Besides, I love cliffhangers, and I love confusing the audience*, and if I retold a plot they already knew, I'd lose that. Cliffhangers are one of the great things about posting stories on ff.net. When I plan a story out well enough, it's better when I can try to leave people in suspense.

Still, there's something fun about reading some of the better Chrono Trigger novelizations. I think some of that is that the game has a pretty good story in it. It's one of those stories that stays entertaining even when moved to different media. Sometimes, seeing it in new form brings out good qualities that aren't there in the game. The most obvious example of this, to me, is Mission316's new version of Chrono's escape from prison. He leaves out the stuff that doesn't make sense and replaces it with some new surprises.

[Edit] Another reason for retelling a game's story is to fill in plot holes or smooth out rough patches in the original story. Chrono Trigger has quite a few parts that never get explained, like the Nus. If you're retelling something like Final Fantasy VII, good luck!

* I like confusing the audience by throwing in confusing events or by foreshadowing that could be interpreted in multiple ways. I do not like confusing the audience with sloppy or disjointed writing. I probably do that, but I don't try to.

I mainly got this idea from playing Chrono Cross; especially the part where Luccia says that "Lucca und I go vay back." Obviously no mention of Luccia in CT, so I thought it would be interesting to see the characters interactions there. I also thought back to a lot of times in any game where I cast a ridiculous powerful spell indoors and the building remained intact! If I am doing something to this world, it going to have consequences! (E) The story just snowballed from there. I just wanted to try to write it for the challenge.

Another reason for retelling a game's story is to fill in plot holes or smooth out rough patches in the original story. ChronoTrigger has quite a few parts that never get explained, like the Nus.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

After the scene on the cliff, Magus has nothing more to do in the rest of the story. The conflict set up when his character first appears is resolved, and anything left over seems, to me, to be just a treat for the player. I'm a firm believer in not dragging things out once the main conflict is resolved, though I may be spoiled from writing too many short stories. I guess you could get away with keeping Magus around after his story is over in something really long with a different conflict (Chrono versus Lavos) as the main focus.

I don't mind when characters fall in love in the middle of a story. I don't care if some wants to play up an angle of "Lucca has a crush on Chrono but doesn't want to admit it" or something like that. I just get tired of those "cookie cutter" stories you find all over.

The Chrono Trigger section's novels seem to be of higher quality than what I find elsewhere. For example, I'd like to think that people could come up with interesting stories about the characters from the hit TV show "Firefly," but most of what winds up in that section ends up being about how Jayne and Simon are in love (note to those who haven't seen the show: those two characters hate each other).

But when I can't write I usually think of ideas to make the story interesting - and fill in some of the game's plot holes. I visitied chronocompedium.com and basically checked out all the articles there (why do I do more research for this than I do for school? That is a question for the philosophers). I've figured out how to fix some of the problems, such as the Guardia Line Paradox and Doan's Paradox. One of the other things I read was Trigger's connections to Cross, but I decided long ago to forget about trying to make my story fit in with the "sequel." Besides, I've already killed off one of the characters of Cross (Pierre). Plus, the mythology of the story will resemble only that of Chrono Trigger.

So it's a lot of work to make the story believable. I wish I had found the Compendium sooner, so I could have fixed the Marle/Telepod Paradox in the first draft. Oh well, that's what the second draft is for - at this rate to be released sometime before the sun shrivels up into a lump of coal the size of a hockey puck.

I like to make stories darker. So thats why I would novelize.... But I currently have no plan to do so.

On the subject of the nu's..

I think they were supposed to be a mystery. It gave writers like nanaki a lot of leeway though..(Nooze, anyone?)

One the subject of Magus/Janus and the cliff..

I think the story is more powerful when he lives.. Frog/Glenn has so many reasons to kill him that I think many readers would be in the opinon of "Good for you"... However.. If frog can actually overcome his hatred of the one who he hates most, and master himself, it gives the reader much more respect for him while simutaenesly showing that he controls his emotions, not the other way around...

Just my opinion...

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