Show Posts
This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.
Pages: [1]
1
Chrono Trigger DS Analysis / My Thoughts on CTDS
« on: January 26, 2009, 01:48:17 pm »
Okay. So I thought I'd pop in here and offer up some of my impressions, now that I've more or less absorbed all of CTDS' new features and such. Bear with me, as I haven't had time to read through all five pages of posts in this thread before posting my thoughts... so some of what I say may have already been said before.
As a longtime Chrono fan, I picked up this game despite my general aversion to the Squeenix tendency to remake classics rather than produce actual new games of quality. (but that's a rant that doesn't belong here!)
On the whole, I like CTDS. Its new features (the Dimensional Vortex and the Lost Sanctum) are worthy additions to the Chrono universe, and the retention of the various meta features from the PS release make this very near to a perfect version of Chrono Trigger.
However, I can't stand the retranslation. It's the only thing that keeps me from giving this version an unqualified 10-score.
Now, don't get me wrong. I'm big on the English language. A lot of Japanese RPGs from the 16-bit era clearly don't share that affinity with me. Awkward phraseology, the occasional grammatical hiccup and a number of other problems plague these games. I'm well aware that some of these traits are comical at best, embarrassing at worst.
But before I'm a language snob, I'm first and foremost very sentimental. I fell in love with the game with and despite its shoddy translation; the dialogue as it was became part of its charm, and something that was overlooked easy enough because of how amazing (and, after almost 15 years, enduring) Chrono Trigger's gameplay, graphics, score and story are.
That said, I could abide (and even understand the desire to) "clean up" some of the dialogue. I'll concede that Frog sounds a little less ridiculous with his misuse of modern Elizabethan English (the next person who says that Frog speaks "Old English" or "Shakespeare," or who claims that Frog's speech is an example of an "accent" [do you people even know what an "accent" is?] is going to get a book thrown at them), especially given that he seems to be the ONLY person in the Middle Ages who speaks this way. In fact, after a full playthrough, I find that I actually do like the new dialogue changes because they do seem to help the game to "mature" along with me 15 years later. I don't like it, but I can live with it.
The new content redeems CTDS, in the eyes of an old sentimental gamer like myself. Both the Dimensional Vortex and the Lost Sanctum are excellent in terms of new content; they provide a small amount of extra story (without overburdening the game's original plot), an extra "something to do" at key points in the game's progression (semi-spoiler: running Lost Sanctum immediately after it becomes available is a GREAT way to build up your last few techs, get some neat loot upgrades and bridge the level-gap between Crono and the rest of your party [while the spikey-haired one is off being temporarily dead]) -- and did I mention the new loot already? (Marle's new Venus Bow is probably one of the single best improvements to the entire game)
My ultimate rating for CTDS is 8.5. For whatever that's worth.
As a longtime Chrono fan, I picked up this game despite my general aversion to the Squeenix tendency to remake classics rather than produce actual new games of quality. (but that's a rant that doesn't belong here!)
On the whole, I like CTDS. Its new features (the Dimensional Vortex and the Lost Sanctum) are worthy additions to the Chrono universe, and the retention of the various meta features from the PS release make this very near to a perfect version of Chrono Trigger.
However, I can't stand the retranslation. It's the only thing that keeps me from giving this version an unqualified 10-score.
Now, don't get me wrong. I'm big on the English language. A lot of Japanese RPGs from the 16-bit era clearly don't share that affinity with me. Awkward phraseology, the occasional grammatical hiccup and a number of other problems plague these games. I'm well aware that some of these traits are comical at best, embarrassing at worst.
But before I'm a language snob, I'm first and foremost very sentimental. I fell in love with the game with and despite its shoddy translation; the dialogue as it was became part of its charm, and something that was overlooked easy enough because of how amazing (and, after almost 15 years, enduring) Chrono Trigger's gameplay, graphics, score and story are.
That said, I could abide (and even understand the desire to) "clean up" some of the dialogue. I'll concede that Frog sounds a little less ridiculous with his misuse of modern Elizabethan English (the next person who says that Frog speaks "Old English" or "Shakespeare," or who claims that Frog's speech is an example of an "accent" [do you people even know what an "accent" is?] is going to get a book thrown at them), especially given that he seems to be the ONLY person in the Middle Ages who speaks this way. In fact, after a full playthrough, I find that I actually do like the new dialogue changes because they do seem to help the game to "mature" along with me 15 years later. I don't like it, but I can live with it.
