* * * * * 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

Game Over already? What happened? And the Super Famicom classic sounds rad!

@Pokefreak911

Glad to hear it, brother. Tell your buddy over there all about it! --What don't you get about the Tarot Cards? They do different things. Some are Elemental attacks. some are purley Physical. Some do Status Effects, or make the Rows swap, things like that. How can we explain better?

@chrisbg99

Awesome. To the top!

@Mr_Mustache
I think it's because I keep accidentally skipping over the info text on them.

I still want to try to be part of this... even if I'm a bit late.

@Mr_Mustache
On the "boss" on the first map, my guys missed and missed and missed, and my character got hit twice and fini! It was a bit of a bummer, but I hardly lost much. I'm through the second map now, but I didn't find all the goodies (not that I really looked all that hard for them.) Can that be done on a second pass? I am staggering my saves so I can go back and correct things if need be.

How are you guys doing with your made guys? I got the most Evil start possible. *siiigh* Uphill battle, for sure.

Reworking my units now, hoping some of my Cleric stuff rubs off on my Lord. It works in Ogre Battle 64, not so sure about here..

@Koovaps

Holy cow! That is legendary! I'm sorry for your rotten luck!

You can look for treasure after going back in, yes. Make sure you get that HEROSTAR!!

My lord is a priestess. That's the opposite of evil right? That's what I get for looking for purity in a partner.

I shall complete the first chapter this evening.

EDIT: It's kind of amusing as to how the only desirable ending is the lawful one, as opposed to Shin Megami Tensei games, where each of the three endings is distinct enough to be worth pursuing, sometimes even splitting the story into three branches around the late-midgame mark. Then again, in SMT you usually get a New Game Plus to make it easier to pursue the two (or more) other endings.

Did you guys mix up your units yet? I spent a while on mine, and they stink. Nikki didn't touch hers and she wiped out everyone rather quickly. Thumbs up!..

EDIT- Found Neutral Characters on Scene 2 in the deep sea up north, and the mountains just east of the base.


@Renjaku

I went for good looks. My attacks are Poison / Phantom, ugh. Nikki got the best, too.

@Dark Weres

Eh, some people revel in pure evil. I'm actually curious to see where Zero ends up because he doesn't seem to take much care in the game mechanics, at least thats the impression that I get.

@Mr_Mustache

I haven't touched my units yet either, but I do plan to, once I establish some preferences. Mine handled themselves pretty well in scene 2 as well, especially with some healing going on. Part of what I'm trying to figure out how many units to deploy at all. I think I only had 3 or 4 on the field in scene 2. I suppose that's all in the strategy of how you choose to play, though, in weighing the advantage of multiple units vs. the cost of keeping them on the field.

Still haven't gotten the HEROSTAR, but did get a couple Neutral Characters. Are those fixed on the map or random? I did get one in the mountains to the east, and one in the mountains in the south, but didn't find one in the sea to the north.

@Koovaps

The Walkthrough I'm pulling from said "deep water up north," and thats exactly where I went. Do you have a High Sky / Gryphon / Water / Octopus unit at all? I always have those guys just running back and forth in the water when theres nothing to do. Its rad.

I usually deploy one or two short of the max units allowed, which is 9, I believe. You'll probably notice that the enemies tend to congregate around one set point. Just watch out for a rogue unit or two who don't use roads at all and cruise right towards your base. You can't see them coming from afar, and by the time you see them, if you're not ready, its too late. I like to clump 3 guys together, usually, just make sure that your ALI'est unit heads in first to Liberate. Have you SEEN your meter move yet? I saw it drop earlier and cringed. Man.. Its tough to keep that thing up sometimes.

I'm already done with the week, got everything I can, and I'm now rolling 12 units (and I've got Wyrms). Scene 3 is tricky with some stuff, and if you don't do it before you finish the stage, you're SOL, so before you are about to complete the map, its probably a good idea to just check it and make sure you're solid.


EDIT- Oh! I forgot to tell you guys about recruiting. If you want a certain type of character, you can have a leader RECRUIT at a town. They won't be able to complete the Recruitment, however, if there is no room for them in the Unit. You can send a guy back to base, or Recruit afterwards, or whatever.

Also, Change Class probably won't be available to you TOO much this first week. Your guys can first start to look at their career around Lv5, Lv6, and Lv7. You can always change a promoted class back to a Fighter/Amazon, but be careful as you may not have the stats to go BACK. Way long ago, I dumped all my units, and returned all of my guys to fighter. I was going to build from scratch..except I had about three guys who were actually worthy of leading a group, haha. No good. So be careful with that!

