Alright, so. No spoilers for the the way the game unfolds this time, but I'll be dropping spoilers about the characters in the game and the continuity it's in, because it's relevant to the setting.
Today, Radical Dreamers for the SNES.
Radical Dreamers, eh? I'll admit, prior to this, all I'd heard about the game was that the soundtrack had been remixed by devotees at OCremix and it had some connections to Chrono Cross. Turns out I was a little off. Published for an add-on for the SNES that never made it over here, the Satellaview, Redical Dreamers is a visual novel that takes place in an alternate timeline from Chrono Trigger.
Ostensibly an timeline where Chrono was not revived, as the Chrono Trigger is still in one piece. You play as Serge, (Yes, that Serge, but also not), accompanying Kid the annoying a** thief and the shadow magician Magil (and really, the first time you see his sprite in the game you'll know who he really is). You're a band of thieves off to steal the Frozen Flame (pictured in the title screen) from the local lord, Lynx (who doesn't look like a furry in this game). So these are all Chrono Cross characters, yes. But this doesn't take place in the same timeline as Chrono Trigger does. This is more of a side-story to Trigger, and the characters just so happened to inspire a sequel to it that happened to be one of my favorite games of all time.
Kid, shut up god
So there's some background info. Let's start with the reviewing, shall we?
First off, In my 5 or 6 hours with this game, I saw 3 spelling and/or grammatical errors. 3. In a visual novel game.
DAMN. This is some of the best localization done anywhere. The game itself is very well written, and it carries over into English beautifully. Serge's descriptions of events draw you straight into the experience, which is an element many visual novels lack. You will be hard pressed to find a game that is better translated than this.
Gameplay is very much like a Choose Your Own Adventure novel, you will be presented with a situation and multiple ways to get through it. This could be anything from puzzle solving, to exploration, to negotiation, to combat.
A sample:
Yes, there are random encounters in this game. There aren't very many that are actually random, though- most enemy types have a set pattern to defeat them. I didn't run into very many, probably 20 overall. The problem with battles that don't have a pattern, and this is particularly true of a couple of mandatory fights, is that you'll feel very lost and out of place in combat. Many of your choices in these battles are just reactionary, while your allies dish out the pain. You'll never really get hooked into combat in these situations, though.
OH ******** b***h ******** YOU
There is no indicator for health points, although you can get an indication of what your health is like from Serge's dialogue after a battle. This is one of two hidden mechanics that are vital to your progress through the game. The other is the Flirt-o-Meter. Not its actual name, but that's what it's used for. Kid starts off with a set level of affection for Serge, and the only way to beat the game proper is to get her affection higher for Serge. There are several story events that have options to increase (and drastically decrease) affection levels, but the easiest way to increase affection is by not sucking at combat. So hopefully you'll find lots of skeletons and kick their a** if you ******** up in the story.
After a couple revelations at the end of the game
(the Frozen Flame is a piece of Lavos, Magil is Magus, Kid is a reincarnated Schala sent back in time who was raised by Lucca, who was killed by Lynx), some of which are paralleled in Chrono Cross the first scenario of the game comes to a close. This isn't the end of the fun, though, more like the start of it.
The game restarts and after some brief intro dialogue, Kid's hair can put you to sleep. Depending on whether you do or not, you can continue through the game and go through 6 more scenarios, in addition to replaying the first. Most of these scenarios are an hour at most, compared to the 2-4 hours it takes to get through the first.
This is where the game gets silly. No spoilers for this part, but along the way through the mansion, you may encounter the following: a perverted sunflower, a demon with insecurities about its breast size, space cops, tentacle demons, giant robots, ghosts, a basketball game, a goblin who just wants to drink tea with you, and a demon with breast size issues.
All these scenarios take place in parallel universes, just like the main storyline. So it's really cool.
Only one of those is made up. So while the first scenario is probably only for Chrono fans, the rest of the game is for EVERYONE. There may also be a Zero Wing reference in the game, but I ain't saying where.
ninja Overall, I really enjoyed this game. I was more impressed than entertained by the first segment of the game, but the rest of the game had me rolling. SO much fun. I highly recommend this for anyone who has a few hours to kill.
Random image dump.
Aaaaaaaaaaand there we go. Questions? Comments? Feedback? Requests?
Leave them here.
