Chrono Trigger Is Timeless
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I love Woolsey but have never played Chrono Trigger. Is there a mashup "best of both worlds" version out there that adds the best Woolsey-isms to the longer script version, like the Woolsey Uncensored for FF VI?
CT doesn't feel quite as wacky as Woolsey's earlier scripts--the lighter tone of the game helps with that--and most of the problem with the original stems from Nintendo of America's censorship and a handful of localization choices that won't land with everyone (for example, a main character speaks like Cyan).
Unless you hated the FF6 revision in the GBA games or later, I'd say the DS or PC versions of Chrono Trigger do what you're looking for by revising but not completely rewriting the original.
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I have never played Chrono Trigger, but I am currently spending some time playing old classic games. However, some games don't age well and are mostly appreciated due to nostalgia. How easy is Chrono Trigger to get into for someone without the nostalgia, and is the Steam release worth playing?
CT is one of the all time great JRPGs... if you put the effort in.
But it is very much a product of its time between missable party members and even mechanics that penalize you for opening treasure chests too soon.
Conceptually it is cool as hell that there is something like five or six main endings and then a bunch of variants and special/joke endings. But... this is a 20-30 hour JRPG and ain't nobody got that much time. Although, different re-releases have helped speed those up.
All in all? The big set piece moments are some of the greatest in gaming. The moment to moment are... from the early 90s. I would probably recommend grabbing a totally legit dump of your SNES cartridge, playing until you get bored/annoyed, and then watching a lore video.
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Played it again for like the 10th time on like the 5th system I have it on it and it absolutely holds up. This time around it was the OG SNES on a Steam Deck. The original cartridge, box, instructions and everything are in a box in the basement, but that cartridge has been across the country and back with me every since I bought it through a mail order company that had its ads in EGM.
Chrono Trigger is damn near perfect. The closest I’ve gotten to reliving that game in my adult life is Sea of Stars, which I also highly recommend as it is very clearly inspired by CT.
I don't know if you've tried crosscode, and its been a (long) while since iv3 played chrono trigger, but from what i remember of playing it they gave me very much the same vibes, and i was totally blown away by crosscode. Most fun ive had playing a game in a long time, with a surprisingly engaging story.
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Chrono Trigger is one of those games you can play just for the music.
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Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross and Xenogears are the holy trinity of JRPGs for me. Every fan of the genre should play them at least once in their lives.
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Chrono Trigger is one of those games you can play just for the music.
That was me with SimCity 4. xD
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I grabbed some more comparisons, this time from my tablet using the CRT-Consumer shader. Notice stuff like the bloom from the window and shading around the curtains, the kitchen appliances and plants, general shading around dithered stuff like the tent, and the trees on the world map.
Also these are best viewed on a larger screen, it’s hard to see the difference on a phone.
Most of those look worse in the bottom pictures tbh. A couple of the top ones look a little too bright and washed out, but the bottom ones just look low contrast and dark.
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I don't know if you've tried crosscode, and its been a (long) while since iv3 played chrono trigger, but from what i remember of playing it they gave me very much the same vibes, and i was totally blown away by crosscode. Most fun ive had playing a game in a long time, with a surprisingly engaging story.
CrossCode was SO good! It's a great game and I'm always thrilled when I find others that played it.
Did you know its studio, Radical Fish, has another game coming?
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CT is one of the all time great JRPGs... if you put the effort in.
But it is very much a product of its time between missable party members and even mechanics that penalize you for opening treasure chests too soon.
Conceptually it is cool as hell that there is something like five or six main endings and then a bunch of variants and special/joke endings. But... this is a 20-30 hour JRPG and ain't nobody got that much time. Although, different re-releases have helped speed those up.
All in all? The big set piece moments are some of the greatest in gaming. The moment to moment are... from the early 90s. I would probably recommend grabbing a totally legit dump of your SNES cartridge, playing until you get bored/annoyed, and then watching a lore video.
Missable party members? 5~ endings?
Is this really in Chrono Trigger?
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Most of those look worse in the bottom pictures tbh. A couple of the top ones look a little too bright and washed out, but the bottom ones just look low contrast and dark.
To each their own. The ones with the shader are closer to what it looked like on a CRT (minus some extra bloom and color bleed if using composite or RF).
Edit - I made a post about the shaders I'm using on the Steam Deck with an album of screenshots hosted outside of Lemmy upload (on Lensdump) and seems to be better, I think Lemmy is doing something to the image with compression.
https://lemmy.world/post/26996470
If you only care about the comparison shots:
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I will say, the longer I look at that, the less confident I am that there is any difference at all, lol.
