* * * * * 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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URL to share (right click and copy)

Week 1 finished. Enjoying the game quite a bit. Everything has a good pace to it, towns and the world map aren't too big or too small, each character has pretty clear advantages and disadvantages. I like the old-school JRPG tone, pretty lighthearted and fun overall (HOW DID THE GRANDFATHER KNOW ALYS'S MEASUREMENTS? Clearly he is an excellent information broker.) And it's pretty easygoing so far, I've only had one guy KO'd and haven't had to grind for exp or cash, even though I almost never use Techs or Skills, other than Res.

I haven't found any special macro combo dealies so far, but I'll probably leave those go until I need to use them. How do they work, anyway? Like if I use WAT and TSU (assuming that's a special combo, I have no idea), do both attacks trigger and then the third, special attack happens, or does the special attack replace the two?

Xbob42 said:

Never mind, game comes with a nice .pdf on Steam! Had to browse local files:

Is there a way to either shrink the game window or minimize it so I can keep the PDF up in the background? I can't seem to be able to. I'm running 1900x1200 so I feel like a Genesis game window shouldn't have to take up most of the screen. I didn't try alt-tab but I assume that wouldn't fare any better. Maybe there's an option in the Genesis Classics menu...

Was this ever responded to?

Zero said:

It might help if we had the weekly goals in the OP, I had to search for it a few times.

@nate38 I just run the game windowed since running it fullscreen leaves me huge black bars anyway, I refuse to stretch the image. That way I can easily do other things in the background if I need to.

@Zero I hope we get that into the OP, would be much easier.

@Xbob42 No, I'm running it windowed too. I want to shrink the game window so I can keep the PDF open and visible on the side of the screen if I need to check spell names or something on the fly. Next time I play, I'll check to see if there's an option for a smaller game window.

@nate38 You can shrink it by lowering the resolution of the window, which is essentially exactly the same as resizing it.

@Xbob42 Yeah that's what I was asking. I checked the options again, can't believe I missed that the first time.

@Zero Why don't you add it, you have the power! Then I wouldn't have had to dig back through the thread to find it!

I played this into the night last night but I didn't check the week one thing until just now. Looks like I went a little past it, but I won't mentioned what happened.

I didn't find the encounter rate to be too high as was discussed earlier, but, perhaps I'm just used to it from playing Dragon Quest games. Or maybe I don't mind it since I like to be sufficiently leveled, and have enough money to buy all the new equips. It took me a little while to find Tonoe, I didn't notice the cave for a bit so I gained a few levels from wandering around. A few things in this game are familiar to me from playing Phantasy Star Zero, such as the hunters and some of the spell names, and also something else I can't mention yet.

My dudes are at level 10.

@VickiL

Triblaster: Set up a Macro; Fire/Water/Lightning, make sure Hahn goes first since he's slowww.

@Koovaps

I'm straggling! What a wad!

@nate38

When I was experimenting with Triblaster, NOBODY did an individual attack. Triblaster right out of the gate, fight over.

@Zero
@Xbob42
@Mop it up

You had to search a few times? Its the very first thing at the tippy tippy top. In bold blue. Your eyes should be drawn to it immediately. It's science. Anyway, it is IMPOSSIBLE for me to post a link higher than that. Have you guys missed that??

If this remains an issue (somehow), I guess I'll just barf all of Koovaps info up there for Week 2. Lemme know..

Wouldn't science demand bright red? And maybe a kitten?

@VickiL

Actually, school bus yellow (my car is "Grabber Orange," hoo-ah) is one of the most recognizable colors. But not on a forum with a white background.

And comparatively, up there, links are in red by default (and I can't change them), page numbers are red, arrows / posting form hot buttons are red, home button is red. Unless you're nate38 or Simba, or have the Mega Man skin, the only "blue" thing up there when you click on this thread is Quick Link to Phantasy Star IV: Week 1, and nearly smack dab in the middle of your screen. Don't fish -- it's right there!


And kittens hide under couches, or something. Very hard to locate.

Oh I didn't realize that was a link to the stuff to do. But wouldn't it just be easier to have the current tasks IN the OP? They're only a couple lines each time, right?

I also thought it was just a link to the start of the club, there was no indication that it lead to Koovap's post.

Mr_Mustache said:

Unless you're nate38 or Simba, or have the Mega Man skin, the only "blue" thing up there when you click on this thread is Quick Link to Phantasy Star IV: Week 1, and nearly smack dab in the middle of your screen. Don't fish -- it's right there!

Wait, my page is different? Why?

@Zero

Yeah, but then you gotta find Koovaps post (why not click the link?) if you want to respond directly to him. I COULD put it up there, but then I'm also re-spoilering everything, thus spoiling it for me. I want to be surprised, too!

@Mop it up

Nope, it goes directly to Koovaps post. It is INCREDIBLE. C'mon, you guys know how "Reference" works!

@nate38

Your blue nameplate. Everyone else has purple, or green, or red, or orange, or black, and so on.
The blue should *POP* for everyone else; you might have a bit of ambiguity as blue is all abound!

Alright, just finished up Week 1 a few minutes ago. I was..confused / hopeful that the stuff I bought after getting to Zema would be good for me. And they were. With exceptions, of course.

Ready for Week 2, woo!

Good job everyone! Now on to...

Week Two
GOALS

- Follow Professor Holt and check into what's going on in the Bio-Plant. Then proceed to Nayla and fully examine the Wreckage!

- Make your way to Zio's town of Kadary and then tackle Zio's Fort!

- After your transportation improves, look into the environmental issues across the quicksand. Eventually make your way to the spoils at the top of Ladea Tower.

- Finally, return to Zio's Fort and enter and stop Nurvus!

Optional Content

- In the town of Aiedo exists the Hunter's Guild. Check regularly. By the time you're through Nurvus, 4 optional missions will be available here.

This week should be a bit meatier than last. I'm guessing reasonably in the 4-5 hour range, not including the optional content. Good luck all. Enjoy!

oh right, count me for having finished Week 1 as well. Forgot to mention it earlier.

I've got the first 2 of the week 2 goals done and the first optional quest that opens up. I'd highly recommend doing that one since it's one relatively easy battle that gives you over 5000 exp. I might play a bit more later tonight but I'm stopping for now.

@DeputyVanHalen

Yeah, that first Hunter's guild mission is definitely worth doing. And while it's not all that hard, I was caught off guard the first time I tried it and died. Boo to me!

@Mr_Mustache Well this is why it might have made the most sense for the dungeon master to run the thread, but that would require separate threads for each game, and... yeah, not getting into that again.