Final Fantasy 8, and it’s not even close.
1999 isn’t a year that didn’t have as much software that appealed to me when compared to 1998. FF8 is the shining exception. But I also really liked Ogre Battle 64, Chrono Cross would be third on my favourites - Ogre Battle 64 is really underrated, and probably the VC game I put the most hours into.
Chrono Cross was good, but it wasn’t Chrono Trigger. The game design was not as good as Chrono Trigger, the story was also written by Masato Kato alone - so, Chrono Trigger’s stronger structure has to do with the fact that Yuji Horii (Dragon Quest writer) outlined the story, Kato wrote, and Takashi Tokita (the writer of FF4) and Yasonori Kitase (Director of FF6, 7, 8, and X) acted as editor/producers - but with Chrono Cross Kitase was kind of on his own… and if it feels a bit like Xenogears at times, it’s because Kato was also working on that game, as were several of the other staff - and I think he was trying to emulate Tetsuya Takahashi and Soraya Saga a bit. With all the mess Square was in at the time (Chrono Cross is basically the game that broke composer Mitsuda), it’s amazing how good it turned out in the end.
Perhaps it’s recency bias given I played FF8 through this summer, and Ogre Battle 64 not long ago (last generation, right after Xenoblade Chronocles X), and Chrono Cross not in a very very long time. I’m probably going to get the remaster, and I’m looking forward to seeing how I like it now.
I describe myself as a little dose of toxic masculinity.
