Oh, I haven't bought ANY of them. I dislike the whole genre as a whole. Never played a Halo a day in my life. Last the only 2 shooters I ever played were Goldeneye and Perfect Dark. Both on N64. Neither of which is anything I described.
I generally stay away from things like online play. I don't have PS+ or Nintendo Online, and I've never owned an XBox of any kind.
That doesn't mean however that I don't see that this is the direction the industry headed 20 years ago, and hasn't looked back. They keep making call of duty, and all these other shooters because that's what people buy. OTHER people make it popular, not me.
There’s a lot of games that do very well that don’t fall into your stereotypes.
Sure, CoD sells the best. That doesn’t mean Disco Elysium sucks though, or Citizen Sleeper, or Stardew Valley, or Sekiro, or Psychonauts 2, or Hollow Knight, or any number of great games. Games that were impossible when manufacture was monopolized by Nintendo’s cartel, or when cartridges were required and made games cost $60 in 1995.
Gaming is not immune from dialectics. It too exists in a tension between contradictions. It is both terrible, and wonderful, as it was during the golden age you are highlighting from the past, when games cost far more money and were available to far fewer people. When there was no way for one person (Stardew) or two (Hollow Knight) to be able to make and distribute an entire game without submitting themselves to subservience under a publisher.
First time playing Chrono Trigger, on Steam Deck (Steam version not emulated, I know! I know!). I’m enjoying it although I’m suffering from early RPG slowness and trying to push through. Hoping the Steam version holds out, seems like every update of Proton is nerve wracking. Love the music and art style. I do feel like I lose doors or POIs easily and I need to get better/quicker with the battle UI.
Oh wow, that is quite literally the best game of all time. I dunno about the Steam version, how it changes things, but on the SNES the gfx suck, yet the story is so fantastic.
There should be a way to change the battle mode to "Wait!", which will make them more trivially easy. Take a moment to go through one of the areas 2-3 times and you should be leveled up sufficiently to handle everything. But definitely pay attention to saves bc those boss patterns will need discovery if you aren't using guides.
The early part is slow yeah, but once you see Lavos in the future iirc it perks quite a bit up. You will miss a LOT without a guide, but no need to even worry bc there's like 13+ different endings and you can make use of a previous one to jumpstart the next game in the New Game+ feature.
Some doors cannot be opened earlier on. Either keep a record of them or consult a guide and much, MUCH later on they'll hold cool stuff.
spoiler hint (treasure, not plot):
If you open certain chests in the past, there won't be anything there in the future. Instead, you could open in the future, then open again in the past...
even more of a spoiler (still treasure)
Or start to open in the past, but don't, then open in the future for an upgrade! And then still open in the past!? Timey wimey goodness hijinks.:-P
Thank you! This is super helpful to know, I’ve got “Wait!” on, it’s the knowing “who can do what when” that I’m not in the “flow” of yet, but I’m sure it’ll click soon.
I’ve avoided guides outside of getting stuck (didn’t see the Arris Dome ladder and had to look it up) and I’d like to keep it that way outside of unlocking some cool weapons/items later.
Any recommendations on when I should focus on grinding and what special mid/late game items I should look up guides for? I’m about to go to Site 32 and can’t decide if I should be grinding much or just pushing through with the story. Good call on the chests, but I doubt I’ll be able to stay on top of remembering that!
The Steam version may have been rebalanced, but with the SNES one early on you pretty much just have to hit things. Your two girls use Strike - so Hit ring rather than Power - and the men use swords and such. Ayla uses Power though:-). It isn't so wrong to just hit something as soon as possible, like whenever the timer comes up then quickly hit... whatever you can. As you get better weapons, and especially when you get magic, you'll want to hold off and think a bit more, especially at the configurations like if Lucca drops a bomb over here, then Chrono should not hit here too but rather over there, etc.
