steam deck

Chrono Trigger

Posted on by Remy St. Gallen

Chrono Trigger

The Temporal Epiphany

Before Square and Enix merged, Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, along with Yuji Horii and Akira Toriyama, the respective architect and character designer of the Dragon Quest series, banded to develop an RPG under the former company’s banner heavily utilizing content excised from the planned debut of Secret of Mana on the Super NES’s aborted CD add-on when Nintendo sought partnership with Sony when their negotiations fell through. The final product was titled Chrono Trigger, seeing original release on the Big N’s 16-bit console and future ports to platforms that include the PlayStation, Nintendo DS, iOS, and most recently, Steam. Does it still hold up today?

The game opens in 1000 AD when the protagonist Crono’s mother awakens him on the day the Millennial Fair, which celebrates the founding of the kingdom Guardia, begins. At the festival, he bumps into a mysterious maiden named Marle, whom he takes to test his friend Lucca’s teleportation device, which strangely resonates with her pendant and mistakenly sends her four centuries into the past. Thus, Crono gives chase, discovering various temporal events and conspiracies culminating in the destruction of the world in 1999 AD by an entity called Lavos and recruiting others to secure the timeline.

Even in the original’s time, Chrono Trigger was not the first Japanese RPG to emphasize time travel, with that honor going to SaGa 3, which received the phony moniker Final Fantasy Legend III from Square’s North American branch when it was translated years before. However, the game weaves its story effectively, with the characters being endearing and often having intricate backstories, the various substories being interesting, events in historical periods impacting the future, a few plot differences dependent upon the player’s party composition, and different endings that depend upon actions taken throughout the quest.

Obviously must be important
The first of the Magi

However, many negative plot beats abound. Among them are Guardia’s soldiers leaving Crono with his weapon and armor on when incarcerated early in the narrative, the tale of a “legendary hero,” and elements derived from literature like the repair of a broken ancestral blade, a plot point from The Lord of the Rings. Other unoriginal elements include a dystopian future and an evil queen; other tropes from previous RPGs, like a character having to relearn all powers from scratch when joining your party and a doomed floating continent also appear. Additional “why” moments like cavemen in hiding emerging to glimpse an approaching tidal wave before returning to safety are also present. Fortunately, these don’t heavily dent an otherwise enjoyable plot.

The original translation by Ted Woolsey was one of the better ones in its era, receiving much of the polish it had when ported to the Nintendo DS. As is expected of any RPG released today, the dialogue is legible, and very few spelling and grammar errors exist. Most Japanese-to-English name changes were also for the better, like the names of the Gurus of Zeal, renamed after the Magi that visited the infant Jesus after his birth, with their original names being far more comical. Magus’ generals, furthermore, had the names of condiments in the Japanese dialogue, although Woolsey changed their names to Ozzie, Slash, and Flea after musicians well known to Anglophone gamers.

While Chrono Trigger features an overworld, it relegates enemy encounters to dungeons, with foes visible to fight in most of them. Contacting enemies or coming near them triggers combat, but many cases come where they’re hidden and emerge to engage Crono and his party. Battles bequeath the active time system of the Final Fantasy franchise, with the three frontline characters having gauges that, when filled, allow them to perform commands. As in Hironobu Sakaguchi’s flagship Square franchise, players can choose between active mode, where the battle action continues while they peruse Tech and item menus, or wait mode, where the action stops during navigation of said inventories.

However, the wait mode doesn’t work universally, for example, not while targeting monsters to attack or execute Techs against or anytime outside the Tech and item menus, even when all three characters’ active time gauges fill, which would have been welcome. Attacking using equipped weapons, using MP-consuming Techs, and consuming items are the primary battle commands, but a typical RPG staple, defending to reduce damage, is oddly absent. Players can escape by holding the L and R buttons on whatever input device they use, which usually works except during mandatory battles or standard boss fights.

