After a few months of work, this is most likely the final version of the story. It's been reworked quite a bit, with a much deeper exploration of Guile's thoughts and feelings, more thorough descriptions of places such as Chronopolis, and a few other things that mentioning would totally ruin. However, it's still the same story; the plot and most of the dialogue hasn't changed one bit, just further developed in some areas--mostly in the third part, with a few changes scattered throughout the rest of the story. So no need to read through the whole thing again, unless you just really want to... :)
At its core, this is a story linking Guile and Magus, but please don't let that alone turn you against it. I know there's been a lot of awful fanboy theories about how Guile could be Magus, most of them hinging on Magus having absurd, god-like powers over space and time. This is not one of those stories, I promise. The genesis of this story was, among other things, the Masato Kato interview in which he revealed that Guile was meant to be Magus, but his storyline was dropped due to lack of space in the game to deal with it, leaving Guile with no history at all.
But what if that story hadn't been dropped, I wondered, what if there had been time to explore Guile's character, as he was meant to be, further? How would he have reached that point, what would have brought him to where he is Chrono Cross? What might have happened before his arrival? Guile has no real story in the game, so what if we kept his original story? What might it have been?
That relatively simple premise, involving just one character, began to grow and expand, involving more and more of the history and characters of both games, until it finally developed into the novella you see now, the story of the twenty missing years between the two games as seen through the eyes of the Chrono Trigger heroes. There were a lot of unexpected twists along the way, things I didn't even expect to happen, characters that grew beyond my original intentions and story elements that seemed to unfold on their own in ways I hadn't originally anticipated.
I want to again thank everyone who's read it and those who have reviewed it and given me their support. It's definitely been a long road from the first single-paragraph theory posted in Gamefaqs, through the notes, timelines and countless drafts and files that followed, up to the final version, and had it not been for the praise, feedback and suggestions people have offered throughout, it would've been a far weaker story than it's finally turned out.
Anyway, I've definitely had a lot of fun visiting the world of Chrono Trigger, following the lives of the characters and seeing where they might have gone and what might have finally brought them to the world of Chrono Cross...and I hope you'll enjoy the journey between the two games as much as I have. I definitely appreciate any comments you have on the story; just post here or e-mail me at akimo1@aol.com. As for a sequel or follow-up, I definitely have some ideas, but we'll see what happens. ;)
I can hear people starting to yawn out there, so I'll be quiet now...on with that story already! =)
At its core, this is a story linking Guile and Magus, but please don't let that alone turn you against it. I know there's been a lot of awful fanboy theories about how Guile could be Magus, most of them hinging on Magus having absurd, god-like powers over space and time. This is not one of those stories, I promise. The genesis of this story was, among other things, the Masato Kato interview in which he revealed that Guile was meant to be Magus, but his storyline was dropped due to lack of space in the game to deal with it, leaving Guile with no history at all.
But what if that story hadn't been dropped, I wondered, what if there had been time to explore Guile's character, as he was meant to be, further? How would he have reached that point, what would have brought him to where he is Chrono Cross? What might have happened before his arrival? Guile has no real story in the game, so what if we kept his original story? What might it have been?
That relatively simple premise, involving just one character, began to grow and expand, involving more and more of the history and characters of both games, until it finally developed into the novella you see now, the story of the twenty missing years between the two games as seen through the eyes of the Chrono Trigger heroes. There were a lot of unexpected twists along the way, things I didn't even expect to happen, characters that grew beyond my original intentions and story elements that seemed to unfold on their own in ways I hadn't originally anticipated.
I want to again thank everyone who's read it and those who have reviewed it and given me their support. It's definitely been a long road from the first single-paragraph theory posted in Gamefaqs, through the notes, timelines and countless drafts and files that followed, up to the final version, and had it not been for the praise, feedback and suggestions people have offered throughout, it would've been a far weaker story than it's finally turned out.
Anyway, I've definitely had a lot of fun visiting the world of Chrono Trigger, following the lives of the characters and seeing where they might have gone and what might have finally brought them to the world of Chrono Cross...and I hope you'll enjoy the journey between the two games as much as I have. I definitely appreciate any comments you have on the story; just post here or e-mail me at akimo1@aol.com. As for a sequel or follow-up, I definitely have some ideas, but we'll see what happens. ;)
I can hear people starting to yawn out there, so I'll be quiet now...on with that story already! =)