* * * * * 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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..Alright, Pogue, time for a chat. First off, I don't think you've steered me wrong, so let me get that out of the way.

Now...I've finished Colosso, fast forward 2 hours and I'm standing in the Venus Lighthouse blocked by a..block I don't recognize when Garet tells me that I should use some Psynergy to get by. I haven't been to Lunpa..its like...YEARS back the other direction. I don't recall being prompted to go that direction at all. Stupid Babi was so anxious about me going somewhere else.

Also, on my way to where I am, I couldn't find a girl in the Desert; Iomed asked me if we should continue, I said "yes" thinking "yes, lets continue looking for her" which he took as "yes, lets continue on without her." I said "NO" out loud, went back to look for her, found some footprints, fought a NASTY Lizard thing inside of a Pink Tornado, and then -NOTHING-. *sigh* I imagine there was supposed to be a girl around here somewhere. I have no idea whats going on. If there WAS no girl there, why else would you fight the pink tornado? Just LOOKING for the girl and then being like "oops, she's not here."


So yeah, did I take a wrong turn somewhere? I really, REALLY feel like I messed something up. I found the downed ship as well, but couldn't lift it..and the Black Orb looks just like Babi's Orb which I didn't take, and now I feel like I should've taken that Orb, too. Whats happeninnnnnnng.. (And someone said this game cuts off -- Gui, maybe? -- well before you're ready. I feel like this game is looking to end reall soon. I've got 24 Djinn out of a possible 28? Just a guess, but yeah. Little scared I'm gonna crap this up. I'm done for the night, suspended in the "Weird Block Room;" the next room looks like the Well of Souls from Raiders of the Lost Ark where I put my medallion on a stick and the sunlight shows me where the Ark is buried.

I really like this game, but there has certainly been too much left field confusion.

Sorry, I've been swamped! I haven't even gotten there myself yet. I don't think you did anything wrong. I believe the girl you're looking for can't be found in the desert (I think you eventually figure out where she is and why, if you haven't already).

The Yes/No questions in this game....I don't think they really matter, do they? It sounds like you're doing fine. I'll be able to make a formal update tomorrow.

The Djinn you should've been able to find this week are:

Smog (Lamakan Desert)
Vine (World Map)
Scorch
Sap
Kite

Ember
Hail
Ground
Squall


I THINK that was all last week. I need to finish it up myself. We can take two weeks on the last part of the game. I'm not sure how much 'finishing up' there will be to do, but that can all be done in the next couple weeks.

*I like this game a lot too. I think the next game is worse with "direction giving" but on the whole the game is probably better.

@PogueSquadron

So, just to be clear:

After Colosso, I'm SUPPOSED to be doing all that Desert Business, and then onto the Lighthouse, bypassing the derelict Ship that doesn't work with the Black Orb, blah blah blah, and THEN back up to Lunpa?

EDIT- Impatient with sweaty palms, I looked it up: the Cloak Ball is awarded (I'm guessing?) by Babi after this stuff, and is necessary for completing Lunpa. I'm supposed to get the Carry command, which I apparently missed somewhere. I guess I was supposed to reveal a hidden staircase or something, in the Venus Lighthouse. Nice to know I'm on the right track, I really thought I was going to have to lose about 3 hours of gameplay..

EDIT2- ..Ugh. I was being "friendly" or..whats the word..to Babi and I kept telling him "no," that I didn't want his Cloak Ball. Guess what? I DO want the Cloak Ball. Damn dirty apes.. Now I don't know what to do. Backtrack a long ways? In the middle of what I'm doing? I guess I'll see what happens.

Damnit just lost my long post. Summary:

1.) For some reason I thought the Hammet sidequest was part of the story. Technically you don't need to do it to complete the game.
2.) You have to do the Babi stuff (I.e. Acquire the cloak ball) before going back to Lunpa.
3.) When you're at the point when you know you can fully complete the Venus Lighthouse, you're at the last part of the game.

I'm sorry if this has caused any confusion. I've been super busy and probably read a walkthrough incorrectly.

@PogueSquadron

ALRIGHT, went back, did the Lunpa stuff. I'm done here. Got all the Djinn, too (woo!), so that rocks.

Will resume with the Venus Lighthouse next time, I guess. I've already crushed a bunch of the Desert.

Are any of the Shining Force games on VC? I forget if we ever played them. I'd be interested to check one out in the future (once I've beaten a ton of other games I have) and seeing what they have in common with Golden Sun. I THINK I just got the SF games in a really cheap bundle on Steam.

@PogueSquadron

One of them at least. Is the 'VC' and 'Wii U VC' the same thing? I have no idea.