Suck exploding spikes, human race!
Lavos parties like it’s 1999

Winning battles nets all participating characters experience for occasional leveling, money, TP to unlock more powerful Techs, and maybe an item or two. Depending upon the player’s party composition, characters can learn Double and Triple Techs that allow combination skills targeting all allies, one enemy, or all enemies, which can help hasten even the most daunting battles. Many bosses require a specific strategy to defeat them, whether exploiting an elemental weakness or offing boss units in the correct order (critical to the absolute final battle, hint, hint). Other issues aside from those mentioned include the existence of Techs whose range depends on a character’s current location but the lack of any means to move them across the battlefield. Regardless, the game mechanics form a satisfying whole.

In contrast, control is a mixed bag. However, the Steam port has numerous quality-of-life additions, like autosaving, a suspend save, and autodashing. Other positive usability features from previous versions remain, including diagonal character movement, an in-game clock the player can view at any time and not just while saving (which oddly seems endemic to many contemporary Japanese RPGs for some reason), the ability to walk around while minor NPCs are talking, sortable item inventory categories, being able to see how weapons and armor increase or decrease stats before purchasing them, item and magic descriptions, and overall polished menus.

However, those in charge of the Steam port could have addressed issues that include a potential glitch when booting the game that can prevent it from even going to the title screen, the absence of an auto-equip feature for the player’s party, the lack of dungeon maps, no pausing outside of battle, no fast travel in the early portion of the game, the inability to speed up increasing item quantity when purchasing consumables from shops, the pause feature in combat not muting the volume (and heaven knows I hate having to fiddle with my television remote), many secrets being tedious to discover without the internet, and a late-game missable sidequest dependent upon interacting with a minor NPC earlier in the storyline. Even so, the controls aren’t absolute dealbreakers when pondering a purchase.

Chrono Trigger marked the musical debut of composer Yasunori Mitsuda, who, with help from resident Square composer Nobuo Uematsu, provided an endearing soundtrack. The titular main musical piece has several remixes throughout the game, with each character also having a musical motif, including Marle’s lullaby, Lucca’s triumphant anthem, Frog’s whistle-along refrain (which somewhat resembles “When Johnny Comes Marching Home”), and Robo’s techno tune, whose resemblance to Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up,” as Mitsuda noted when informed of it, was coincidental.

They do resolve it later, thankfully
It all started with a pendant and a teleportation device

Other notable tracks include the Fiendlord’s battle theme, which has an orchestral flamenco feel (as does that during the penultimate final boss fight), and “Corridors of Time,” the theme for the floating continent during the Ice Age, which utilizes digitized Indian instrumentation. The minor jingles have pleasant melodies, like the sleeping theme, with the sound team adding quirks like Frog’s croaking and Robo’s beeping and buzzing. However, the musical variety, especially regarding the standard battle theme, can often be minimal, many areas lack unique themes, and a few “why” tracks like Gato’s jingle and the prehistoric “Burn! Bobonga!” abound. Regardless, the aural aspect is a boon to the game.

Its original version having been of the final Japanese RPGs released on the Super NES, Chrono Trigger featured polished visuals with vibrant colors, beautiful environments, character sprites having reasonable proportions and emotional spectra, fluid animation by the player’s party and enemies, stunning battle effects, and the anime cutscenes introduced in the PlayStation port and onward, mostly readjusted for contemporary television screens. Akira Toriyama provided the character and monster designs, most being well-designed, even if most human characters have similar faces typical of the artist’s work, alongside many reskins among the latter.

Other graphical issues include countless recycled nonplayer character sprites, a few that have odd appearances such as those for the old green-haired women, hints of pixilation even with upscaling and smoothing enabled, character sprites not facing diagonally, many NPCs absurdly walking in place, and Mode 7 graininess especially evident during the ending credits. The porting team further left maybe a few anime cutscenes from the PlayStation and Nintendo DS ports out (but mercifully, the one appearing after the ending credits, which adds to the game’s story and slightly connects to sequel Chrono Cross, remains). Otherwise, the graphics serve the game well.

'Ayla strip for you!'
Ayla entertains a trio of pterodactyls

Finally, playtime will vary, depending upon the player’s skill, with 24 hours being an average time for an initial playthrough, even with most sidequests partaken in. Chrono Trigger was the first RPG to term and popularize the New Game Plus, even if a handful of Japanese games before featured similar modes. Combined with significant extra content, like potential plot differences, around a dozen different endings, and discovering every secret, the time-travel RPG is the epitome of replayability. 

