Dreaming Through a Lack of Sleep

As I've blogged before, I beat Chrono Trigger for the first time last year despite owning the game for years. I had always either gotten distracted or had my memory card corrupt over the years, but I finally sat down to do it. At first, I was incredibly frustrated with how slow the combat was (even at the highest settings) and how simple it was. I set the game down for a few months and moved onto different things. While going through HCBailey's backlog of Let's Plays, I got the overwhelming desire to return to the game and finish what I had never done before.

After I got through with it, I wanted to continue with the Chrono series and quickly moved onto to Cross. Despite how much I enjoyed the game for what it was, I ended up shelving it for something else. As far as I had known at the time, I was done with the series for the foreseeable future. It wasn't until a few months later during a bout with insomnia that the Chrono series saw its return, only this time it was in a much different form than before; a visual novel for the Satellaview.

I had known about the game for quite a while and never really understood the appeal of it. At one point, I had even tried it out and simply quit after about ten minutes out of sheer disgust. This wasn't the Chrono sequel I had wanted and I couldn't imagine any true Chrono fan enjoying it. It wasn't until i was in a sleep deprived state that I actually ventured my way into the game. As I sat back on the couch with my wireless headphones on, I was taken to a dark and mysterious world with Kid the thief, Magil the magician and a rather talkative Serge. I wandered through Lynx's mansion for what seemed like an eternity, but found interesting details all around me. From the deathtraps of the arboretum to the gentleman monster, I found myself enthralled with what was being displayed before my eyes.

I was familiar with this scenario beforehand from my experience with Chrono Cross; most of it was re-imagined for the game with a whole lot less details. It's to be expected really, a videogame can only tell someone so much through visual appeal while a visual novel can give players intimate details about the smallest nooks and crannies. Even still, Lynx's mansion in Cross felt like a really annoying video game dungeon and ultimately didn't pack any of the punch that it did in Dreamers. The mansion in Dreamers is an enigma told through written word that we, the players, have the fortune of delving into. Every room has something interesting about it and even those that are less interesting than others are returned to in the game's alternative scenarios. Through the words of Masato Kato, Lynx's mansion oozes with atmosphere and almost feels like a living world rather than an interactive piece of literature.

The meeting with Lynx is done pretty differently in both games if I remember right, which makes sense since one sets up the foe for the rest of the game and the other is pretty much the end of the game in itself. Lynx in Cross is just your typical Big Bad and goes about his nasty business and poisons Kid, while Lynx in Dreamers actually opens Kid's mind and reveals the truth about who she is, what her role in the world is and the connections to Chrono Trigger. It's the pivotal moment and it's done incredibly well. Maybe it was my tired eyes that early morning, but I felt almost on the verge of tears to see the realization of what Kato had put together for the player. The scene, and the whole game for that matter, is done with an extremely low budget with very limited visual appeal, but something about the scene with the Earth, the sky and the flying whale was just touching. Maybe Cross comes back to this same kind of revelation at later point, but Radical Dreamers simply blew me away with the scene.

For a visual novel to really work, it needs a complimentary soundtrack to accompany it. Radical Dreamers outright delivers on this premise and actually gives a pretty good indication of where Yasunori Mitsuda would be going with his music. When I say a good indication, I really mean that as most of the music in Radical Dreamers actually reappears in Cross with excellent fidelity. The tracks from Radical Dreamers are absolutely fantastic, yet they fit so well with Chrono Cross that I'm sure no one finds them in the least bit out of place in that game. To follow along with the Way I've been doing music lately, I'll go ahead and give examples of the music that reappears (pretty much only because I want to listen to them as I write this post).

Gale (Radical Dreamers)

Gale (Chrono Cross)


Snake Bone Mansion (Radical Dreamers)

Snake Bone Mansion (Chrono Cross)


The Girl Who Stole The Stars (Radical Dreamers)

Star Stealing Girl (Chrono Cross)


Frozen Flame (Radical Dreamers)

Frozen Flame (Chrono Cross)


All of these are great tracks in both their forms. Ultimately, I think Chrono Cross probably has one of the greatest soundtracks of all time, so I guess none of this should be a massive surprise. Since I'm enjoying this whole Youtube song embedding thing, I'll leave you readers with two of the best tracks from the soundtrack for putting up with my nonsense. Have a great day!

Dream of the Shore in Another World


Dragon God

Praise to the Goddess: A Very Brief Look at Religion in Dragon Quest

Dragon Quest IX is around the corner and I simply cannot wait. While I like the bigger emphasis on story and characters that came with the past four games, I'm more a fan of the mechanics than anything else. Everything I've heard about the game from the random dungeons to the job system entice me more than I ever thought possible.

