I don’t know how well it’s aged for a new player, but I found it very notable at the time for being dark, if not outright macabre, at times. We had very little of that in the 16-bit era.

Drawing from real-world locales and cultures was interesting, too. Ys is another series that does that to good effect.

It helps to understand that Chrono Trigger’s story was the result of a bit of a struggle between Yuji Horii (aka the Dragon Quest guy) and Masato Kato, who would later write and direct Chrono Cross. Horii’s end was light-hearted, which makes sense given his pedigree, while Kato liked darker stuff. That’s why Zeal in particular is a shift in tone from the rest of Trigger.

One of the core themes of Cross is that actions have consequences, and I personally loved how the game pulled no punches on that topic with respect to Trigger’s cast. The idea of repercussions is only hinted at in the first game, but it’s there, and the revelations on the beach are heavily foreshadowed within Cross’s story itself. It’s a grown-up narrative from an era when players were starting to demand grown-up narratives. Its reception reflects that, as well; it earned some of the highest review scores among JRPGs of its era, and it sold well enough to require reprints. This was a game that was well-received in 2000, aside from the grumblings of a few upset Trigger fans. Cross hasn’t endured simply because it was very much a game of its time, and it hasn’t aged as gracefully as Trigger (especially its visuals).

I consider Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross to be an excellent cause-and-effect pairing, and Cross’s connections to Trigger serve to enhance both games. I love the way Cross can reframe Trigger; I think it adds weight to the actions of a bunch of kids who stumble upon time portals and start messing with things. Time travel raises questions, and Cross’s story is why I mull on those questions in my head whenever I replay Trigger.

Not that I’ve come across, unfortunately. Big part of why I keep trying roguelites. I know a lot of people like Slay the Spire for roguelite card battlers but I didn’t get super into it.

My least favorite fight in the game. On my last honor mode run, Isobel started her turn by triggering Attacks of Opportunity from both Marcus and one of the undead. The second one paralyzed her, of course. She’s lucky I happened to have a cleric in that party that could Sanctuary right after, otherwise she would have been gone.

Yeah, delightful stuff. Scratched that FTL itch I’ve had for a while but also enjoyably lighthearted in its own way. Riggs is so fun.

The script was a little rough at times for sure, like plenty of the other localized games of its era, but I don’t remember it being especially bad. Terranigma was definitely worse, though, possibly due to not getting a North America release. Would love to see a project tackle that one.

I played the demo for Metaphor: ReFantazio (my thoughts are in the demo thread, in short, I think it could be a big hit) and finished Atelier Ayesha. Ayesha has my favorite story of the Atelier games so far–I’ve only played the Arland games otherwise–but I wasn’t big on either the alchemy or the combat. Felt like I barely was required to spend any time in front of the cauldron. This was also the tightest time limit for me so far although I did still have a few months to spare. I’m ready to leave the timers behind, but I’m probably not jumping to Escha & Logy and beyond for a little bit yet.

Instead, the plan for October is more Metaphor, and maybe giving Unicorn Overlord another shot since it’s our game of the month in my JRPG Discord. Beyond that, not sure. Maybe I’ll try to get a little farther in Ys IX: Monstrum Nox since Ys X is coming out this month.

“AAAA” isn’t a thing. That was just Guillemot being an idiot and flailing on an investor call.

They really leaned into the Chrono Trigger vibe with this one.

I like their marketing approach here by making a big splash at TGS. Sea of Stars also had a broader marketing approach. I’m not entirely sure how possible grassroots marketing is with this kind of thing anymore, at least in English-speaking communities. Chrono Trigger is a sacred cow in the JRPG community, and Sea of Stars got a surprising amount of backlash for not living up to those lofty expectations (yes, ridiculous ones considering CT was lightning in a bottle even among a dream team of developers and producers).

Same. I had my eye on this because anything that remotely looks like the next Pharaoh or Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom always catches my eye. There was also so. much. micro. I’d rather be shuffling citizens or buildings around than manually selecting what plants to harvest. Plus I hate the name, lol.

I’ll probably check it out again after 1.0.

