* * * * * 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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Jehk? More like JERK, amirite?

Mana Down. Mana Down!

(All finished. Hexas a jerk. So many remedies....)

I finished the fire Temple today. I should catch up with you guys soon

Done with Week 5.

@Shadowlink
@ludist210

Jealous.. Work stiffed me today.

@Mr_Mustache

Meh, Sunday afternoons are my best time to play this. Laura and the baby nap after church, then Laura usually takes her to the store. I knocked it out five minutes before they pulled in with groceries.

@ludist210

Oh, I know Sunday is the best for Mana. And here I am (we are), again, with nothing in. Thanks, stomach flu! Not even sure when we're going to get to play exactly as Nikki works Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday night. Maybe we can get some in tomorrow afternoon? Doubtful.

@Mr_Mustache

Hope you get to feeling better!

So yeah, and my other epic quest is 100%ing FFXIII-2. I'm 115/160 fragments into it, having taken down the four big guys in the Archylte Steppe (Ochu, Immortal, Long Gui, and Yomi). For two of those fragments, I need either a lot of gil (150,000 to purchase them both from Serendipity), luck (to win the coins I need from the slot machines), or patience (to win all of the Chocobo races that I need to win).

@ludist210

Long Gui? He wishes!

@ludist210

Good luck! In my side project, Dragon Quest 5, I'm close to the end. I just need patience to grind for levels (and use any money gathered in that time for better armor).

Meanwhile, I got about half an hour to play Mana last night, but I spent the entire time leveling up magic.

@Shadowlink

I see what you did there.

Here's the fight...harder than this guy made it look, but none of my party members went down (Serah and Noel are pretty high leveled).

ludist210 said:

@Mr_Mustache

Hope you get to feeling better!

Me, too, bud. Thanks. (OH, HAHA!! -I- don't have the stomach flu, the other guy does. But I feel like S still, so..)

@ludist210

That thing is pretty big!

@Mr_Mustache

Oh, so you're doing it with a three man team? Okay, gotcha.

And yeah, that's the biggest monster I've ever seen in a Final Fantasy game. They aren't too hard to take down once you know what you're doing. You only have to do it once in XIII-2, but if you wanted to get the Platinum trophy in XIII, you pretty much had to farm those things in order to get a certain upgrade material.

@ludist210

Yeah, I work M-Th, Sa, and one of them works Friday, and the other one works Sunday. They're..dating though, so when Sunday wants to go somewhere, Friday usually goes, too. And with the sickness and the vomiting, Fri/Sun stayed at home together, and I got to ruin my weekend.

The Monsters in X look pretty big.. Some of the MH guys are pretty big though, too.

Friday looks to be the day. Blah.


--So, with no one NEARLY close for Ogre Battle 64 (ugh), does anyone have any suggestions for the next game we play here? Smerd and GDG are off on their own playing Final Fantasy III; a shame, because that would've been awesome here, and I was hoping we'd get to party with it sometime. I guess we'll have to wait even longer now..or do we catch them up? Hmm.

OR, is there something else? I've had Illusion of Gaia sitting on my shelf since I bought it (to play with NW people) and never touched it. I know this is one of Pogue's favorite games too, so I definitely wouldn't mind taking a step back and letting someone else call shots.

Or maybe we can just do another VC thing, like Breath of Fire or something.


Trying to give Nikki a break here on these games, so something 100% single player would be appreciated. Final Fantasy III would be disqualified in that aspect as you CAN play 2-player in battles. And I'd play that WITH her. What about Final Fantasy (1)? Too brutal?

@Mr_Mustache

I was about to say I could have jumped on the DS remake of III. Then I realised that was *actually* III and you refuse to use proper numbering.

And as I type this I remember I have VI on VC anyway. Either is good

....Taaaaaaales.

@Shadowlink

Noooo, I wanna HOLD OFF on those multi-ish games, TALES BEING THE BIGGEST CULPRIT.

Are there any NES options? Are you willing to get Illusion of Gaia? How about Soulblazer, is that out there?

@Mr_Mustache

Meh. Too much other stuff to play. Something I already have, sure. Nothing new unless it was already on my radar.

And just because a game CAN be multiplayer, it doesn't mean you have to play it that way.

I'd say we should play Crystalis but it isn't on the VC. :(

Edit: I'm still on course to beat Mana but I've just been really swamped.

@PogueSquadron

Ooh, Crystalis could be cool. Anything else shortish on the NES? I really wouldn't mind letting someone else call the shots for one, like with Okami Club (officially, I wasn't running that, so kinda different..but the same? Whatevs).

Lets get some other noms in here.

@Shadowlink

I can't play through these games multiple times again. Next time I play Final Fantasy III, it will be 2p. I respectfully ask that we leave that out of talks for a bit. Wouldn't mind Final Fantasy or Final Fantasy II though. Mystic Quest?

Feel bad about Ogre Battle 64 and Ludist..but like NOBODY is ready who wanted to beat Ogre Battle first. What to do..