Thankfully, my fears were completely unjustified.

(OK, minus this “Inner Sanctum” area which was apparently new for the DS version. That’s pretty awful.)

To be fair, the second ten hours are not as good as the first ten. The game introduces so many of its iconic styles and mannerisms that even when variations on them are introduced with perfect execution later on, they do not have the same impact as the first go ’round. Do not misunderstand — like I said, the game has been amazing, and a “Not Jaw-Droppingly Amazing Chrono Trigger Sequence” is still leaps and bounds above most of the other garbage I have tried before.

It is with this game that I continue to question my gaming habits and supposed preferences. I have dabbled into so many different genres and play styles in the last two years that I no longer feel like I have any particular allegiance to a type of game, or even specific franchises. I joke to the wife how there was a monkey bridge in Link’s Awakening… lo and behold, monkeys come to the rescue as I watch her replay Twilight Princess. I look around in shock, wondering if I’m the crazy one that does not love the play style of New Super Mario Bros. with its floaty-controls. I compare the two above examples, coming down harshly on one series for recycling an old trope, while simultaneously criticizing another for not being familiar enough, and wonder how I can be so hypocritical.

That may be the subject matter for another article in the future, though. For now, Chrono Trigger is the sole subject of my attention.  I sit wide-eyed on the train, during lunch, and on the couch at home as I clutch my DS. A game from 15 years ago — a game that I should have played and yet continuously overlooked — is one of the reasons I have been questioning my supposed gaming affiliations. With 20 hours now sunk into the game, here is a list of things that have blown me away in those second 10 hours. Spoilers are in full effect.

I’M A LITTLE SHORT ON CASH
Perhaps it is an extension of not having to endlessly grind (and being encouraged not to grind, something I spoke about after my first 10 hours with the game), but I often find that I do not have much cash to spend. There are always extra bits of armor and weaponry that are just out of my grasp due to their price. After being so used to buying whatever I felt like in various Final Fantasy games, it was a shock to have to actually ration my purchases, only buy essentials, and maybe even sell back obsolete weapons.

EXTRANEOUS CHARACTERS ARE NOT EXTRANEOUS
Magus is Janus all grown up and mighty pissed off. Melchoir, the man who fixed up Masamune for Frog so much earlier in the story, is the “Guru of Life”. The weird old guy at the End of Time is actually Gaspar, the “Guru of Time”. Belthasar created a “puppet” for himself to help you at various points throughout the game. Every named character, while not necessarily being essential to the story, plays a larger role than you might otherwise think.

TACTICAL BOSS BATTLES
There is definitely something to be said for boss battles that, no matter how “leveled-up” you are, still require you to think strategically. The concept was introduced early on with the dinosaurs — stun them with lightning to lower their defenses, and then whack away. My favorite battle so far has been Retinite in the sunken desert. Plenty of hints are dropped about using water on the sand dwellers, and with Frog being a perpetual member of my party, that was not an issue. The back-and-forth game of balancing water attacks to lower his defense and then the physical attacks both dealing damage and raising his defenses back up at the same time… well, that took some effort. It was not difficult by any stretch of the imagination, but it was different enough to make it special.

One battle that was difficult was against the Golem Twins. The amount of damage being dealt to me was overwhelming, and after various attempts at combination strategies, I found that the best tactic was to back out and level up a little bit. It was a strange plan, especially since it goes against everything I have been saying about the game and its insistence on not “leveling up”. Perhaps if I switched out just one more character and tried just one more tech attack I would have figured out a better way of approaching the battle, but so far it has been the only instance of getting fed up with the situation enough that I felt the need to grind.

CONTINUED CAUSE-AND-EFFECT
Marle’s temporary disappearance near the beginning of the game due to grandfather-complex situations was only the tip of the iceberg. After playing games like Final Fantasy IV and VI, I tend to expect a 16-bit RPG to have that one moment where the world “changes”. Chrono Trigger certainly has that in 12,000 BC with the summoning of Lavos, and of course in 1999 AD with Lavos wreaking destruction across the world. With time travel being such a huge aspect of the narrative, though, it is inherently impossible to have the world “change” for good. It has to change in other ways that do not effect the world at-large, but rather in tiny ways that show just how intertwined these characters and their journeys truly are.

