Double Retro Blog: Chrono Trigger & Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals

The reason this is a double feature is because these two share a connection with childhood memories and a good friend I still see now and then in present time. He borrowed me Chrono Trigger at one point, while I borrowed him Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals, which became and still is his favorite video game of all time.

Let's start with the juggernaut of Squaresoft's dreamlike project, I am sure you have heard the development stories by now that the gathering team was sort of like an all-stars one back in the 90's, with drawings from Dragon Ball manga artist and both creators of Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest working together, respectively.

Chrono Trigger is a pseudo JRPG with the unique battle system of often being able to avoid fights, yet also instantly starting battles the moments enemies and you clash, so there ain't transportation towards a new screen. And there is also the fun option of not letting enemies wait for their turn.

The setting is that basically you will have to time travel through the same world in several era's so that ultimately you and your otherworldly or timely friends can defeat Lavos, a huge alien parasite from outer space which has come to consume the energy of their dear planet.

With a voiceless hero, a semi damsel in distress yet modern heroine, an engineering enthousiast, a talking yet noble frog knight, a moral and free will exploring robot, a very strong warrior woman and the fan's favorite iconic villain turned friend from a magical lost era, the cast has always been diverse.

To speak news about the original soundtrack is impossible because enough has been said, everyone from my generation recognizes Corridors of Time, a magical moment in a magical sky land, but there are so many other satisfying tunes such as the battle theme, 2300 A.D.'s overworld and the Black Omen.

Chrono Trigger has a tech system implemented where characters can learn techniques either by themselves or through partnership with one or even two others, allowing for devastating and effective attacks to shape up.

The pacing and diversity during of the progression in this unique storyline are both very strong, for there is almost no grinding involved in a 16-bit period where that seems to be so popular, and that same world changes dramatically in every time era.

It also was one of if not the first video game where multiple endings are available, allowing for interesting outcomes to happen depending on the conditions which are met. It's also filled with curious secret events, engaging side stories and just the right amount of challenge for newcomers and veterans alike.

Chrono Trigger is a masterpiece found on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, next towards other juggernauts like Secret of Mana, Final Fantasy III/VI and Super Metroid. It has aged like a fine wine so to speak, and will continue to impress even when transcending towards the future.

The other feature of this dual blog is a lesser known JRPG, and almost entirely different, but curiously both share the option of being able to avoid many kinds of combat encounters, however, even then, you too will eventually succumb into the familiar fun mechanics with some few unique extra features.

Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals is first and foremost a prequel to Lufia & the Fortress of Doom, but the first title suffers from an imbalance between difficult battles and tiresome grinding festivals which both did not add up, nor is it as memorable.

The sequel improves in every way. Factors such as presentation, the emotional storyline, smoothened combat and a bigger world make it a greater time to return towards this. The Sinistrals are primarily remembered the most for featuring one of the best boss battle songs in any video game.

Aside from being a lengthy journey, Lufia II is also filled with other content, such as a somewhat hidden casino town, an awesome randomizing particular dungeon and the very unique ability(1 year before Pokémon) of raising monsters who will assist you in your struggles.

What arguably made Rise of the Sinistrals the most outstanding is most likely how it's puzzles are designed that are each scattered throughout the dungeons, temples and towers. The developers of Neverland really got creative with them and could easily rival any The Legend of Zelda puzzle and sometimes even surpass them, another unique treat amongst SNES RPG's.

Although I don't have as much to say about Lufia II than about Chrono Trigger, it's very hard to pick a favorite, and to be honest it just fluctuates. It just so happens that I grew up with both of them through an exchange with a good friend, and ironically, nothing else out there really comes close towards these two unique and very critical acclaimed video games.

They are just two more little pieces of my childhood, and I consider myself very lucky to have experienced both in their prime times so to speak.

Advance Wars

Intelligent System's other strategic franchise is called Advance Wars, or Famicom Wars if you want to touch the roots. Now to be frank, I haven't touch the Famicom, Super Famicom and Game Boy titles yet, nor the Battalion Wars released later, so this post will focus on the GBA and DS titles instead.

When I first played Advance Wars on the Game Boy Advance, I simply went euphoric at the grid structure, the potential of the strategies and the turn based gameplay similar to rock, paper and scissor, as well as towards playing chess.

It has a war theme playing, although comically making stereotypes of 4 nations, in this case Orange/Red Star resembles the U.S.A., Blue Moon Mother Russia, Green Earth Nazi Germany and Yellow Comet Imperial Japan.

