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Chrono Cross, 300+ backgrounds, enjoy

Waji

Member
One of the 3 RPG I love the most with Suikoden 3 and Xenogears. So I understand pretty well : ).

Such an original game. I'll always remember the first time I played it.
I probably finished it and started again so many times.

I miss these RPG either so original, well written, focused on a very interesting structure and story.
Baten Kaitos might be it's spiritual successor... in a way.
 
tenor.gif


Thanks for sharing! I miss so much these sort of backgrounds and JRPG's...
 

Telosfortelos

Advocate for the People
Flat backgrounds had massive advantages over better looking interactive environments. They enabled developers to build massive, diverse worlds at a small fraction of what it costs to build relatively small interactive environments. Many are gorgeous, even at a tiny resolution. I can't wait for the indie scene (or some smart, smallish dev team) to reimagine ps1-style rpgs with modern flat backgrounds.
 

BigEmil

Junior Member
See why can't games nowadays have as good prerendered backgrounds as these?

All of these look so well crafted and full of soul
 

jett

D-Member
Chrono Cross had such a unique look to it. I think most of the scenery is a mix of CGI and hand-drawn paintings, right?

It's too bad none of this exists in higher resolution. Such a shame that people had so little foresight back then. :p
 

mattp

Member
Chrono Cross had such a unique look to it. I think most of the scenery is a mix of CGI and hand-drawn paintings, right?

probably goes for the majority of ps1-era games with pre-rendered backgrounds

i think they often took cg renders and painted over top in places
 

jett

D-Member
probably goes for the majority of ps1-era games with pre-rendered backgrounds

i think they often took cg renders and painted over top in places

Yeah probably but CC looks much more painterly than its predecessors.
 

Fbh

Member
Flat backgrounds had massive advantages over better looking interactive environments. They enabled developers to build massive, diverse worlds at a small fraction of what it costs to build relatively small interactive environments. Many are gorgeous, even at a tiny resolution. I can't wait for the indie scene (or some smart, smallish dev team) to reimagine ps1-style rpgs with modern flat backgrounds.

Seriously.

Like look at this.
NRkcw8p.png


This was made almost 20 years ago.... 4 console generations ago.
And it terms of detail and mood it still blows a lot of modern games away.

Sure, modern techniques would allow devs to make this bar much more interactive , add a fully explorable second floor, etc.

But for certain types of games these pre rendered background would totally work. Specially JRPG's
 
Chrono Cross had such a unique look to it. I think most of the scenery is a mix of CGI and hand-drawn paintings, right?

It's too bad none of this exists in higher resolution. Such a shame that people had so little foresight back then. :p

Probably would have made games way more expensive than they were.

If I recall, FF7 was developed with "only" 15M, and that was their first 3D game. I bet Chrono Cross was made with even less.
As Gamespot said: "Chrono Cross may not have had the largest budget, but it has the largest heart."
 

Raging Spaniard

If they are Dutch, upright and breathing they are more racist than your favorite player
Chrono Cross had such a unique look to it. I think most of the scenery is a mix of CGI and hand-drawn paintings, right?

It's too bad none of this exists in higher resolution. Such a shame that people had so little foresight back then. :p

Some lack of foresight is to blame but also

-lack of storage options
-heavily increased render times, going 2x in res could take up to 4 or 6x the render time, which in this case could heavily delay a project!
-rendering software at the time had some heavy limitations as well, so some options were literally unavailable
 
Chrono Cross had such a unique look to it. I think most of the scenery is a mix of CGI and hand-drawn paintings, right?

Yup. While the term "pre-rendered" is technically correct, I always thought it kind of undersells Cross. Yasuyuki Honne is a traditional painter with his own distinctive painting style. This isn't just the usual 3d rendering and photoshopping work.

As Gamespot said: "Chrono Cross may not have had the largest budget, but it has the largest heart."

<3
 

FiveSide

Banned
Wow, I might set these on rotation as my laptop backgrounds. Thanks for this OP.

Game as a whole had its issues, but the presentation was absolutely outstanding. Some of the best art and music in a JRPG, if not the actual best. It's a shame how uneven certain aspects of the game are, because in a lot of other ways it actually compares favorably to Trigger.
 

ubercheez

Member
One of the things I've always loved about JRPGs is how unafraid they are of using bright, vivid colors, and Chrono Cross is almost the poster child of that. So many beautiful, eye-popping backgrounds in that game.

