tacticslion
11-07-2011, 08:08 PM
WARNING: THAR BE SPOILERS AHEAD! SPOIL AT YOUR OWN RISK!
Alternative Titles using variants of "(Fifth/Chrono) (Trigger/Fiend): (Flames/Fifthfiend/Fifths/Fiends) of (Eternity/Fifths)" <pick any one or possibly two Fifthfiend reference> were all rejected due to relative obscurity compared to what was being chosen. Alternate tags (including "rpg", "fun", and "lolitrollu"), while somewhat fitting, were rejected as being confusing or coming off as "wrong", as I don't have a cool enough reputation to pull off a lolitrollu. Fifthfiend was chosen because it's funny.
SO!
As I've been sick, I've been playing a fan-made ROM game called Chrono Trigger: Flames of Eternity (originally it went under the working title of "Crimson Echoes"). It takes place five years after the events of Chrono Trigger and was created as a sequel meant to bridge the gap between Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross (or even Chrono Trigger and Radical Dreamers). As I've not played the DS re-release of Chrono Trigger, I can't say how it holds up in linking that to the other, though from what I understand it takes those story elements into account as well.
I find it very interesting so far (I'm not done with it, but am not averse to spoilers), and quite entertaining, though there are a few elements I dislike about it.
Great Points:
* Well-written plot - with an interesting and dynamic antagonist, great character interactions, careful weaving of fairly-well-thought-out concepts (especially the multitudinous ramifications of time-travel), and a fairly in-depth look at the Chronoverse, it's a pretty tightly written work, and I enjoy the plot, pacing, and characters rather highly. It's a bit restrictive sometimes, for my tastes, but then again, so was CT when I look at it without nostalgia, and really for plot-structure it imitates CT very well (though I suspect that the plot has fewer derivatives for endings than CT did, considering it's very obviously supposed to yield Chrono Cross). It projects itself fairly obviously, but at the same time, it's not so heavy-handed/preachy that it gets frustrating. It differs from the original in that the party is actually split and with different characters you actually play through a timeline that one group's actions erase from existence... although without the actions you played with the other groups, the one that successfully erases the timeline would be a failure. So props to that. It's deeply involved with questions such as free-market capitalism, Guild-structured economics, questions of monarchy (or tyranny) v. an open republic (or fascist state) v. oligarchy, and various aspects of politics in general, but it doesn't come down for or against any one political ideal (despite the heroes clearly being aligned with the strong single monarchy and guild-caste system), which is refreshing.
* Graphics - basically a straight port/dump of CT, which I highly enjoyed and am doing so again. There are a few personal touches (new slightly-older-looking portraits for the characters which are nifty, if not a perfect fit with the old style - ever-so-slightly more Westernized, I think). But see "Meh Elements" below.
* Gameplay - I enjoy the various interesting challenges they give you in this game. They've come up with a large number of potential challenges and minigames similar to CT that don't really feel like they detract from the main plot, but are fun nonetheless. But see problems below.
"Meh" Elements:
* Crono - he talks. From a writer's perspective, it's fundamentally understandable why, as it' difficult to write a silent one-of-the-protagonists (Crono is not treated as the protagonist of the game although it does, again, start with him). His speech is obviously aimed to imitate the small snippets of speech that Crono gives in the main game too (mostly when you make a choice, but there is one ending where he actually speaks to Marle and Lucca) and make him more "real" (see problems, below). He doesn't talk a huge amount, but it's distracting, as it actually distances him a little. Personally, I could have seen about 70% of his current dialogue cut with more given to those around him (though there are several points at which dialogue is probably necessary and I'd have no problem with it). I don't like it, but I'm not so perturbed by his talking that it puts me out of the game.
* Minor graphical glitches - I'm presuming this is actually a ZSNES thing (the emulator it recommends using) than the actual ROM itself, but sometimes annoying graphical hiccups occur like the characters suddenly becoming visible when they're supposed to be under a platform - which seems like it would be a boon, but sometimes it just makes things confusing (I'm looking at you, Jungle Maze), especially with the "graphics" entry below. Still it's not a big deal and easily forgivable on its own.
