Chrono Trigger vs. Lost Sphear | Remaking a Masterpiece
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- Опубліковано 24 лип 2024
- Visit my GOG Partner page for curated list of over 100 games ► indigogaming.link/
Lost Sphear's influences are clear, but how does newcomer Tokyo RPG Factory handle the heavy burden of following up such a classic as the beloved SNES masterpiece, Chrono Trigger?
Join Indigo on a thorough analysis and breakdown of what makes Lost Sphear work as a successor to the golden age of Japanese-style RPGs, am in-depth Chrono Trigger / Lost Sphear comparison, and why trying to remake the same style of classic may not even be possible in modern-day game development.
0:00 - Intro
2:23 - Graphics, Style and Music
6:03 - Story Analysis and Remaking the Classic RPG
13:12 - Combat, Difficulty and Scenario Design
18:37 - Is Lost Sphear a True Chrono Trigger Successor?
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MUSIC CREDITS
Lost Sphear soundtrack by Tomoki Miyoshi:
/ tomokioh
www.amazon.com/SPHEAR-Origina...
Chrono Trigger soundtrack originally composed by Yasunori Mitsuda, Nobuo Uematsu and Noriko Matsueda
Chrono Trigger "Behind the Sealed Door" OC Remix by Lifeformed
ocremix.org/remix/OCR01742
Chrono Trigger "Gale of Ages" OC Remix by BogusRed
ocremix.org/remix/OCR01635
Chrono Trigger "Weaving the Threads of Time" OC Remix by Chris ~ Amaterasu
ocremix.org/remix/OCR02684
Chrono Trigger "The Last Schala Mix Ever" OC Remix by Brandon Strader, halc
ocremix.org/remix/OCR02253
Chrono Trigger "600 A.D. in Piano" OC Remix by kLuTz
ocremix.org/remix/OCR01040
Chrono Trigger "Jewel of Enhasa" OC Remix by Omni-Psyence, TeraCMusic
ocremix.org/remix/OCR02979
Chrono Trigger "Cataclysm" OC Remix by Emunator
ocremix.org/remix/OCR03448
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FOOTAGE CREDITS
I am Setsuna - 'An Unforgettable Journey' Launch Trailer PS4
I Am Setsuna - E3 2016 Trailer
Terranigma gameplay by HTC Carr | • Video
I Am Setsuna gameplay by Evan Morgan | / ftwclipsinc
Final Fantasy VI gameplay by Sam Exite | • [RUN] Final Fantasy 6 ...
Secret of Mana gameplay by Back to the RPG | • [SNES Playthrough] Sec...
Some Chrono Trigger gameplay by Dugongue | / jigwally
Some Lost Sphear gameplay by Miguel Hernandez | / miguesenpai
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#ChronoTrigger #LostSphear #JRPG - Ігри
*True Fact:* Approximately 900% of all Chrono Trigger remixes are of Enhasa, so that justifies my usage of three separate remixes of that song. ♪♩ The More You Know ♩♪
Visit my GOG Partner page for curated list of over 100 games ► indigogaming.link/
I have to point out, Chrono trigger doesn't follow normal music progression, but instead uses a unique blend of non functional harmony in a sort've normal music progression, here's a video on it by someone who can explain it a hecka lot better than me ua-cam.com/video/5zGqN1ZOEJQ/v-deo.html
Very interesting. As an amateur musician, I don't pretend to understand it all, but you can tell they did something different with this soundtrack.
man pls review some of stalker uwu
so do you think we'll ever se a remake of chrono trigger
Absolutely fantastic music, excelent choice!!! 😎😎😎
I came here looking for a reason to buy lost sphear. I left just wanting to play chrono trigger for the 100th time. Ggm8
I think it's still worth a play, but I can see why people aren't as keen on the $50 price tag for what is essentially a well-made indie game. I got it on sale though, and I feel I got my money's worth.
Honestly Lost Sphear is well worth playing. Although it's not a perfect successor to games of the mid 90's like FF6 and Chrono Trigger, it did have a very rewarding experience for me. As a person who has been playing RPG's since FF1's release, I hope you'll find a friend with a copy or something and give Lost Sphear a chance. Because for me it was a fantastic look into the potential of older style games becoming new again.
That's the biggest issue for me. The game's price is insane, and it relies so much on nostalgia that I'd rather boot up Chrono Trigger DS that I already own (or hell, I might even try the infamous Steam port).
I don't see myself playing it anytime soon sadly. I'm playing Dragon Quest XI and that one is a god damn JRPG masterpiece, *THAT* is how you do a modern old school JRPG, it's worth every penny and incredibly well crafted. This just looks like an indie game priced 3 times its worth.
@@steel5897 THis game costs around 20 bucks on amazon right now. Time to cash in :P
Tons of good and bad indie games not to mention mainstream goodies but damn i only got so much time in life and so many things id love to check out... Anyone found a genie yet?
Ah, Chrono Trigger, the game that got me into RPGs. My Parents' house still has the painting I did of Chrono on my old bedroom wall...
Zac Hawkins a work of art based off a work of art
Post the painting on youtube!
Time got us all eh?
"But...the future refused to change." Indeed... *sigh*
Thought that was an interesting thing to reference there. Chrono Trigger has some compelling lines that are so simple but so gripping.
Mann Chrono Trigger is about as close to a perfect game as I've ever played. Genuinely my number one game of all time.
It really is, isn't it? So few games even come close to how great that game was. I wonder if younger audiences will appreciate it as much. Many of my friends loved FF6 when it was released, but I only played a few years ago, and I could not get into it; it made me think that if I had not played Chrono Trigger back in the day, I might not have loved it quite as much...
Sigusen I have a feeling younger audiences wouldn't appreciate what it is as much. And as for FFVI the two end up getting compared alot, but honestly, Chrono Trigger is still superior. Where FFVI drags on a little too long, CT is like the perfect length, you feel? Plus combat in CT is more engaging and fun
CT had a perfect length. I'm honestly having a real hard time with modern games just because they are so. damn. LONG.
Instead of CT having a perfect length, I'd say CT had a perfect pace. In CT, you always end up doing something that will progress the story, or the character's development. So we were always rewarded with lore something nice for completing quests. As such, CT never really felt long or drawn out.
The problem with many modern games is not necessarily that they are super long, but that they are often artificially lengthened by repetition, grind or insane amounts of collectibles... Either that or they just fail to keep us interested long enough until the next interesting thing.
Fnors ^^^^^^^^^^ agreed 100%
When the robot character from the 20+ year old game has more visible emotion in his character model than a human character from a modern game...
