* * * * * 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

--------------------------------

URL to share (right click and copy)

@Dark Weres

I've LOVE to have other people who play whose jam is this game! If only we could've found a slew of people whose jam was Ogre Battle. You know..besides me.

Who is your favorite character? I think I like Nina the best..and probably because she's sexay. I do enjoy most of everyone's everything though (ie: Rand gets a LOT of play, and Kat, too! Spar? ..Not so much...).

I might join in on this. Breath of Fire II has been something of a bucket list game for me for a long time and I do have it on my Wii VC.

@Mr_Mustache
My favourite character is also Nina, not only because I trend towards the magic-users in RPGs, but because she can restore her MP as a unique ability. Unlimited mage! I would often use her Sonic Boom spell because it had had such an effect on me in the intro when Father Ganer uses it., even if it doesn't have an elemental advantage in the game.
For fanservice? There's hardly a video game character that can win against Katt. It's like she was too much fanservice for one character, so she split into Morrigan and Felicia for later Capcom games. She's the kind of progressive female character who breaks the pattern of the Japanese super-submissive, extra-embarrassed moe-girl who'd be all "Nooo, don't do that, it's so embarassing!" No, Katt throws you down and climbs on top. She loves it and she'll let the world know she loves it. The game gives you the illusion that you can pair Ryu with Katt, but IIRC, it is not to be because Dragons can only pass down their genes through bird-people or something I dunno it's been a while since I saw the end. Maybe I'm wrong! Maybe he gets both of them and they just leave it open ended as to whether he actually ends up with one of them.

@Dark Weres

Please we all know that Katt is a total tsundere. /fucking_otaku.

Wait, next week? I can start then I suppose...just plugging away at Harvest Moon and was hoping to finish that before then.

I also started Star Ocean: The Last Hope International (PS3) and am hoping to Platinum the game in the next...I dunno, year? It's taken some people upwards of 1,000 hours to do it. I've got guides and such, so I'm hoping to knock out the hardest stuff on my first runthrough (on Galaxy (normal) mode) and then nail the other two difficulty trophies at my leisure.

I might sign up to finally beat Breath of Fire II. Maybe. I never beat the GBA version of Breath of Fire II, 'cause Tales Of Phantasia came along, and I couldn't keep myself from playing that instead. Unfortunately I never beat that either, because Mother 3. The GBA is like the Bermuda Triangle of backlogged RPGs to me. Or something that makes more sense.

I have the cartridge for this game but I never really played it. I may or may not join in on this.

@Dark Weres
@chrisbg99

HA!! I had NO IDEA there was such a Katt following!! I was in before it was cool: HIPSTER STYLE

I like her "artwork" a lot better than the cover of the game. Whats going on there?? -- WITH EVERYONE?

--I was reading some stuff on Wikipedia yesterday, and I TOTALLY forgot about the ending, and had some pretty crucial story stuff "ruined" for me. I'd advise to stay away so you can be surprised..again!

@ludist210

Noooo, haha.you can SIGN UP next week. It doesn't NEED to be "today." Starting December 1st still.

@chrisbg99
@r_hjort
@Mop it up

You guys should totally do it! Its awesome, and uhhh, help support Capcom on the Wii U VC so we can get Breath of Fire III, or something?? Not my department, but maybe that'll help.. I'll be playing on cartridge, too, Mop! (And I'd totally snatch up Breath of Fire III posthaste if it landed there somehow..)

It's more likely we'll get Breath of Fire 6 cancelled from being a web-game and made into a real, full JRPG for the Wii U if Capcom chooses to notice a surge of activity on Breath of Fire II on the Wii U Virtual Console.

BoF3 and 4 will have to wait until the Playstation consoles become part of the Wii U VC, which shouldn't take too long, considering Sony is in debt several billion US Dollars, considered Junk-status by investors, and is about to launch an absolute mess of a console in the hopes that it's audience is willing to cover their eyes and ears, and pretend that all the anti-consumer patents and last-minute ToS changes won't apply to them.

@Dark Weres

HAHA!! Is what you wrote true? I haven't heard any of that stuff from anyone!

@Mr_Mustache

I dunno I guess there is. Though I am more a Bleu fan myself. If I am fan of any of the characters.

And yeah that "Westernized" art is pretty shoddy much like the first's box

@chrisbg99

Bleu was great! You just had to know how to get her...which was a secret to everyone?

@chrisbg99

Ugh, first box is horrible, too. Good call.

@ludist210

It WAS a secret to everyone! I don't think I saw her until my 3rd or so playage.

Mr_Mustache said:

@Dark Weres

HAHA!! Is what you wrote true? I haven't heard any of that stuff from anyone!

I believe RPGamer hae one of the earliest articles up about it. I don't really check there, but I'm hoping it's been taken down. It was considered as "Technically for Wii U" since they had mentioned HTML5 and the Wii U browsers capabilities in that regard, but I really want to believe that Nintendo went up to Capcom and said, "Capcom, we gotta talk. That Breath of Fire 6 you got there. Let us help you. LET us HELP you. DON'T GO BUSTIN' MY CHOPS HERE!" Okay, so maybe they wouldn't sound like Lyle, but if they did I'm sure they'd have Breath of Fire 6 locked-in as a Wii U collaboration with Capcom.

Just about two weeks until we start thing thing up! Lots of GREAT ratings / downloads on the Wii U VC for Breath of Fire II. I swung by the other day, and the score shows it as very well received. I love that!

@Dark Weres

I guess we'll have to wait and see, eh?

WOW! This starts SUNDAY!!

Who else is going to play? Hopefully more than 4 of us.. --Now its on the Wii U VC, too!

I'm in.

Hey "guys that have already signed up," are you good for 5 hours a week? Should we dial it down a little bit?

I've got our 1st and 2nd Weeks picked out, I guess we can figure it out from how that week went.

Last train to awesometown..



--chris, hjort, Mop; were you guys playing?

Sorry, I have to skip this. Between Christmas preparations, sending out job applications, finishing up on some artwork and hopefully getting my grubby mitts on Super Mario 3D World, there won't be enough time for me to play this.