4 weeks have passed pretty quickly, and I still haven’t written my Earthbound review. I’m pretty much still trying to figure out how to present my opinion on the game, so I’ll still need a bit of time to organize my thoughts. Anyways, this is pretty much just an “I’M ALIVE!” post. I haven’t got too much to say, though. Christmas break started, and I got the red ring of death. Not cool Microsoft, not cool. Anyways, I’ll be recieving a box tomorrow or the day after tomorrow to ship my 360 in. (I haven’t even used my damn 360 since summer!) On the other hand, I’ve been playing video games, as usual. Specifically, Chrono Trigger DS, Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4, Gears of War 2, and Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, so I guess I’ll talk about those in seperate blog posts. So let’s start with Chrono Trigger! Because nobody expects me being lazy!

CHRONO TRIGGER [DS]
I’m pretty sure everyone reading this blog has heard of, or has played Chrono Trigger, so I won’t go into too much detail. Basically, Chrono Trigger is the story of Crono and his friends, and their quest to travel through time to save the world. Despite the fairly cliche premise, Chrono Trigger delivers an amazing story at a steady pace, topped off with a whopping 13 endings. I haven’t beaten Chrono Trigger DS, and I don’t remember beating Chrono Trigger on the SNES, so I can’t really comment on the endings. The game plays just like how you’d expect an RPG to play. There are no random encounters; battles are triggered by the *touch to battle* kind of system. There are no battles on the world map because of this, meaning battles only occur in “dungeon” maps. Actual battles are your standard Final Fantasy-like flair. You have an ATB bar, you can attack, you can use techs, you can use items, and you can run. However, two things set this game apart. One thing is the top screen (assuming you’re playing in DS mode). The top screen is basically your battle screen. On that screen, you will see your party members attack. What’s important about this top screen is that there are attacks that damage a certain portion of the screen. For example, in the beginning of the game, Crono learns an attack called “Cyclone”. Cyclone is an attack that hits all the enemies around a certain enemy in a circle. If an enemy is out of range, you won’t be able to hit them. This adds another layer of strategy (until you get Dark Matter and Luminaire, that is…) because some enemies move a lot, and you want to hit them at the right time. There’s Active and Wait timing options for the ATB, but it’s the same as all the other Active and Wait options in every other game, so I won’t develop on that. On active, you’ll require a bit of timing with your skills, since enemies will be moving while you use your techs. Interesting. Another thing that’s worth mentioning is the dual/triple techs system. Each combination of party members presents you with different dual/triple techs. Basically, dual/triple techs are techs where you combine the techs of different party members? Make sense? Think of it this way; Marle has Ice spells, and Lucca has Fire spells. Combine the two of them together, and what do you get?

Crono, Lucca, and Marle prepare for a fight.

A fire/ice spell called “Antipode Bomb”. Antipode Bomb is a dual-tech. It’s knid of hard for me to describe, but you get the point, right? The music remains the same. Yasunori Mitsuda did a great job of it. I’m particularly fond of this specific tune; not sure why, but it’s my favorite song in the entire soundtrack. *shrugs* The new translation… I can’t really comment on that. I don’t remember the old translation well enough, since I didn’t really appreciate Chrono Trigger back in the day. I just noticed that Frog didn’t speak in his “olde english” anymore, which is good, since everyone else in his era spoke in plain, SIMPLE english. But hey, he’s still just as formal, so it doesn’t really detract from his personality. Anyways, as far as I’ve played, if you’re a fan of JRPGs, definitely get Chrono Trigger DS. Unless you’ve beaten the original 12321 times. If you have, just get it if you want to, I guess. The visuals are exactly the same, the soundtrack is exactly the same, and the gameplay is practically the same (although there are two new dungeons, an extras menu, and an arena. not sure if it justifies a purchase over the SNES version…) But if you haven’t played the original Chrono Trigger, you’re in for a treat! It’s got interesting characters and a touching plot riddled with twists and turns. Either way, it seems like a pretty short game, and 13 endings add to replayability of the game. Fun Toriyama art is always a plus too!

Anyways, I thought I’d write a lot on Chrono Trigger, and I did. Hopefully, I’ll be able to update some more over the winter break. I’m gonna go do something else, but have fun, and enjoy yourselves over the holidays, people! I know I will!