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Boy sounds like Zoolander's gay friends lol

I started playing it for 20 minutes and turned it off . Not my ff7

I dont know where the nonlinear thing comes from. Maybe its trying to specifically appeal to CRPG players, people who played baldurs gate and fallout and ultima had some ideas about how an rpg should work and maybe the people making this comarison were trying to win over the harshest jrpg critics. I would describe the game as cinematic, i think the game strives to create moments that are memorable and visually powerful. I think there's a lot of jrpgs who can't put their best foot forward on this as often as they'd like in a 50 hrb run time.

The panic that i felt when i was in lucas flashback and i realized i needed to know the answer, i needed to perform and i needed to save her mom was one of a kind. The hard part about explaining why this game is great is not spoiling the game for someone who you desperately want to share that experience with.

Hey everyone, this lady killed my dog!

Red turns into Scrappy Doo. It's annoying as hell. I didn't use him after the change because it irritated me so much. They screwed up Cosmo Canyon, it felt like a repugnant tourist attraction, and that weird self-help circle crap was terrible. It didn't feel like this could be someones home whilst in the original, it did.

The fact they made this into a multiverse game destroyed it for me. We live in a world where Aerith sometimes dies and sometimes doesn't? Death has no meaning anymore. The multiverse idea is totally played out and only used to retcon old ideas and insert new ones. They should have just stayed with most of the original story and didn't take so many liberties with it.

As someone who gets really invested in trying to get my friend group into jrpgs, to the point of buying FFXVI for a dude's Christmas/College Graduation party, I felt the later half of this one super hard. I've had so many people be like, how does it play, is it turnbased, that kind of thing--but look, I'm a gosh darn Xiu Xiu fan, I got them that thing to make them cry over something. Awesome video! Can't wait to hear what's next!!

Nice video…but a script would help line these ideas out instead of jumbling to and fro

MASTERPIECE

a year later after this was uploaded and i still find this video very profound. thank you

I see they went the same route with young Aerith as Disney's young Rey by keeping the same haircut so the clueless audience will know who it is.

How is it that you make so many different videos about so many different games and yet every single time I come away vehemently agreeing with you? How? You’re absolutely right of course about the general public’s attitude towards JRPGs and about “video games as art” the way they see it, but you’re also far more right than you know about critics just seeing mechanics and “games as product”. Criticism of video games in any era is so hyper focused upon mechanics because to the public games must simply function in an relatively safe palatable way. I see it everywhere, how so many games’ public reputation develops, it’s insane. Devil May Cry 3 is “hard but also stupid and funny” and nothing else despite having a remarkably tight character driven narrative Xenogears is “good for the first 2/3 and then stops being good because it stops being a “typical JRPG” Persona 3 is “boring and slow paced and bad for having bad mechanics and reload is ovjectively betterbecause it doesn’t have bad mechanics like fatigue” These people see video games with their value tied to their ability to consistently “function”, whatever criteria they make up in their heads for that term. I respect the hell out of you for calling this sort of thing out and applying your mindset and vision of what art is and can be to even your own videos, because judging by the ending segment this has started to exhaust you completely and utterly. So I hope that this year you’re able to escape all of the nonsensical bullshit that having opinions on video games that are supposedly incorrect garners you on the internet, and that this year is better. I wish you luck, and happy new year.

It is always disheartening when I try to talk to people about a video game that made me feel emotional in a way that no other piece of media has or even can, to only be met with either a silence or "yeah I loved the combat system." Like, sir or ma'am, this game ripped my heart out and all you remember about it is that you got to press buttons in a new way? It's weird, like, sure, I remember how fun it is to physically play certain games, but I don't think there's a game in my top 10 that's there because of what my fingers were doing. They're all there because of what they made me feel, and how the story was told, and how I got to know the characters. The things I remember most are the scenes that are effective at showing not only how the characters feel but how I might feel if I was there, because I'm controlling these characters to an extent which makes me feel like I might actually *be* there. When Lucca is sitting in silence repairing Robo to distract herself from the horrible situation she's in and the bleak future she's just found out about... I *feel* that. No amount on non-linearity or non-random battles will contribute to that being more emotionally resonant. But... who out there cares about that? Do people not like JRPGs because they don't like feeling things? Is it because people are emotionally numb? It must be. I can't think of any other reason. Anyway, a great video. I enjoyed it a lot. I also enjoy Chrono Trigger a lot, for telling a good story. I also agree that on the whole FF6 does it better. But they're both great. JRPGs are great. People should play more of them, and feel more things.

