I've been grinding through the beta a second time and trying to simultaneously identify prudent gameplay adjustments (the "reason" I'm here) as well as ponder other issues with the game. I've identified a number of "extra things" along the way, but I'm exhausting myself too much with the other things (and perhaps not paying as much attention to the gameplay as I need to), so I am halting the process of recording problems/suggestions outside of my realm for the time being. So, I'm posting my grand list of "other things."
As sort of a primer for what I am saying, when I mention text "borking" or "fubaring" or what-have-you, it pertains to the fact that the text distorts after the message finishes displaying. I also mention a number of formatting issues, but how they are addressed ultimately depends on how we want to format the text in the speech boxes. [EDIT: Moved to "Text Issues"]
The other sort of nagging thing is Frog (he's the main reason I gave up). From an artistic standpoint, I'll restrict my analysis of him to another thread.
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Map
The telepod equipment (in the square near Guardia) probably should be gone.
(You know this already, but...) Zeal Ruins Location is hairy
The ability to exit Chronopolis and not re-enter is a little problematic, even if we are just dealing with an in-house beta.
Coding?
If a player doesn't have an .srm save yet and the player starts the ROM, music plays for a fraction of a second before the prompt to select battle-mode, which is a bit odd.
The user is only prompted to name precisely three characters at the start. Will further flexibility be granted later?
If you sleep in Chrono's bed, you start so far up the stairs the next day, he warps back up if he tries to to walk down.
The guy in Porre is still selling jerky.
"Oh, you're looking for Renault. I last saw him in the chapel" is said even if you have not advanced the story to the point he is actually there.
If you sell your Lead Sword before you give Renault his sword, you get a new Lead Sword!
Crono's mom's line doesn't change after you deliver the three items.
Three places in the upper left stairway of Guardia Castle don't play music.
When the Time Egg malfunctions, it seems that the party should show a little more urgency by running away earlier rather than giving long elaborations.
When CML find Magus, the pause before the fade-out is about a couple seconds too long.
Yes, warping people directly to the Porre base is probably a good idea.
The Sergeant at the Poore base probably should face the party when talked to.
The "free grenade" seems a bit...forced, particularly in that everyone is "KO" and then everyone is "normal" just a little later. Maybe an attack focused at countering Crono (and he'll be reduced to his near-death pose) would work better, but even if that is infeasible, it would help as long as characters would only return to the near-death pose after their stint in the KO pose -- you could return them to full-stance later in the dialogue, but it would seem more "natural" if the transition was more progressive (KO, then near-death, then normal).
The fadeout should probably happen three seconds earlier.
Towards the end of the nighty-night music, there's a flash of the picture from the previous scene; this should be removed.
The party needs to face the strange guy when he talks to them (when they reach the Epoch).
In the three Blue Imp fight, the third character is positioned on the lasers and creates a graphical glitch. Moving her/him/it up may resolve it, but that doesn't fix the fact the battle is cramped.
Going to the second screen of Mystic Mtns screws up things (PCs do not appear).
Should the "InstrumentP" need to remain the inventory after solving the puzzle?
Ayla's "shocked" look (after the Nizbel fight) doesn't seem like a good expression. It's important for her to actually look weakened/vulnerable (since she's said to look that way), like she does when she's near-death in battle.
When returning to Zeal, Martello's picture (in combat) messes up a little bit. Moving it's position down a tad ought to fix it.
The next room with two treasure chests will "trap" a character if the player opens the chest while standing inside of it.
(redundant?) It'd be handy if Magus could the menu to take some Tonics (and allow him to be killed for a Game Over by enemies during the escape).
Vanguard Post (602)
The stairs don't seem to behave like "stairs."
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This is a bit later on, but it was memorable enough to recall it: When the party has its talk with King Zeal at 64999998 BC, there is a long period of time when the party and Zeal just stay put while spewing their dialogue. Even if re-positioning them would disrupt the flow plot, it would seem appropriate to have them do some sort of gestures. They need to act out *something* to keep the player's attention.
