Chrono Trigger community playthrough

Welcome to the Lifestream's next community playthrough! You made your preference clear: Chrono Trigger had the most nominations and the most votes, so that's what we'll be playing this time around.



Preparation

Chrono Trigger is available on the following platforms:

• SNES (original game): released in 1995. If you're lucky enough to have a copy, you can play that. Otherwise, second-hand copies are pretty expensive nowadays, but you can pick it up cheaply (9 USD) through Nintendo's Virtual Console if you have a Wii.
• PS1 (port): identical to the original except for some new anime cut-scenes. It has been criticised for its long loading times, though, much like the Final Fantasy games which Square ported to the PS1 around the same time. It seems to be pretty cheap second hand, but the easiest way to get it is through the PlayStation Store (10 USD) for the PS3, PSP or PS Vita.
• Nintendo DS (updated port): some minor changes over the original. The graphics are split over two screens, of course, but that aside, they're still virtually the same. The biggest difference is the dialogue, which is supposedly a more accurate translation of the Japanese text. As with a few Final Fantasy games, though, some players prefer Ted Woolsey's original translation, idiosyncrasies and all. If you haven't played the game before, it's not really worth worrying about. The DS version also has a couple of bonus dungeons and includes the content from the PS1 version. Still available new (around 25 USD) if you really want it.
• iOS and Android (updated port): essentially the same as the DS version, but with single touch screen controls, a different (bigger) font and some smoothed sprites which may or may not be to your taste. Available on the iTunes and Google Play stores (5 USD).

Alternatively, you can emulate the game, which costs nothing at all if you're willing to download a pirated copy. The PS1 and SNES versions are both easy to emulate, the other versions much less so due to their touch screens.

Below are instructions for emulating the game on a PC. You can also get an emulator for your phone or another device, but you'll have to find the instructions yourself.

1. Choose an emulator. If you want to emulate the original SNES game, which is what I would do (you can always watch the anime cut-scenes from the later versions on Youtube), I recommend an emulator called higan. There are better choices if you have an old (pre-2009) or very slow computer, but the comparison is going to get a bit technical, so I'll put it behind a
   Spoiler

   tag. higan (formerly bsnes) is thought to be the most accurate SNES emulator available, but it needs a fairly modern computer to run properly (the developer lists OpenGL 3.2 as a minimum requirement). ZSNES used to be the go-to SNES emulator, but it hasn't been updated in eight years, and is much less accurate, particularly in its sound emulation (some sound effects disappear altogether). It's still a decent choice for very old hardware. Snes9x is another alternative and seems to be a compromise between the two
   .
2. Download and install the emulator. This step depends on your operating system. I'll give my instructions for higan as it's multi-platform and I'm pretty sure most of us can run it; I tested it on my underpowered 2009 mini-laptop with no problems.
   - Windows: download either the 64- or 32-bit version of higan and unzip it with 7-Zip.
   - OS X: download OpenEmu and unzip it. When you run it for the first time, make sure the higan core is selected in the setup assistant. It might only be listed as a Game Boy / Game Boy Advance emulator, but it runs SNES games as well.
   - Linux: sudo apt-get install higan. You can also compile it from the source if you prefer.
3. Download the game. Because of the less-than-totally-legal aspect of this, I won't link to it, but it should be easy enough to find by searching for a Chrono Trigger SNES ROM. Unzip the game if you need to and put it somewhere easy to remember.
4. Run the emulator. If you're using higan on Windows, you'll have a choice between "accuracy", "balanced" and "performance" executables. Start with balanced and see how it runs.
5. Configure the emulator. In higan, this involves going to Settings -> Configuration in the menu (if a game library window pops up when you run the emulator, just close it for now). Leave the Video and Audio tabs alone, but go to the Input tab, choose Super Famicom (another name for the SNES) and make sure all the keys are mapped to something on either your keyboard or controller. To change a mapping, double-click it and then press the key you want to assign. Once that's done, move on to the remaining tabs. Hotkeys can be left alone, but you might want to have a look at it to memorise the save state keys. If you're not sure what save states are, they're basically instant saves which you can use at any point of the game without needing a save point. Useful if you need to stop playing at an inconvenient part of the story... or for reloading over and over until a specific part of the game goes just the way you wanted. Many would consider that cheating, but this is a single-player game, we won't judge. You don't need to change anything in the Timing or Server tabs, either, but you might need to change the video driver in the Advanced tab. I couldn't get Chrono Trigger to work with OpenGL in either Linux or Windows, so I switched to X-Video and DirectDraw respectively, and it worked fine. I don't know which drivers will work for you, so you might need to experiment a little. Remember to restart the program after you make any changes in the Advanced tab.
6. Open the game. In higan, this involves adding it to the library first. Click Library -> Super Famicom in the menu and select the Import tab. Then click Import Game and find the Chrono Trigger ROM you downloaded earlier (it will probably have a .sfc file extension). Once you've done that, you'll be taken to the Super Famicom tab, where you can select Chrono Trigger and hit Load. All being well, you'll see a title screen that looks something like the picture at the top of this thread. When you've spent enough time watching the intro credits, press your "A" button to start the game!

