Messages

1

News Submissions / Re: Chrono Orchestral Arrangement Box Set

« on: September 10, 2024, 11:01:34 pm »

I was thinking of posting this in a new thread to focus on the images I'm about to link to, but it is related to this performance.

A few months ago, I was looking something up and found this old thread with some scans in high resolution from the box set's pamphlet
https://www.resetera.com/threads/check-out-these-rare-chrono-trigger-concept-arts-from-1993-before-akira-toriyama.639126/
A few are the familiar early artworks from Kato seen in the Ultimania and elsewhere, but others I hadn't seen before.

(Judging from the file names, the thread was the source for the Queen Zeal sketch already on the site, but the source material wasn't credited before.)

And this one from the same user has scans from the Cross section
https://www.resetera.com/threads/masato-kato-reveals-some-of-early-tentative-titles-for-chrono-cross.422087/

(The main focus there was on the alternate titles, but those were visible enough in the preview images for the pamphlet.)

2

The Great To-Do List / Re: [5000] Acquire and scan Japanese magazine issue "The PlayStation" Vol. 170

« on: July 09, 2024, 02:14:32 pm »

Yeah, saw these on Reddit.
https://www.reddit.com/r/chronotrigger/comments/1dc0kss/check_out_these_ct_pictures_found_in_a_rare/

That person contacted the second of the Twitter posters and got the scans.

3

Chrono / Gameplay Casual Discussion / Re: Chrono Cross Remaster Twitter Japanese Q&A

« on: December 07, 2023, 04:47:54 pm »

Is he really insinuating that the Kid who saved Serge is the same Kid we meet in the normal course of the game?

Not quite. It gets a bit muddled up by the unedited MTL's handling of pronouns, but it's referring to Serge saving Kid, not the other way around. (Remember, according to Lucca, that mission is supposedly still in Kid's future.)
The segment from the Ultimania I mentioned, from page 465, was one of the many parts that had previously received a rough translation from BubbleBobby2000 in the old Ultimania Translations FAQ. Here's the end of it for reference.

When he did so, Serge, made acquaintance with Kid when she was young... When you meet her for the first time in Cape Howl, try to remember how she looked like.

The question from the most recent Q&A gets at the same thing, that Kid's behavior in her introduction (probably stuff like "Serge...Your name's Serge, ain't it?") hints that she recognizes Serge from her childhood, but Kato's answer adds that she keeps quiet because she can tell that Serge doesn't know about it.

4

Chrono Trigger Modification / Re: Stuck on a few things.

« on: November 28, 2023, 09:33:04 pm »

I don't know where it determines how long before it plays the blink animation, but this is where the animation is selected.

Code: [Select]

C0/A23D:        B98016          LDA $1680,Y
C0/A240:        C921            CMP #$21
C0/A242:        F00F            BEQ $A253
C0/A244:        A921            LDA #$21
C0/A246:        998016          STA $1680,Y
C0/A249:        A900            LDA #$00
C0/A24B:        998116          STA $1681,Y
C0/A24E:        A900            LDA #$00
C0/A250:        990116          STA $1601,Y
C0/A253:        60              RTSI don't think there's any difference in which animation will play between player characters. If there's an issue, maybe there's something wrong with human Glenn's animation data, causing it to pick inappropriate animation frames, or the frames it calls haven't been set up.

5

Chrono / Gameplay Casual Discussion / Re: Chrono Cross Remaster Twitter Japanese Q&A

« on: August 24, 2023, 09:26:43 pm »

My comments and notes on part of the last round of Q&A, as translated by DeepL.

-When the Kid first met Serge, he said something a little tricky when he heard his name, [did Kid remember that Serge saved him when he was a child?]

Kato: Yes.
Yes, he did. I don't think the Kid ever forgot. But Serge doesn't seem to know who he is, and he actually looks younger than he did that night, so I guess he's still trying to keep it all to himself for now.

I hunted through the forums, but I don't think anyone here suggested that Kid recognized Serge from the beginning. (When Zeality analyzed parts of the Ultimania with DeepL, he found a similiar claim.) Smacks of predestination though. The assumption on the timeline pages is that the orphanage sequence is a genuine tweak to history, not something that was supposed to have happened all along.

-After the last fight, Serge vaguely remembers the trip, but does he forget it afterwards? If he remembers, does Serge also continue to search for the Kid?

Kato:
I don't know. I think Serge's memories of the trip may fade little by little. That is why Kid is searching for Serge somewhere, wandering through many time lines. To meet again someday.

Another confirmation that it's supposed to be Kid searching for Serge. It being because he eventually forgot the adventure sounds new though.