@Mr_Mustache Either VC. As in "accessible by a Wii U owner" which I think most of us, if not all of us are at this point? It's a pretty accessible series either way. I'm assuming it doesn't hold up but I always heard Shining Force 2 is supposed to be pretty good.

@PogueSquadron

When did you expect Week 6 for Golden Sun to be up?

And for the next game, I'd like some more input from the gallery. As much as I enjoyed playing this with you, buddy, I don't think an entire club should feed one or two people, regardless of the game.

I'd be all over Skies of Arcadia. I need motivation to finish it, for reals this time.

I'm aware I'm way behind in these, but I genuinely want that game off my backlog.

EDIT: Did y'all do the optional dungeon at Crossbone Isle? That boss is for reals tough.

@ludist210

Spoiler: Not yet. I think I'll open next week with that. I've been mowin' everyone down pretty much.

And we haven't talked about it recently here, but it just may be the time for Skies of Arcadia. Feels like a SUMMER game, doesn't it? I don't know.

@Mr_Mustache

It's optional, but pretty easy to find. You can access it waaaaay earlier (when you're crossing the sea and have to fight the Kraken) if you know what you're doing, but I didn't figure that out until years later. I didn't even know that was a thing.

Will try to get an update out today. Sorry I've been slacking. This game can just be very annoying (and I remember the sequel being worse at some of this stuff).

Just remember that you can go back to Lunpa Fortress after beating the monster there. You'll need to do so to get a Djinn (go back and visit Donpa). It's a pain to trek back here if you don't know they (and how could you??). Really poorly designed. And if you've guessed, I believe that this sidequest's only real purpose is getting that one Djinn. It kind of plays into the story but you it's not really integral.

I just realized I didn't play at all last week. Oh no!

I guess we took a mini-break that nobody seemed to notice..

Hah, nope. I was swamped. I'm just now getting through the Lamakan Desert.

Before getting to that point, you should have 22 Djinn...I forget what the breakdown is, but it's 6, 5, 6, 5 of each Djinn, respectively. I missed one on the world map (dumb), had to go ALL the way back to Mogall Forest for another, and had to go back to Lunpa Fortress for the other. SO annoying. At this point though, I think I'm pretty confident that I can just go ahead and beat the game. Not sure if I care all that much about Crossbone Isle, as I kind of just want to be done the game at this point. I can't remember if it's really worth going or not.

@PogueSquadron

There's some good equipment there. It's worth a trip if you aren't far from accessing it.

You know what would be awesome? Illusion of Gaia. Bought it years ago now for the sole purpose of playing here on NW, and never got to. Bummer. (Much cheaper than Skies of Arcadia!)

Final Week: Sunset

Objective: Complete the game.

A few notes:
There are 7 of each Djinn in the game, so be sure not to pass the "point of no return" without them if you're collecting them all.
The point of no return is a room in the Venus Lighthouse that contains a Psynergy Stone and a slide. Do not go any further if you have any sidequests to complete!

I'll have to see if there's anything else that's important but that's all I can think of. I'm personally in the Sunhalla Desert right now but I think in on track to get to the Venus Lighthouse. Took care of the Djinn in Lunpa and also got the Djinn in Sunhalla.

There should be four remaining Djinn if you've gotten them all up to this point.

1.Dew (Suhalla Gate)
2.Bane (Crossbone Isle, requires Lift)
3.Torch (Lalivero)
4.Luff (Babi Lighthouse)

Finally at the main part of the Venus Lighthouse. Awesome music. I still need to go back to Crossbone Isle though. I think my last two Djinn are going to be there and the lighthouse(edit: missed the one in Babi's, so I only have one left). . Then I'll be done!

Can't remember, but is Crossbone Isle hard? The Tempest and Storm Lizards were huge pains but I go through them after a couple tries.

Found a pretty awesome setup for some of my characters. I did cheat a little by looking online, but right now, Isaac is a Ninja and he knows moves like Death Drop or whatever it's called. Pretty dope. Can't recall the Djinn setup but I'll post later.

Edit: Don't forget, there are two paths to take in the Tunnel Ruins (talk to the big statue in the first part of Venus Lighthouse to change it). I think this should work, but to spare yourself the trouble of going all the way back through the overworld, you can just do the first path, then go trough the electrical thing so you can do the second path, but just use Retreat to go back over the electrical thing so you don't have to waste so much time. Hope this makes sense.

Making my way through Crossbones Isle. I think the last Djinn I need is here. After this I'll be ready to beat the game.

I like this game a lot but I always forget how annoying some parts of it are. I wish they would just turn off battles during certain puzzle sequences. They do it for some of them but not all.