1. How did you get hooked on the games?
A couple of friends and I used to play Ragnarok Online at a gaming cafe and bonded over mutual interests, like anime and games. One of them was a big fan of RPGs, and he told me about Final Fantasy, which I had the chance to play at his home. I instantly became a fan of the series, especially the 6th FF game, but eventually I saw in his collection a game called "Chrono Trigger", by the same company that produced FF.
Curiously, I decided to sit down and play it, without knowing or expecting anything about it. Immediately what hooked me in was the art-work -- it looked like Dragonball! Being a Toriyama fan, always trying to imitate his art-style, I was already sold.
And because I was playing blind, without knowing anything about it beforehand, pretty much everything about it surprised me and hooked me in slowly, deeper and even deeper. The battle system was refreshing. Time Travel was interesting. The Trial shook me, and ultimately the trip to the future. Magus scared me. The mythology captivated me. It was love at first sight.
It cut deep, like a cinematic event before me (except with pixels). When Frog began to recollect why he became what he is, and why he lost his will to wield the Masamune. When Lucca saw why her mother lost her legs. When they plunged the Ruby Knife into the Mammon Machine, and when Janus revealed that one of characters could die soon. When Robo decided to stay back to rejuvenate the forest.
With characters as vibrant as the ones in Chrono, obviously any fan would become so attached to them that they feel almost like old friends. And you want to know what they're up to, how they've been. This was why I started Radical Dreamers and Chrono Cross too, and while they did not entirely deliver what I wanted, they did give me something what I didn't know was missing.
2. What do the games mean to you?
To me, they are modern fairytales (or, at the very least, Chrono Trigger itself is a modern Epic).
With ideas like,
- A group of heroes from across time band together to battle against a representation of their own fate,
- or A band of thieves burgle into a magically secured and haunted manor in order to reclaim the most precious jewel in the world, and along with it, one's own memories,
- or even, A boy finds himself into a world very much like his own, but where he supposedly died, taking its world's hope with him,
...just how many video games today do it, or do it as well as, Chrono series did it? Just how many such stories exist in video games alone, and not mediums outside it, such as in books?
I'm glad I played it in my teens instead, because it really vivified my imagination. It made me want to be a better storyteller. It made me want to be a better artist. It introduced me to a very passionate community with whom I grew. It introduced me to scientific and mythological and metaphysical concepts that I may not have otherwise known, with every aspect of the game bustling with meaning.
For something that deals with Time Travel, this game feels so timeless.
3. What feelings have they left you with?
My feelings are a wibbly wobbly... timey wimey... stuff.
At its core, the Chrono series almost seemed to be centered around a fight against one's own fate, under different circumstances and by different means, with various characters dealing with it their own way (or our way, since we're the ones making the decisions). And I don't mean that generally: After all, the whole point of Crono and gang's struggle was rooted in destruction and extinction caused by an alien lifeform, which is complicated by the fact that this lifeform was also the reason why they existed. So taking arms against Lavos also, in some subtle way, meant the need to conquer one's own self, and therefore, also destiny. And if nothing else, Janus' own prophecy of a character's death is pretty much on-the-nose.
For instance, Frog's story may be about honor and vengeance, but it was also about resentment -- which, he must decide whether to avenge his friend or let go of his resentment after witnessing why the murderer of his friend did what he believed he had to. It's the same with Magus, who knew his past deeds would inevitably come haunting back to him.
This is even truer for the Reptites when you confront them in the Prehistoric time. You difficult as their fight may be, and as ruthless and superior they might hold themselves to be, at the back of your mind you know that they are fated to be extinct -- it's only a matter of finding out how or why.
Radical Dreamers and Chrono Cross, however, expand on this in their own ways. In Chrono Cross, despite what may seem as inevitable at first, it also shows you a world or life that could have been. Likewise, in Radical Dreamers, given how it holds you at the edge, expecting you to die in every corner you turn your eyes to, because you're always expecting the unknown, a part of you begins to wonder just what the fate of our characters would even be by the time they reach for the Frozen Flame, or if things would even work out the way we expect them to -- a constant sense of foreboding that you can't really shake away.
But whatever it is, I'm glad it happened to me. And it personally gave me a whole lot to think about the way I see my own life, and the ordeals that I have to face. It's when I look back to Chrono Trigger and explain to somebody, articulating exactly why I love this game so much, is where I find my strength to either embrace my destiny or fight against my fate.