* Graphics - yeah, I mentioned this above as a "great point", but it's also a bit of an issue, in that it becomes obvious very quickly, that the creator of Flames of Eternity isn't a sprite artist. (S)/He does some very interesting and creative things with the limited graphical elements that are available, and some things look and feel great, but often they don't "fit" with the rest of the look of the game, or it becomes obvious that little bits of a graphic were just taken and put here or there making an ugly mish-mash. It's not really a draw-back to gameplay (except where this occasionally smacks headfirst into Minor Graphical Glitches, above), but it can be really distracting from the story when I'm looking at what's supposed to be an ominous severed statue-head but am thinking "Hey, look, there's a little piece of the wing just floating righter there, man what is up with that?" Also some of the environmental add-ons are a bit jarring, and a few of the new enemies (the Lion Tank and Kasmiran especially, and it's worse because they play such a major part of the plot), and... eh... Frog (now "Glenn")... which... eh... hm. To be clear, they are quite well done, especially for a amateur (i.e. person who's not-paid for his work): I don't think I could do a better job in any way, size, shape, or form (and would very likely do much worse); however, they don't really look like CT-style enemies/background pieces/whatever, and their graphics don't match the rest of the game; this is the thrust of my complaint about them. While I'm complaining about what the creator changed, let me complain about what (s)he didn't: the people sprites. It makes total sense they'd use the same sprites for creatures as CT. But they had such an opportunity to alter them and didn't. (SEE?! You can't reason with people like me! :rolleyes:). Still, they used them quite creatively over-all, and it's not a huge detriment to the story. Some custom graphics, like the (TWO HUGE SPOILERS!) frozen flame and King Zeal look pretty fantastic.
* The overland map - this is related to one of the Graphics I list above, but it's not so great or jarring as the rest of the game's issues. There are a few things that are scattered about that make you kind of scratch your head or wonder "whaaaaaa-?", and one or two that are clearly home-made and don't fit in with CT's style (or, if not home made, then they're unfinished or overly modified original work). Over all, however, this really doesn't distract from gameplay. Do I wish it were a bit better? Yes. If this was my only complaint, however, this game would totally get ten stars out of ten.
Problems:
* Dialogue - okay, well, here's the thing. The plot, pacing, and script are very well put together, and many parts of the dialogue are great... but many just aren't. They either fall a bit flat, seem a little or greatly out of place (although this happened at least once in CT, too), or are simply out of character. Added to this is a strange attempt to "adult" the conversation. I don't know: perhaps it's based off the CT remake, and, if so, I understand entirely. But to me, it's kind of like making the FFT remake in "faux-Olde-English" (speaking of: AGH! FROG/GLENN DOESN'T TALK LIKE THAT, AGH THE PAIN, TURN IT OOOOOOOOOOOOFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF!1!!1!!!1!! !!ONE) - the dialogue update really isn't needed (although there are a few things that are humorous or well-crafted - a barkeep overly-explaining he serves "alcohol" after ten years of serving "cider", or Toma actually being clearly an alcoholic instead of a soda-addict as good examples of perfectly acceptable changes). Instead we get swear words where none are needed (I'm not averse to swear words in games, it's just their placement seems so random sometimes), or entire conversation structures that don't flow properly or don't have the rather endearing - I don't know "genericness"? - that comes from being translated from Japanese. Basically, in many instances, it just doesn't feel right, at all. This isn't from the side characters/"random" NPCs (or even some "major"-but-still-background NPCs like Toma or Tata) - indeed, most of those side characters' lines flow perfectly and actually look like they're from the characters I knew from CT. My main problem comes from certain aspects of dialogue found in the heroes' dialogue and a few of the major-and-foreground NPCs. It's not constant, and it's not even always obvious, but sometimes people will say things and they just don't fit with that person's character. These are not even plot-specific lines: I mean, it's understandable (if not preferable) if person X had to say Y to do Z in a plot, but that's just not the case in many of these dialogue choices. The worst offender, by far, is Glenn (formerly "Frog" - he's also pretty harsh on the eyes; see Graphics in "meh" above), although there are several others that can be egregious. THAT SAID - many of the dialogue bits are very clever, and many things that the dialogue attempts are great - the final execution is just sometimes weak, or unnecessary "updates" to characters in order to make them feel more "real", it seems (and/or sometimes "grittier").
