Chrono Compendium
Enhasa Halls - Chrono Series Analysis => Chrono Trigger DS Analysis => Topic started by: ZeaLitY on November 23, 2008, 03:08:47 pm
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This can be a generalized review thread or something.
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The Lost Sanctum bothered me. I was really tantalized at first, because I thought that it might illuminate th Reptite Dimension referenced in Chrono Cross or shed light on Reptite and Dragonian subjects. Receiving a Dragon's Tear reward and finding two pedestals added to my expectations, and I laughed a lot at the Reptite reactions ("oh, you beautiful hairless apes!"). But the Lost Sanctum really turned out to be a letdown. You stop no less than two evil groups of baddies from wiping out the Reptites, and neither one has any backstory whatsoever. The two pedestals and Prismastones create nothing but a one-shot "Key Item" that lights a dark cavern. The Sanctum doesn't even have a tangible resolution; the green Gates simply sit there on the overworld after you complete the quests. All this is underscored by the total absence of background information. We don't know if it's a glimpse into another dimension; a secluded, real place accessible akin to the Gate to Nadia's Bell in the Dead Sea; or even a temporal aberration caused by the wild energies of the Dream Devourer. These would all be fascinating additions to Chrono canon, but we're left with a functional creation. It's hard to guess if Masato Kato supervised this part outside of the dialogue, as it feels like an artificial extension of playtime. The nadir has to be Emerald Mountain, requiring at least five round trips per era across two never-ending, convoluted screens of ladders and bridges.
The Dimensional Distortion dungeons were done well, and conveyed an eerie sense of broken, mangled space-time. Lucca's was probably the best for this. You're thrust into a sterile, harsh factory with bare walls and threatening sentries. One wrong move, and shrill alarms blast as a downright hateful AI orders termination and locks doors. It's a nightmarish mechanical hell, and the Iron Maidens are things to be feared for those who didn't obsessively level before beginning these quests. The others don't have such a pronounced effect as Lucca's, but they still seem like rips in the fabric of time full of hidden dangers. The shadow crimson forms of Crono, Marle, and Lucca are no pushovers, and they're raw, almost feral antagonism towards the party (expressed through instantaneous attacks) do well to seal the creepy, threatening atmosphere of the distortion areas. Dalton's a light touch, and he's not very difficult to defeat. His oath of revenge by using Porre to raise an army and wipe out Guardia is a little overt, but understandable since Masato Kato may have been trying to pack in all he could without stepping on ideas for a future game if it ever gets made. Even though I did Crono's second, after the third I was still imagining how different it'd feel to play Chrono Cross and wonder if Dalton's calling the shots on the mainland, handing Norris his orders and sending out the Porre military to find the Frozen Flame so he can revive his dream of immortality. The Rise of Porre article just got invalidated, too :(
Time's Eclipse was nothing short of profound. "Future Magus" as he's coming to be known displays the intensity and seriousness that makes Magus popular, and his absolute willful conviction makes his defeat disconcerting. How did you feel when you first saw the Dream Devourer? If you look closely, Lavos's eye twitches very quickly, evoking well a mind completely consumed by a suffering desire to destroy all creation. It's terrifying to see Schala as she appears in Chrono Trigger before her hair and robes are apparently bleached by the Time Devourer evolution process. The red glow and crimson highlights of the crazed Lavos below her instantly brought to mind the burning color of the Frozen flame, the Red Star of antiquity, and the deep, bleeding hue of Dreamstone. Dreams are a significant theme in the Chrono series; the Planet dreams of stopping Lavos; Melchior and an Acacia Dragoon create dream creatures; Radical Dreamers lurk in the night; and the Chrono Trigger idealizes unleashing one's beautiful dream upon the world. And here, we have the Dream Devourer, which even sounds more threatening than the Time Devourer.