LiS2 wasn’t my favorite. It started to feel like misery porn after a while, not to mention bordering on the absurd with the variety of situations they put the kids through. I think the story would have been stronger without the cult chapter. Expanding on the themes in the last chapter might have been a better choice and more consistent with the overall narrative. I will say, though, the endings are solid in the “choices matter” department. Best in the series with that, and a standout in gaming in that category.

I liked Before the Storm and True Colors, so I’m definitely looking forward to Deck Nine continuing the series with Double Exposure.

The chopsticks one was a game changer for me. Helps with mindful eating/portion control, too (until you get good enough with the chopsticks, anyway).

It never occurred to me that a con would have this, so I appreciate you mentioning it. I’m gonna keep an eye out for it at my local cons. I’ve played a ton of riichi mahjong digitally but very, very little with real tiles.

What I’ve seen when looking back is a lot of the retro games aren’t in English. It’s not a big deal once you’re familiar with the game, but I definitely don’t recommend that approach for beginners. Not retro (yet), Yakuza 0 was the game that got me started with riichi mahjong. It has the added benefit of being a way to make a little money for other stuff in the game.

The current game I play is Mahjong Soul. Super friendly to beginners. It has a cosmetics-only gacha, and sexy anime girls is very much the trend in gacha these days.

Whoa, not every day you see Ys II in the wild!

Yes, there are going to be opinion pieces like this one filling the space for a major news story like this one, but there’s still room for proper journalism right now. I recommend folks check out PC Gamer’s interview with an IP attorney that worked in Tokyo (which was also the second link in this posted article).

Software patents are a thorny topic, and it’s worthwhile for enthusiasts of the industry or those interested in IP law to read up on the concept in general. There’s risk for Nintendo here, and I found Sigmon’s offhand comment about how Nintendo’s ramped up legal hiring to be particularly interesting.

The most likely reason is, in short, forced arbitration was a way to prevent consumers from collectively taking legal action, and attorneys ended up doing that anyway in a way that’s even more costly to companies like Valve than class action lawsuits.

It’s also caused some ugly press recently, and the US has already passed legislation prohibiting it in certain agreements. I’m not expecting it to be in terms of service agreements much longer.

Definitely one of the most somber games I’ve ever played. Agreed on the music; I’m generally not big on Motoi Sakuraba, but I think this is one of his best soundtracks. The overworld is a vibe, and the theme is a big part of why.

The undub is worth looking into unless one’s really opposed to Japanese audio. Fifth-generation localized games were notorious for poor English voice direction and this game is no exception. Even the voice track quality isn’t as good as the original.

I kinda doubt proper antialiasing is going to be ready in time, so this might be the first time I really try Reshade for a game. Even at 200% a lot of it is still rough. There’s so much motion, even in quiet scenes.

Yeah, there’s a bizarre amount of particles in the world. I guess I’ll hear more about that later but combined with the usual busy Persona-style UI, I’m expecting to hear complaints, lol.

About 90 minutes in, I’m enjoying the gameplay so far (still super simple) and already 100% hooked by the story. English voice acting is also phenomenal. I think the people who haven’t been thrilled with Persona’s slow starts are going to like this.

I’m not sold on the visuals. The handcam-style screen drift in dialogue scenes is a bizarre choice, especially with this game being on consoles and more and more people playing on Steam Deck. The vast majority of players are going to have aliasing issues on their hardware, and that’s not going to be pretty with constant screen movement on a static scene with an anime style (and then it’s not in the animated scenes either). It just feels so weird to me in a game without a realistic style.

Steam reviews are also mixed right now complaining of frame drops, and I did get some bad performance in the very early outdoor area. Haven’t been to an area with that kind of draw distance since, and even in town I was able to maintain 60 FPS, so that’s a good sign if the expansive areas are few and far between in the game. A lot of little things are telling me it’s unlikely we’re going to see substantial performance improvements in the full game, and it’s going to have to overcome the Denuvo performance hit there, too.

Edit: finished the demo just now. I’m a little more used to the visual quirks (and I have a strong hunch that an interesting explanation is coming for one of them) and think this is going to be really good. I’m understanding now why Atlus is investing so much marketing into it.