Now that I’m finally checking out other instalments in the Chrono series, it’s time for the only one that’s not a JRPG. It can be obtuse but I appreciated what its format allowed it to do.

I’m really not a big visual novel player(/reader?). The closest thing to this in my experience is Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone’s Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, or the Zork parody in Kingdom of Loathing. Especially because RD has more combat than what I would expect from a typical game in this genre; but it is resolved through a combination of knowing the right options to pick and blind luck (which are more or less the same thing initially on a blind playthrough).

Actually, that sums up the whole game pretty well. Some of the choices you make have favourable outcomes based on common sense, or testing your memory/note taking, but there’s a lot of stumbling around, frequent “gotcha” moments of failure or setback, and a small amount of randomness. I ended up using a guide just so I could experience the story without getting frustrated.

I really don’t know how much of RD is typical for visual novels or text adventure games. There’s two important stats, your health and Kid’s affection for you, that are invisible to the player but hinted at through dialogue and descriptions. Your next objective is usually fairly clear, and learning well the layout of the mansion (the sole location of the game) is important to keep a smooth pace and for minimising random combat encounters.

I guess a big important factor is the satisfying portrayals of the three leads (Serge, Kid, and Magil), and the entertaining way they interact. Kid’s rambunctiousness, Magil’s cool mystery, and Serge’s floundering everyman-ism make for fun interplay that’s explored much more deeply than any RPG could, or rather should.

RD is not long, but considering it was only ever distributed over the ephemeral Super Famicom satellite add-on, it’s perfectly at home with other experimental fare the service enjoyed. But it tells a compelling small-scale sidestory within its confines, with plenty of backtracking and secrets, not to mention the alternate dialogue…  and the extra six humorous out-of-continuity bonus stories you can find afterwards (definitely use a guide for that part at least)!

And it’s fascinating in how it follows up on Chrono Trigger, with connective hints gradually dropping until the exciting exposition-climax. I’ve already started Chrono Cross and in some ways I prefer how this little cul-de-sac in the series handled certain things compared to how it was adapted into CC. But taken on its own it’s a lovely little epilogue to CT’s story, just in a different style that’s a little slow-paced and sometimes unfair.