Everybody knows what was INTENDED so just get back to the topic those that ACTUALLY were trying.
As for me, I'd like to move back towards CT in a number of aspects:
- Re-expand the double- and triple-tech systems to CT-levels, and beyond. Make double-techs for nearly everybody (and multiple choices), and triple-techs in chrono-style, in that there's a focus character for all combinations, with additionals gained via items. But a change I'd make is that the items just "give" the triple-tech to the characters, so that they do NOT need to be holding it. Basically multi-techs was something that was different in CT, and was central to many strategies throughout the game (and also made it have more replay with different characters), and they all-but-scrapped it in CC.
- FAR fewer playable characters: IMO this was a BAD thing about CC. Very few characters had really deep backstories. Sure all of them had a little bit, but nothing like if the cast was much smaller. Personally I thought the size of the cast in CT was just about perfect. It was a little light on Chrono himself's background, but besides that each character had a MEANINGFUL backstory. Some more than others of course, but NONE of them felt like "just another character" IMO.
- Back to Time Travel: If we need a short dimension-hop for some reason, then OK, but I'd say put the FOCUS on travelling time again. It just gives more options for more different worlds, and more "cause-effect" relationships of what the heroes actually do, rather than just "wow, this is different over here" like CC gave.
- Location-based combat: Again, this was near-revolutionary in CT that where your characters were placed physically on the screen affected what types of attacks you could do (or be affected by), etc. Personally I'd like to expand it a little further so that there is a limited amount of movement DURING combat as well so that you can re-adjust to enhance your attacks, or to better disperse detrimental effects of enemy attacks. Not to Secret of Mana levels (where you really do have free movement), but something more than just "it pre-places your guys in spots". Perhaps when your character does a "charge" attack, then when it's over s/he doesn't just jump back to the original position, but rather ends up on the other side. And other such things.
- Ditch Elements: OK it was different. OK there's benefits. But basically I found it more of a pain than anything else, and NOT just because there was a lot of them. Call me old-fashioned, but I LIKE a more "standard" mana system with MPs, spell costs, etc. If you really wanted to go old-school, I could be convinced of a "spell level" system like FF1 had, but I was NOT fond of the element system in CC.
- Keep Field Effect: Personally I thought this ADDED a lot to combat, and would be the only aspect of the CC element system that I'd keep. It changed strategy from "use the strongest you have, against enemy weakness" (which made most battles very similar) to "you must manipulate the field, then unload"
- Return to pre-set lists of spells/techs: I was NEVER a fan of "all characters have the same abilities" ways of doing things. Hence why FFIV is JUST about as high in my mind as FFVI, and FFVII is below, as while 6 still had "everybody could learn all magic", at least each character was still unique via armour and their UNIQUE abilities. FFVII lost this in almost-all-but-name of armour/weapons, and limit breaks. And CC lost this in all but techs, which was a VERY small sub-set of abilities, and while there, was NOT make-or-break on who you included in your party very often. Now perhaps there is a happy medium between pre-set techs and some more flexibility, but I was never a big fan of infinite flexibility WITHIN a character. I'm more for swapping out people when you want that, and not just changing abilities. It is this "too much flexibility" which also contributed to the low number of double- and triple-techs, due to the low number of abilities you KNEW were there. A shame really.[/list:u]
Hopefully that list will get the conversation going, and AWAY from the RD debate (which never belonged here in the first place).
Thank you for covering all the bases for me. I was basically gonna say "Since CT was perfect, let's go back to it for the most part! Yeah!" Cuz pretty much all the things that CC changed from CT irked me.
Though I have to say that the only way I'd go for the Field Effect thingy is if they included a "[Insert color here] Field" for ALL colors/elements. God-damned lack of White and Black! Arg!!!
I don't want anymore dimension hopping. I really didn't like that. Time travel is sooooo much more interesting to me.
I also don't really want any playable characters from CT or CC being...well, at least playable in this one. I would like alot of unanswered questions to be answered about the first two, though.
And I agree, Magus is cool, but Lucca has a special place in my heart, especially after the incredibly heart-wrenching scenario walking around in her burning house. My god, did the music during that whole sequence yank at you like it did me? Music has never made me actually teary-eyed until Chrono Cross...*sniff*...
As for Chrono 3 title-wise...the "Development Team" (as Zeality calls them in the interview section) stated, CC isn't Chrono 2. Radical Dreamers isn't Chrono 2 either. They're both games in the Chrono series, RD being the second, CC being the third. Again, this fourth installment won't be Chrono 3 or Chrono 4 or whatever.
So there =p
ill start with your last paragraph to get that out of the way. you make a good point, having a chrono trigger 2 or 3 would imply an extremly strict fallowing of the orignal game's plot, which is pretty much concluded, the time travel based plot dosnt give sequals a lot to work with just because in the first game you already saw the future(well wrecked any) and the past, whats there to flesh out? i just added the 3 so people would understand that im talking about another installment into the chrono series that dosn't have to be chrono trigger 2, or chrono break, but just chrono _______(fill in the blank)
now for the comments on your ideas, in order
-i like your suggestion of including "all or none" to the field change "spells"
to expand, the chrono cross could be used as a wild card type feild effect, if the field was 2 yellow and the chrono cross color, you can summon yellows, prehaps having a "blank" feild spell might be good, all be it over powered though
-the only thing i didnt realy like about the "deminsion hopping" is that the differences wherent all that obvious for the most part, save the dead sea and hermits hideaway if they do include it i would like the deminsions to differ somewhat drasticly, like hop between human, demi human, reptile deminsions where the map looks different. i also would like time travel to play a part as well as cross deminsion travel
-i agree with you on no previous characters playable, its another way to keep the game clear of one of the causes of a "bad sequal"
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i like the idea of having large amounts of characters, as long as their stories are unique and theres no sense of a definate number like loading up the menu and going "oh boy i only got five chracters to go" i think the makers should keep their mouths shut about the number of characters for as long as possable, it gives the interested parties a chance to explore the newgame+ without memorizing what you have to do to get to a certain point, this brings me to my next point
-less linear story. sure i have no problem with having one key plot concluding ending. i just want there to be paths that differ from one another, im not talking about the once in a while difference like kids sickness, but actual story line difference that changes everything but manages to bring it self to the same "key ending"
-styilized spells, one of my dissappointment in CC was how littel difference there was in how some spells played out, most of the time the character just sticks out their hand, points their weapon, of at the vary least does the constipated "power up" popular in the DBZ anime(im not knocking that, im just using it as an explination of what im talking about)
i liked how in ct the characters seemed to interact with the spell
-enemy level options,when you start new game+ you should get the option to "level up" the enemies to the level your starting at, this way theres still the ability to get stronger through the game with the same challenge, take note that i said OPTION. this would of course require infinate levels because starting at level 99 there would be no way to improve through the game and the enemys near the end will be much harder then you would be able to manage without leveling up
-more duel/triple techs..... duh
-floating zeal.... please
