Elder Scrolls IV
Pros: Open world that doesn't constrict your choice of how to advance through the story, leveling system that allows you to create a custom character; lots of optional sidequests; great setpieces
Cons: Lots of bugs that will cause the game to crash or just keep you from advancing; unbalanced character development options; unimpressive graphics and poor framerate; dungeons all blend together after a while.
Chrono Trigger
Pros: Great story with likable characters; interesting sidequests; New Game+ feature encourages replaying the game multiple times
Cons: Game becomes incredibly difficult at the end, hence encouraging grinding; "optional" sidequests really aren't that optional
I find it fascinating that one genre of games can develop in two almost completely unique ways depending upon the country that they are made in. Granted, games are obviously going to somewhat reflect the culture of the developers, but every once and a while a genre takes on enough of its country's tendencies that they develop into a completely different sub genre. Perhaps the best example in my mind is that of the Japanese RPG, or just JRPG, which has come to represent a game (often turn based and almost always menu driven) featuring a cast of lovable characters who move through a linear story to combat some great evil. Contrast this to American RPGs which have always seemed to value choices and the ability to progress through a game as the player sees fit while still involving statistics and leveling up. In a move that ended up doubling the subjectivity that Chrono Trigger was treated with, I decided to try and play Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Chrono Trigger at the same time in order to contrast a new "American" RPG with a traditional JRPG.
Oblivion is just about everything that I expected from a game very clearly made in America. Although it sounds cliche, American games have come to value freedom in a broad sense. Whether it be the freedom of choosing whether to play the game as a good or evil character or the freedom to tackle the game as the player sees fit, some elements of choice are almost always included in American games nowadays, and Oblivion was perhaps one of the best examples of this I have seen. My previous experience with a Bethesda Studios game was Fallout 3, a game that is a spiritual successor more to the Elder Scrolls games than its namesake. As such, I had an idea of what I would be getting in to in terms of a sandbox environment. That said, for better or worse Oblivion's world is more expansive and offers more choice, both in how to develop your character and what quests you want to tackle. The game features a story about the assassination of the Imperial bloodline in order to open up rifts to a hell dimension, but the main quest is not the real focus of the game. Oblivion offers no less than 4 extra factions that each have a unique quest line that provide about 4-5 hours of gameplay each. These quest lines can be tackled at any point and can also be interrupted, so you can play a few missions for the Thieves' Guild, do a Mage's Guild mission, and then maybe a story mission and not be penalized for it in the least. The game features many memorable setpieces within these quests that, for me, were the highlight of the game. In particular, the Dark Brotherhood missions that involve killing off characters in creative ways were my favorite, including one mission where you were invited to a dinner party and tasked with killing off each guest alone so that no one at the party would suspect you as the killer. There are also quests that can be picked up that have nothing to do with any faction and feature a simple one-off quest. Additionally, the game has many ruins that can be explored that are unconnected to any missions whatsoever, but rather just offer an opportunity for treasure hunting. All said, it took me about 50 hours to finish the main quest, the four faction stories, and the optional Arena, and I still felt like I could have spent more time with the game and unearthed more.
The character development is as open as the game world is, with the ability to specialize in certain areas or spent alot of time with the game and become a jack of all trades. The game allows you to use swords, bows, hammers, staves, and magic spells, although not all of these are good options. I found the bow to be almost completely useless and without much use, while the spells and staves seemed a bit overpowered. There are 5 different magic schools that each offer a different array of spells and level up separately (Illusion, Mysticism, Conjuration, Destruction, and Restoration). Some schools are more useful than others, but its incredibly easy to level up all these schools at the same time, so you aren't really forced to focus on one in particular. The game has you choose seven "major skills" at the beginning of the game, and as you level up these skills, you eventually gain a general level that allows you to add points to your base attributes (such as strength, agility, and endurance). All other skills are considered "minor skills" and although you can level them up without any penalty for not choosing them as a major skill, raising a minor skill's level will not increase your overall level.