Overall, Chrono Trigger, pun intended, does indeed stand the test of time, given its enjoyable aspects that include its solid game mechanics enhanced by contemporary features such as a turbo mode, the intricate narrative with potential variations and around a dozen different endings, the beautiful soundtrack, and the upscaled visuals. However, while inarguably a classic, “masterpiece” is an overstatement since there are numerous issues bequeathed from prior releases, like the slight inaccessibility to those experiencing it for the first time, given the difficulty of discovering helpful elements without referencing the internet and coasting through the game in general.

Furthermore, while contemporary quality-of-life features such as auto-saving and a suspend save exist, the game could have used more polish in the usability department. The localization quality is also inconsistent, musical variety can be lacking, and some aspects of the visuals haven’t aged well, even with the upscaling and smoothing. Regardless, it was in many respects a turning point for Japanese RPGs after its original release, especially with the significant lasting appeal that its various endings and New Game Plus feature contributed to the realm of roleplaying games, and, while imperfect, is easily a bucket-list title necessitating at least one playthrough from those with a passing interest in Eastern video gaming.

This review is based on a single playthrough of a digital Steam copy purchased and downloaded to the reviewer’s Steam Deck, played on a television through the Docking Station.

Score Breakdown
The GoodThe Bad
Great gameplay with new features like turbo mode.
Excellent story with variations on plot and different endings.
Enjoyable soundtrack.
Good graphics with choice of higher resolution.
Plenty lasting appeal.		Can be difficult to cheese through in initial playthrough.
Some usability issues.
Inconsistent translation quality.
Musical variety can be lacking at points.
Some aspects of the visuals haven’t aged well.
The Bottom Line
Not perfect, but definitely a bucket list JRPG.
PlatformSteam
Game Mechanics9.0/10
Control6.0/10
Story9.0/10
Localization6.5/10
Aurals8.5/10
Visuals7.5/10
Lasting Appeal9.5/10
DifficultyModerate
Playtime24+ Hours
Overall: 8.0/10

Gaming Update, 2/12/2024

Posted on by Remy St. Gallen

Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past

Did the present quests of the island where L’Arca is, and Ruff can now speak. 

Grandia HD Remaster

In Act Two now, after the Pirate Island.

Still working on my Chrono Trigger review.

Gaming Update, 2/11/2024

Posted on by Remy St. Gallen

Chrono Trigger

Finished! Wasted an hour on the absolute final battle since I forgot key bits of how to win (I initially went medieval against the right bit before finding that I had to defeat its companions to lower its defense and expedite the process), but I won in the end. Review to follow eventually.

Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past

Revived the island with L’Arca, got Ruff in my party, did the animal festival in the present and got the fragment there, and am now heading to the present of the nearby dungeon to see what awaits me there after I upgrade my equipment.

Grandia HD Remaster

Sue finally left (glad I didn’t piss away any Mana Eggs except the extra one I got on her), I bested Gadwin in the duel, and now it’s off to set sail from Dight Village.

Hollow Knight

Posted on by Remy St. Gallen

Fallen Kingdom

In a game jam, developers Ari Gibson and William Pellen developed Hungry Knight, where a character killed bugs to stave off starvation. While its reception was initially scathing, it would improve after several years. They would work on another game jam with the theme “Beneath the Surface” but missed the deadline. However, the concept would provide the idea to create a game with an underground setting and insect characters. Developer Team Cherry would flesh out this idea with influence from classic games such as Faxanadu, Metroid, Zelda II, and Mega Man X, the final product being Hollow Knight, a Metroidvania with a dark feel and some interesting concepts.

