A review by gengelcox
Chrono Trigger by Michael P. Williams

informative reflective slow-paced

3.0

I never played this game, either. Williams covers it here in enough detail that I don’t feel the urge to do so, although I do appreciate his extensive rumination on the subject of nostalgia, the physics of time travel, an exegesis on the subject of so-called strategy guides, and an insight into the challenges of translating video games, especially those steeped in a cultural riffs. The latter is probably the most useful aspect of this book for those who aren’t interested in analyzing video game plots, as it underscores some of the real dangers still inherent in machine translation. This really resonates with me at this moment as I write this in the middle of a ten-week stay in Fukuoka, Japan where I’m having to rely heavily on computer translation and discovering that there are many, many ways for it to break down. For example, you don’t think about how the names and descriptions of food often lack information about the ingredients, the actual flavor, the method of cooking, or even whether it is served hot or cold. And while it seems every restaurant in the world has a caesar salad, it’s always a little different wherever you are due to local tastes. (The caesar salad is the one western dish I would eat in Japan; otherwise, I’m sticking to sushi and the other regional specialties.)