One of the tiny ways the game accomplishes this is with the beef jerky. That one special bit of food could change the entire demeanor and therefore conversations of a family throughout the ages shows just how much the developers cared for the world they created. As far as I can tell, this grant of food out of the goodness of my heart has no effect on me as a character or the greater story… but that does not matter in the least. It proved yet again just how “real” this world is by tossing the Butterfly Effect into the mix.

A fantastically endearing moment was the decision to leave Robo with Fiona in 600 AD to regrow the forest. I found myself caring so much for the world in all of the different ages, and I wanted to help in any way that I could — making 600 AD a better place meant that 1000 AD would be a better place. We have learned so much about Robo at this point that it could not have made any more sense than to leave him behind and make the world just a little more green. Jumping 400 years ahead in the blink of an eye to see Robo patiently waiting for your return, having accomplished his task and hanging out semi-deactivated, served the purpose not only of solidifying the relationship between the cast of characters, but yet again proving just how “real” the world truly is. Characters live and die, and yet their legacies remain throughout the ages, fondly recalled by the general population. As a minor aside, I find it hilarious to return to 600 AD with Robo back in your party… only to find the previous Robo cultivating the land. What would happen if the two were to meet…?!

A second example falls between “Cause and Effect” and the next category I will be writing about, though. It was not so much a “decision” as it was an “action” — of course you want to save Lucca’s mom from losing her legs. I was not quick enough on my feet, though, and watched as she inched her way underneath the contraption as the screen went black. I heard her scream. I watched as Lucca, shaken beyond belief, came back to her friends.

This all makes me question the free will of the characters. If changing these events in the past in such minor ways could theoretically have greater ramifications later on (such as, ya’ know, going back to destroy Lavos)… is destiny pre-written? Are certain events guaranteed to happen, no matter how much effort we put into changing or avoiding them? Perhaps I will learn more about this, especially through repeated play throughs…

IRREVERSIBLE DECISIONS
I have, much to my dismay, had several things spoiled for me about Chrono Trigger and other games that have severely affected how I would otherwise interpret events or even play the game in general. I knew the two of them would turn to stone in Final Fantasy IV. I knew that I should wait for him in Final Fantasy VI. I knew that sword was coming down in Final Fantasy VII. These events all still affected me on some kind of emotional level, however, because it was not just about the raw fact that the event happened… it was the journey to that point that made the event so significant.

Only one of those three events was a “choice”, though. Family Guy‘s joke about choosing the soup or the salad that got away rings all-to-true in these situations. How would the game differ if I did not wait for Shadow? How would the game differ if I did not choose to fight Magus?

I knew he would be able to join up with me at some point. I have no idea how I learned this, but that is what happens when you wait 15 years to play a game, and especially a game so closely related to several other interests. What I was not expecting, however, was exactly how this choice would be presented to me. In fact, I still assumed Magus would return later on (as he tended to do) to offer his services as a crucial point.

Nope.

It made narrative sense to me to have Frog do battle with Magus (and with him almost always being in my party, he took the conversational lead with Magus). Frog still seemed somewhat obsessed with seeking vengeance for Cyrus, and Magus did not appear to have shown a complete change of heart or overwhelming sense of regret. He was a broken man, and Frog seemed content (and willing) to put him in his place. It was not until I started collecting weapons and armor that were not usable by any other character that I sensed something was amiss. I ran a quick search, read a few words, and sat back in my chair.

I lost my chance.

I am conflicted over my decision. I am completely enthralled at how nonchalant the game was about introducing this “choice” to me. I had absolutely no idea I was making an irreversible decision about whether or not a character remained in the storyline. I already feel like the game was stretching its cast of characters and how able I was to truly care about each of them individually; adding another one to the pile seemed as if it might overwhelm me. I get thinking, though… How would Magus have reacted to such-and-such? How would the other characters interact with him? How would he fit in with my play style? I recently learned so much about him (as “Janus”), that to have him depart so soon left a hole in my gaming heart.