One thing that might have thrown you off is that Sewer area. You aren't meant to go there just yet! It can be done, but man is it tough! One way is to go forward, get Robo, and use him for extra power. Plus that next area has weapons for everyone. Another is to wait until you have magic. Or you can grind before and just tough it out, but anyway there's nothing really at the end of it, it's just EXP and treasure and fun and adventure - but best saved for later.:-)
One trick: when you gain the ability to travel through time at will, you can bring in a healer, heal everyone, then ditch them again. I usually use Robo for that bc he's so damn slow (agility) that I don't like using him in battles. This saves MP. Early on that very first forest area has a secret spot where the bushes wiggle and when you click a monster pops out and runs away - no battle necessary - and it gives you a tent. You can get basically unlimited of those by leaving and coming back:-).
You need very limited grinding in this game. It's possible to use none, but then there would indeed be certain battles that would be much tougher. Maybe do every area twice or something. If you decide early on who you want to use, you can focus on them to get the highest levels. But you don't know all the combo attacks yet - like Chrono + Lucca + Princess can do several spectacular magic attacks together, they are quite a versatile team. Frog is great too especially if you get his secret items but that would be better as another playthrough with a guide. Ayla is great and doesn't even need items, just lots levels. At some point you'll lose access to all your items you'll want her to be not totally neglected. So basically: rotate them all in occasionally, until you know what you are doing. Did you know they get ~75% of EXP even when left behind? But they don't get AP. There is a particular enemy that locks down your skills that gives you 100 AP for beating it, and there are only a few in the game, all in pretty much one area (looks like a rock that woke up) - that's what you want to be strategic about.
But you discovered the caveat to the above: early on is when Chrono needs his slash skill the most, to hit those things that are immune to a physical bonk attack. The way I always did it was to take him through the forest area at the start of the game, or flight the carnival robot, but those were optional and if you didn't, a few levels could really help. Or try to avoid those battles except they spring up on you so that's not something you'll know about in the first playthrough. One thought: that sewer area can get hairy fast, but if you go in, flight a few battles, go back out and save, repeat and go a bit deeper, etc. it would give you a ton of EXP, plus neat items like Rage belt that auto-counterattacks. That's my favorite pick for Chrono bc he'll get so strong that he'll kill things outright just by letting them hit him!:-P
Yeah just before where you are, that was the boring part - though you are close to leaving the future and that's exactly when it picks up! Like, literal magic isn't far away now!:-) I'd put a berserker onto the Princess, for now until she gets magic, which will also help with deciding what to do bc she'll auto-attack then, with greatly increased ability, and go through the last dome with first her to the right and then Lucca to the left (bc of fire). Then almost never use the robot again, except for healing outside of battle, and a few other times it makes sense as well, and he can be fun then:-).
The final boss can be as difficult or easy as you want. In-game tips on a few secret areas are given but extremely cryptic. Worth figuring out though bc e.g. getting hit with confusion can wreck any strategy, while being outright immune to that makes it so much easier:-). You can also decide which characters to bring, or not bring, and that affects the ending sequence that you'll see.:-)
Oh wow you have so much awesomeness ahead of you - enjoy it!:-)
Somewhere I have the SNES cart for chrono trigger with the price label of $10, if its not faded.
I bought it in the mid-90s. You have to remember that before Final Fantasy 7, RPGs in America were NOT popular. People always cite the poor marketing of Earthbound as the reason it failed. I always say it's because it released in 1995, at a higher price than most SNES games, at a time when RPG popularity was at an all time low. If it had released in 1997, and at a standard price, it may have done gangbusters.
Even Super Mario RPG wasn't a hit at first, but then picked up sales as the months went on.
The guy selling Chrono Trigger at a games/music/video resale shop said "I'm surprised you're buying this game. You sure you don't want to play it a bit first? Save you the hassle of returning it later". He meant well, but I actually did mean to buy it.
I also bought earthbound, with book, for $10 from the same place. It always smelled like weed in there. Mostly because the employees would smoke weed, pick out cds they wanted to hear over the stores speaker system, and then play video games stoned out of their minds.