Hollow Knight opens with the eponymous bug-like protagonist arriving in the town of Dirtmouth, which sits upon the remnants of the kingdom of Hallownest. Thence begins his exploration of the underground ruins, where he learns the kingdom’s backstory while encountering other entities. The plot is told decently, with the reward that slaying specific types of enemies enough times unlocks a blurb about them in the game menus, alongside some good backstory. While the narrative never feeling forced down the player’s throat is good, the lack of direction can throw many players off. I also needed to reference the internet to figure out exactly what I needed to do to advance the main plot. Multiple endings exist as well, another element I didn’t know about until referencing the internet, and while the story doesn’t reach brilliance, it doesn’t detract from the experience.

The Castlevania influences are readily apparent.

Hollow Knight is a side-scrolling Metroidvania, with the hero able to jump and attack enemies with his Nail, which he can upgrade three times for increased attack power. Mask icons indicate his current life, with one disappearing whenever he receives damage or two in the case of more powerful enemy attacks. As he strikes foes, he acquires energy that fills his Soul Vessel, with Soul allowing him to heal lost life or fire magic at enemies. Collecting four Mask Shards will increase the Hollow Knight’s life by one mask, with three Vessel Fragments granting him an additional node that fills with Soul as he attacks and drains whenever his main Vessel loses its energy.

Sitting on benches scattered throughout the vastly connected world will restore the Knight’s health and record progress. Unfortunately, quitting the game and reloading will leave his Vessel empty, with no suspend save available. One upshot is that the player can save and stop playing anywhere, in which case reloading will bring the Hollow Knight back to the last bench he used. Doing so can sometimes be advantageous if he finds himself stuck in an unfortunate situation like low health. Throughout his adventure, the Knight will encounter special items that grant him additional moves to expand his exploration, such as the Mantis Claw, which allows him to grab onto and jump off walls. 

Most enemies leave behind money known as Geo when defeated, with which the Hollow Knight can purchase items at shops and pay for other things such as his weapon upgrades (which in turn requires a certain amount of Pale Ore). Death results in losing all Geo that the player has, a reduced limit on Soul acquisition, and a trip back to the last visited bench, with the player needing to defeat a Shade that appears at the location of their demise to recover their money and repair their Soul Vessel. Death again without vanquishing the Shade costs the player all Geo they had lost, but a safeguard exists in the form of a bank where the player can store and safeguard their currency. 

The Hollow Knight can also equip various Charms he finds or purchases throughout the game. The number he can wear depends upon how many notches he has, with this limit increasable to eleven. Charms can have effects such as increasing the speed of healing or lengthening the Knight’s Nail for better attack range, and many killer combinations exist that can be the difference between life and death. The hero faces bosses at points whom he must defeat to advance the game, with players needing to be careful about their attack patterns, which can be predictable yet random. The window for healing can be incredibly narrow in these encounters and was perhaps the most common source of my demise during the game.

The bug miner never saw him coming.

While Hollow Knight takes inspiration from the Soulsborne subgenre of RPGs regarding its death system, I never had any problem recovering whatever money I consequentially lost (and fair warning: you lose access to the mentioned bank later in the game), and in fact towards the end found myself with an excess of Geo I couldn’t use at all. Those who wish not to return to where they died can use Rancid Eggs, sporadically found in the gameplay world, at a facility in Dirtmouth to recover their Geo and repair their Soul Vessel. The gameplay has its moments, although, towards the end, I needed to reference the internet to determine the location of specific item types since there is no in-game tracking of them in each area. Alongside the difficulty of healing during boss battles, the game can be off-putting to those seeking a more accessible gameplay experience.

Although the Metroidvania exploration can be enjoyable at times, the game is pausable, and the maps can be helpful, issues still exist that make Hollow Knight user-unfriendly. The save system, for instance, is flawed, since while the player can quit and simultaneously record their progress, they must restart at the last bench at which they rested and consequentially need to retrace their steps and reacquire the Soul they lose. The level designs can also be annoying, particularly areas with spikes that both cause the Knight to lose health and restart at the last “safe” platform. Moreover, late in the game, I had to consult the internet to discover what I needed to accomplish to access the final boss. Other issues abound, and the game doesn’t interact with players as well as it could have.

