* * * * * 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

--------------------------------

URL to share (right click and copy)

I think there's a couple places in Illusion of Gaia where you can get stuck (possibly some obscureness in a couple spots as to what you're supposed to do, especially towards the end of the game), but overall I think it's a pretty brisk game. The gameplay is very Zelda-ish. I don't know if you could REALLY call it an Action RPG. Yes, you can Attack, Defense, or HP upon 'leveling up' (i.e. defeating all enemies in a room) but you don't choose which one you get, and there isn't really any character customization. I feel like it's kind of like a Zelda game but with way less puzzle solving. In terms of just hacking and slashing, I feel like the combat is incredibly satisfying. There's something visceral about it.

I can understand not wanting to go with emulation, but if you don't have an SNES, it's basically the only way you can play it. Square Enix is mostly kind of allergic to the Virtual Console. It's such a shame. Do they even have any presence on Wii U right now? Blegh.

Illusion of Gaia would be a pretty cool game to play with you guys as it is a very solid game from Enix and Quintet. And like they say it is a pretty cheap game on the used game market if you want to go that way. Juding by Amazon is ranges in the twenty dollar area, which considering it is a pretty niche game is pretty good. I would of half expected the game to start going up in price for some absurd reason.

So... I finished the game! I completely blissfully forgot about the thread and played through the end way too early (five weeks ago, to be more precise).

Went for a BP run (sort of) after upgrading Flower Points once and it went all smooth until chapter 4/5. Getting the HP/FP plus badges was a good way of compensating for the potential difficulties and nasty troubles I could have. Then again, hearts and flowers drop one time or another from enemies, so that's a good relief. If you narrow down the blocking moments and get some Lucky badges on, it goes mostly fine. I did slip periodically during walks around the desert area in chapter 2, where you derp around trying to find the ruins and fainted a couple of times.
Mid chapter 5, I had 30 Badge Points already, so I started to invest on FP. That means I wouldn't need to potentially return long ways on foot in order to heal for free and that I could start to focus on bringing more health/support items with me (ooh, the satisfcation!).
Chapter 6 was a grindfest. Took some time I had in the afternoon, kept going back for Amazy Dayzees and filled up all my stats, so I wouldn't need to grind anymore ever afterwards. With that said and done, combining with the fact that I've beaten Paper Mario 2 times already, the rest of the game was absolutely a cakeride. I didn't go for 100% this time, though. Got to upgrade Goombario, Parakarry, Watt and Bow twice and was happy with that.

This game is so simple, but so very fun. The dialogue isn't as hilarious as the posterior titles, but it still has the clever moments. It's one of those games I like to go back to from time to time and the Epic Center was just the thing to remind me of it.
I got too excited and rushed through everything way too fast, ignoring the purpose of sharing the adventure and supporting other players. My bad on that. But regardless of not going with the rhythm, it was still very interesting to read people's experiences and just the thought of others playing Paper Mario as well was very comforting.

Hey, it's my first time finishing a game in Epic Center!

@Mr_Mustache

Because I don't have a legal means of playing it.

@HammerLord

That's a neat surprise. I thought you lost interest or got distracted by other games. Cool!


I might finish Paper Mario today. If not, then maybe I will Thursday.

@chrisbg99

Looks like 9 to 15 on eBay, shipping included. Don't seem to be a lot of bidders once it gets up there.

@ludist210

No SNES about?

@HammerLord

Glad you got to finish, wish you could've talked about it with us in real tiiiime!

@Hero_Of_Hyrule

Wednesday looks like the day for me.

GBA-Wii U release calendar has already shaken things up for our next installment.


What do you guys think? Golden Sun sounds probably like the best option for me; I've never played it, but I've heard a bunch of things. Mario & Luigi I'd probably vote to avoid -right now- simply because we just did Paper Mario. Illusion of Gaia on cartridge I'm still up for. Final Fantasy III and Chrono Trigger, perhaps we should hold off on those again. Maybe later this year, like August or something?

And, of course, we still have Skies of Arcadia which never got a run. I could see that as an August game, too.


So yeah, lets hear it. Anything people DON'T want to play? (I wish more people finished Ogre Battle so we could play Ogre Battle 64....)

@Hero_Of_Hyrule To be more clear, don't you have to get the lyrics from the Toad in Club 64, and then take them to the piano player in Dry Dry Outpost, and then take the music back to Club 64?

I actually like the sound FX badges, they're completely pointless and stupid, but somehow that makes them fun. I put all five on, then I never know what strange sound Mario will make when he goes to attack. The C badge is the best sound, so weird.

