Chrono Trigger fanboys really are a different breed of cunt

[La vie sexuelle]

I like Chrono Trigger.

But Sengoku Rance is better.

 

[Gilius Thunderhead]

How's Chrono Cross? I have always been curious but feared zero substance gameplay like the first game.

It's not like CT at all, either in gameplay or art style. It looks more like a late-late 90s FF, only in a tropical setting. Battles are based on controlling elements. The more an element is used in a battle, the more powerful it becomes. If your character or the enemy has the same element, they gain an advantage; the opposite if they're the opposite element. For example, a monster belonging to the Red element will continually use Red specials(e.g. Fire spell) , which will fill an elemental meter at the top of the screen. If the mater starts flashing entirely Red you're in trouble, so you want to use techniques from another element to bump off the Red and replace it with another element that more favors your characters. Ideally, you'll have a Blue character and get the meter entirely Blue, as Blue is opposed to Red. Your Blue spells and techniques will then do a lot more damage.

There's also some customization, in that each character has a grid that you can fill with all the spells and techniques you want. As the characters level, you get more space in your grid and more grid levels. Higher levels make the spell or technique more powerful, but to use them you need to charge up your grid in battle by performing physical attacks. Weaker attacks fill this up more slowly but haver a higher hit rate; vice-versa for powerful attacks. Each consecutive attack raises the hit rate, so you usually start with a weak attack to chain a more powerful one next. This has the bonus of charging up your grid more efficiently.

Unlike CT, there are no Dual or Triple attacks using various characters; also no "tactical" AoE attacks, as enemies don't move around like in CT. No ATB, either. Characters can always act as long as they have 1.0 stamina. This value recharges every time someone acts in battle up to a maximum of 7.

There's a big variety of characters, although I haven't seen most of them, as I'm only about 1/3 into the game, I guess. A couple of times I've noticed alternative paths where you can take different character to an objective, although it's still very railroaded as can be expected from this kind of game.

I wouldn't exactly put it on par with the best of PS1 FF, at least not yet. I need to finish it before I can give a more informed opinion. It's far superior to CT, though.

I'm playing with LandonRay's mod, which... is about as tough as you'd expect, specially going in blind like me. I fully expect to find some boss later on which will kick my ass beyond recognition. So far I only really had trouble with one boss, but beat it at third try with better strategy and a bit of luck.

 

[Damned Registrations]

From what I remember of Chrono Cross, magic was basically useless, equipment was irrelevant or non-existant, and every fight was just using physical attacks between healing. The elemental crap didn't matter because it was just always filled with random garbage. There was no bufing or debuffing or status effects. There were a million characters but they were all super lame and superficial. The only thing about the game I would praise is the fast forward feature of new game plus. A shame it's not available from the start, because I was not even slightly inclined to ever play it again after the first run through.

 

[Ash]

I'm playing with LandonRay's mod

LandonRay is an absolute blessing. Inclined FF8, FF9, AND Castlevania: SotN.

Cross does sound slightly better than Trigger in the gameplay department, but only slightly. I've read a lot of reviews and viewed footage in my everlasting search for classics, and yeah it absolutely does not seem even remotely on par with a 90s FF. Sadly.

 

[Gilius Thunderhead]

From what I remember of Chrono Cross, magic was basically useless, equipment was irrelevant or non-existant, and every fight was just using physical attacks between healing. The elemental crap didn't matter because it was just always filled with random garbage. There was no bufing or debuffing or status effects. There were a million characters but they were all super lame and superficial. The only thing about the game I would praise is the fast forward feature of new game plus. A shame it's not available from the start, because I was not even slightly inclined to ever play it again after the first run through.

Magic being useless is a problem of most vanilla Final Fantasies as well. At most you use it in the beginning of the game. In my modded game, magic is fundamental just for the effect on the meter, let alone damage. Bosses will crush you if you let it fill up with their element. The systems are there, they just aren't used in vanilla.

It's not true there are no status effect. I've been burned and poisoned by enemies and I assume I'll get hit with more and more as the game progresses.

You're right about equipment, there seems to be little there.

I don't mind superficial characters as long as they're cool and not annoying. So far it's been a mixed bag. I like the main characters Serge and Kid, at least. What I find annoying is the translation, which makes some pretty horrible choices in characterization.

 

[Gilius Thunderhead]

I'm playing with LandonRay's mod

LandonRay is an absolute blessing. Inclined FF8, FF9, AND Castlevania: SotN.

Cross does sound slightly better than Trigger in the gameplay department, but only slightly. I've read a lot of reviews and viewed footage in my everlasting search for classics, and yeah it absolutely does not seem even remotely on par with a 90s FF. Sadly.

I can't say how much you'd like it compared to a FF, but it's absolutely superior to CT. They have little in common except some story gimmicks and the lack of random encounters.

 

[mediocrepoet]

How's Chrono Cross? I have always been curious but feared zero substance gameplay like the first game.

Chrono Cross sucks. fin.

 

[mediocrepoet]

I'm playing with LandonRay's mod

LandonRay is an absolute blessing. Inclined FF8, FF9, AND Castlevania: SotN.

Cross does sound slightly better than Trigger in the gameplay department, but only slightly. I've read a lot of reviews and viewed footage in my everlasting search for classics, and yeah it absolutely does not seem even remotely on par with a 90s FF. Sadly.

I can't say how much you'd like it compared to a FF, but it's absolutely superior to CT. They have little in common except some story gimmicks and the lack of random encounters.

