Chrono Trigger

It took about a year of on-again / off-again playing, but I finally made it through this DS remake of Chrono Trigger. Unlike Final Fantasy III on the DS, this is more of a straight up port of the game rather than a 3D re-imagining. Also unlike Final Fantasy III this game isn’t a dismal, frustrating bore with random battles and the other annoying trappings of Japanese RPG games. With its quasi real time battles, the combat is much more fluid, fast and fun. The story is as convoluted as any JRPG but the time travel aspects at least keep it more interesting than your typical “there are monsters everywhere because of a big bad wizard” plot (unfortunately, there are still plenty of unnecessary “…” dialogue boxes to click through). I still prefer western style role-playing games like Fallout and Mass Effect to this, but I think I am no longer completely JRPG adverse. I am actually tempted to buy Phantasy Star IV on the Wii Virtual Console next.