Chrono Trigger
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I’ve fallen for Chrono Trigger’s text adventure pseudo-sequel
I’ve fallen for ‘Chrono Trigger’s’ pseudo-sequel text adventure, Radical Dreamers.
A surprise PC update makes ‘Chrono Trigger’ playable on ultrawide screen displays
Earlier this week, Square Enix updated the Steam version of Chrono Trigger for the first time in four years to add ultrawide screen support.
Games of a Lifetime: Xav's picks
After more than ten years devoted to video games and the people who make them, Joystiq is closing its doors. We won't be reporting on the best games of 2015, so join us for one last hurrah as the Joystiq family reveals their Games of a Lifetime. Chrono Trigger In my recent Joystiq Presents episode I talked about the profound impact the strategy guide of Chrono Trigger had on my love of games. Being able to finally play the game, just thinking of the first time I had that chance, still gets me a little choked up. It still stands as my favorite game of all time. I've played it a countless amount of times on so many platforms. It has wonderful characters, a story about fighting fate and shaping the world. I don't know if was supposed to be so "heady," but I think of it that way. It was meaningful, it showed the consequences of action, it had a talking Frog and a badass Robot. To me, Chrono Trigger is perfect.
Theatrhythm's new DLC Beat stars The World Ends with You
Theatrhythm Curtain Call continues to ignore its Final Fantasy prefix by adding The World Ends with You music as part of the latest DLC batch. "Twister," the 2007 JRPG's theme song , and "Calling" are two of six new tracks available now in the 3DS rhythm game. As per the Shibuya-infused DS game, Twister is a Battle Music Sequence in Curtain Call while background tune Calling is a Field Music Sequence. The three other new BMS tunes are "Liberi Fatali" from Final Fantasy 8, "Final Confrontation" from Romancing SaGa 3, and "World Revolution" from Chrono Trigger. The sixth song and second FMS is "Wind Scene," also from Chrono Trigger. All six DLC songs are priced 99 cents (£0.89/€0.99). To remind yourself of TWEWY's J-pop music - your humble author would argue it's one of the best soundtracks you'll find on the DS - do the Twister again below the break. By the way, don't think the Curtain Call DLC train is stopping just yet. According to Square Enix, the game's next dollop of add-ons is planned to arrive on February 19.
Curtain Call DLC channels Chrono Trigger, SaGa, FF14, Secret of Mana
Just last month, Square Enix released what it stated was the last planned DLC for Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call. The developer's plans thankfully seem to have changed however, as a report from Dengeki Online (as translated by Siliconera) notes extra, impending DLC tracks featuring tunes from Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, Final Fantasy 14 and the SaGa series. A bulletpoint outline is available after the break for this batch of tracks, which will arrive on Japan's 3DS eShop on December 24 for 150 yen apiece (though "Ultima" and "Hard to Miss" will be free for the first two weeks). Square Enix hasn't shared plans to bring the DLC encore stateside, but hopefully it will succumb to the gift-giving spirit and spread the love.
Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest games discounted on mobile
If you've been jonesing for some retro-styled RPG questing but stopped short of buying your favorites when you saw Square Enix's premium mobile game prices, your patience has paid off. Many games in the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest franchises are now available from iTunes and Google Play at steep discounts as part of Square Enix's Mobile Holiday Sale. Starting this week, you can pick up remade mobile ports of Final Fantasy 1 and 2 for $3.99 apiece. Final Fantasy 3 through 6 are up for grabs at $7.99 each, and Final Fantasy Tactics is currently on sale for $6.99. Dragon Quest series fans get some love with price drops for Dragon Quest 2 ($2.99) and Dragon Quest 8 ($12.99). If SNES throwbacks are your thing, you might also want to grab Chrono Trigger at $4.99 and Secret of Mana for $3.99. Sale prices are in effect through January 5. [Image: Square Enix)
Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts music from Tokyo Philharmonic
The Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra recorded Symphonic Fantasies Tokyo, a live album of classic video game music, during its two days of sold-out shows in 2012. The performance includes orchestral renditions of music from Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Secret of Mana, Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross – and the full album is now available worldwide on iTunes, courtesy of X5 Music Group. Kingdom Hearts composer Yoko Shimomura says of the new album, "Symphonic Fantasies Tokyo is a wonderful experience – I cannot imagine a higher appreciation of my work." Hear "Fantasy 1: Kingdom Hearts," the only track released in full to the wide and wild internet, below. It's a fairly spectacular feast for the ears and heart.
Jukebox Heroes: Super Adventure Box's soundtrack
OK, yeah, how could I not do this? I know that we at Massively have gone a little ga-ga over ArenaNet's stellar April Fools' Day prank-slash-massive update, but when I saw that the team released a half-hour of original score in addition to all of the pixelated monkey mayhem, I knew I had to review it. Your enjoyment of Guild Wars 2's Super Adventure Box and its score will largely depend on your memories or feelings about old-school video games. For a kid who grew up on 8-bit and 16-bit games, the sound of SAB is pure nostalgia (even if it is original composition). I think it's also as catchy as cooties. Composers Maclaine Diemer and Leif Chappelle put in a lot of effort to not just make a classic-sounding soundtrack here but specifically reference and pay homage to plenty of old-school hits. Hang with me as I highlight the best of Super Adventure Box, and I promise that next week we'll get back to serious business.
Square Enix summons iOS winter sale
Square Enix launched Final Fantasy IV today for iOS at a premium price, but if you're looking for other classic Square Enix RPGs for less, the company is having a mega sale on most of its iOS titles.Classic RPG highlights include Chrono Trigger for $7 ($2 off), Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions ($8 and $9 on iPhone and iPad, respectively, normally $16 and $18) and The World Ends With You: Solo Remix for $13 on iPhone and $14 on iPad. There's many more titles on discount, check them all out on Square Enix's site.
Chrono Trigger travels across mobile platforms, arrives on Android (video)
Pulling out another classic from its storeroom of 16-bit hits, Square Enix has finally ported Chrono Trigger, almost a year since we saw its reappearance on iOS. While it may have taken its time to get here (despite the Japanese version getting an early release), you can now relive the SNES hit on any Android device running version 2.2 or higher. The download resides at the link below -- and it'll set you back 10 bucks.
Chrono Trigger now available on Android, unavailable on nothing
Chrono Trigger is now available on Android, making it officially available on everything ever made ever. Okay, that's not true, but Square Enix's classic has already released for DS, Virtual Console, PSN, iOS, and mobile phones. Which means the only current gaming device not to have it yet is Xbox 360 - the key word being yet. Yup, it's just a matter of time...It'll cost you $9.99 to experience the SNES RPG on Android, the same price as on iOS. The port includes the Dimension Vortex and Lost Sanctum bonus areas from the DS re-release.
Why I Play: Anarchy Online
If I only had more time. If only I had all the time in the world to game to my heart's content without giving up the other aspects of my life that are precious to me. If only I could go back in time and tell myself to play Game Y instead of Game X. Ah, wishes and horses. Both are full of poop! But if wishes could be horses, I'd love to have some time to go back and play Anarchy Online hardcore. I don't know what it is about this game that keeps calling me back with its retro appeal. But every year I go through a phase when I download the client and re-enter the world of Rubi-Ka for another attempt at mastering this 11-year-old title. It doesn't stick, but the fondness and desire remains. Why do I play it? I'm going to be coy and make you work for the answer.
The Soapbox: The grind is good
Disclaimer: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week's writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you're afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column. Like many of you, I have fond memories of several important video games that carried me through my childhood and teenage years. Some were deep, some were obscure, some were landmark moments in the genre, and some were Chrono Trigger. It's weird, then, with all that variety, that I have strong fondness for a game that had so little going on in the story or progression department as to be a step away from playing marbles or jacks in the street. It was a game that I'd sit down to night after night, not to go on any grand adventures or to raise my level 1 fighter up into the ranks of godhood but to just unwind. It was a game that required such a zen-like concentration that it pushed the thinking portion of my brain out and soothed me with its repetitive gameplay and simplistic motions. That game was, of course, Tetris, a game that was grind personified. It was minimalistic puzzle-solving repeated over and over again, and some days that's all I needed. When my mind was wiped, or when I just wanted to sit back in my chair instead of forward in it, I turned to these silly blocks. When I needed it and wanted it, the grind was better for me than the most complex and innovative video games of the time. The grind is good, especially when you have the option to do it or ignore it, and I feel that this has gotten such a bad reputation in MMOs that its positive aspects are overlooked. Time to remedy that!
The delightful smoothness of classic Japanese role-playing games
This week, Rowan Kaiser and Kat Bailey have switched roles -- with Rowan taking lead in this week's column focusing on the wonderful world of Japanese role-playing games. I was only defeated once in Suikoden. Even that was an accident – I thought it was a fight I was supposed to lose. Calling the game "easy" is something of an understatement. With a little bit of planning, you can win virtually every fight in the game, including the final boss battle on auto-pilot using the "Free Will" option in the combat menu. Yet, despite this easiness, Suikoden is one of my favorite Japanese role-playing games. "Easy" isn't the right term for it exactly. Instead, Suikoden is smooth."Smoothness" isn't a common criteria used to judge games. If anything, it's the opposite. Getting the difficulty level just right, so that the game seems like a challenge but is completable with practice, seems like it's an ideal. Or, you can use Sid Meier's model of games as "interesting choices" – but if the game isn't challenging, those choices don't seem to matter, right? I think acceptance theories like those are part of the reason that Japanese role-playing games are considered less important than they used to be.
The Queue: Live, from Hollywood, it's the Fox Van Allen show
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. The stunningly handsome Fox Van Allen will be your host today. I'm sure some of you are already familiar with my travels, but I've been in California since Tuesday. The last few days, I've been checking in at the Venice Beach offices of Tecca (my new day job), and yesterday afternoon, I went down to Irvine to get lunch with Mike Sacco. Of course, no trip to southern California would ever be complete without a trip to The Price is Right. I met up with actress Michele Morrow in Hollywood, and after a few mimosas, an afternoon of pricing games, and a cocktail at lunch, we went back and recorded a brief vlog. (What a terrible word that is. Vlog.) Enjoy. Oh, wait -- what's that? I have to answer your questions today, too? What nonsense is this? I'm supposed to be vacationing. Darren asked: Do you think Blizzard will take a few minutes while working on Mists and reduce the level requirement for the Outland cooking and fishing dailies? Its kinda dumb that they arent available until you character is already in Northrend.
Chrono Trigger hits the App Store, lets Square Enix fans turn back time
Square Enix just couldn't resist plucking at our heartstrings -- not to mention willing bill folds. As a timely holiday treat, the company's made good on its end-of-year promise, delivering the SNES RPG epic and cult hit -- Chrono Trigger -- to Apple's App Store. If you're wielding either a third generation and up iPhone or iPod touch, the endless hours of non-linear, time-traveling gameplay can be yours for the re-hashing, albeit on a maddeningly tiny screen. That 16-bit nostalgia won't come cheap, either, at $10. But it's a small price to pay for a welcome walk down gaming's memory lane.
Chrono Trigger out on iOS now
Chrono Trigger has arrived on iPhone. It's about time! No, really, that's what the -- OK, we're sorry. The iOS version costs $9.99, which is on the high side for iPhone games, but on the low side for Square Enix games. The iOS release includes the two bonus areas from the DS port, the Dimensional Vortex and the Lost Sanctum. Check out a trailer above, featuring what must be an iPhone from the future, because otherwise Square Enix randomly decided to invent a strange iPhone configuration just for the video. Luckily, the game will work on phones of today, including iPhone 3GS and newer.
Vintage console RPG Chrono Trigger is now on iOS
In addition to all of the other great games that appeared on the App Store last night (Batman: Arkham City Lockdown is available, and the Skyrim Dragon Shout app is out as well), the long-awaited Chrono Trigger has also arrived, and as a game, I have to give it my highest recommendation. This is one of the best Japanese RPGs ever made, if not the best, and it's a must-play if you haven't yet. The sprites and graphics are gorgeous, the characters are well-defined and the story is intriguing. The combat system does some really fun things that I haven't even seen replicated in other titles since the game came out in 1995. This version includes two additional areas not in the original game; they were added in the Nintendo DS version. Unfortunately, this one suffers a little bit from the usual problems of porting an old console title to iOS -- the fonts aren't quite right, and the overlay controls, while workable, do cover up some of that gorgeous art. If you want to play it on an actual console, you can find versions on the Wii's Virtual Console and the PlayStation Network, as well as the DS. But no matter how you play it, don't miss this one if you haven't ever given it a shot -- even years later, the game still shines. It's on the App Store now for $9.99.
Chrono Trigger screenshots out, with touch controls and redone menus
Square Enix's Members site has posted a few screenshots of the long-awaited release of Chrono Trigger on iOS, and truth be told, they're a little disappointing. Don't worry -- the game is still there, and as one of the best console RPGs of all time, I'm still excited to play through it again on iOS. But those touch controls, like a lot of Square's games remade for this platform, look pretty tacked on. The original menus for the game were so gorgeous, I'm sorry to see they didn't make the jump to the touch-based version. I guess that's all right for this title -- better to just have it out, at this point, and maybe these touch-based menus, ugly as they are, make the game play that much better. But hopefully we're seeing the end of ports like this, where classic games just get an overlaid virtual joystick and big clear buttons for their menu options. It'd be nice to have a really great old RPG remade into a port where someone has actually thought about how to do the interface justice. Chrono Trigger is due out sometime "before the end of December," with price yet unknown. [via Joystiq]
Chrono Trigger heads to iOS next month
Square Enix continues its campaign to put Chrono Trigger on every single device you own, with the announcement of a version for Leapster iPhone. The Square Enix Members blog reveals that an iOS release of the classic RPG will be available "before the end of December." No price was announced, but Square Enix tends to be bold with iPhone RPG pricing: Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions debuted at $16, and even the port of Final Fantasy is $9. The iOS game uses a virtual joystick for locomotion, and a touchscreen menu for battle, neither of which should cause trouble in an RPG. You can see the new battle interface above; check out our gallery for more.%Gallery-139969%
