Chrono Cross...

[seawasp]

... is the subject of today's On My Shelves post. In it, I try to give the game its due as a standalone, not looking at it as a sequel to Chrono Trigger.

Comments

[ninjarat.livejournal.com]

I found Chrono Cross to be a mediocre game. The plot is confusing and the ending... I had the feeling that the devs at Square were all, "the fans hated FF7's ending so this time we'll just not make one." It's not the worst JRPG from that era that I played (and I played almost all of the ones localized for the US market) but it's a game that I've never had any desire to replay.

[seawasp]

Well, I felt that way about CC myself the first time through, but I also discovered later that what *I* called "no ending" was, well, because I got the Bad Ending (a sort of set of still pictures of characters in various situations), instead of the Good Ending which I found quite acceptable.

I also gave it that second chance because I had played it through with Chrono Trigger looming over it in my head so hugely that I'd made the mistake of NOT putting my brain into the mode to just take it on its own merits.

[ninjarat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, see, the "good ending" has nothing to do with the game. You have to play the boss fight as a quick-time event instead of, you know, PLAYING THE GAME.

[seawasp]

Well, no, I don't see it that way (not in any way saying "you're wrong", since any individual's perceptions are beyond argument).

In the game you're given clues as to what you need to do, and the precise sequence you need to unlock the seal between Lavos and Schala is given to you (I didn't pick up on it the first time, but I often miss out on these things when I play and have to have someone else tell me). So you get into the final battle and you know you need to break Schala's seal using the magic of the Chrono Cross as directed. Seems a straightforward part of the game, and you don't even have to be particularly quick about it (and you don't have to get it right the first time, you have plenty of time to get it right unless your characters are terribly weak for some reason).

It's a LOT more fair, and just as much part of the game in my view, as P4's "perfect game" ending which requires that you say the EXACTLY RIGHT things out of several choices multiple times, with the alternative things to say making perfectly good sense and there being NO hint in-game that gives you a good idea as to what the "right" choices are. If you haven't read the walkthrough, you have probably a one in 3^5 or about a one in two hundred plus chance of getting the Perfect Ending and probably a one in 100 chance of the Sorta-Good Ending.

I'd agree that both are pretty close to Guide Dang It situations, but I'd rate the Chrono Cross one as better because if you ARE the sort who notices details like that in game, you CAN deduce exactly what you're supposed to do from the available data -- something you really CAN'T do from what you get in P4.

[groblek.livejournal.com]

A timelyn post, as I just finished playing through the iOS release of Chrono Trigger last week. I may have to pick up Chrono Cross sometime, though it may have to wait and see if Square feels like porting that one to iOS, as right now I have to be able to pause the game and set it down indefinitely at a moment's notice these days, in case of a need to toddler-wrangle. :)

[ninjarat.livejournal.com]

The original Persona does multiple endings in a way that I call "right". There are several decisions through the game that invoke divergent branches. Each of these branches leads through different narratives with different endings. There's no convergence down the line to cheapen the different paths, and all three are accessible on the first play, though the steps needed for the "secret" ending may require a guide if you're not up to the repeated experimentation. You said before that you want your choices and decisions to matter to the story. I can't easily recall a better example than that. You don't get a lot of choices to make but the few you do get are literal game-changers.

Compared to that, Chrono Cross is a cop-out.

[seawasp]

Oh, I'd agree there. But I didn't think it was UNFAIR, which I did feel that P4's "Ha, ha, I'll give you four reasonable choices four times and you have to pick the right one of four EVERY TIME!" was.

I got to play about twenty minutes of the original Persona, so I didn't get a chance to play it through. That does sound like what I look for, although I also don't like "Make choice now, locked in forever and no chance to make up for oopsie", which is a common problem.

[seawasp]

There's an iOS version of Chrono Trigger??? I can get ChronoTrigger for my iPad?

[groblek.livejournal.com]

Yes, you can find it here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/chrono-trigger/id479431697?mt=8
I found that the directional controls are a bit over-sensitive, which proved annoying at Death Peak (oddly reducing the screen size to the 1x size intended for the iPhone made that much easier), and there's an annoying graphics glitch that causes a block of color to outline some sprites, but it's quite playable.

[ninjarat.livejournal.com]

I can see that. Persona doesn't have a way to back out of a branch once you're on it. The three (four, actually, because the Snow Queen quest counts) branches are flagged by which of three (or four) characters you recruit at specific points. The gotcha is that once you recruit one of these characters you cannot recruit any of the others. But you can still save before each recruit point, take the relevant branch, reload that save and go to the next point.

I don't recall feeling cheated by P4. Either I did well enough on the choices or whatever I did get felt good enough for me. I typically don't go back and play through games in their entireties just to see different endings. I'm spoiled by Persona (the first).