* * * * * 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)

@VickiL I did all that too and I just barely scraped by at lvl 38. It didn't seem like anything lower would have been viable, but maybe I was just unlucky with the big hits.

@Zero I'm similar to VickiL, I take my time and move slowly through RPGs, and I also never run from any random enemy encounter. Even with that, I never really felt overleveled in most cases, and still faced some trouble with a couple bosses. So I would agree that it'd definitely be nearly impossible to make it through a place all in one go, especially trying to get through the whole game that way. It doesn't feel designed for that.

On this note, you must really hate Dragon Quest games...

@VickiL So that's what HINAS does!

Mop it up said:

On this note, you must really hate Dragon Quest games...

Nah love 'em. Played VI, VIII, and IX, never ran into anything like this game! In those games I'd maybe level-up just to level-up two or three times per game. This game? Five times at least so far, and I'm only what, less than 10 hours in?

Now, to be fair, it's quicker to level up in this game. Yesterday I was at Zio, he obliterated me, I spent maybe 45 minutes to level up about 3 or 4 levels with all of my characters, went back and handed his ass to him. You could never gain that many levels so fast in Dragon Quest.

But still, I hate feeling like I have to do this all the time, sometimes I just want to progress!

@Mop it up

We should probably know this by now...

HINAS / ESCAPIPE- Leave a dungeon
RYUKA / TELEPIPE- Warp to a town
RES / __RES- Heals a person in increasing totals
SAR / __SAR- Heals the group in increasing totals

Those are..pretty durn important.

--SOME of those freakin' spells I don't use appear to do NOTHING. I haven't once had BROSE do a damn thing.

@Zero Hm, interesting. I don't feel like Phantasy Star IV had more grinding than Dragon Quest. I actually felt like it was a little less. Though, Dragon Quest lets you keep your experience when you lose, whereas Phantasy Star makes you completely reload a save. Maybe it was this, and that you just played the game differently, perhaps because it's a part of a game club instead of at your leisure?

@Mr_Mustache Well, I lost track of the post that explains what spells do. And when a spell says "But there was no effect," I don't go around using it until I get an effect!

@Mop it up

Well, with BROSE, the enemy shakes a little bit, but there is no number that pops up. Like, did you just rub his head a little? Is he shivering?

And Dragon Quest / Warrior; you lose half your money when you die, too. That is no good.

We pretty much whipped through Phantasy Star IV, didn't we?

Phantasy Star IV(not VI, because it doesn't exist) complete! If you guys think Phantasy Star IV is bad about requiring grinding, I strongly suggest that you never play Phantasy Star II.

@DeputyVanHalen

Congratulations, dude! Did you rate it up in the Database? How did you like it?

I was actually "Playing" Phantasy Star II when we started this thing, and this game was sooooo much more forgiving than that..thing. I've heard horror stories from Jew Drop who got much farther than I did. Eesh.


Were you gonna do Shining Force II? (Are WE going to do Shining Force II??)

I haven't rated it. I finished all 4 main PS games back when they were new. 2 is by far the hardest. Like Earthbound, the original game came with a complete strategy guide. Unlike Earthbound, you really needed it. I'm not going to do Shining Force. I'm doing my best to get over it and get into Fire Emblem Awakening, but strategy RPGs have never been my thing. I probably need a break from scheduled gaming anyway.

@DeputyVanHalen

Sounds good. Welp, I hope you enjoyed your time recently in the Epic Center. Always welcome back, of course. You're a trooper.

Good luck with Awakening!

EDIT- Yeah, nooobody has scored it. Do it to it! PHANTASY STAR IV

Yeah I'm sure I'll join in a future one. I gave it a 9.

@Mr_Mustache Money isn't that useful, and it's a small price to pay to keep your experience! Plus, all the games except for the first two have a bank that you can use to store your money and keep it safe from being lost.

@Mop it up

YES, I wish there was a bank! I had STUPID item overflow for the LONGEST time. Why not? GOSH.

Haha! Man, cool end of the game stuff. With the gang all back together, I took Demi back to PlateSystem where I missed her box before. Pretty funny stuff with the "could you turn your back" and the screen going black. Nice!

