CT Remake? Good news...

[teh Schala]

Hi everyone, I thought I'd bring you some good news for those who've supported the Chrono Trigger remake projects and have wanted a remake.

I spoke with Square Enix recently about having them do a CT remake.  (At this point I was unaware that several remake projects had already been attempted and shut down.)  I could tell the CSR had his boss standing right there by how slowly he responded to some very simple questions, and I also documented the conversation.  Go here, then click on the "Launching the campaign" thread for details and the transcript of my conversation with them.

As I discussed with Square Enix, I am beginning a petition to have them produce a Chrono Trigger remake.  (You can also view the petition itself at the above link.)  In order to sign it, simply send an email to petition@vizzed.com with your first and last name.  Zeality and I are also planning to incorporate a way to do physical letters for this as well, since internet petitions carry only a fraction of the weight and influence as a flood of letters into the office!  I'd suggest bookmarking the above site and stay tuned there for details.  We are striving for the highest degree of professionalism in this operation, and want a *LOT* of signatures to this thing!

As you'll see on the petition, we also included a bit about releasing Seiken Densetsu 3/Secret Of Mana 2, but if the CT thing ends up being more popular (as I suspect it will), we may nix the SoM2 request.  We'll have to wait and see on that.  Please let others know about this...  If Square won't let its FANS do a project like this, let's MAKE THEM do it!  

[jotabe1789]

No please, the will simply pack up the SNES rom with an emulator for the system for which the "remake" will be released!!!

[Daniel Krispin]

Wait, ZEALITY is supporting this? If so, then it does indeed have quite a bit of merit, in my opinion. He would not help with anything that does not at least have a fighting chance, and would be the first to downplay rampant petitioning.

[teh Schala]

Yes, that's how I joined this forum actually.  Zeality and I chatted about the remake on AIM for awhile.  Carrying it out as a petition with physical letters rather than emails was his idea, in fact.  The difficulty comes with putting that into practice...if we send all the letters to Square in a large box, they either (1) can get suspicious of the box and that can cause a big ruckus, or (2) once they figure out that all the letters are asking for a CT remake, they just discard the large box.  Or if we flooded their office with individual letters (the more preferred option), that's thousands of 38c stamps to buy...a lot of money.  (The idea there was to have the petition letters mailed to a master address, and then when there are enough, we unleash them at Square all at once for maximum impact.)

He's a pretty smart guy, in my opinion.  And I know we'd figure out something, but the immediate question is GETTING all the necessary signatures!

[ZeaLitY]

Yeah. Logistics is the problem. I bet it's nearly impossible to ship packages to something like that without being a business partner, and as stated before, to send letters would cost thousands in terms of stamp money.

So for now, internet signatures seems to be the only way to go. I suppose if it makes people feel better.

Anyway, I'm moreover supporting a sequel, since a remake would probably be the end of the Chrono series. It wouldn't do so well, and then Square would simply discard all future hope of continuing the story, which is what we really want.

[Hadriel]

A sequel has qualities that no remake can achieve.  Star Wars is a good example of that; after Return of the Jedi, Star Wars fans went hungry for eight years, until Timothy Zahn wrote the Thrawn trilogy way back in '91, and it sold like Sithcakes.  Whereas if they'd released the SE first, people would have just gotten pissed off at the changes and it might have died right then and there.  A large portion of the OMFG L00C4$ SOLD OUT LOL crowd was born from that.  The same types of people also populate the crowd of Final Fantasy fans who hated FF7 and FF8 because OMFG FF =/= S74R W4RZ LOLZ.  I like to think that Chrono fans as a whole have a greater level of maturity than that.

[teh Schala]

Hmm...  Interesting points...  Zeality, are you so sure that a remake would spell the end of the Chrono series?  Especially with it being spurred on by the demands of fans, if I was sitting in the Square offices, I wouldn't be thinking about ending the Chrono series when I'm getting petitions for a remake and everything -- which signals that the fans obviously want the series to remain alive in some form or another.

I don't see this as a remake VERSUS a sequel, I see it as more of an option they may not have yet considered...  Yes, IN ADDITION to the Chrono Break/Brake sequel.  The Chrono series is very similar to the Metroid series...  An underdog franchise that has its fanbase, but outside of its exclusive fanbase, it's fairly unknown.  (Although we could argue that the Chrono fanbase may be quite larger than that of Metroid.)  In that light, Metroid went untouched for several years (as Chrono went untouched for a long time before Chrono Cross surfaced), and then Metroid Prime appeared.  After Metroid Prime, we saw a revival of that series along with -- surprise -- a remake.  Metroid Zero Mission, a retelling of the original Metroid.