What really got me about the secret ending is the resolution of Future Magus and the completion of Magus's long arc of vengeance and painful searching. It was unthinkable to imagine how Magus must have felt to be told by Schala that she's simply not the same person any longer, and that no power beneath the heavens would ever be capable of freeing her or stopping the Dream Devourer. To have the object of all his dreams and the memory that allowed him to survive years of darkness—the one he wished to avenge for so long—tell him outright to abandon his search out of pure futility...it's poignantly, agonizingly tragic. Magus was always a tragic figure, falling from the comfort of Zeal to live a harsh life—but in the end, he seemingly found his dream, or we could at least believe that after Chrono Cross, he'd be aware of Schala's freedom. But here, in a moment of emotional weakness and sorrow, Magus decides that life isn't worth living as it is, and withdraws into the night. There will be spirited discussions about the canon, but age issues aside, this is potentially how Guile (or a Magil-type character, though not Magil himself since RD has different circumstances) was born. I'll never be able to look at Guile the same way in Chrono Cross again. His Frozen Flame statement is a denial that he was ever such a dark figure, and seems to answer the question of what he's been searching for:
Guile:
Is this what I have
been searching for
all this time...
No...
Stop it!
I am no such thing.
What good is it...
to possess such
dark power...?
This makes a strong argument that Guile is truly what happens to a version of Magus after Chrono Trigger, the issue of his age, extradimensional origin, and the general conundrum of when the Dream Devourer encounter takes place aside. (Alternatively, what he's been searching for in that context could be the Frozen Flame, and not Schala.) It's just so incredibly sad to see Magus erase his memories and allow himself to fall after a moment of weakness, forgetting his dark arts and lineage and vowing to search for "new enigma" while toasting Serge after Chrono Cross. Is this the end of Janus Zeal? I grew closer to Magus while working on Prophet's Guile, and it's so completely tragic to me that I couldn't stop from admittedly crying about it twice after. He was a beautiful character with admirable will, and to see him cordially rebuked by Schala and resigned to commit mental suicide is hard to bear. Whether Guile is our Magus or Future Magus remains to be seen, but it still counts that some version of the character met his sorrow-filled conclusion. I hope he can rest. And I hope we get a new Chrono game.
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Very well put. There's nothing in there I disagree with; I felt exactly the same about all of this.
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I absolutely adore this new image of Schala as a nihilistic dark goddess, it's such a fresh take on her character. Heartrending at the same time of course -- Crono & co. probably caught just a glimpse of the totality of the suffering she endured during her life in Zeal. What horrors swim in the deep ocean of her heart? /Titanic reference, sorry.
And who is in control when we're talking about the Dream Devourer? Schala or Lavos? I think the most horrific part of the new ending occurs when Magus asks Schala to open her eyes. Only Lavos' giant arthropodic eye responds to his request, and it proceeds to blow him away. I mean, Lavos responded to the name Schala. Creepy.
I still stand by an interpretation of the ending according to which Magus is acquiescing to Schala's will in using the words "abandon all that was," and that she has already begun the process of destroying his memories at that point. However, it is far less tenable than the existencial suicide interpretation -- Schala says goodbye, but makes no statement related to memory wiping to Future Magus as she does the rest of the CT crew ("Dwell not on this"). I just don't see Magus reacting by committing existential suicide; he could have gotten the Gurus together to figure out a solution. But Future Magus is, indeed, a different man from Present Magus; who knows what character development he's been through since the end of Chrono Trigger?
OH! Upon reviewing the Youtube video, I may have caught the significance of Schala's command to Magus that he should "Live!" It's very reminiscent of Sophia's command to Lacan in Xenogears Episode IV, and might I add that Kato was on that project in some scenario design capacity? In any case, Magus destroying his memories may be a way for him to commit suicide while technically fulfilling Schala's command. His body lives, but his mind does not -- the very inverse of what Lacan accomplished between Xenogears Episode IV and Xenogears Episode V.
In any case, I find this extremely encouraging:
Should a part of me even then remain,
then perhaps that will be the birth of something
new -- something with greater meaning than all this.
Can you say, "Foreshadowing Chrono Break?" :lee:
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Nope, he gets a shiny outfit, gets drunk, and searches for enigma instead of any actual meaning. Fffffff.
Well, I'll admit I don't know the whole story, just the couple of Youtube vids I saw. I'm amazed they put so much in, but I don't like what they added. People say that the events of Chrono Cross don't "ruin" Trigger or change how you see the game, but they deliberately shoe-horned in a new canon that doesn't even really FEEL like Trigger. It's bad enough having Dragon Ball continue on to be Evangelion, but then to create director's cuts that dramatically change the end of the first one? How can you truly enjoy a picture of a family picnic if you know it was taken right before a car crash?
