"The Memory Card" is a seasonal feature that dissects and honors some of the most artistic, innovative, and memorable videogame moments of all time.
How many of you reading this right now have attacked a chicken with your sword in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past? How many of you have watched your poor friend plummet to his or her death off the bottom of the screen while scaling the waterfall in the original Contra? I am assuming almost all of you. Heck, I am raising my hand as well. The look of shame on my face is indescribable.
But despite these evil actions, why is there nothing in these games that punishes you? Sure, the chickens may fight back a little or your real-life friend may punch you in the shoulder, but where are the moral implications for being a genuinely bad guy? Zelda still calls Link a hero despite his abuse of poultry. Lance still fights alongside Bill even though his seemingly best friend abandons him during a war.
After years of videogames basically letting players get away with being, for lack of a better term, giant douchebags, there is a sequence in classic role-playing game Chrono Trigger for the Super Nintendo that attempts to bring some form of consequence for making poor moral choices.
Hit the jump to relive a memorable, sobering moment that has no problem judging you for some of the less-than-noble acts you are guilty of committing.
The Set-Up
Chrono Trigger is an absolute masterpiece. All of the praise and fond memories of the Super Nintendo classic are completely warranted, as it truly is one of the greatest role-playing games of all time. The game has actually been featured on The Memory Card two times before, so if you want to get a more in-depth description of what happens in the story you can click here and here.
For this installment, I will just be focusing on what leads up to this particular moment -- one that occurs very close to the beginning of the game.
As almost everyone that has touched a videogame controller knows, Chrono Trigger tells the story of Crono, a young, seemingly normal lad that is thrust into an epic adventure that takes him and a band of loyal companions all around the world -- even through time and space itself!
At the very start of the game, Crono is famously awoken by his mother by opening the curtains to his darkened room. As the light shines in, Crono tosses and turns in his bed, obviously waking up from a night of little sleep.
After hopping out of bed, Crono stretches, anticipating the exciting day ahead of him. You see, Crono knows that today is the day of the Millennial Fair, a giant festival in the northern part of his hometown of Truce!
After saying goodbye to his nosy mother, Crono runs out the front door of his house and heads to the bustling, balloon-filled fair in Leene Square.
Once he enters the fair, Crono looks around and realizes how much stuff there is to do: carnival games, shops, swarms of excited village folk walking around. Like any good RPG, the town is teeming with interesting NPCs (non-playable characters).
When interacting with certain villagers, Crono is presented with certain choices. At one point a girl in the village asks Crono to help her find her cat. At another point Crono runs into an old man who possesses a giant bag of tasty food that he is tempted to eat. In both situations, Crono can decide to do whatever he wants. He can choose to save the girl’s kitten or completely ignore her plea. He can ignore the old man’s food or eat it when he isn’t looking.
After experiencing these interesting moral choices, Crono continues his journey through the fair to meet up with his best friend Lucca to see the presentation of her new invention.
On the way there, Crono forcefully bumps into a beautiful blonde woman named Marle.
After knocking her to the ground, Marle drops a shimmering pendant. At this point Crono must check on Marle to see if she is okay and pick up her pendant to return it to her. Whatever order he does this in is up to Crono (and the player).
Marle, surprisingly not that upset about the collision, decides to travel with Crono to see Lucca at the far side of the fair.
Right before they get to their destination, Marle is distracted by two things. First, Marle decides to buy some candy and asks Crono to not move while she does this. After purchasing the sweets, a local merchant asks Crono if he can get Marle to sell the expensive-looking pendant to him.
Regardless of what Crono chooses, Marle refuses to sell the pendant to the shady salesman. Finally free of distractions, the pair makes their way to Lucca’s presentation.
Lucca’s invention is a teleportation machine. Using Marle as a willing volunteer to test it out, the teleporter whirs to life. Unfortunately, the pendant Marle is carrying reacts with the energy emitted from the machine and Marle is whisked back in time through a portal.
Using her dropped pendant, Crono and Lucca recharge the machine to form another portal and chase Marle back 400 years.
