July 3rd, 2008 by The Grey Ghost
I don’t normally like to directly post video periodicals, but the latest episode of Zero Punctuation has struck a special cord with me. Rather than picking apart the usual video game of the week, Yahtzee has instead aimed his sharp tongue and wit toward gaming-themed webcomics. Being a fan of both video games and comics, how can I not sink my teeth into this?
Yahtzee paints a fairly accurate image of the standard “Mary Sue” template that most webcomic wanna-be’s derive from, lacking the imagination to create a premise outside glorifying their own ego through wacky hyjinks. Like most web-based media, there’s the double-edged sword in that anyone can create a webcomic…but that means anyone can make a webcomic. It’s more a detriment to the medium when the web is flooded by people who can, but arguably shouldn’t. It makes the task of sifting through the hacks and copycats all the more painful when searching for genuine talent.
While I’m cheering Yahtzee on, he then gets to the deathblow, singling out the recent poor storytelling choices recently made in Tim Buckley’s Ctrl+Alt+Del strip. Said story inturrupted the usual “video games are teh lol” antics with a sudden miscarriage, both literally in the strip as well as in its attempt to shift gears into deep, personal drama. Buckley’s received much due criticism for this move, not so much for trying to transform his mediocre Penny Arcade clone into a legitimate artistic expression, but by how poorly it was executed. Had he not been so abrupt, easing the readers into the tragedy, the webcomics community might have responded more with praise, rather than amplifying its regular ridicule of his work and devotees.
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July 2nd, 2008 by The Grey Ghost
In what might be the greatest news I’ve heard in 10 years, Square-Enix may finally be porting Chrono Trigger to the Nintendo DS! The game has been a fan favorite since it’s original SNES release in 1995 and is seldom missing from the top 5 range of any all-time game ranking. The game was ported to the PlayStation in 1999 in Japan (2001 for North America) with fully-animated cut scenes, though the gamplay suffered from its original smoothness.
Since the advent of the Game Boy Advance, with it’s ability to support portable versions of classic SNES titles, gamers like myself have begged for a port of Chrono Trigger. Seeing reproductions of the Final Fantasy series and the Nintendo DS’s additional X and Y buttons continued to generate hope that we may finally get our wish.
Why not port one of the hottest selling games of all time right off the bat? Well, there’s a hitch. Chrono Trigger was a collaborative effort put together by different development groups, known as “Team Dream”. Because of this, resolving copyright issues between all parties has always been the bottleneck of making any progress.
O-joyous day, it seems that those parties have finally understood the demand of their product and the riches awaiting to be raked in. For as of this writing, Square-Enix is heavily hinting toward Chrono Trigger being released on the DS, at least in Japan. One can assume that a North American translation would be quick to follow, but it’s still too soon to tell. (After all, it did take two years for NA gamers to recieve the PlayStation port, which was mostly intended to generate hype for its sequel, Chrono Cross.) Whether it will be a direct port akin to the “Advance” versions of Final Fantasy IV, V, and VI, or recieve a 3D upgrade as was developed for the DS versions Final Fantasy III and IV is still anyone’s guess. But it’s safe to say that a new Chrono Trigger port of any kind at this point will be well-recieved.
UPDATE: Confirmed.
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