Then they got bought out, and now it's a corporate run store. Same resale model, but SUUUUPER corporate. You cannot fimd deals, and they give you gamestop prices for your trade-ins.
They didn't even used to have reciepts. They would just stamp the price sticker with a stamp that they adjusted the date on. And they weren't super strict on dates either. If your sticker said you bought it 19 days ago instead of 14 days ago, they'd usually be like "aw man, it's cool." As long as it wasn't some bullshit like 3 months. Basically as long as you weren't trying to game the system.
One time I went to a grocery store that sells closeouts. One of todays items was a huge stack of game boy games. $5 each, but it was the same game. So I buy one, and I take it there. I explain the situation. I say "hey, will I get the same price in resale each copy?" He says yes. So I traded in my copy for $15. Then took that money, bought 2 more copys (tax), traded those in for $30, took that money, bought 5 more copies, traded those in, and then went and bought 2 more copies traded those in, and bought a brand new game boy advance from them. I took $6 and essentially turned it into a brand new GBA which had only been released a few months prior.
I miss that store. It technically still exists, but I miss the spirit of what that store used to be.
You’re getting so many responses that are just “have you tried indie games?” or trying to dispel the rose-colored glasses. I suspect it’s because of the headline saying modern gaming sucks, which I think can be pretty objectively disproven.
That said, I can tell you about my experiment. I’ve instituted a program with my 12 year old stepson where he can earn marbles through chores and other tasks, and he can trade those marbles in for retro games I find in local stores and flea markets. One of the things he can also buy for a very low price is a downloaded retro magazine from retromags.com - he can ask for an issue with a particular topic in it and I’ll find one and send it to him. He isn’t really very internet savvy yet, so he’s not likely to hit up IGN for info or anything.
The result of this so far (only a few weeks in) has been serious excitement and engagement. He has access to Xbox Series and PS5 consoles, but getting to own physical games and accessories (we play them on a Retron 3 HD console) has motivated him more than I’ve seen almost anything else do. He keeps asking me if Street Fighter 2 will come to the “store” anytime soon because of my stories of how badly I wanted that game as a kid his age. Little does he know that for Christmas he’ll be getting an excellent condition, complete in box copy of Street Fighter 2: Special Championship Edition for the Genesis. He’s gonna flip.
The upshot of all this is that I really do think there was a certain magic to the experience back then. I’m doing my damnedest to recreate that magic for him, and so far it’s at least kinda working!
This is a nice story. I like this. My parents would occasionally buy me games, but it was mostly once or twice a year, and they never got excited for my excitement. They would just complain that all I do is play video games. Meanwhile all dad did was watch sports, and all mom did was watch news.
But somehow I'M an asshole 7 year old for not playing outside, and being glued to the tv all day! I'm ranting, but yes, 40 year old me is still pissed at my parents.
Getting back on track, I think it's adorable how you not only engage with your kid, and teach him the value of earning things. And participate with your kid.
Makes me wonder if you were a fan of the aki wrestling games on N64. There's a definate depth to those games that you don't find in todays wrestling games. AEW tried......but I feel like their third game they might start getting it right. For reference, they've only made 1 game, and it took 4 years to make.
Same same. I literally have hundreds, if not thousands, of games in my digital libraries. The absolute entertainment value of that is astronomical, but at the same time, the experience of receiving any given game has become devalued to the point of meaninglessness in some cases.
I wanted to try and recreate that feeling of reading about a game, falling in love with every screenshot and drop of info, and working hard (or begging hard) to get it as one of the 2, maybe 3 games you’d get in a year. You read the manual twice on the car ride home, you save the box, you learn everything about it. I’ve told him about pausing the NES because you just got farther than you ever got before, you only have one life left, and you need to go to school. The idea of having an experience like that is being lost in today’s culture in my opinion.