After a perilous rescue mission, Crono and Lucca eventually rescue Marle and the three return to the present time. Unfortunately for Crono, as soon as he escorts Marle back home to her castle (Marle is actually the princess of the kingdom of Guardia), the Chancellor arrests him and accuses him of kidnapping her.
Confused and frustrated by the false accusations, Crono is forced to stand trial for kidnapping the princess. This week's Memory Card moment focuses on this intriguing trial.
The Moment
Bathed in beautiful 16-bit colors, the royal courtroom is full of many people. Sitting in a sophisticated throne is the judge. On one side of the room is the Chancellor, with Crono’s assigned lawyer Pierre standing opposite him. Behind the witness stand is a sea of villagers, all of them curious to see what verdict is in store for Crono the accused.
After the judge officially starts the trial, the Chancellor and Pierre both commence with their opening arguments. The Chancellor is determined to convince the seven person jury that Crono is guilty of kidnapping the princess, while Pierre believes there is not enough evidence to support the claims.
At this point the Chancellor asks a series of questions and brings forth a couple of witnesses to prove what kind of person Crono really is.
Approaching Crono with a sinister look in his eyes, the Chancellor asks Crono who started this whole mess: him or Marle? Flashing back to the moment he ran into her, Crono realizes he must tell the truth about what happened. Presented with two choices, Crono decides to answer “I did,” since, technically, he is the one that bumped into her (although the real culprit is fuzzy).
Next, a witness is called forward: the little girl who lost her cat during the fair!
If Crono had returned the kitten to her earlier in the game, the little girl praises Crono’s character and says he is a wonderful guy. If Crono ignored the girl at the fair, well, her description of Crono’s character is not nearly as flattering.
Same with the old man and the food. When he enters as a witness, he will say very nice things about Crono if he didn’t eat his lunch. If Crono ate the food earlier, however, the result is completely the opposite.
At this point the Chancellor asks a series of questions that he wants Crono to answer truthfully:
“What about ransom? Crono, her fortune DID tempt you, did it not?”
This question refers to whether Crono checked on Marle or the pendant first after they ran into each other. If Crono checked on Marle first, he can honestly answer “No.”
“Are you sure? You really weren’t tempted?”
Remember when the village merchant asked Crono to sell Marle’s pendant for her? If Crono ignored this offer, he can respond with a “Not at all.”
Finally, during the fair, if Crono moved at all while Marle was buying candy (meaning: the player touched the control pad or any buttons), his lack of patience is brought up in the trial and held against him (everyone is so sensitive!).
After all the cross examining, the jury is asked to make a decision on whether Crono is innocent or guilty.
Based on his actions earlier at the fair, the seven jury members walk out one by one, standing to the left if they think he is guilty, and the right if they think he is innocent.
If Crono had made positive, good choices at the fair (taking the blame for bumping Marle, finding the cat, ignoring the food, helping Marle first, not trying to sell the pendant, and waiting for Marle to buy candy) the jury declares him innocent of all charges.
If Crono makes the wrong decisions, depending on how many mistakes he made, the jury could find him guilty.
Unfortunately -- in a sick twist -- regardless of what the jury decides, the Chancellor chooses to throw Crono in prison and sentences him to execution.
With that, the trial ends and Crono accepts his fate.
Lucky for him, Lucca and Marle work together to break Crono out of a jail in an exhilarating escape sequence that sets the tone for the rest of the epic adventure.
You can watch the entire scandalous trial go down right here:
The Impact
What I love about Crono’s trial is the way the seemingly harmless actions you, the player, choose earlier in the game come back to actually mean something.
How many games have you played where you perform tasks or answer questions posed by random villagers and they have no effect on anything you do? Sure, you may win a few potions or a powerful sword, but the moral implications of doing something good or bad is completely ignored.
That’s what makes Crono’s trial so significant. Every little choice that is presented at the fair affects the outcome of whether Crono is innocent or guilty. Do the right thing, and Crono’s character is praised by the jury. Do the selfish thing, and the jury looks at Crono as a bad guy.
While this could have obviously been expanded into something much more significant -- having the trial end the same despite the jury’s decision is a little troubling -- it is still a very revolutionary and altogether surprising sequence.
