* * * * * 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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@sirmastersephiroth

Aww, come on, brother. The "OP!" Its up there in Plain English! You can click the WEEK 3 link at the bottom, and it'll take you right to it. Like I said though, I'm pretty sure you're up to what would be like 3.16.



EDIT- wait wait wait, I edited this. I think you're nearing the end of Week 3.

@Mr_Mustache I am. All I need to do is finish Magus' Castle.

Mr_Mustache said:

EDIT- Did they change something from the SNES version to the 3DS version? In the Sewer, there is a memo. I read about it, and I was expecting it, and the one I read isn't what its supposed to say at all. And we DID save Fritz. I don't get it. Did we miss it??

.....what?

@sirmastersephiroth

Cool, have fun!

@GameDadGrant

I've been following along with a walkthrough thing kinda, too, just to make sure I don't miss anything else. I like TREASURE. I'm a TREASURE HUNTER. Anyway, supposedly, when you're in the Sewers in 2300 (Mop it up went down there, though you didn't send us that way, so maybe folks'll get there later?), IF you saved the guy from the guillotine after you got away (his name is Fritz), there'll be a letter somewhere down there that talks of the harshness of the guillotine or something, as if to say its from an ancestor of Fritz. I looked everywhere and didn't find it; the only piece of paper I found was the one warning not to make any noise.

I've already seen some differences (in terms of names) between SNES and 3DS items, so I wasn't sure if that extended to things like letters as well (assuming that the walkthrough is written from a 3DS perspective).

@DapperDave
You can tell a counter attack because the enemy will usually accompany a counterattack with a regular attack afterwards, or that it'll immediately attack both people who queued in attacks one after the other (the cpu can't squeeze in two normal attack turns between your queued attacks in the stack).
If that doesn't help, then you can tell when an enemy counterattacks, because it'll happen very quickly after whatever thing you did wrong, is usually a guaranteed hit, deals some punishing damage (or hits the entire party, or both), and often accompanied by a message such as "Shield-knight counters physical attacks!" or "Magical attacks strengthen Royal Wizard's M Def". Every time you repeat whatever wrong thing you did to provoke the counter attack.
If an enemy had a normal attack queued up, then it'd typically happen after a short delay after your attacks, be subject to your own counter attacks, would have a chance to miss, and would deal relatively low damage.

Anyways, catching up from week 2 or so now. I had taken a break to play some Mario Maker, let Mario Maker remind me that I should really be working on original content, working on that original content, then keeping up practice in Splatoon.

Dark Weres said:

@DapperDave
You can tell a counter attack because the enemy will usually accompany a counterattack with a regular attack afterwards, or that it'll immediately attack both people who queued in attacks one after the other (the cpu can't squeeze in two normal attack turns between your queued attacks in the stack).
If that doesn't help, then you can tell when an enemy counterattacks, because it'll happen very quickly after whatever thing you did wrong, is usually a guaranteed hit, deals some punishing damage (or hits the entire party, or both), and often accompanied by a message such as "Shield-knight counters physical attacks!" or "Magical attacks strengthen Royal Wizard's M Def". Every time you repeat whatever wrong thing you did to provoke the counter attack.
If an enemy had a normal attack queued up, then it'd typically happen after a short delay after your attacks, be subject to your own counter attacks, would have a chance to miss, and would deal relatively low damage.

Anyways, catching up from week 2 or so now. I had taken a break to play some Mario Maker, let Mario Maker remind me that I should really be working on original content, working on that original content, then keeping up practice in Splatoon.

I get all that. But it requires you to get hit a few times with counter attacks before you can positively identify it as a counter attack.

Made it to 12,000 BC. I'll be done with this (last) week's objectives soon.

DapperDave said:

I get all that. But it requires you to get hit a few times with counter attacks before you can positively identify it as a counter attack.

Not to be flippant (really!), but does it matter?? If it is, or if it isn't, you're still getting hit.

--We lost today like a pair of dum-dums after we kept attacking that guy in Week 2 after he's like "Try to attack me now!" Fools. He crushed us. "Good thing we just saved!" Yep.

Off to 600 after I get home from work tonight. And we've also worked our way up to 74 ounces of Cat food. The Mrs_ has no idea what this game is capable of. She was excited for one cat. Gasped when we won a 2nd cat. And now a 3rd cat has surfaced with the advent of food? Ready yourself..