Them Robo feels.
Yikes, that is so tragically true.
Hit the nail on the head
kidmosey a defect robot who tries to find meaning
Also the frog ... ;)
I love old school JRPGs. I grew up playing Chrono Trigger, FF3(6) for the snes, Earthbound, Illusion of Gaia and more like them. I do wish that more modern games would try to be like them but sadly in an attempt to be like them I feel like they lose their own identity along the way. Square-Enix is trying so hard to cash in on this feeling on Nostalgia and get modern audiences interested in this genre again in the wrong way I think. Some of my favorite games are games about unlikely people coming together to stop a common threat. In Mass Effect various humans and aliens came together to defeat the Reaper Invasion and we got some of the best characters in modern gaming. Tales of Vesperia had one of my favorite main characters start as a humble rebel warrior and become a guild leader willing to get his hands dirty in the name of protecting the common good. One of my absolute favorites Terra from FF6, an amnesiac character struggling to find her place in the world and find out if shes capable of loving another person, low and behold coming upon a city of orphans and protecting them teach her the value of life and how she has the capacity to love another person. It's characters that grow and change with the story that are the most memorable to me.
Whenever I think about game design, at least about stories, is that it really just comes down to characters. Characters make a good story, not to other way around. And I think this philosophy has been lost in modern game devs.
Using Mass Effect 2 as an example, the plot is actually very simple. Discover threat. Recruit wacky companions. Leave to face threat on their own turf. The end. But the reason it's marveled as one of the best RPGs of all time is because of those wacky companions.
As a counter example, I have Star Ocean 4. Looking at the story, it should have been one of the most engaging stories I've ever seen in an RPG. But the characters, particularly the main character, were so garbage I just couldn't get invested.
It's like Dungeons and Dragons. The DM (or game devs as it were) shapes the story around your characters. If you try and shoehorn characters into your predetermined story it's an unenjoyable experience. And I think game design should be approached the same way.
Have you played Suikoden? It seems like you would like it, you build an army and a castle.
decusq Storytelling in a nutshell 🙌
Get that Tales studio hype! Those games have a slightly different charm to Trigger but man oh man do they have a knack for great characters. Vesperia and Abyss are runaway favorites for me with Abyss taking my favorite JRPG from the PS2 generation just barely edging out a field of real heavy competition what with FFX, Disgaea, Grandia, BoF, Persona, and Suikoden in the mix.
Ni no kuni 2 is fcking awful.
Setsuna was amazing, I loved the chill piano soundtrack as well as the simplistic game play. I like that it kept things simple instead of making things complex for the sake of complexity. The snow world was an added bonus to me since I love the winter and the game made me feel like I was in that world.
One of my worst pains is never being able to play Chrono Trigger for the first time again. That shit was so good, made me stay up all night and have serious fights with my parents. Such a positive influence when I think about it.
I watched my brothers play Chrono Trigger as a kid and tried playing as a tween, but now in my late 20's I am finally about to complete my very first playthrough and I have been putting it off because I know it will never be the same the next time, but I will probably end up playing it over and over.
Totally. Used to wake up at 5am so I could level before everyone got up and I had to go to school 😆
I've never heard of your channel before, but damn am I glad that I stumbled here.
Chrono Trigger is genuinely one of, if not my favorite game I've ever had the pleasure of playing, and everything about your video here was so well constructed, brilliantly thought out, and worded so well that I'm stunned by your quality. Please, keep producing more videos like this.
Fucking beautiful editing as always. And I gotta say this: the time and care and love for these games that you put into this video and all the rest really came through. You make these little micro-movies, micro-documentaries that are just so goddamn satisfying. I mean this, bud: keep up your level and quality of work, and you'll be up there with the greats of video game reviewers in no time. Once again: awesome, awesome job.
Thanks very much, Adam! I intend to continue making these, should the UA-cam Gods allow. XD
Urg, you tugged at all the fond memories I had playing Chrono Trigger. A fond yet melancholy feeling.
Melancholy you say.... ua-cam.com/video/QNt0JLuZwBk/v-deo.html
Neckbeard alert.
very nice analysis, I love how I didn't even notice how time fly by while watching your video!
That's usually a good sign of a well-paced video, I hope. Thanks! Great piano covers of RPGs, btw.
Great videos man, really enjoy the diverse nature of content and games, its what i want and strive for!
my advice is get a ps3, old classics and new ones on that consoles playstation network, if you don't have the space in your house for games, go digital with your consoles online features, and work yourself up to getting a computer with enough specs to run dragon nest or terra if you want.
Now I'm curious! Let us see a picture of your art!
This is a really good analysis; particularly appreciate the metaphor of dialogue scenes in older RPGs as stage plays. Earned a sub, keep it up!
Man, I hate it when I accidentally tear a hole in the fabric of time.
Mondays, amirite?!
I am continually impressed not only with the depth of your analyses, but also with just how slick your editing techniques are. It leaves me impressed and envious. Keep up the great work!
Great video and pretty much summed up my thoughts on Lost Sphear. There were some great aspects to the game. The music and main combat system were awesome. I loved being able to take full advantage of moving my character for maximum targets. But I never felt like I cared too much about the characters, a lot of that because of the lack of emoting. The twists you could see coming a mile away. The bosses who could pull off several party-ending attacks before you could get any action off annoyed me. There was also WAY too much talking. I was just getting bored in some of the "cut scenes."
I thought the game went on a few hours too long. I was ready for it to be over 5+ hours before it was. Then when the boss, at the VERY end of its healthbar pulled off 4 successive moves and destroyed my party, I calmly docked my Switch, watched the ending on UA-cam, then put the game away.
Again, great analysis and video. You gained a subscriber!
I agree, twice the emoting, half the dialogue would have done wonders for the storytelling in this game.
ChronoTrigger was an amazing game. In early 2001 I got BIG into classic SNES roms, FF,3,4,5 Secret of Mana and Chrono Trigger. I never got round to playing Earthbound but I know I will enjoy it.
Funny I came across this video out of nowhere. I just recently started hashing out Chrono Trigger on my Iphone. Love it so much and have wrote letters to Square Enix about other releases for the Iphone. I do love the JRPG Classic as I was raised through that era and was one the most greatest times in my gaming life. Hopefully like you said someone will take the reigns back and get the genre rockin and rollin again. I have also wrote letters to Working Designs leads only to find out that they are now and bought out to Gaijinworks which has informed me that although there is not a high demand for there classic games such as Lunar, and Vay etc. They are talking about a classic re-release of some of there games. So fingers crossed I am sitting here waiting and hoping for this genre to make full turn. Thank you for the video.