Videogames that change depending on the main character’s decisions is the hot thing right now. From Infamous to Fable II, a lot of major games are basing their entire gameplay on this mechanic. Even though they handle this good vs. evil subject matter with much more complexity, I would argue that Chrono Trigger’s simple use works much better.
Here’s why.
With Fable II or Infamous, the player knows going in that these moral decisions are going to affect the gameplay. It is the selling point for most of these types of games! Knowing this in advance mentally prepares the player to make decisions based on a preexisting idea of how they want the overall experience to pan out. Because of this, each moral decision never feels natural or organic. If you want to play a game being the good guy, just make good decisions every time you are presented with one.
With Chrono Trigger, the player has no idea there is ever going to be a time when one’s random moral choices are going to come back to mean something later in the game. For most gamers playing it for the first time, Chrono Trigger is a traditional role-playing game. And like most traditional role-playing games, when a villager asks you to save her cat, you don’t really have to do it. Nothing will happen if I ignore the sweet, helpless girl, right? Who cares if I don’t get a few extra potions in return for my good deed?
So once the trial hits and all these little moral decisions actually affect the jury’s view of Crono’s character? Woah. WOAH! It’s a really powerful device and absolutely revolutionarily for the time. By taking the player by surprise, each decision made prior to the trial truly reflects the player’s real intentions. When you don’t help the girl get her kitten back you really are a guy who didn’t help a little girl get her kitten back. You aren’t ignoring it to see what will happen during the trial later in the game. You know nothing about the trial later in the game! At the time, you are just ignoring a little girl. Simple as that. And later in the game you have to answer for it.
Awesome.
As amazing as the trial scene is, it is a little disappointing that it is such a small part of the game. And not only that, the decisions you make don’t really matter at all in the long run (well, aside from some additional bonus elixirs for being a good guy). It would have been cool if this sequence were either more game-changing or at least utilized again later in the story.
But looking past all those relatively minor qualms, Crono’s trial is a revolutionary and incredibly memorable moment in one of the greatest role-playing games of all time.
So the next time you are walking through a village in a videogame, be careful how you treat the people that live there. Your actions could come back to haunt you.
Chad Concelmo is Destructoid's features editor. He loves hanging out with awesome people. That's why Destructoid makes him so happy, since it is full of THE MOST AWESOME PEOPLE OF ALL TIME! Also, dolphins.
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Chad enjoys punching old ladies in the face, Super Metroid, Zelda: A Link to the Past on the SNES (best system ever!), Final Fantasy VI, Day of the Tentacle, Shadow of the Colossus, Mother 3, Beyond Good & Evil, Contra III, Valkyria Chronicles, Punch-Out!!, Half-Life 2, and Super Mario Galaxy 2.
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Damn you, Chad! I've dreamed of writing my own Memory Card about Chrono's Trial for years!
I think there's one tiny point that you don't mention in the article that really makes this scene special; Chrono's Trial really reinforces how many stupid, idiotic, ridiculous things you do in RPGs without a second thought.
Any RPG player worth their salt knows when playing a JRPG, you EXAMINE EVERY GOD DAMN SQUARE OF AN AREA.
You look at everything, touch everything, eat everything.
Why do we do these things? Why have JRPGs put us in a mindset where we automatically start acting like jerks? Because these games have never told us not too!
The key moment, for me, is when Chrono runs into Marle and she drops the necklace. The necklace is shinning bright, and Marle is down on the ground. Because this is a JRPG, and we all know the rules of JRPGs, we know we are supposed to pick up the necklace and give it back to Marle.....instead of helping Marle up, and then grabing the necklace.
It's totally ridiculous in the context of, you know, ACTUAL HUMAN INTERACTION, and perfect sense within the rules of game logic.
Chrono Trigger poses one of the most devious, satirical questions in video games: "Why are you subservient to game logic? Why do you act in a different way in video games than you do in real life?"
Being called out for our dumbass shit in Chrono Trigger is one of the game's greatest joys.