I feel a lot like I did when the last Harry Potter book came out, I guess. Even though it's decent-good, and an "end", I feel like it's a big departure in theme that feels more like a fanfic. Hell, I liked "Magus freezes to death after finding Schala's body" better than this.
...In any case, it's making me want to write fanfic like it's 1996, and if I had $40 on me I'd still buy it.
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I absolutely adore this new image of Schala as a nihilistic dark goddess, it's such a fresh take on her character. Heartrending at the same time of course -- Crono & co. probably caught just a glimpse of the totality of the suffering she endured during her life in Zeal. What horrors swim in the deep ocean of her heart? /Titanic reference, sorry.
I agree. I think there's really a hint of Harle in this new image of Schala. It's amazing how such a short scene and dialogue blend CT and CC together.
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And who is in control when we're talking about the Dream Devourer? Schala or Lavos? I think the most horrific part of the new ending occurs when Magus asks Schala to open her eyes. Only Lavos' giant arthropodic eye responds to his request, and it proceeds to blow him away. I mean, Lavos responded to the name Schala. Creepy.
You see, I had always assumed Schala and Lavos remained separated to a certain extent, their two consciousness's separate but connected. However, now I'm inclined to believe that they become one. I'm sure the process takes some time, but by the time we meet the Time Devourer in Chrono Cross, there is no Schala, there is no Lavos, there is only one: the Time Devourer.
As Borat would say, "I like!"
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And who is in control when we're talking about the Dream Devourer? Schala or Lavos? I think the most horrific part of the new ending occurs when Magus asks Schala to open her eyes. Only Lavos' giant arthropodic eye responds to his request, and it proceeds to blow him away. I mean, Lavos responded to the name Schala. Creepy.
You see, I had always assumed Schala and Lavos remained separated to a certain extent, their two consciousness's separate but connected. However, now I'm inclined to believe that they become one. I'm sure the process takes some time, but by the time we meet the Time Devourer in Chrono Cross, there is no Schala, there is no Lavos, there is only one: the Time Devourer.
As Borat would say, "I like!"
I think Belthasar states in Cross somewhere that half of Schala wants to send all space-time into oblivion, and the other half wants to be saved and wants the world to be saved
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Harle = Chaos (but evil?)
Kid = Saves stuff.
There's your two halves.
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While I was one of the first persons to call Time's Eclipse Magus "Future Magus", I'm reclutant to do it now. He could be a future Magus, but not the future Magus from your party, due to gameplay mechanics: if you kill Magus, he stills appear at the ending, and Chrono Trigger is always very consistent showing in endings what you did in the game (Frog being human, Lara walking or not, etc), I elaborated on this on its own topic.
It did seem that Schala hid much sorrow inside, probably wanted to just erase everything from existance at some point in her life. But she would never show these feelings by herlself, I think that Lavos' influence for revenge and cosmic-devouring instinct also drove her to let such feelings out, succesfully showing a duality and a sharing of minds in the Dream Devourer.
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When I saw Schala in the Dream Devourer, I was in total awe. I was so happy to see that Schala COULD be saved by Magus and continue to live without being ripped apart bit by bit from this horrible creature. But alas, all in an instant, "she" states that nothing can save her. I was crushed by the factor that Magus was searching for so long to find his big sister, and she just tells him to abandon hope...
I do believe that it was partially Schala and "Lavos". As someone said, 2 halves.
"Let all that once was fade into oblivion! I welcome the end of existence." - This is her "other" side. She wants everything to disappear. She doesn't want to suffer, she doesn't want to SEE suffering or let anyone else either...You could say that Lavos is magnifying her feelings of wanting to erase everything.
Her other half when she awakens is just cruel. It was nice to see her wake up...until she told everyone to forget about her. I almost had to cry when after Magus was thrown out of there, she moved forward and put her head down in sadness. It's like she truly wanted to be saved but knew they couldn't do it.
I think they did a good job on these few little scenes, but the end where Magus just randomly appears in a forest and sealed his memories seemed like a quick teaser to throw there.
