Chrono Trigger: Crimson Echoes
Aug. 17th, 2011 05:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroChrono Trigger: Crimson Echoes is a fan-made interquel intended to bridge Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross by explaining what happened to the cast of Trigger after that game ended to cause the events of Cross. It’s done as a romhack of the original SNES Chrono Trigger by Kajar Labs, the same team that made Prophet's Guile.
I just read a Let's Play of Chrono Cross, so it's fresh in my mind as I load this up. Actually, replaying or reading Let’s Plays of both games before playing this isn’t a terrible idea if you aren’t a rabid Chrono aficionado. This isn’t a game that stands by itself; it’s made almost entirely of references.
There was a big controversy when the game was 98% complete and the designers announced they’d received a C&D notice. A play-through of the game was posted to Youtube, and an earlier beta version was leaked at that time. The version I played claimed to be the most complete "leaked" beta version (the 98% version) from the January 2011 leak; it seemed to match up to the Youtube videos pretty well. Whatever the real story behind it, I don't much care. The game exists. And it's pretty awesome.
It's the most complex fanfic I've ever played.
They built a complete story, with decent pacing, plot twists, actual characterization, and interesting philosophical concepts that tied together a mass of fan theories. I suspect this required more thought than the original designers put into Cross. I thought it was really, really well-written. There are several segments where the player’s decisions affect the flow of history (particularly the Porre-Mystic conflict) and several points where you play through a period of time, then change the past and have to play through the altered time period again.
Apparently, though, they let plot drive game design and left properly balancing all of the gameplay for that final 2% that never got done. The CT engine really isn't designed for a single-character party, and Magus and Marle are both problematic choices of single character. (Marle gets an extended solo sequence, which works great from a storyline perspective but sucks to play because she's a support character with lousy offensive capabilities.) And they love a high difficulty level--even the very first enemies have a gimmick (they get stronger when you hit them) and the first boss can take you down easily. The early level-up progression is slow (and you start the game very far from getting a new skill), and they don't really seem to expect you to grind so much as selectively flee and otherwise fight perfectly. This doesn't let up when you get through the early areas, as most enemies have absurdly high HP for the part of the game you meet them in. I think they intended this to use New Game + data--I think you can copy over a Chrono Trigger save and use the character data from that, though I haven't tested it. I just used cheat codes.
They changed a fair number of skills around. Some of them were obviously to accommodate the fact Magus is now required and Ayla is optional. Magus' spell list is now a single-target lightning spell, a steal command, and a defensive buff. Most buffs and healing spells now target your entire party. Glenn’s spell list is tweaked, as is Robo’s. I also think some characters stats were changed, as Glenn and Ayla seem more badass than I remember them, and Crono and Robo are weaker.
They added a bunch of new weapons and armor, with almost all of the best armor as the rewards for the late-game sidequests. They also added an auction house, shooting game and casino (in Choras in 1005 AD) and a battle arena (in 2305 AD).
The early puzzles are troublesome: The second dungeon area has a trivia test, with questions from the first game, that puts you in an unwinnable boss fight if you fail. The last room doesn't even give a question (because they're all fakes), it just makes you guess. (Savestates, anyone?) The later puzzles (including another riddle, and a drumming minigame) give you hints every time you fail, eventually just spelling out the answer for you. In a game without a FAQ available, this is absolutely critical and I'm glad they included it. They're pretty good about enemy item drops, too. (Especially ethers--apparently, they really want you to use a lot of techs.)
As a particularly noteworthy bit: Crono isn't a silent protagonist. He gets lines, just like the rest of the crew. Also Frog/Glenn doesn't speak in his ye olde english accent.
The back-and-forth to Chronopolis for most of the game gets a little annoying, but on the other hand, it means you always know where to go to figure out what to do next. The only really problematic part of the game is the very end, when the various pre-ending sidequests open up. Figuring out where they are is annoying at best. (Though admittedly, the world isn’t that large. You could brute-force search by just going everywhere.)
They re-use a lot of graphical resources in fairly creative ways. The survivor's huts in the dark ages are re-used from caveman huts from the prehistoric age. The Ocean Palace Ruins were pieced together from sprite tiles in a way that was obviously intended to make it look broken. (I'll admit, I have a hard time looking at it and not feeling like it's a big graphical glitch.) A return trip to Zeal is done at night, with all the colors shifted (which is cool, but makes it hard to see!) A boat was made with tiles from the Zenan Bridge. And several eras that didn’t exist in the original game, and lots of additional timelines, all had world map screens built for them.
The game does warn you in the first area that you should use the latest version of ZSNES to play it. SNES9X works, though it did freeze periodically. (Scene transitions and tech use in battle seemed to be troublesome points early on, but I stopped having problems after the first few hours.) Save via savestate and save points early and often. I needed to switch to ZSNES to get past Balthasar's "Frozen Flame" monologue cutscene, and there was a similar problem with the time-travel explanations that appear in the Truce mayor’s house in the endgame.
Beyond that, though, I actually ran into relatively few glitches, especially give the scope of the project. I've seen professional games that were much buggier (like several entries in my much-beloved Lufia series, or Black Sigil), and I suspect the experience would have been even smoother on ZSNES.
