I was bored at work today, enough to start thinking on a tangent about similarities between RPG characters. This somehow led me to start trying re-cast the game Chrono Trigger using ranked main characters from the DL. I blame MF6.
Since I was bored enough to type it up, I figured I'd share.
Crono: Spiky, red-haired "Displaced Protagonist" with a clone.
Luke fon Fabre from Tales of the Abyss.
This is kind of what started this whole line of thinking. After stumbling upon this thought, I started thinking how the rifts in Time could be caused by Hyperresonance. Also, the idea of using Asch as the Crono clone amuses me. And for the beginning of TotA, anyway, everyone -wishes- Luke was -silent- protagonist.
TotA's setting seems similar in technology to Crono's time period, so I went with it.
Magus: Badass evil-villain type who's zOMG playable!!!!1
Fou-lu from Breath of Fire 4.
Maybe it's a shallow comparison, but I honestly can't think of Fou-lu without being reminded of Magus, only Fou-lu was a much deeper, better-written version of 'misunderstood badguy'. Obviously, Schala would be Ryu4.
Lucca: Gun-wielding, sensible heroine with a penchant for science and exploration.
Virginia Maxwell from Wild ARMS 3.
Okay, so there are probably other mains out there who are more similar to Lucca than this... like Shion. But since I -like- Lucca, I went with another character I enjoyed. Virginia's guns and vague claim to fire-alignment came to mind, also, but I mostly used Ginny because her personality reminded me a bit of Lucca's. Also, Ginny seems like the only main female character with enough patience to be Luke's best friend?
Ginny's father is a world-renowned scientist so any points of Chrono Trigger that would require Ginny to use this kind of knowledge could be explained away. Also, Lombardia makes an awesome timeship. Visually, Ginny and Asgard kind of remind me of Lucca and Robo.
Marle: Danger-prone Archer-Princess (but you don't that at first!)
Shana from Legend of Dragoon OR Alicia from Valkyrie Profile Silmeria
More shallow comparisons. Shana is another 'secret princess'-type character, though at least Chrono Trigger had the decency to make Marle's revelation as a princess into something comical instead of taking itself so seriously. Shana also does the healing and archery bit. Alicia is a bit more obviously a princess from the beginning, but she's got just as many problems to deal with as Marle. The freezing photons thing also sort of fits in with Marle's Ice affinity and Silmeria herself is an archer. Also, might be able to do something with Leene and Silmeria?
For Shana, I have no idea how one would be able to work the whole "I'm the soul of a Destruction God" thing into the story. In the scene where Marle's getting all static-y and starts to disappear, I had an image of the other characters screaming that Shana was awakening as the Destruction God and that 'she's gonna blow!' or something like that?
Robo: He's a robot.
KOS-MOS from Xenosaga.
Couldn't think of another RPG main who was a robot. They have about the same amount of personality, too! Characters like Diekbeck, Thursday, or Ershin might be more similar in design, but I wanted to stick with mains.
The technological advancement of Xenosaga is -far- more advanced than Robo's time period, but at least it's still futuristic.
Ayla: Wild Chieftan
Lyndis from Fire Emblem 7.
There's not a lot of RPGs that incorporate cavemen-age characters. Even fewer are main characters. I think only Pogo from LaL? Waaaay too obscure for me. FE7's level of technology is fairly low in comparison to the other characters I had picked, so I went with it. Lyn, being Sacaean, deals with some flack for being a 'wild' and 'barbaric' plains chieftan. It sort of reminded me of Ayla. I'd probably pick Guy or Rath for Kino, then?
Frog: Cursed dude.
Tir McDohl from Suikoden.
No relation really, I just wanted to fit a Suikoden character in here. I suppose Chris could work, too, since she's a Knight and has the Water Rune... but Tir's just awesome and the Soul Eater's curse seems like it would be an interesting parallel to Frog's own curse.
My first thought was of course Jean from BoF2, but he's not a main. There's probably a ton of better options here, but I didn't ever have any particular attachment to Frog so I stopped thinking about it after I decided I liked Tir. Suikoden's level of technology is also right where it's supposed to be for Frog's time period.
EDIT: Yuri's Misteltoe curse and desire to protect Alice could also parallel Frog's curse and desire to protect Leene?
Anyway, I didn't get far enough to start thinking about who people like Flea, Slash, and Ozzie could be... I really wanted to fit a Grandia character in there, too... But all the mains were... hard to place. Maybe some of the villains/lead love interests/MIRANDA?!
I think I played too much MF6... yeah. Has anyone else ever thought about re-casting an RPG like this before? (obviously, Meeple has!)
-Djinn