Edit: Forgot to answer, no, I have not tried the Aki wrestling games. I only ever played WCW/NWO World Tour for a while in college with my buddies for the four-player bikinis, but I never really was into wrestling games or TV otherwise.
That's the first of the US released Aki games! It went in order of release:
WCW/NWO World tour
WCW/NWO Revenge
WWF Wrestlemania 2000
WWF No Mercy (considered to this day to be the greatest wrestling game of all time).
I only mentioned them because I had fond memories of couch co-op with my friends. It's one of those games that started with a starting point (the one you played), and each new game they added more and more content to the new game, while keeping everything from the old game.
I was just hoping with your son getting that appriciation for anticipating a new game, that you could start him with the first game, and end with the 4th.
But it's one of those games that new people tend to struggle with, due to not holding your hand at ALL. It was just assumed you knew what you were doing....and the fighting system is sooooo complex, yet simple once you "get it".
Short tap A, weak grapple. Long hold A, strong grapple.
Same with B and punches.
You CAN try to just so strong punches, and strong grapples, but if your opponent hasn't been weakened they're likely to reverse. They MIGHT still reverse a weak punch or grapple too, but they need much more precise button timing. The worse they're beaten up, the harder it is to reverse. And eventually you might land a strong punch or grapple. You can taunt to raise your spirit meter. Your spirit meter also raises as you do well in a match, or lower if you do worse.
Throw your opponent down and do a short taunt before he gets up to stop your taunt, and you get an instant small boost in spirit. Do a long uninterupted taunt, and get a big boost in spirit.
But if you attempt a taunt, you leave yourself open to an easy attack against you, and if that happens you lose spirit proportional to what you were attempting to gain.
Its a very balanced game where every action has an appropriate reaction. It's up to you to time those actions, and choose what you think you can get away with.
It's such a weird game that an experienced player vs a rookie will result in an unfun lopsided match. But evenly matched players might have 1 match last an hour.
Oh, haha I thought I’d heard of Aki in the context of wrestling games, but assumed I must have been thinking Yuke’s.
Currently we’re sticking to 8-bit and 16-bit, though we’ll eventually start graduating into PS1 and so on. He doesn’t really have any awareness of or demonstrated interest in wrestling yet, but I’ll keep it in mind. I always did envy WCW/NWO Revenge when it came out…
i've been playing the Shiren the Wanderer DS remake, and even with a code to keep EXP between runs it is still kicking my ass. slowly but surely getting closer to the end though...
i've also picked up SEGA Rally again thanks to the recent documentary. it's tough to play it in manual with the 3D pad because the button layout is optimized for the wheel controller which splits both rows of buttons between each hand, but i finally found a way to make it work and it's a whole new game now. drifting around corners with the gear shift never gets old
Playing classic rpg series in order, currently on dragon quest 6, Persona 1, smt 3 (modern remake just released on pc, but played mt1, mt2, smt1, smt2, and smt if prior to starting this and persona) made it to romancing saga after playing the 3 final fantasy legends, on tales of destiny remake for the ps2 after playing tales of phantasia, ys 2, Wild arms alter code f ps2 remake, FFX hd remaster, kingdom hearts, and lastly thr non rpg doom 2 from the doom 3 bfg collection after beating doom 1. Yes I am bouncing between all of these. The ADHD cannot be pleased
If you’re playing FFX/X-2 on PC, consider installing the Untitled Project X mod. It fixes some stuff and adds more graphics/UI options, but one of the most significant changes is that it allows you to toggle exp to the whole party regardless of participation.
It completely eliminates the “swap every character in to guard for 1 turn” hassle. You basically never need to grind, because every single character stays properly leveled. Basically, the game difficulty was balanced as if you fully utilized every single character in every fight. So the mod allows your exp gains to reflect that expectation, without needing to mindlessly swap each character out every time.
I've been playing Seal of Rimmsala, a romhack of Arcana for SNES. This is the furthest I've gotten in a first person dungeon crawler, the auto mapper makes a huge difference. Just finished the second dungeon and about to make my journey into the ice-caves.