I already know what my decision will be on my first New Game+.

ROBO’S CONTINUOUS GROWTH
I did not think that I could love this character any more than I already did. Then I did his side quest.

I do have some reservations about his growth. I mean, he was reprogrammed by Lucca to be the way he is now. If he was never fiddled with, would he have turned on us when Atropos entered the scene? Just how much did “Mother Brain” alter these robots? How much of it was true in the first place?

I think these reservations only add to the character development, though, even when I am unsure about which elements to accept as truth. More than any other member of the core group, Robo is an amalgamation of his surroundings and experiences — he must be, since that is all he can be as a robot. His unwavering loyalty, from the very first hints at the factory in 2300 AD all the way up through his side quest at Geno Dome, makes this robot as much a friend as anyone else. The fact that he nearly breaks down in tears every time another character expresses these same feelings, such as when Lucca reemerges from saving / not-saving her mother’s legs, makes him the most endearing character of the bunch.

I will try to stop using the word “endearing” every time I mention Robo.

(I said I will try. I will probably fail.)

BEAT THE GAME WHENEVER YOU WANT — I CHOOSE NOT TO
From the very first drop into the End of Time, you have the choice of fighting Lavos. Yes, you can go fight the final boss whenever you want. The magical pot is sitting right over there. Just go up to it.

I don’t want to.

I am at a loss for words. The game presents the final boss to me as a choice, effectively plopping the ending to the story (which I want so badly) right on my lap. At the same time, it dangles exposition and growth through further game play right over here — just keep playing!

How did they construct a story that interconnects and refers back to itself so tightly… and yet so loosely… that I can go about completing it any way I choose…? Why is it that I want to know how it all ends, but I don’t want it to end…?

I suppose the answer to all of these questions is simply that it’s a well-written game created by talented people.

In an attempt to at least bring some amount of fairness to the table (the game is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination), here are a couple things that did not blow me away:

Crono’s “Death”: This did not shock me because I had it spoiled for me, plain and simple. I have no idea how different it would be to not see it coming. Would I be sad? The silent protagonist has such little growth that it is hard to care about him as a character — it is more about those that surround him, rather than Crono himself.

12,000 BC: I expected another time period, and I got exactly what I expected. The idea of an advanced civilization with technology and knowledge far beyond what we can perceive today is a common one. It works perfectly in the context of Chrono Trigger‘s world, though… so while it did not amaze me, it also did not negatively affect the game.

Favoring Certain Characters: I hardly ever use Marle or Lucca at this point. I love that a male character can act as the traditional healer (it is usually Frog for me), totally going against the grain for every other RPG of the time that I am familiar with. I just… I don’t know…! Neither of them are doing anything for me right now. They were introduced at the very beginning of the game, seemed to serve their purpose (giving me technology and a reason to time travel), and have been tossed by the wayside. There are more side quests coming my way, though, so hopefully Marle will at least be somewhat relevant to something in the near future.

It should be apparent that I absolutely adore Chrono Trigger. Each time I play I am reminded of how foolish I am for looking past it for fifteen years.

Speaking of “foolish”, I have pre-ordered SoulSilver. Other than downloading the event critters from GameStop and Toys”R”Us, I have not actually played a Pokemon game since around September 2008. Since I will clearly fall off the wagon next month, that gives me a set amount of time to reap as many rewards from Chrono Trigger as I can. How many New Game+ play throughs will I manage? Will the game begin to bore me as I plow through for a second time? Will I even bother to “finish” the first play through?

I don’t want it to end…! Can I please just be 13 years old again and discover it for the first time…?

The following discussion will be filed under “Video Game Club” and placed behind a cut to prevent inadvertently spoiling the game for those who have not yet played it. You would think there would have to be a statute of limitations for games this old and discussions like this, but since someone like me is only just now getting to the game, I will be kind to the others who also hold their heads in shame!

