* * * * * 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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One of the best uses of Poo's Mirror is on one of the late game reactor enemies who replenish their fuel supply in battle to fill up HP. Mirror that with Poo and he'll quickly heal the whole team.

I don't know why I thought this was a good idea but it did make for an interesting glitch.

Have him mimic rat-type enemies to get easy SMAAAAAAAAAAASHes, mimic enemies that can cause you to lose turns, perhaps even mimic enemies that call friends in to fight (although I haven't tried that last one yet)

He's basically like Gau from FF6, but without simply being able to scratchcat your way through every fight.

@Dark Weres

I don't think I ever used that as an attack. So much cooler stuff to pick from!

@chrisbg99

I dunno what I'm looking at, but it doesn't seem too far off from something that would actually be in the game!

Secret_Tunnel said:

@chrisbg99

I dunno what I'm looking at, but it doesn't seem too far off from something that would actually be in the game!

Haha, yeah, it's barely weirder than Moonside!

@Mop it up Ah, I probably used it on some worthless enemy and that's why it didn't seem like it did much.

What if you use it on the end boss or something? Does it just not work?

Heyyyy.. I don't know what to do for Week 6, Chris/T-Bun! Help a brother out!

@Mr_Mustache

Sorry 'Stache. I'll get to posting it post haste.

@chrisbg99

It's cool. What are you doing up now? Did your EC Alarm go off? I'm dogsitting, and sleeping on the couch..but not sleeping. *sigh*

An odd week this week as there will be no songs collected at the end of the week though quite a bit will happen. I decided to combine week 6 and week 7 together since week 7 would have been just the final 3rd of this week and it felt a little skimpy so I decided to this was the best way to go and we'll be done a week earlier than originally planned.

About the one of the challenges, I want to explain how you get it since once you beat the Stonehenge base you won't be able to for the rest of the game but the actual acquiring of it can take quite a bit of time and once you get it, you may be so over leveled that the whole point will be moot. So highlight the next paragraph for how to acquire it.

This involves getting Poo's only weapon, the Sword of Kings. When in Stonehenge base there are two distinct areas. One purple alien area shows up first and then you enter a factory area. Here you will find Starman Supers. They are gold Starmen. On the map you won't be able to tell them from the regular Starmen. They are also accompanied by annoying Atomic Power Robots that are not only hard to keep away from Supers but also like to explode when you beat them. Jerks. Anyways you can either just defeat Starman Supers and hope for the Sword of Kings (remember 1/128 chance) or use Jeff to spy and he'll grab it if is there. Also if you level up enough, you will be able to beat Starman Supers (you'll know you got one if you get around 7,000 exp) without fighting them (presuming they don't have an Atomic Robot joining) so it'll go a little quicker. But as I stated this will make the game fairly easy so if you get lucky early on you won't have to worry about it but otherwise Poo will be so leveled up it won't even be necessary. So it is up to you I guess. If you want to get the Sword, I recommend the first section of the factory area to the right. Just keep going up and down the catwalk fighting Starmen and hopefully you'll get it before it over levels the fun out of the game.

EarthBound Epic Center
Week 6: When Aliens Abduct

Goal: Cure the Tenda of their Shyness

Optional Challenge: Find all the Magic Truffles in Deep Darkness using the Piggy Nose, Acquire the Sword of Kings for Poo

Convenient Grinding Location(s): Master Criminal Worms in Scaraba Desert, Stonehenge Base.

@Mr_Mustache

Actually I worked an overnight and totally forgot to post it before I left.

@chrisbg99

This week STARTS in Downtown Scaraba...right? We still have to do all of that Pyramid / hieroglyphic business?

@Mr_Mustache

Yep. Your first objective will be the pyramid.

@Mr_Mustache

Yeah, this next stretch is fairly straightforward for the most part, compared to last week's.

Just finished week 6. I also lucked into the Sword of Kings on the third of fourth battle. So that made me happy.

It's starting to get more important to rehire an exit mouse whenever you can. Trudging through some of these dungeons on an exploratory basis before ploughing on through is much easier with an exit mouse tagging along.

UPDATE: Completed Week 5, and found what seems to be an unnecessarily fancy item while wandering around in the desert: The Royal Iced Tea. It's got a long description.

@chrisbg99 What did you do?

@Zero Yeah, it doesn't work on most bosses, including that one.

@Mop it up
Mirror works on the Kraken. Pretty useful against him, too! But the Kraken will just emit a pale green light to cancel it unless you can prevent that or unless it's feeling offensive that turn.

Made it to Dungeon Man, so about to get reaaaaaaal interesting. I guess I should go back and stock good items for Paula, huh?