Taking part

The only thing you have to do to take part is play the game at some point in January or early February, but hopefully you'll do a bit more than that, seeing as this is a community event.

Doom/Frog/Omega, who knows the game better than I do, will divide the game into about a dozen chapters, which I'll post here soon. Each chapter will cover approximately two in-game chapters (which I'll call segments from now on to avoid confusion), depending on how long the segments are. Each chapter should take 90-120 minutes to complete for a first-time player. There will be two chapters posted each week, one on a Monday and one on a Friday.

The idea is that we all play the weekend chapters together while Skyping at the same time (Saturday Skype sessions seem to have become a regular thing on TLS already, so they shouldn't be too difficult to organise), so we can discuss the game as we play it. In a slight break from previous community playthroughs, those chapters won't have any questions more specific than "what did you think of this chapter?" for players to respond to, because anything at all can come up in conversation, and because I think it's pretty tiring to have to write a lot after having taken part in the Skype call. The weekday chapters are for you to play in your own time and will still have some specific questions written by Doom. After you've played, you can answer the questions by posting in this thread. Think of it as like going to class (weekends) and then having homework (weekdays) - but the homework is fun and your classmates are all awesome.

If you can't make it to a Skype playing time, or if you otherwise fall behind with your progress through the game, don't worry! You can play whenever you want to catch up, and we might have a "rest / catch up week" at some point. You don't even have to finish the game at the same time as the rest of us, though you may find yourself a bit isolated from the discussion if you don't (unless you've played the game before).

Chapter list

Chapter 1: My name is Gato/I have metal joints
Chapter 2: We must change history!
Chapter 3: No! Let's take care of YOU!
Chapter 4: The legendary Hero
Chapter 5: Party! Eat! Dance! Fight! Fun!
Chapter 6: Power is beautiful, and I've got the power! (19th - 22nd Jan 2015)

If all goes to plan, we'll finish in mid-February (two chapters per week for six or seven weeks). That might seem fast, but I think people are more likely to stay interested with a moderately heavy workload for a month and a half than they are with a light workload for three months.

Participants

Posted chapter reports (most recent chapter in brackets): Airling (5), AvecAloes (1), Claymore (1), Cthulhu (1), Darth (5), Drax (1), The Engineer (1), Fangu (1), Flintlock (6), Frog (6), Kuja9001 (3), The Man (2), Minato Arisato (1), Octo (4).

Confirmed participation only: Kingdom Hearts530, ForceStealer, Melon Lord, Sprites.

Voted for the game only: Dawnbreaker, Foxhound_Veteran, Godslayer Gator, The Mad King, Odysseus, Sterling Archer.

Of course, you can still sign up to play even if you didn't vote for or nominate the game.

Queries, comments and suggestions

...are most welcome in this thread, or you can PM them to either me or Doom, depending on whether they relate to the running of the playthrough or the chapters themselves.

Remember: we'll start on the 2nd of January, so our first Skype session will be on the 3rd. I'll announce a time closer to that date. See you then!

Yup, I'm in!

Thanks for the SNES emulating directions!

yeah there's no pressure

no pressure at all

*sweat drop*

There are certain segments of the game I'm very much looking forward to discussing with folks, though, especially since Chrono Trigger was incredibly ahead of its time with a lot of the things it did.

Not sure if I'll be around for the weekend skype meets, but I'm definitely in. Really looking forward to playing this game (finally).

THIS PLEASES ME. I'll be watching, not playing, alas.

INNNNNNNNNNNNN!

Oh sweet, the iOS version doesn't cost an arm and a leg like the FF ports, . I'm in, and I hope save games are stashed in le cloud so I can play on my ipad or upcoming phone in the small hours.

I downloaded it a month or so ago on my phone but was waiting to see if it won in the poll before I played it I haven't played it in about 6/7 year's so it'll be like being a newbie at it again

Fuck yeah!

Unlike the FFIX community playthrough is highly unlikely I'll be able to join in on skype calls on Saturdays from 4pm to 8pm Atlantic Time.

Here's a totally awesome site where you can play it.

Our opening chapter starts...when the game does!