I made a post about the shader I'm using on the Steam Deck with an album of screenshots hosted outside of Lemmy upload (on Lensdump) and seems to be better, I think Lemmy is doing something to the image with compression.
https://lemmy.world/post/26996470
If you only care about the comparison shots:
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Missable party members? 5~ endings?
Is this really in Chrono Trigger?
There is an optional party member that you can either recruit or fight based on which dialogue option you pick. You'll know it when you see it though, so it's easy to make the right choice.
There are 12 endings (13 in DS and subsequent rereleases). You can easily see all of them in just two playthroughs. Theoretically you could even do them all on the first playthrough, but it's much easier to do in NG+.
The only caveat is that you have to see them in order, you can't backtrack if you miss one, which is why I recommend starting with the final and true ending on your first playthrough, then do all the others on NG+. NG+ makes it pretty easy to speed through things as well, your second playthrough will be much shorter.
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That was me with SimCity 4. xD
and SimCity 3000 and SimCity 2000 (Macintosh)
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I have never played Chrono Trigger, but I am currently spending some time playing old classic games. However, some games don't age well and are mostly appreciated due to nostalgia. How easy is Chrono Trigger to get into for someone without the nostalgia, and is the Steam release worth playing?
If you've played and enjoyed any 2D JRPG, you'll be fine here.
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There is an optional party member that you can either recruit or fight based on which dialogue option you pick. You'll know it when you see it though, so it's easy to make the right choice.
There are 12 endings (13 in DS and subsequent rereleases). You can easily see all of them in just two playthroughs. Theoretically you could even do them all on the first playthrough, but it's much easier to do in NG+.
The only caveat is that you have to see them in order, you can't backtrack if you miss one, which is why I recommend starting with the final and true ending on your first playthrough, then do all the others on NG+. NG+ makes it pretty easy to speed through things as well, your second playthrough will be much shorter.
There is also one (three?) party members that you can potentially lose due to story related reasons and not recover before endgame.
And yeah. With a guide and some save scumming you can definitely optimize your routes. But that also kind of defeats the purpose of "enjoying" the game, at least to me.
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CT is one of the all time great JRPGs... if you put the effort in.
But it is very much a product of its time between missable party members and even mechanics that penalize you for opening treasure chests too soon.
Conceptually it is cool as hell that there is something like five or six main endings and then a bunch of variants and special/joke endings. But... this is a 20-30 hour JRPG and ain't nobody got that much time. Although, different re-releases have helped speed those up.
All in all? The big set piece moments are some of the greatest in gaming. The moment to moment are... from the early 90s. I would probably recommend grabbing a totally legit dump of your SNES cartridge, playing until you get bored/annoyed, and then watching a lore video.
mechanics that penalize you for opening treasure chests too soon.
Unlike all the other chests, the ones that “penalize you” have an event and prompt asking if you want to open them, and in a game about time travel, it’s not too hard to figure out what’s intended.
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I played it for the first time about 10 years ago on a SNES emulator (because it kept on popping up in "best game of all time" lists), and I wasn't disappointed. Well, I don't think it is the best game ever, but I really enjoyed it, so I don't think it's a game that's propped up only by nostalgia.
Sounds promising. I've seen other posts of people who played it "recently" and enjoyed it.
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I don’t have nostalgia for the game, tried it a few years ago but bounced off. Not sure why, just wasn’t in the mood for a HRPG at the time I guess.
I recently gave it another go, been playing it on my Steam Deck and it’s been great. I’m a few hours into it in the future currently and I think it’ll stick this time, it’s great.
Only thing is the game feels like it was really made with CRT behavior in mind. Like the game has some amazing shading and almost 3D depth to a lot of the art but without CRT shaders you don’t see it at all. If you play the Steam version, reshade goes a long way. I’m using a combination of CRT-frutbuhn, EasymodeCRT, and vibrance and it looks amazing.
Edit: quick comparison with default look vs. with shaders:
Thanks for the suggestions of the mods. I can image it works well on Steam deck since it exists a DS version.
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CT is one of the all time great JRPGs... if you put the effort in.
But it is very much a product of its time between missable party members and even mechanics that penalize you for opening treasure chests too soon.
Conceptually it is cool as hell that there is something like five or six main endings and then a bunch of variants and special/joke endings. But... this is a 20-30 hour JRPG and ain't nobody got that much time. Although, different re-releases have helped speed those up.
All in all? The big set piece moments are some of the greatest in gaming. The moment to moment are... from the early 90s. I would probably recommend grabbing a totally legit dump of your SNES cartridge, playing until you get bored/annoyed, and then watching a lore video.
20-30 hour was less than I expected. On other comments it sounds like several endings can be seen in one playthrough which makes it easier to see many or all endings.
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I got a bit worried after your first sentence but it sounds like Chrono Trigger should be more than okay.