Great analysis as usual. I agree that Lost Sphear and Setsuna don't come close to the games they attempt to emulate; but I do appreciate them. I'm really enjoying this resurgence of classically styled and influenced JRPG's. The Bravely Series was thoroughly enjoyable for me. I am Setsuna was also great. I'm currently playing Lost Sphear and can't wait for Octopath Traveler to release later this year. Don't get me wrong I appreciate new RPG's as well. I dropped 70 hours into FF15 and way more into Skyrim, but I find myself always going back to the 16 bit era of RPGs for nostalgia reasons. I feel like for me at least, the 90s were the golden age of RPG gaming and these types of games take me back there in just the right way.
Definitely have my eye on Octopath as well. I didn't play Bravely as I can't stand playing RPGs on portable, but Octopath is coming to the Switch so it should be nice and playable on a big screen.
I understand not wanting to RPG on handheld consoles as the experience is usually watered down by the condensed size of the screen. However handheld "RPGing" has become somewhat of a necessity for me. Between my years in the military and now job in law enforcement, I don't have a lot of time to sit in front of a home console so I do a lot of my gaming on the fly. I remember playing Zelda: A Link to the Past and Golden Sun on my GBA SP in Iraq back in 03 and those games kept me sane during the deployment. I remember thinking to myself, "Wow handheld RPGs are actually starting to become playable." Since then I've been doing a lot of gaming on handhelds. FFIII, FFIV, All the GBA classic Final Fantasies, Pokémon and most recently the Bravely Series have really made quality gaming on the fly, easier for me. The Switch is great because I can finally get home console quality games on a portable-capable device. My portable gaming is definitely being kick up a notch because of the switch. By the way if you ever can get past the portable gaming issue; You should really try Bravely Default. It really nailed classic RPG style gaming while actually innovating the turn based combat system.
Your missing some great classic Rpgs ignoring the hand held space, Especially the 3ds.
Got this feeling from the demo in 5 minutes. Devs should see helpful videos like this to understand why sales were weak. So they dont just hang up thier hats but actually wow us next time..
Id hate them to get the wrong message and just decide to throw time travel in the mix in hopes to fix what the problem isnt.
That being said CT HD shouldnt even be attempted til they figure out even half of what you said. My hopes is CTHD would bring on CCHD(CTengine not CC) and eventually Chrono Break(Brake?) or whatever they end up with.
I have my own theory in that Tokyo RPG Factory, Bravely Default and Octopath Traveler are basically Square testing the water for a real sequel or remake of their old properties, but I could totally be wrong about that.
I think part of the reason Lost Sphear didn’t attract much praise and Octopath Traveller (at least the demo) did was the graphical style and the music. In my opinion, the static 3D models Lost Sphear uses don’t mesh at all with the camera angle most of the game is in. You can’t see the characters’ faces or expressions, whereas the SNES-esque sprites have large heads and have a look to match their personality. That’s why post-SNES JRPGs largely bring the camera in close to the characters during important dialogue, story, or emotional moments.
As for the future of CT HD, I want to wait and see what Square does with the FF7 remake because I can see that either being amazing or totally missing the mark. In general, I think they should update CT with Octopath Traveller-style graphics to bring it into the 21st century and retain the old feel of the game.
I downloaded the Lost Sphear demo, & *HATED* it. Bravely Default was no better. The last great RPG I played on Console was Star Ocean 4, while on the DS, Golden Sun Dark Dawn was awesome.
Sadly, Star Ocean 5 was a cheap nostalgia cash-in, & it's looking like a sequel to the last Golden Sun game will never be made.
@@TheDastard The demo for Lost Sphear is a pretty poor representation for the actual game. The game itself is actually pretty fun with a good story and cast. It does a better job of getting you familiar with the mechanics than the demo. I've honestly had more fun with Tokyo RPG Factory's games than Bravely Default or Octopath Traveler. Those games rely too heavily on grinding I feel like. I had a fairly good time with Bravely Default until a got to the end and just couldn't beat it. It doesn't help that at that point they made it very hard to grind. If your looking for good modern RPGs there is honestly a lot of them. Tales of series, Persona series, Xenoblade, Nier: Automata, Valkyria Chronicles, etc. The best of the bunch may just be Persona 5. Great combat, visuals, characters, and story. It actually made me really enjoy turn-based combat, and usually I find it just okay.
@@TheBlueLink3 I didn't find Bravely Default to be grindy at all, after you unlock a few classes (like Red Mage) you can easily break the game in half. I beat the final boss without taking any damage.
The whole restoring the world thing reminds me of Terranigma on snes, just on a smaller scale. I remember when I restored the human civilization I was sad as a kid for I lost the ability to talk to the animals haha
I only recently played through Terranigma. What a great and unique game, I need to do a video on it sometime.
Oh man.. One of my favourite channels on YT talking about my Favourite game of all time and its cousins? Perfection. Thank you Indigo, keep up the amazing work.
I don't think Chrono trigger can ever be remade because of it's charm.
I hope that's not true, but you may be right.
I think you may be right. I believe nostalgia plays a huge role in the love fans have for Chrono Trigger. That emotionally bonded bias to a game makes it very hard for contemporary games to compete with. I'm all for them to keep trying though.
I tried to look through the blind nostalgia and pinpointed why I think Chrono Trigger succeeded where Lost Sphear does less so. The colorful, emotive characters and expressions, a simple but exciting storyline, a wider variety of worlds and scenarios to explore and enjoy, and the superior readability of the graphics and crunchier sound design. If a game nailed these as well as CT did, I think it could be as good as the classics were.
No it's not nostalgia that makes Chrono Trigger so good. I played this game for the first time last year and I've fallen in love with it. And I have no nostalgia for jrpg's except Pokemon. I have never played any final fantasy or anything, so I have zero nostalgic connection with Chrono Trigger, and yet I agree with everything that was said here.
I've played for the first time five years ago and i also don't think it's blind nostalgia, but the game charm plays a big role in making it so remarkable. So games that claim to be influenced by it usually are pretty bland because of the focus on the combat mechanics and such, but forget to make the game more palatable for everyone, not just people that played the classics.
6:34 when 600AD started playing.
Got me right in the feels.
(っ˘̩╭╮˘̩)っ
@@Indigo_Gaming 3 years late, but I just want to say this.
