* * * * * 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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Done with week 2. It took about 3.5 hours to find the dragon. I'm assuming that's where we're stopping, Stache? No really cheap bosses, but I died fighting the Wall once.

Curious...how many weeks will this last us?

You know, sometimes I like to walk into a town, set down my controller, and relax to some awesome music. Seriously. I don't know what it is about the happy town music, but I love it!

Put in a few hours today and made it to the ruined sprite village. I saved just before heading to the orb in the forest that unlocks the way to Matango. I was pretty well leveled when I started today (average level 20) because I did a little (ok, lots of) grinding after completing last week's checkpoints. It took me about 3 1/2 hours to complete up to the fourth bullet point for this week. Only got lost once trying to find the passage that unlocks and leads to Spritetown. And that delay only cost me about 15 minutes.

@DrFinkelstein
I agree. I really wish there was a world map or something. The sign posts are a big help and most of the dungeon maps seem to be pretty straight forward so far, but it can get real confusing in the overworld at times (especially since I love to explore every area to exhaustion). I've actually been drawing maps on graph paper when I get lost. Nothing fancy, just boxes with N,S,E,W arrows to show exits. It's been really helpful in the Great Forest or whatever it's called. The only complaint I have about exploration is that so far it's pretty pointless. There really isn't any incentive to explore (cool/hidden items, weapons, story elements, etc.).

@Shadowlink
Use combo-casting to beat him handily!
Take control of the Boy and use 'X' to access the Sprite's menu. Cast Freeze. As soon as Undine waves her wand and disappears, cast Freeze AGAIN. Girl should be automatically hitting him while these spells are going off. The damage will stack.
Keep doing that until you have 3 MP left, cast Acid Storm and start wailing on him. You should see a gigantic number appear when he finally flinches from all that damage.
He should be done already, but if not, the lowered defence will help you take him out all the quicker.

@Dark Weres

Thanks I'll give it a whirl tonight if I get the chance. I'll let you know how it goes.

SUPER helpful tip that I forgot - cycle through your targets when healing to heal your entire party. Healing one person with the girl will likely be overkill.

Edit: Yeah, this game is way more obtuse than I remember. When you go back to Pandora at the beginning of week 2, you have to talk to a couple key people or you can't advance. And one of them doesn't really seem any different to me than the other people, but you have to talk to her.

Edit 2: Finished the week. Did a little bit of binge gaming tonight, but it really took a few hours. I'm admittedly using the frameskip function on the homebrew thing to speed up some more tedious parts like retracing my steps around Gaia's Navel and saving and stuff.

I forgot how much they want you to return to the Water Palace. Do this. Now return to the Water Palace. Now do this. Return to the Water Palace. I have to agree with Fink....getting around in this game can be a huge pain in the ass. And if someone dies, their ghost STILL can get stuck on stuff.

I had a hell of a time killing the Pebblers at the end of this section. I mean, come on. I slash at them, but nothing happens. There are so few cues in this game as to whether or not I can hit an enemy, vs. when they're in some animation that I can't break through..

I also forgot how incredibly overpowered the magic can be in this game. TIP - get those Farie Walnuts or whatever they're called. They're expensive, but worth it. When fighting bosses, keep the Sprite loaded up on MP and keep the magic coming fast and furious. Heal with the girl if you need to. If you run out of walnuts, use the boy to attack as best you can and hope for the best.

As you level up, you'll be running out of magic less often, so boss battles become a little less annoying. You'll be very happy if and when the Sprite's attack magic goes up a level, because you'll appreciate the extra damage for the same amount of MP.

@Mr_Mustache

It's been a little rough. But I'm not fully discouraged yet. Can't wait to see this 'magic' everyone's talking about, lol.

@Mr_Mustache

To be fair though, you did grind after week 1 was done and you've played through this before (I'm assuming you have). I'm doing it for the first time by myself with as little help (FAQs and such) as possible, so I'd think 3-4 hours or so is about normal.

When younger, I played this game with my relatives as a multiplayer game, and it really is a lot easier that way. Though I'm not doing it blind, it's certainly taking me longer.

I played about an hour and a half yesterday and am only up to where you rescue Grandpa and get Sylphid. I'm regretting my earlier decision to grind up my magic and weapons, but not my levels after Week 1. My hit points and magic points are sub-par. Finally found a place to buy Faerie Walnuts, though, so I'm hoping the boss fights will be easier moving forward.

I got a dead girl stuck on a rock near Gaia's Navel near the beginning of the game. Took me like five minutes to coax her out of there.

I think 3-4 hours is about right, but there are some confusing spots:

1.) Getting into the Pandora Ruins
2.) Getting to the thieves in front of the Underground Palace. That black hole thing is supposed to be a door? That's SO easy to miss. I walked into it accidentally.
3.) Progressing through the Upper Land - it can be a bitch, especially if you're under equipped or under leveled. Those owls are really annoying.

Stick with it Fink. You'll get magic which will at least make a few things easier, including boss fights and healing in general.

I just can't believe how clunky this game feels at times. It's not a game breaker for me, but yeah...so many times where I hit an enemy but i don't really HIT them...I cast magic, but my AI character was in a weird animation so I couldn't use it...I use an item on an AI character but the animation gets interupted (wasted a Walnut that way...grrr). Even the music is clunky. Why do they have a sound effect when you go up and down stairs? It completely chops the music up.

I beat this game on the iPhone a couple years ago. It was probably the best game I've ever played on an iOS platform.

I remember absolutely hating the first couple hours though.

@Mr_Mustache

His "old thread"? I'm pretty sure y'all hijacked one of MY reviews.

Eh, it was a good game. Old school hard, didn't hold your hand...but that's why I liked it. More games need to give players freedom to figure things out.

@Mr_Mustache

I think you're referring to Final Fantasy Adventure. I have not played it, nor did I play the GBA remake of it (Sword of Mana), but I would like to try one of them. I've also been curious about Children of Mana on DS for some time now.

@Mr_Mustache
If you see "monster defence down" or something like that then it works. It doubles as a damage spell, so I'd not worry if it fails to reduce their defence. On the Earth Palace boss, he died the moment the Sprite ran out of MP, so I didn't get to see whether the sign appeared. After a veritable avalanche of chain-casting, most bosses will go down pretty easily. The down side is that it can only be done if a player is NOT controlling the sprite directly, because if you're in controller of a spell-caster, you are stun-locked until your magic effect ends, whereas, if you command an AI spellcaster, they can re-cast immediately after the elemental disappears.