-If Sarah's pendant was passed on to the Kingdom of Gardia from Sarah's hand, which was swallowed by the dimensional vortex, to the Kid, how did it get to the Kingdom of Gardia?

Kato:
There may have been another story where the Kid, Serge and others traveled back in time and crossed over to the continent before the collapse of Galdia .......

The Compendium's stance on this, as stated on the "Pendant Paradox" page, is that thanks to Time Traveler's Immunity and Time Bastard it doesn't matter whether it was a heirloom in the new timeline; Crono materializes with the pendant and the team's adventure goes on unhindered. Another reminder that the original creators may not have thought things out as much as fans do.

-The title of the group picture that was released just before the release of the remastering and displayed at the cafe, "Let it be the days of our dreams," really resonated with me. Who gave it this title? And to what extent does this "we" include us?

Kato:
Almost 25 years have passed since Cross was launched.
The days that we, the staff, spent to create Cross and ......, and the days of the lives of the players who loved Cross and .......
Our Dream Days" is the counterpart of "Dream, Dream, Days of My Soul," which was named with this in mind.

The artwork that was asked about is the key art for the Remaster, and the music track mentioned is called "Dreams of the Past, Memories of My Soul" in English.

6

Chrono / Gameplay Casual Discussion / Re: Chrono Cross Remaster Twitter Japanese Q&A

« on: August 07, 2023, 12:52:12 am »

So the Japanese Twitter account resumed answering questions briefly on July 6! The day before, they made an announcement that it would run until August. They posted one answer each on Thursdays, Saturdays, and Tuesdays. Unfortunately, Twitter now being mostly locked out to guests has crippled the "find the original version of the question" part of my usual procedure. (That saved some time typing up the question in its entirety.)

Response
-キッドがセルジュに初めて会ったとき、名前聞いて少し引っかかる言い方してましたが、このときキッドは幼い頃にセルジュに助けられたことを覚えていたのでしょうか？

Kato:
ええ。キッドはずっと忘れたことはなかったと思いますよ。ただ、セルジュの方は自分のことを知らないようだし、実際にあの夜の時より幼い印象なので、今はまだすべて自分の胸にしまっておこう、ということですね。

Response
-キャラターごとに先天属性が設定されていますが、由来は精神か肉体のどちらによって定められているのでしょうか？
また生涯の内に身についた技能や知識、生活していた環境によって属性が変化することはあるのでしょうか？

Kato:
やはり精神的なものが大きいんじゃないでしょうか。またその後の生き方によっては、属性は変化するものと思いますね。
決して絶対的なものではなく。

Response
-ダリオってもともと、先天属性は黒なんでしょうか？
それとも黒なのはグランドリオンの影響なんでしょうか？

Kato:
これはグランドリオンの影響、というか闇落ちしたからでしょうかね。
根は人の好き、好青年であったはずなので。そう思いたい。
その場合、「先天」属性じゃなくなりますけど。笑

Response
-ディノポリスが成立した世界線では、クロノたちがラヴォスを倒した結果、そもそも最初からラヴォスは飛来していなかった事になっているのですか？

Kato:
これはどうだったかな。クロノたちがラヴォスを倒した云々に関係なく、純粋に恐竜人が進化した時間軸だったと思います。

Response
-最後の闘いのあと、セルジュはぼんやりと旅の記憶が残っていますが、その後忘れてしまうのでしょうか？もし覚えているのなら、セルジュもキッドを探し続けているのでしょうか？

Kato:
どうでしょう。セルジュのそれもでの旅の記憶は、少しずつ薄れていくのかも。だからこそキッドが、どこかにいる「セルジュ」をあまたの時間軸をさすらいながら、探し続けているのでしょう。いつか再び、出会うために。

Response
-イシトはなぜ黒き風が良かったんでしょう？
パレポリ軍が他の軍と違う所ってなんなのでしょう？

Kato:
イシトはそもそも、パレポリのエリード軍人の家系の出で、当然のように軍に入隊し、その後黒き風に配属されて、こつこつと真面目に軍務をこなして頭角を現したという流れですね。

Response
-描き下ろしで改めてキッドとツクヨミ正反対なキャラデザだと思ぅたのですが、意図的にそのデザインにされたのかなあと。二人をデザインされた時の制作秘話など聞いてみたいです。

Kato:
キッドとツクヨミは、物語の位置づけ的には表裏一体といったところがあるのですが、それゆえデザインとしては全く異なる方向性で行きたいと考えていました。まあ人間と龍の娘で、盗賊と道化師なわけだし。