* Plot - WHAT CHICANERY IS THIS?! I mentioned this as one of the "great points"! How could it be a "problem"?!?one? Easily: because while the over-all plot is extremely solid, there are a few minor executions of it that are redundant, unnecessary, disruptive, or some combination of those. A major one is Schala's rescue. It's a success in this game! Hurrah! But... that flies in the face of it's rather intended goal of linking CT with CC. BUT... she's captured/sent beyond time again! So that works! Except, of course, the second makes the first completely irrelevant and its unnecessary for all but the most overly-specific of metaplot elements to progress forward. It's not necessary to explain how Schala was thrust beyond time and into the Dream Eater because a) it's heavily implied that she still exists "somewhere/somewhen" and b) the last time we ever see her is with Lavos, even though she's not there when you kill Lavos... which means something else is going on. Now, for that specific plot element, perhaps they tie it up neatly with the ending, I don't know - but it feels weakly put together, and there are other, similar bits of plot that just make me go "why was this so important that it had to be heeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrreeeee?" This isn't about optional/side-quests: that makes sense (although some of those don't work), I'm just mentioning extraneous or ill-fitting dialogue. And one other thing this game missed the opportunity (although in this case it's imitating CT, its predecessor) is: when you have all the characters present, and each of them as an important piece of dialogue that could work well in a particular scripted conversations, use all the characters that are present. It bugs me how, in both games, when <MR. EXPOSITION> would explain <PLOT> to the characters, that only the <THREE> that were "active" said anything, regardless of whether or not the other characters were right there. But the last is a minor complaint. One other final thing that's really a totally minor note, but still: the game occasionally has an obvious in-need-of-polish/editing dialogue boxes with such famous lines as the merchant telling me to "change script based on decisions in chapter 14" before showing me his wares (though that was pretty funny, I admit). This, or something similar, happens more than once.
* Items/Levels/Abilities - so, you start out with a nice, lead sword. Er... wait. LEAD? What happened to my Slasher? Swallow? My frikkin' Rainbow that I slaved for? All gone. No explanation given. Those armors I traveled through all of time-space for? Gone, like they never existed. And that, my friends, sucks. You are busted back down to level one, you get crap starting items, and you've lost all your techs (although your characters still talk pretty "big" based on their past exploits... with absolutely nothing to back it up). The worst part is as I've said - there is absolutely zero in the way of explanation. Did the last adventures happen? According to this story, yes, they did. Some characters' "downgrades" in personal power are explained (Magus, for instance, gets a brief one-liner from an old guy), but many aren't. The disappearance of items? Nope. I could even buy that some, maybe even many of the items were put into, say, the Guardia Castle Treasury (the Castle's treasury plays a minor macguffin plot-point, but it's not really spoilery to say so), but to have all of the heroes' stuff simply gone and none of them curious where it all went, or in getting it back is "blarg". This also feeds into: the new items that are sprinkled about are okay, and sometimes kind of nifty, but often underwhelming, compared to the old stuff. For example, partially for kicks and giggles (but primarily because I thought my damage-output was a little lacking at ** STR) I temporarily cheated in the Swallow (I forget whether it's the second or third best sword in CT). The single best weapon Melchior can make in Flames of Eternity ("Aria Dei", I think) is completely outclassed by the Swallow on all accounts. Other things, like items not always having a proper (or any) description, also makes tactical choices irritating ("What? I didn't know that otherwise lesser armor could absorb lightning! I'd have had that puppy on the whole time!"). One of the nice counters to these negatives is the ability to "look" at any non-consumable item (by "using" it twice), letting you know it's power (if a weapon), armor (if armor) or special (if another item), and who can use it. This can be very nice, but not always enough to make up for the lack in other areas. The complete loss of all your abilities with no explanation is kind of a pain as well: even a partial explanation would have helped (if not, perhaps, making it entirely palatable), but none is forthcoming (save for the vague line for Magus). Losing access to all your techs is frustrating as well. I don't know if they altered the damage-output of the techs, but they seem a bit low, to my memory, but that might be just because I'm now more acutely aware of the difference in weapon damage.