Apparently there's a sixth Attack FX badge that was cut, but still remains in the game and can be obtained using a GameShark. The sound it makes is the laughter from Forever Forest. Too bad they didn't keep that one in, it woulda been funny.

I'm game for Golden Sun, but depending on when we start I might not be there from the beginning. I still need to finish Paper Mario and I don't have much money at the moment.

Also why do we get Illusion of Gaia on cartridge, but not Lufia /sarcasm

@Pokefreak911

In all seriousness, Lufia is like..40 some-odd bucks on cartridge. Thats a huge difference.

EDIT- Sorry, I meant $50-$200..what the fudge.

This is my favorite:


"Box Only, No Game, No Manual." $74.95. Great deal!

Only thing I hated about Golden Sun was that it didn't auto attack after killing an enemy. So annoying.

@Mr_Mustache

I don't want to play Illusion of Gaia right now. Golden Sun sounds good.

@Mop it up

Yeah, that's right.

Polished off Paper Mario last night while taking the Thanksgiving '87 Challenge on WWE Network.

Spent some time with Merlon (or the correct name for the guy who tells you where stuff is); apparently I only missed ONE badge in the wild (the Slow Go Badge in Dry Dry Ruins), and I missed about 8 Star Pieces. Are the rest of the ones I missed tied up with Chuck Quizmo? GOSH.

I only got like 23 Recipes, too, which gets my goat.

Bowser's Castle was a LONG WALK, holy cow. I was freaking out in the caverns because I couldn't Tattle w/ Goombario. MY OCD, NOOOO. I think I got everyone in the game with the exception of Fuzzipede. Oh, Fuzzipede. What a cool guy.

Game was pretty good. I didn't remember a lot of the end of the game (though I EXPLICITLY remember other parts), so its quite possible I never beat this game before. Huh. Welp, its DEFINITELY done now.

Fell asleepish during the credits. And why do games just sit there on the final screen? I'm always afraid to turn them off because I might miss something. I suppose its better that way (in a sense) than accidentally hitting a button and missing the whole thing. Either way..

So yeah, thanks again HOH!


@PogueSquadron

You mean, if you had a character set to attack a guy who just died, he just stands there? Yeah, I don't get why they do that stuff. Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior do that already, so whatevs. I can handle it.

I'll take on Golden Sun too. I haven't played it in a really long time, so I couldn't DM it.

Solid game despite the fact that the Yes/No questions have little to no consequence whatsoever. The soundtrack is epic.

@ludist210

Have we had confirmation either way about the GBA on the Wii U? Is it GamePad Only ONLY? Can we go BIG?
I guess its not a gigantic deal if we can play on GamePad Only. Thats how I played EarthBound, basically..

I'll dress this thread up for Golden Sun mid-April. When did you guys wanna start? I liked doing it right at May 4th, but maybe the first available Sunday would be better? I like to let people get the games and get ready, but I know that patience works against some people, haha. "...I got it, I gotta play it NOW!" I remember how EarthBound went, yeah.

As for DM'ing it, yeah, I have NO IDEA about Golden Sun either. Surely there is someone who is OOZING passion..?

@Mr_Mustache
Oh I know that. How glad am I that my Mum still has her copy she bought when the game was new.
If we ever did it though, I think it would have to be with either a VC Release (I wish) or using emulators which IIRC you said no to at the start.Which is a shame because the game is fantastic and I would totally be a game master for it.

@Pokefreak911

I've played it before, I'm familiar with the game. I rented it one time, got pretty hung up on the Ancient Cave. Made me nauseous.

@Mr_Mustache
I haven't even attempted the Ancient Cave myself because it takes forever to get everything in there.

@Pokefreak911

I watched some deal on YouTube before about it, and read someone's "map" to the whole thing. Apparently, there are items that you CAN bring in and out of the Ancient Cave, which is pretty much a no-no for most every other item. Dude had you getting certain armors / talismans / whatever in a nearby place and bringing it in. He also had you getting up to about Floor 20 or so before dipping out, because you could grab an Item in a Red Chest or something, and keep it. I can't remember exactly how it went, but it sounded complicated as hell, and as someone who definitely DIDN'T play that way when I went in so many years ago...it scares me, and the vomit starts churning again. Ancient Cave isn't "fun," but is sure as heck is an accomplishment.

I probably made it to Floor 9, maybe 12.

@Mr_Mustache
Well really, the way you are meant to play it is going in and out to get better equipment. You just can't beat the later floors without doing that and a single run through takes several hours anyway. It's something I would probably enjoy, but it definitely isn't for everyone.