The sins of the jrpg section made me think of the funniest thing any Japanese developer could do. They could make a game where it's a thinly veiled reference to the angry gamers who don't like their genre are the villains. They could be like "the caste of the dreamless" or some shit and it would be hilarious and I would love it because jrpgs are great

What’s your take on cross?

While I have agreements and disagreements on your assessment on both Chrono Trigger and FF6, I think these points you made are much more interesting as a point of discussion: 1. People use Chrono Trigger and specifically certain mechanics such as lack of offscreen random encounters, novelty and non-linearity to bash on jrpg as a genre as a whole and the "shallow" analysis of reviewers who want to put out a easily produced and highly monetizable review. 2. The emphasis on gameplay mechanics over the game as a whole or perhaps story/other elements of a game when assessing the quality of a game and the view of games as a consumer product rather than a piece of art or something to be enjoyed. 3. On objective and subjective critique and opinion of video games and art in general. And to be clear, I'm coming at this as a fan of the jrpg genre, in fact, my favorite game could be classified a jrpg (but also other things as is the nature of game genres), feel free to guess what it is. 1. Anyways, to the first part, I would like to agree that people who praise the lack of offscreen random encounters, novelty and non-linearity are only partially correct for the reasons you laid out in your video. In fact, by the time Chrono Trigger arrived, lack of random encounters and non-linearity in jrpg aren't even a novel concept for jrpgs as series such as Romancing Saga can attest to. And it is true that a lot people do use these to praise Chrono Trigger while downplaying the jrpg as a whole. But you said opinions are subjective, I just don't understand why you attack these reviewers as haters and people who want to make an easy and profitable review rather than misinformed or people who genuinely don't enjoy those aspects of games. Like it would be just as easy for these reviewers to uncharitable claim that you're overly emotional and overly attached to jrpgs and are willfully overlooking their flaws. I personally believe that opinions and art critique is more nuanced than just being purely subjective, which I'll go over later. 2. This one, I'm not so sure how strongly you feel about this opinion, since you concede that gameplay is important to a game's quality, particularly because gameplay is the main and often only way people engage with a video game but you say that people overly focus on mechanics and miss out on the "qualia" for lack of a better term that actually makes a game good. I disagree for the following reasons: A. For some people, gameplay mechanics are the sole purpose they engage with games. They don't frankly find enough value on other aspects of the games for it to overcome bad gameplay. B. Gameplay is the primary way gamers engage with the game and most games don't offer a quality enough story or other aspects to carry mediocre or bad gameplay. C. Just because a game is very mechanically focused and/or people focus on gameplay in their reviews doesn't mean that the lens on which the game is being viewed is a commercial one. It is just as valid artistic if sometimes even more so since other mediums can offer good stories, good visuals and music while having good gameplay is tied to games alone. For example, mechanics that feed into each other. The classic example is explore the overworld, find dungeon, kill monsters and collect loot, go to town and buy items and use experience to strengthen the party to allow the player to explore further areas to kill stronger enemies and travel to dungeons with better loot to strengthen the party. Is there not artistic merit in how a game executes, expands, adds other gameplay elements that seamlessly integrate with this gameplay loop or subverting the loop entirely? Or perhaps how to create a perfect tutorial level that both teaches the player the game but is still fun and engaging to play such as World 1-1 in Super Mario Bros.? 3. More of a minor point and a clarification of where I'm coming from. Like I said before, I don't think that art critique is as simple as it being all subjective. Why do I bring this up? It is because you said that opinions on games are subjective yet you lambast these game reviewers who use their review of Chrono Trigger to bash elements of jrpg they don't like. Aren't they expressing their valid opinion too? I actually agree with your assessment of those reviews sans the grifting part. I just think they are misinformed about jrpgs because they haven't full understand what the genre can offer. Therefore their opinion is incomplete, misinformed and lesser than someone who might have more knowledge of the genre. So what is my stance on video game and to a broader extent, art critique. It is as such: There can be some subjectivity in game/art critique such as which elements to emphasize over others (such whether mechanical depth or pacing is more important) and there are objectively incorrect opinions such as opinions that based on falsehoods (such as saying Chrono Trigger sucks because it has framerate issues and crashes all the time). Opinions can also be more or less valid based on how well the opinion justifies itself based on true evidence and facts (such as saying Chrono Trigger is a great game for its charming and well pace story, varied environments and scenarios, great aesthetics and music and the way its time traveling mechanics allow the player to affect the world and engage in unique side quests compared to saying Chrono Trigger is a great game because it's fun). I think I understand where you're coming from. Some of my favorite games are rather divisive games. It sucks to hear people bash games and/or game genres you love just because they have a misinformed or false impression. It's frustrating trying explain in extensive detail why a game or genre is actually great and how all the pieces actually come together to create unique and fun experience for them to repeat the same one or two robotic npc talking points without engaging with your argument. I just take issue with the fact that you say that opinions are subjective while casting value judgements on these game reviewers as grifters and anyone who focuses on mechanics in game reviews as missing the true greatness or artistic merit of a game and only sees it as a commercial product instead of just saying they have opinions that you deeply disagree with. It is truly frustrating when people bash something you love while only parroting uninformed talking points and not actually hearing your arguments. Unfortunately, you just accept that a lot of people are like that and be satisfied that you at least found greatness. At least their opinions aren't actively dangerous like science deniers or bigots.

