Btw, I've never seen that promo art with the red background before, is there a higher quality version elsewhere? Would make a great wallpaper.
It's from an issue of V-Jump. I'm not sure if there's a higher quality version somewhere:
https://www.chronocompendium.com/Term/File:Illus3.jpg.html
Edit - I had no idea Secret of Mana started as Crono Trigger, they are both in my top 5 favourite SNES games, easily
Yeah, back in the day many people noted that Crono and Marle look like the boy and the girl (Randi and Primm) from Secret of Mana, but it was thought to be just a coincidence.
When the Secret of Mana-Chrono Trigger connection was found out by fan translators through Japanese interviews, it was kinda mind-blowing. I would love to see Toriyama's original sketches for Secret of Mana, or "Maru Island", but who knows if they still even exist.
I think it's also safe to assume the Mana Fortress and the Black Omen (which is basically a
star destroyer) originated from the same concept.
Recently I found out about Chrimson Echoes, a fan sequel. Has anybody played that, is it worth it?
I was actually one of the directors of Crimson Echoes, along with ZeaLitY and Agent 12. We never finished it due to Square Enix's lawyers, but there is a so-called "98% complete" version floating around (I'd say it's more like 80%, really). There are some bugs in it and we never got to adjust enemy stats, so it's a very hard version, but it's playable.
A different team took Crimson Echoes and made their own hack of the fan hack, by renaming it "Flames of Eternity" and altering events, trying to fix things, changing things they didn't like, etc. Most of their decisions are puzzling and kind of Frankensteined in, so I can't recommend it.
We did release a full playthrough though, which is around 40-hour-long, I believe:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSTpkMB9kNk. Needless to say we're really proud of what we accomplished -- even though SE had to SE.
Great OP and fantastic game.
This is what I miss in Jrp's. The sense of adventure, the fun turn based combat, the great pacing, the unique an likable cast, the fun stories.
Just look at that cast. A robot, a frog warrior, a kinda crazy inventor, a badass cavewoman, etc. We don't get stuff like that anymore (at least not often). Now its all oversexualized girls, lolis and boy bands.
This game is the prime example of everything I like about Jrpg and it has yet to be surpassed
Interestingly, Lucca is Masato Kato's favorite character. He did more sketches for her than for the other characters and she was supposed to act even more crazy than in the final game:
From the CT Ultimania released in 2009:
Question: Which character do you feel most emotionally attached to and why?
Kato: It’s a hard choice, but if I had to narrow it down to one, I guess it’d be Lucca. I like characters like her who don’t need to act spoilt or flirty but can be dignified and stand on their own two feet. She never rejects the world or others, she’s adaptable and kind, and unexpectedly bewitching when she occasionally misses the point of things. (laughs) Magus and Frog are close seconds.
Lucca makes a cameo appearance in Xenogears and her personality there is a bit different than in Chrono Trigger; it's probably close to the personality that she originally had in the early CT concepts.
