* * * * * Chrono Trigger - Week 5 * * * * *

(Plain English: Scroll down to the bottom of the "OP" if you're lagging behind for previous weeks)


TABLE OF CONTENTS
Prologue:
i Okami Club
ii Fire Emblem Club

Epic Center:
01 Ogre Battle
24 Secret of Mana
39 Phantasy Star IV (cont'd)
67 Earthbound (cont'd)
99 Breath of Fire II (cont'd)
110 Paper Mario (cont'd)
123 Golden Sun (cont'd)
136 Chrono Trigger

(ALL VINTAGE EC GAMES ARE CONTINUED IN THEIR OFFICIAL DISCUSSION THREADS!)

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


Hello, true believers! Welcome to Negative World's newest RPG-centric Club Hub, springing off the heels of the Fire Emblem Club. Way back when, Nintendo Power introduced a monthly walkthrough / in depth Role Play Game section (right around the beefiest SNES RPG era), but since they aren't around anymore to use it, Negative World will bring it out of the ashes, dust it off, and roll with it (two things of note: #1, this is not in reaction to Nintendo Force Magazine at all -- I know that because I thought of it in the shower this morning, so THERE; and #2, I just looked up "Epic Center RPG" on Yahoo, and there is apparently another RPG-based site that has that, ugh. I guess we're looking at a "Ghostbusters" / "Real Ghostbusters" thing now... Whatever..).

For anyone who grew playing SNES RPGs, and were a fan of them, they surely resonated to the point where they still hold office as some of your favorite games of your entire videogame life, systems, generations, and decades later. The NW Epic Center (run primarily by myself, with the aid of some special friends occasionally) will help to expose some of those games that didn't quite get the recognition they deserved, and also to relive some of the greatest games EVER as we play through them again -- together -- and open up a whole new dialogue on these lost treasures.


Next up..



Chrono Trigger is held by many (myself included) as The Greatest RPG of All Time, pun not intended. It is a benchmark title in the genre, and even after 20 years the game is discussed daily and held in high regard, even in the face of juiced-up, HD "masterpieces." Is simpler sometimes better? Sure, but we're not talking "Dragon Warrior" simple here; we're talking 16-bit perfection at its finest. I'm personally a bit worried about pursuing this game once more; it's been a long time since my last jog through it, and I'm afraid I might have the rosiest pair of glasses that any shot of nostalgia could ever produce. We find out later this month, for better or for worse. (C'mon, it's gonna be fine -- we're talking Chrono Trigger here!! THE BEST, JERRY, THE BEST!!)

Sunday, August 30th marks the start of Week 1 (if you prefer to start your own quest AFTER Sunday, like Monday, or Tuesday, or Wednesday, thats fine!). Golden Sun ran 6 Weeks. GameDadGrant will be our DUNGEON MASTER for this one, and we figure the playthrough to run about the same length. Less than two months. I'm told the total quest should last you between 20 and 30 hours.


See ya soon!!


CHRONO TRIGGER

Dungeon Master: GameDadGrant

You Did It! Chrono Trigger Complete:
VofEscaflowne
Scrawnton
Mop it up
Ludist210


Week 4 Complete:
GameDadGrant
mrbiggsly
DapperDave

Week 3 Complete:
Mr_Mustache (and Mrs_Mustache!)

Week 2 Complete:
Smerd
Dark weres
warerare
sirmastersephiroth

Week 1 Complete:
Anand

Triggermen:
HammerLord
Koovaps

Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5

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I haven't picked it up yet this week. Blame Star Ocean.

I should be beating that on Galaxy tonight, and possibly getting all nine endings in one go.

All I have is Old lady and her daughter and built the tree houses(i should have went with the one that allows cooking. I still have to get tenets, I just needed a break

Also BOF3 I have the Disc and run it emulated on my PC and im sure you could find a rom if you tried. BOF4 is also on the PSN network. It was good but I think 3 is still my fave.

@SeVeN CDN

Bah, I don't do ROMs. Don't believe in 'em! No PS stuff either. Hopefully, someday, it'll hit the VC somehow..

Does the Tree Guy allow that Othello Game? That seems kinda neat..

@Mr_Mustache

Another negative: The map doesn't display town names. Now I'll probably waste 15 minutes walking around to the different goddamn towns looking for a goddamn carpenter. Goddamnit.

@TheOldManFromZelda

Why not read my thing up there at all? Why do I type anything?

The Carpenters are in Capitan, all of them. It was the last town you were just in after the well stuff.


Also, explictly: Press Y when Rand is in the lead so you can roll FOREVER with him until you hit something.
You'll go fast, you'll fight nobody.