I feel as if I have played enough Japanese-created RPGs from Chrono Trigger‘s era (and slightly beyond into the early-to-mid 32-bit days) that I went into this game with a solid expectation of what the “norm” was for the time. While I have only dabbled into some of the modern offerings, and truly have no solid base of context and understanding about where the genre has gone, I am vaguely aware on at least a high level as to what the current norms may be. With my own, very individualized frame of reference, these are seven things that have absolutely blown me away in the first ten hours of game play.

CAUSE AND EFFECT
As I alluded to when I first posted after beginning the game, Chrono Trigger does a fantastic job in showing how the world is affected by events in the past and future. One need look no further than Marle disappearing after Queen Leene is kidnapped, bringing flashbacks to Back to the Future and Marty’s disappearing siblings, as a prime example of this. It is not just the events that you interact with as your playable characters, though — the history of the land oozes rich cultural goodness in every age. I am so glad that I discovered the prehistoric celebration side-area within Leene’s Square before actually adventuring off into the past. Little hints like this really drive home the point that these are not separate worlds — they are one, singular world held together by a thin fabric of time.

(prehistoric dancing at the festival)

MUSIC
Yasunori Mitsuda’s score is well-loved for a reason. Very few games pull off the leitmotif concept as well as what I hear in this game. It is not just that each character has their own, individual theme that perfectly embodies every single one of their traits; it is equally about the music of the world itself, which changes through the ages and yet is still instantly recognizable as the same music. I am beside myself with love for Robo’s theme (even ignoring the Rick Astley comparisons), Johnny’s theme was as catchy as any standard pop song, and Gato/Gonzalez’s yelping tune makes me laugh every time.

CHARACTER ANIMATION
It is absolutely true that all of the characters of Final Fantasy VI are impeccably detailed and express a huge range of emotions, and probably more so than here in Chrono Trigger. Despite that, I feel as if this set of characters is even more well-defined and expressive. Whereas FFVI lost me with its ridiculously large cast of characters (something I otherwise love, such as the ensemble casts in shonen stories), bringing it back to a core, manageable group lets me really pay attention to each of them. Combine the amazing sprite-work with the musical motifs, and I feel as if I already have a decade’s worth of familiarity with them. Crono’s “Yes!” arm motions, Marle’s jumping-for-joy, Frog’s bowing… these are real characters to me. I believe them in-so-much as I believe that they truly exist in this world that I am playing.

(images courtesy of videogamesprites.net)

CHARACTER DESIGN
I will be the first to admit that Akira Toriyama’s character designs are recycled nonsense to a stupid degree. Everyone either looks like Gohan or Trunks if they are male, and Bulma or Lunch if they are female. You could legitimately take it further back and say that even those character designs are just recycled from Dr. Slump! Ayla looks like Lunch running around like a dog-woman, while Lucca looks like Arale grown-up a little bit. Despite this, somehow Chrono Trigger‘s characters have a little more character to them than those I have seen from him in recent years.

Ayla

Lunch

Long before ever playing the game, just from seeing its advertisements and being aware of its existence, I felt that Crono himself had a very distinct look to him. Even with all of the Dragon Quest characters that have come and gone, Crono’s silhouette and color scheme are all his own.

(1995 magazine advertisement)

MOOD AND ATMOSPHERE
The musical score is certainly a part of setting this up, but a whole slew of other aspects that are difficult to pinpoint or otherwise put into words are truly selling me on the world and the dire situation it is in. 2300 AD looks devastated — the design of the buildings and ruined land, the white flashes that crack across your display, the bundled-up children that whine of hunger, the Enertron going so far as to tell you that you are still hungry… all of this combines together to create a world that I do not want to be in. As intrigued as I am by this future, I am disgusted every time I visit it. To have this sort of reaction, and to the world of a 16-bit game, really tells me a lot about the experience I am having.