The new content redeems CTDS, in the eyes of an old sentimental gamer like myself. Both the Dimensional Vortex and the Lost Sanctum are excellent in terms of new content; they provide a small amount of extra story (without overburdening the game's original plot), an extra "something to do" at key points in the game's progression (semi-spoiler: running Lost Sanctum immediately after it becomes available is a GREAT way to build up your last few techs, get some neat loot upgrades and bridge the level-gap between Crono and the rest of your party [while the spikey-haired one is off being temporarily dead]) -- and did I mention the new loot already? (Marle's new Venus Bow is probably one of the single best improvements to the entire game)
My ultimate rating for CTDS is 8.5. For whatever that's worth.
2
Chrono Compendium Discussion / Correction on Criosphinx
« on: June 04, 2006, 08:11:10 pm »
The entry on Criosphinx has not what I'd call an "error" in it... but it does go a little far afield of the origin of the name. Of course, it's a Sphinx because of the riddling, and the story with oedipus is spot-on. But the bit about crio meaning "I create" is not relevent.
The Criosphinx in Egyptian mythology is simply a ram-headed sphinx (the classic Sphinx, such as the one at Giza, are human-headed). Criosphinxes are associated with the Egyptian god Amun, and are most famously depicted in a row of sphinx statues guarding the route between Luxor Temple and Karnak.
The Crio- in Criosphinx comes from Greek -- Krios means Ram.
The Criosphinx in Egyptian mythology is simply a ram-headed sphinx (the classic Sphinx, such as the one at Giza, are human-headed). Criosphinxes are associated with the Egyptian god Amun, and are most famously depicted in a row of sphinx statues guarding the route between Luxor Temple and Karnak.
The Crio- in Criosphinx comes from Greek -- Krios means Ram.
3
Characters, Plot, and Themes / Ayla/Leah and Draggy
« on: June 04, 2006, 04:43:27 pm »
Hey hey! My first post!
Longtime Chrono fan, first time Chrono Compendium-poster.
I had two things I wanted to discuss/bring up. First is the Ayla/Leah conundrum (bear with me, I've read about ZERO forum posts since coming here... I've spent most of my time in the Encyclopedia, which is where I got the itch to post a discussion)... I don't think that either Ayla's prolonged disappearance from Prehistoria, nor the fact that Leah is her mother are necessarily paradoxes. The act of people leaving their native time periods, in and of itself, is not enough to change history so much as the condition of their ability to return being precluded.
First, remember that Marle travels to 2300 AD to meet Doan. Under the posted assumption that removing someone from their time of origin erases all their ancestors from history, Doan should not exist. But he does, I propose, because it is still possible at that point for Marle to return home and get busy with Crono. Thus the timeline is intact. Ayla leaves Prehistoria, but she is still able to return home, thus the timeline is intact.
The sunstone and the Porre mayor? Well, the sunstone is removed because the Porre mayor removed it and (at the time) had no intention of putting it back where he got it from.
The biggest piece of evidence supporting this suspension of possibility theory is Marle's journey back to 600 AD at the very beginning of CT -- now THIS is where you see someone being erased because of a condition which precludes an ancestor from continuing their line in the timestream. Marle's arrival causes Guardia to call off its search for Leene, who is never returned to the King, so Marle is erased until that condition changes.
Leah, for the same reason, can still be Ayla's mother (and in fact, this is one of the twists I like most in CC) because there remains a possibility that she can return home to Prehistoria. Futher, might I suggest a reason for her being there in the first place?... Others have proposed that her arrival in 1020 AD is an accident... but if we've learned anything from the Chrono series, it's that time travel is almost never accidental. The Entity, Lavos, FATE and the Dragon Gods dick around with the boundaries of dimensions all the time when it suits them... so it might be reasonable to suggest (if not conclude, for want of more solid evidence) that Leah was drawn to 1020 AD for the specific purpose of destroying the Guardia line. If Serge and company arrived shortly after Leah was dumped on Gaea's Navel, it's possible that Serge disrupted the planned assassination of Leah by rescuing her -- again, as often happens (manipulating people to time travel is easy -- everything after that is hard). Lavos/Time Devourer is the most likely candidate here... sending Leah someplace where she would be killed by the local wildlife would destroy Marle's lineage and disrupt the events that lead to Lavos' initial defeat. It also seems to fit the Time Devourer's M.O., as a similar thing happened when Schala sent Kid back to save Serge -- which leads one to ask, was Kid meant to save Serge, so that Serge would also save Leah (in addition to all the other stuff he was supposed to do -- poor kid! so many expectations...) and thereby preserve the timeline where Lavos was defeated at the end of CT, and could potentially be permanently defeated at the end of CC?