the praise for Chrono Trigger specifically is something that ultimately makes more sense to me when its considered as the one of the first in the line of games like uncharted - light, narrative driven adventures driven and defined by their setpieces and visuals rather than the complexity of their gameplay - though i also consider most final fantasy titles from the "golden age" to fit within that same mold And i think to really understand where a lot of the critics are coming from with their reverence for CT (and to a lesser extent the SNES final fantasy titles) you gotta play some absolute garbage like the 7th Saga or Breath of Fire 1. the emphasis placed on lack of random encounters makes so much more sense coming off your 53rd 3 minute long random encounter spent entirely on autobattle for 3 experience midway through BoF1

Wow. Plagiarizing Jon Bois? At least you got Tim Rogers to make an appearance. I disagree. Otherwise, good video. Xenoblade? Who were you subtweeting?

Wow a troon who doesn't like something good go figure

Sounds like you are less making critiques of the game, and more regarding its coverage.

About 20 mins in. You're not reviewing the game. You're reviewing how others proceed the game. Strange journey so far. Why do people care so much what others think?

I played Chrono Trigger on the SNES the year it came out, and to-date, I've played it through over 30 times on various platforms. All that to say, if this is a video for idiots, then rest assured, I am that idiot. That now said, I agree wholeheartedly with your assessment. Chrono Trigger has, more or less, become a sacred cow of gaming, essentially unassailable from criticism as it would be viciously defended even by those who hate the genre it's part of (indeed, even by those who have never played it!). And as you said, that defense is usually leveraged on the same tired, trite reasons it always is. The "no random encounters" thing always stuck in my craw, personally; like, the battles ARE the "game" content-you can't say it's the narrative because otherwise these would be visual novels. Even as far back as DQ1 (or The Black Onyx before it), the "dungeon-crawling" element of weighing your resources-HP, MP, items-vs. the unknown threat of a cave/dungeon/castle full of enemies was the core appeal of the game; the story was just icing on the cake (and that icing didn't really get tasty until the SNES era due to tech limitations). And maybe I'm crazy, but I don't want a mouthful of just frosting when I eat cake ... there's a reason why, to this day, SMT: Nocturne remains on my top list of RPGs. It's a tired argument that gets brought up every time some new RPG manages to break the mould somehow-that is, manages to sell well enough that it's suddenly justified a review of some sort. Even with the advent of universally-acclaimed games like Metaphor (which I've not played), I doubt it'll ever go away. It's a sad state for my beloved genre ... good games can and do still get made, but if they're not Atlus or Square-Enix games, they just tend to fade into background noise, or just used as throwaway examples of "boring standard JRPG" faire, both of which serve no one. I don't think we'll ever see a day when the genre disappears, mind-certainly not as long as the word "Persona" is still a license for Atlus to print money-but the wild variety of games that we got during the silver years of the 90s just seems to get farther and farther away with each passing day... Fuck, I'm old. Anyway, don't worry about it. I hope you like Chrono Cross if you manage to see it through (my hot take: it's a superior game to Chrono Trigger), and if you're able to handle the pacing issues, Xenogears would be a hell of a ride to take if you can manage it. I enjoyed the video, too. I'll try and watch more. Hope the new year finds you well.