Open world games are known for the immense amount of freedom that they give the player, and yet this almost always comes at the price of bugs. It's understandable, since the number of variables that programmers have to take into account simply becomes too much to handle, and yet Oblivion's bugs tend to threaten your enjoyment of the game as a whole. The game will randomly crash, and while the game also autosaves frequently, it still doesn't help the pace of the game to have to turn off your console and reload the game. Additionally, there are bugs that just keep you from progressing in the game. I came across two in particular that almost prevented me from being able to proceed at all. One involved a cutscene that would automatically cause the game to crash and forced me to replay a save that was over a half of an hour old, and another involved a spell that unlocked locked objects being unable to hit a locked gate at all. I was able to circumvent both of these with the help of internet suggestions, but I shouldn't have had to resort to this in the first place. Additionally, the game hasn't aged well graphically, and the frame rate is pretty bad any time that you are on the world map due to the immense amount of foliage. Even though there are an incredible amount of dungeons, caves, and ruins to explore, they're all made of the same 6 rooms or so, just pieced together separately, which you will undoubtedly start to notice by the twentieth hour.
It was towards the end of my time with Oblivion that the bugs started to become overwhelming, and so I was relieved to start playing a game that was so structured as to almost completely eliminate the possibility of bugs. Chrono Trigger is the story of a boy who is originally just tasked with rescuing his friend after she falls into a time rift, but the story eventually grows to involve an enemy that is threatening to destroy the entire world. In order to combat this threat, Crono and his friends must fight throughout different time periods in order to prepare themselves for the final confrontation. The game is mostly linear, but near the end of the game you are given a list of possible sidequests to do in any order you see fit. These side quests are completely optional, but you will find yourself unprepared for the final battle if you ignore them all. To be honest, I was a little frustrated that the game forced you to do optional sidequests instead of just having a longer main story, but these sidequests often filled in the backgrounds of the various characters, so they did have some value for the story. I suppose I was expecting a completely regimented game throughout like Final Fantasy IV but instead found myself playing an RPG closer to Final Fantasy VI. You are given the option to face the end boss about a quarter of the way through the game, although this isn't really an option unless you are playing in New Game+ mode (which I'll touch on later).
The combat in the game is menu based, but once again it plays more like the SNES Final Fantasies since it makes use of an ATB gauge that makes the battles play out in real time (as opposed to turn based). I played the game on the DS, which allowed for the use of the touch screen to input commands and made the actual battle screen much less cluttered. Each character has Techniques that they can use and are, for the most part, unique to the character. Additionally, characters can perform Double Techniques with other characters and eventually Triple Techniques. Since the game only allows for three characters on the screen at a time, battle tactics can drastically change depending on who you take into battle given that there are a total of 7 characters you can recruit into your party. Characters that aren't in your active line up still receive some experience, though it isn't the full amount. From what I could tell, they receive about 3/4 of the experience, which means that they are never completely behind. All of these characters are viable battle options as well, which is surprisingly refreshing. I really can't tell the last time that I could actually take any character I wanted into a battle and have them be equally effective.
After you finish the game, you are able to create a save file for New Game+ mode where all of your experience and equipment carries over into a new game. This makes fighting the last boss before finishing the main quest actually feasible and will change the ending to the game. There are 13 endings in total that a player can get depending on when they face the final boss, so there is definite room for replaying the game.
Chrono Trigger is a well paced game overall, although players should know that a significant amount of grinding is involved at the end of the game. When the main story ends, your characters are no where near the level that they will need to be to finish the final boss. In addition to doing all of the sidequests, I found that I also had to level up in the last dungeon for about 2 hours before I was able to take on the final boss and have a chance at winning. This weird spike of difficulty at the end of the game is only really jarring because it doesn't have a precedence in the rest of the game, but it by no means is insurmountable.
The art should also be addressed, as it makes Chrono Trigger stand out as one of the best looking SNES period RPGs released. Although Akira Toriyama's character designs start to look derivative across his entire body of work, Chrono Trigger as a whole is vibrant and warm and one that you will never get bored looking at.
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is a game that I could recommend to just about anyone, as the freedom afforded in the game has an appeal to it that could draw in people who may be turned off by more traditional RPGs like Chrono Trigger. Think of Oblivion as the RPG that someone who plays Grand Theft Auto could still enjoy. If someone's tastes in RPGs run more traditional, Chrono Trigger is a near perfect example of a classic JRPG that has a cast of likable characters and satisfying storyline. Although the two games are completely different types of RPGs, both can fairly easily be considered classics, as they are two of the finest examples of their respective sub-genres.
Overall Scores
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion : 9.3
Chrono Trigger : 9.4
Recommended Prices
ESIV: Oblivion: 19.99 (but make sure you get Game of the Year Edition)
Chrono Trigger: 19.99 (go for the DS version if you can)
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