I know these are exported straight off the disc and thus are the highest res available, but it's always bummed me out that these aren't big enough to make desktop backgrounds out of.
 

mortal

Gold Member
One of the most beautiful RPG's Square has ever developed, with a captivating soundtrack to compliment.

Thank you for the heads up, OP!

This was on the original PlayStation...crazy.
 
Some lack of foresight is to blame but also

-lack of storage options
-heavily increased render times, going 2x in res could take up to 4 or 6x the render time, which in this case could heavily delay a project!
-rendering software at the time had some heavy limitations as well, so some options were literally unavailable

Do we know for sure these don't exist at higher resolutions? Most of these look like they're finished in photoshop. Either way, I'd take an "HD" port with better character models and higher res UI. This game would lend itself to being widescreen too.
 

mango drank

Member
These pieces aren't necessarily from Chrono Cross, or at least that was never confirmed.

Yeah, I wondered about that, but I could've sworn I'd seen it mentioned somewhere that at the very least the village background was an early version of Arni Village. EDIT: or maybe Guldove would make more sense.

Also, I've been looking for a new game to play, but maybe I feel like re-playing this. It's been at least ... 15 years, damn.
 

mango drank

Member
Do we know for sure these don't exist at higher resolutions? Most of these look like they're finished in photoshop. Either way, I'd take an "HD" port with better character models and higher res UI. This game would lend itself to being widescreen too.

Yeah, I'm willing to bet Chrono Cross's background paintings were done at a higher res and saved down.

As for FFIX, there are some higher-res renders of the backgrounds floating around. Weren't these supposed to show up in a Steam re-release or something? Check it: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=551612
 

Raging Spaniard

If they are Dutch, upright and breathing they are more racist than your favorite player
Do we know for sure these don't exist at higher resolutions? Most of these look like they're finished in photoshop. Either way, I'd take an "HD" port with better character models and higher res UI. This game would lend itself to being widescreen too.

No clue, either way, if Photoshop was used for any post work it just makes things more complicated (resolution standards have greatly changed since the early 00's)
 
Top 10 favorite game of all time.

Best soundtrack of all time.

Amazing cg cutscenes.

Amazing battle system.

This game needs to be remade.

Thank you op.
 
...aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand now I'm listening to the soundtrack whilst browsing.

Seriously.

Like look at this.
NRkcw8p.png


This was made almost 20 years ago.... 4 console generations ago.
And it terms of detail and mood it still blows a lot of modern games away.

Sure, modern techniques would allow devs to make this bar much more interactive , add a fully explorable second floor, etc.

But for certain types of games these pre rendered background would totally work. Specially JRPG's

And their neighbors of the era, the Infinity Engine titles.
 
Seriously.

Like look at this.
NRkcw8p.png


This was made almost 20 years ago.... 4 console generations ago.
And it terms of detail and mood it still blows a lot of modern games away.

Sure, modern techniques would allow devs to make this bar much more interactive , add a fully explorable second floor, etc.

But for certain types of games these pre rendered background would totally work. Specially JRPG's

Well yeah, it's just a flat peice of artwork. REmake looked fantastic for the same reasons.

Is it interesting that indies aren't making this style of adventure/rpg game, seems pretty easy and low cost. Some poly models and what amounts to a huge stack of artwork. Probably easier then huge amounts of pixel art.
 
Cross's art direction is an odd one, that. On one hand, it's totally completely different from Trigger with the lack of Toryiama, which makes it hard to believe that all of this takes place in the same world as that game.

On the other hand...it is extremely beautiful and interesting to look at. Lots of vibrancy and detail everywhere.

Thank god it didn't have toriyama's artstyle.

These are all beautiful. Termina (another) is possibly my favourite jrpg city ever.
 

qcf x2

Member
These pieces aren't necessarily from Chrono Cross, or at least that was never confirmed. It's definitely Honne's work though.

Also these:

It was all good until Popo's Village...

Really hoping they remaster Chrono Cross one day, since we'll likely never get a 3rd entry in the series. Harle <3
 
I think the locations of Chrono Trigger had a distinct art direction too (although Chrono Cross is much better). None of the Chrono Trigger locations screamed Toriyama aside from the modern domes in 1999 A.D. You wouldn't see the courtroom, Zeal or the End of Time in DBZ.
 
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