Fire vid, cat

Saying chrono trigger is ok is like saying casablanca was an average movie. Even if you dont understand why they are milestones in their respective media.

The best way to describe CT and FF6 is the former is A New Hope while the latter is The Empire Strikes Back. A New Hope is great but it's a very safe, popcorn movie while Empire has much more depth, complexity, and maturity giving it more emotional power. Chrono Trigger is very safe and audiences generally tend to gravitate more towards lightweight, simple entertainment than emotionally and mechanically complex works. Nothing wrong with CT for being that but when you put it up against the more ambitious FF6, it's not going to mean as much.

I cant agree with your viewpoints but i can 100% agree with your facts. Chrono isnt that different from 6. I never cared for rpgs much and chrono trigger is my fav one. To me it is more a gateway to rpgs rather than a spot for people who hate rpgs.

I feel like, if you weren’t playing video games in the 1990s/2000s you might not be able to appreciate how ubiquitous certain RPG tropes felt back then and how that made people latch onto games that stood apart from them, even in ultimately superficial ways. Chrono Trigger and Persona are big examples of that because their settings give them a dramatic different vibe that the glut medieval fantasy or cyberpunk games that were absolutely ubiquitous. There aren’t many traditional JRPGs that use an urban fantasy setting. But there are loads of Tales/Grandia/Lunar/Final Fantasy-style games. “There is a well-defined main quest, but the game lets you go off the beaten path” is probably the amount of non-linearity most people want. Not the power to change the story infinite ways, but the power to not feel pigeonholed. That’s why people couldn’t stand the first part of FF13. There isn’t even the illusion of interactivity because of how narrow a path you are on. But FF7 Remake/Rebirth are always like “the way forward is clearly marketed. But we made this whole world for you to explore and mess around with.”

Critical of CT...? Choose your words carefully, Spartan. For they may be your last...

Chrono Trigger is my childhood favourite game and still in my top ten and this video is very smart and very good

Did Aerith die in VII Rebirth? Yes Did Aerith die in OG VII Yes? Did Aertih exist after her death? Yes (Ending of VII and Advent Children) Will Aerith exist after her Death on part 3 Remake? Clearly yes...

Wasn't going to waste my time watching another video heavily glazing on the nostaglic of OG VII acting like it was a game on-par with the bible and that Square Enix didn't make better stories past this same game. Regardless too much glazzing and pure recency bias on the idea that you just refused to care to understand FF7 Remake series. It's funny because it's not like you tried to understand as to why they did this especially given its the same writers and creators. Please if you're attempting to understand the story clearly try your hardest to understand it rather than saying "Oh its too complicated for me to understand.. in fact its just convoluted".

