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Messages - kolt54321

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1
Chrono Cross Modification / Re: New Party Mods
« on: April 09, 2022, 11:45:26 pm »
Is it even possible to mod the game in this remastered format? It looks like it's some combination of emulation and text handled outside of it, which won't make it any easier than PS1 modding sadly.

2
Wow!! I've been away for too long, but this seems very helpful - and I'm so happy you've made this much progress down the road! Need to really brush up on customizing text dialogue and events to get used to beginner mods, but this is fantastic.

3
Chrono Cross Modification / Re: Custom Boss(es) (99% Completed)
« on: January 10, 2021, 11:21:33 pm »
This is amazing - with custom bosses, it should be actually feasible to change more than average stats for enemies! I recall trying to follow a tutorial to change specific dialogue, but the process was a bit lengthy and quite complex. I can't imagine how much time and detail it took to do this!

4
So I've been wondering - I'm guessing the 1v1, 1v2, 1v3 etc in the Enemy Editor signifies their element grid. Elements can be changed here - but patterns cannot, correct? So unless we're just looking to buff up enemy stats, changing the enemy behavior can be screwy?

5
Chrono Cross Modification / Re: Chrono Cross Backgrounds
« on: September 26, 2018, 01:31:56 am »
Hi,

(sorry to do a rather epic necro!)

So, theoretically, seeing as these backgrounds were ripped out successfuly, would it be possible to modify them and put them back in the game?

I've tried upscaling them via Let's Enhance (NN ai based upscale) and with some Photoshop tweaking, the result is pretty interesting. (might look quite a bit better than various filters in emulators)

Would the game even run with textures four times the resolution? Maybe an emulator would allow for this?

I was thinking about this precisely a few months back. Waifu2x does the job very well (yes, Let's Enhance is pretty good too), and looks astoundingly real as long as you don't go too hard on the "oil painting" settings. It's meant for art as well, so no surprise it gives back excellent results in 4k. No photoshop needed.

However, there's moving parts in the map as well. Not sure how you would reanimate those.

6
Here's my plan of attack to get things moving on this front again:


Please do let us know if you get things running! I'd be interested to hear.

7
It doesn't feel right voting for a category I entered in, so I'm out of this one. Really curious to know though how the votes end up tallying  :grimm

8
So this is how it feels? To be the last ones here, dollars away from shutting the lights off.

It's not such a bad feeling knowing we made it to the potential end. Like Serge, I knew a fisherman once. In a white collar community, he definitely stood out - not as wealthy as the others, slightly considered an oddball.

But I never understood how he managed to be so happy. I saw him every morning on the way to school, and he was actually smiling - you don't realize how rare that is until someone shows you. He was on a boat, day in, day out, sitting there and waiting for the fish to bite. Some people are happy just because, but I'd swear nine out of ten would go crazy on that boat.

How can someone be satisfied with that way of life? Ask any working person and they will tell you how much they want to rest, but as a livelihood? Not a chance. You are throwing away your life to be lazy.

A while later, we found out the joke was on us - he inherited more money from his parents than we ever touched. After the initial shock, we thought, "why the heck is he a fisherman?"

The obvious answer is that it was his passion, and once his parents passed he closed shop running the family hotel chain and settled down here. But the real question here was whether it was something in his DNA, or if he just really liked fish. Turns out it was neither - he liked having time to himself and thinking. He didn't live wealthy, but that just prolonged his bucket of savings.

I skipped school one day to go fishing with him. My parents... would not have been happy if they would have known, but I was a good student in school, so no one asked. Thought it would be really cool, seeing the huge fish caught and finally seeing what it was all about. I was... impatient sitting on the boat with him. I run my mouth way too often, and it showed then - opposites don't attract on a fishing boat.

He didn't have that much patience either, to be honest (don't blame him). He said I needed to think more and keep a lid on it. Being the overly technical, I asked how one learns how to think, and so forth. And the day ended kind of meh.

I played Chrono Cross two years later. He passed from a heart attack some time before.

There should not be a shortage of thoughtful games, that push the envelope in not gameplay, not plot, but values. But there definitely is - and anyone who considers this series another video game franchise is a fool.