* Gameplay - "Hey, Tac, stop repeating yourself!" Yes, I know this was put up above in "Great Points", but the problem is thus: fantastic minigames and side quests that require unique button-pressing elements but absolutely fail to tell you which buttons to press. For example, there's a game (basically Simon Says) that you imitate a dancing girl. Okay, I interact a the star at the cardinal point on the map to dance in that direction... but how do I do a spin? (I don't know - so far I've managed to not do anything or accidentally end the contest regardless of what I've tried). Alternatively, there's the gambling den, where, I'm playing a game of 21, and all my cards are valued at "44" (they aren't really - the number shown is incorrect). There are so many missing or half-completed scripts that it gets kind of frustrating: often the minigames where you're supposed to get up to a certain "number" (or really any non-gp-value displayed on-screen) are completely wrong. I literally have no idea how many "BP" I've earned in one era: the number is different every time I go through a battle, it doesn't always go "up", and it's most often hovering near "244" (which should be enough to get me most any prize I want, but somehow isn't, meaning the incorrect number is displayed). There are also a few glitches in the game that happen at complete random, including a total failure of the game to note which chapter I'm in at one point (Marle once ran all the way across the screen for a random battle and then began events three chapters later, activating dialogue for Magus and Frog... awkward.) or what character I'm playing (at one point even Crono simply vanished; when this happens I can't get the character back... it has nothing to do with the plot: they're simply gone and their dialogue glitches the game).
So, with all these points (I may be forgetting a few, but I need to be done, for now), do I hate the game or love it? I... am not sure, yet. I appreciate what it's trying to do, and respect the daylights out of someone who seriously has far more technical skill and dedication than I, and the plot and Cronoverse are excellent and incredibly well-thought-out, as are the timeline erasures, but I'm not sure how I feel about the package as a whole. I might sort more out once I finish (I'm fairly close, I'm just tying up loose ends, now). I'll almost certainly post more later.
What about you guys? Anyone else here play it? What's your thoughts/opinions/etc? Anyone beaten it? What happened? Experiences, thoughts, frustrations, disagreements, etc? I'd like to know!
Alternative Titles using variants of "(Fifth/Chrono) (Trigger/Fiend): (Flames/Fifthfiend/Fifths/Fiends) of (Eternity/Fifths)" <pick any one or possibly two Fifthfiend reference> were all rejected due to relative obscurity compared to what was being chosen. Alternate tags (including "rpg", "fun", and "lolitrollu"), while somewhat fitting, were rejected as being confusing or coming off as "wrong", as I don't have a cool enough reputation to pull off a lolitrollu. Fifthfiend was chosen because it's funny.
SO!
As I've been sick, I've been playing a fan-made ROM game called Chrono Trigger: Flames of Eternity (originally it went under the working title of "Crimson Echoes"). It takes place five years after the events of Chrono Trigger and was created as a sequel meant to bridge the gap between Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross (or even Chrono Trigger and Radical Dreamers). As I've not played the DS re-release of Chrono Trigger, I can't say how it holds up in linking that to the other, though from what I understand it takes those story elements into account as well.
I find it very interesting so far (I'm not done with it, but am not averse to spoilers), and quite entertaining, though there are a few elements I dislike about it.
Great Points:
* Well-written plot - with an interesting and dynamic antagonist, great character interactions, careful weaving of fairly-well-thought-out concepts (especially the multitudinous ramifications of time-travel), and a fairly in-depth look at the Chronoverse, it's a pretty tightly written work, and I enjoy the plot, pacing, and characters rather highly. It's a bit restrictive sometimes, for my tastes, but then again, so was CT when I look at it without nostalgia, and really for plot-structure it imitates CT very well (though I suspect that the plot has fewer derivatives for endings than CT did, considering it's very obviously supposed to yield Chrono Cross). It projects itself fairly obviously, but at the same time, it's not so heavy-handed/preachy that it gets frustrating. It differs from the original in that the party is actually split and with different characters you actually play through a timeline that one group's actions erase from existence... although without the actions you played with the other groups, the one that successfully erases the timeline would be a failure. So props to that. It's deeply involved with questions such as free-market capitalism, Guild-structured economics, questions of monarchy (or tyranny) v. an open republic (or fascist state) v. oligarchy, and various aspects of politics in general, but it doesn't come down for or against any one political ideal (despite the heroes clearly being aligned with the strong single monarchy and guild-caste system), which is refreshing.