To psyche myself up for the game, I've picked up three games hoping to get myself in the proper mood: Dragon Warrior, Dragon Quest IV DS and Dragon Quest VIII. I've already finished and enjoyed Dragon Warrior despite how grindy it was, I'm nearly done with IV and I honestly don't have any intention of beating VIII before IX comes out. I've thoroughly enjoyed my experience thus far and feel properly psyched at this point.

One thing I have noticed in playing through the series is how religion seems to play into these worlds. The people of Dragon Quest seem to be very pious, yet few seem to really commit to their faith. Throughout most of these games, you can find priests spread out through the pubs enjoying a good brew, flirting with various women or even abstaining from their duties to pursue earthly joys. My favorite example of this is actually from VIII in the city of Baccarat where you see an elderly father enticed by a bunnygirl show. I can't remember the quote off memory, but it's something along the line of "Forgive me Goddess, I should be watching the church." Ultimately, these figures of religion are painted in a very fallible light that I doubt you'd see from Western media outside satire and parody. These people are just that, people. They have their flaws, their desires and their goals and they aren't held down by their goddess-given duties. Even with all their negative flaws out on display, they aren't seen as a jab on religion, but more as a commentary on the humanity of the purveyors of our faith. It's something that I find somewhat fascinating and hope to see more of in the future.

Because I'm in the Mood for Game Music: Let's Listen to Gravity Man's Theme

Let it be known that I don't really like Mega Man V all that much. While it's a clear cut above Mega Man IV, something about it has always felt off to me. Maybe it's the waveracer in Wave Man's stage or maybe it's the whole stupid idea of trying to make Proto Man a bad guy again. Regardless, I really, really like the music in Mega Man V. My favorite track should be fairly easy to guess if you've noticed either the picture above this paragraph or my ridiculous title for the post.

(Pst... It's Gravity Man's theme)

Since posting about the music of the Donkey Kong Country series got me in the mood, I thought I'd just share the song and some of the remixes that have come along since.

Gravity Man


If you're used to the music that's shown up in the prior Mega Man games, you'll find something that's kind of off about Gravity Man's theme. There isn't really a defining melody in the song and what's there is almost an 8-bit attempt at either Prog rock or Jazz Fusion. It's pretty strange when you think about it in context of songs like Elec Man, Crash Man or even some of the more adventurous songs like Shadow Man's theme. I guess what I really like about the song is just how balls out freaking creative it is for a game that I've always felt was lacking in terms of sheer ingenuity. I've listened to it repeatedly to try and see if its charm runs out, but I've yet to tire of it.



Gravity Man[Jazz Techno] by Shachinobu


This remix is probably my least favorite traditional take on the track. Every note that was in the original song is present here and the flourishes that are added atop it are pretty nice. The horns were somewhat distracting at first, I've grown to appreciate them a bit after repeated listens. In the end though, I don't think I like it that much.



Gravity Man Remix #2


I honestly have no idea where this one came from. If I had to take a guess, I'd say it actually came from Capcom in that PSX Rock Man collection that Japan saw. This one is really nice, it gives the original track a bit greater care than the other one did. The chorus was treated really nicely and it's played lowkey enough to stay true to the original. Overall, the real highlight of this remix is the basswork. (Sorry for the repeat of the traditional theme after the remix ends.)



Gravity Man (8-Bit VRC7 Remix) by NewAgeRetroGamer


I honestly had no idea what VRC7 meant prior to hearing this remix. Apparently, it's a special sound chip that Konami used in one game, Lagrange Point, for the Famicom. If I had to describe it to someone, I'd just say "think Genesis/Megadrive." Simply put, it sounds a good deal better than NES Monaural sound but not quite SNES quality. For the most part, I really like it, but it does get a little dissonant during my favorite part, but maybe that's just being true to the particular sound chip this guy is trying to emulate. It's good stuff.



Gravity Man Stage (Aftermath Sleaze Edit) by Zinger


This particular remix actually made it on an actual CD, Chiptuned Rockman, so it really makes me happy that the track gets love from others. Zinger's remix is probably the most polarizing for me as a fan of the original song and as a fan of music in general. The end result is really appealing to me, but I can't listen to it without noticing the two best parts of the original song have been cut out in their entirety. In the end, I guess it's okay, but a part of me is still saddened.



Well, hopefully if Mega Man V gets a growth in popularity and nostalgia, it will be for the right reasons instead of the wrong. I could go on about some other tracks from the game, but I'll refrain. When I play games, I can't help but feel like the music is one of the driving forces for my enjoyment. The music is the only reason I still play Mega Man V and I find it to be a pretty damned good reason.