The soundtrack, however, is one of the better elements of Hollow Knight, with composer Christopher Larkin doing a decent job with many well-instrumented pieces that fit the dark milieu, although many areas exist that over-rely upon ambiance. However, the sound effects are never out of place, and the game doesn’t disappoint aurally.

The visual style near approaches perfection, also fitting the dark atmosphere, with superb use of shadowy hues, unique designs for the various insectoid characters and adversaries, and beautiful environments. The sole handicap is the misleading environmental breakage effects that accompany the Hollow Knight’s attacks yet lead not to secret passages.

Finally, the game is lengthier than average for a Metroidvania, with a playtime of somewhere from twenty-four to forty-eight hours, lasting appeal theoretically existing as Steam Achievements, exploring every corner of the interconnected world, different endings, and the higher difficulty unlocked upon completing the game. However, the above-average challenge will deter many players from wishing to devote additional time.

Overall, Hollow Knight has strong potential as a Metroidvania, given its occasional fun exploration, engaging lore, great sound, and excellent sight. However, it stumbles in many aspects, with boss fights made harder by the difficulty of healing during them, the need to reference the internet to get the most out of the game, and the frequent scarceness of the story. Although most of my top games of all time are Metroidvanias, Hollow Knight often didn’t scratch that itch pleasantly. While it has a sequel forthcoming subtitled Silksong, I can easily say that I likely will not play it regardless of how well it is received unless Team Cherry addresses the issues I mention in my review.

This review is based on a playthrough of a digtial copy purchased by and downloaded to the reviewer’s Steam Deck.

Score Breakdown
The GoodThe Bad
Metroidvania gameplay can be enjoyable.
Good lore.
Decent sound.
Pretty visuals.		Difficult to heal during boss battles.
Guide necessary to get most out of game.
Story can feel scarce.
Many players will want to go to other games upon finishing.
The Bottom Line
An okay Metroidvania.
PlatformSteam
Game Mechanics6.5/10
Control4.0/10
Story7.0/10
Aurals8.0/10
Visuals9.5/10
Lasting Appeal4.0/10
DifficultyHard
Playtime24-48 Hours
Overall: 6.5/10

Deep Look – Etrian Odyssey Origins Collection

Posted on by Remy St. Gallen

Excellent Origins

During my years in undergraduate college, I discovered a Nintendo DS RPG from Atlus entitled Etrian Odyssey that attempted to recreate the style of old-school first-person dungeon crawlers such as the Wizardry series. While it was not without its faults, I enjoyed it enough to play most of its sequels and remakes up to the apparent concluding entry, Etrian Odyssey Nexus on the 3DS. The following decade came the unexpected announcement that Atlus was remastering the first three mainline entries for Steam and the Nintendo Switch under the moniker of the Etrian Odyssey Origins Collection, allowing a new generation of gamers to experience them.

For those unfamiliar with the franchise, the structure of the first three games in the Etrian series consists of a hub town (two in the third installment) where the player creates a guild of playable characters of different classes, with five allies organized into front and back rows, each with the maximum of three adventurers. In town, the player can also purchase equipment for their characters, sleep at the inn to recover the party, and obtain missions from the tavern or whoever runs the town alongside which each entry’s Yggdrasil Labyrinth exists that have rewards such as money, items, and in the third entry, experience for the active characters.

Players can create characters from various classes, some overlapping throughout the games, sometimes with different monikers, such as magicians that can cast elemental magic. Each has a skill tree where the player can invest points into active and passive abilities that unlock advanced skills. Some classes are more effective on the front row, where they deal more yet receive more physical damage; in the back row, they receive but deal less physical damage unless they have a ranged weapon in which certain classes are adept; or, in a few cases, either.

Once ready, the player can head into the town’s adjacent Yggdrasil Labyrinth, which consists of first-person navigation of its various floors, upward or downward. Central to exploration is the dungeon map the player can create while wandering the multi-floored dungeon’s various Strati, with options allowing visited tiles and walls to be automatically mapped, somewhat reducing the legwork of the in-game cartography. Players must still manually place icons indicating elements like doors and secret passageways. While on the DS and 3DS, they could do so with their respective styluses, the developers adopted the mapping control surprisingly well for the Steam versions I played, even when using a controller.