Some interesting pointed ideas and callouts that I appreciate but it’s difficult to stomach with the constant barrage of attacking every little thing that happens. Silly to talk about attracting haters when the video itself is produced by one. The entire tone of the video is just one long annoyed exhale. Not even sure if there was something mentioned that was liked.

First of all great video <3 but holy this point 55:00, I had this experience when 7 remake first came out, all my buddies that trashed JRPG's because of it's "boring battle system", they rallied behind it as "this is what genre needed" & "oh what a breath of fresh air", meanwhile I'm sitting in the corner feeling like a mad man listening to all of this feedback XD also, can I be the next f** h** girl?

This is a New Year's Gift :)

I think that the turn based combat can be very fun. I even think that random encounters can be well integrated into the gameolay loop in a way that doesn’t turn into something annoying. The thing is, most jrpgs don’t really use this aspect very well. I say that as a big fan of the genre but the truth is that a good amount of jrpgs out there have brain dead gameplay. That’s the reason why I can’t stand Final Fantasy games for the most part. It’s just too braindead. Now, I can point out many other franchises that actually have a good and engaging combat experience. Dragon Quest is the best example of the most raw and simple jrpg combat that is still able to pose a challenge to the player. Because resources are very scarce in those games, the whole combat and resource management loop actually happens in DQ, but the same can’t be said for A LOT of other JRPGs. At some point, combat will just feel pointless and obsolete. In FF you can stack up healing items or just grind your ass off and completely ignore any challenge a fight could pose to you. In truth, grinding levels and stuff is 90% of the time the best solution to a hard fight. There’s no real strategy involved. That’s my point in truth, there’s almost no strategy involved in a lot of jrpg combat systems, is just pumping up numbers and making the fight obsolete. I don’t think this is good game design, you might like it but that doesn’t make it good. “Oh but I don’t play those games because of combat, I do it because of the visual and story”. Ok, that still doesn’t make it good game design. Again, I do think there are a lot of JRPG franchises that actually put thought into the gameplay elements of the GAME. But for some reason, a lot of them just tend to ignore combat challenge and balance to focus on narrative and I don’t think that’s good for a game.

I guess you might think it isn’t an extraordinary game if you didn’t grow up with it the way many of us did. Damn kids measuring its greatness without the context.

LMAO the persona 5, love it, go off, I wanna date the teacher frfr

Love this game. Ff4, ff6, and this were a few of my favorites on the snes

As a die-hard fan of Chrono Trigger, someone for whom it hasn't exited my top 5 since I played it at 13- I absolutely agree with all of your major points: - Chrono Trigger is not that nonlinear of a game. It takes a lot of work to allow you to finish the game at any time and have bespoke(even if sometimes just for laughs) endings for all the ways that can be done, and that does in effect make it significantly more non-linear than Final Fantasy 6... but it doesn't make it *that* nonlinear, as it still is primarily defined by its linear narrative. - JRPG battle systems are not, and never were, bad as a concept. They're fucking great, and not liking them is fine, but the people who tend to treat them like they're a unique kind of awful seem to have an impossibly strong correlation to those who consider the entire medium of anime awful, instead of the idea that it's something that can be done well or poorly, and sometimes even if something is done well you don't like it. - Random battles aren't a bad thing, and because JRPG battle systems and how they interact with meta-battle resources like hp/mana can be fun to manage. But, having that loud ZOOP-ZAAP before sitting at a black screen for 1-2 seconds only to see the same 3 overworld rats I killed in one hit each in FF6 does make Chrono Trigger stand out. There is an elegance in being able to see it coming, possibly attempt to prepare, or retreat, a special pressure when you uniquely *can't* retreat. Having reasonably strong AOE available from a low level to render trivial fights that much shorter, etc. I'll also say though, in an effort akin to Jacob Geller's "Every Zelda is the Darkest Zelda", that merely having a darker ending in FF6 is neither mature, nor complex, nor inherently interesting. As you described, Kefka fundamentally is an insane clown on a power trip who won. Lavos, conversely, is an alien bug that exists across time but doesn't have the mental faculties to care that it's destroying a planet. They're not that different of villains, and similar to your point on CT letting you finish at any time isn't non-linearity, FF6 having you persist after a bad end isn't inherently good. What it really sounds like to me(and it's entirely possible I just missed you trying to convey this in your ending), is that playing FF6 in particular connects to you in this moment because it feels like we also lost, and in so, so many ways, the world is about to be destroyed. And yet we must persist. That really is valuable, and beautiful, and while probably not the intent of FF6, good art providing inspiration out of time is always lovely. I've never watched one of your videos before, and while I came in apprehensive about this, you've got a new subscriber out of me. But as to that ending monologue of yours, and really the entire point of my comment: I do think many of your criticisms of those other critics seems to be you missing the forest for the trees. If you read reviews of many games often regarded as the "best-of-all-time" for their genre, they focus not on how to convince a genre lover to love the game, but instead why even someone who dislikes it should give it a shot. This is especially relevant if the critic themselves is part of that demographic. If anything, it feels like what's been missing is a more in-depth conversation on game mechanics, from those with a deep knowledge of a given genre. I've often wished for that throughout my life, and it feels like if you'd seen much of that up to this point, maybe this wouldn't have torn you up so much. I'm glad you're doing the work of putting that out into the world for me.