Took a break from Elden Ring and started playing Chrono Cross in ernest for the first time in over 20 years. I lent my original copy to my best friend and never got it back.
I tried a couple times, but only ever got as far as Viper Manor. I'm almost up to Fort Dragonia now. Boned getting Leena at the start. Took the Save Kid Route. Just got Pip, Skelly, and NeoFio. Disappointed I took Guile instead of Glenn... For a character that's supposed to be Magus, you'd think he'd be decent at anything, but holy crap... He's just bad...
Not an actual retro game, but styled like one. I’ve been playing Psuedoregalia, which is an awesome game. Very fun. I had to print out maps, because the levels are so big.
That's a shame. I loved Working Designs's voice acting in the Sega CD version. They even added voiceovers to lines that weren't voiced in the Japanese version. I wonder who even owns the rights to that localization nowadays.
Currently working my way through Legend of Legaia. I’m shamelessly using some cheats to alleviate the grinding, because the American version of the game is ~4x more grindy than the Japanese version, and combat is much harder. (Yes, they slashed all of the exp and drop rates for the English release, along with making enemies significantly stronger.)
In the American version of the game, you need to stop and grind quite a bit just to be able to afford the gear for each new area. But in the Japanese version, you can pretty much steamroll enemies that are at your level, even without proper gearing. And since you have more gold, you never need to stop and grind. Hell, you actually end up with an abundance of gold in the Japanese version, meaning you don’t need to worry about things like being able to afford healing items. Which, again, just makes the game that much easier.
And quite frankly, I’m way too busy to be able to stop and grind. So I use cheats to level the playing field. I’m about halfway through the second area so far. No big hangups since I’ve played through it probably a dozen times.
I also just beat Megaman Legends again, and have moved onto Legends 2; I haven’t ever actually beaten 2, so it’ll be an adventure. I had forgotten how much more smooth the controls in 2 are, so it has been a pleasant surprise so far. IIRC, Legends 1 was made before DualShock controllers were common, so they couldn’t rely on the controllers having twin sticks. So the movement is very stilted, with turning on your shoulder buttons. Legends 2 actually allows for a true shooter layout with twin stick controls, so I don’t feel like the controls are constantly fighting me.
Legend of Legaia is awesome. The grinding is something I had no problem with at age 15 but now it’s almost unbearable. In the US version you benefit from hours of grinding.
Supposedly the PAL version uses the Japanese drop rates and enemy stats. So you could conceivably use that to play the game in English. But I haven’t played it to confirm.
In the '80s, we had to travel > 40 minutes each way. I could afford a game maybe once every month or two, but I ended up getting more into D&D instead and spending my money on those books (both game books and novels).
When Blockbuster got games for rent, that was great because my town actually had one and it was only about 15-20 minutes each way.
I mostly stuck to computer gaming into the '90s, though. I played a gamecube or N64 a couple of times, but never really got into it (and we certainly couldn't afford to buy them). It was still kinda the same deal for computer games, though; do I have enough RAM for this? Can my Amiga work with a RAM expansion? I guess there were less things, but they still existed. Probably on the C64 as well, but I remember that less.
People are writing a lot of things that I agree with, but I want to chime in with two points.
The first, which one or two other commenters have touched on, is that in 2024 we have approximately 50 years of content already in existence. There's no need to limit ourselves to what's been released in the last 12 months. Classic books, music, plays, and movies stay popular for decades or centuries. Why feel shamed out of playing old games by 12-year-olds and the megacorps?
The second thing is, yes, try indie games, and IMO the best place to find them is for PCs on itch.io. Forget 95% of what's marketed as "indie" on consoles.
I'm hoping this isn't another case of fans taking a game and porting it to another console or doing massive upgrades/updates only to not release it to avoid copyright. I'd absolutely love to play this on my Dreamcast.
RetroGaming
Oldest