Some parts of the interface are actually pretty similar to the old Kings Quest/Quest for Glory games lol. For instance you still cycle through the cursor with a right click to look, talk, walk, and left left click to use the action shown by the cursor etc. The combat is substantially different, and sort of like KoTOR you can pause during combat and plan the next moves for all your party members. It also helps to have at least some understanding of AD&D’s combat system, THAC0 in particular, as that is what the combat is based on.
But yeah if you’ve been gaming long enough that you remember the golden age of Sierra games then you will probably be able to appreciate BG1 and 2
IMO the user interface/controls/gameplay of BG1 just feels so dated compared to modern games. If you didn’t play it back in the day and have that extra nostalgia bonus when you go to play it now, you may just find yourself thinking the game is super clunky and wondering what all the hype was about.
That being said, the story is second to none, and the story of BG2 is arguably as good or better. So if you don’t mind the somewhat-dated play style and want a good story, they could be right up your alley.
Right but there is in-game content that gives you an incentive to do so. If you want to get all the endings, you have to solo Lavos with Crono. And in my opinion it’s the best ending of the game, because you get to talk to sprites of the devs and it’s a really cool kinda 4th-wall breaking way to tie everything up at the end. Is it repetive? Sure, but so are 95% of the games that are coming out today.
I’ve never actually made it to max level, I just grind until I can solo Lavos with Crono, which I can usually consistently achieve by around level 70. It’s not an arbitrary grind, I have a specific goal in mind.
The newest versions of chrono trigger also have additional maps, dialog, items, and side quests that weren’t in the original game. It doesn’t add a ton of play time, but it was nice to have some new things to do in one of my favorite games of all time that I’ve probably played through 15 or 20 times already.
Chrono Trigger is at least double the play time If you go after all the endings and get all the secrets and do all the side quests, to say nothing of the opportunity for grinding to level your characters that you just don’t get with SMRPG since you max out at level 32 iirc. You can do everything there is to do in SMRPG in a day. A long-ish day, but a day nonetheless.