(the team arrives in the future)

My love of the game’s atmosphere was brought to a new level just as I completed this first ten hours in my raid of the Fiendlord’s Keep. The lack of any music what-so-ever at first actually put me on edge. Creepy children laughing scares the bejeezus out of me. My own comrades turning into battling monsters actually made me wary of seeing them “for real” the next time. Even with Ozzie being ridiculous and over-the-top with his laughable battle plans and inability to catch his breath, the entire area made me frightened. When this culminates in two fascinating boss battles and then an even Bigger Bad boss battle, you know that someone put more love into this one scenario than some games ever get in total.

BATTLE SYSTEM
Sometimes I want to sit around and endlessly stat-grind with the best of them. When I want that, I will play Pokemon. For the most part, I am beyond that in what I am looking for in my general gaming experiences, though. No random encounters? Enemies that move around the screen? Dual- and triple tech moves? Individualized magic systems per character? All of this wrapped up in something that is easy to understand and implement? Where have I been for the last fifteen years…?!

(battling in the sewers)

PACING
Even with the battle system the way it is, if you want to grind, you can grind. Go out and back in to certain areas, get ready for the sequenced-ambushes, and fight the same enemies over and over to your heart’s content. That’s fine. What really makes the game’s pacing so beautiful, however, is how it encourages you not to do this. Without the random enemy encounters, you feel no apprehension as you explore the world map. It is a living and breathing world with a lot to offer in terms of exploration, other characters, hidden treasures, and more. I have never once felt that the game was pushing me, kicking and screaming, to move on to the “next” part of the story. I was free to roam, and yet the world is not so huge that I feel overwhelmed while doing so, and never do I lose track of what the current series of events are, what my next goal is, and why I am doing it.

Needless to say, I am pretty blown away by Chrono Trigger so far. I know that I have a lot to look forward to (especially the multiple endings), and I can see this sticking around in my DS for quite some time to come. My biggest fear is that the game has already blown its proverbial load, and I have already experienced the best of what it has to offer. I am pretty optimistic, though, and I am 100% on-board with the rest of you when I say, “Mike… it’s about damn time.“

(No real spoilers here, so don’t worry if you haven’t played the game… then again, I think I’m the only person who hasn’t played the game…)

There have been two instances so far where I have been almost unable to continue playing the game simply because I can’t tell what I am supposed to do (or more correctly, where I am supposed to go to do the thing that I was just told I have to do).

The first came about during level two (“Halo”) where I needed to activate a light bridge to pass across the giant gap in the roadway (shortly after getting control of the Warthog). After clearing the bridge area of baddies, I was told there was a switch to go hit to activate the bridge… but I found myself walking back and forth around the entire area completely unable to find said switch. I checked what I thought was every single nook and cranny and box and dead bad guy looking for this miraculous switch that would allow me to continue my gameplay. I took a break after something like 15 minutes to go talk to Jeff about something, and when I came back I resumed my search. Even after consulting FAQs which told me there was a ramp up on the right, I still couldn’t find the darn thing. I lost track of how much time I spent doing this, but I eventually found this fabeled narrow ramp. What prevented me from finding this? It seemed to obvious and in the open, yet I had been walking around for a ridiculous amount of time. Was it the color scheme of the stage? Was it because the ramp was so narrow? I don’t think I know the answer to this question.

I wish that was the last time I had that problem, but I ran into the exact same issue last night.

The first half of level three (“The Truth and Reconciliation”) seemed to be intended as a halfway-stealthy mission, but I have too severe a case of Gaming A.D.D.™ to be able to do that (nevermind the fact that I didn’t seem to have the sniper rifle I was apparently supposed to have). I am playing on easy, though, so that combined with the hilariously-effective stationary turrets allowed me to clear through pretty easily once I got reacquainted with the controls (it had been about two weeks since I last played). I eventually reached a comparatively wide open area that circled around a pit (for those that have played, you probably know which area I mean… it’s the second-to-last area in the first half of the level before you get beamed up). I once again had an instance where after I had cleaned out the entire area of baddies… I absolutely could not figure out where the heck I was supposed to go. I even backtracked all the way to the beginning of the level (and then back again) just to make sure I wasn’t missing anything important like a side cavern or something like that. I easily spent half an hour wandering around the level, and while I managed to grab a whole bunch of extra ammo for myself, no progress was being made. I once again consulted the plethora of poorly-written FAQs on the interwebz, all of which paid no mind to the situation and told me to just continue on up the mountain as if there was not an issue here at all. If I’m spending all this time trying to figure out where to go, isn’t there some kind of issue, though? Once again, after spending this ridiculous amount of time wandering around, I found (gasp!) the narrow pathway that led me up the mountain, right in plain view the entire time.