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This can be a generalized review thread or something.
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The Lost Sanctum bothered me. I was really tantalized at first, because I thought that it might illuminate th Reptite Dimension referenced in Chrono Cross or shed light on Reptite and Dragonian subjects. Receiving a Dragon's Tear reward and finding two pedestals added to my expectations, and I laughed a lot at the Reptite reactions ("oh, you beautiful hairless apes!"). But the Lost Sanctum really turned out to be a letdown. You stop no less than two evil groups of baddies from wiping out the Reptites, and neither one has any backstory whatsoever. The two pedestals and Prismastones create nothing but a one-shot "Key Item" that lights a dark cavern. The Sanctum doesn't even have a tangible resolution; the green Gates simply sit there on the overworld after you complete the quests. All this is underscored by the total absence of background information. We don't know if it's a glimpse into another dimension; a secluded, real place accessible akin to the Gate to Nadia's Bell in the Dead Sea; or even a temporal aberration caused by the wild energies of the Dream Devourer. These would all be fascinating additions to Chrono canon, but we're left with a functional creation. It's hard to guess if Masato Kato supervised this part outside of the dialogue, as it feels like an artificial extension of playtime. The nadir has to be Emerald Mountain, requiring at least five round trips per era across two never-ending, convoluted screens of ladders and bridges.
The Dimensional Distortion dungeons were done well, and conveyed an eerie sense of broken, mangled space-time. Lucca's was probably the best for this. You're thrust into a sterile, harsh factory with bare walls and threatening sentries. One wrong move, and shrill alarms blast as a downright hateful AI orders termination and locks doors. It's a nightmarish mechanical hell, and the Iron Maidens are things to be feared for those who didn't obsessively level before beginning these quests. The others don't have such a pronounced effect as Lucca's, but they still seem like rips in the fabric of time full of hidden dangers. The shadow crimson forms of Crono, Marle, and Lucca are no pushovers, and they're raw, almost feral antagonism towards the party (expressed through instantaneous attacks) do well to seal the creepy, threatening atmosphere of the distortion areas. Dalton's a light touch, and he's not very difficult to defeat. His oath of revenge by using Porre to raise an army and wipe out Guardia is a little overt, but understandable since Masato Kato may have been trying to pack in all he could without stepping on ideas for a future game if it ever gets made. Even though I did Crono's second, after the third I was still imagining how different it'd feel to play Chrono Cross and wonder if Dalton's calling the shots on the mainland, handing Norris his orders and sending out the Porre military to find the Frozen Flame so he can revive his dream of immortality. The Rise of Porre article just got invalidated, too :(
Time's Eclipse was nothing short of profound. "Future Magus" as he's coming to be known displays the intensity and seriousness that makes Magus popular, and his absolute willful conviction makes his defeat disconcerting. How did you feel when you first saw the Dream Devourer? If you look closely, Lavos's eye twitches very quickly, evoking well a mind completely consumed by a suffering desire to destroy all creation. It's terrifying to see Schala as she appears in Chrono Trigger before her hair and robes are apparently bleached by the Time Devourer evolution process. The red glow and crimson highlights of the crazed Lavos below her instantly brought to mind the burning color of the Frozen flame, the Red Star of antiquity, and the deep, bleeding hue of Dreamstone. Dreams are a significant theme in the Chrono series; the Planet dreams of stopping Lavos; Melchior and an Acacia Dragoon create dream creatures; Radical Dreamers lurk in the night; and the Chrono Trigger idealizes unleashing one's beautiful dream upon the world. And here, we have the Dream Devourer, which even sounds more threatening than the Time Devourer.
