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I have a bunch of Trials of Mana thoughts, but one thing it made click for me is actually (maybe because of how interleaved development was at Square back then) about Chrono Trigger.
We label it as a time travel game, but the charm of those eras is that they're different genres:
We label it as a time travel game, but the charm of those eras is that they're different genres:
- 600 AD is Dragon Quest
- 2300 AD is post-apocalyptic sci-fi
- 65000000 BC is Land of the Lost by way of The Flintstones
- & 12000 AD is THE BACKSTORY OF A SQUARESOFT RPG
Of course it needs the through-story that connects them to click, but the genre differences are crucial too
- 2300 AD is post-apocalyptic sci-fi
- 65000000 BC is Land of the Lost by way of The Flintstones
- & 12000 AD is THE BACKSTORY OF A SQUARESOFT RPG
Of course it needs the through-story that connects them to click, but the genre differences are crucial too
I feel like the recursive nature of Zeal is part of why the place feels so special: it's Altena, not as it appears in Trials but as the unseen creators of the Mana Fortress in Secret. Or the society that fell to the War of the Magi.
I mean, heck, it was already the proto-Shevat.
I mean, heck, it was already the proto-Shevat.
And CT so knows what it's doing. That "reversing the design" article ( http://thegamedesignforum.com/features/reverse_design_CT_4.html, tragically now truncated) talks about how sneaky Zeal is, but, with you already used to genre-hopping, jumping to a setting that's an homage to ITS OWN CONTEMPORARIES is just, well done
I wonder how different it all felt living in Japan, where six months after Chrono Trigger another Seiken Densetsu comes along, rather than CT kind of serving as the capstone to the SNES era.
I wonder what else we're missing because we never got, like, Bahamut Lagoon or whatever.
I wonder what else we're missing because we never got, like, Bahamut Lagoon or whatever.