I am not a fan of video games, movies, or TV shows. People say someone with real intelligence would never play these games.

The 20 of us left here know how wrong that is. Nostalgia or not, I played this franchise after it was finished, and you will never get another game like Chrono Trigger or Chrono Cross. You can ace the content, make the gameplay interesting, but you won't. Because the ball got dropped after New Year's in 2000 and no video game company picked it up again.

I wanted something different, something that would make me think and provide nuance. I was a picky bastard who was never happy - not in life, not with entertainment, not with school or work. I was an unhappy person - who believed the reasons were standards way too high and nothing to fill the intellectual gap. That people didn't think about how things are, should be, and could be.

It's not true, obviously; there's something more fundamental broken making me unhappy than just the lack of some good video game or movie.

Sometimes... we don't care about logic though. And when I played Cross 10 years ago, to this month, despite the odds, it changed everything. I can't tell you what it was, I'm not sure I know myself. But that was the first time in my life I've felt happy for once. I would cry hearing Radical Dreamers, and wake up every day listening to Scars of Time. I spent 7 months on that games, combing every corner, because there are things in that game that are in a different league than the rest. I embraced my life then and since, and that doesn't mean coming out of denial. It means being resourceful and using the best of another world to make your home world better.

Ironically, the fisherman's life is a party compared to mine - work, save money, strengthen my connection to Chrono Cross, repeat. However happy he was though, I'm willing to bet I'm up there with the old man.

Us 20 at the end of time... we are the fortunate ones. I can imagine exactly what my life would be without the damnest esoteric touch this game had on my soul, and it's exactly what is was before - life without understanding what real happiness is, playing monopoly over and over without ever actually visiting the boardwalk.

Eventually, probability will dictate we leave too - like the fisherman, we came from the sea, and will return to the sea. We will likely have life problems, and without an active community here we'll effectively be done.

But we are the ones who found something profound, and I know at least one person who will never forget. I might forget the story (never understood it anyway), the characters, or how much stamina I need to beat the final boss, but no one can make us forget the impact. Look around you - how many people do you know that are as passionate about anything as we are here?

There is no Lavos. There is a black hole where this series used to be, and where Square used to be. But there are boundaries, and it will never touch us, those who, despite time, lack of activity, and enough C&D letters to use as wallpaper, are still here.

I can't speak for anyone else, but without this series, I would have everything, yet nothing. Chrono Cross is the hand I was dealt, and I'm fully happy with that. I am blessed to have something as simple as a fisherman, in both game and real life, teach me what it means to be happy.

Whether we have 2 people, 20, or 20000, it really doesn't matter. If I can make someone - one person - as happy as I am from playing Chrono Cross, my job is done.

I will sit here, as a stone, until Square Enix personally moves me themselves. Nothing can budge me on this - not C&D, not life, not others.

Come at me.

9
This thread will probably sound weird, but whenever I'm alone and I start listening to the sad songs of the Chrono Cross OST I feel like I belong there.
The memories from these games are so strong within me. I'm not sure if it's because of the time when I played both Trigger and Cross (those days were pretty sweet), but I always feel like I belong there, in El Nido or Guardia and I miss home.

It's the same, but for the upbeat Cross songs for me.

I kind of forget how strong of a connection to these games I have, but every few weekends I listen to the OST and can't believe how I forgot.

But it's a comforting feeling, to have such vivid memories. I know most people will never know how it feels to have that bond.

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Chrono / Gameplay Casual Discussion / Re: Chrono Cross
« on: May 28, 2018, 01:57:21 am »
Quote
Dalton is so lame! He could have been so much better! Queen Zeal was actually a little bit disappointing too. In the best possible timeline, these two characters would have been a lot more fleshed out and interesting.

But - but - but... Dalton destroyed Guardia as an act of petty revenge! He corrupted the Masamune and it's very possible he was instrumental in killing/offing Crono and Marle.

It may have happened off screen, but Dalton was the unseen BAMF we all knew he had within him (once got that indigestion issue sorted out and stopped with the burps).