What really got me about the secret ending is the resolution of Future Magus and the completion of Magus's long arc of vengeance and painful searching. It was unthinkable to imagine how Magus must have felt to be told by Schala that she's simply not the same person any longer, and that no power beneath the heavens would ever be capable of freeing her or stopping the Dream Devourer. To have the object of all his dreams and the memory that allowed him to survive years of darkness—the one he wished to avenge for so long—tell him outright to abandon his search out of pure futility...it's poignantly, agonizingly tragic. Magus was always a tragic figure, falling from the comfort of Zeal to live a harsh life—but in the end, he seemingly found his dream, or we could at least believe that after Chrono Cross, he'd be aware of Schala's freedom. But here, in a moment of emotional weakness and sorrow, Magus decides that life isn't worth living as it is, and withdraws into the night. There will be spirited discussions about the canon, but age issues aside, this is potentially how Guile (or a Magil-type character, though not Magil himself since RD has different circumstances) was born. I'll never be able to look at Guile the same way in Chrono Cross again. His Frozen Flame statement is a denial that he was ever such a dark figure, and seems to answer the question of what he's been searching for:
Guile:
Is this what I have
been searching for
all this time...
No...
Stop it!
I am no such thing.
What good is it...
to possess such
dark power...?
This makes a strong argument that Guile is truly what happens to a version of Magus after Chrono Trigger, the issue of his age, extradimensional origin, and the general conundrum of when the Dream Devourer encounter takes place aside. (Alternatively, what he's been searching for in that context could be the Frozen Flame, and not Schala.) It's just so incredibly sad to see Magus erase his memories and allow himself to fall after a moment of weakness, forgetting his dark arts and lineage and vowing to search for "new enigma" while toasting Serge after Chrono Cross. Is this the end of Janus Zeal? I grew closer to Magus while working on Prophet's Guile, and it's so completely tragic to me that I couldn't stop from admittedly crying about it twice after. He was a beautiful character with admirable will, and to see him cordially rebuked by Schala and resigned to commit mental suicide is hard to bear. Whether Guile is our Magus or Future Magus remains to be seen, but it still counts that some version of the character met his sorrow-filled conclusion. I hope he can rest. And I hope we get a new Chrono game.
Very well put. There's nothing in there I disagree with; I felt exactly the same about all of this.
Seconded. There's a lot of stuff in there that I very much support.
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Am I the only one who finds the touch controls a little irritating? Trying to move yourself directly in line with say, a chest, is too sensitive (on auto run anyway) and I end up having to use the d-pad. Also, having to touch the centre of the screen to interact with things is too precise.
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That's why I intend to use Classic Mode.
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Meh DS Mode still allows you to use buttons, but it's just as easy to navigate as classic mode. I use DS mode, but I never use the stylus
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Good Day to the chrono compendium staff, props to Zeality and his crew for maintaining this site for a long time,
been lurking since 2003, and i have read all the articles and theories, nicely written IMO
on the subject, played the game from start to finish (avoided the compendium for 4 days as to avoid spoilers),
at first i was excited because in my mind, i want to see the extra content which was reported to have shocking revelations and such and i saw this link:
http://www.joystiq.com/2008/11/10/chrono-trigger-ds-to-have-a-new-ending/
when i saw the screen with Frog, Crono and Marle the first thought in my mind is, Crono and Marle survived the Fall of Guardia!
First of all to review, The Lost Sanctum, just like Zeality i was disappointed that it had no impact to the main story, it had no shocking revelations within, (i thought they were the Dragonians from CC and the name Dragonian Sanctuary from early reports is very misleading) but i think Kato is just readying us for something that has to do with this (a plot in the sequel maybe? no one knows...) and the dungeon was just made to eat a lot of your game time (go to the top, go to the forest etc, and that damn banana > looking at you Black Nu)
on to the Dimensional Vortex, the first one i went to is the 1000 AD vortex, a lot of filler stages in the beginning (another attempt to lengthen the game arggh) then we see the unused Lava stage template from the CT beta (and the singing mountain theme in 12000 BC), then i eventually saw Dalton which i was not surprised because i saw the article - Dalton Spotted in Dimensional Distortion- (i got spoiled a little) now i'm just waiting for him to tell the Porre connection, and voila he said it, an 8 year chrono compendium theory has been proven, but another thing came to my mind, how the hell did Dalton knew of Porre? has he already search 1000 AD and came to contact with them? (maybe because the vortex was in 1000 AD afterall) and because of his statement he has confirmed that Porre did have an army, and the Rise of Porre article does somehow fit, ok fast forward, the 3 boss battle with the Crono, Lucca and Marle Shade, what came to mind was the 3 Chrono Cross Ghost Children (Fighting Crono in Leene/Nadia's bell!).
