Video Game Thread

Yeah it is. I am not usually one for First Person Shooters but this game is really good. The whole game takes place in an underwater City that was built in the mid 40's. The creator of the city made it so the people can concentrate on advancing art and science, rather than have politics and religion restrain them. Well, they end up inventing these inoculative drugs called Adam and Eve. With these things injected into your vains you can shoot fire from your hand, Ice, Lightning, you can manipulate enemies and use telepathy, and a bunch of other things. Anyway, the game itself takes place in 1960 you have survived a plane crash (I know Cliche). The only refuge you have is a solitary, really small island which has an elevator on it. This elevator takes you to the underwater city of Rapture. After years of using the Adam and eve to make plasmids the residents of the city have gone insane and become disfigured. They are all after Adam as it is a powerful thing to have in Rapture, however, the Adam is only present in little girls that go around and harvest it from corpses and what not. All of the citizens are after these girls so they can harvest the adam for themselves. Because of this the girls walk around with these monsterous things called Big Daddies. They protect the girls from the crazed citizens. Which sounds good but these girls are weird. I don't really know what is wrong with them except they are infected with a parasitic Sea Slug, which I believe is what is producing Adam. So when the player comes across these girls they can choose to harvest the Adam for themselves or rescue the little girls, the only way to do that though is to kill the Big Daddies that are protecting them. I have been saving the girls though if I play through it again I will probably Harvest them which ends up killing them. What you do to the girls decides the ending you get.
 
Seeing how the hot topic of the minute is old school games, I felt like I needed to share this. Just finished Chrono Trigger for the umpteenth time and I have to say this game never gets old. The music still sounds good to me and the graphics though 16 bit are every bit as awesome as they were back in 95. This game is the epihany of a classic game.
 
Seeing how the hot topic of the minute is old school games, I felt like I needed to share this. Just finished Chrono Trigger for the umpteenth time and I have to say this game never gets old. The music still sounds good to me and the graphics though 16 bit are every bit as awesome as they were back in 95. This game is the epihany of a classic game.

I've beaten Chrono Trigger before, and I would agree with everything that you said. The only game that I'm really working on right now is Breath of Fire IV, but with the semester coming to a close, and finals coming up, I haven't gotten much time to play lately.

May I ask what your favorite team was from the game? My personal favorite was Chrono, Frog, and Aila. Chrono and Aila were the main attackers, and Frog was the attacker/healer. Plus, they had a very nice triple tech and some very good double techs.
 
Did someone just mention Chrono Trigger?!? As in, THE GREATEST time-travel video game EPIC of all TIME?!? :D :wavey

I had slowly been getting back into video games with Super Metroid, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, but Chrono Trigger alone was what officially made me become a hardcore gamer. Up to that point, I had never realized that video games had the potential to be true works of art. I think my only real exposure to RPG's before that was with the first Dragon Warrior (a.k.a. Dragon Quest) for the NES, which was kind of boring when I was a kid. After that, I started picking up other SNES RPG's, mainly Final Fantasy II (a.k.a. Final Fantasy IV) and Final Fantasy III (a.k.a. Final Fantasy VI). FFVI, I think, is probably my second favorite game of all time, simply because I love any story that deals with a band of heroes struggling to survive in a post-apocalyptic world.

Have either of you played the DS version of CT? I couldn't stop playing for months, trying to unlock everything. I thought the new Dimensional Vortex dungeons were pretty awesome. I have to admit that the Lost Sanctum side-quest is a bit tedious, but it's still fun. The new additions definitely add even more replay value. I couldn't really get into the Arena of the Ages thing, though. It's too time-consuming, in my opinion, and adds absolutely nothing to the plot. And the new final boss is challenging, even at high levels. Plus, the added map feature is a plus in my book. All-in-all, I never imagined that a perfect game could get even more perfect, but Square Enix succeeded.

CT, along with Star Wars, is a HUGE inspiration behind my "Timescape" trilogy that I intend to write someday. That's the big one... the dream project that will make MY name a household name across the world! :lol
 
Did someone just mention Chrono Trigger?!? As in, THE GREATEST time-travel video game EPIC of all TIME?!? :D :wavey

I had slowly been getting back into video games with Super Metroid, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, but Chrono Trigger alone was what officially made me become a hardcore gamer. Up to that point, I had never realized that video games had the potential to be true works of art. I think my only real exposure to RPG's before that was with the first Dragon Warrior (a.k.a. Dragon Quest) for the NES, which was kind of boring when I was a kid. After that, I started picking up other SNES RPG's, mainly Final Fantasy II (a.k.a. Final Fantasy IV) and Final Fantasy III (a.k.a. Final Fantasy VI). FFVI, I think, is probably my second favorite game of all time, simply because I love any story that deals with a band of heroes struggling to survive in a post-apocalyptic world.

