Today I shall compare my two favorite RPG's of all time, Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy IV. Now I know that some of you (Actually, does anyone read this blog?) would immediately say "Now LordSirPumpkin, Everyone knows that Chrono Trigger is a better game!" before reading this. In respones I would slap you in the face with a frozen carp. These two are very similar, yet incredibly different games. Neither is perfect. Curious? I know I am even though I wrote this!
Both games are running the same battle system: ATB v2.0. It's a wonderful battle system that is near and dear to my heart. Chrono trigger has a slight edge with the techs that are integrated into it. While Final Fantasy IV has abilites, they are not nearly as important to battle. Also Chrono Trigger has an advantage with the way the player encounters enemies. There are no random battles. Final Fantasy IV on the other hand had RBS (Random Battle Syndrome). This is the problem that has plagued RPG's for many, many years. Chrono Trigger found the cure.
Many people have screamed to the heavens that chrono trigger has the best video game soundtrack EVER. I disagree. Don't get me wrong it is a fantastic soundtrack, but when listening to it without the game, it can get boring. Final Fantasy IV on the other hand has a sound track that is about as good in game, and much better on it's own(excluding Frog's theme. So much awesome). Overall, I have to give the soundtrack to Final Fantasy IV.
The Graphics in Chrono Trigger win hands down, understandably so. Final Fantasy IV came out much earlier in the Super Nintendo's life time, and Square was originally developing the game for the NES. So when the SNES was announced, Square jumped ship and did what they could to take advantage of the new tech. They're certainly not the worst graphics, everything is crisp and clean, but they're not groundbreaking. Chrono Trigger's graphics are..... WOW. Fantastic. This game really looks pretty, such wonderful detail. Nothing too groundbreaking, but that may be a good thing. Since Square wasn't experimenting with any new tech, they were able to focus on making everything they had to work with perfect! You can really see the art style of Akira Toriyamam com through............ yay? I know I'm going to get a lot of crap for this, but I don't think that's a good thing.
I liked Toriyama's work in Dragon Ball. It was very appropriate. But then I started looking at the other stuff he drew, and I noticed he had a definite style. That's fine I like it when someone has a definite style. But then I saw more and more of his work.... and I noticed that everything looked the same. In everything he does the artwork for there is a Goku, Vegeta, Trunks, or all three! It's ridiculous, and getting stale. In Final Fantasy IV The concept art is done by Yoshitaka Amano, who also has a definite style. The difference is that Amano doesn't draw the same people over and over again. Each new character looks fresh and new. Alos Amano's work is a bit more mature then Toriyama's. It helps create a deeper and more intense atmosphere. So Between the graphics and overall look, there is no clear winner. The visuals are a draw.
So that leaves the story. Do we want the time traveling epic, or the globe trotting fairy tale. Chrono Trigger's plot is a lot easier to follow han most RPGs. It's a good story, lot's of fun, and really made the game worthwhile. It was a little annoying that Crono couldn't talk. I understand that the player is supposed to be Crono, and that's why he didn't have any lines, but hat also means that he is the least interesting character. Final Fantasy IV Has a far more complex story, and a main character that speaks. THe story really benefits from that though. Cecil faces some serious issues and makes the "right" decisions. He doesn't really insult your intelligence, nor is he too whiny( SNES version folks). He creates a better fairy tale. Slo FFIV has more locations. Yes Chrono Trigger has time Travel, but the world is pretty small in CT. In FFIV there is ahuge overworld, a slightly smaller underworld, and a small moon. That's a lot of locations. It's a lot of retro gaming. I look at it like this, CT would make a better novel, and FFIV makes a better series of novels. So who wins? If you can't tell already it's FFIV. I judged this one based on my play experience. CT was fun and I wanted to play more, but tt wasn't because of the story. I wanted tog et to the end of the supposed "best RPG of all time". When I played FFIV it controlled my life. I thought about it constantly from start to finish. I would talk about it to anyone that would listen. It was a greater experience. So there you have it. My comparision. Both are great games. Both are worth playing, but I pick FFIV. Start writing your hate mail(all 0 of you), so I can ignore it.
Farewell for now,
LordSirPumpkin
HATE MAIL.
ReplyDeleteJust kidding.
Actually, I believe that your comparison was well-balanced enough. You've played both games to a rather extensive degree, and you definitely have more than enough knowledge about the two games to be able to review them both under the same light, and from what I've played, I can agree. FFIV has a story which a person can connect to in more ways than CT, in my opinion. It's probably a lot easier for a person to sympathize with a character such as Cecil, or most of rest of the cast of the story. They're done in a manner that is much more humanlike, more believable. They suffer from the chains of balance between ethos, pathos, and logos, just like the rest of us in such moral dilemmas. As we play, we often ask ourselves, "What would I do in that situation?" That's not to say that Chrono Trigger doesn't have such characters (Frog is MORE than a good enough example), but with that in mind, some characters were developed in a manner that is comparable to the blooming of a lotus flower, sometimes overly so, but others were quite simply wooden, particularly Ayla and Marle, at least from what I can say. I'm no authority on such things. With the concept of a wooden character, you could also think of it this way: you can carve things out of wood, but it's difficult to change its shape without proper tools. In other words, you can take a character that is perceived as "wooden" and still manage to make them dynamic, but it's difficult to do so unless you prepare them to be such. They can always change in such a manner (take Cid Raines from FF13 for example, first being as plastic as can be and then becoming the bad-good guy), but as a writer, you'd need to orchestrate those moments cautiously, meticulously, and believable, or else you get the cheesiest character conceivable. It would look like you tried, but it didn't work out, regardless. That's what the difficult side of the carving is.
One way or another, we could discuss these two games even further, and we will, but that is all I have for now. Good read.
It doesnt matter people will side with both. I played Ct as a child so obvouisly i think ct is better. Played ffx as my first final fantasy .... ffiv i played later on in my adult ish stages. it depends if u played ct as a child or not etc etc
ReplyDeleteI really love both, and I also "hate" Toriyama's style: I really prefer Yoshitaka Amano when speaking of fantasy. Also, he already was the author on Dragon Quest, so I really ddidn't understand that from Squaresoft. really loved much more having Nobuteru Yuuki on Chrono Cross!
ReplyDeleteStill, CT is a great game, and I was happy they didn't "remake" it on the DS as they did with FFIII and FFIV.
FFIV had a great plot and great characters, and managed to be the groundbreaker from NES to SNES, but my favourite JRPG ever still today is Final Fantasy VI. It was simply perfect in every way.
Overall, I really can't complain on any aspect off these games, they were marvellously produced and were a great part of my gaming experience. Too bad Square-Enix nowadays is just the mere shadow of its former self.
By the way, nice blog, hope you'll update it someday, I just discovered it.