On Jeremy Parish (of 1UP)'s blog, he's showing some appropriate respect for our venerated elders with this recent reflection on the incomparable majesty of Chrono Trigger. RPGs have a lot of problems, and any "evolution" in the genre since the SNES could be interpreted as lateral motion (of course, with rational exceptions mostly a matter of subjective preference)-- but Chrono Trigger, man, that was an indisputably awesome game. At least top ten of all time. Anyone dispute?I actually was a fan of Chrono Cross, too. I know I say this all the time, but I really mean it this time-- best. Video game soundtrack. Ever. The surrealism and the loss of self that comes with the displacement of eras were so poignant, not to mention being forced to take your enemy's shape. I like the whole wordless protagonist mechanic that both games used, too. In Serge's case, it was almost like the silence of grief, blending appropriately with the drift of a boat across a broken landscape. And the colors, the oceans, the environments-- lush almost to the point of decadence.
Anyway. Back to Chrono Trigger-- read Parish's stuff, it's a great nostalgic indulgence. And likely the only one we'll get, because Square-Enix seems unlikely to bring any of its older titles to Virtual Console, as hair-pullingly ridiculous as that seems. Well, not so ridiculous, from their standpoint. In an IGN interview a few months back, a Square-Enix rep said, "FF and Dragon Quest are played by a wide range of users, from children to adults, so there are limitations when you consider the problems that we would have with billing systems."
Oh, yeah. Billing systems. And if you'd like to get raped for more money by Squeenix, you're in luck! They're opening a U.S. online shop, so now you, too, can spend entire paychecks on Sephiroth statues. You can even line up and be notified immediately by email when the rape is available. Ha ha, who would sign up to that? Like, who would buy all of that overpriced, totally exploitive merchandise? Definitely not me. I didn't put my email address in. No.
(Fanart of Magus Zeal by Julie Dillon.)