Gonna run the Week 5 Optional stuff now, and then I'll finish this thing off. Huzzah!


---

EDIT- Alright! Watching the credits roll now. Some good stuff at the end there, and someone mentioned it (possibly JD on the phone), but the comic panels are great, and I wish they were in other games, too. I really dug those.

Nasty last battle, though I like the option of choosing your 5th member! I went with Demi, and used that thing I got at the PlateSystem A TON. I think my save file says Lv45. Man, the last stage was frying my brain. How about you guys?

Is there any way to get Alys back? I was wondering if I screwed something up. I'd be lying if I told you my mouth didn't open very wide at that moment.

--WHOA!! Is the OST / Sound stuff ALWAYS on the start screen? Man, this game had some BANGIN' music. Good stuff!
According to this, "PS1 Dungeon Arrange 2" is apparently my favorite. Awesome track.

Week 3 complete!!!!!! OK, so after a week of no playtime and then a week of barely any playtime, I finally kicked Lashiec's ass. And when I say that I kicked his ass, I mean that he put a serious hurt on my party and I barely made it through alive. That ANOTHER GATE spell is devastating. When he cast it back to back, there was no way to survive. I have to admit that this was the first time in this game that I got so angry that I actually used the "freeze state" option so I didn't have to keep walking back to him after I died. I must have died at least 20 times. Asshole!

I really hope weeks 4 and 5 are as short as you all say. I want to try and finish up before saturday night. The last 2 weeks got really hectic and I didn't get a chance to play at all over Memorial Day. Boo.

I saved in Meese after I got back from the AC. Hopefully gonna get the last 4 guild quests out of the way and then plow through the rest of the story tonight.

Anyone have an estimated time to complete both weeks 4 and 5?

@DeputyVanHalen, @Mr_Mustache

Agreed. I estimated about an hour of grinding between every single objective in PS2. Even just to travel from one town to a new one. And the dungeons were extremely hard to navigate and the bosses hit like they were gods. It was a great game, don't get me wrong, but probably the most difficult and time consuming RPG I've ever played.

@Jew Drop

Maybe 6 hours? I think I played around 3.5 last night for Week 5. Week 4 I zipped right through.

Dark Force 2 was a joke after the final AC battle. Only had one little moment of concern when he hit me with the Lightning Shower twice in a row, but I managed to survive it thanks to a double dose of Barrier that I laid down early in the battle. The Garuberk Tower itself was a pretty cool. Long. I wasn't sure that I'd be able to take the big guy on after trekking through without a HINAS/RYUKA to recover, but I really didn't have a problem.

I saved while camped out in front of the Soldier's Temple back on Motavia. I'll tackle that during lunch tomorrow. And that's the end of week 4, correct?

@Jew Drop

Yessir, that ends week 4. You'll be done soon enough.

@Mr_Mustache

I brought Gryz back with me and had made it through the final boss on the first try. I tried again with somebody else and wasn't so lucky. And yes, that final area is crazy! My eyes couldn't focus on anything.

So I just got back to Motavia and everybody's staring at me, demanding I take them along. I feel like I'm picking my maid of honor.

I'm really leaning towards Raja because I don't roll with the punches well, and I could really use his support. But while he's great with heals, I think he'd be terrible with heels. And nobody will understand his toast at the reception.

Demi's pretty supportive, too, and I know that no matter the situation, she'll be able to find me transportation. But she's always disappearing for her job, and I kind of resented that when I needed her most.

Hahn was my first friend, so he's got that BFF card looming large. But I haven't seen him in years; I don't even know what he's into these days. Besides, I think he still owes me money.

I think Kyra would look best in the seafoam green I choose for the attendants, but I don't think she can add much to the group I already have. That, and she treats me like a kid.

Gryz is great and all, but all he offers is strength, which I really don't need. And nobody understands that Brose thing he does. I really think it'll freak out my parents.

@VickiLDon't worry, you can always go back and switch out the character if you are unhappy with your choice. I chose Hahn since I was curious what kind of skills he had now, you don't really see him develop like the other dudes.

Also, nice descriptions. :)

@VickiL

HAHA!! Those are awesome. AND -- AND -- I realized what Gryz looks like after it bothered me for so long...