* Graphics - basically a straight port/dump of CT, which I highly enjoyed and am doing so again. There are a few personal touches (new slightly-older-looking portraits for the characters which are nifty, if not a perfect fit with the old style - ever-so-slightly more Westernized, I think). But see "Meh Elements" below.
* Gameplay - I enjoy the various interesting challenges they give you in this game. They've come up with a large number of potential challenges and minigames similar to CT that don't really feel like they detract from the main plot, but are fun nonetheless. But see problems below.
"Meh" Elements:
* Crono - he talks. From a writer's perspective, it's fundamentally understandable why, as it' difficult to write a silent one-of-the-protagonists (Crono is not treated as the protagonist of the game although it does, again, start with him). His speech is obviously aimed to imitate the small snippets of speech that Crono gives in the main game too (mostly when you make a choice, but there is one ending where he actually speaks to Marle and Lucca) and make him more "real" (see problems, below). He doesn't talk a huge amount, but it's distracting, as it actually distances him a little. Personally, I could have seen about 70% of his current dialogue cut with more given to those around him (though there are several points at which dialogue is probably necessary and I'd have no problem with it). I don't like it, but I'm not so perturbed by his talking that it puts me out of the game.
* Minor graphical glitches - I'm presuming this is actually a ZSNES thing (the emulator it recommends using) than the actual ROM itself, but sometimes annoying graphical hiccups occur like the characters suddenly becoming visible when they're supposed to be under a platform - which seems like it would be a boon, but sometimes it just makes things confusing (I'm looking at you, Jungle Maze), especially with the "graphics" entry below. Still it's not a big deal and easily forgivable on its own.
* Graphics - yeah, I mentioned this above as a "great point", but it's also a bit of an issue, in that it becomes obvious very quickly, that the creator of Flames of Eternity isn't a sprite artist. (S)/He does some very interesting and creative things with the limited graphical elements that are available, and some things look and feel great, but often they don't "fit" with the rest of the look of the game, or it becomes obvious that little bits of a graphic were just taken and put here or there making an ugly mish-mash. It's not really a draw-back to gameplay (except where this occasionally smacks headfirst into Minor Graphical Glitches, above), but it can be really distracting from the story when I'm looking at what's supposed to be an ominous severed statue-head but am thinking "Hey, look, there's a little piece of the wing just floating righter there, man what is up with that?" Also some of the environmental add-ons are a bit jarring, and a few of the new enemies (the Lion Tank and Kasmiran especially, and it's worse because they play such a major part of the plot), and... eh... Frog (now "Glenn")... which... eh... hm. To be clear, they are quite well done, especially for a amateur (i.e. person who's not-paid for his work): I don't think I could do a better job in any way, size, shape, or form (and would very likely do much worse); however, they don't really look like CT-style enemies/background pieces/whatever, and their graphics don't match the rest of the game; this is the thrust of my complaint about them. While I'm complaining about what the creator changed, let me complain about what (s)he didn't: the people sprites. It makes total sense they'd use the same sprites for creatures as CT. But they had such an opportunity to alter them and didn't. (SEE?! You can't reason with people like me! :rolleyes:). Still, they used them quite creatively over-all, and it's not a huge detriment to the story. Some custom graphics, like the (TWO HUGE SPOILERS!) frozen flame and King Zeal look pretty fantastic.
* The overland map - this is related to one of the Graphics I list above, but it's not so great or jarring as the rest of the game's issues. There are a few things that are scattered about that make you kind of scratch your head or wonder "whaaaaaa-?", and one or two that are clearly home-made and don't fit in with CT's style (or, if not home made, then they're unfinished or overly modified original work). Over all, however, this really doesn't distract from gameplay. Do I wish it were a bit better? Yes. If this was my only complaint, however, this game would totally get ten stars out of ten.
