Good morning, Talking Time! Let's Play Chrono Trigger

Table of Contents
Introduction
Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV
Part V
Part VI
Part VII

Low-Level Challenge
Challenge I
Challenge II
Challenge III
Challenge IV
Challenge V
Challenge VI
Challenge VII

I just can't seem to take a break from LPing for long, can I? Let's play some Chrono Trigger! But first, we've gotta go back... to 1995!



88 miles per hour!

Chrono Trigger: A Distant Promise



It's something of a miracle that we got Chrono Trigger at all in the US of A. Developed as a sort of "Dream Team" game collaboration between the two biggest RPG titans of the time (which kids today will never appreciate since said titans are now one and the same company), it seemed like it would be a bit too quirky for non-Japanese audiences at a glance. I mean, it's not like they could tout that it was a Square and Enix co-production here as a selling point; Enix was practically unknown in the US, and even Square was fairly obscure! So why did we even get CT at all?



Well, believe it or not, Square's head honcho Hironobu Sakaguchi was starting to realize that America was a big market right around that time. Final Fantasy VI had made comparative waves in the US, and Sakaguchi figured the US could be a viable location to introduce the JRPG. And hey, Chrono Trigger's gameplay was pretty simple compared to those horribly complex or very Japanese games like Romancing SaGa and Live-a-Live! This would surely win the American audiences over! So he had the US staff translator Ted Woolsey cook up an English translation... in one month. Yeah, Sakaguchi hadn't quite grasped yet how long it actually takes to convert something from one language to another.



He was just lucky that Ted Woolsey happened to be very good at what he did, which is to say that Woolsey was a master of making something that seemed very polished when what he started with was pretty bare-bones. Woolsey actually turned to Japanese player's guides for CT to help get the context for scenes, and basically memorized the scenarios too, so he could effectively write his own take on the scenes instead of having to go through the arduous process of translating every line. The end result was true to the spirit of the original script, for the most part, but a lot of the detail was lost in the process. He lamented later that a proper two to three-month translation period would have been better, though he also confided that CT was still one of the most satisfying games he ever worked on.



Chrono Trigger was a huge hit in Japan (selling over 2 million copies), and a moderate success in the US (managing about 300,000 copies sold; a half-million shy of FF3US' numbers, but still better than FF2US did). In the US, CT was something of a swan song for the SNES JRPG, though in Japan the genre went on strong on the platform well into the PS1's lifespan. It marked an important point in the history of the JRPG in the West, however: it was the (next-to-)last JRPG to be brought to the US by Square before the mega-blockbuster and game-changer that was Final Fantasy VII. A single risky step forward into an uncertain market that would be swiftly overshadowed by that behemoth PS1 near-launch title, CT was heralded at the time as a promise of things to come for the JRPG's future in the US.

Introduction - A Premonition

Also available in video form!



♪♪ Premonition ♪♪

I always liked CT's opening. It's simple, understated. A pendulum swings back and forth a few times as the basic copyright info appears in the bottom corner. Why can't we have simple title splash screens like that any longer?



The pendulum seems to come to a halt quite naturally, as the C pops out of it, floats up, and the rest of the first word stretches out. Then Trigger floats on over like a butterfly, giving us our game title (just in case we couldn't see it before). Eagle-eyed players will even spot the hands on the C appearing as Trigger situates itself. Such a simple title screen, yet very effective.




♪♪ Chrono Trigger ♪♪

I'm not going to waste your time with words during this opening beyond saying that it's a fantastic preview of what is to come. Saying more than that would only cheapen the experience.

Whew! What a rush! So, first order of business is battle mode. I picked Wait because I'm one of those weird sorts who likes to not take twice as many hits during combat due to enemies beating on my team while I select commands. I know, I know, where's my sense of adventure?



And now, the single most important decision of the LP: what will we be naming our bold protagonist? His name has to be 5 letters or less, which really crimps those creativity curlers down, but I've seen brilliant names out of TT that fit that limit before. His delightfully quirky (and awesomely geeky) lady friend and a mysterious young lady who looks like Bulma from Dragon Ball Z (only blonde) will also be needing names. Let's get some suggestions, Talking Time!

Deuce

This is my favorite game! Glad to see this LP being picked up, and with such a wonderful intro I'm really stoked to see this one unfold!

Name: Marty?

Name the boy Spike, hat-girl Red, and other-girl Syrup.

I never knew all that translation backstory. Without any idea of the source material aside from mayo/vinegar/soy sauce, it seems to me like an excellent translation given any amount of time, much less one month. Looking forward to your take on it.

That intro still gives me goosebumps.

Name everybody Lavos.

Name everyone after condiments.

Crono: Basco
Lucca: Aioli
Marle: Cilan

EDIT: NO WAIT I CHANGE MY MIND

I am down with this plan.

Jerry

EXCUSE ME but here in AMERICA we name things after musicians.

chrono: AXL
marle: HANNA
lucca: GEEZR

caps req'd

edit'd:

or this

Leave everyone with their default names.

Yes. Do this one.

And then name Lucca "Doc."

I demand that you do this.

I concur, that is the most logical choice!

As for Lucca... Velma?...or no, I vote Doc too!
There could possibly be some fun dialogue if you name Marle Nadia, but that doesn't fit with the BTTF theme. "Jennifer"....Jenny?

You're going to run out of notable Back to the Future characters before you're done, whereas I can name condiments for days.

Another vote for Marty and Doc.

When you run out of BttF characters, move on to Bill and Ted, and so on in that fashion.

Wooo When games were by its meaning, and not graphs or advertising!

hail!

Why must you all ruin such a beautiful thing with your shenanigans?

Name them Crono, Lucca, and Marle as the Goddess intended, you heathens!

If the schism gets to be too heavy between Classic and New Coke names, I have a contingency in place that will be quite suitable, I believe. Just keep that in mind.

This is going to turn into some sort of ridiculous challenge run, isn't it?

I vote for original names or whatever Loki wants.

Chrono Trigger was the alternate future of the RPG and is now the alternate past. I thought that RPGs were going to be revolutionized by its fast pace and constant sense of fun, but instead we got sluggish games dressed up with prerendered assets thanks to CD-ROMs. We've moved on to the MMORPG style of real-time combat, which is probably for the best, although the scourge of the CD-ROM is still with us in the form of load times and cutscenes.

Yeah, for whatever reason I usually leave the names alone in this one. Although, if Crono was "Bill" and Marle "Ted" and Lucca "Rufus," that would be amusing.

I am going to be boring and suggest default names.

I'm also going to say that I haven't finished this game yet and I am like RIGHT THERE, so this is the last I'll be reading this thread for some time. DON'T SCREW IT UP

Not planning to. I have a genuine love for CT that wasn't there to anywhere near the same degree as with FF2. Chrono Trigger was the third Squaresoft RPG I ever played (right after FF2US and FF3US). It's also one of the few Woolsey translations where I can't bring myself to criticize what he did too harshly, since I actually do know the whole story behind why it ended up the way it did.

I'm not sure if voting is still open, but if it is, consider this another vote for the default names. Also, here's hoping this goes better than the last CT LP.

I'm all for playing it straight and keeping the original names for all characters.

Yes even Epoch.

Also damn, that intro. It's like a trailer for a movie, but video-gamey instead! I love that it showed cutscenes AND battle stuff. It was all 'yeah this is what the game IS', instead of strug-together CG cutscenes that trailers for the next generation of RPGs would be.

Kind of hate the fact that the PSX and DS versions just have the anime cutscene. I mean, it's not bad, but it's not that.