The ‘Google Translate’ feature made your face thing suddenly turn and look at me, and it kinda freaked me out for a moment
So glad I stumbled across your channel! Fantastic video, I'm definitely going to be subbing, thank you for the in depth look into both Chrono Trigger, and Lost Sphear
I love your video! Especially the music! I remember when I was 13, back in 1995, and waiting intensely for hours outside of an Electronic Boutique for it to open in the morning, so I could a copy of Crono Trigger. It is my forth favorite game of all time (my top , 1-Deus Ex: Human Revolution- DIRECTORS CUT, 2- Secret of Mana, 3- Uncharted 4, 4-Chrono Trigger, 5- Final Fantasy 4, 6- Final Fantasy 6, 7- Killzone 1, 8- MechWarrior 2. 1, 9- Assassin's Creed 2, 10- Rome Total War, 11- Return to Castle Wolfenstein, 12- Close Combat-The Russian Front, 13- Dead Space, 14- Modern Warfare 1, 15, Modern Warfare 2, 16- Ni No Kuni, 17 - Unreal 2: The Awakening, 18- F.E.A.R 19- Shadow of the Colossus, 20- Ridge Racer 4, 21- Warzone 2100, 22- Deja Vu NES, 23- Legend of Zelda-A Link to the past, 24- Myst: Massive Edition, 25- Tropico 1) In my personal opinion, Chrono Trigger is the best quality game ever made. Have an awesome day! 😎😎😎
75% of the way is pretty damn good for a Chrono trigger comparison. A game, I might add, that influenced my oldest daughter's name (Ayla).
I think the reason it's sold so little is because no one knows it exists. To that I say, "Thank you."
I saw it on the market but didn't realize it was Tokyo RPG Factory or that it was a classic style jrpg. I'll likely go and buy it now, maybe see if I can get a discount somehow, because 50$ does seem a little steep.
Why would you say "Thank you" to no one knowing it exists?
@@TheBlueLink3
It's a thanks for bringing attention to something.
@@b1ackwa1tz2 Oh, my bad, I misunderstood your comment. Yeah, I agree that bringing more attention to it is a good thing.
I've never played Sphear, but your observations are astute and spot on. I would love to play a game with you overseeing the project! I have Chrono Trigger downloaded to my phone and play it periodically and would love to see a modern day take on it. Decades later, the game still mystifies me 😊
Hey man I just found this channel. Your video essays are so well done. I'll be sticking around. Thanks!
First time I've heard someone reference Akira Kurosawa's Dreams in years. Wonderful! @11:45
Nice analysis
It took me like 10 seconds to realise why the chrono trigger track "Weaving the Threads of Time" sounded so familiar - I swear I've heard this somewhere....lol
A very good if unconventional take on the CT soundtrack. I alternate between Chrono Trigger remixes and Lost Sphear music in this video.
loved hearing your thoughts on this, really interesting analysis!
you translate very well most of the thoughts that I've been elaborating for 20 years and I can't in relation to the poverty of current RPG games (when compared to Chrono Trigger).
Thank you. Im sharing this video whit my friends right now.
I have to say your retrospective was spot on in every way. I too enjoyed the game but wish I had loved it, but didn't because of the lack of gripping story or the inability to really tug my emotions.
A lot of the emotion that was missing from this game would hae been there had they simply decided to put character portraits in the dialogue boxes. The actual view was so zoomed out you couldn't see their faces, so it was important to do such a thing. Inexplicably, they didn't add them. Chrono Trigger got away without portraits because the sprites are so detailed.
I completely agree with you on everything. In addition to what you mentioned, one tiny detail that irks me with Lost Sphear is the musical cues. There would be a moment of sadness where the "sad track" comes on, but then after the event, it goes right back into the town/environment theme, giving the player no time for emotional attachment. This really LOST me in the immersion with the whole gaming experience.
The pacing of emotion is always difficult, but oldschool Square and Mitsuda and Uematsu's fantastic scores always seemed to get it right. Good point.
I think what has happened is that in the old days they only had a few bits of info to work with, now creators are not limited and can explore more options. I watched a couple videos about how they made games like super mario and it's amazing what they did to get it all to fit. Now creators don't have to worry so they would make things a little more sloppy.
Excellent analysis. I wish more people made reviews like this one. Subscribed!
There will never be another game like Chrono Trigger. It is my favorite game, and with good reason. It has a pretty standard yet complex story. All the villains, as diverse as they are, are all linked by a common entity. The characters all have a clear motivation for doing what they’re doing; example, Marle doesn’t just want to be a princess sitting in a castle, she wants to be among people and actually make a difference. Magus wants revenge on his deranged, power hungry mother who abandoned and manipulated him and his sister for the lust of eternal life. Every happening in every time period is connected in some way, and you could see in the future the effects of your actions in the past. It had just enough levity to make it really fun, but the serious moments held monumental weight for the characters and the world itself. The music and art style compliment each other so well and couldn’t be any more perfect for the time. Every arrangement perfectly emphasizes the point in time it is played. New Game+ and the multiple endings and side quests (which are actually REWARDING) encourage replays.
There’s a reason that the dev staff were called the Dream Team. It was a perfect storm that ended up creating (what I consider) the best game of all time. Nothing has ever or will ever come close. It is a game I have played dozens of times in my life and I can’t help but find myself attached every time. I still find myself doing all the right things at the Millennial Fair to get the not guilty verdict. I always chose not to fight Magus on the cliff. I always turn off the Nu’s switch after its work is done.
I will always love this game and will always highly recommend people play it, no matter the format.
I am so sad.. I am setsuna and lost sphere where shining beacons in the darkness... Please, please! Third time has to be the charm.
I think they're definitely on the right track, they just have to tell a story with character you give a damn about. I'm afraid that Lost Sphear's dismal release might spell the end of this experiment, however.
Sebastian Ricks tokyo rpg factory just isnt a great studio... you fin better rpgs by indie devs
Try Radiant Historia. Or most anything else by Atlus, really.
Damn, I love your reviews more than anyone else. Keep doing them man.
Wow, that's awesome to hear. Thanks for watching!
GOTTA SUBSCRIBE ! Fantastic indepth review and amazing production values.
That’s cool, the highlight a topic feature in the dialogue window was first used in Final Fantasy II NES Version.
I think you hit the nail on the head when you said hopefully the 3rd times the charm.
I will be honest, there is too many games out. When I was a kid, I would buy a game, and not buy another one until I CONQUERED it. These days, I own so many games, most I will prob play for an hour, and if it doesn't pull me in.....it prob won't get touched for awhile.
I have a similar problem as well, but am also in the unique situation where most of my free time is spent on the channel. There is definitely an abundance of games to play nowadays, however.
