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Unofficial Chrono Trigger Resurrection Impresses
Trinn writes "Planet GameCube has recently reported on a completely unofficial remake of the highly popular Square Enix RPG Chrono Trigger by an independent team, Resurrection Games [their official site is down, here's a mirror of some of the screenshots]. It certainly looks sharp so far. They're even redoing the audio. Their plans are to finish up by Christmas, at which time the PC version will be released for free to the public - 'console versions of the Chrono Trigger Resurrection demo will only be available to official developers with access to GameCube or Xbox development kits.'." Interestingly, this amateur project was formerly in development for the Nintendo 64, all the way back in 2000.
I saw this site earlier today before the /. article was posted (and the site went down), and I have one thing to say: 3d artwork and music does not a playable game make. Might make for an interesting fan demo (especially to appease the masses of Squaresoft fans out there who cream their pants over this kind of stuff), but don't ever expect this to turn into a game worth glancing at. If the people involved had any clue as to what they're doing, they would build the game around emulating the game mechanics first, and layering a framework for building new custom content on top instead of the other way around, much along the lines of what the Zelda Classic project accomplished. But then again, the fact that they've been working on this same idea for four years and have nothing to show for it except for some pretty looking 3d screenshots pretty much speaks for itself.
Mitsuda's music is incredible (this game's still considered to have one of the best soundtracks ever, perhaps surpassed only by its sequel, Chrono Cross). And the battles were about far more than just effects - there was some actual strategy involved (particularly nice that you could avoid monsters if you were careful - no more random encounters). Give Chrono Trigger another shot... it very much deserves it.
--- Bwah?
Rearranging, not replacing.
It might be my utter distaste for anything semi-related to DBZ, but there are many reasons I can think of that made me enjoy Chrono Trigger (fun battle system, no random battles, enjoyable characters/story, overall good gfx for its time) but character designs ain't one of 'em.
Hell, if anything, it was more of a detraction for me to look at Chrno and think "it's Goku with red hair" or the fact that both Meryl (Lunch) and Lucca (Bulma) looked like body doubles from DBZ.
Although you may have a point -- the enhanced detail may prove some interesting directional challenges for the crew making this remake. Are they going to be static models? Nothing more than souped up versions of their originals, complete with rudimentary animations to help express the emotion behind their lines? That may have been sufficient during the 16bit era, but it's not anymore.
Or will we see the characters themselve cringe, laugh and cry as the story goes on? Will they make the characters seem like they're over-acting, or will they be so understated it's almost not worth it?
And I just cringe at the thought of a dub of this game. Hopefully they'll err on the side of saving time/money and just go with a voiceless game.
Overall, I can't wait until this is released. Of the RPGs released since the dawn of polygons and the PSX, Xenosaga is really the only RPG that comes close to dethroning CT as my favorite RPG.
Of course, I'm not really an RPG Gamer, so I play RPGs for the story moreso than anything else, so I probably would have been fine with CT as long as its gameplay wasn't annoying and it kept its good story. Xenosaga was the same way -- the story was great but the gameplay just made it that much more enjoyable.