Poor Chrono Trigger, trapped in the shadow of FF6, how could you do it dirty like that? That being said, the video game as a mechanical puzzle is as good an attribute as the video game as narrative art. Anyways, where'd all these dead dogs come from? Chrono Trigger is great because even though the encounters are forced (and therefore functionally identical to random encounters re lack of choice) it gives players the illusion that grinding is impossible. I think that's what does it really. The idea of the necessity of grinding having been instilled in the zetgeist since dragon quest 1 (whose grindy-ness can be excused since it was literally the first one) has really poisoned the well for jrpgs. So by doing something as simple as tricking people into thinking they don't have to do it is powerful. Likewise, the US importation of only the easiest jrpgs in the 90s (the decade that most people were adolescents in and therefore the only decade they see as valid) means that most people don't see jrpg combat as something that requires strategy and resource management, they see it as clicking attack until they win. So again, Chrono Trigger with its flashy moves gives general audiences the idea that they're playing a game that doesn't require mashing. Also the art and music is peak (RIP Toriyama my goat) with a bit more edge than dragon quest. Much like how Dragon Ball attracts people who don't like anime because of its vibe, so too does CT for non-rpg people. Anyways, I still think CT is great, the casual gamer baby that I am. But it's no Live A Live, am I right gamers?

I dunno, all this weird ubiquity of criticism regarding RPG mechanics has led to so much Open World slop that I really do think gamers and game makers alike need to reckon with their outlook. This medium is buckling under the weight of so much unexamined bias and shame. The reason I keep watching videos on this channel is because I think your perspective is not only sensible, but emotional. And refreshing, even when I don't always agree. I don't love FF6. It has a lot of problems. But how it utilizes its gameplay affected me deeply. Your explanation of the World of Ruin put me right back there. Not because the characters are defeated, but because of the way it makes you engage with the consequences of that defeat. It's mechanics as art, as appeal to emotion and experience. The ending being positioned as hope for a better tomorrow rather than a promise of one is still something I think about a lot.