Problems:
* Dialogue - okay, well, here's the thing. The plot, pacing, and script are very well put together, and many parts of the dialogue are great... but many just aren't. They either fall a bit flat, seem a little or greatly out of place (although this happened at least once in CT, too), or are simply out of character. Added to this is a strange attempt to "adult" the conversation. I don't know: perhaps it's based off the CT remake, and, if so, I understand entirely. But to me, it's kind of like making the FFT remake in "faux-Olde-English" (speaking of: AGH! FROG/GLENN DOESN'T TALK LIKE THAT, AGH THE PAIN, TURN IT OOOOOOOOOOOOFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF!1!!1!!!1!! !!ONE) - the dialogue update really isn't needed (although there are a few things that are humorous or well-crafted - a barkeep overly-explaining he serves "alcohol" after ten years of serving "cider", or Toma actually being clearly an alcoholic instead of a soda-addict as good examples of perfectly acceptable changes). Instead we get swear words where none are needed (I'm not averse to swear words in games, it's just their placement seems so random sometimes), or entire conversation structures that don't flow properly or don't have the rather endearing - I don't know "genericness"? - that comes from being translated from Japanese. Basically, in many instances, it just doesn't feel right, at all. This isn't from the side characters/"random" NPCs (or even some "major"-but-still-background NPCs like Toma or Tata) - indeed, most of those side characters' lines flow perfectly and actually look like they're from the characters I knew from CT. My main problem comes from certain aspects of dialogue found in the heroes' dialogue and a few of the major-and-foreground NPCs. It's not constant, and it's not even always obvious, but sometimes people will say things and they just don't fit with that person's character. These are not even plot-specific lines: I mean, it's understandable (if not preferable) if person X had to say Y to do Z in a plot, but that's just not the case in many of these dialogue choices. The worst offender, by far, is Glenn (formerly "Frog" - he's also pretty harsh on the eyes; see Graphics in "meh" above), although there are several others that can be egregious. THAT SAID - many of the dialogue bits are very clever, and many things that the dialogue attempts are great - the final execution is just sometimes weak, or unnecessary "updates" to characters in order to make them feel more "real", it seems (and/or sometimes "grittier").
* Plot - WHAT CHICANERY IS THIS?! I mentioned this as one of the "great points"! How could it be a "problem"?!?one? Easily: because while the over-all plot is extremely solid, there are a few minor executions of it that are redundant, unnecessary, disruptive, or some combination of those. A major one is Schala's rescue. It's a success in this game! Hurrah! But... that flies in the face of it's rather intended goal of linking CT with CC. BUT... she's captured/sent beyond time again! So that works! Except, of course, the second makes the first completely irrelevant and its unnecessary for all but the most overly-specific of metaplot elements to progress forward. It's not necessary to explain how Schala was thrust beyond time and into the Dream Eater because a) it's heavily implied that she still exists "somewhere/somewhen" and b) the last time we ever see her is with Lavos, even though she's not there when you kill Lavos... which means something else is going on. Now, for that specific plot element, perhaps they tie it up neatly with the ending, I don't know - but it feels weakly put together, and there are other, similar bits of plot that just make me go "why was this so important that it had to be heeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrreeeee?" This isn't about optional/side-quests: that makes sense (although some of those don't work), I'm just mentioning extraneous or ill-fitting dialogue. And one other thing this game missed the opportunity (although in this case it's imitating CT, its predecessor) is: when you have all the characters present, and each of them as an important piece of dialogue that could work well in a particular scripted conversations, use all the characters that are present. It bugs me how, in both games, when <MR. EXPOSITION> would explain <PLOT> to the characters, that only the <THREE> that were "active" said anything, regardless of whether or not the other characters were right there. But the last is a minor complaint. One other final thing that's really a totally minor note, but still: the game occasionally has an obvious in-need-of-polish/editing dialogue boxes with such famous lines as the merchant telling me to "change script based on decisions in chapter 14" before showing me his wares (though that was pretty funny, I admit). This, or something similar, happens more than once.