After finishing it there was no clues to what i'm going to do then i went to the End of Time to oldman Gaspar and he said Hey! as I arrived, you know what's next, the Time Eclipse, as i went in i saw the joystiq screenshot link, the Crono and Marle survived the fall of guardia scenario got shattered for me but another surprise is why is Magus in there? onto the portal we see the Time Devourer! but when i fought it, it was named Dream Devourer (big ?) after the battle then comes the Chrono Cross tie up scenario, Schala informs us that we cannot defeat her in our current state (we got no Chrono Cross buddy) then we see what happens to Magus (after speculating for 8 years what happened with him) he ends up with amnesia in an unknown place, what came to my mind after this?surely they have to make a sequel because Kato still didn't show the Fate of Crono and the Gang (and BTW after reading the speculations here today a Chrono Cross Port with extra content & retconning GUILE could answer the questions but who knows), they could even use the CT 16 bit graphics ala Mega Man 9 using 8 bit.
after playing i was still satisfied, it seems Chrono Trigger has not aged for 13 years and i'm sure today's generation will appreciate this game, well thanks for reading i'll post my thoughts on the plot in the other thread.
thanks again to the Chrono Compendium Staff for maintaining this site for a long long time, and i think it's time to update the Magus and Rise of Porre articles Mr. Zeality :)
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Yeah...I'll start the next Analysis Review for everything pre-CT DS. Then in a month or so, we'll do an analysis review of CT DS. Er, wait...at any rate, the Rise of Porre article is being retired.
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Meh DS Mode still allows you to use buttons, but it's just as easy to navigate as classic mode. I use DS mode, but I never use the stylus
Hmm... I might do that instead. Thanks for the tip.
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I managed to beat the game in New Game+ and got the Dream Team ending. Many of the staff members were ever so happy to share that there in fact will be a new game. A few of them directly stated that they will see you in another game. If you haven't gotten this ending, I suggest you do so now. The only thing they didn't do was throw the title of the game in it.
Also...
Forgive me for laughing at the dialogue, but I couldn't help but laugh at this...
Cyrus: "You are a better SWORD than I."
That was said on Zenan bridge when Cyrus wanted Glenn to be a knight.
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My (first) run of Chrono Trigger DS was my best CT game ever.
The release is great, but I agree with everyone. The Lost Sanctum SUCKS !! I will never do that dungeon again. The many roundtrips in Mount Emerald is just painful.
I have found the Dimensional Vortex interessing, I liked the concept of old dungeons linked in complete randomness. The new ending was good, but I would have like more revelation to link it more to Chrono Cross.
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I'm not sure if any of you got this dialogue but Magus said something quite interesting when I first entered the Lost Sanctum.
Magus: I’ve not seen this place before
Is this a world apart from our own?
Perhaps a different dimension altogether…
There may be some value in the knowing.
I'm not sure if that means the Lost Sanctum is where the Dragonians originated from but it may be a possibility. Though it was never made apparent that there was any relevant connections to the Chrono Cross Dragonians.
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Thanks for pointing that out Nexus. Is it possible the Lost Sanctum is a peak at the Reptite timeline?
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Thanks for pointing that out Nexus. Is it possible the Lost Sanctum is a peak at the Reptite timeline?
No, if that would be true there's no way they would act so nice to humans.
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Although I've never played Cross I could try and explain that. Crono disappears after the fall of Guardia, right? That leaves the Reptites in the Lost Sanctum helpless. The most recent portal to the Lost Sanctum is in 600 A.D. That leaves the reptites 400+ years without help, ultimately causing their distrust for humans.
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Thanks for pointing that out Nexus. Is it possible the Lost Sanctum is a peak at the Reptite timeline?
Probably not since the Reptites in the Lost Sanctum haven't seemed to have changed at all. It could be before they started developing their type of close to nature civilization. They seem to be at a more tribal stage in the Lost Sanctum.
Also I noticed the Reptites in the Lost Sanctum seem to have never encountered humans. So it could be dimension where the humans either never developed enough to gain intelligence or were defeated and forgotten. Also there is a possibility that this group of Reptites just never met the humans in their dimension. Such as one developing on one continent and the other on another.