Things were different back then. Glad I got to experience them live and in color.
Me too. Theres been a few games in my 300+ collection though that have held my attention for longer than1-2 hours
The Last of Us
The Last Guardian
Dragon Quest 11
FF12 Zodiac Age remaster
FF10 remaster
White Knight Chronicles
Witcher 3
Diablo 3
Tales of Graces
I think its more abiut deciding which one game deserves the attention for the next few months
Dang, why'd you have to go and give me chills with that fail state graphic at the end. And how fitting to the topic at hand.
The JRPG genre will eventually go through a revival period, that is my sincerest hope.
Games like I am Setsuna and Lost Sphear are tentative forays that, while not an out of the park homerun like CT or Mana, are still quite solid in their own right, and a sign that there is a lot to love about the genre in an age dominated by FPS, MMO and western style RPGs.
Maybe the current trend with remakes like FF7 and Seiken Densetsu 3 will further solidity this renewed interest going forward.
Xenoblade is worth a play, so is DQ11.
amazing editing and writing as always
Every review/analysis of chrono trigger, i see more details that makes the game so magnificent. I dont notice those details but those details affect my view of the game without knowing them.
I was and still am a huge fan of Chrono Trigger. I replayed it a few years ago and had just as magical a time as I did back in the day. I’d love to see someone resurrect the beauty of those classics, but as you mentioned, there are certain constraints that helped really push the form to its limits, and through those limits came such grace. Though a different genre, I found Hyper Light Drifter to be as close to that old joy as I’ve found in ages. It reminded me of all the things I loved about Link to the past, but with a darker world and deeper stakes. Again its magnificent delivery resulted at least in part from the constraints of the graphics and sound. Likewise Fez. Likewise Braid. Likewise Celeste.
Time flew as I saw your video. Nice combo with a soothing voice and piano covers haha
BTW, "third time's the charm"? Tell that to Valve then.
If only our lord and savior Gaben could count to three.
You are doing such a good job expressing what many gamers feel/think. I think you should check out Battlechasers night war. I want to know how you feel about its method of originality and style
Heard a lot of good things about Battlechasers. I'll add it to the (very large) stack of games I need to play.
I truly understand that. I tried content creation and you spend so much time refining and editing that you barely get to play the game anymore. Thanks anyways. especially the Diablo series analysis you did. I listen to it while I work.
Very clever mechanics to line up multiple enemies for one special attack.
Something similar I saw in Grandia.
Haven't played much Grandia though I've heard about it. Industry legends like Sakaguchi and Yoshinori Kitase worked on Chrono Trigger, so it's possible Grandia borrowed some ideas from it. Even really big titles like Final Fantasy VII seemed to borrow ideas from Chrono like the bike chase scene and the Millenial Fair (Gold Saucer in FF7).
You gotta play Grandia. I don't want to oversell it but it's the Chrono Trigger of the PS1 area. There's so much heart and soul in the charming characters and storyline, it just makes you happy.
Oooooh I played Grandia II on the Dreamcast and it was absolutely ADORABLE! And the combat was pretty good too, it was semi realtime where the time halts whenever it's your turn, and location aware. And they re-released it with an updated renderer recently, pretty nice.
Grandia has a very interesting combat system, combined with the most hamfisted story delivery. I couldn't finish II because the the story segments were so painful. Never tried III. The first was simply mindlessly formulaic.
I remember being super excited about Lost Sphear after seeing an early trailer, and then never heard about it again. Had honestly forgotten the game ever existed. Definitely checking it out now (if I can even get my hands on a physical copy nowadays).
7:49 ok this is beginning to sound like Terranigma... your comment about the town looking similar has more wheight to it considering this..
Also on a personal note...
I love the fact that the main character from Terranigma is from "Storkolm" (or at least his village in that flip world is where "storkolm is in the other world) which is located where Oslo would be X3
so obviously a reference to Stockholm but keeping it generically Scandinavian in a more fuzzy undefined way i guess...
(being Swedish i find this kinda funny, i also love the fact the the intro song to Legend of Mana sounds like a Swedish entry in the Euro-vision song contest or something X3)
Terranigma had a lot of references to future locations in the world, I think at one point you are in a prehistoric Colorado or some such place. Great game I plan on covering someday.
I really miss world maps and random encounters. It's something magical to me to just circle around and level up endlessly, without havign to switch areas when all the enemies there are dead.
I now have an urge to play some Chrono Trigger.
[Emperor Palpatine voice]
Dewit!
Indigo Gaming So it shall be.
That was I am Setsuna for me. That game just made me want to play Chrono Trigger because it was too bland.
TheAutistWhisperer im currently playing CT and 5 hours in. I feel like not going to work anymore so I can spend more time on it lol great battles, story keeps u on your feet and the music is beautifully made
TheAutistWhisperer When you could fool someone into thinking your profile pic is from Rule 34.
Really enjoyed this video. I'd been considering buying lost sphear for a while but the original price compared to my experience of pre ordering I am Setsuna made me decide to wait - to this day I'm still unsure if I will give it a try or not.
Really well put together and considered video. Completely agree that Tokyo RPG Factory have their heart in the right place and hopefully with time they perfect their formula.
Just picked up Lost Sphear literally yesterday and have yet to get started. cant wait to start.
Great, I hope you enjoy the game!
Fantastic video man
Great review, great comparisons, great music. Subbed!
I'm interested in becoming a game developer, and one of the things I've thought a lot about was how to "reboot" the old school JRPG genre. It's hard to explain this, but when you look at games like Final Fantasy, the mechanics are actually kind of dull. For example, in a lot of cases you can just spam the generic "attack" option to power through a battle. If you can't, you can always grind up a few levels until you overpower everything in your path. But it doesn't have to be this way.
I remember when I first got Pokemon Stadium 2, it was quite a shock how different it was to battle pokemon that were the same level as mine! It definitely forced me to reevaluate my strategies, and made a lot of moves I'd previously passed over look more interesting. So I think there's definitely a way to bring back a spark to the battle systems of JRPGs. The out-of-combat portions could also use some improvement.
Honestly, should I ever get around to such a project, it would likely little resemble the old school games that inspired it, at least on a mechanical level, but aesthetic also plays a big role, and the old school games had a _great_ aesthetic that doesn't need fixing. Updating, perhaps, but the foundation is solid.
I know some final fantasys are easier in the states, might want to try playing it on normal, I'm currently playing ff6 and I'm using all sorts of different moves to defeat my opponents.
