In the wake of the veritable internet shitstorm that occured when a "leaked' Weekly Famitsu scan and an official-looking countdown site hinted at a Chrono Trigger DS game, Nathan intoduced me to Chrono Trigger: Resurrection, a fan-made, 3D remake, of sorts. It was never intended to be a fully-fledged game, just ten individual scenes strung together. Square Enix shut it down a few years ago, but I'd never heard of the project before last night.

I'm not quite sure what to make of the project -- it's technically impressive, with production values far higher than I what I imagined a few dudes with no budget would be able to pull off, even if there aren't any textures. However, I'm not sure if I can wrap my mind around the character models or art design, apparently inspired by the Toriyama-designed anime cutscenes from the Final Fantasy Chronicles PSOne collection. Something about it seems off, like Chrono is too bulky and beefy.

That being said, I'm anxious to see how Square will "enhance" CT DS. Don't get me wrong, I love Final Fantasy III DS, another classic remake, but the superdeformed characters didn't always translate very well. This, of course, didn't stop me from sinking several hours into the game, nor will it stop me from enjoying Chrono Trigger, should this rumor pan out. I do, however, think that, when trying to adapt classic games for a modern audience, there's a lot to be said for sprites. See Dragon Quest IX (another Square Enix game), Odin Sphere, and Grim Grimoire for examples of beautiful sprite work.



Anyway, back to Resurrection. It's a nifty little project, and it's a shame that it got cancelled. The animation was fluid and the transition into the first combat (around the 8:14 mark) was absolutely seamless, a design choice I wish more RPG developers would make. The little battle intro transition thing is jarring and adds unnecessary time to already long and sometimes tedious games. It is a convenient way to hide loading times, though. Too bad Resurrection's translation was just as bad as the original. I've never seen someone butcher English the way Frog does.

For comparison, here's some footage of the original Chrono Trigger.

You read that right -- Christmas came early for me this year, and I got a Smoking Robot. If you don't know yet, check out Niero's explanation of the Destructoid/Smoking Robot connection.

Anyway, the first toy in my big boy toy collection comes courtesy of a special friend that some of you know as she-Orcist. The rest of you may call her Andrea. Head over to her Vox for some pictures. I don't know what else I'll be getting, but if it's half as sweet as this, you'll all be hearing about it.

And no, there aren't any epic credits, or a sweet soundtrack, or a fart noise at the end because I'm not a Workmeng, and I don't know how to use iMovie. I would've done it, but my computer is in a bunch of little pieces on a highway in Alabama (no joke), and even when it was in one piece, it was never sweet enough for movie editing. Think of it as a sneak peak into my life. I'm not a black man, and I'm not Justin Timberlake.

Everything is so much better in Japan, even the non-native wildlife.



Everything epic about this video is made epic-er by this one:



Apparently, anything with enough yen can buy cake in Japan. Even simians.

I'm simultaneously amazed at how cute fat bulldogs are, and how fucking badass chimpanzees are. I'm so conflicted.

This monkeydog hybrid seems to be a recurrent theme in Japan. Fuck Milo and Otis, I'm all about some Pan and James:




Supakawai! ^_^

Colette may have beaten me to the punch, but a slipshod gallery photo doesn't do this lovely creation justice. This hot piece comes courtesy of Craftster, and was made by some girl with too much time on her hands for some very lucky dude. While she maintains that it took her several hours, my friend Andrea assures me that she's just being a whiny cunt. Either way, this thing is fucking awesome.

Like an anthropomorphic seahorse, I will bear the first child of anyone who makes me one of these.