This may have been a precursor to the development of the Reptite timeline.
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Not reading the thread, as I'm not yet halfway through the game (just beat Slash and Flea the other night, and haven't played since because I'm splitting my free time with Zelda: Twilight Princess and other, non-gaming stuff), but I just wanted to say: Damn, I forgot how good this game is. I can't wait to get all the way through and try out the new stuff. You can bet I'll be back here whenever I do get to that point. I've got a plane ride and a trip home for a few days coming up in two weeks, and I may stretch out my completion to give myself some time with the game on that trip.
But really, I've fallen in love with the game all over again. So good.
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I enjoyed CTDS a lot. I had mixed feelings about the Lost Sanctum. It was fun, and kept me busy for awhile, but I will admit, it did get a tad bit tiring running up and down Mount Emerald, over and over again. The Dimensional Vortexes were cool, too.
The main disappointment for me was the inability to kill off Dalton once and for all. :(
I was also a bit disappointed that it was impossible to defeat the Dream Devourer (understandable, though).
On the whole, though, I thought the good far outweighed the bad. I loved the new script, but I also missed Woolsey's original one. I, too, hope for another Chrono game.
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Don't worry mate, you haven't seen the last of Dalton. I can assure you that.
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Wee! I loved the game! It was refreshing, at first there was a bit of nostalgia since I wasn't too fond of losing lines like "Save money, it'll do ya good" but after a while I noticed that things were explained much better in this translation so I liked it better. I hate Mount Emerald with a passion, everything else of the Lost Sanctum wasn't so bad. I liked that thanks to the Lost Sanctum Magus got a few more lines.
Magus: You'd dare call me an ape? You'd better learn your place, and quickly. *takes out scythe*
Um... The vortex dungeons were... Strange. But then again, at least Magus got a few more lines.
Magus: It is of no consequence to me whether you are Crono or a fake. Raise your weapon against me and you sign away your life. *blasts the Crono copy to eternal nothingness using Dark Matter*
And the story shown in Time's Eclipse... I believe it happens after the defeat of Lavos but before Crono goes to see the king, and I'll keep believing that until someone can prove that it is impossible for it to be so.
All in all it was a great game, I've got no complains whatsoever, except that Mount Emerald is the most annoying part of the game, ever.
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Just finished CTDS earlier this afternoon; it was all I expected and more.
The new translation was great. It made the game feel more mature and polished, while still maintaining the lightheartedness of the original translation. My only complaint is the "fiend" thing. I don't get why they can't say "demon."
Maybe my memory is foggy on the PSX version, but the DS cutscenes seemed to be implemented more smoothly. I recall the PSX scenes being used awkwardly, like they were more of distraction. The DS version seemed more fluid, and of course, the elimination of the graphical lag were a Godsend.
For the most part, the touch screen features were a welcome addition. Being able to point to the actions you want to execute instead of scrolling through was accurate and quick. Moving with the touch screen however... was iffy. It wasn't awful, but it could be spastic at times, and with the d-pad being so much tighter and easier, there's little reason to use the touch-screen movement unless you really just want to try something different.
The Lost Sanctum was mildly annoying. Many of the quests were either recycled from other sidequests in the game or are annoying fetch quests. The rewards were worth it, though, and the ultimate outcome of all the work was pleasing. Still, the very existence of the Lost Sanctum seemed out of place. Though since it's a sort of spacial distortion, I guess it's kind of supposed to be that way.
The Dimensional Vortex was much more interesting and more relevent. Storywise, it raised some questions, but it also answered some. Gameplaywise, it made for some very interesting dungeoncrawling, borrowing elements from earlier areas while introducing some new ones,
The optional boss was a nice extra challenge and also raised and answered some story questions. After a month of waiting for CTDS and avoiding message threads with the title "Optional Boss Fight!*SPOILERS*," even though I suspected all along who it was(and was correct), finally seeing the optional boss was quite a rush. The fight itself was... I think "short and sweet" describes it accurately. As opposed to the endurance-like battle with Lavos, the optional boss is much faster paced and more threatening. Then it's over as suddenly as it begins.