Response
-グランドリオンは永い間人の思念に晒される事で魔剣になってしまったそうですが、イルランザーにもそうなってしまう可能性はあるのでしょうか？

Kato:
道具というのは、どんなものも使われ方によって、変わってしまいます。そもそも武器である剣が絶対的に聖なるものであるって、どういうことなのでしょう？イルランザーも、絶対にとか、永遠にとか、そういうことはないと思いますよ。

Response
-ガルディア王国に伝わったサラのペンダントは、次元の渦に飲まれたサラの手からキッドに渡ったのなら、どのようにガルディア王国に伝わったのでしょうか。

Kato:
キッドやセルジュたちが、時をさかのぼり、ガルディア崩壊前の大陸に渡り……、という別の物語がまたあったのかもしれません。

Response
-リマスター発売直前に発売された集合絵、カフェで展示する際についていた「されど我らが夢の日々よ」というタイトルがとても心に響さました。このタイトルを付けられたのはどなたなのでしょうか？そして、この「我ら」とはどこまでを含むのでしょうか？

Kato:
クロスが発売サレテカラモウ25年近い年月が流れてしまったわけで。
僕たちスタッフがクロスを作るために過ごした日々と……、そひてクロスを愛してくれたプレイヤーたちの、それぞれの人生の月日と……。
我らの夢の日々というのは、そういう思いでつけました「夢よ、夢よ、我が魂の日々よ」と対になる言葉ではあるかなと。
Response
-用がなくても足を運ぶほど天龍の島の景色が大好きなのですが、やはり六龍達は最終的に敵になってしまうのでしょうか。炎龍は鍛錬やペツトを飼うなどこの世界で生きる楽しみを見っけてた様にみえました。子供の頃に龍達と一緒に眺めたいなと思ってたので少し寂しかったです。

Kato:
そうですね。クロスの物語では、人間と六龍は相容れない存在ではあったので、仕方ないとは思うのですが、両者が共に生きる別の時空とうのがあっても良いと思います。

Response
-キャラターの中で星の子が特別大好きなのですが、星の子の故郷にある他の子たちもみんな似たような外見なのでしょうか？色違のい子などもいたりしますか？

Kato:
星の子に関しては、アナザーエデンとクロスとのコラボで、その後のエピソードが描かれているので、ぜひそちらもプレイしてみてください。キッドやツクヨミの話も書かれているので。

7

Chrono Trigger Modification / Re: Temporal Flux Plugins

« on: January 19, 2023, 11:06:59 pm »

Hmmm... I was pretty sure that somebody figured this out before... and that what I suggested, could elaborate upon it by a few simple hacks.

You might remember from back in the day there was an event trick to color the text.

How to change text color:

I don't know the details for it but apparently this command can change the color of the text in the dialogue boxes:

MemCpy2E(43, 09, 05, 01, 00)

This one makes the text yellow, but other variants are possible.

(Now known as "ColorMath", under Scene Manipulation. Don't know the equivalent parameters under the revised command description yet.)
But that changed all the text at once. It appears to alter the palette data directly. The text is still sharing one palette. I think the SNES can't update VRAM (including the palette) on the horizontal render, only vertical (by scanline), and that still requires some tracking to time it right.

8

Chrono Trigger Modification / Re: Temporal Flux Plugins

« on: January 18, 2023, 11:01:34 pm »

This is something I once heard about regarding a different game, but on the SNES, you can't color each character separately in a game with a variable-width/proportional font. The background layers of the SNES are tile-based, including which palette they use. In a VWF, a single tile will contain parts of multiple letters. So that one palette would be applied to multiple parts, or sharply change mid-letter on the next tile.

9

Chrono Compendium Discussion / Re: Encyclopedia needs Editing

« on: November 24, 2022, 09:54:31 pm »

Well, it's a bit late for this now... I noticed that all references to "Miwa Showa" were recently changed to "Miwa Ikuta...even though the official reading of her surname is "Shoda". ("Ikuta" is apparently a much more common reading.) I mean, it's even there in her website url that one of the interviews was taken from!

10

Other Topics and the Prerelease / Re: Robo Racing an Empty Jetbike? (V.Net Dash Paper ROM Magazine Scans)

« on: November 23, 2022, 03:44:58 am »

That first one at least looks like the one Shmpulations translated.
https://shmuplations.com/chronotrigger/
But I'm guessing it was taken from the same Japanese site and thus its original source is still unidentified.