What’s going on here? Am I just being careless? Am I not paying attention to my surroundings? Like I asked myself earlier, does it have to do with the color scheme of the game? Is it just another example of my unfamiliarity with the genre, and perhaps its non-maturation at that point in time? Am I just making excuses for my own incompetence?

How about you all? Have you had similar experiences? I’d especially like to hear about similar experiences in different genres. The closest example I can remember that’s non-FPS-related was my attempt to re-find Narsche in Final Fantasy VI which I had written about previously.

I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned this in the past, but I’m not the biggest fan of FPS games. After the obligatory Doom II and Duke Nuken 3D back in high school, I didn’t progress with the genre at all. Sure, I played a little Goldeneye 007 on Nintendo 64 like anyone else who owned the console, but not gaming on the PC at all (in arguably one of its “golden” eras), I simply never really had the chance to play them, and they never really entered my mind as something to even bother with.

I think it was the combination of seeing Bioshock, Team Fortress 2, and Portal in 2007 that swayed me a little bit. The first was all about an incredible atmosphere, the second was all about a hilarious aesthetic and class-based teamwork, and the third was all about humor and ingenuity. More than weapons, more than speed, more than the number of polygons, and more than anything else, those aspects made me take a second look at the genre.

I played through the demo of Bioshock (once on the 360, and even then again on the PC) and really enjoyed what I played. I picked it up on 360 sometime last year (and even just a couple weeks back for $5 on Steam… just to have it around) but haven’t gotten around to playing any more of it. I’ve dabbled here and there in Team Fortress 2, but the game is essentially unapproachable for general multiplayer action for anyone who isn’t already an FPS master. I’m sitting on my save at the last level in Portal, and loved every minute I have played in it (I’ll get around to beating it, I promise!).

Within the last month, I decided that before playing any more of these games (including the Half-Life 2 series of games, which I obtained via The Orange Box), I was going to dip a little back into the past and play a couple older games to see how the genre has evolved at least over the last ten years (if not longer). I had asked for the first Halo as a Christmas present last year, and it’s been sitting in my collection ever since. I picked up the first Half-Life on Steam a couple months back when they were running the special $1 sale on it to celebrate its 10-year anniversary. With these two in tow, the golden standards of PC- and console-based FPSing, I figured I would have a great and educated jumping ground.

The first thing I confirmed for myself (which I’ve mentioned before, but it bears repeating) was how much of snob I’ve become for mouse-and-keyboard FPSing, despite hardly caring about the genre at all. I played through a little bit of the demo for Portal: Still Alive on 360, and was immediately thrown off with the (by-comparison) clunkiness and slow response time. Andrew mentioned on the podcast recently how he played through the 360 version with absolutely no problem, but had never actually played (at least seriously) an FPS on the PC to really compare the controls. To come in with a total “n00b” perspective with absolutely zero pre-conceptions and honestly give all types of control schemes a chance, I can honestly say that given the opportunity, I would always pick mouse-and-keyboard over dual-sticks, and I have a hard time understanding why anyone would ever choose differently.

Let’s talk about the actual games, though.

Being so unfamiliar with and terrible at FPS games, and therefore multiplayer sessions being nothing more than an endless and frustrating cycle of spawn-kill, I really enjoyed being able to dive into the single-player campaign of Half-Life. I love stories, narrative, flow, etc., and so far it’s delivered on all fronts (note that I just finished “Office Complex”, the third “level”, last night). I understand that it’s a game from 10 years ago, so I’ve been able to forgive the quirky mannerisms of some of the NPCs (which actually makes them more endearing than I think they otherwise would be). I haven’t gotten too much of the “story” yet, but the flow it’s riding along with has been near-perfect so far. I’ve only seen one hint of the “G-man” (I know I’ve missed some), but it was wonderfully creepy and enthralling. I’d love to tell you more about it, but I really need to get further along in the game before I can say a lot more.

