SQUARE can be said to be one of the representative companies of the Golden Age of Japanese RPG, launching a large number of classic works in the SFC and PS eras, of which "Chrono Cross" can be regarded as the most representative one, which has triggered a long-term hot discussion after its release that year, and has been remembered by countless people to this day.
Not long ago, the game launched a high-definition replica of "Timeless Wheel: Radical Dreamers Edition", however, on Steam, players have a lot of negative comments about this HD replica, because people found that this replica version running on PS5 and PC, the frame rate performance is not even as good as the original version 23 years ago, which is surprising, and digital Foundry, the "Digital Hair Society" of European and American analysis game graphics technology, pointed out in the review, This may be because the replica runs directly on top of the PS emulator without a full rewrite of the code.
It is a pity that the high-definition replica is so collapsed and lacks sincerity, but this does not affect the status of the original. As a work launched at the end of the PlayStation, the screen of "Timeless Wheel" that year can be said to have reached the top level of the PS console, and the breakthrough of turn-based system has also been achieved in the combat system; gorgeous CG and beautiful music are also hot topics for people to discuss; the plot aspect is quite deep, involving the philosophical thinking of anthropic principles, which is rare in the entire game field.
Let's take a look at the game that was released in 1999, and even after more than 20 years, this classic is still so sparkling and charming.
Beyond the picture of the times
By the standards of the year, the game graphics of Wheel of Time exceeded the limits of functionality, and some people in the industry even thought that it reached a level close to the level of game graphics in the early days of PS2.
A large number of scenes in the game are natural environments that represent the ocean, and the color performance is colorful, like a dynamic picture book, and many players often can't help but stop in a scene to enjoy the scenery and music.
Wheel of Time may also be square's last game to use the "2D background plus 3D characters" approach in the PS console era.
At that time, it was still difficult for the PS function to make a full 3D game, and SQUARE also made some different attempts at graphic performance: "Final Fantasy 7" was a 2D background map plus 3D character modeling, and "Alien Armor" was a 2D method to design three-dimensional characters, and the background building was a 3D model. In the end, Final Fantasy 7 was a great success in terms of sales and word-of-mouth, while "Alien Armor" was not developed well, cutting a lot of content and releasing it in semi-finished form, and sales were less than expected.
Therefore, most of square's follow-up works in the PS console era follow the 2D background and 3D character model, and "Wheel of Time" is the culmination of it.
Novel turn-based combat system
As a long-time leader of Japanese RPG, SQUARE has been doing various innovative explorations in the field of traditional turn-based systems, and "Timeless Wheel" is a very important innovation.
The game turns the battle into a "color enclosure" game through the "Battlefield Color Attribute" system. Each of the characters in the game has their own basic attributes, different attributes are represented by different colors; at the beginning of each battle, there will be an ellipse divided into three layers in the upper left corner of the screen, indicating the battlefield color attributes. The colors will restrain each other. In the game, physical attacks, elemental attacks will have an impact on the color attributes of the battlefield, through the control of the color of the attributes, playing strategy, in the face of powerful enemies, the player's primary goal is often not to rush to defeat the enemy, but to work hard to dye, enclosure, so that the battle situation tilts to their own side.
Although it sounds complicated, in fact, the back of the hand can actually adapt quickly, the overall difficulty is actually not high, but the experience can be described as refreshing, at that time in the Japanese RPG can be said to be unique.
Classic CG animation and music
In the 1990s, SQUARE spent a lot of money on Final Fantasy 7 to create a number of gorgeous CG animation clips and great success, setting off a CG animation boom, and square, which tasted the sweetness, also attached great importance to the production of CG animation in its subsequent works.
The CG animation of The Wheel of Time is also of a very high standard. The opening animation begins with an ancient book slowly unfolding, and under the mysterious and melodious soundtrack, a few lines of poetry slowly appear on the screen, outlining a strong sense of suspense. The entire animation is very frequent, the amount of information is very large, very charming and infectious, many players including me have been greatly shocked after watching it, although they do not understand Japanese, can not understand the plot, but they are deeply attracted by the mystery and wonder of this game world.
The game's ending animation is also very creative, in addition to the wonderful animation clips in the game, but also added some live-action clips, by the actor to play the heroine of the game Kid, showing the character walking in Japan Shibuya Street and suburban train tracks next to the figure, as if Kid really crossed into the real world after the game, as if the reverie.
▲ A clip of a live-action cast
In addition to the CG animation, the musical performance of "Timeless Wheel" is also worth mentioning, thanks to the high level of japanese game composer Yasunori Mitsuda at the peak of his career.