Have either of you played the DS version of CT? I couldn't stop playing for months, trying to unlock everything. I thought the new Dimensional Vortex dungeons were pretty awesome. I have to admit that the Lost Sanctum side-quest is a bit tedious, but it's still fun. The new additions definitely add even more replay value. I couldn't really get into the Arena of the Ages thing, though. It's too time-consuming, in my opinion, and adds absolutely nothing to the plot. And the new final boss is challenging, even at high levels. Plus, the added map feature is a plus in my book. All-in-all, I never imagined that a perfect game could get even more perfect, but Square Enix succeeded.

CT, along with Star Wars, is a HUGE inspiration behind my "Timescape" trilogy that I intend to write someday. That's the big one... the dream project that will make MY name a household name across the world! :lol

Sadly, I have never played Chrono Trigger on anything but Super Nintendo and the Playstation version (which was 99.5% the same as the Super Nintendo version, with the exception of saving). I remember the original version had a fairly hard boss. By that, though, do you mean that they made Lavos harder, or the Queen Zeal battle (which was already a pain with those stupid counter attacks) harder? The game reminds me a little of a television series, though, where the hero goes through time in blue gates, and has to put right what went wrong in the past and future... Hmm... ;)

I would love to read your series, if and when you finish it. I've actually written a few stories based on a television series, and am actually, for fun of course, writing a short story based on a video game.
 
Sadly, I have never played Chrono Trigger on anything but Super Nintendo and the Playstation version (which was 99.5% the same as the Super Nintendo version, with the exception of saving). I remember the original version had a fairly hard boss. By that, though, do you mean that they made Lavos harder, or the Queen Zeal battle (which was already a pain with those stupid counter attacks) harder?

I mean, a brand new final boss "Beyond Time's Eclipse" which lies beyond "The Day of Lavos," which can only be reached after you complete the game the first time. It goes like this:

After the Fall of Zeal and escaping the Blackbird, the party boards Epoch in 12,000 B.C./Antiquity (a.k.a. Dark Ages) after the reunion with Magus;

The "Black Omen" materializes in all time periods (except for Prehistory);

A green portal leading to "Lost Sanctum" also materializes in 65,000,000 B.C./Prehistory and 600 A.D./Middle Ages (1st new side-quest);

After defeating the Lavos Core and seeing the ending, a purple vortex called "Dimensional Vortex" materializes in 12,000 B.C./Antiquity, 1000 A.D./Present, and 2300 A.D./Future (2nd new side-quest);

After clearing all 3 Dimensional Vortices in either the saved clear file or New Game +, a new option appears at the bucket leading to 1999 A.D./"The Day of Lavos" at The End of Time called "Time's Eclipse," which takes you to a new final boss that links Chrono Trigger to Chrono Cross. It's sort of like Lavos, but... different. I don't really want to spoil it for you, because it's a cool battle that bridges both games together.

Plus, it creates a new ending: "Dream's Epilogue," bringing the total amount to 13 endings, instead of 12.

Incidentally, I've recently been getting back into the Zelda games. I still have yet to play Four Swords, The Wind Waker, or Phantom Hourglass, even though I own them. I would rather play Twilight Princess on the Wii, but seeing as I still don't have a Wii, I have to wait a bit longer.
 
Thanks for the description of Chrono Trigger. I enjoyed Twilight Princess, even thought I played it on the Gamecube. However, I think the music was the best in the series, and the overall dungeons were the second best in the series (After Ocerina of Time).

Sadly, while I've beaten Wind Waker, I would have to say that was the least favorite of mine in the series. First off, and this is just my opinion, but the artwork looked a bit "cartoonish" for the series, as was the plot. However, what I disliked most on that game was the fact that halfway through, you were told to find two sages, but you weren't really told how to find them, and how to get to the islands. Same thing towards the end with a different objective. The game would tell you to do something, and then give no general direction on how to go about doing it. Plus, I sort of the felt the sea-voyaging a bit tedious.

By the way, I also love Final Fantasy VI. My favorite party was Terra/Edgar/Stragos, with the fourth person either Mog (for the Moggle Charm which equaled no random encounters), Shadow (for the insanely high damage his shurikens and their enhancements did throughout the game), or Celes (Sort of the healer/fighter, thanks to her Runic ability).
 
