"Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo" (akioohtori)
09/23/2018 at 11:28 • Filed to: None
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"Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo" (akioohtori)
09/23/2018 at 11:28 • Filed to: None | 3
| 6 |
I’ve been running though some older games and finally got around to trying some of the classic I’ve missed. Having tried FF6 and A Link to the Past but was mostly unable to get into them, giving Chrono Trigger a shot seemed reasonable. Old Saabs for your time.
Overall it was a good game, but the hype certainly didn’t do it any favors. I think it holds up in a modern era. The art, graphics, combat, and gameplay were great. However, the dungeons, bosses, and areas were very repetitive.
The overworld felt small and static, with major world events happening in a timestream and the townsfolk still say the same thing they said on day 1.
The characters, overall, felt underdeveloped but mostly unlikable. Lucca’s lack of development was somewhat criminal in particular. Robo was well developed and likable. (Guess who my end-boss party was haha) Chrono was pretty much wallpaper paste, as silent protagonists can be.
The final boss fight was weird. Not sure why the right pod was the thing you had to kill to finally kill it. Might look up a FAQ on that one. That said it was hard with a capital H, which was refreshing having mostly played modern games recently.
I got ending 1b, which is to say I killed Lavos but had the Epoch intact.
Overall, I’m glad I played it and agree it is a good game, especially for the era. Not planning doing a replay any time soon, however. Really made me want to go through OoT for the 14,000th time.
C900s at our local car meet, for your time.
If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent
> Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
09/23/2018 at 11:46 |
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I should replay CT. I barely remember it it was so long ago.
M.T. Blake
> Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
09/23/2018 at 12:22 |
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I got close to the end but the emulator I used got me stuck in the desert dungeon. The moving sand threw me to a corner and the input and frame rate wouldn’t let me out! Hours of game play gone. Useless save file. My bad for not making many save files. Great game though. Pick up FF7 or Star Ocean Second Story now.
FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com
> Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
09/23/2018 at 12:38 |
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I need to replay CT. I honestly can’t remember if I ever actually finished it. I know I got very far 15 years ago or so and about 5 years ago I started again but got too busy after only 5 hours or so and abandoned it.
facw
> Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
09/23/2018 at 14:42 |
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I’m not actually sure if I ever finished. I got to the big event (to avoid spoiling a quarter century old game), but everything after that was a bit of a blur. People complai n about modern games being too short, but old JRPGs could definitely be a slog.
AestheticsInMotion
> Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
09/23/2018 at 19:18 |
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Minish cap is a fantastastic bridge between old-school and the more modern games. Try that if you haven't already
Shour, Aloof and Obnoxious
> Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
09/23/2018 at 20:57 |
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You have to understand where the hype was coming from - the hype came from 1995.
ChronoTrigger was indeed revolutionary...for 1995.
The combination of personnel (the “dream team”) who made it was revolutionary...in 1995.
More than one possible ending (let alone 17?!?!?!) was revolutionary...in 1995.
The overworld was smaller than Dragon Warrior IV’s, but larger when you discovered that there were FIVE different versions of that overworld to explore, and that was revolutionary...for 1995.
A multiple form final boss with a final form that was SPECIFICALLY designed to trick you was revolutionary...in 1995.
Seeing the throughline here? CT was the first game to even introduce the mechanic of New Game+.
Prior to CT, the idea of video game RPGs was built around the gameplay-style of Dragon Warrior and Phantasy Star. The PlayStation and Final Fantasy VII don’t even exist yet. To someone like me, 16 at the time and living on a diet of SNES rentals, quarter-munching arcade fighters (SFII/MK/NeoGeo), and buying every issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly, ChronoTrigger was like absolutely nothing that ever existed before.
When you are THERE, a part of that revelation WHEN it happens, it sticks with you deeper than when you merely read about or hear about it. The people who run the game industry now...they’re my age. They were there when ChronoTrigger, Street Fighter II, Donkey Kong Country, Star Fox, and Metal Gear Solid, Ocarina of Time, Final Fantasy VII, and the Dreamcast all dropped. All of those games, exist with a sort of general reverence that is passed down to gamers who are under 30...they have read about them, been told about how industry-changing they were. But if you didn’t actually experience the games as a part of the industry AT THAT TIME, it can be very hard to really understand the fandom and deep love for these games inspire in gamers who are between 35-45 years old.
I started teaching in 2006. The effects of 9/11 was still real and raw in the public consciousness of the time, and my students, especially high school students, understood the weight of the event. Today, my students know that 9/11 happened. But to they weren’t present for the actual tragedy as it unfolded, nor did they watch the global landscape change in the following decade. They don’t understand why people my age look at the day the way we do, they only know that something bad happened that day. To them, TSA has always been a thing and Iraq is just another country in the Middle East. If you hadn’t played video games before 1995, you don’t really understand how much the RPG landscape changed with CT and then with FFVII. It was for video games, our Jazz Singer, our Beethoven’s 9th, our Sistine Chapel.
ChronoTrigger remains my favorite game of all time. Partly because I was there. Partly because of the subtle nuance of the writing that reveals Marle and Crono’s relationship. Partly because Schala is still out there somewhere. Partly because I can still sing any of Yasunori’s soundtrack at any given moment. But mostly because it was the first story in a video game that made me FEEL something, that got me invested in more than just beating the final boss.
Lots of games are written to make you feel now. That’s fantastic. But for me ChronoTrigger was the first. If it wasn’t your first, then you probably don’t understand why we love the game the way we do, and hey...that’s okay. We all have our first love. I’m just glad that you got to enjoy the same art that I did, even if it doesn’t mean the same thing to you as it did to me.