@Koovaps Ha, I'm pretty sure that happened to me the first time also. The path kinda blends in.

@VofEscaflowne Yeah, I don't think that's in any way possible on a first play. Unless someone does some insane grinding for weeks, but if someone's doing that then they probably know what's coming.

@Mop it up

Even then, grinding won't let you get the equipment so I wonder if you could even survive all that well anyway.

So..in Week 3. Did some Hunting Ground stuff. Paused the "story" and just started working on TP and getting some things to trade for equipment..and before I knew it, I had like 70 of each. Yep. And then a thought: "what if I trade for weapons over and over again?" I ended up with like 20 Flint Edges, 20 Stone Arms, and in a half hour of gameplay, I had raised over 500k. Yes. We now have 900,000 gold. Seriously considering buying the 65,000 items off of those jerks in 1000 AD. Is it worth it? No idea. (But yeah, did you guys fundraise at all?)

Should be polishing off Week 3 tomorrow without much hassle. Hopefully..

@Mop it up

I had to look all over the place for the Hunting Grounds, and even then I had to go online. I have no idea how I found it as a child, because it just wasn't there for me. Weird. Nikki had trouble finding the Mountain path, too, haha.

Week 3 finally complete. SO overpowered right now, its awesome, though I shudder at the thought of how difficult the Magus Fight would've been WITHOUT our current status. Yikes! If you're curious, we were using weapons that we Charmed w/ Ayla, and armor that we bought from scalpers in Medina. Bing bong, lets do it.

I'm caught up on week 4

Grantmaster Flash, we got a Week 5? If we wait for everyone (myself included), we'll never get done.

Trust me.. (Everyone knew the schedule before we started this thing, don't feel bad.)

Yup yup. I'll post Week 5 in a bit. Gotta get back home, and I'll update. Should have everything up by tonight at the latest!

Alright, let's get on with Week 5!

WEEK 5
Main Objectives
1.) Gather yourselves, and explore the "new" landmass. Talk to everyone at the Commons.
2.) Escape the Blackbird!
3.) Re-explore the Antiquity landmass. Check out the cliff in the northwest corner...and make a decision.

NOW. Here we have something unique. You have another (BIG) decision to make here. Either go back to The End of Time...or use the Epoch to land on the Black Omen.

4.) If you go to The End of Time, talk with the Old Man, return to 1000AD, get the Crono Doll, then go to 2300AD and ascend Death Peak.
5.) If you decide to go the other way...launch your assault on the Black Omen. Best of luck to you if you do...there's a good chance you'll be under-leveled at this point. Maybe. Try it if you're feeling bold!

4a.) After the Death Peak sequence, try the different characters' side quests! Then either:
1a) Use the Epoch to go to 1999AD
2b) Use the bucket at the End of Time
3c) Launch your assault on the Black Omen

And...that's basically the game! Best of luck to all who try to save the world...and history as we know it!

Side Objectives
1.) Well, really only one side objective this week, since the end game is basically all side quests, lol. But if you decide to fight the person at the cliff in the northwest on Antiquity, have Frog in your party.
2.) Okay, one more. Try to escape the Blackbird without Ayla in your party. It's tough! (well, I thought so, anyway)

Good luck, and thank you for joining in on this Epic Center play through of the best game of all time: Chrono Trigger!

@GameDadGrant

Week 5 is the end?! I thought you were doing 6 weeks! Oh noooooooooooo!

It's fine, haha. Thanks, man!

EDIT- Grant, are you playing along? I've given you no credit up there. Koovaps, I still have you in Week 1; I'm pretty sure you're beyond that, yes? And Hammerlord..where are ya, bud?

@Mr_Mustache

I suppose I could have stretched it out to 6 weeks, but....Chrono Trigger is a rather "short" RPG, so really only 5 are needed. Sorry, I thought I said that. Probably not...! My apologies.

And yeah, I've been playing along. Kinda. I've actually been one week *ahead* of everyone else! I'd play the upcoming week's objectives, then do the post. I've already completed the game at this point. I took the "crash Epoch into Lavos' dumb face" route and the ending had Crono and Marle floating up into the night sky on balloons. Fun times! Might do another run through with New Game +.

@GameDadGrant

I've been reading about the endings, and I've never done a New Game+, so I'm certainly curious. It seems like you should be able to get rapid fire endings eventually, by just playing your file, beating the game, and then going back to your other save file, and moving on, and finishing the game at the next bus stop, right?