in that well.
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