The answer is simple: there is a hugely untapped market for open-world, time-traveling themes and it hasn't been exploited for years.
The thing with the old pixel art snes games is that your mind's eye fills in the details, and you see it smooth out and with incredible detail. Everything seems to fit too... nothing looks out of place. And it looks gorgeous - even today. The new 3d engines for I am Setsuna and this game appear flat and boring. All of that rich art and detail is lost, but I dare say they are simpler than Chrono Trigger's, copy/pasted together with boring textures despite the many decades that have passed in technology and capabilities. The characters don't even live in the environments - the character models appear to stand out too much from the environments, lacking cohesion. Lost Sphere doesn't need to be realistic - but it needed to preserve that art design, attention to detail, cohesion and uniqueness to all of the environments.
When it comes to JRPGs story as of late, the best two examples I can think of recently were Ni No Kuni and Tales of Berseria, for different reasons. It's a shame Berseria is not a very good game, but the characters and story is exactly what I want from a modern JRPG. I think you gotta really make your stories stand out to get noticed now. Mimicking the snes era or prior sequels isn't going to create that same feeling people had back then - you gotta wow them in a different way, just like you wow'd them before when the story and approach was novel.
I agree in that high-quality pixel art ages really well and conveys a real sense of personality to the game. I think that some of these new games like Lost Sphear at times look amazing, but the emotive faces and animations are really lacking. Half the time you wouldn't be able to tell what they're feeling to thinking. I was impressed at how much detail was in Chrono Trigger, in one scene even you see Marle plugging her nose at a smell.
The high quality of the best SNES games gets into the enormous difference between graphic quality and art direction.
Chrono Trigger exemplifies high quality art direction. A coherent look and style to the world executed at good quality. It's not about how many pixels or colors there are, but a consistent presentation, style, and flair. It's often underappreciated in conscious consideration of games, but has a huge effect in how enjoyable they are to experience.
One way to get a consistent look is to have a very small number of artists, such as a very old game might have. In a modern game with more artists, this requires a much more deliberate effort to keep the artists on the same page as each other. But it's not enough to just be consistent. Consistently dull doesn't really make much of an impression. And I think a lot of these modern JRPGs fall into that bucket.
Just found your channel and love it! I had to subscribe, looking forward to more content from ya. Whats the song played on this video?
Awesome, glad you enjoy my work. I'm not sure which song you're referring to, but I alternate between using the Lost Sphear soundtrack and Chrono Trigger remixes. My video description lists all the Chrono Trigger remixes I used in the video. Hope that helps!
Thanks I noticed the track list. I would love to see a Wild Arms PS1 retrospect. The Alundra video was amazing and I am kind of kicking myself for not buying it back when it was released on the PS1. I ended up buying Alundra 2 as my first Alundra game -__-
the presentation of this video is absolutely amazing!
I have been eagerly waiting for another amazing JRPG that can give me the same feelings and emotions as the classics do.
sadly most games have been nothing more than a glimpse of hope of what could have been and I hope with all my heart that one day a title will come out that can match or even surpass one of legendary classics that we all love so dear.
Great work here. Other than that, I agree on all of your points/outlooks presented in the analysis. I had such high hopes for this game and what it could mean for the genre. Sigh...
I REALLY wanted this game to be great, but it's hard to look past its half-heartedness at times. It's amazing how much cleaner, better-thought-out dialogue and a few animations can do for a story.
U know a video idea i think u should do if u have any interest...maybe cinematic platformers? Talk about games such as Oddworld (which is great but i suck at it), heart of darkness, or maybe prince of persia?
"Follow me. OKAY!"
Indigo Gaming Helloooo
Those are good recommendations, I think Oddworld was ahead of its time and easily stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the modern "puzzle classics", and Heart and Prince are very inspirational to the genre as well. Don't forget Another World and Flashback too -- amazing games!
Amazing video! Thanks for your analysis
That party chat as a guide concept is brilliant. So many old school rpgs could have used that.
I still haven't beaten Tales of Phantasia because I keep losing my way 😠 and I do refuse to use a guide so maybe I can't complain too much.
Yeah I don't think it's completely original to this game, I think the Tales series might have done it before as well, but I found it useful when I was lost.
I don't know what's going on but my comment changed to something completely different just now but changed back after I took a screen shot 😱
I'm not cool with that.
"Great videos man. Really enjoy the diverse nature of content and games. It's what I want and strive for!"
It's a nice comment but it wasn't mine 😐
@@davemarx7856 Comments changing contents is likely a youtube bug rather than anything sinister.
Nihon Falcom is the true Japanese game devs that still bring the feel of that classic JRPG 90s.
Go and check out Another Eden, the actual spiritual successor to Chrono Trigger, written and directed by Kato Masato, with music by Mitsuda Yasunori. The game features time travel, the end of time, Frog, duel techs, diverse explorable environments, 60 hour story campaign, tons of side content, lovely art, and a strong yet charming narrative.
The only minus - it's only in Japanese, and likely to never see the light of day in the west because it's totally flown under the western gaming media.
thats a big minus lol
max mustermann
To people who don't read Japanese? Yup lol.
I'd still recommend giving it a viewing and raise awareness. Maybe we don't have to relive the 90s of solid Japanese games never hitting foreign shores because the Japanese companies just assume noone cares.
Seems really intriguing, I hope they plan on a global release with English and other languages.
ChillyFly
First and foremost, there might be others who read Japanese but haven't heard about the game.
Secondly, this game isn't out in English because 1. It hasn't been out that long in the first place and localizing it would be a huge undertaking and 2. The state of the U.S mobile market isn't exactly lucrative for a small 2D JRPG like this.
This game wasn't made by Square, it was made by a relatively new and much smaller studio called Wrightflyer, and so this has nothing to do with them going "fuck America". This is merely a result of practical concerns and logistics, hence why getting the word out is important. Did you know that if it weren't for something called Operation Rainfall, a fan lead letter campaign, the west would never have gotten the original Xenoblade or The Last Story for the Wii?
The attitude you argue is short sighted and ignorant, and if someone gets irked simply because someone brings attention to a good game because they can't read it, they're petty and egotistical as well.