11

Chrono / Gameplay Casual Discussion / Re: Chrono Cross Remaster Twitter Japanese Q&A

« on: November 15, 2022, 02:57:36 pm »

Did DeepL leave out some parts when translating huge chunks?
Some parts are missing, sometimes important to the context of the question.
For example, the Dreamstone one above, when I throw it through DeepL today:

The Frozen Flame and the Ancient Drystone seem to be strictly separate, but are they related in any way?

Both are set up as part of Lavos that fell to the ground.

(parts in bold are what's absent)
This random one I noticed when scrolling through the page:

-Do the dragon gods have their own gender, or is this a spiritual thing? Or is it a sign of generational change?

Kato:
This is the image of the individual division. There is no generational change.

Or the final answered question:

-After the battle with Dario, Grandrion is freed from his hatred, but the flow of events in which his liberation seems to be fulfilled just by defeating him is a bit disconcerting considering the development of the ending. Was there some hidden condition?

12

Chrono Cross Modification / Re: Radical Dreamers Edition: Opening Up the Data Files

« on: August 14, 2022, 12:48:41 am »

At least one of the interviews explained it.
https://www.chronocompendium.com/Term/January_2011_-_GameSpite_Interview_with_Richard_Honeywood.html

I made a rudimentary search-and-replace tool that replaced all those syllables or phonemes with the corresponding tokens. We translators would tweak these by hand, then we would add those tweaks to a dictionary file so the system gradually improved as we taught it better implementations. It was a real head-ache that I doubt many loc teams would ever be able to implement. (Thanks to Yutaka, Sammy, and Rich for putting up with all the extra workload I added to them!)

13

Chrono Cross Modification / Re: Radical Dreamers Edition: Opening Up the Data Files

« on: August 13, 2022, 09:20:29 pm »

One thing that confuses me is how portraits are called. There doesn't seem to be a command for it in the CSV files, which is strange. Does the event code itself call portraits and assign lines to it? Will try to dig deeper into this.

Yeah. You can see some of the commands related to it in the old reverse-engineering documentation.
https://www.chronocompendium.com/Term/Chrono_Cross_Fieldscript_Notes.html

62 QQRR SSTT UUVV WWXX YYZZ - Set up a dialogue window at screen coordinates RRQQ, TTSS, with width VVUU, height XXWW, and flagset ZZYY (ZZYY = 64 -> display portrait)
9E XXYY - Set Dialog Portrait: Set current dialogue portrait to number YYXX
E3 WW XXYY ZZ - If character WW is in the party, have him say message YYXX from the corresponding dialogue file
E0 XXYY ZZ - Message: Display message YYXX from the corresponding dialogue file.

It's been a long, long time since I actively worked on Chrono Cross, so I can't say much, other than than evidently making an active party member speak is different from an NPC/out-of-party instance of a PC. Just which portrait is automatic in the former case.

This, for example, is from one of yaz0r's tools.

Code: [Select]

0x0299: SETUP_DIALOG_WINDOW( X:150, Y:50, LettersHigh:0, LettersWide:0, Flag:0)
0x02A4: CHARACTER_DIALOG(Kid, 0x0002, 0x08)

+-------------------------
|Kid:
|Just you wait, Lynx!
|Today's gonna be the
|day of reckonin'!!!
+-------------------------
|Say yer prayers!
|...Not that it'll
|do ya any good!!!<Close>
+-------------------------

0x02A9: WAIT_DIALOG()(To be clear, dialogue text was not part of the raw event data. The dumper splices it in from the area's dialogue data section for convenience.)

14

Chrono Trigger Modification / Re: Enabling Tile Animations (wip)

« on: August 03, 2022, 04:31:03 pm »

Ran a trace log on one of those offsets in the OP. So going off the raw machine code, those offsets for the second and third groups of unknown data are off by a few bytes.
The data Zakyrus was editing starts at 3DF9C7, two bytes per palette-set. The value it loads is used as an offset into unknown data starting at 3DFA77, and that's about as far as I've analyzed.

Code: [Select]

FD/E2A5:        AEFE01          LDX $01FE
FD/E2A8:        BF0300F6        LDA $F60003,X ;Palette number in location data
FD/E2AC:        0A              ASL A
FD/E2AD:        AA              TAX
FD/E2AE:        C220            REP #$20
FD/E2B0:        BFC7F9FD        LDA $FDF9C7,X
FD/E2B4:        AA              TAX
FD/E2B5:        A92005          LDA #$0520
FD/E2B8:        8D8121          STA $2181
FD/E2BB:        A90C00          LDA #$000C
FD/E2BE:        8518            STA $18
FD/E2C0:        E220            SEP #$20
FD/E2C2:        A900            LDA #$00
FD/E2C4:        8D8321          STA $2183
FD/E2C7:        A00000          LDY #$0000
FD/E2CA:        BF77FAFD        LDA $FDFA77,X
FD/E2CE:        29F0            AND #$F0
FD/E2D0:        F032            BEQ $E304