I've beaten Chrono Trigger before, and I would agree with everything that you said. The only game that I'm really working on right now is Breath of Fire IV, but with the semester coming to a close, and finals coming up, I haven't gotten much time to play lately.

May I ask what your favorite team was from the game? My personal favorite was Chrono, Frog, and Aila. Chrono and Aila were the main attackers, and Frog was the attacker/healer. Plus, they had a very nice triple tech and some very good double techs.

Usually I would play with Chrono, Lucca, and Marle I love Lucca and Marle's Antipode attacks. This last time I frequently switched the parties out so everyone had about the same level by the time I took on Lavos. The party I used for that was Chrono, Lucca, and Frog. Frog and Lucca's frog flare came in pretty handy when I had to deal some damage to the 3 bits that is Lavos's final forms.
 
Dman, this last time I did play on the DS version. I haven't gone through the new boss and vortex level though. I do agree with you on how tedious the Lost Sanctum was. I almost didn't finish it because of all the back and forth you have to do. I did enjoy the game immensly though. I knew I would
 
Chrono Trigger chat!!!!!!:hurray:


I usually have Frog somewhere on my team, love the guy. I feel blank without him. Ayla's a favorite, best physical attacker ever! well, as far as I know...
So yeah Chrono , Ayla, Frog is a pretty common one for me too.
*high fives ohboy* Lucca and Marle are pretty cool, although
Robo is a more common guy for me to go with :)

I should play it again.
 
Chrono Trigger chat!!!!!!:hurray:


I usually have Frog somewhere on my team, love the guy. I feel blank without him. Ayla's a favorite, best physical attacker ever! well, as far as I know...
So yeah Chrono , Ayla, Frog is a pretty common one for me too.
*high fives ohboy* Lucca and Marle are pretty cool, although
Robo is a more common guy for me to go with :)

I should play it again.

I think I'm going to start the game again as well, after reading all this. This is my favorite characters from favorite to least favorite:
  1. Frog- One point above Chrono because he has healing, and his sword damage can do a bit more than Chrono. Plus, the Masamune was double his body size, which is always worth a good laugh. Plus, I just like him as a character.
  2. Chrono- Best all around character. In my opinion, though, his single techs, with the exception of luminare(?) are a bit weak later in the game. However, I love his speed, and his double techs/triple techs.
  3. Aila- Best fighter among the characters, and her "Charm" ability can give the party some of the best items in the games. Plus, her double techs do some pretty good damage, as well as her physical attacks.
  4. Magus- He's the fourth best, and only because he cannot do group techs. His magic is quite good, but sadly that's all he really has to rely on, and that makes it a pain if the enemy is immune to magic, or his MP runs low. But I use him instead of Aila sometimes.
  5. Tie between Lucca/Robo- Both characters, at least to me, pale in comparison to the others later in the game. Lucca's techs, with the exception of flare, weren't really that great, and Robo didn't fare much better. Plus, Robo couldn't learn magic, and his defense didn't really make up for it like Aila's strength did.
  6. Marle- I didn't give her much of a chance, so this may not be fair. However, the only dependency she had was magic. As such, she was sort of replaced by the items and healing abilities of the others in the game. Even "Life 2" wasn't really enough for me to like her. Her attacks were also weak, and she became more of a liability for me later in the game. Of course, she was also around level 15 or so by the time the Black Omen appeared, so that could be part of the reason.
I'm sure that Jaycol, Dman, and Jassian are now going to grab their pitchforks and run me out of the forum for daring to put Marle, Lucca, and Robo in such low ratings. :angel
 
My list is pretty colose to yours. Might write up a detailed one too, even just for nostalgic reasons.
I created a character in one of my shortfilms who was an homage to lucca actually :)
 