There is one part of the gameplay I’d like to slightly rant about, though, and it happens to be the original title of this column (before I ended up writing so much more than I anticipated): platforming in FPS games. I neglected to mention earlier that I played through a bit of the first Turok game on Nintendo 64, and this may have been one of the moments in FPS gaming that turned me off for a while. I personally have an incredibly difficult time “platforming” in first-person. By that I mostly mean precise jumping. Whether it was from little circular cliff to little circular cliff in Turok, or hanging box to hanging box in Half-Life, I have a horrible time doing it right. My sense of depth is completely thrown off, and I have almost zero “sense of self” with regards to my surroundings. I know a lot of readers/listeners wrote in to say that it’s something you get used to with time (which I can completely see happening), but as-of-yet, I am still suffering from the same plague.

Let me showcase two examples that drove me absolutely insane just within the “Office Complex” level. In this first example (the second-to-last area within “Office Complex”), you need to get up into that little vent/corridor, which will lead the way to hopping atop the moving conveyor, and ultimately across to the next section. I can’t describe or count the number of ways and times that I tried to get in there. I even pushed a giant box from one end of the level back to this room (all Zelda puzzle-solving style) just in case I need to jump from the ledge across from the vent up to the box and then up into the vent (needless to say, I didn’t need to do that). Despite the fact that I had been doing several running crouch-jumps towards that area, it never worked. Well, that’s not true. Eventually it worked. I have no idea what I did differently, but somehow I managed to squeeze myself up in there. I had actually not played the game in maybe a week or so because I was “stuck” in trying to get myself up in there, so it was quite a relief to not have to drop the game simply because I couldn’t control myself properly in level three.

That wasn’t the end of my frustration, though. Anyone who knows the game much better than I ever hope to will know exactly what came next.

That’s right. Climbing up ladders, jumping to other landings, jumping to more ladders, and getting to the top of an elevator was my next task. I amazingly only died once before I got to the last ladder (and that was my own fault for not paying full attention to the game). The last jump looks so incredibly easy, and should have been a piece of cake. However, this is probably the one spot where I died in the game more so than any other spot thus-far. Despite it being directly in front of me, I absolutely could not get myself to jump straight across and grab onto the ladder. I always seemed to end up too low, ladder completely within my sight but not my grasp, and then found myself plummeting to my death below. I stopped counting how many times I died, but I eventually grabbed onto it and finished the level.

This means that my experience with Half-Life so far has been complete enjoyment of the story/narrative, the characters, and even the enemies… with the major “fault” being one tiny element of the gameplay! Unfortunately, that one “fault” has been enough to frustrate me into not playing the game for at least one week’s period of time, and intimidate me from playing as much as I otherwise would probably want to.

Let’s leave behind Half-Life (except to make comparisons) and turn over to Halo, a game that came out three years later. Almost immediately upon starting the game, I could see just how much of a new groundwork Half-Life had laid for the genre with its scripted events and mostly-obvious level design choices to lead you in the right direction. While not as memorable as the monorail sequence that begins Half-Life, the beginning of Halo does many of the same things by introducing you to the game’s world, the basic control schemes, the important sub-characters, the enemies, and more. I especially liked the back-and-forth choice you are offered with regards to inverted or standard control with the right control stick; it crossed the fourth wall just barely enough to still make sense in-universe, but make you smile at the same time.