AND! AND! And even better is that Chrono Trigger, unlike other 4th wall busting games like Metal Gear Solid or Banjo-Kazzoie: Nuts and Bolts, conveys this without every breaking away from the reality of the world. Chrono Trigger, unlike Earthbound, addresses your rpg nonsense without actually breaking character: the meta-humor happens INSIDE the game's storyline, instead of outside of it.
Anyways, just my thoughts on a great idea that someone else wrote down first!
I normally don't like RPGs that don't have "Mario" or "Mother" in the title, but hearing about this game I tried it out on an emulator (didn't get that far, maybe into the second time rift), and let me tell you:
I fucking love this scene.
seriously, the element of surprise in this scene is astounding. it actually made me think of consequences that I've been able to avoid completely in other games.
I always did wonder what happened if you were found innocent (I was found guilty :( )... what a disappointment that you get thrown in there anyway. skipping the prison scene somehow and changing the story, now that would've made an eternal memory in my head.
I was found guilty because I ate the man's lunch, and I was was "tempted" by Marle's wealth. It was one of the most suprisingly heart-pounding moments I ever had in a video game. And it was only earlier this year that I played for the first time on my DS. What does that say about modern moral choices?
This, among plenty other reasons, is why I LOVE CHRONO TRIGGER. It's my favorite SNES game of all time, and you, Chad, touched a warm spot in my heart for bringing this up. Fantastic memory card.
Hah, I totally missed a lot of the little things in town that can affect the trial in my two times so far playing through that point on the DS. Grabbing the pendant first and failing to find the kitty are the only bad decisions I made, I believe, and I didn't interact with the others at all. Honestly, it was a little infuriating at first when I was made out to be a scoundrel for following video game logic and going for the shiny thing first, thinking there'd be no point in talking to Marle first without the plot coupon in my possession. It was pretty neat, though, and the fact that it pissed me off a little bit actually supports that.
I always love this feature because it never fails to remind me of fantastic games from past days. I still remember the large grin I wore four years ago, when I first came across this moment!
Sad fact: my friend called me up at the end of last year to see what I was doing to celebrate. I was lying down on the couch playing Chrono Trigger on my DS. Best New-Years Ever!
Even though I'm a moderately nice fellow in real life, my in-game behavior can usually be pretty sociopathic. I'll kick dead bodies around, trash people's houses, punch women, you name it. After encountering this scene though, I was always a little more hesitant in my bad behavior. After all, I MIGHT actually be held accountable for my actions later in the game! I had no idea all those minuscule things would get brought up in my trial. I was mortified.
P.S. When I first saw "Chancello" in the youtube still above, I thought that was your cutesy videogame mashup of your first and last name. It sounded so regal!
You know, I never really got why games today that are heralded for their use of moral choice have to broadcast it. Like Chad said, it's a more authentic experience if the choice comes to reward/bite the player much after the fact rather than giving some sort of immediate response to it. More games need to do things like Chrono Trigger does. It doesn't have to be exact, but some unexpected results would be nice.
Also, Chrono Trigger is an amazing game. Wanted to write that just in case everyone else's opinion wasn't the exact same thing for some strange reason.
Excellent choice, Chad. The trial scene is one of the most interesting scenes not just in Chrono Trigger, but in video games in general. It's amazing to me that Chrono Trigger nailed the whole 'moral choices' aspect of gameplay more than a decade ago, but many games today are still struggling with how to implement it themselves.
Also, on a completely different note, the whole presentation of the courtroom scene is fantastic. The artwork of the court is one of the best examples ever of 16-bit graphics, and its fitting that such a triumph of the medium is one of the last and greatest RPGs of the era. I especially remember the imposing (and ironic) stained glass behind the judge that presents blindfolded Justice weighing his scales. On top of that, the music that plays during this scene is perfect. It's tense and dramatic, and carries a very noticeable air of malevolence that matches the Chancellor's intentions perfectly.
One final interesting aspect of the trial is that it acts as sort of practice round for the player with regard to Chrono Trigger's extensive use of cause-and-effect gameplay. In the trial, it is revealed that the game is taking stock of the player's actions and that they will have consequences later on. After this point, the game begins to make available actions that will affect what can or will happen at the game's end. However, just like the actions in the Millennial Fair, not all of them are readily apparent. Instead of just blatantly telling the player this though, the game uses the mechanic of the trial to tell the player in way that is not only more effective, but fits into the game much more seemlessly than a tutorial window.