Chapter 1: My name is Gato/I have metal joints
2nd - 4th Jan 2015

Skype time: 22:00 UTC on Saturday the 3rd of January.



Discussion topics:

• What are your initial impressions of the game? Or (as many have already played the game), what were they the first time you started?
• Chrono Trigger is coming up on its 20th anniversary this year; how well (or poorly) do you feel it's held up overall (using any criteria you like)?
• What type of playstyle and/or mentality are you coming into the game with - do you go and explore and mess around or do you follow the story?
• Have you noticed anything familiar in the game - ideas, concepts, characters, designs, gameplay, anything at all? (This will be a recurring question from time to time!)

The chapter draws to a close in the area with the Telepods, the northernmost screen of the Millenial Fair (screenshot below!). However, as there is no save point here, your goal is to get to the World Map screen, save your game, and get back here for some discussion!

Regarding the emulated version, the sound is gone.

^That'll be a problem with the settings on your emulator. Fiddle around in sound settings and see if you can sort it.

Thanks, Doom Frog! I added the Skype playing time to your post. Here it is again so nobody misses it: 22:00 UTC on Saturday the 3rd of January.
If anybody isn't in the TLS group chat on Skype and wants to join us, my username is Estesark - just make sure you say who you are when you add me as a contact (if your Skype name is different to you TLS name).

Fixed the sound

I don't know if I'm going to join this or not.

If so I'll be playing it using Snes9x Euphoria on my PSP.

I'm all in, I'll be around for Skype for too probably. Trying your emulator now but SNES without DOS emulator won't feel right to me.

I'll be playing but I'll be late to the party I'm out tomorrow and going home on Sunday but it'll keep me occupied on the bus for 6 hours

CT really is an amazing game. I have two or three copies of it.

Don't know if I'll have the time to play, but y'all have fun.

I'll probably contribute to the discussions of the game, insofar as I remember things. I doubt I'll be interested enough to replay it; every attempt I've made in the last five years or so at playing a JRPG, even one I love, has fizzled.

What are your initial impressions of the game? Or (as many have already played the game), what were they the first time you started?

I thought it was charming. I still think this. It's a lot lighter in subject matter than most other games Square or Enix made around the same time (compare particularly to FFVI, which probably has more player punches than any other game Square ever made), but it doesn't necessarily come off worse for this. It also has one of the finest soundtracks on the SNES (second only to FFVI, really).

Chrono Trigger is coming up on its 20th anniversary this year; how well (or poorly) do you feel it's held up overall (using any criteria you like)?

It's still a fantastic game by any objective criterion you can imagine. The gameplay is some of the best in an RPG from that era; the music, it goes without saying, is amazing; the graphics are some of the finest on the SNES, rivalling other visual masterpieces like FFVI, Seiken Densetsu 3, Yoshi's Island, and Super Metroid; the characters are charming; the list goes on.

What type of playstyle and/or mentality are you coming into the game with - do you go and explore and mess around or do you follow the story?

I usually do a bit of both on a first playthrough. Since I've never actually finished any of my second playthroughs (like I said, I'm terrible about playing JRPGs these days), I've never really 100%ed the game.

Have you noticed anything familiar in the game - ideas, concepts, characters, designs, gameplay, anything at all? (This will be a recurring question from time to time!)

There are a lot of recurring tropes in Square and Enix games, so yes.

Aha, someone kicked off the discussion!

The Man said:

There are a lot of recurring tropes in Square and Enix games, so yes.

Click to expand...

oh ho - this in particular is something I'm very glad someone had to say already; I won't say why just yet, but there is a definite reason I bring it up and intend to have this be a recurring question

other than that, I really can't agree more about the music it's so gooooooood

What are your initial impressions of the game? Or (as many have already played the game), what were they the first time you started?

I love the game especially the music. At the time I didn't know what I was getting in to.

Chrono Trigger is coming up on its 20th anniversary this year; how well (or poorly) do you feel it's held up overall (using any criteria you like)?

The sprites still look good to this day.

What type of playstyle and/or mentality are you coming into the game with - do you go and explore and mess around or do you follow the story?

I do a little bit of both. There is a few things that I have yet to accomplish.

Have you noticed anything familiar in the game - ideas, concepts, characters, designs, gameplay, anything at all? (This will be a recurring question from time to time!)

The music is amazing. One song in particular, Tyrano Lair seems to have been one of the basis for my theme(Kuja's Theme) in FFIX.

I still need to set up my SNES emu and check if I have the game on that computer. There's a good chance I'm getting up at 8:30 tomorrow so... most likely I'll miss the Skype call. But I'll try to catch up as I really like this game.