The three main battle fronts you will be fighting on directing your units are by land, by sea and by air. While playing on the various and many maps, you will have to produce units, capture properties, scout out ahead and defeat the enemy either by killing all of the troops, or by capturing their HQ.

What really sealed the deal with Advance Wars are two things; the original sound track and the powers of the commanding officers or CO's. Each nation has CO's that further stereotype particular war elements, and have strengths in various factors, while bringing along memorable and addictive themes.

The powers can range from damaging all enemy units, towards increasing the range of your indirect units, towards capturing properties in 1 turn. All of these powers can be devastating, and depending on the maps you choose, your CO advantages or disadvantages can change.

Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising sees the revenge sequence of the villain Sturm taking a turn, by bringing in his own nation Black Hole in full circle, a futurized army, bringing along the rest of his subordinate CO's named Flak, Lash, Adder and Hawke.

The other nations got new CO's to play with as well, a fiersome new unit called the NeoTank was introduced and that's about it in regards to content. What really changed the most was the balance of the CO tier list, making Black Hole Rising simply a better sequel.

Dual Strike for the Nintendo DS then got along, introducing towards us the radical feature of tagging or combining CO's and their powers, thus allowing for devastating results to happen on maps, making it arguably the most broken title yet. It did not matter, because it was so much fun once again.

A handful of new units such as Piperunners and Ooze units, as well as a new face of Black Hole antagonism made Dual Strike even more interesting, as the graphics had changed in a more pseudo 3D'ish like way. A minor dissapointment is that the tunes of the old CO's had inferior sounds playing.

Finally, and for now, Dark Conflict kicked the old atmosphere of goofy warfare out of the way, and went for a completely different setting, making it darker and more dramatic, as it has the best plot seen yet.

It's my favorite Advance Wars yet so far because it introduced a plethora of new units for all three fronts, it's easily the most balanced one yet and I completely digged this new direction and mood it was bringing out.

All of these four titles also have huge replayability not only because of their notorious difficulties in the later maps, but also because of a map editor being present. First, only 3 maps could be archived, but with the latest title, up to 50 maps could be done the same.

It is now 2015, and Dark Conflict, or Days of Ruin depending on your region got released in 2008, while the Japanese version of that only got recently released in 2013, a most unfortunate move made by Nintendo.

Fire Emblem is more popular in Japan than Famicom Wars, which is why a handful of FE titles have instead been released, and while Awakening's popularity is certainly much welcomed, it seems that Code Name S.T.E.A.M., Intelligent System's new IP, hasn't been critical similarily.

This, alongside the long wait is why Advance Wars should return for either 3DS, the Wii U, or both. Advance Wars is a very strategic and fun game series which could work great with either control schemes, with online functionality such as VS. and map sharing, and it simply has such a charm to it, making it the best multiplayer turn based strategy franchise for me.

Planned Obsolescence

Here are words you don't see everyday. What do they mean? Planned obsolescence is a policy of planning or designing a product in various industries that makes products obsolete after a certain amount of artificial time.

For instance, smartphones are getting new releases on a yearly basis nowadays, and because of that, there is also a psychological obsolescence happening simultaneously. Because developers say that there is room for improvement.

Functionality, ergonomics, technology and accessibility are reasons given for following this design decision in companies. What they don't state are the disadvantages as well as the real reason for this, which is profit, or better yet, continual profit.

The greatest disadvantage is the enormous waste of resources that are briefly formed into these lifespan limited products so that in the end they become nothing more than waste articles and disposable objects that either get a reservation in their specific junkyard, or a one way trip into the flames.

Smartphones are one of the best examples I can give about my position on this matter, because of someone's mad idea that pumping out these babies in such a short time could be considered normal, and it has become so.

Instead of making the best product that is rich fully designed for at least 10 years, this policy is happening because of capitalism and the free market to implement the craziest policies, legislation's and regulations.

These are of course fastened developing times, but I wish that development would have much more time for products to roll out primarily for their usefulness instead of wasteful decisions such as fashion style, artificial time killers, psychological illusions and eliminating backwards compatibility.

Planned obsolescence is here to stay for a while, unfortunately. ALMOST no company creates products for sustainability, rather, research labs and other scientific investigations do, so why do they keep getting mass produced?

Because men crave for improvement, how vaguely and misguided that can mean. Face it people, the planet has finite resources, and there cannot be infinite economic growth. That growth is one of the most insidious accepted delusions out there.