Hmmmm. Pitchforks? Tempting but no. My list is as followsChrono- because he is the main character and I just have this bond with the main characters of any RPG. Plus if you equip him with the Rainbow Sword and any charm that offers a percentage of counter attacks. I don't know how many times I have wiped out a whole party of enemies with just chrono alone, before you even get a chance to tell him what to do in a fight.Frog- I think his back story is really good plus who can resist his theme song. I remember the first time I saw him cut the mountain open I really got into it and thought "yeah he is B.A. I do wish they would have let him talk the way he did in the SNES version of the game. "Tis nary a thing I can do Please be on thy way" Sounds a lot better than "There is nothing I can do please leave me be." or whatever he say at that part in the new versions. Ayla- Her physical attacks are just awesome. She really does a lot of damage in her double techs too.Lucca- I love her wondershot when it actually hits for a lot of damage. There have been times when she actually hits stronger than Chrono. She also has some good double techs like frog flare and red pin.Magus- I just thought it was cool to be playing as the bad guy. Sucks about no double techs though. His magic is pretty cool.Robo- I never really used him that much but I can see how some folks may like to use him. Marle- Before I played the last time Marle was a bit higher on the list. But as I was going through this last time I don't know why I had her so high before. She is weak and her magic isn't really all that great. The only thing I do like about her is her and Lucca's Antipode attacks. I think I just liked finishing the game out with the 3 that pretty much started the whole adventure. So Oh boy. I think I will stay my pitchfork for a little while :) :) :)
 
My list is pretty colose to yours. Might write up a detailed one too, even just for nostalgic reasons.
I created a character in one of my shortfilms who was an homage to lucca actually :)

I wouldn't mind checking that out sometime. Is there any way to view it?
 
You see, that's what's so great about Chrono Trigger, though. Every character pretty much has their own backstory and sidequest that develops him/her more before the final battle. So everyone has a chance to shine at some point in the adventure:

Robo gets to lead the party during the Geno Dome sequence in the Future and he discovers the true meaning of his existence as Prometheus;

Frog discovers the ghost of Cyrus in the Northern Ruins in the Middle Ages and finally finds peace with himself, allowing the Masamune to reach its full potential;

Although not required in the party, Ayla has personal ties to the Giant's Claw in the Middle Ages, which holds the last remnants of the Reptite race;

Marle is required to lead the party through Guardia Castle in the Present to save her father;

Although she doesn't have one specific sidequest, Lucca is a key factor in the Sun Stone sidequest, plus she gets the opportunity to save her mother from getting crippled after Robo restores the forest in the Present;

Magus has ties to Ozzie, Slash and Flea at Ozzie's Fort in the Middle Ages;

And as for Crono... well, I always considered his sidequest to be "The Time Egg" since you're using the Chrono Trigger to actually "resurrect" Crono...

It's hard for me to pick out just one character that I really like using, because they all have their own benefits. If I had to pick one character I probably don't use too often, it would be Robo. Second least often would probably be Magus, mainly because as someone else mentioned, he lacks any kind of Dual Tech and has only 2 Triple Techs, neither of which are with Crono. If I could have made a Chrono Trigger 2 (a direct sequel, not Chrono Cross), I would have kept everyone except Magus (Frog would be Glenn, but otherwise the same), and maybe added 2 or 4 new characters to the group. Don't get me wrong, I also love Crono Cross, just not as much as Chrono Trigger obviously. Also, there are way too many characters in Chrono Cross, it's really hard to get attached to any one of them. I'm really hoping Square eventually releases a 3rd Chrono game, linking the characters from both games together.
 
I would also love to see your film, Jassian, if have access to share it with us.

Second, that quest of saving Lucca's mother actually took me 5 :censored times. The problem was that the first time I played it, it was on the Playstation as part of the Final Fantasy Chronicles set, and the button configuration was pretty messed up on that sidequest.

But I agree with you, Dman. Each character gets a point in the game that they could truly develop as characters. I like that in a video game, when the plot focuses on character development, making them more than just random sprites who's sole mission is to kill things.

Jaycol, I also liked Frog's manner of speech. I think that was another reason that I liked Ayla and Frog in the same party. Chrono didn't talk, Ayla would speak imperfect English "Bad Bones" (saying that in reference to a monster), contrasting with Frog's "Thy monster cometh near!" But thanks for putting down the picthfork for now. :lol
 
I wouldn't mind checking that out sometime. Is there any way to view it?

Well it's not finished,
but if you have the patience to sit through some awfully slowly cut scenes, be my guest. :)

You'll have to PM me though, I'm currently using final fantasy music
so I got a link with a password to avoid copyright problems, until I got
other music.

This scene is closer to being finished an I got the rights for the music
http://jassian.com/5LOC/2009scene14SDmusic.wmv
(the sound still needs to be fixed, so sorry it it's hard to understand)

Actually systemcat is currently doing some cgi for it.

:)
 
Long promised:

My Chrono trigger list of favorites, by me
today, the seat behind my screen or rather in front of :)

Frog.
they changed the way he talks? Oh no! or rather NAAYY!
How dare they, my ready blade shall find them!
He is so adorable, noble, cute and somewhat over the top serious.
it's so cute to have a frog with a cape hop across the screen, and yes his old fashioned language and music just are endearing. His comments are whitty and insightful. I love his background story too. The game wouldn't be the same without him. For him the whole quest is personal.

