Metareview - Chrono Trigger (DS)
by Alexander Sliwinski 
{ Nov 25th 2008 at 2:45PM }
- GamesRadar (100/100) "If you've never played Chrono Trigger, you owe it to yourself to finally give this gaming touchstone a whirl. And if you have played it before, you can play it again, for no other reason than to see how new it all still feels. We would normally hesitate to give any rerelease such a high score, but this is the ultimate edition of a true classic."
- 1UP (95/100): "For fans, the reason to pick up Chrono Trigger is simply because it's available, intact, and enhanced. For newcomers, it's because the game has easily withstood the test of time."
- Game Informer (95/100): "It's a true classic, and playing it should be a government-mandated rite of passage for any role-playing fan."
- IGN (88/100): "If you've never played Chrono Trigger before, buy this game. If you're a die-hard fan and want to support one of the greatest games of all time, buy this game. If you're having trouble validating a $40 purchase for what is ultimately the same game, it's the wrong choice for you, and your cash is better spent elsewhere."
- GameSpot (85/100): "Chrono Trigger is a fantastic synthesis of excellent storytelling, game design, music, and gameplay that has withstood the test of time and should be considered required playing for any fan of role-playing games. Though its extra content is hit or miss and it's essentially a direct port of a game released 13 years ago, the DS version is easily the definitive edition of this masterpiece,"
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Superstar90 @ Nov 25th 2008 2:51PM
Must have this game.... now.
baby sea tuna @ Nov 25th 2008 2:59PM
Must have this game...eventually.
deaftly @ Nov 25th 2008 3:41PM
Had it 10 years ago!
/greatscott!
CTC XBL-supapaypamawio PSN-ctclaw @ Nov 25th 2008 3:43PM
At first I wasn't going to get this game at all...I beat is on the SNES, and than the PS1...but for some reason I feel the need to purchase this and play it during my holiday travels...Congratulation Squarenix on getting me to buy the same game with minimal changes 3 times.
Superstar90 @ Nov 25th 2008 6:34PM
Lol the PS1 game, don't press Triangle or you might reset the game!!!!
Envoy @ Nov 25th 2008 2:52PM
Can't wait for Amazon to send it already!
T @ Nov 25th 2008 3:12PM
Review:
"It's Chrono Trigger. What are you waiting for?"
samfish @ Nov 25th 2008 3:27PM
A price drop?
Jakka ( The Order of Haters of Balance) @ Nov 25th 2008 4:09PM
Although I'm completely not interested in CT(If I had to dig up oldskool RPG's, I'd rather hit up some western stuff like Planescape and Baldur's Gate etc.),
I thought of exactly the same thing...
SteveDaWonder @ Nov 25th 2008 3:13PM
I'm picking it up this evening. I am looking forward to having it. I've never legally played this game and am excited to pay my fee and enjoy a classic.
Marty @ Nov 25th 2008 2:59PM
Man, I am really excited to play this, but that IGN review was tough to get through. Did anyone else read that? Not only was the review questionably written and edited, but the "Another Take" section at the end, which is specifically mentioned in the main review, is absolute garbage.
"The story is rather engrossing and comes with a charm you’d be hard pressed to find elsewhere, making Crono’s adventures in saving the world that much more exciting."
Utter trash. Where does IGN find the idiots who write these articles?
baby sea tuna @ Nov 25th 2008 3:03PM
At least everything in that sentence was spelled correctly, which is something most IGN reviews can't even achieve.
You do this for a living, people! Where's your sense of pride?!
BananaBoat @ Nov 25th 2008 3:04PM
They hire trained monkeys willing to write anything in exchange for a gold piece.
Reading most reviews is hard for me these days. If the reviewer tries to implement l33tspeak into his review, I become ill.
baby sea tuna @ Nov 25th 2008 3:05PM
"It was the best of games, it was the blurst of games..."
Marty @ Nov 25th 2008 3:11PM
It's just disappointing to me that all the game magazines that used to have good writing have fallen by the wayside for this trash. I know things are a little more loosey-goosey on the internet, but can we at least pretend to give a shit about reviews, IGN?
samfish @ Nov 25th 2008 3:31PM
Silly Marty. Fanboys can't write properly! It's a scientifically proven fact!
aristokrat @ Nov 25th 2008 4:23PM
It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times...
aristokrat @ Nov 25th 2008 4:25PM
Worst. Comment Failure. Ever.
Hiro @ Nov 25th 2008 5:21PM
I honestly don't see anything wrong with that....
aj @ Nov 25th 2008 11:40PM
At least IGN doesn't do the "I have a degree in literature, and damn it, I'm going to use it" game reviews that I see all over the place. Anytime a game review uses words like "paradigm" or "gestalt" in the summary, then it's time to start thinking about rising up against our game reviews and killing them.
I seem to recall a remarkably pretentious bit of fluff over at PS3 fanboy....what up with that, JoyStiq?
Markez @ Nov 26th 2008 2:20AM
@ Aristokrat
It's a goddamned Simpsons quote my friend, and a brilliant one at that. Shame on you.
That specific quote is shortly followed with "you stupid monkey!"
BananaBoat @ Nov 25th 2008 3:00PM
I think this falls into the category of Penny Arcade's strip about how noone should ever review a classic game ever again.
I might actually have to dust off my DS for this.
Ranus Studios @ Nov 25th 2008 3:01PM
DAMMIT I wish I could afford a DS.
chispito @ Nov 25th 2008 3:03PM
The hour or two of it I have played were great and all, but $40 for a port... I'm sure you could get a cart-only auction of the SNES original on ebay for around that price. Especially now that a decent version of the game is back in print.