Guys we can start to expect / look at:
Bad
Wizard Lv 4 Cha 50+, ALI 10-60
Wild Man Lv 6 Cha 50+, ALI 0-49
Ninja Lv 6 Lv 6 Cha 50+, ALI 0-49 (CAN'T be a Leader)

Neutralish
Beast Man Lv 5 Cha 50+, ALI 25-65
Doll Mage Lv 5 Cha 50+, ALI 30-70

Good
Knight Lv5 Cha 50+, ALI 50+
Samurai Lv 7 Cha 50+, ALI 60+

And the Ladies:
Neutralish
Witch Lv5 Cha 50+, ALI 0-65
Valkyrie Lv6 Cha 50+, ALI 35+

Good
Cleric Lv4 Cha 50+, ALI 50+

Non-Human
Dragons Change at Lv7, completely dependant on their ALI; 3 paths! 36-44, however, will somehow make you wait..hmm..


Ogre Battle 64 has a MUCH larger lady pool. I can't believe how under utilized this group is here.. Actually, I guess the kinda count some demi-humans, such as Angels or Fairies as female, too.


ANNNND you may only have 100 total characters in your army at any given time. Some recruitable characters bring some buds with them, and if they entire party won't fit, nobody comes. It is suggested that you start weeding out guys once you get up around 80, and you probably won't need that many characters as it is. Don't feel bad about Erasing someone, just know that they'll NEVER BE BACK.


EDIT AGAIN-

Any great names for anyone out there yet? I have an Amazon named Potato. Probably the hilight. I do also have a Fighter named Gryphon who I wanted to put in a Gryphon group. That worked for one round.

Finished scene 3. So I'm done for the week.

@chrisbg99

Thoughts so far? Anything exciting happen? Anything poopo happen? Best name in your group? What units do you dig?

Got through the first map. I rolled an unholy Lord with the Thunder spell. I think if you're true-neutral, you'll get an area-attack, Acid Vapour if I recall. Still, this'll prevent my unit from dealing too much damage when softening up enemy groups.


Hmm, I wonder how early I'll want a water unit...

For the next two days, I'll be at one of my agents' places, working on our own projects. Jaymonius is his name. Perhaps I'll see if he wants to join in on the fun.

@Dark Weres

I got Poison / Phantom, Nikki got Banish / Ice Cloud, and I used to get Strike / Thunder a lot. You're right though, there is another one..

I made a water unit, and let him splash around in the 2nd Scene. He liked the deep; I recruited a Hawk Man, and picked off the Leaderless by parking myself next to a road on their way back (may've been Scene 3). Good times!

@Mr_Mustache

Nothing particular. Not that I remember anyways. Next time I play I'll see if anything funny is there.

And yeah it is a good game. I had played through to the 9th or so map until I had bad luck and put it off. Then my Wii borked on me and I lost my saves. This is as good a reason to play it.

@chrisbg99

I think this is gonna take us 8 weeks. I counted up the groupings and it comes out like so. Hopefully the load isn't too heavy for some folks. Next week will be heavier, obviously.

--How is your Reputation going? I'm up around what looks like 2/3, so that has me smiling, considering I started with a Lord at 44 ALI, haha.

EDIT- I'm sorry, this game makes me talk so much.. Do you do anything special with your units? Even though there are some that are weaker than others and viewed as not very good (the Golem, for example; no offense, chrisbg99!), I've employed at least ONE of each unit so far, including a Witch-led dual-flanked Wizard group, spearheaded by a Golem..and it works pretty well! The Golem gets 3 attacks which seems pretty awesome, but he can get cut down SO FAST by the opposition if they get a crack at it. His low HP doesn't help either.

I have a Giant out there with a Doll Mage, too, and that group isn't too bad either. Fun times! Rediscovery = great.

Looked to be over half full. Didn't really keep track of all that.

@chrisbg99

I think if you can get basically good folks liberating cities, and you don't give them up to the enemy (I'm vowing to turn over ZERO cities this run), you should be in pretty good shape. They don't like me-me right now..though next week will help us out ALI/CHA-wise.. Eek!

One of my favorite boards, do you remember it? I was never so excited by Neutral Encounters until I realized you could Befriend them in that stage. Awesome times abound.

Finished the first 3 maps. I think I "get" it more now than I did way back in the days.

Done with the 3rd scene as well. I'm glad I already have experience with Ogre Battle for N64 because I feel like I know what I'm doing. They teach you stuff as you go along, but at the the same time there are so many options available from the very beginning. I remember feeling totally overwhelmed with OB64 that I didn't really play it until RFN's retroactive some 10 years after I bought the game.

I kinda effed up on the final boss on that 3rd map. I guess I forgot non-boss enemies respawn when killed. So I took an extra day or so to finish the map because I had to move some teams around.

I like the tarot cards. I don't recall them being in OB64. I wish you could see their effect when you want to use them. I had to pop up the manual to remind myself what they did. I think this game was designed with the idea the player would have that manual next to them. Modern games have all the explanations built into them now it's a bit odd to go back.