Chrono Trigger
Oh my. That start screen. And the seagulls. And the cannon fire. And the graphics. Just. This is so gorgeous. It’s…It’s so very very charming. It feels lighthearted and just so amazing. Also there’s a PowerGlove joke. There’s something odd about the combat I can’t put my finger on. It’s great, but something’s weird about it. I like the story. It’s classic time travel and mistaken identity (at least at first) but again…it’s so dang charming! Love this.
ClockTower
The use of sound and graphics is superb. That coupled with the nature of the characters (young orphan girls) makes this feel very tense and Gothic. The art is lush and gorgeous. Even the animation is quite realistic. This is legitimately terrifying. The point-and-click controls constrain you, making the mechanics work to create a feeling of powerlessness. And the fact that you can die within minutes of the game starting in earnest is crazy. In a good way. It’s incredibly stressful. I had this panicked nervous terrorized feeling as soon as I was left alone, and it never stopped. I don’t know how good the story is because I’m pretty awful and also a bit scared, but I’m really enjoying it. One more to come back to.
Darius Twin
Ugh. I think I’m going to hurl. So much strobing. This is…actually harder than Gradius. I had to set it to easy mode just to beat the first sub-boss, which seems…unusually hard. Controls are good, though only half the buttons get used, for some reason. Music is a bit annoying. Graphics are okay, I guess. Overall this is a solid but very very very hard sidescrolling shooter. I personally didn’t enjoy it, but if you like Battletoads bike level difficulty and sidescrolling shooters, you might enjoy Darius Twin.