Yasunori Mitsuda's first composition for the game was Chrono Trigger, the predecessor of "The Wheel of Time", before he worked on sound effects at SQUARE, and later took the initiative to ask for the composition of "Key to Time", and his music was well received, so he came to prominence.
▲Yasunori Mitsuda
The music of "Wheel of Time" is a healing New Age style, in fact, Mitsuda Yasunori tried this style in the creation period of "Alien Armor", but because of the limitations of the subject matter, it cannot be fully displayed, but the themes of "Wheel of Time" are very suitable for using New Age to express.
From the background of the times, "The Wheel of Time" was released at the end of 1999, during that period due to the gradual acceleration of the pace of modern social life, people were in a busy work, so they needed to be healed through music and other things, New Age music appeared because of this demand and was popular with the public, Mitsuda Yasunori was also one of the pioneers who pioneered the large-scale use of this style in game music at that time.
Among the songs written by Yasunori Mitsuda for this game, the most famous is the background music of the opening animation "Scars of Time" and the music of the ending animation "Radical Dreamers ~ Stolen Gems", it can be said that if the two animations did not have such classic music to set off, the final effect would not be so amazing.
In 2019, the 20th anniversary of the release of The Wheel of Time, Yasunori Mitsuda toured the game's concerts, and that year also released the game's official symphony arrangement album, CHRONO CROSS Orchestral Arrangement. If you choose a game music list with the strongest out-of-the-loop effect in history, the music of "Wheel of Time" should have no problem entering the top ten.
Philosophical and rational plot
"The Wheel of Time" is the same as the previous game is the theme of time travel, but the previous work is only a simple single-line crossing, and "Wheel of Time" introduces more complex elements such as parallel worlds and space-time paradoxes, which are more complex and esoteric, which is a more advanced approach in the game field of that year.
One of the funs of the game is to feel the different performances of the same characters in two parallel worlds, such as the protagonist's opening journey to another same parallel world, and then in this world he has been dead for more than ten years and sees his own tombstone; and an NPC who was a fisherman in the original world, but his childhood dream was to be a writer, and as a result, he actually became a writer in the parallel world.
The plot concept of "Wheel of Time" is very ambitious, many characters are riddlers, the narrative is also fragmented, and the player often has to understand the general context until the end - in simple terms, this is a story of accidents that caused time and space chaos, but the specific involves the magic kingdom, the dragon god, Lavos and other forces and a lot of complex settings, there is no tens of thousands of words that are really unclear, and there are some contradictions and some holes in the plot.
However, the plot depth of "Wheel of Time" can be described as rare, especially the dialogue at the end of the game involves the "anthropic principle", which is very profound.
The so-called "anthropogenic principle" is an attempt to explain from a physical point of view " why our universe is the way it is " . The answer to the anthropic principle, in short, is that it is the existence of human beings that intelligent life thinks about the characteristics of this universe, and if the universe is not like this, no one will talk about this topic. It can be explained that the universe we see is the way it is because of our existence.
The screenwriter of this game is the famous Masato Kato, who is also an old partner of Yasunori Mitsuda. However, Masato Kato was more willful and self-indulgent when writing the plot for "The Wheel of Time", and he himself admitted in an interview: "'Wheel of Time' is a huge peak in my development career, although the degree of completion is average, but it is completely in accordance with my preferences, creative work, is the best game I have ever done in my life, I also said at that time, because this work is a bit over-the-top, so the plot of the game looks a little strange (laughs), if the full score of a hundred, You can only play seventy or eighty points."
▲Masato Kato
Place in the history of games
Generally speaking, when mentioning Chrono Trigger, the game's predecessor, Chrono Trigger, is mentioned.
As a generation of masterpieces on SFC, Key to Time is so successful that it has always been at the top of the list of Various Japanese RPG games. In the "Heisei Best Game List" voted by FAMI in 2019, "Key to Time" ranked first, and "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wilderness" could only rank second; IGN also ranked first in the "100 Best RPGs" list in 2017.
Although "The Wheel of Time" is not as successful as the previous game "Key to Time", there are also many loyal players, and it is interesting that the acceptance of "Wheel of Time" in Europe and the United States seems to be higher than that of Japan, because FAMI Only gave the game a 36-point evaluation that year, but most of the game media in Europe and the United States gave a higher score, and GameSpot even gave a full score.
epilogue
"Wheel of Time" is a game that I personally love very much, and I was eager to pass the level after seeing the opening animation, and many years later, I was able to gradually understand the full picture of this game with the help of folk Chinese patches.
Although this HD replica is a bit disappointing, I still hope that in the future SE can launch a remake of the overall improvement of the picture, if you can re-modify and polish some bugs in the plot by the way, it will be better.
Perhaps, even the most classic thing needs a new form to be passed on forever.