Don't fake news me, fanboy.
The entire game is bland and forgettable, the plot is lame, the 99 companions you can pick up are all the same guy with a dialect filter to make them so unique, ooh la la!~

It has nothing to do with Chrono Trigger, they just forced a tie in to try and generate sales because it was so horribly mediocre.

There is literally only one memorable thing about this shitty game.

Spoiler

The city frozen in time is a cool set piece and you see that art of the wave about to wipe everything out for all of like 3 minutes and then move on. Wasted on this terrible game.

 

[Gilius Thunderhead]

I'm turning into a fanboy just from reading all the haters. Before, I was just mildly impressed.

"It has nothing to do with Chrono Trigger" And that's bad, because?

 

[mediocrepoet]

I'm turning into a fanboy just from reading all the haters. Before, I was just mildly impressed.

"It has nothing to do with Chrono Trigger" And that's bad, because?

It's not bad per se, it's just misleading advertising. It was hyped as the CT sequel, etc. and whatever. They cameoed Lucca a bit, and had a glimpse of Lucca, Marle, and Crono at one point, but it basically had nothing to do with it. Instead of time travel, it was parallel realities in a mish mash of even more nonsensical storyline.

Regardless, the elemental field gameplay wasn't all that interesting, and as I say, the entire enterprise is fundamentally flawed. They could have made a good game, they just didn't by trying to push certain elements like that stupid dialogue filter. It's irredeemable trash.

 

[Gilius Thunderhead]

So, it trolled Chrono Trigger fans and made them waste their money. That's +1 in my book.

I find the elemental field interesting, it adds another layer to combat beyond just healing and damage. You need to customize characters so that you can always fight with a favorable element on your side. There are even spells to change the elemental affinity of the enemy and your characters during battle. What games do a better job in this regard?

The only thing I'd change about it is having your equipped elements affect your stats, like in FF7 and 8. It falls short of those games for that reason.

 

[mediocrepoet]

So, it trolled Chrono Trigger fans and made them waste their money. That's +1 in my book.

Meh.

I find the elemental field interesting, it adds another layer to combat beyond just healing and damage. You need to customize characters so that you can always fight with a favorable element on your side. There are even spells to change the elemental affinity of the enemy and your characters during battle. What games do a better job in this regard?

Why does any game need to do the elemental affinity thing better if the system is boring and doesn't really add anything?

 

[Gilius Thunderhead]

Why does any game need to do the elemental affinity thing better if the system is boring and doesn't really add anything?

If the elemental affinity thing(system) is interesting, then the (combat)system is also interesting, because it is the main component of that system. You're saying the combat is boring regardless. Whatever.

Anyway, I think vanilla players never really got to use the systems available because the game was so easy. My impression is that most didn't even notice them. My experience is with a mod that ramps up the difficulty, so we're talking past each other.

I think I'm going to shut up about this game until I finish it or I'm finished with it, otherwise I'll have spent more time arguing on the internet than playing.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Why does any game need to do the elemental affinity thing better if the system is boring and doesn't really add anything?

If the elemental affinity thing(system) is interesting, then the (combat)system is also interesting, because it is the main component of that system. You're saying the combat is boring regardless. Whatever.

Anyway, I think vanilla players never really got to use the systems available because the game was so easy. My impression is that most didn't even notice them. My experience is with a mod that ramps up the difficulty, so we're talking past each other.

I think I'm going to shut up about this game until I finish it or I'm finished with it, otherwise I'll have spent more time arguing on the internet than playing.

Yeah, you're also saying that a mod is decent when you haven't played the actual game as released, apparently, and are trying to suggest you know what you're talking about.

I mean... Yes, some other game that uses stuff based on Chrono Cross probably could be decent. But we're not talking about Chrono Cross anymore.

 

[Law]

what can change the nature of a JRPG?

 

[Dadd]

Chrono Trigger is p. good

 

[flyingjohn]

Anyway, I think vanilla players never really got to use the systems available because the game was so easy

The biggest problem in vanilla is that the elemental affinity affects psychical damage.Couple this with the ability attack a enemy 2-3 times physically and you get a problem.Also, some magic uses strength for the damage formula making psychical even more powerful.
It is like punching,stabbing and then running over somebody and then using a cannon to blow him up,what was the point of the cannon?

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Do these chrono games mention anything in passing about Back to the Future, Dr Who, Time Bandits, or Terminator etc? My luck they’d reference Dinosaur Train.

 

[Ash]

LOW STANDARDS ALERT ITT

 

[mediocrepoet]

LOW STANDARDS ALERT ITT

This is actually pretty hilarious given some of your posting history.

 

[e-mailio estevez]

Do these chrono games mention anything in passing about Back to the Future, Dr Who, Time Bandits, or Terminator etc? My luck they’d reference Dinosaur Train.

If you haven't played it already, 13 Sentinels is a great game with a lot of these sorts of references. It's a great little sci-fi game. Terminator, ET and the Matrix references, certainly. Countless more in the in-game encyclopedia.

 

[Gerrard]

Throw Dragonball Z paint on an absolute mind-numbing game and they'll eat it up.

That's Brazilians.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

But would it be on the sega master system or genesis?

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

RIBBIT!

 

[Anonymous Ranger]

RIBBIT!

Even though I'm not the biggest fan of the game I do like Frog as a character. His part of the game was my favorite and in my opinion he's the best character by far.