In my opinion, a remake wouldn't mean anything REMOTELY close to the end of the series.  But am I missing something obvious here?  Especially when -- as I said earlier -- that remake is initiated by fan demand (along with a few shut-down self-done attempts at remakes!), Square CLEARLY sees that the demand is there.  They get the picture.  Demand = sales = $.  Yes, in the end it IS about the money for them, but what do they have if they don't keep the fans happy?  Well, in the end, less money.  If I was a Square exec seeing a completed petition and knowing about the shut-down remake projects, and if I somehow decided to shut down the Chrono series after the remake, I'd be getting a bodyguard!

Thoughts?

[DarkGizmo]

I don,t know how Zeality sees it but if someone would ask me if it would end any chance of sequel I wouldn't be able to say, but if someone would ask me why could it ends any chance of getting a sequel I would ask that :

Why would so many people ask for a remake and not a sequel?

-They really love the game and want to live it again?

--Sequel make you revive the original game but with changes, they still can play the original game...

---Maybe they didn't liked CC much..

----I think they rather like to have Chrono Trigger more in depth in his own than have any sequel

-----Oh you can sure read the Fan's mind, after this let's make FF XXX (or where there at now XI ?)

[Hadriel]

FF XXX...

...Thoughts of Yuna, Aeris, and Tifa fill the air.

Good point about Metroid, though.  There's always hope.

[jotabe1789]

I really don't get what went wrong with CT... it was one of the 3 best 16-bit RPGs ever to get to the western world (with FF4 and FF6), and one of the 5 best 16-bit RPGs (FF4, FF6, DQ -5 or 6, don't remember- and ToP). These travel mates that CT had have gone countless sequels and spinoffs. Why CT not?

CC was brilliant RPG, probably the best or the second best the day it was released. Still Chrono saga went fading. Are we Chrono fans like people who liked FF:The Spirits Within? (I loved that movie, but it did so poorly in the box office that brough on their knees to the seemingly invulnerable Squaresoft). Are we that outcast?

[Hadriel]

Well, while trying to compose the Sorin bit for CE, I actually tested that.  I went into a chat channel in Diablo II and almost everyone there was both a) drunk, and b) thought Chrono Trigger was awesome.

Probably the answer you're seeking is economic; a lot of the more casual gamer types didn't like CC because they couldn't instantly understand what was going on.  This is a problem that afflicts most higher-level fiction in any medium; one must have a certain degree of both education and mental acuity to appreciate the story.  These same casual gamer types are the morons who buy every new Madden and GTA that comes out even though each time it's THE SAME FUCKING GAME.  These are the people who only like Halo because of all the bloody violence and explosions, and don't give two shits about the story which for an FPS game is pretty good.  These are people with no capacity for critical thought and who graduated from high school with an incredible 1.2 GPA, rounded off nicely with that D- they got in wood shop.

[ZeaLitY]

CC also didn't sell well in Japan. If something does good in Japan but would do horribly in the US, it stays over there. However, if something does great in the US but does poorly and is made in Japan, no sequel.

[Legend of the Past]

Well, while trying to compose the Sorin bit for CE, I actually tested that.  I went into a chat channel in Diablo II and almost everyone there was both a) drunk, and b) thought Chrono Trigger was awesome.

Probably the answer you're seeking is economic; a lot of the more casual gamer types didn't like CC because they couldn't instantly understand what was going on.  This is a problem that afflicts most higher-level fiction in any medium; one must have a certain degree of both education and mental acuity to appreciate the story.  These same casual gamer types are the morons who buy every new Madden and GTA that comes out even though each time it's THE SAME FUCKING GAME.  These are the people who only like Halo because of all the bloody violence and explosions, and don't give two shits about the story which for an FPS game is pretty good.  These are people with no capacity for critical thought and who graduated from high school with an incredible 1.2 GPA, rounded off nicely with that D- they got in wood shop.

I got the feeling you were more bitter then honest, but I gotta agree with everything you said.

[Hadriel]

Yeah, pretty much.  Casual gaming ruined the industry.

[Legend of the Past]

Yeah, pretty much.  Casual gaming ruined the industry.

It's sad, really. Only a handful of my friends actually care about the plot. I was surfing about the net a few monthes ago for info about FF IX, and a group of kids gathered around me and went: "Pfft, a stupid RPG."  When I mentioned the name Final Fantasy, the name didn't ring a bell. Just terrible. Games like the Chrono series or Xenogears just rock. Their storylines are works of art (Not to mention the music!) and assholes like them can't even notice that.