Live A Live with Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition

I can tell you my 2 things for them:

China:

Japan:

Oh boy. I just started playing LAL today, and after reading some of your thoughts decided to (a) get Prehistory out of the way and (b) go straight to a walkthrough. I must admit to spending ages on the caveman guessing game to build up to the suggested ideal equipment loadouts, so it hasn't exactly been fun so far - but it has been funny (I enjoyed the cut-scenes a lot), and it looks lovely. Definitely better than I remember Octopath looking. The lack of excessive bloom helps.

I'm resisting any comparison to Xenoblade 3 though. This is obviously a very different RPG, and I also started The Centennial Case between the two as something of a palate cleanser.

Re China

Spoiler:

This may be a stupid question to ask about a 16-bit RPG, and Mas has already seen it somewhere else, but... does it speed up at all? I'm finding it really sludgy. Barely played any game, instead I've just watched the idiot cave-hero run around being horny about the woman. I know it's a product of its era, but I figured that given the amount of effort going into the visuals, they might put some into the game itself as well. Was I wrong?

Yeah it is kinda slow, however they all play different like present day is just 8 fights in a row meaning quick & breezy.

I'm nearly done with it, it feels like a 7/10 which is fine, just better RPGs I could be playing though.

I did post elsewhere my weird little fact is present day is 1994 which is 28 years ago, near future is 2050 which is 28 years in the future from 2022.

I'd say prehistory is probably the worst paced. It very much feels "story" heavy whilst not actually having any words and then pushes quite aggressively towards its bosses.

I have finally - finally - broken through the barrier. I'm out of Pre-History, into Imperial China, and things have taken an immediate turn for the better. There's voice-acting! And character! And no ridiculous hornyness! (The end of that chapter I mean for God's sake.) And there's an interesting structure to it and all! (I'm taking Andy's hint.)

Is Pre-History the worst chapter, folks? If not, is there anything else I need to prepare myself for? I'm already steeling myself for Japan's stealth...

Yeah prehistoric was the worst imo

So it would seem, I've rattled through China/Japan and into the Wild West and there's not been anything that bad again. I will say, they would've been very tedious if I hadn't had my nose stuck in a walkthrough - but if I hadn't, there's no way I could've got the stealth playthrough for Japan for example.

I mean:

I think that, over and above Prehistoric, is going to end up being the worst thing about this game.

I just played it and got what I got

You could always do that, but as a completionist it's galling. I then hit the Wild West chapter, where you either use trial and error or you make the entire chapter much harder for yourself. A great idea in theory that, again, demands on use of a guide or trial and error to get the most out of its execution.

I am still enjoying it though, there's a real sense of 'what's going to happen next'. I'm also noting a pattern to the chapter bosses...

I did a couple of endings though, which maybe could have done more if I used a guide.

Chrono Cross has it's first price drop on the eShop since coming out about a year ago, it's on sale for £10-odd. Did anybody play it, and does anybody have any thoughts they could share? It's been on my wishlist since they day it came out - I've talked lots of times about how I loved the bloody arse off of Chrono Trigger, but is the remastered sequel up to much?

As far as I'm aware Cross doesn't really hold much of the magic of Trigger and there's near enough no comparison, but I've not actually tried it to validate myself, so I can't be a lot of help other than regurgitating second hand info.

I bought it, know its just been patched after a year but I've actually not played it.