In short, the trial is one of the best examples for why Chrono Trigger is, to this day, one of the best video games ever made. It is really mindblowing to look back at that game and see just how much it was able to do and accomplish.
Yes! I loved this part of the game. I think most people are found guilty the first time through just because the game expects you to fall back on all of those RPG cliche's you are so used to.
The part with the man's lunch sticks out for me because I remember thinking how convenient it was. The lunch was sitting right outside the battle with the dancing/singing robot. I remember thinking "I can fight this guy, go eat that lunch and heal, and then fight him again and again to level up". I thought I was so smart until I was found guilty at the trial for eating the man's damn lunch.
This also made me realize that despite playing through this game over two dozen times, I have never waited for Lucca to save me from prison, I have always escaped myself.
You're getting better at writing these. It seems that your approach gradually changed from one of "Hey this is a pretty cool thing in a game/that games do" to a very analytical one.
I found the pendant part a bit frustrating, when I accidentally knock into someone and they drop stuff, my first reaction is to help them pick up what they dropped, and that's what I did, but I got punished for it.
Yeah, I have to admit I stole an old man's lunch so I could keep beating up a robot for points. But was it really all that bad considering THE LUNCH KEPT REGENERATING ITSELF?
I swear, if I could have taken that lunch to 2300 AD, they wouldn't have to worry about those damn Enertrons.
No matter how many times i start a new file, those fuckers always found a tiny little detail that put me guilty, like talking to Melchor about the pendant.
Hell yeah, great scene. Morally speaking, I'm a rather...interesting person. During the trial I was found guilty (just barely!) and I was really shocked when the random people started showing up. I frequently rationalize my actions, as I tried to do during the trial. "But, but I didn't mean to take the food, and come on, I like this chick, give me a break!"
But no, the game was just all, "Fuck you, douche, you're going to jail." It was jarring. I have a natural aversion to completing RPGs, but damn do I have to go back to this thing.
Definitely one of my favorite moments in my favorite game of all time. I think that in it only being used once and so early in the game, it definitely makes you think about your decisions later a little bit more seriously (if only the first time you play it).
I remember making sure I did this perfectly the second time I played so I got every single juror to say not guilty. Also the trial music is fucking epic.
Like you said, I think this would have had even more impact if it actually changed something, rather than just pronouncing Crono as innocent or guilty. Especially considering how many different endings there are and all of that, it's surprising that this doesn't figure into it.
While originally I was pissed that being found not guilty still sent me to jail and had me set up for execution, when I finished the game and replayed it I liked it.
Spoiler: It makes sense, given the Chancellor is really Yakra's descendant and totally corrupt. I thought it was an interesting way of showing who was really pulling the strings, and of the power Yakra's decendant managed to gain after you whooped his ass all over the place. His ultimate revenge was basically making the king into a useless figurehead.
"I remember making sure I did this perfectly the second time I played so I got every single juror to say not guilty. Also the trial music is fucking epic."
Man, ALL the music in that game is unbelievable.
I would have sex with it if it were a person. Or an animal.
Great article as always. I loved that you brought up how gorgeous the courtroom is. When I first played CT, I kept trying to return to the castle whenever possible so I could see the courtroom again. When you are finally able to near the end, I spent a good five minutes just standing in there.
In addition, I really liked how while in the jail cell, you could break out, as most people tend to do when playing the scene, but if you actually wait they'll take you to the guillotine and Lucca will rescue you there.
I just played through this again for the first time in like 5 years and I had forgotten all about the cat and the lunch thing. As soon as the chancellor came down and accused me of kidnapping, it all came rushing back. I had eaten the lunch, checked the pendant first and never did get around to bringing back that cat. Needless to say I was found guilty this play through but this brings up an interesting point.