So I agree with a lot of your points in this video about the story, but I do disagree strongly on the idea that the game is incomplete/unsatisfying and that the characters are not properly called out/their bad decisions are not properly explored in each route. I think the point of the game is that the characters are called out and you can see who they really are both when you are on their side and when you aren't, and I think it's clear that even though it takes like 300+ hours and a lot of people will understandably not want to dedicate that much time to the game, that you are supposed to play through every route to get all of the answers. This isn't bad writing (imo), it's perhaps the best way to illustrate the idea that no one person can possibly get the "entire story" about even one's closest friends or the world around them. It can be very unsatisfying to play through the entire game and still not know where exactly the Heroes' Relics came from for example, but I don't think that's inherently bad writing. As for Claude's route's final boss being Nemesis, I see that as you quite literally severing Fodlan's unhealthy obsession with the past. The circumstances of the Church route's final battle being against Rhea is pretty badly written, but I see that as symbolic of how broken Rhea is and that even if the Church can be reformed into a force for good, Rhea's enduring influences over the years has to be wiped out entirely. Lastly, I mean no disrespect to you personally, but I had a difficult time watching this video because of how unconfident you sound. I obviously don't know if you are or not, but you clearly wanted to make this video for a reason and should stand by what you have to say with more conviction instead of feeling as though you'll be murdered in cold blood for saying Dedue's character is kind of disappointing. I know that's easier said than done but it was honestly pretty distracting.

I like your video man You've got a well developed opinion about CT now let's hear your take on Xenogears 🤔

There will always be the case of not everyone can love everything. It is okay to simply be so-so or dislike things. Something that doesn't seem to be learned as much as it used to. Life and the people with thier experiences at the times when it happens, shapes the person into who they are. Yeah I still share the JRPGs that I stumbled into as a kid to this day as an adult but, few are as receptive to it like before. Even fewer then the few of back then. Experiences changes as well with the world but, thing to remember is the world and history works like a rollercoaster with a remix. Most one can do is survive and hold out in the bad times while rebuilding and thriving in the good times. Long as you can enjoy yourself regardless of what is happening then you never lose. I hope things go well and have a Happy New Year

It's ironic that the chrono trigger's team's next game they worked on is Xenogears, which in my opinion is the most unhinged full of itself jrpg ever, full of the tropes people claim to 'hate', and coincidentally its also the best game ever made

I think *some* of its praise makes much more sense in its time and *among fans of JRPGs*, but much less today. Chrono Trigger is not refreshing for its visible encounters - many aren't unskippble anyway, its mostly a gimmick, as you say. But it IS refreshing when compared to Breath of Fire 2, which released the same year and practically spammed you with encounters. It's not refreshing as the one JRPG to fix JRPGs, but it is refreshing if you've played a few dozen and the encounter rate dragged a bit that year. In retrospect, the encounter rate of JRPGs in the time after Chrono Trigger was much lower anyway, I cannot remember a single PSX JRPG (I played many) with an encounter rate on the level of BOF2 or Lufia 1. The talking point escaped the original audience (JRPG fans) and became a weird cudgel against JRPGs. Not even in its time most JRPGs had that many encounters. You can see that with games like Valkyrie Profile. It too has not-really-random encounters. You can dodge many (if not all, I think). Yet nobody praises it for that. People say only CT did it, that CT is a dead end, yet there's lots of JRPGs that do that sort of thing. Look at 1995s Lufia 2. Like all these gamer talking points, it's a tiny sliver of sense dragged out into a huge manifesto that's just garbled nonsense. Great video, anyway. I just don't jive with the gamer whining about turn based stuff. It's silly. They'd implode when facing a boardgame.

I don't consider this a JRPG for people who "hate" or "don't like" them. It's more of an "ease into" JRPG. Like when you're taking your friend to the gym. You don't start with the heavy, hardcore workouts. You start lite and work your way up. And as they take on more challenges, you test their knowledge on the best techniques to yield maximum results. Chrono Trigger isn't for people who hate exercise. It's a 5 lbs weight that turns into a 30 lbs weight when you're done. Now you feel ready to try Chrono Cross, and so on.

