Chrono Trailer
by JC Fletcher 
{ Jul 6th 2008 at 12:05PM }
The countdown on the Japanese Chrono Trigger teaser site has elapsed. Now, the teaser site redirects to www.chronotrigger.jp, which loads up ... a new trailer for Chrono Trigger DS!
Featuring the original Akira Toriyama character art and footage of just one gameplay screen, this trailer could easily pass as a promotional video for the original Chrono Trigger if not for the "2008. Winter" tag at the end. The game looks identical in motion (unless that is Super Famicom footage). Of course, that will change when whatever is going on on the other screen is revealed.
After the video plays, a link comes up for an "About Chrono Trigger DS" page, which mostly states what we know (that Chrono Trigger is old, and that the DS version will differ in the fact that it uses two screens), but it mentions that the game (presumably in the Wireless Play mode) will support up to four players.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Kimiko @ Jul 6th 2008 12:27PM
Can someone post a direct link to the CT DS info page? Flash keeps crashing at the end of the trailer.. :(
James @ Jul 6th 2008 12:51PM
Here's a screengrab of it
http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/4098/picture1la0.png
Kimiko @ Jul 6th 2008 3:22PM
Thanks :)
SephFinale @ Jul 6th 2008 1:04PM
How much you wanna bet wireless play might just be Johnny's bike racing game?
Matt G. @ Jul 6th 2008 1:22PM
ewww, I never even thought about that. Man, that'd be lame.
Elmoogle @ Jul 6th 2008 4:11PM
How can a game with a three-person party support four players?
SephFinale @ Jul 6th 2008 10:40PM
Better question: How can the time gates support four people when they can only support...three?
TriptychR @ Jul 6th 2008 4:25PM
Very little is going to persuade me not to get this game.
TJF588 @ Jul 6th 2008 9:48PM
So, "Marle" was another instance of Woosley adding an "e" to make the name seem more name-like. Eira... Makes me think of "Eria", or Aria, from FFIII (still haven't gotten any further, damn Salamander).
Even though it's only one screen, what we DON'T see is battle menus. Now the question standing is which screen is which. Are battle commands input through D-padding, through touching the menus, or through some awkward combo involving choosing attacks with the D-pad and selecting targets with the touchscreen? Perhaps there'll be a play mode option, where you can choose how to direct your death-bringers (think Metroid Prime Hunters... kinda).
This oughta have NO lag, and with Mega Man 9 coming, there's an obvious "OK" from the modern gaming scene about sprite-based games. I'm prolly gonna get half-way blue balls over this, were it not for FFIV.
Josh @ Jul 7th 2008 12:37AM
"This oughta have NO lag, and with Mega Man 9 coming, there's an obvious "OK" from the modern gaming scene about sprite-based games."
Wait, what?
Also, I noticed how they're fitting the game into a DS screen. They're just cutting off the top and bottom pixels of the 256 x 224 (or whatever) resolution SNES version to fit it into the 256 x 192 resolution DS screen. You can see stuff cut off in the trailer, like Crono himself is barely visible during that one special attack in which he jumps into the air, and during the Johnny race, you can't see the actual side of the road that's closest to the screen. The top and bottom are cut off as compared to the SNES version.
This also means that the aspect ratio is screwed up, since the 256 x 224 SNES version is meant to be stretched horizontally a little to correct the aspect ratio. Playing the game on the DS (as opposed to on an SNES) will make everything look stretched vertically, you know, like tall and skinny.
Well, at least that's interesting information to me.
TJF588 @ Jul 7th 2008 3:17AM
's definately interesting info. Dammit, Nintendo, choose a ratio and stick with it; you're making things ass to translate among your consoles. I mean, the unlockable Metroid on Zero Mission is flattened or stretched (depending on how you see it) into the GBA's ratio.
As for the "what", I mean that it being a near-straight copy of a game designed for the SNES, it shouldn't have any of the lag problems seen on the PS1 ports or on FFIVA. The sprite-based thing is that even with the modern focus being on 3D, Chrono Trigger is nice enough looking and there's enough interest in teh bloki visual style to keep Chrono Trigger from being brushed aside as easily by those not particularly in the know.
Metayoshi @ Jul 7th 2008 12:13AM
Wow... thanks to the Japanese Trailer, LOTS of pronunciations have been cleared up for me (ok maybe only 2). Marle is pronounced Mawrl and not Mawr lee like my friends pronouned it, and Ayla is pronounced Eila with a long A and not a short A.
In any case, I'm glad they kept the SNES art, but I still kinda wish they did the FF III/FF IV makeover to it.
Fantus @ Jul 7th 2008 4:00AM
Well I would be more excited if this came out for the virtual console. CT on the go is a good idea but for £30 attached to it and maybe some kind of multiplayer type game.
It looks the same game, but I will wait and see. But I don't hold my hopes out for anything special from the first promo trailer.