I remember when I first played the game and consequently was found guilty for many of the aformentioned offenses, when I played the game on New Game + (awesome addition btw) I made sure to be found innocent to see if it had any impact. As you stated, it didn't and I was a little disappointed but at the end of that play through, I felt like I had completed the game properly. The guilty verdict always left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth.
The music that plays after you're declared guilty and sent off for execution is one of the best tracks in the game. They should play that music when someone loses in a game show.
I remember seeing preview pictures of Guardia Castle's courtroom in an issue of Nintendo Power. I was impressed by how good those pictures looked. I couldn't wait to get the game.
And when it finally hit North America and I got a chance to play it, I was blown away. 16-bit graphics had never looked any better than they did in that little room. It was always that stained-glass window in the back that set it apart from everything else. I still think it looks fantastic.
The chickens in LttP fight back a little? Have you ever attacked a chicken in a Zelda game? They descend in entire hordes and peck the ever-loving shit out of you in a matter of seconds.
Sure it's been said, but they're ethers. In playing through to snag a quote about how to say "Masamune", I was surprised that by grabbing the pendant first and waiting for the candy rush (and answering "honestly" about the pendant, though, really, if she can say "ow", your first priority is to get her valuable before someone else does, knowingly thieving or not, so that the most bunk of the questions), I got 5/7 "Not guilty."
ANYWAY, yeah, it has bitchin' music, too, from the podunky, almost Kefkaesque music during the trial to the badass "you're in trouble now!" stuff that kicks in once the 'highest' verdict is laid.
I always loved Chrono Trigger's trial mind you I did all the good stuff at first thinking that's what your suppose to do and get off . Then you gt sent ot jail anyway. So from there on in I always played the dick and did all the bad stuff just so I can be found guilty caused it never really matter since I was going to jail anyway. Just like real life Screw the system.
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Contest:
4:00 PM on 11.05.2009
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I think there's one tiny point that you don't mention in the article that really makes this scene special; Chrono's Trial really reinforces how many stupid, idiotic, ridiculous things you do in RPGs without a second thought.
Any RPG player worth their salt knows when playing a JRPG, you EXAMINE EVERY GOD DAMN SQUARE OF AN AREA.
You look at everything, touch everything, eat everything.
Why do we do these things? Why have JRPGs put us in a mindset where we automatically start acting like jerks? Because these games have never told us not too!
The key moment, for me, is when Chrono runs into Marle and she drops the necklace. The necklace is shinning bright, and Marle is down on the ground. Because this is a JRPG, and we all know the rules of JRPGs, we know we are supposed to pick up the necklace and give it back to Marle.....instead of helping Marle up, and then grabing the necklace.
It's totally ridiculous in the context of, you know, ACTUAL HUMAN INTERACTION, and perfect sense within the rules of game logic.
Chrono Trigger poses one of the most devious, satirical questions in video games: "Why are you subservient to game logic? Why do you act in a different way in video games than you do in real life?"
Being called out for our dumbass shit in Chrono Trigger is one of the game's greatest joys.
AND! AND! And even better is that Chrono Trigger, unlike other 4th wall busting games like Metal Gear Solid or Banjo-Kazzoie: Nuts and Bolts, conveys this without every breaking away from the reality of the world. Chrono Trigger, unlike Earthbound, addresses your rpg nonsense without actually breaking character: the meta-humor happens INSIDE the game's storyline, instead of outside of it.
Anyways, just my thoughts on a great idea that someone else wrote down first!
I fucking love this scene.
seriously, the element of surprise in this scene is astounding. it actually made me think of consequences that I've been able to avoid completely in other games.
I always did wonder what happened if you were found innocent (I was found guilty :( )... what a disappointment that you get thrown in there anyway. skipping the prison scene somehow and changing the story, now that would've made an eternal memory in my head.
Sad fact: my friend called me up at the end of last year to see what I was doing to celebrate. I was lying down on the couch playing Chrono Trigger on my DS. Best New-Years Ever!
P.S. When I first saw "Chancello" in the youtube still above, I thought that was your cutesy videogame mashup of your first and last name. It sounded so regal!
Also, Chrono Trigger is an amazing game. Wanted to write that just in case everyone else's opinion wasn't the exact same thing for some strange reason.