Overall: This was pretty awesome, and whatever drama was involved, I’m glad I got to play it. The developers deserve a round of applause. I’m vaguely considering writing a FAQ/walkthrough for it, since none seems to exist and I have extensive notes.
I just read a Let's Play of Chrono Cross, so it's fresh in my mind as I load this up. Actually, replaying or reading Let’s Plays of both games before playing this isn’t a terrible idea if you aren’t a rabid Chrono aficionado. This isn’t a game that stands by itself; it’s made almost entirely of references.
There was a big controversy when the game was 98% complete and the designers announced they’d received a C&D notice. A play-through of the game was posted to Youtube, and an earlier beta version was leaked at that time. The version I played claimed to be the most complete "leaked" beta version (the 98% version) from the January 2011 leak; it seemed to match up to the Youtube videos pretty well. Whatever the real story behind it, I don't much care. The game exists. And it's pretty awesome.
It's the most complex fanfic I've ever played.
They built a complete story, with decent pacing, plot twists, actual characterization, and interesting philosophical concepts that tied together a mass of fan theories. I suspect this required more thought than the original designers put into Cross. I thought it was really, really well-written. There are several segments where the player’s decisions affect the flow of history (particularly the Porre-Mystic conflict) and several points where you play through a period of time, then change the past and have to play through the altered time period again.
Apparently, though, they let plot drive game design and left properly balancing all of the gameplay for that final 2% that never got done. The CT engine really isn't designed for a single-character party, and Magus and Marle are both problematic choices of single character. (Marle gets an extended solo sequence, which works great from a storyline perspective but sucks to play because she's a support character with lousy offensive capabilities.) And they love a high difficulty level--even the very first enemies have a gimmick (they get stronger when you hit them) and the first boss can take you down easily. The early level-up progression is slow (and you start the game very far from getting a new skill), and they don't really seem to expect you to grind so much as selectively flee and otherwise fight perfectly. This doesn't let up when you get through the early areas, as most enemies have absurdly high HP for the part of the game you meet them in. I think they intended this to use New Game + data--I think you can copy over a Chrono Trigger save and use the character data from that, though I haven't tested it. I just used cheat codes.
They changed a fair number of skills around. Some of them were obviously to accommodate the fact Magus is now required and Ayla is optional. Magus' spell list is now a single-target lightning spell, a steal command, and a defensive buff. Most buffs and healing spells now target your entire party. Glenn’s spell list is tweaked, as is Robo’s. I also think some characters stats were changed, as Glenn and Ayla seem more badass than I remember them, and Crono and Robo are weaker.
They added a bunch of new weapons and armor, with almost all of the best armor as the rewards for the late-game sidequests. They also added an auction house, shooting game and casino (in Choras in 1005 AD) and a battle arena (in 2305 AD).
The early puzzles are troublesome: The second dungeon area has a trivia test, with questions from the first game, that puts you in an unwinnable boss fight if you fail. The last room doesn't even give a question (because they're all fakes), it just makes you guess. (Savestates, anyone?) The later puzzles (including another riddle, and a drumming minigame) give you hints every time you fail, eventually just spelling out the answer for you. In a game without a FAQ available, this is absolutely critical and I'm glad they included it. They're pretty good about enemy item drops, too. (Especially ethers--apparently, they really want you to use a lot of techs.)
As a particularly noteworthy bit: Crono isn't a silent protagonist. He gets lines, just like the rest of the crew. Also Frog/Glenn doesn't speak in his ye olde english accent.
The back-and-forth to Chronopolis for most of the game gets a little annoying, but on the other hand, it means you always know where to go to figure out what to do next. The only really problematic part of the game is the very end, when the various pre-ending sidequests open up. Figuring out where they are is annoying at best. (Though admittedly, the world isn’t that large. You could brute-force search by just going everywhere.)
They re-use a lot of graphical resources in fairly creative ways. The survivor's huts in the dark ages are re-used from caveman huts from the prehistoric age. The Ocean Palace Ruins were pieced together from sprite tiles in a way that was obviously intended to make it look broken. (I'll admit, I have a hard time looking at it and not feeling like it's a big graphical glitch.) A return trip to Zeal is done at night, with all the colors shifted (which is cool, but makes it hard to see!) A boat was made with tiles from the Zenan Bridge. And several eras that didn’t exist in the original game, and lots of additional timelines, all had world map screens built for them.
The game does warn you in the first area that you should use the latest version of ZSNES to play it. SNES9X works, though it did freeze periodically. (Scene transitions and tech use in battle seemed to be troublesome points early on, but I stopped having problems after the first few hours.) Save via savestate and save points early and often. I needed to switch to ZSNES to get past Balthasar's "Frozen Flame" monologue cutscene, and there was a similar problem with the time-travel explanations that appear in the Truce mayor’s house in the endgame.
Beyond that, though, I actually ran into relatively few glitches, especially give the scope of the project. I've seen professional games that were much buggier (like several entries in my much-beloved Lufia series, or Black Sigil), and I suspect the experience would have been even smoother on ZSNES.
Overall: This was pretty awesome, and whatever drama was involved, I’m glad I got to play it. The developers deserve a round of applause. I’m vaguely considering writing a FAQ/walkthrough for it, since none seems to exist and I have extensive notes.