Ayla.
the quinessential raw warrior and a lady to boot. She's always been an inspiration to me. Very pure and primal, extremly to the point and direct. Her strength isn't just physical, it's mental too. Her confidence is remarkable. If she believes in something she fights for it and doesn't stop until she drops. A true hero. And I love the dance from her village. Not to mention she's just the BEST physical attacker.

Robo.
Another amazing background story, and i don't want to spoil it, but one of his sidequests is the coolest bit of story I've ver seen. He has a Shadow gun which counts as a magic attack, but i think I just warmed up to him from the animation in which they find him all shattered and the love and determination with which Lucca fixed him. He is a machine and yet he cares more than your average human. Love the guy.

Magus.
how often does that happen in a game? What a twist. Yeah, he's mysterious and powerful. Then again not all that mysterious, we meet him as a child, and I wonder what happend to that child now that things have changed.

Chrono.
better late than never. He is the hero of the story of course, but really more of a catalyst. He's also very young so he doesn't have a longer detailed background story, like some others. Which is fair enough as it helps your average young (at the time ;) ) player to connect to him. He has a Katana, which is always a bonus for me.

Lucca.
Lucca, Lucca. What a random crazed scientist. reminds me of doc brown from back to the future somehow. She's just eternally optimistic. what? A problem? Let me fix it, let me at it, let me at it. She's a bit low on my list because she's not very helpful in a battle IMHO. well at least I'm not a big fan of her gun. Plus she is a bit outclassed by the other characters. Still adorable though, with a touching story.

Marle.
She starts out as quite an interesting individual and I've always liked tomboys, having been one myself. I still would have liked more story for her. Just another step of character development somewhere along the line. She's really mainly a catalyst who stands by her friends which is great, but in the company of some of the best characters I've seen she is the last on my list. I did once train her up like crazy and then she can become quite powerful.

I really liked the three sages too. :)
 
Now that I think about it, you are right, that Chrono doesn't really have much personal involvement in the story, other than to be the main hero. I wonder why all the other characters seem to have personal quests and stories, and Chrono just seems to be there to take a leader role? I wonder if that was deliberate, or an oversight.
 
I always thought it was deliberate so the player could see themselves as Chrono. Most of them would have been Kids, so they could identify with the character quite easily.
 
You make a fair point there. I guess that by making the main character very 2-dimensional, the average player could form opinions about the others through Chrono without having to come into conflict with a vivid personality.
 
It was the same thing with Serge in Chrono Cross. He, like Crono, was basically known as the "silent protagonist" probably for that same reason: to place yourself in the hero's shoes and form your own in-game personality. With the exception of the "Slideshow" ending of Chrono Trigger, Crono never utters a single word throughout the entire adventure. Serge is also the only character to never speak in Chrono Cross.
Spoiler Alert! (highlight to read)
(This isn't entirely true, but to mention more would give away a HUGE plot-twist.)


Damon
 
True, true. :)

Although as a sidenote, I feel chrono cross really lacked a lot of the depth chrono trigger had. I was very disappointed. well, it's a good game but it had big shoes to fill :)
 
I agree that Chrono Cross was not as good as Chrono Trigger but it still holds a place in my classics list. I love the whole parrellel world thing. It still held the feel of chrono trigger too, though by far Chrono Trigger was the best of the two. I wonder if there will be a third one...
 
I agree that Chrono Cross was not as good as Chrono Trigger but it still holds a place in my classics list. I love the whole parrellel world thing. It still held the feel of chrono trigger too, though by far Chrono Trigger was the best of the two. I wonder if there will be a third one...

Well, there was a third title trademarked or something a number of years back, called "Chrono Break" ("Chrono Brake" in Japan). Square Enix has since let the trademark expire in the U.S. (although they did keep the Japanese trademark). This leads me to believe that they're still contemplating releasing a sequel someday. They've so much as said that it would be difficult to create a sequel that would have the same "feel" that Chrono Trigger had because many, if not all, of the original staff members who worked on the game no longer work with Square Enix. One can only hope at this point. I, personally, think it's not a question of if we get a third game, but when.

Damon
 
Just wanted to know what everyone is playing presently. I am in the middle of Fallout 3. I have had if for about a month and a half and I have only done about 3 of the main story missions. There is so much to do in that game it is easy to get sidetracked.