Also, on a completely different note, the whole presentation of the courtroom scene is fantastic. The artwork of the court is one of the best examples ever of 16-bit graphics, and its fitting that such a triumph of the medium is one of the last and greatest RPGs of the era. I especially remember the imposing (and ironic) stained glass behind the judge that presents blindfolded Justice weighing his scales. On top of that, the music that plays during this scene is perfect. It's tense and dramatic, and carries a very noticeable air of malevolence that matches the Chancellor's intentions perfectly.
One final interesting aspect of the trial is that it acts as sort of practice round for the player with regard to Chrono Trigger's extensive use of cause-and-effect gameplay. In the trial, it is revealed that the game is taking stock of the player's actions and that they will have consequences later on. After this point, the game begins to make available actions that will affect what can or will happen at the game's end. However, just like the actions in the Millennial Fair, not all of them are readily apparent. Instead of just blatantly telling the player this though, the game uses the mechanic of the trial to tell the player in way that is not only more effective, but fits into the game much more seemlessly than a tutorial window.
In short, the trial is one of the best examples for why Chrono Trigger is, to this day, one of the best video games ever made. It is really mindblowing to look back at that game and see just how much it was able to do and accomplish.
The part with the man's lunch sticks out for me because I remember thinking how convenient it was. The lunch was sitting right outside the battle with the dancing/singing robot. I remember thinking "I can fight this guy, go eat that lunch and heal, and then fight him again and again to level up". I thought I was so smart until I was found guilty at the trial for eating the man's damn lunch.
This also made me realize that despite playing through this game over two dozen times, I have never waited for Lucca to save me from prison, I have always escaped myself.
I swear, if I could have taken that lunch to 2300 AD, they wouldn't have to worry about those damn Enertrons.
Also, the music form this scene is PERFECT.
But no, the game was just all, "Fuck you, douche, you're going to jail." It was jarring. I have a natural aversion to completing RPGs, but damn do I have to go back to this thing.
CT time and again will prove it's genius.
Good writeup, BTW.
Oh, is there something like this in The Witcher?! My interest is piqued! :D
Great writeup.
Great write up chad!
Spoiler: It makes sense, given the Chancellor is really Yakra's descendant and totally corrupt. I thought it was an interesting way of showing who was really pulling the strings, and of the power Yakra's decendant managed to gain after you whooped his ass all over the place. His ultimate revenge was basically making the king into a useless figurehead.
And I want to load up the game and play it again, for the 12th or so time.
Great article.
NEVER, he and i shall breed a new species of super humans that will rule every social aspect of their inferior homo sapiens counterpart
i asked him, he said yes
Man, ALL the music in that game is unbelievable.
I would have sex with it if it were a person. Or an animal.
I mean, in most RPGs you can go into people's houses/villages, search every damn barrel and chest, and loot the place with no consequence.
Yet here you're brought to trial, and, considering most of us took the food etc etc, are found guilty.
A pity that one of the most memorable image of moral choice in a game is found in one so old. Modern games should catch up, methinks.
In addition, I really liked how while in the jail cell, you could break out, as most people tend to do when playing the scene, but if you actually wait they'll take you to the guillotine and Lucca will rescue you there.
I remember when I first played the game and consequently was found guilty for many of the aformentioned offenses, when I played the game on New Game + (awesome addition btw) I made sure to be found innocent to see if it had any impact. As you stated, it didn't and I was a little disappointed but at the end of that play through, I felt like I had completed the game properly. The guilty verdict always left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth.
And when it finally hit North America and I got a chance to play it, I was blown away. 16-bit graphics had never looked any better than they did in that little room. It was always that stained-glass window in the back that set it apart from everything else. I still think it looks fantastic.
Good Memory Card.
So yeah, once again I agree Chad, this shit is awesome.
ANYWAY, yeah, it has bitchin' music, too, from the podunky, almost Kefkaesque music during the trial to the badass "you're in trouble now!" stuff that kicks in once the 'highest' verdict is laid.
I was in that place in the clouds, but I got kicked out by the guy who is obviously Magus in disguise!
But what do I do now?