Monthly Archives: May 2018

Music Review: At the End of Time – Chrono Trigger/Cross

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by Jason Parker (Ragachak)

Music Review - GameLark _ Chrono Trigger

I could listen to Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross’ soundtracks all day and not get tired of it for even a minute. But I’d be remiss in ignoring how Chrono Cross makes me feel. The story makes my blood boil, and though I have to go back to it once again to see if I can make sense of all the weird decisions, Chrono Cross is, from a storyline perspective, one of my least favorite games of all time. Funny that, as Chrono Trigger is one of my absolute favorites, so that paradigm is kind of entertaining in and of itself. However, Chrono Cross had amazing game mechanics, tons of characters, and had a lot of heart. Shame they borked it all up. However, we’re here to talk music today, and I have “At the End of Time”, from GameLark and Materia Collective. I’ve really come to love these albums, and this one’s definitely no exception. There are some really interesting stylistic choices, and all it makes me want to do is play more Chrono Trigger. From violins to electronic sounds, this collection is about an hour long and it’s 100% worth owning.

“Our goal with At the End of Time was simple,” explains album producer AllenBrasch. “We wanted to offer listeners a unique, memorable journey whether they’ve experienced these games or not. The album art also hints that no matter who you are, you are going to be pulled into this adventure, and you might not be the same when it ends.”

Every single one of these tracks is amazing, and while there are some songs I think could have been added, the ones they picked were remarkable. You can find this album on Spotify, iTunes, and Bandcamp.

Wind Scene by Qumu (Track 2 – Chrono Trigger 600 AD): “Yearnings of Wind” may just be my favorite overworld song of all time, from any RPG ever. The only song that remotely comes close is Tina/Terra’s theme (early game Overworld from FFVI) or the Broken World music from FFVI. No other song can match it. It’s so peaceful and soothing, despite Chrono now being in a land that “looks” familiar, but unfortunately is not. A slow fog rolls over Guardia, and Chrono desperately tries to get his bearings. The shift from the piano and soft tapping sounds shifts into a viola (it sounds to me), but that clacking sound keeps plodding on rhythmically, the ticking of a clock that fits so neatly into the story and the song. From there, we have an acoustic guitar, completing this soft, quiet song. It’s one of those rare moments that a relaxing overworld song sets the tone perfectly.

The Future is Primitive by Daniel Romberger (Track 8 – Chrono Trigger Prehistory): The electronic sounds mixed with horns made it come across like a Super Sentai/Kamen Rider show from the 70s and 80s and I absolutely loved every minute. It had the sinister intent that the Reptites had for man, and even included a haunting “But the future refused to change. . . ” that you only see in the game when you get a Game Over. After all, the future belongs to the Reptites, if you believe Azala. The blend of trumpet sounds and electronica were superb, and I think this might have been one of my favorite songs on the album, easy.

Garden of the Gods by Kain White (Track 5, Chrono Cross): While I’m amazed, even disappointed that the Chrono Cross opening theme is not on this album (because it’s easily the best piece of music in the game), but Garden of the Gods is a pretty close second. Garden of God has a peaceful, almost aquatic nature to it, flowing patiently, as does time itself. I believe this was where you fought the Water Dragon in Chrono Cross, making it all tie together nicely. The original track, Garden of God also features a heavenly choir singing lightly over what sounds like a harp, and the song fills me with tranquility in a time where I desperately need it. It’s soothing, calming, and every so often, I think that’s what we need. This version is just as peaceful, a steady beat backing the relaxing song. It’s almost like footsteps pushing forward, and I like the complete presentation of the song from Chrono Cross.

Undersea Palace by Ro Panuganti (Track 15, Chrono Trigger Dark Ages): The Undersea Palace was metal af. A palace, powered by the Mammon Machine, by Lavos itself, built on the bottom of the dark ages ocean? That’s fitting of an electric guitar provided here by Ro Panuganti. It has that same steady pace of the original song in a more metal package. The only dungeon more metal than this in the whole game is the Black Omen anyway. The chorus scaling up and down, followed by that gritty, grind sound, before shifting back to a more power metal ballad style? It’s perfection. As a lover of all things metal, this is a combination that definitely does the original track justice. I can’t think of anything darker in Chrono Trigger than running to the bottom of the ocean inside of a palace made of metal, stone and magic, to do battle with ancient evil.

 

 

Dimension Summoner

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Dimension Summoner is a F2P fantasy role-playing game set in a world on the brink of destruction. Fulfill your role as a beacon of light and summon mighty heroes to vanquish evil! Available for iOS and Android.

Features:

Filling the Roster: Strategically put together a team of mighty warriors capable of taking on any threat.

Reverse-Reverse: Swap your legends in and out of combat to recover health and utilize different abilities.

Talk a Walk: Explore your surrounding to capture new characters with the AR+ Mode.

Next Day: Survival

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Next Day: Survival is an multiplayer third-person survival game taking place in the foggy countryside of a post-soviet eastern European country. Find a friend and fight against the various terrors together or attempt to take on the world by yourself. Available for Windows.

Features:

One Man’s Garbage: Scavenge the environment for materials and use them to craft new life-saving items.

Working the People: Dynamically interact with other players, whether they be friend or foe, as well as the non-playable characters scattered across the world.