The battle mechanics are also central to the Origins Collection, with fights randomly encountered. However, an indicator changes color from blue to red, which reduces the unpredictability of random battles. Combat utilizes a traditional turn-based style where the player inputs commands for their five characters: these include attacking with an equipped weapon, using a TP-consuming ability, consuming an item from the inventory, executing a limit break (which comes in different forms throughout the trilogy), or attempting escape, with up to five chances to do so if players select the option for each ally.

Victory nets characters who are still alive experience that allows them to level up, which gives allies skill points to put into their respective trees. Enemies also may drop parts that the player can sell at shops to unlock new consumables, weapons, armor, and accessories for sale, akin to Final Fantasy XII. What happens when the enemy obliterates the party depends upon the difficulty setting; on Picnic mode, the game transports them back to town with nothing lost, while on higher settings, death results in a Game Over with a chance to save progress made on the in-game cartography.

In all three games, powerful enemies known as FOEs wander each floor of the Yggdrasil Labyrinths; avoiding them upon first encounter is usually a good idea on difficulties above Picnic. Only in the second game do they not reward players with experience, but they still may drop materials across the whole trilogy. Bosses terminate each Stratum and may respawn after a few in-game days, providing more opportunity for extra experience and maybe a drop the player initially didn’t receive from them. Finding certain enemy drops to fill the compendia may necessitate the use of the internet, but luckily, obtaining all isn’t necessary to complete the main quests.

The game mechanics remain solid throughout the entire collection, with certain classes working well with one another; for instance, abilities that allow a single character to act first in a round can nullify the typical turn-based RPG issue of healing for allies with low health coming too late. Significant mechanical differences in the trilogy come in the third game, with the sea exploration to sail the waters around Armoroad and the eventual ability to allow one class to branch into the skill tree of another. The accommodation in the anthology to players of different skill levels is a big feather in its cap as well.

As mentioned, the developers adapted the cartographic control well to the Steam versions, which comes from my experience with a controller playing them on my television via the Steam Deck’s dock. Furthermore, because of the gameplay structure, there usually is no problem finding out how to advance the central storyline. However, I did come across a few points, most recently in the third game, where I had to consult the internet. The setup of the menus remains the same throughout all three titles and is easy to handle. However, fans of RPGs with highly interactive overworlds and town exploration will be in for disappointment.

The narratives of each Etrian are self-contained, with minimal connection; moreover, while it is up to the imagination of the player regarding the backstory of whatever playable characters they create, there are many stories within the Yggdrasil Labyrinths, sidequests, and especially the sea exploration in the tertiary entry which contain a great deal of thought and lore. The translations are top-notch, as one would expect from Atlus, despite a few rare awkward lines, and don’t mar the plot experience.

Yuzo Koshiro composed the soundtracks for all three games, with many varieties of tracks that have superb digitization and make for excellent aural experiences.

The art direction is also pretty, with the designs for the characters and enemies having polished appearances. However, the latter in combat have many reskins and are inanimate, with battles remaining strictly in the first person, like older installments of the Dragon Quest series. The three-dimensional parts of the visuals have a smoother look compared to the Nintendo DS versions. Still, there is slight blurriness and pixilation in the environmental textures.

Finally, one can blaze through each game in as little as twelve hours; however, side content such as postgames, Steam achievements, and filling the item and enemy compendia can boost playtime well beyond twenty-four hours per game.

In summation, Atlus did a superb job remastering the first three mainline Etrian Odyssey games, given their engrossing combat and mapping mechanics, lore-laden narratives, and solid audiovisual presentation. The accommodating difficulty settings will appeal to players of different skill levels, for the novice taking the edge off their old-school brutality and for the masochist providing a good, risky dungeon-crawling challenge. The Etrian Odyssey Origins Collection was a series of remasters I didn’t see coming. However, the developers did the games justice, and I can’t recommend the anthology highly enough.

This deep look is based on playthroughs to the standard endings of each entry on a Steam Deck using the television dock.

RECOMMENDED?
YES