@Mr_Mustache

I was trying to avoid spoilers as much as possible, and also trying to figure out as many things as possible on my own. I only look at your stuff if I'm totally stuck.

@TheOldManFromZelda

Alright, fair enough.

Try pressing Y with different people at the lead (cycle through them with L or R shoulder buttons). Rand will Roll you around, some other people will do different things. Pretty much everyone has some sort of Overworld strength. If nothing is happening now, something may happen later. And other folks, who don't react with Y have other skills, like being the only ones who can Fish or Hunt.

For the Carpenters, once you pick them up, you can find Tenants in towns you've been to. If you don't want to walk around like an asshole, wait until Jean gets to Lv14, and then you can Warp all over the place. I don't think anyone is MANDATORY to get, though if you pick up some Tenants who sell weapons and/or armor, it'll be useful going into Week 3, for sure.

I haven't played at all this week. I slipped and fell on ice the other day and hurt my neck, back, elbow and wrist and just haven't felt like doing anything other than taking a pill and relaxing when I get home. Hopefully I'll get back to this, and my other games, some time soon.

@DeputyVanHalen

ACK! Are you ok?! You didn't break anything, did you??

@Mr_Mustache
No breaks, just sprains, bruises and it feels like I pulled every muscle in my neck.

@DeputyVanHalen

Well, I hope you feel better soon. I went down in my parking lot at work last winter, thought I was going to break my tailbone in the .3 seconds it took me to fall.

WEEK 3 - Kicking Butt and Clearing Names


-3.1 From the "it feels good to sleep in the open" Hut, with Jean in the lead (Press Y), swim to the middle of the lake and enter Simafort.
-It's a cook off! Ohhhhhh, what a rush!!
-3.2 Oh! What luck! A french fry stuck in my beard. --Err, Patty was at Simafort! Now you can clear Bow's (well-underleveld) name! Head alllll the way back to HomeTown (is Jean Lv14? WARP.)
-After talking to Trout with the real thief (and Kilgore), get Bow from TownShip (Ruins) and bring him here to talk to Kilgore (if you want, Bow can Unite with either of the Shamans).
-3.3 When that mess is all cleaned up, head back to the Hut / Witch's Tower / SimaFort area. (WARP?) Head south (Jean in the Streeeams) and find a house standing all alone on a peninsula: W.Cape!
-Bring Katt (bust open a gate and more!), and explore the viscera..of a WHALE.
-3.4With the Whale Bell, you can call Grandpa anytime you'd like! (and there is a character that you can recruit RIGHT NOW who will make the game "too easy." Let me know if you're interested, otherwise we'll get them in a few weeks.) From Whale Beach, head South until you hit land, and then East until reaching an island all alone. There should be a Circus tent nearby, and you can park your Whale at the BEACH.
-If you've entered the circus before, it should look familiar, though this time is a little different. The Grass Man is your friend, and you want to help him. Help the Grass Man.
-Since you probably don't have 900k (...), sounds like you've gotta get an Uparupa. The location of the cave is way back on the 1st continent you were on, and you probably saw it without realizing it. You know that bridge you went over on the way to Coursair? There is a cave in the water next to the vertical one. (Easiest way to get there is to take the Whale Taxi from HomeTown, up and around. -- and bring 1200 bucks)
-If you luck out and get a Special Uparupa, you can end your week pretty much right here, after returning to Tunlan. Chances are you didn't (or messed up, ugh), and you gotta find some more Owl Fruit. Remember that house after leaving Windia? Head back there; thars OwlFruit in them woods!
-Tough as nails fight coming your way -- I remember it from my childhood and dread it -- Ryu is suggested to be over Lv20, and hopefully you're packing some Fire Weapons? After victory, take your Owl Fruits back to Uparupa Cave and try again.
-When you've got your Uparupa (or did you let him free, you sneaky guy? Two treasure chests then, huzzah.), return to Tunlan Circus and exchange it (or give him nothing!!) for The Grass Man.

Just hang out at TownShip when you're done. Level up, have a party, whatevs.


I'll beef this up if anybody needs help. I think you'll be ok. Just make sure you get the (3.1) DeluxePole when you wake up in Simafort. There are some hidden things around, but you can handle it. Probably.. In 3.2, when Bow asks Ryu if he wants to go with him, YES, go with him, otherwise Bow is ALONE. In 3.3, there is an enemy called C.Sludge which nets a TON of XP; it is suggested that you catch up Bow and Jean this way if you haven't already. In 3.4, if you let the Uparupa go, the game will still progress; just choose "I'll give you nothing!" Make sure you got your two treasure chests in the cave (grabbing one, leaving, and then going back in).

And I guess nobody was pumped about Week 2? Eek. Here's 3, not sure how long it'll take. Good luck!