I'd like to comment on the Arena of Ages, but I've yet to do much with it. I've fought a few battles, and it's mildly entertaining. Ultimately, it doesn't seem worth it. I can see it being fun playing against human players, but CPU opponents leave something to be desired.
All in all, great additions to an already great game.
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To me the Lost Sanctum was okay. Got everyone from levels 40 to 50 on average from all the fighting done.
Mount Emerald, although having to climb up and down many times, didn't really bothered me. Maybe because I unconsiously redirected it to the Dire Rats I HATED to fight every time went to the mountain and back. But why would I? Is not as if the constant battles with those rats were what make me focus more on them than on the mountian itself when it came to placing the blame of who make the whole trip tiresome.
I was surprised when I reached the top of the tower, though. Never believed those idols would turn out to be your party members used in the fight against the Archeodemons (or whatever they are called).
I have yet to visit the Vortexes, I'm currently doing the sidequests before going through the Black Omen so it will take a while.
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Although Magus's fate was rather tragic, I feel that to some extent we should be happy for him. He was given a life without his tragic past or his never ending lust for the resolution of what happened to his sister. Though what he did with this chance was a shame. Not only did he hide his identity from the world, but he also hid it from himself, leaving him a shell of the man he once was. I thought the new ending was excellent in that it let so much open to build on by speculation.
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GIHARGH!! finished the game in about 4 days last week and it was great playing it again. I didn't enjoy the Lost Sanctum as much just like everybody else. It wouldn't have been that bad if they didn't make those goddamn yellow frogs and black rats unavoidable, and the same goes for the birds that even required magic to be killed. Throughout the whole Lost Sanctum I was wishing I was Indian or something so that I could eat rats and frogs without barfing, but whatever.
Anyways, the possibility that the Lost Sanctum is the Reptite Dimension doesn't seem too farfetched to me. Sure, they were nice to humans which was weird, but keep in mind that these humans had just killed off the monsters they had so much trouble dealing with, messing with them would be begging to be slaughtered. Plus, its not like they were that nice. Their first reaction was "what?! this apes killed off the monsters?! that's impossible!" and whenever the party would tell them they saved them because they were friends, the reptites would reply with "you consider us friends?" But who knows.
I also loved Dalton going from circus clown to complete super stardom. Crono, Marle and Lucca sure are going to learn not to underestimate him anymore...if they even survived that is, huhoho!
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I finished the game a week ago. It was cool to play ct again. I feel like the events in the new parts of the ds game are made to link some things to cc. First of all, i do believe that the sanctum is a beginning of the Dragonian Dimension, and maybe its just the start of it, there's no development or anything. The thing with the altar and the prismastones are to resemble the chrono cross, maybe some sort of ritual that would be used in the coming days of the reptites, that would lead to the chrono cross in the end. I just want to believe it but i also think that the tower (the one after the bridge that the Nu guardian builds) is also to resemble Terra tower, or some inspiration to the reptites to start to build in that kind of way since it had a place to workship their saviors, it has some importance after all. I think the development team wanted to tie up ct and cc more with these events, with some events that, with the effort and time, and the relation to nature, would become in some of the aspects shown in cc.
About Magus, I would like to see more and not just jump into conclusions yet, since it is pretty vague that maybe he may not be from the same dimension as the party, or how much time has gone since he (and his party, as he says we in the event) owned Lavos, and the possible future for him after we see him in that forest in the end. I hope a new game (as we have always prayed) come to shed some light to this.
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While I was one of the first persons to call Time's Eclipse Magus "Future Magus", I'm reclutant to do it now. He could be a future Magus, but not the future Magus from your party, due to gameplay mechanics: if you kill Magus, he stills appear at the ending, and Chrono Trigger is always very consistent showing in endings what you did in the game (Frog being human, Lara walking or not, etc), I elaborated on this on its own topic.
My theory is that he is and he isn't. Because the canon ending of Chrono Trigger is ending #1 in which Crono and Magus are both alive and Lavos is destroyed, that the Magus we see at Time's Eclipse is the one that left the party to search for Schala. Whether or not he is "Future Magus" depends on the player's choices during the game.
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I also agree with you, Zeality, I was a little puzzled on what the Lost Sanctum was, was it the envisioned world that Azala wanted? Or was it just a simple distortion of time that was created?