Infamous: Cultivate a reputation and join a faction aligning with your interests.

Horizon Chase Turbo Review (PS4)

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by Jason Parker (Ragachak)


I’ve never been big on “super serious racing” games because all it does is remind me what my Honda Civic cannot, and will never, do. That’s kind of a downer in my book. But you know what’s incredible? 80s racing arcade games that ignore physics, have nothing but high speeds, sharp turns, and gorgeous landscapes to race across. It is a timeless experience. It’s even better when you can enjoy it with friends in the same room, with some food and beverages of your choosing. That’s exactly what Horizon Chase Turbo brings – 80s arcade racing action with a soundtrack from Barry Leitch. It oozes the 1980s from every pore and doesn’t apologize for it. Horizon Chase Turbo feels like bumper cars at 150 miles per hour though, and that’s awesome. One of the best parts for me is that I can play it without feeling motion sick, despite a 3D model moving at such incredible speeds. There’s challenge, fun, and a sharp, bright look from the days of yore, but with better polygons and shading.

Horizon Chase Turbo Review -The world

There are so many beautiful places to race across.

So what’s the goal in Horizon Chase Turbo? You race! You, as the driver, travel the world, unlocking new tracks and new cars, going faster and faster until you have landed first place in every track around the world. There are also tournaments, which offer a set list of tracks and track your score based on what place you came in, and how many coins you collected along the way. The primary mode is “World Tour”, where you journey to certain locales around the world and race a series of tracks. For example, California features Hollywood, Death Valley (as a bonus stage), Sequoia National Park, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Each has several tracks within it (except Death Valley), with a set amount of laps, time of day and weather patterns. The weather didn’t really seem to affect much but it was very lovely to see. As you accrue points from winning matches, you unlock new cars, with 31 in total as of now. Each track has a number of points you can attain, from placing first, collecting coins, and from finishing with plenty of fuel.

Horizon Chase Turbo Review - Parts

I race like a madman, so I want more speed, more handling, and more nitro.

I haven’t run out of fuel yet, but I’ve come very close, to the point where it was flashing on my screen and my car slowed down. Fortunately, I stopped right on a fuel pickup, which appears on every map in fixed locations, as do the coins (blue in World Tour, purple in the Tournament Mode). If you place first in every race on a stage, you’ll unlock a bonus race, and if you come in first on that one, you’ll unlock the opportunity to upgrade your cars, and what makes it great is the upgrades affect all of your cars! With 31 cars to unlock, it’s wonderful that you don’t have to keep re-running these bonus races because they can be very challenging. When you unlock one of these upgrades, you’ll pick between a few options, like +steering/acceleration, and +nitro, or something to that effect. These can make the game feel incredibly easy, but that’s okay, this is a racing game – it’ll pick up the challenge all on its own with hills, slopes, sharp turns, and Easter Island heads jutting just a little into the road.

Horizon Chase Turbo Review - Crusin' America

I left ’em in the dust, as is my want.

The actual gameplay is incredibly simple. You have an accelerate button, a brake button, and your d-pad/stick steer you. You can also activate Nitrous, which gives you a huge speed boost, but you have a limited amount of uses. Some maps offer an extra dose, and you can upgrade your cars to have more of it, but the baseline is 3. Sometimes dust or snow are kicked up into your way, which doesn’t make it impossible to navigate, but at those high speeds, you need to eye the mini-map and be aware of your surroundings. The night-time tracks are hard to see on, but despite that, it’s not punishing. If a car hits you from behind, it pushes you forward like you’re in a bumper car, and even if you go careening off of the map and hit a tree/rock/etc, you aren’t completely out of the race.

Horizon Chase Turbo Review - A winner

You see that trophy? That means my reckless ways are working.

That’s what’s enjoyable about this game: It’s fun, but one false move doesn’t punish you and promise a loss. Learning the tracks is not a chore, and the handling of the cars is phenomenal. I found it quite easy to drift around a curve, weave between two cars, dart around another, pop Nitrous and suddenly be in first place out of 20. It’s annoying to always start in last place, even in tournaments (say, you came in first the track before), but if you time your acceleration just right, you get a nice boost in speed to start you off. I also appreciate that the other cars can get knocked into the air, pushed off the road, and are not perfect drivers. They can collide with each other far up the highway, giving you ample time to loop around them and claim their spot.

Horizon Chase Turbo Review - Sunset

Dust in the Wind: Great (4/5)

I was sincerely surprised that Horizon Chase Turbo was a mobile game first. The gameplay is smooth, the art and music are absolutely incredible. It has in-house co-op, an absolute wealth of content to unlock, from cars and bonus tracks. You have tournaments to race in, and every single track felt just a little different. This is just wholesome fun with a wonderful soundtrack. This is what arcade games looked like to me from my little kid eyes and it doesn’t make you stress over what parts you’re going to upgrade, changing gears, putting new shocks on every match. You don’t have to farm money to buy million dollar cars. Nope, you just pick a ride and put the pedal to the metal. Honestly, I seldom even use the brakes; brakes slow me down when I need to be going fast. I do sort of wish you could change the cosmetics of your car (color/tint, etc) but that’s not really a dealbreaker. The tracks are challenging within reason, the action is non-stop, and I can see this definitely being amazing fun with friends.

Note: A game key was provided for review purposes.