FD/E2D2:        C910            CMP #$10
FD/E2D4:        F034            BEQ $E30A
FD/E2D6:        C980            CMP #$80
FD/E2D8:        F030            BEQ $E30A
FD/E2DA:        BF77FAFD        LDA $FDFA77,X
FD/E2DE:        992005          STA $0520,Y
FD/E2E1:        E8              INX
FD/E2E2:        BF77FAFD        LDA $FDFA77,X
FD/E2E6:        992105          STA $0521,Y
FD/E2E9:        E8              INX
FD/E2EA:        BF77FAFD        LDA $FDFA77,X
FD/E2EE:        992205          STA $0522,Y
FD/E2F1:        E8              INX
FD/E2F2:        A900            LDA #$00
FD/E2F4:        992305          STA $0523,Y
FD/E2F7:        992405          STA $0524,Y
FD/E2FA:        BF77FAFD        LDA $FDFA77,X
FD/E2FE:        992505          STA $0525,Y
FD/E301:        E8              INX
FD/E302:        8074            BRA $E378

FD/E304:        E8              INX
FD/E305:        992005          STA $0520,Y
FD/E308:        806E            BRA $E378

FD/E30A:        48              PHA
FD/E30B:        BF77FAFD        LDA $FDFA77,X
FD/E30F:        992005          STA $0520,Y
FD/E312:        E8              INX
FD/E313:        BF77FAFD        LDA $FDFA77,X
FD/E317:        992105          STA $0521,Y
FD/E31A:        E8              INX
FD/E31B:        BF77FAFD        LDA $FDFA77,X
FD/E31F:        992205          STA $0522,Y
FD/E322:        E8              INX
FD/E323:        A900            LDA #$00
FD/E325:        992305          STA $0523,Y
FD/E328:        992405          STA $0524,Y
FD/E32B:        BF77FAFD        LDA $FDFA77,X
FD/E32F:        992505          STA $0525,Y
FD/E332:        E8              INX
FD/E333:        BF77FAFD        LDA $FDFA77,X
FD/E337:        992605          STA $0526,Y
FD/E33A:        E8              INX
FD/E33B:        BF77FAFD        LDA $FDFA77,X
FD/E33F:        992705          STA $0527,Y
FD/E342:        E8              INX
FD/E343:        BF77FAFD        LDA $FDFA77,X
FD/E347:        992805          STA $0528,Y
FD/E34A:        E8              INX
FD/E34B:        68              PLA
FD/E34C:        C980            CMP #$80
FD/E34E:        D028            BNE $E378

FD/E350:        C221            REP #$21
FD/E352:        8A              TXA
FD/E353:        6977FA          ADC #$FA77
FD/E356:        992905          STA $0529,Y
FD/E359:        A90000          LDA #$0000
FD/E35C:        E220            SEP #$20
FD/E35E:        A9FD            LDA #$FD
FD/E360:        992B05          STA $052B,Y
FD/E363:        B92005          LDA $0520,Y
FD/E366:        290F            AND #$0F
FD/E368:        850E            STA $0E
FD/E36A:        640F            STZ $0F
FD/E36C:        C220            REP #$20
FD/E36E:        8A              TXA
FD/E36F:        38              SEC
FD/E370:        650E            ADC $0E
FD/E372:        AA              TAX
FD/E373:        A90000          LDA #$0000
FD/E376:        E220            SEP #$20

FD/E378:        98              TYA
FD/E379:        18              CLC
FD/E37A:        690C            ADC #$0C
FD/E37C:        A8              TAY
FD/E37D:        C948            CMP #$48
FD/E37F:        F003            BEQ $E384
FD/E381:        4CCAE2          JMP $E2CA

FD/E384:        A900            LDA #$00
FD/E386:        992005          STA $0520,Y
FD/E389:        992C05          STA $052C,Y
FD/E38C:        993805          STA $0538,Y
FD/E38F:        994405          STA $0544,Y
FD/E392:        995005          STA $0550,Y
FD/E395:        995C05          STA $055C,Y
FD/E398:        AB              PLB
FD/E399:        2B              PLD
FD/E39A:        28              PLP
FD/E39B:        6B              RTL

15

Chrono Trigger Modification / Re: Chrono Trigger extra editing documents miscellaneous data

« on: July 25, 2022, 01:02:04 am »

Attachments are very simple. Under the reply box, there's a section called "attachments and other options". Expand it, and there you can attach files to the post.