* * * * * 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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Koovaps said:

@Mr_MustacheAlso, I'd play a CRAPLOAD of your guys' RPG!

But not a Quantum S-Load? WHAT GIVES?

@Dark Weres

FIRE STORM sounds AWESOME.

Koovaps said:

Xbob42 said:

I mean, I know I could easily look it up online, but I like the idea of it just being this insular little community of us using the info we have at hand, what we figure out and whatever came with the game. Feels more connected that way! Like we're a community or something!

YES! That's what I'm talking about! It's way more fun that way.

Man, that is EXACTLY how I run My Side of the Monster Hunter stuff. I learn from you guys and myself, nothing else. (Though I know other people DO look stuff up, and there is potential for me learning that same info secondhand. What can ya do? --I won't be looking anything up for Phantasy Star IV.)

Alright, I'm done with week 1. Seems pretty cool so far. I could do without random battles every 3 seconds, but that's the nature of a lot of these older RPGs.

I'd highly suggest to everyone playing to make sure to equip your characters with some decent stuff early on. I was getting my ass handed to me in a few parts because I forgot to equip better armor and such.

It might help if we had the weekly goals in the OP, I had to search for it a few times.

I may end up going ahead of pace for a bit this week while I can, because I have a few crazy weeks in the near future where I almost certainly will fall behind.

I got to the set goal pretty quickly, too. That first "real" dungeon in Tonoe or Tomoe or whatever was a pain in the ass, though! It's only a few short rooms, but I like to explore and those enemies kept wasting one or two of my dudes at a time. Took a lot longer than I think it should have, and I had the best equipment and had actually farmed a couple extra levels while I had the slightly stronger dude in the party.

I didn't think there were too many random battles, though. They could happen frequently sometimes, but you're just as likely to get super long stretches with none at all. Seemed to even itself out. I like it so far!

Done with week 1. I really like the macro system. I always hate having to choose attack for everyone when I'm trying to kill weak enemies. It really speeds up those battles. I also apparently discovered some combined attack in one of my macros. That was cool.

I don't like the some of the old school issues like not seeing what you have equipped when you're in a shop. I bought a couple of items that I ended up selling back because I didn't need them.

That last dungeon was really killing me. I didn't figure out until after I was done that there's a weapon, an armor and an item shop in that town. They aren't marked, but you have to search those outdoor market looking things. They don't all have shops, but some do. Also the girl in your team who I'm blanking on the name can equip two boomerangs at a time. I also didn't figure that out until well after all the difficult battles.

@gojira I figured there was an unmarked shop in that town, but I couldn't find it for the life of me. They were bragging about their Titanium and I was like "There HAS to be a shop here!" but I couldn't find it. Also weird that it's unmarked considering the Inn is clearly marked. Poor town layout all around.

And anyone can equip two weapons! It's quite handy. They also get a nifty "double weapon" attack animation.

Yeah, that was a terribly designed town. It is annoying not being able to easily compare equipment before buying. I just started using the save state function in the shop before buying anything so I could undo it if I wasted money.

Xbob42 said:

I didn't think there were too many random battles, though. They could happen frequently sometimes, but you're just as likely to get super long stretches with none at all. Seemed to even itself out.

Were various versions of this game released, and maybe the Wii VC version is different than the Steam one? I dunno. Because this honestly hasn't been my experience so far. I'm getting battles ALL THE TIME.

@Zero Maybe it's just totally random instead of based on semi-randomized step counts? I honestly have no idea.

@Xbob42
I think this is the case. I'm playing on the PS3 Genesis collection and sometimes I'd go 2 steps between battles and sometimes I'd walk for over a minute straight without one.

Man, I gotta dig into this REAL soon. I'll try to get in tonight.

Really curious about the battle rate and these unmarked shops!

So tempted to break pace. SO TEMPTED.

@Xbob42
Yeah, me too. I'll probably just do a little grinding without progressing through any more of the events to save some time for next week's.

@DeputyVanHalen Not a bad idea, maybe I'll run back and get some upgraded armor from that unmarked shop as well. Stock up on lots of Meseta!

Oh I'm going to break pace. I'm going to break pace HARD.

And then I will fall behind pace and it will all even out.

Probably.

Oh those shops were placed HORRIBLY. Not even right next to each other, nothing, NOTHING to even give you a HINT that there's shops there. What the hell?!

@Xbob42
@DeputyVanHalen
@Zero

Oh, you guys.. I..-- *sigh*

I dunno, if someone has time to move on a little bit, I don't see anything wrong with it as long as they talk about the week's schedule. You never know when you're schedule won't allow you to play a lot of games, so sometimes you just have to get as much in as you can.

Yeah, sorry about the short week, guys. I picked a poor spot. From here on, I hope to keep it to a more solid 5-6 hour chunk per week. With various levels of grinding, and a few optional battles throughout, I hope it keeps people more busy.

@Koovaps 5-6 hours a week!? No way could I keep up with that.

I definitely better try to get ahead now.

@Mr_Mustache Hey I'm keeping on pace! I'm tempted, but I fight temptation!