why does it take you 7 minutes to talk about chrono trigger. video essayists try to get to the point of the title challenge (impossible) i don't get people who want to skip encounters. they sound like they don't want to engage with games. if you don't find battling fun, why would you be playing to begin with? if you only care about the story then just watch a let's play. i haven't played smt but i really like how the mystery dungeon series handles random encounters, specifically in level 1 dungeons. obviously you're incentivised to seek out enemies to level up, but you also can't grind forever or else you'll starve, so this soft time limit forces you to strike a careful balance between xp and food i personally find ct's gameplay to be bland as it's not very unique and also way too easy. double techs sound cool on paper but the game heavily encourages spamming the same single techs over and over again like confuse, luminaire, heal beam, uzzi punch, etc. robo eventually becomes the best party member given enough magic and speed tabs. he can heal the entire team faster than the enemies can rack up damage. the crisis arm also lets him deal absurd damage. crono and robo are so far above everyone else that your third party member is practically irrelevant. you can also give everyone silver or gold studs to reduce mp cost, making resource management a non-issue. ct being a "jrpg for people who don't like jrpgs" is marketing nonsense as far as i'm concerned because it plays just like all the others and i doubt it could be enjoyed by jrpg haters. source: me game journalists and reviewers ironically refuse to bring up the gameplay, and on the rare occasions that they do, it's often a surface level analysis. they may briefly mention mechanics but not discuss their implications, how well they're implemented, or if they're even necessary. they will say a game being non-linear is a good thing but not *why* that is an attractive quality in the first place. because of this, when modern developers look to old games to take mechanics from, they don't question why those mechanics existed. 3rd strike had parries to eliminate setplay, but today's developers don't understand this, so they blindly add a parry to their game because it's the hot new trend or whatever, and it ends up becoming a disguised rhythm game that lessens the importance of fundamentals such as spacing for some reason people feel the need to defend the stuff they like. they believe that whatever they like has to be objectively good, even though it is plenty possible to not like good art or to enjoy bad art. this unfortunately means that if you criticise something, it'll probably be seen as a personal attack. it also doesn't help that there are blind haters, so reviewers who criticise in good faith will be lumped in with this same group of people also people still listen to yahtzee? lol

Oof, this video hits really close to home for me in some ways... I don't know if my relationship with Chrono Trigger is exactly the same as yours; it sounds like I probably like it a bit more than you do, but, like... In large part I love it FOR its turn-based JRPG-ness and its status as part of that genre. I think it is sincerely a really great turn-based JRPG with a lot going for it, and it's really frustrating to me to see how much of the praise it gets is, like... backhanded against the genre it's part of, and how much "Not Like the Other Girls"-ing people do on its behalf. I can also ESPECIALLY relate to that feeling of, like... a complete inability to relate to people disliking the conventional trappings of turn-based JRPGs. Random encounters, combat based on decision-making and resource management rather than reflexes and kinetic skill... A lot of things I hear people say "suck" about turn-based JRPGs are things I range from not minding at all to actively LIKING about the genre. I LIKE that the combat has little to no kinetic elements and is instead focused entirely on strategy! I LIKE the longer-term resource management of needing to think about your actions not just in terms of each individual fight, but in terms of how they'll impact what you have access to for subsequent battles prior to the next "rest stop" area, and I LIKE how random encounters can interact with that dynamic! I like the sorts of stories turn-based JRPGs tend to have! I like how the nature of the gameplay means you generally have a pretty good-sized cast of PLAYABLE characters whose help in gameplay keeps them feeling like meaningful, contributing members of the TEAM even after their personal arcs end! I dunno, I think turn-based JRPGs are a REALLY cool genre with a LOT of great things going for them! It's a genre I really love and am DETERMINED to contribute to myself someday, and it's just... a shame to see how much they just get dismissed by a lot of people. I mean... if something isn't for you, then it isn't for you, and that's just fine, but there's this weird pervasive idea that, like, things like turn-based combat and random encounters and such are flat-out "obsolete" as mechanics, and even people who claim to like it are lying or otherwise "have to admit it's not Objectively Good", as if that's a concept that means anything other than deference to ad populum in the context of discussing art. Sorry, it's a little hard for me to just be measured and unbiased about this topic, but this video really resonated with me and I appreciate you making and sharing it.