I have no interest in entertaining that kind of attitude above and beyond with what I just said.
actually chrono trigger, didn't sell that well when it was released here in North America, especially compared to some of their other game sales at the time, however it was a masterpiece, and anyone who played it will say that, and got highly rated, and plenty of people (i think, haven't looked at the figures) bought the rereleases for other systems, or ripped it in an emulator. So not having a release instantly for NA, isn't that surprising, especially when even for major title games, most tend to have a half a year, to sometimes 2 year, gap between Local, and World wide release, at least for square, and quite a few japanese companies. I think in NA/world wide, we only bought something like 300,000 copies, while japan by itself bought over 2 mil. Thats a huge difference, especially in comparison with the fact that the USA alone has basically triple the population of Japan
Picking this up now thanks, only because of how the world map appears piece by piece, reminds me of Soul Blazer by going into dungeons hitting green circles and having people/places appear on the overworld map.
Thank you, nice to see such wonderful review.
Really good video, is hard to imagine a Chrono Trigger remake maybe the same combat with a dragon quest like overworld
Thanks, glad you liked it. Yeah there are still a few good JRPGs series out there, but they're often delegated to portable devices and Lost Sphear in particular tried to mimick that specific Chrono Trigger style, which is what interested me.
Indigo Gaming if square was making a remake would you prefer a drawing style like the FF ports on IOS or a 3d Chrono Trigger?
I loathe what they did to FF6's graphics for their mobile/Steam release. I'm still perfectly happy with sprite characters, but 3D is good too if done well with expressive and charming characters. I'm intrigued by Octopath Traveler's art style which seems to be a combination of both 3D worlds and old-school sprites -- that could be interesting as well.
Indigo Gaming thanks man!
i really don't know what square was thinking when they did most of the FF ports on mobile.
a mix of sprites and 3d could be cool.
Pedro Henrique Souto Gueiros I think I would prefer xenogears art style.
I think they should remake/remaster or just make chrono trigger 2 in the style of project octopath traveller!
No, they will butcher it.
man. i love this review and completely agree with your gaming aesthetic. what games for switch do you recommend based on your rpg tastes?
May I know which version of 600AD is that at 4:43 ? :D SO GOOD
I always list the music I use in my video description, that remix is:
Chrono Trigger "600 A.D. in Piano" OC Remix by kLuTz
ocremix.org/remix/OCR01040
It’s such a shame these “successors” had to come out of a factory, not from a dream.
Any chance of covering Dark cloud and dark chornicle?
I've been wanting to dig into Dark Cloud. It could happen one day.
That's great, man! I really think those games aren't covered enough and are sorely underated.
I love your vid, I would love if the old school jrpg style games were given that 2018 remake. I am especially hopeful for the remakes that are planned, but those games are almost guaranteed to succeed. But the idea of making a new game like this I love the effort, Im gonna pick this up just to try it out.
You're right about the difficulty thing being out of whack. My first go against the final boss, I beat the first phase in a single attack cycle of my team, only to get a complete party wipe from a single attack cycle of the final boss. It's not like I was running a glass cannon party either. Even the tanky character died before he got a chance to move because the boss used an attack that stopped the action bar from filling.
Yeah they terribly miscalculated how much turn speed and damage increase they needed to do. Most normal monsters are fine but boss battles are incredibly difficult. There aren't a ton of places to grind either, which further expands the problem.
My first go against Zemrode I was convinced he was one of those boss battles you were *supposed* to lose because of the overwhelming opportunities he got to attack. It did not help that I had some Artifacts on the field that gave both me and my enemies ATB charge when some condition was met that I can't remember. I think it was dodging hits or critical hits.
24 years later, thousands RPG'S later, and yet I'm still waiting to see a game that surpasses Chrono Trigger. Of course there are great games out there, some of my favourites are: Grandia 2, FFVII, Suikoden 2 and the list goes on.. but I feel that Chrono Trigger is a ‘once in a lifetime’ game. In my humble opinion, every detail that is required to make a masterpiece is perfect on this one; the graphics, music, story, characters - everything, and you get 13 endings. Most games nowadays only have one and its very bad.. You see, when you play a game like this, so deep and elaborated, it’s very hard not to look at Fortnite or League of Legends and feel that they are vain, empty and pointless. (they are different genre but you get the point). In a world where this kind of game and microtransactions make a fortune, I guess I will never see a game like that in my short lifetime.
Sesaru Senpai xenogears
Stars align in order to make certain games. Knowing they might never be duplicated makes them that much more special.
People always fail to make a game like Chrono Trigger because they fundamentally misunderstand the soul that made those 16bit SNES RPG's so good, less is more in design. The games had just enough complexity.
They don't always fail. Check out Radiant Historia.
What's the song at 2:13? I couldn't find it in the description.
That's the overworld theme for Lost Sphear. Very nice piece.
Talesweaver ost in the background is fantastic.
The true successor to Chrono Trigger is Radiant Historia.
HELL YEAH
Aaron Wrotkowski close to it fantastic game dialogue is a little to long my only gripe
Radiant Historia very clearly resembles Tales of Phantasia more than Chrono Trigger.
FF13-2 is the best time travel game
Radiant Historia is an interesting game.
Some of the choices & outcomes are poor in the manner of old Choose Your Own Adventure books, where the outcomes are essentially impossible to anticipate for the player, leading to a capricious feeling. It's not catastrophic for some players, as they may feel it's OK to experience silly dead ends.
What's worse, though, is the ultimately very slow combats. It's fine to have a more tactical, combo-oriented combat system. But it's a poor choice to have such a system married with many repetitive fights. What Chrono Trigger got right for its time was making fights very fast, and also making them easy to skip. Radiant Historia doesn't really learn either of these lessons.
I say xenogears eas the blacksheep of square. Least chrono trigger is believed to be one of the best rpg ever. Most people were never given a chance to play xenogears as it was overshadowed by ff7
Liking your review style, Indigo. Keep it up! You should review Legrand Legacy next.
Haven't heard of that, but I'll take a look sometime. Glad you enjoyed!
I hope Tokyo RPG Factory is starting a genre here. I would play these games religiously with the newer, modernized aesthetic if the quality of the games were to approach the great classics of the 16-bit era.
Awesome analysis of the game. Liked and subscribed.
guess I'll wait for octopath traveler
Really hoping that game plays as well as it looks.
Indigo Gaming dude have you not played the demo yet? From that alone I already have an vague idea of how the game with play.
Let's face it, there will probably never be games like Chrono Trigger or the old school FFs, just like there will never be another Mozart or another Michelangelo.
There are too many factors, including technological limitations, human elements, financial policies, cultural background, influences, etc., that need to be just right for masterpieces of art of such kind to actually happen.
Honestly, when I think about it that way I am surprised games could even be that good for once.