* Items/Levels/Abilities - so, you start out with a nice, lead sword. Er... wait. LEAD? What happened to my Slasher? Swallow? My frikkin' Rainbow that I slaved for? All gone. No explanation given. Those armors I traveled through all of time-space for? Gone, like they never existed. And that, my friends, sucks. You are busted back down to level one, you get crap starting items, and you've lost all your techs (although your characters still talk pretty "big" based on their past exploits... with absolutely nothing to back it up). The worst part is as I've said - there is absolutely zero in the way of explanation. Did the last adventures happen? According to this story, yes, they did. Some characters' "downgrades" in personal power are explained (Magus, for instance, gets a brief one-liner from an old guy), but many aren't. The disappearance of items? Nope. I could even buy that some, maybe even many of the items were put into, say, the Guardia Castle Treasury (the Castle's treasury plays a minor macguffin plot-point, but it's not really spoilery to say so), but to have all of the heroes' stuff simply gone and none of them curious where it all went, or in getting it back is "blarg". This also feeds into: the new items that are sprinkled about are okay, and sometimes kind of nifty, but often underwhelming, compared to the old stuff. For example, partially for kicks and giggles (but primarily because I thought my damage-output was a little lacking at ** STR) I temporarily cheated in the Swallow (I forget whether it's the second or third best sword in CT). The single best weapon Melchior can make in Flames of Eternity ("Aria Dei", I think) is completely outclassed by the Swallow on all accounts. Other things, like items not always having a proper (or any) description, also makes tactical choices irritating ("What? I didn't know that otherwise lesser armor could absorb lightning! I'd have had that puppy on the whole time!"). One of the nice counters to these negatives is the ability to "look" at any non-consumable item (by "using" it twice), letting you know it's power (if a weapon), armor (if armor) or special (if another item), and who can use it. This can be very nice, but not always enough to make up for the lack in other areas. The complete loss of all your abilities with no explanation is kind of a pain as well: even a partial explanation would have helped (if not, perhaps, making it entirely palatable), but none is forthcoming (save for the vague line for Magus). Losing access to all your techs is frustrating as well. I don't know if they altered the damage-output of the techs, but they seem a bit low, to my memory, but that might be just because I'm now more acutely aware of the difference in weapon damage.
* Gameplay - "Hey, Tac, stop repeating yourself!" Yes, I know this was put up above in "Great Points", but the problem is thus: fantastic minigames and side quests that require unique button-pressing elements but absolutely fail to tell you which buttons to press. For example, there's a game (basically Simon Says) that you imitate a dancing girl. Okay, I interact a the star at the cardinal point on the map to dance in that direction... but how do I do a spin? (I don't know - so far I've managed to not do anything or accidentally end the contest regardless of what I've tried). Alternatively, there's the gambling den, where, I'm playing a game of 21, and all my cards are valued at "44" (they aren't really - the number shown is incorrect). There are so many missing or half-completed scripts that it gets kind of frustrating: often the minigames where you're supposed to get up to a certain "number" (or really any non-gp-value displayed on-screen) are completely wrong. I literally have no idea how many "BP" I've earned in one era: the number is different every time I go through a battle, it doesn't always go "up", and it's most often hovering near "244" (which should be enough to get me most any prize I want, but somehow isn't, meaning the incorrect number is displayed). There are also a few glitches in the game that happen at complete random, including a total failure of the game to note which chapter I'm in at one point (Marle once ran all the way across the screen for a random battle and then began events three chapters later, activating dialogue for Magus and Frog... awkward.) or what character I'm playing (at one point even Crono simply vanished; when this happens I can't get the character back... it has nothing to do with the plot: they're simply gone and their dialogue glitches the game).
So, with all these points (I may be forgetting a few, but I need to be done, for now), do I hate the game or love it? I... am not sure, yet. I appreciate what it's trying to do, and respect the daylights out of someone who seriously has far more technical skill and dedication than I, and the plot and Cronoverse are excellent and incredibly well-thought-out, as are the timeline erasures, but I'm not sure how I feel about the package as a whole. I might sort more out once I finish (I'm fairly close, I'm just tying up loose ends, now). I'll almost certainly post more later.
What about you guys? Anyone else here play it? What's your thoughts/opinions/etc? Anyone beaten it? What happened? Experiences, thoughts, frustrations, disagreements, etc? I'd like to know!