I think that award goes to the Doppel Doll that fooled Lavos. He (it?) doesn't get enough credit.

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Chrono / Gameplay Casual Discussion / Re: Chrono Cross
« on: May 28, 2018, 12:04:55 am »
We had an agenda to push. Part of the fun of making a single set of canon, with internal consistency across time travel rules and such, was incorporating Chrono Cross and its dimensional phenomena. To ostracize the game, well, that would stop us from having a unified Chrono corpus. I've backed way off that these days, partly because I can't stand it when trash gets defended (not saying Cross is). Look no further than the apologism from Star Wars fans over TFA and TLJ; you'll cringe inside. Duty to the truth has overruled what used to be a duty to an exalted Chrono fandom.

People have been fair here. Both fair praise and fair criticism that were spot on.

But if you've spent time on other forums, there is a wide audience of "Cross is trash, it should have never been made". Which is fine - everyone is entitled to their opinions. But it's a bit interesting to me that people are still willing to judge a game on what is was never meant to be - a direct Trigger sequel.

I'm actually pretty happy with the consensus here so far (not that it matters, ha). People are honest about their experiences, and while mine felt a bit different, so what? I can't explain why I felt so connected with everything that went on, considering the on-paper qualities, some of which were good, some not.

But to have the online consensus that it's a disastrous monstrosity... not sure if I'll ever be able to see where that's coming from. I can pick needles with Chrono Trigger (childish humor that made the tone too light, character stereotypes, Dalton segments being lame, etc.), but I know so many people found it their holy grail. I'm not going to take away from that - it doesn't happen often enough.

I'm not a Star Wars fan. But if that series had something comparable to the NPC dialogue, vivid, hand-drawn backgrounds, and music, I wouldn't blame them much for being so rabid about it.

Anyway, it's enough I'm so over-the-top satisfied with this game. Asking for another is kind of testing my luck.

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Chrono / Gameplay Casual Discussion / Re: Chrono Cross
« on: May 27, 2018, 11:28:48 pm »
The existence of this thread is fascinating in itself, as is people’s thoughts on Cross. Back in the day, the Chrono Compendium was the biggest defender of Chrono Cross you were likely to find in the fandom. But now it’s sort of like all of these repressed resentments and complaints are coming out of the woodwork. It’s actually a little eerie, because it reminds of #MeToo and how people often try very hard to convince others and even themselves that they feel a certain way about something or someone, when the underlying truth is very different.

I used to think I had a hot take on Chrono Cross, but nowadays y’alls do a pretty good job of summing up my points: The game’s aesthetics are beautiful; its feeling of peaceful loss and ruin is haunting; its soundtrack is one of the most underrated RPG soundtracks period; and it has some really interesting story ideas and a good premise…BUT the direction and execution of the game were generally poor; the playable cast (with a tiny handful of exceptions) is completely forgettable; the plot falls far beneath its potential by being way too messy; and (of course) it doesn’t feel like a sequel…thus making Cross the weakest of the three games for me, albeit one that I still like (though, for what it’s worth, I’ve only ever played it once, and I think I’m only ever going to replay it once, and then I’ll be “good” with it; in contrast I’ve played Trigger several times and Radical Dreamers a few times (even counting all scenarios as one play-through).

However!

Chrono Cross’ strongest quality, yet also one of its most invisible, I think, is the same quality that makes the [deeply flawed and overall not great] Star Wars prequels as interesting as they are: The creator behind the original wasn’t content simply to make “Original Part 2.” Kato tried something very different, very much in keeping with his own artistic vision for the series, and, as an artist who takes artistic integrity very seriously, I have a lot of respect for that. I respect that this game is the sequel Kato wanted to make, and that, for all its shortfalls, it was innovative for an RPG at the time and it had a strong vision driving it.

We learned a lot from this game: Don’t have as big a playable cast as possible just for the sake of having a big playable cast, because it isn’t actually fun (or the amount of development to make it fun would be wasteful). And, more difficultly, we learned that fans have dichotomous expectations for sequels: They want something both different and the same, and it’s very hard to walk that line. And we learned that polish matters. Radical Dreaamers is  better game (IMO) than Cross, because, despite being much smaller in ambition than Cross, and arguably even farther away from the feeling and tonality of Trigger than Cross, it is well-polished and does a good job living up to what it aspires to be.