Marty @ Nov 25th 2008 3:23PM
Why is port such a dirty word these days? If you look at the screens of the game, you'll see that they didn't just write an SNES emulator and run the game in it - the game has been adapted to the hardware, and it looks and runs great. Nothing wrong with a port of a game when it's done right.
Fernando Rocker @ Nov 25th 2008 3:43PM
And also, there are new dungeons, a new ending... and... all the animated cut scenes from the PSX version.
There is also the Bestiary and the Encyclopedia.
The cut scenes is actually the reason why I'm going to re-buy this game.
chispito @ Nov 25th 2008 4:03PM
Port isn't a dirty word. But charging extra for a game that requires less work to produce doesn't make sense to me. Square's usual gouging on the DS is bad enough, but this is especially annoying. If it ever falls below $30, I might pick it up, but if I pay full price I think it sends a bad message, that their games are somehow inherently worth more than everyone else's.
Ayrkain @ Nov 25th 2008 4:09PM
I'm thinking the new cutscenes probably seg better into Chrono Cross and any future titles, so that's a definitely plus. And they'll probably use this title to gauge demand for future stuff so really it's more like investing in Chrono 3... :)
Lee @ Nov 25th 2008 5:07PM
Boo fucking hoo. $40=£25. I wish to any Gods listening that we could pay that much for something like this. How much will this be in the UK, 30... £35?
chispito @ Nov 25th 2008 6:40PM
Lee, what are you basing that on? I checked Amazon and Amazon UK, and while prices are different for different games, if we take Square's most recent price gouging, FFIV, you would pay the equivalent of about $4 less.
Danny F. @ Nov 25th 2008 6:54PM
@lee
Your crying over paying $40 for a awesome game that has yet gotten a score less then around 85-90 and averages around 95...?? Am I missing something here? Its been awhile since a game for the DS has come out that made me even get up and go buy it.
Wiinterfang @ Nov 25th 2008 3:03PM
I'll pass.
t_m @ Nov 26th 2008 6:28AM
why?
AwesomeTown @ Nov 25th 2008 3:07PM
This will probably be the start of me playing my DS again.
vdeogmer @ Nov 25th 2008 9:05PM
Why haven't you picked up Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia yet?
AwesomeTown @ Nov 25th 2008 10:06PM
Because I just played Portrait of Ruin not too long ago, but I guess that's not really a good excuse.
nusilver @ Nov 25th 2008 4:42PM
Alright, joystiq. You've convinced me to buy it. Here I thought I'd be spending time with my family during my trip to visit them for Thanksgiving...maybe catching up on some reading at night. Nope. Just bought this.
tmacairjordan87 @ Nov 25th 2008 3:14PM
I'm still struggling to get through my emulated version. I don't know what it is with this game but it bores the hell out of me. It's not really bad I guess but it's just not connecting with me.
Crono (NDF - Knight of the Old School) @ Nov 25th 2008 4:13PM
1 word: Zeal If you know what it means (in game context) then you can say you don't like Chrono Trigger. If you don't know what it means, then keep playing until you do. Your opinion isn't valid until then.
aj @ Nov 25th 2008 11:44PM
It's wrong to dislike something these days. If you do, someone will tell you "at least they made a game, what did YOU do?", and then you have to deal with the fact that a complete idiot is trying to talk to you.
No, it's safer to avoid saying you dislike something.
Maurice M @ Nov 25th 2008 3:15PM
Must buy for anyone out there who doesn't already have it.
I'm going to pass on it. I was never really considering it honestly. I have it, and this is just a port.
Stavros @ Nov 25th 2008 3:19PM
I'd really like to play this eventually when my plate isn't so full of AAA console releases, as I only really got into RPGs after this came out.
But really... the cover art looks like it is a piece of DBZ fan art drawn with crayons and colored pencils. I guess I'm just not really a fan of that art style. Will I still enjoy the game?
T @ Nov 25th 2008 3:29PM
It looks like DBZ because the guy who did the art for DBZ did this as well (Akira Toriyama?)
samfish @ Nov 25th 2008 3:29PM
There is a very good reason why the cover art looks like DBZ art...
Envoy @ Nov 25th 2008 3:32PM
::facepalm::
Stavros @ Nov 25th 2008 3:33PM
I realize that it's the same guy. I just didn't remember his name at the time I posted this. =)
TwEE @ Nov 25th 2008 4:16PM
"the cover art looks like it is a piece of DBZ fan art drawn with crayons and colored pencils" Ah dude Stavros, no... stop it. All the posters and promotional crap that came with this game were excellent, inculding that picture above..
samfish @ Nov 25th 2008 3:28PM
I really want this. I never beat the original back in the day, but I liked it nonetheless.
But it's $40 bucks for an SNES port. He'll'll freeze over before I pay that much for this!
...which means I'll buy it within the next 3 weeks.
baby sea tuna @ Nov 25th 2008 3:45PM
Yeah, it's pretty effed that Square is holding some of the best SNES games of Virtual Console because they know they can get $5-10 over normal DS prices for ports of the same games.
Aside from that, my problem with this personally (and the reason I sold FFIV:DS after about a week) is that portable systems just aren't as conducive to playing long-ass RPGs as home systems are...unless you're someone who travels a lot or something.
T @ Nov 25th 2008 4:10PM
You sure about that? Portables are a GREAT home for RPGs, as you can play them...pack them up...and pull them out for a quick go wherever you're at.
This is why I liked the portable Zelda games. I could take my GBA out during homeroom (my teacher was pretty cool about that as long as I kept sound down) and get through a dungeon or two.