Day three of my subway Chrono Trigger play starts in tragedy when I released that they did not update the save system for handheld play. 20 minutes of life wasted. But then the truly remarkable happens. The plot of Chrono Trigger gets interesting. I know, I can barely believe it myself. It’s true — the narrative takes some interesting pre-scripted moves as well as some interesting choice points. This game just continues to defy my expectations in very positive ways. Spoilers (and good ones!!!) within.
Okay, so having searched the map, it occurs to me that maybe Marle is somewhere in the castle, so I head back there. I head into the basement where there’s this weird pointless joke where a soldier claims to be dying as he lies on the ground, but then jumps to life when some food appears. Ha? Eventually, I find Marle in a room in the castle. She’s happy to see us, but Lucca can’t get over being formal around a princess. Marle gets upset, and asks Lucca to treat her like a normal person. Marle goes on to explain that she pretended to be normal because she didn’t think anyone would let her enjoy the fair as a princess. She then asks me if I would have hung out with her if I knew who she was, and I have the choice of saying yes or no. I’m trying to charm her, so I say yes, and it works; she’s thrilled and tells me that’s why she likes me.
Here’s where tragedy strikes. So I get out of the subway and put it in my pocket. While I’m walking around, I forget it’s in there and accidentally pop out the cartridge. But hey, no worries, right? I mean, it’s 2009. Handheld games ALWAYS have persistent saves now, right? Well, I guess that’s another quirky thing about this remake. Remember that save point I mentioned in the last post? That’s the last save I had. So I had to replay the Yakra battle, the return to the castle…SIGH.
Anyway, once I get rested (in the castle this time) and restocked, I find Marle and we leave the castle together. I return to the canyon, since that’s my best bet of where I’ll find a portal back to the present. There are slightly harder than previous fights on the way there, but with my new allies, they’re a piece of cake. We get to the beginning of the canyon and there we find the portal. Lucca gets the portal open for business again, but she can’t help but be worshipful to Marle. Marle freaks out and says she can’t do anything as a princess, and would happily trade her name for Lucca’s genius. With that we all enter the gate, and the spiral transition gets us back to the fair. Lucca decides to stay at the fair to figure out what’s going on with the portal. She says either the transporter was broken or it was … something else. Marle and I head back to the castle. There are a few very easy battles in the forest on the way in.
And here’s where the whole game takes a fascinating turn. We get inside and the King is happy his daughter is home, although mad that she won’t behave as a princess should. But in a move I totally did not see coming, the chancellor accuses me of kidnapping her. Marle protests, but the chancellor insists that I be taken away despite her pleas. I’m hauled off by guards. We transition to a fancy court scene — it’s a really nice background. The chancellor is prosecuting, and I’ve been assigned a defense attorney. They start by talking about who initiated my contact with Marle. Defense says she bumped me; Prosecutor says I bumped her. They ask me which is true, and I have a choice of who to agree with. This is a truly interesting choice. Remembering that Marle could get in trouble for not acting like a princess, I take the blame. But this is only the start of the interesting.
From here, the prosecutor goes about impugning my character by referring to my past actions. I don’t mean my character’s past — I mean the things that I personally did. They bring up a girl who was crying for her cat, and point out that I didn’t help her. (I tried, but I couldn’t figure out how to pick up the cat.) They show video of how I ate this guy’s lunch, which I did at the fair. In that last case, I’m asked if I’ve ever stolen anything, and knowing I did and that I would get caught after seeing that little girl bit, I said that I had. I’m then asked if I was only interested in the princess for her wealth, and I say no twice. They then bring in a witness that said when I bumped into the princess, I went to pick up the pendant before I asked her if she was okay. I guess I did that, but she did immediately ask for the pendant. Maybe I could have asked her first? This is just fascinating. It’s a trial with evidence and a chance for me to lie or tell the truth. It’s really interesting narrative, and I can’t believe I’m finding it in his decades-old JRPG.
Evidence in, it’s time for the jury. Jurists come in one by one and announce guilty or not guilty. I don’t know — this could be pre-scripted , but it seems an awful lot to me that the decisions I made in the early game and the trial itself are affecting the jury’s decision. It turns out four to three not guilty. Whew. Good thing I didn’t lie. I’m not guilty of kidnapping the princess, but the judge still says that gallivanting with the princess is not cool, and gives me three days in solitary. The guards take me away. We cut to the prison, and there, the chancellor tells the captain that I am to be executed in three days. When the prison guard protests, the chancellor tells him to know his place and he reluctantly agrees.
I’m knocked out, and when the screen comes back, I’m in a cell. There’s a save point here, and I’m near my stop. I take the save and call it a day, but I honestly can’t wait to see what’s coming next.
Waw, so you can be not guilty… didn’t know that.
I played this game something like 10 years ago, but it’s still print in my memories as one of the major games of my life (for so-called RPGs along with FF6, Secret of Mana – SNES generation – , Baldur’s Gate and Diablo – I said “so-called RPG right ? -).