I don't totally disagree with your rationale, but I think there's a more direct reason this will not happen and the video touches on it with the comments on I am Setsuna. The most pressing problem is that in 1995 the best talent in the gaming industry at that time was focused on making games like Chrono Trigger. No disrespect to the fine folks doing God's work at Tokyo RPG Factory, but I don't think many of them are legends in their own time. If you pumped the budget, corporate emphasis, talent, etc. into making one today you *might* have a chance at producing one: that is a necessary (although not, as you point out, sufficient) prerequisite. It's not like great RPGs aren't made today (e.g. Dark Souls) in the same way it's not like there aren't great artists alive today. Googling "best 20th century composers" turns up a list of people who's works will almost certainly still be performed regularly 100 years from now. And the best talents in music still focus on producing works like that, even if their now used primarily to score films. But music as a medium is ancient, even what we call "classical music" is now centuries old. Gaming has moved on, in the same way that the madrigal is not a common musical form anymore.
one would say undertale is our modern day masterpiece in the rpg genre, look 10 years and it will probably still be a game to be remebered (a controversial opinion but a likely one). games like lost sphere and i am setsuna, and other modern "golden age inspired" rpgs lack what makes things become great, passion. i doubt we'd ever get a game with the same style or personality as chrono, but games with so much passion are already being made, the past is the past, why do we need a new chrono trigger when we can still play chrono trigger lol
@@patmeharder_ I mostly agree with what you said, but I don't think a lack of passion per say is the issue with those games. There is more to great games than just passion, though it is very important.
I'm actually super impressed by Dragon Quest XI right now.
@@patmeharder_ Undertale is okay, and while some moments are priceless, I feel like it hits you over the head with its morals/design over and over again, rather than letting you feel them.
I think the closest to Chrono Trigger I played that merges old school with new school very well is Xenoblade Chronicles. It has a storyline about friends who find themselves in a war between Homs and Mechonis and end up fighting to change the future. And to compensate for the real-ish proportions, emotion is conveyed in both actions and what is probably some of the best voice acting in any game, dub or sub (yes, yes, "I'm really feeling it," Smash Bros' vocal direction for Shulk was pretty abysmal). If it had a bigger commercial release, I'm sure it would've been lauded as a modern day classic.
That difficulty swing issue occurred for me while back playing Eternal Sonata. I started on a higher difficulty and got about an hour or so in when a boss suddenly trounced me. I went back repeatedly, trying to grind enemies but it was just taking too damn long. I had change the difficulty and afterward my victory felt kind of empty.
The song coming in around 2:13 is a strange combo of the main theme of FFX and the Princess Mononoke theme. What is this?
Some of these points are unnecessarily nit picky and exist in old JRPGs. The scene of Galda "disappearing" was that they enter the "party" as a traveling companion. This exists in pretty much every JRPG of yore, signifying someone traveling with you, but not an active participant in battle. Similarly, almost all old school JRPGs, Chrono Trigger in included, padded the story with filler quests. You're allowing your nostalgia cloud your analysis: you can just as easily cherry pick issues from FF VI, Secret of Mana, etc., and over-inflate them to make them look worse than their competitors.
Chrono Trigger is my username sake, so it's obvious I hold it in high regard. But it's important not to let its strengths overshadow its weaknesses, of which there are many. Nor should you allow those weaknesses cloud your judgement of the game's strengths. Lost Sphear isn't perfect, very few games are, but it holds many strengths that hold it up against those that came before it.
I thought he made very specific observations to back up most of his points, proving they were pretty objective
The problem is that every one of his observations are subjective. So yeah, his points are objective if the observations are also objective, but they're not, they're subject to his taste. One theme I constantly see in videos like this are people saying "I wish they'd make a brilliant new game in the old style, using everything that we've learned in the last 20 years to make it better", then invariably say something along the lines of "All these new things take away what gave the old game it's heart". You can't have both of these things, but it seems like everyone invariably expects it.
One thing I have an issue with is his explanations of the character models and emotion. Sure, 16bit graphics pretty much required exaggerated facial and character animations to convey emotion, but you can't do that with more modern graphics, because it just turns people off (the more 'realistic' a character looks, the more realistic people expected it to act), so they have to consider different ways to convey emotion. To be fair, the only real way to convey emotion in the art style they chose is with phenomenal voice acting or dialog. But he bypasses both of those (which I'm not saying were present, just to note) by saying that you should be able to essentially understand a scene without the dialog.
That's another point I don't particularly like though if I'm being honest. Of course you're going to understand what a scene is about without the dialog if you've played the game to death (which seems to be a very big theme with people who are die hard fans of older games like Chrono Trigger) and I've seen too many people project their own knowledge about the game as a feature (obviously this isn't limited to just this fandom, I see it everywhere).
There's definitely a degree of nostalgia that poisons the well and most old games have extremely prevalent flaws (by today's standards) that are either explained away as a feature or just ignored when people consider the game, but aren't forgiven nearly as easily in a new game (or the lack of a flaw is lamented because people started considering it a feature). I've seen this multiple times when you get someone who really loves an old game and someone who's only played it recently talking about it and comparing notes. A prime example is random encounters as opposed to having enemies appear on the map. I've seen some pretty amazing arguments about this for something that was essentially a tech issue in the old games.
I enjoyed lost sphear but it definitely holds all these pitfalls. I'll still continue to buy new, and probably increasingly poor jRPGs because i love the genre and dont want it to die.
I hear ya. It's difficult as a lot of these new titles don't hold up to the games that inspired them, but we've gotten a few here and there that were inspired (Persona, Octopath, etc.)
First I've heard of this game. Is there any disadvantage to moving your character around while positioning your Skills/Techs? i.e. does battle time keep moving, the mp cost higher, your next turn takes longer etc?
They have two modes: one mode pauses while you're repositioning or plotting out a move, the other mode is realtime throughout. I picked the mode that I used to play in with Trigger, where time stops while you're in an action plotting your move.
I've not played Lost Sphear, but it definitely had a lot to live up to if it was trying to succeed Chrono Trigger alright. I only played that game a couple of years ago, and it must be somewhere in my favourites now, especially in the JRPG genre, despite the fact I like a good lot of those
Having not played too many JRPGs growing up, going back to play some with interesting mechanics to them is always a good experience, games such as some earlier FFs, Chrono Trigger, Golden Sun, but Chrono Trigger hit all the right notes. Most of them have been great experiences, however the ones I've played have always had some other issues, be it pacing, how the combat plays out or even just how they convey the character's reactions and such. Chrono Trigger did everything incredibly well I'd say, and was amazed it held up just as well as it did even today.
Some of the best JRPGs? Cut the shit man. Replace "JRPG" with "game".