The first demo you guys made captured my imagination with the snow bound kingdom of Zeal. I also loved the magical academy and seeing the kingdom in it's prime.
Yeah, we had kept the demo most intact, but had built out the event just a bit with the Calasparan military units having attacked the school. Later you learn that they had been manipulated, as they'd been told the school was a training facility for soldiers in an effort to train for the war. This was part of the behind-the-scenes machinations to force Zeal and Calaspera to a head in an effort to bring all-out-war.
You say that it's meant to be compatible with Crimson Echoes but what about with Prophets' Guile? Cause in that it's said by an NPC that Zeal rose to the sky many generations before the downfall of Zeal.
Just a creative decision MrBekkler had made and one I ran with. Even by making it compatible with Crimson Echoes, we never directly commented on events in that fangame. Rather, we made allusions and did our best not to dispute anything learned from that game.
The demo started with Norstien teaching a class at the academy when Calaspera attacks. They evacuate the school but Norstien's brother dies there. Then he is given a task by the gurus I think, and we had to track down the terrorists. I spent a lot of time exploring Zeal tho. I loved the details like the End of time being based off of a waterfall area near Zeal palace.
Yup, we made some changes here. In the end, we decided that the Gurus knew of Calaspera and were in contact with their leader, a man named Zarathustra. The four were on good terms and, despite hostilites between their nations, freely shared research. We also made changes so the Melchior, Balthasar, and Gaspar weren't gurus yet, just celebrated researchers in their respective fields. They ultimately ascend to Guru-ship late in the game, and are apprehensive to do so, as they already identify that Queen Zeal is growing mad with power and that Zeal was not on the right path. However, they decided to try and stop Zeal from the inside and to use their science for good...
I figured the game was building to the rediscovery of the Frozen Flame and that's why the cold war accelerated. Like there would be a battle over it and Zeal wins, cementing their dominance. Then King Zeal would touch it and disappear as shown in Crimson Echoes. I guess it could also send Zeal skyward granting his wish for the county before his wife’s greed dooms it. I had assumed that Queen Zeal only became 100% the villain after her husband “dies” and that the protagonists would object to the Calasperans being enslaved to build the ocean palace. Yeah, the Frozen Flame aspect of the story was huge. It was definitely a catalyst in the cold war. We complicated that by making the Frozen Flame have two arbiters, the two sisters. Calaspera had managed to have the Frozen Flame, keep it in check, and not abuse it's power for generations.
The story went through multiple drafts and the last time I messed with it was in 2014, so my memory is hazy with all the different drafts. Some versions had King Zeal alive, others had him already dead.
I think the last draft had him already dead, the Atash Kadah having been the catalyst that put Zeal in such a bad state (dwindling resources) and they had lost the Frozen Flame after the spell misfired.
Regarding the Frozen Flame itself, there were definitely parallels between responsible ownership of power and abuse of it. Different societies with different values and how they respond to wielding such power. Calaspera used it to be an isolationist country where all the needs of it's citizens were taken into account (food, art, etc). Calaspera was very much a civilization founded on the principles of compassion, the arts, and technology (science) over blatant magic. Zeal obviously used it to essentially subjugate all, and those not needed worthy were not set to receive it's benefits.
On a little side note, Calaspera also interpreted magic differently than Zeal. While Zeal believes in Fire, Water, Light, and Shadow, Calaspera believed in Fire, Water, Earth, and Wind. Combining the two ideologies forms the elemental system we see represented in Chrono Cross.
As for the playable characters, I really loved the 3 we got in the demo. I didn't expect Norstien to become an antagonist tho, I thought he'd gradually learn to let go of his brother's death, become a calmer and see the truth of Zeal Corruption. Only to be cursed by Queen Zeal and thrown into the future by the chrono shift.
The fact that Norstein became a villain was the twist equivalent to Magus-not-being-the-creator-of-Lavos in Chrono Trigger. There were hints, but it was supposed to be a surprise. Once he turned, we would have scene previous scenes play out with some additional context, showing behind the curtains how Norstein had been manipulated.
However, when Norstein turns the party gains Wellsville as a new PC. At first you are unsure how he survived the attack seen in Chapter 1, and even he claims to not understand it. A few chapters later, however, you learn that he is actually a sort of "dream" version of Wellsville created by one of the goddess/sisters to try and right the path that Norstein was setting the world down. This version of Wellsville thinks he's real, and once Norstein kills the two goddesses and try to usurp their powers (absorbed from the Frozen Flame in 3 million BC), Wellsville starts to slowly fade out of existence. Wellsville has a huge existential crisis -- he doesn't want to die, doesn't want to not exist, but resolves to stop his brother. He completely fades from existence, having completed his task, once he stops Norstein.
Norstein, however, is complex. You learn early on that his parents were researchers, and his dad was from Calaspera. His parents studied the life sciences (magical genetics) in a research outpost in the ruins of a country called Scithia, who had been destroyed by Zeal a few decades before the events of this game.
Norstein always had penchant for the macabre, but he saw the science go bad and his parents and all the researchers there were turned into homunculi. He and Wellsville made it out (for reasons), were able to return to Zeal, and Norstein was forced to help care for Wellsville without the support of parentage. He always had a chip on his shoulder, angry at the lot he had been dealt in life.
Norstein, however, believes strongly in the vision of Zeal. He is the penultimate patriot - he is blind to good and evil in the name of his country. Honestly, sort of the parallels we see in modern day America. A willingness to combat corruption and accept evil for the sake of a false narrative of being "on the right side." Once Wellsville is killed, he decides he's going to take revenge on Calaspera. So he works with the Queen with a promise of Guruship should he succeed, and he solely cooprates with the party to find Calaspera and take it down as revenge for Wellsville.
Their adventure eventually leads them to Scithia, where he is once again forced face-to-face with his dead parents (merged into a homunculi due to bad science), and he acquires their science. He turns against the party, is granted Guruship by the queen, and his former comrades are put on trial for working with Calaspera as enemies of the state and traitors.
This is ultimately how Norstein saw them. He saw them as traitors to their country and felt that they deserved their fates (even if he was in the wrong).
At this point, Norstein picks up his parent's research and decides to finish it. This is really when his spiral begins; up to this point he was still wrong, but somewhat sympathetic. He felt he was doing the right thing and simply wanted to serve his country. But he begins to made bad decisions and questionable ones at that. He pays for it later when his science destroys his human body and he becomes a horrible monster.