* * * * * 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 might attempt a stream today, just to keep myself awake. Stupid employee having the hours at his other workplace change so that his days off get shifted over so I have to change our work days to match ANYWAYS I'll either edit this post or make another as to when I attempt the stream, since I'm hoping to get some on-the-fly advice as I attempt to catch up.

I'll get some play time in this game today. I'll be starting Week 2 for sure. Sorry I'm so slow, I'm getting deeper into Fire Emblem: Awakening right now, and it's honestly not as easy to find time to fire up the Wii on a daily basis.

@Dark Weres

Good luck out there, sir! Not sure if I'll be around; you can do it!!

@GameDadGrant

Man, stupid Fire Emblem. Its blocking a ton of people. Rotten luck!

I find it amusing the sheer number of people playing Fire Emblem Awakening over there.

...and Mustache complaining about stupid Fire Emblem here .

Oh if I had perfected my irony-fueled power generator....

@Shadowlink

Why do you do this?

@Mr_Mustache

Do what? What have I done now?

Somehow I managed to stay awake, but I'm in a near un-game-playable state of mind. At least I managed to stay up until I wanted to start sleeping. If any of you are night owls and either stay up or wake up in about 8 hours, I'll try doing a late-night stream at that time for y'all. I'll try to remember to do it on G+ instead of Ustream. If anyone can tell me how to embed a G+ or Ustream live windowboxy thing into a post, that'd be even better!

Okay g'night.

@Shadowlink

Come in here to poke fun!

The only people CLOSE to ""on pace"" are myself, Nikki, and Gojira. Everyone else is a) incredibly far behind, b) so far back they don't care anymore, or c) they've decided they're done playing before even experiencing the game. Its a stinky feeling as a fan of the game, as the author? of this thread, and as a Citizen of Negative World.


Nikki and I re-configged our units last night, and Erased / Recruited some characters to fill out our army and satisfy our personal needs. We have recruited every special character available to us so far, and there is just ONE more to get, who will be snagged this week. Anyway, the "work" and personalization that goes into creating a complete army, and units one by one is a level of involvement that I've yet to experience in ANY game, with the exception of something like Phantasy Star online where you pick everything head to toe (and colors, whatever). Its a shame that the "tinkerers" of NW didn't get a chance to work with this one, as there is a GOLDMINE of enjoyment to be found. The..experimentation and flexibility that you're allowed in this title is unmeasured, and the most feedback I get is "my Fighters miss all the time." Ugh.

DarkWeres and Koovaps seem on it (or soon to be on it), GameDadGrant has said stuff recently, but I haven't heard much from anyone else. Its just depressing. OH WELL, it'll all be over soon.

@Dark Weres

If I'm around, I'll try to look for it later, DW!

@Mr_Mustache

This had nothing to do with Ogre Battle! It's just the whole FE thing is amusing.

Think about it. A couple of months back it was what? You me and Gojira? (And now Pogue). From a field of at least a dozen or so to 3/4. Of course you were lamenting the lack of Fire Emblem love.

Now *everyone* seems utterly obsessed with the new FE....and you're complaining .

C'mon dude, you got to admit that's kinda funny.

@Shadowlink

Its not funny, its annoying. That was annoying, too. Maybe I'm just a wet blanket.

GOOD THING I'M DOING THE MH3U THREAD.....................

@Mr_Mustache
I still care but school is getting in the way.

@Mr_Mustache

I get super bummed that you're super bummed. Ogre Battle is spectacular! One issue that I'm having in a general sense is that since my console playing time is limited (due to basic work/family schedule/habits), I tend to want to progress through the game more than tinker with the mechanics. This then leads to me probably being less efficient than I could be, and I do occasionally get frustrated. I simply do not have the hours available to keep up the pace. Please be patient with me. I do plan on making it to the end. Maybe I need to take a full session just to redo my units again. I hope to play tonight. Fingers crossed.

@Pokefreak911

Schoolufia..

@Koovaps

I wish others had your sunny outlook.

I don't think you need to tinker THAT much. When I was younger, I never even made new groups. When I discovered that you COULD, it blew my mind, and I've done it ever since..but obviously, you can achieve success with what they give you. I probably go a little overboard with the stuff, too. Liiike, who has two Vampyres? Don't need 'em.

I'm not mad at you Koovaps, don't worry about it. Besides, you're in the "Top 5!"

@Mr_Mustache
Hehehe.
I actually haven't played Lufia in a couple of days. I beat the last boss and i'm not really in the mood to go searching for Dragon Eggs or delve into the Ancient Cave.

Koovaps said:

@Mr_Mustache

I get super bummed that you're super bummed. .

Mustache is *always* super bummed though.

I played a chapter pretty awesomely. I was bringing up my rep and for the first time in several chapters I wasn't losing money left and right. It took a long time, but I was feeling good.

Then I played the next chapter. I lost all my rep within minutes. So I said eff it and sent my murder squad to the boss to finish the level asap.

I get far too frustrated with this game. I try to be frugal with money and I don't have enough units out to defend the towns. Since I have to have a good number of teams out I have to capture towns so I don't lose money. The maps are too large and you are so limited in the amount of teams you can have on the map to defend well. Sure, use boots and whatnot. But that costs money which I was having trouble accumulating.

Anyway, I finished 18 but didn't read the spoilers before I lost all my money. So that sucked. My teams are doing alright. I always enjoy the in between chapters the most.

@Pokefreak911

What about the awesome weekend? No school then!

@Shadowlink

Not always. Sometimes I'm "pumped" or "super pumped."

@gojira

I've been routinely losing money on Days 1 and 2 each time. Your guys are getting to a point where they cost so much you're GOING to lose money. We have a group of 5 Mermaids (now Nixies); it costs 17K to deploy, haha!!

How are you losing your rep so fast? Which stage was this on? How much money are you sitting on right now? When you've cleared the map, send everyone back to base except for a) your group and b) the guys who are going to fight the boss. That way you're only paying for those two groups, while collecting FULL income from your places.

Now, are you losing your Rep because you're taking cities with scary people, or are you losing Rep because the enemy is re-taking your towns? I know that Cards sometimes screw you over, but not enough to DRAIN your Rep, especially with the opposite cards, like Temperance? and the like.

Sooo, you're done with the week now? I know there are some stages that you can't do, so I guess the last stage you SHOULD have done was Fort Alamoot? Boy, thats a shame that you didn't get to do that thing as you wouldn't have had money problems after that. Probably. I don't know what else to suggest. Are you keeping EVERYONE out there when its time to hit the Boss?

@Mr_Mustache
Weekend i'm either at my dads house or doing household chores. My brothers like to make a lot of mess.

@Pokefreak911

Why don't your brothers clean it up? Also, you should've teamed up with your brothers on Ogre Battle; you can send 10 units out a time, thats 3 apiece + your Lord unit!

@Mr_Mustache
My brothers are lazy pre-teens who make mess and never clean up.