Time to settle it (for this month...): Chrono Trigger vs FF VI

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Hiku said:

That's interesting. Thanks for sharing. Customization in FFIV was something I considered, but I found the team composition in Chrono Trigger to be a more interesting approach to this, as it allowed you to do entirely new and visually creative attack combinations that could vary in terms or range of effect, power, and element. In FFVI it was mainly staple attacks and spells from the series. However, everyone in FF VI did have some unique mechanic to them that made them unique in combat in a way that CT characters weren't. So that is one aspect I think VI handled better. But I really liked discovering what kind of Double and Triple attacks characters could do together, and it encouraged me to switch up my teams a lot more often than I did in VI. The first time I saw and heard Ice Sword 2 left a strong and long lasting impression on me.

I forgot the multiple parties portions of FFVI though. That was a nice touch, and something we saw again against Jenova in FFVII. Chrono Trigger also integrated the story with the gameplay in some interesting ways though. Like when you lose all your equipment and get locked up, but rely on Ayla because she is strong just fighting with her fists. But perhaps one of the most interesting and memorable examples of this in rpg history for me was the fight with Lavos where Chrono is killed unscripted, and purely because you're too weak to fight him at that point. (Even though it's highly unlikely that you'd be strong enough to beat Lavos on your first playthrough) I had never seen anything like that before, and it tied your gameplay in with the time traveling mechanic and the story in a unique and interesting way.

I definitely agree that chrono trigger is a visual masterpiece, they put a lot of effort into making the techs look as cool as they could. So in that aspect I will say Chrono Trigger is superior. But outside of the visual spectacle, I found less incentive to change the party members than in FFVI. Especially because of the sections with multiple party members, If I only use the same characters over and over the other parties will fall behind.

I never thought about the ways Chrono Trigger used gameplay to tell its story, that’s a interesting way of looking at Crono’s sacrifice