Man I'm way behind. This cough I was dealing with all week just took out the interest in playing almost anything.

I finished Weed 2 today in one sitting. But I haven't attempted the side quests.

I finished week 2 yesterday, along with all side quests, and did the basement of the water tower last night. That took... a long time. I used a brute force/non offensive magic team to bully my way through. It took forever just to figure out how to get into the basement. Nothing seems connected, and at the same time seems so random. All the NPCs look the same, so it's hard to figure out that you need to talk to this broad over here to trigger the next event, when that broad looks just like the other broads. Terrible. I found the right broad by luck, I guess.

Not a fan of where this eat off is going. Got all the ingredients, had the cook-off, and now everyone's run off. And I can't find them. SIGH. I hate this game.

I was not a fan of week 2 at all. Too much back and forth travel, even with Rand.

Finally found a few fishing spots. Underwhelming, to say the least. I don't see how it's a money maker.

Which bring me to another negative: making money. The enemies drop pennies. It's so difficult to earn enough money to properly outfit your team. Hunting yields 200 bucks per roast, but it's so hard to hunt. Fishing wasn't any easier, either.

@TheOldManFromZelda

Snappers yield 1500 in each pull. Big cash! (Did you snake the DeluxePole in SimaFort? If not, you should be able to get it right now, no issue.) I tested it out tonight; more resilient than the StickRod (but still not strong enough to easily pull up a Treasure Chest..you might be able to get 'em..but headache not worth it.)

I'm collecting ingredients now. Got THE WORM and got all sleepy (I slept like 4 hourts between Saturday and Sunday, got up stupid early), I'll probably dump the week during MNF.

Sorry you're not diggin' the same so much, duuuude.

Are there any characters that you like enough to hang your hat on? Growing up, I think I brought Katt EVERYWHERE. I was probably attracted to her sexy sexiness, but her VIGOR was admirable. So freakin' fast. I was a Sten mark, too, along with Nina. Not much has changed (though Sten doesn't have me as pumped up this time around..I've got him bonded with Sana though, the only one who gets an appearance change just yet..and that also improves his offense. Did you factor any of this stuff into your team selection?

@chrisbg99

Drop an elbow on it!

@DapperDave

It's really only one sidequest, if that matters. The other stuff is filling up your town, which'll happen one way or another, now or later.

@Mr_Mustache

I don't even know what a snapper looks like. I did get the deluxe pole.

Katt sticks with me everywhere, even though now she is getting killed in 1-2 hits. This goes back to the lack of cash to properly upgrade. You would think that a go-through of an entire dungeon would yeild an ample amount of cash... but it doesn't. I think I got enough cash to buy one new piece of equipment. The rest of the characters are inconsequential at best, and have no real redeeming qualities.

This game is waaay more obtuse and confusing than Earthbound ever was. I find it baffling that you got lost during Earthbound.

@TheOldManFromZelda

Big Pink Fish. Can't miss it. It'll probably take you 3 bites to get it in.

Katt is still getting killed that fast? Hmm.. The breakdown / "chance" the guys will get hit (sample size 16, some dude figured out an algorithm) traditionally go like this in a 4 person party: 8:5:2:1. If you want Katt to not get killed (or anyone else), throw her in the 3rd or 4th slot. She'll still attack when she attacks, but it might help for a bit. Maybe stuff Rand above her? I always have Ryu up front. He's a monster. AND he Counters a high percentage of the time. (I think I'm generally Ryu/Katt/Rand/Nina)

We gotta figure out a way for you to get some dough. Did you grind at all? I did..something the other day, and I had like 8 Grand just from fighting guys in the wild. Not sure where I was or what I was doing. Hmm.

I might have to send her to the back. She gets hammered, often. She also gets hit in battle a lot. HEYOOOOOOOOO.


I just don't have the time to grind like others do. I'm sure if I did, I'd get new equipment, then immediately go to the next area and get pissed off when I see newer, better equipment for sale. I'm glad RPGs like this died off.

@TheOldManFromZelda

HA! Awesome. You got me.

--Do you have that Gold item? Go near the Wildcat Restaurant, and fish out the dude there. Bring about 10K (somehow...), and you can probably set yourself up PRETTY GOOD for a while. Everything he's selling should be BETTER than what you have available. I found some Gold stuff looking for Ingredients, and I haven't gone over there myself, but I'll try to, soon. Maybe I'll go yank a few Snappers out (10?) and see how much I spend over there.

EDIT- Oh, and I told you on the phone, but in the "bucket room," from the roof, if you walk straight to the wall, and search, there is 1000 gold, move right, search the wall, another 1000 gold, move right, search the wall, another 1000 gold. Dig it.