J! Welcome back.

I haven't had the privilege to see CC grow over time, but that's what I gathered regarding reviews at the time vs. now.

There's one question that's still on the table though - how on earth, with all its flaws, did Chrono Cross receive 10's and praise across the board, being one of the only 10's GameSpot ever gave, and just short of game of the year award, where a single 9.5 brought it down from the title?

There's nothing about this game that should work. Despite Kato emphasizing that it is a new game, Chrono Cross, instead of Chrono Trigger 2, it never worked. Everyone graded it as Chrono Trigger 2, and no one did their research. A mess of a plot dump, too many characters, everything we've mentioned.

And yet it received tens like it was Chrono Trigger.

Personally, I think I saw Kato's passion in this game, and maybe the other reviewers did so too. I'm not into art, but I can see passion, and a vision for something different. He failed, but he tried like his life was on the line. I'm not as interested in his performance to what the goal was as much as the goal itself.

Like you said J, there's a few appreciation threads out there (resetera too, some old members like Ishida on there), but mostly how bad it was compared to Chrono Trigger, how it failed as a sequel.

I will never forget how I felt when I first played this game. It makes me glad to hear that people used to praise it, though blind praise is never good. I think the hate now is more bandwagon than the praise that used to come with it, but who knows. I'm definitely biased.

Somehow, even though it's 20 years old, the fact the consensus changed makes me sad.

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Chrono / Gameplay Casual Discussion / Re: Favorite Part
« on: May 27, 2018, 11:02:40 pm »
I was a big fan of 2300 AD. The tone and just hope of people in that era was powerful to me.

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Chrono / Gameplay Casual Discussion / Re: Chrono Cross
« on: May 24, 2018, 08:39:24 pm »
Oh yeah, if we didn't still like Cross for one reason or another we probably wouldn't even BE here.

BUT YOU SHALL STILL BE BULLIED RELENTLESSLY FOR YOUR PREFERENCE

Haha, true. I definitely am the one who intruded and said "well, are you really right...?" originally, so it's on me :)

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Chrono / Gameplay Casual Discussion / Re: Chrono Cross
« on: May 24, 2018, 08:32:00 am »
Trigger's cast wasn't "deep" in the traditional sense, but it worked because of the dynamics between each other and the rest of the world. I compare them to characters from One Piece a lot, where they do each have a back story, arcs, clear desires and such, and you can picture what each character would do in different situations, but the main enjoyment comes from watching them as a team more than "THIS CHARACTER IS SO REAL".

Cross's characters are literally meant to be interchangeable in any given situation through the course of the game. So even if there's a character you like before they join your party, or an inkling of depth, they do hardly anything to differentiate themselves after that, and because you can only have 3 at a time most of them are like accessories you can't throw away.

So even if the PREMISE of certain Cross characters are more interesting than those of the Trigger cast, they're realized very poorly in the game itself.

In 90% of most games (FF6 included), none of the party matter aside from the hero, barring certain scenes. I mean, even in Trigger you can assemble your team, and one or two characters are always "interchangeable". Certainly they had chemistry among themselves, but did they really interact with the world, aside from the main storyline? I think Cross did the "you have impact on the world in different ways" better. Even if it was short and fleeting.

What's interesting is that I liked Baccano or Ping Pong the Animation over One Piece, and it probably comes down the same set of preferences. More characters doesn't mean better (I mean, look at Cross) but they can also give a set of perspective in the world. I'm a fan of the focus being all over the place lol.

Aside from that though, that's fair, and a good way to look at it. I think it comes down what someone's looking for in a game. I agree with both of ya that Trigger had a smaller, much more well-defined cast that allowed the player to care about them more. Cross was premises and brief stories for each. I personally love the latter and think that it puts a broad amount of perspective in a game (I'm there for the world, not the team after all), but it definitely departs from the standard that the main cast should be cared for. Thanks for the clarification :)

Or maybe I just can't take criticism about this game (sigh)

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