I'm also thinking about Draggy. When I played through CC (the first/second time), I was lead to believe that Draggy was the last of the Dragonian race. It's all left kind of vague, and seems kind of unlikely given the scale of Fort Dragonia vs. the size of Draggy's mother's bones... but if Draggy's not a Dragonian, what is he? And what then is the relationship between Dragonians and Dragons -- or for that matter, Reptites and Dinosaurs? Do Dinosaurs evolve into Dragons, paralleling a Reptite evolution into Dragonians? Any insights here, in-game or out-of-game?
Longtime Chrono fan, first time Chrono Compendium-poster.
I had two things I wanted to discuss/bring up. First is the Ayla/Leah conundrum (bear with me, I've read about ZERO forum posts since coming here... I've spent most of my time in the Encyclopedia, which is where I got the itch to post a discussion)... I don't think that either Ayla's prolonged disappearance from Prehistoria, nor the fact that Leah is her mother are necessarily paradoxes. The act of people leaving their native time periods, in and of itself, is not enough to change history so much as the condition of their ability to return being precluded.
First, remember that Marle travels to 2300 AD to meet Doan. Under the posted assumption that removing someone from their time of origin erases all their ancestors from history, Doan should not exist. But he does, I propose, because it is still possible at that point for Marle to return home and get busy with Crono. Thus the timeline is intact. Ayla leaves Prehistoria, but she is still able to return home, thus the timeline is intact.
The sunstone and the Porre mayor? Well, the sunstone is removed because the Porre mayor removed it and (at the time) had no intention of putting it back where he got it from.
The biggest piece of evidence supporting this suspension of possibility theory is Marle's journey back to 600 AD at the very beginning of CT -- now THIS is where you see someone being erased because of a condition which precludes an ancestor from continuing their line in the timestream. Marle's arrival causes Guardia to call off its search for Leene, who is never returned to the King, so Marle is erased until that condition changes.
Leah, for the same reason, can still be Ayla's mother (and in fact, this is one of the twists I like most in CC) because there remains a possibility that she can return home to Prehistoria. Futher, might I suggest a reason for her being there in the first place?... Others have proposed that her arrival in 1020 AD is an accident... but if we've learned anything from the Chrono series, it's that time travel is almost never accidental. The Entity, Lavos, FATE and the Dragon Gods dick around with the boundaries of dimensions all the time when it suits them... so it might be reasonable to suggest (if not conclude, for want of more solid evidence) that Leah was drawn to 1020 AD for the specific purpose of destroying the Guardia line. If Serge and company arrived shortly after Leah was dumped on Gaea's Navel, it's possible that Serge disrupted the planned assassination of Leah by rescuing her -- again, as often happens (manipulating people to time travel is easy -- everything after that is hard). Lavos/Time Devourer is the most likely candidate here... sending Leah someplace where she would be killed by the local wildlife would destroy Marle's lineage and disrupt the events that lead to Lavos' initial defeat. It also seems to fit the Time Devourer's M.O., as a similar thing happened when Schala sent Kid back to save Serge -- which leads one to ask, was Kid meant to save Serge, so that Serge would also save Leah (in addition to all the other stuff he was supposed to do -- poor kid! so many expectations...) and thereby preserve the timeline where Lavos was defeated at the end of CT, and could potentially be permanently defeated at the end of CC?
I'm also thinking about Draggy. When I played through CC (the first/second time), I was lead to believe that Draggy was the last of the Dragonian race. It's all left kind of vague, and seems kind of unlikely given the scale of Fort Dragonia vs. the size of Draggy's mother's bones... but if Draggy's not a Dragonian, what is he? And what then is the relationship between Dragonians and Dragons -- or for that matter, Reptites and Dinosaurs? Do Dinosaurs evolve into Dragons, paralleling a Reptite evolution into Dragonians? Any insights here, in-game or out-of-game?
Pages: [1]