Of course I wanted to play something on the most current generation of consoles. Owning only an Xbox 360 and a Gamecube, my options were limited. I thought that it would be nice to find something more relaxing than another shooter so I began reminiscing over my favorite Final Fantasy games and I narrowed my search down to turn based JRPGs. Coming off the excitement of completing Bioshock and Mass Effect back to back, it was difficult to find anything of interest. There were certainly some good JRPGs that have followed the genius we got to experience on the original Playstation, but few could hold their ground against masterpiece predecessors like Chrono Trigger.īack in the summer of 2008, I found myself browsing through Gamestop for some rainy day entertainment. I longed for characters as quirky as the airship pirates of Final Fantasy IX, for villains as mysterious and menacing as Sephiroth, and for heroes as conflicted and noble as Cecil Harvey of Final Fantasy IV. But as years passed, this proved to be a double edged sword, as turned-based Japanese role playing games became outdated and stale. Players can understand more clearly the inherent connections between Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross with Radical Dreamers in a more straight-forward fashion, side-stepping Chrono Cross' gray approach as a sequel.As a gamer, I consider myself fortunate to have grown up as a part of the generation that got to experience the golden age of the Final Fantasy franchise as it happened. Bundling that substory together with the second Chrono entry as Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition helps fill in the gaps for the worldwide audience. However, in a way, Radical Dreamers almost serves as a way to bridge the gap between the two games and harken back to the events of Chrono Trigger. It's a bit confusing, and the complexity of Chrono Cross' narrative connection to Chrono Trigger was largely the source of fans' frustrations at the time. Chrono Cross is pretty clearly acting as a distant sequel to Chrono Trigger, especially with all the references to the first game, but Radical Dreamers was deliberately connected to the first Chrono game. Radical Dreamers actually ran with the theme of unwavering time to strengthen its connection to Chrono Trigger as a spin-off. In execution, it's place in a theoretical Chrono timeline is a bit perplexing, considering the game focuses more in parallel dimensions more so than the manipulation of time in Chrono Trigger. Kid, Serge, and Magil all escape the castle, as Kid realizes her origins and intrinsic ties to the original Chrono game. Serge glimpses throughout time, witnessing several of the events from Chrono Trigger as well as new scenes, before players return to present day. However, during the battle, the Chrono Trigger is shattered, causing a disruption of time itself that ends the battle very quickly. Lucca gave Kid a Time Egg (a Chrono Trigger) when she was younger, and Lynx sought the Time Egg alongside the Frozen Flame in an attempt to reign control over time itself. The trio encounter Lynx at the end of the story, and are nearly defeated, before something unexpected happens. Kid is after Lynx himself for killing her adoptive mother (Lucca from Chrono Trigger), and was accompanied by Magil after an encounter with Lynx almost killed Kid. Magil explains that the Frozen Flame is a fragment of Lavos, the calamity from Chrono Trigger, and that Kid has an ulterior motive. Serge, Kid, and Magil venture through the manor, fighting all sorts of mythical monsters as players read on about the mysteries of Viper Manor's inhabitants. Lynx, the antagonist of Chrono Cross, takes up a similar position in Radical Dreamers as the usurper of Viper Manor.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |