Friday Video: Alternate history
by JC Fletcher 
{ Jul 4th 2008 at 6:00PM }
This week, everybody freaked out (justifiably) about a port of a thirteen-year-old game. Since we can't manage to think about anything else, we thought we would all sit back together for some Chrono Trigger content today, and celebrate our independence from having to keep another system hooked up.
This animated scene was added to the last enhanced port of Chrono Trigger, made for the PlayStation. Square Enix doesn't seem to have a problem putting FMV on the DS, so we'll probably see it in the new version as well. Hopefully the other new feature from that version -- interminable loading times -- won't also be implemented.
Go back in time to five minutes ago so your popcorn will be ready right now!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Roto13 @ Jul 4th 2008 6:19PM
Goddamn Akira Toriyama character designs.
aj @ Jul 4th 2008 7:01PM
Well, at least it wasn't just a bunch of sweaty people standing around in the usual Toriyama milieu.
RDX @ Jul 4th 2008 7:24PM
Agreed. Love the characters themselves, but seeing them all anime-fied makes them just look like more Toriyama crap.
Roto13 @ Jul 4th 2008 7:33PM
It's not even the fact that it's anime styled that bothers me, really. It's the fact that everyone either looks like Goku or Bulma with a new hairstyle and clothes.
Alexisonfire @ Jul 4th 2008 8:34PM
I don't find the character designs all that bad. Sure, the DBZ parallels are there, but I think it fits the game. I mean, if DBZ never existed (which is what I tend to convince myself into thinking), this would be perfect for the characters.
The thing that bugs me the most is that all the sound effects in the videos are recycled from DBZ.
Roto13 @ Jul 4th 2008 9:09PM
If DBZ didn't exist then everyone would look like the hero and Jesica from Dragon Quest VIII. (And characters from every other Dragon Quest game as well.)
Alexisonfire @ Jul 5th 2008 12:30AM
True. True. But I think comparing Chrono Trigger to a long established and successful RPG series would be a lot better than it being compared to an anime series that everyone thought was the "coolest ting evar" when they were nine.
aj @ Jul 5th 2008 1:16AM
To be fair, even as a 9 year old I hated DBZ.
jimmygotsmack @ Jul 5th 2008 5:23AM
What with the akira hate, but be fair, would you rather have everyone look like malnourished teenagers "cough" twewy "cough ", or emo band members "cough " FF7 and 8 "cough " not to mention that this game was made in 95, do you want everyone's sprite to be changed now?
You also never have any other animator get called out on this because they never had a series that went as big as dbz. For example, scry-ed, are you telling me you didn't notice how half the people looked like gundam seed characters? Hell, some of their clothes where even the same. Of course not, but everyone knows what dbz looks like, and will automatically think that before anything else.
Then again, crono hair.....
and then there is lucca bulma, come on, bluma changes her hair how many times in the series?(What child of the late 90s that had cartoon network didn't watch it, apparently some listed above.) Although they share the same interests, maybe he likes to identify characters who are tech heads with purple hair? Who knows, still prefer his over some other animators square has used over the years.
Heres another fun one Tifa ff7, Rinoa ff8...... Tifa + breast reduction = Rinoa
Roto13 @ Jul 5th 2008 11:03AM
I love how all of the horrible character designs you mentioned were from Tetsuya Nomura. xD He's terrible. The worst thing to happen to Final Fantasy, really.
Anyway, the reason most other character designers don't get called out isn't because they haven't done anything as popular as DBZ. It's because most of the time it's not face-slappingly obvious that the same designer has worked on several projects.
I don't even know what "scry-ed" is.
jimmygotsmack @ Jul 5th 2008 2:29PM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-CRY-ed
Its basically x-men, kids are being born with awesome powers, and there is an organization that is trying to stop and or exploit it. Only this time, the organization isn't run by red necks, but by cliche anime villians. Personally I think the red necks had personality.
I'm being harder on it then it actually deserves. Its actually a good series.
Point being, Gundam seed characters are in it.
Yes, Tetsuya Nomura is pretty horrible...
http://images.encyclopediadramatica.com/images/7/73/Nothing_alike_75.jpg
Why do they keep on using him? Look how he screwed up Brave fencer mushashi sequel.
I'm just saying, Crono looks like he could take on a tank. Which is awesome.
Roto13 @ Jul 5th 2008 2:31PM
They keep using him for the same reason they keep using Akira Toriyama. Japanese people are weird.
Alexisonfire @ Jul 5th 2008 2:53PM
Hey, I'm defending the art style. It is a heck of a lot better than FF7-esque design that later square games had. I find it perfect for the game. It's the unwanted connection that I dislike. It is so damn obvious to everyone that it looks like Dragon Ball Z that everyone associates it with it, like story and which age group it would appeal to. Which does not do CT justice.
But I agree that if DBZ had not been popular, hence my whole "DBZ did not exist" arguement, then most people wouldn't make the connection. Even if they looked exactly the same.
And to those who thought DBZ sucked when they were nine or younger, I applaud you. I unfortunately did not have that common sense back then.
pent @ Jul 4th 2008 6:26PM
Incidentally there's a countdown timer on the site now. Is there a big event happening next Thursday?
http://www.square-enix.co.jp/ctds/
Not Kyon @ Jul 4th 2008 6:34PM
I actually kind of wish they won't use this as the opening like they did for the PSOne version and keep the original SNES one.
The SNES version just seems more.. epic, y'know?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6d1h76ZWcuM
SephFinale @ Jul 4th 2008 8:49PM
The poster of that video needs to be swayed to the side of time travel.
TJF588 @ Jul 5th 2008 12:58AM
Eh, I rather like how Lucca looks, and at least Robo doesn't look like a mecha-Namek like many of the robots do (though the constant use of lines standing in for ribbedtubes or what have you bothers me; At least Amano's are actually bands of color instead of just a chopped-up whole), and I think what really breaks it is C[h]rono's severely-sectioned hair. Overall, though, the character designs looks alright; Chrono Trigger feels like its own piece. Well, aside from that Android-looking guy behind Lucca (her dad?). Agree'd on the sound effects, though.
Here's hoping Frog's sword isn't the Masamune anymore! Srsly, what self-respecting Square game would dare give the title "Masamune" to a double-edged Euro-style sword?
Red @ Jul 5th 2008 2:05AM
They could go back to the Grandleon name as seen in Japan, I suppose.
But otherwise...think about poor Masa and Mune. Translated the way they are, it just wouldn't make sense for them to join together to form the Excalibur, would it? Y'gotta have a heart for them and their situation. Either their name doesn't make sense or the sword type doesn't make sense. They just can't win.
TJF588 @ Jul 5th 2008 5:41AM
Mind, I haven't played through CT, so I don't know the ins and outs of anything in particular past the first time warp (unless you count some Let's Play reading).
As for the names... Well, Sword of Mana had "Granz", and FFII/KH have their Leons, so unless Excalibur is a different sword, I could see them having little difficulty modifying those characters. If not, Exca and Liber (yeash, "Libra", "Liber", when will the "i" work like it looks it should?) oughta work well enough.
Kefka @ Jul 5th 2008 9:32PM
Yeah, I'm with everyone else who gets a bad taste in their mouth when seeing the same 2 or 3 character designs Akira Toriyama seems to be capable of repeated over and over.
FMVs of Chrono Trigger just remind me of the fact that he had a hand in it - something which the original sprites happily let me forget while playing :P
Matt G. @ Jul 5th 2008 11:03PM
Wow, am I the only one who actually really likes the FMVs included for the PS1 port?
I watched DBZ like a fiend back in the day, and even though the designs for CT's characters resemble Goku and clan, that doesn't stop me from separating the two in my head. They're completely different.