I have definitely played much less in Halo than I have in Half-Life (only about an hour or so, completing level two, “Halo”), so I do not yet have as much in-depth insight into my own gameplay as I will upon finishing a few more sessions with the game. To tangentially relate the discussion back to the original topic (being platforming in FPS games), the only “platforming” problem I have had so far was more in the vehicle usage than controlling Master Chief, himself. I had a very difficult time controlling the Warthog, especially when I would need to change directions. I felt as if it were almost driving too fast, giving me little in the way of response time. Yes, I flipped myself over countless times. Yes, I had to get out and punch the Warthog out of a corner so I could hop back in it (once accidentally exploding myself in the process). I think I will have an easier time controlling the vehicles in Halo than I will jumping around from box to box to ladder to ladder in Half-Life, but I suppose that remains to be seen.

It would be impossible to talk about the two games without mentioning the vast difference between each main character (Gordon Freeman and Master Chief, respectively). The “silent protagonist” shtick certainly isn’t something unfamiliar to me (having played plenty a Legend of Zelda title), and I have to admit I was pretty surprised when Master Chief actually spoke (albeit during cut-scenes), as opposed to Gordon who remains completely silent at all times. I don’t have much more to add to this part of the discussion just yet, as I feel I’m far too early in each game to do a fair comparison in that respect.

Those of you still waiting to hear about my experiences with Final Fantasy VI, fret not. I have continued into the game some more, and I will absolutely be delving into more thoughts and ponderings with it. Until then, let me know what you think about this particular topic, and what your experiences have been. I feel like I’m in a totally new world, and I look forward to (hopefully) finishing these two games and maybe even moving on to their sequels (eventually… remember, it’s taken me ten years to get to Half-Life).

So here are the ground rules when we here on vgconvos talk about a game we are playing and want to hear feedback from you all while still going into spoilers (which I guess we’ll just call “Video Game Club”). Note that these rules are subject to change, and probably will change as we figure out what the heck we’re doing.

(1) All in-depth talk / spoilers will be put behind a “read more” cut.
(2) The age of the game is irrelevant; we will respect spoilers in all games.
(3) Before the cut, we will describe the general area of where we are in the game, and where appropriate, the current play-time.
(4) You can’t hold us responsible for ruining games for you!

With that out of the way… I’m about 11 hours into Final Fantasy VI. If the town of “Vector” and a research facility don’t sound familiar to you yet, do not…

As I hinted at in episode four of the podcast, there have been a few hints of things here and there that lead me to believe I’m eventually going to get some sort of emotional attachment to some of the characters and impact from the overall game. Right now, though, these are all just hints… I simply don’t feel anything substantial yet.

One of those hints was Locke’s scene in Kohlingen in the basement of the building where “Rachel” is “sleeping” (dead?). It was certainly something good to toss into the mix, and helps develop his character slightly. I don’t really think it was enough, though. I’m hoping there will be more to this story later on, but at the same time, it doesn’t seem like it actually needs any more. Hints were left, and I should probably just read between the lines on my own and stop expecting it to spell it all out for me.

I have definitely been enjoying the Locke x Celes stuff going on, though. It’s been nice to have a little tension between characters while Terra is gone for a while. The blushing during the entire opera saga was definitely cute, and the awkward conversations and exclamations back and forth were wonderful, humorous touches to that tension.

This all culminated for me today with the scene in the Magitek Research Facility where Celes teleported(?) herself, Kefka, and the underlings away from the team (mine’s Locke / Edgar / Gau) and Cid. Her spoken desire to actually save Locke for once had just enough subtlety, but wasn’t too over-dramatic.

I’m also having a bit of a problem understanding the Esper system in the game. I can’t really tell which is equipped to which character and what it’s really doing for me. Am I just going to figure it out as the game goes on and I fart around with it more, or do you also feel that it’s not all that well integrated into the menu system?

So far I am definitely enjoying the game, and appreciate the layers that are being woven together as I move along in the story. I was hoping it would start moving a little faster, and I think it is. Then again, that just may be my inability to play too much of the game lately, which will continue up and through the wedding and honeymoon. I also spent about 30-60 minutes of play-time previous to Vector going up and down the continent just doing a little grinding, which takes you out of the story far too much. The flights coming up will give me plenty of time to sit in one place and play a ton of the game, though!