RPG

Originally released in 1995 for the Super Nintendo by Squaresoft, Chrono Trigger received both critical acclaim and a cult-like popularity among gamers. It is undeniable that being created by the same company responsible for the immensely popular Final Fantasy series attributed to Chrono Trigger’s success. To think that is the sole purpose it flourished, however, would be to ignore the strengths it possesses: graphics which, at the time, were awe-inspiring, well developed and likeable characters, a novel plot, and, as with any RPG, plenty of side quests and customizability to keep you entertained for hours. If you didn’t enter the video game world until recently, or if RPGs have never been your forte, you may have missed this jewel.

In this masterpiece, you control Crono, a youth living in 1000AD in Guardia Kingdom. In a fair experiment that goes horribly wrong, you suddenly find yourself four hundred years in the past, having to work frantically to save a new friend! One thing leads to another, and before you get tired of playing, you visit your future and find out the world is facing certain devastation unless you alter history by time travel to save it. Although the “save the world from certain doom” plot is present, the addition of time travel (and, by extension, the fact that you know what will happen in the future) highlights the novelty of Chrono Trigger and the fact that you are “saving the world” feels a lot less hackneyed than you might originally expect. Read more

The Final Fantasy series is one of the most long-running, well-known, profitable, and entertaining lines of video games in the industry’s short history. Starting with Final Fantasy (later known as Final Fantasy I) for the NES in the early 90’s, the series has had twelve titled "sequels" (though they are not continuous in their story or even occur in the same "universe"), and numerous non-sequels such as Mystic Quest, Tactics, Adventures, Legends, and Chocobo Racing. This admittedly incomplete list does not include the times a Final Fantasy is ported or remade for another system (which has happened quite frequently as aging gamers want to keep their classics and upgrade simultaneously).

It should be no surprise, then, that Squaresoft has announced another Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time, which continues the Crystal Chronicles Series. Echoes of Time will be released in the Spring of 2009 on both the DS and the Wii, allowing all of Nintendo’s next-generation owners to join the party. And it is a party, literally, as both versions have multiplayer capability in the game world. No longer are RPG fans forced to play in solitude or give up their passion. Wii owners won’t have to give up the control scheme they’ve gotten used to, either. Read more