The GWJ JRPG Club - Q4 2020 - Chrono Trigger!

Made it to the point where you get the key to unlock all those sealed chests and doors finally. I went to look up the location of the chests and found out something I never knew before. For the chests that exist in both 600 AD and 1000 AD, if you go to the 600 AD chest and refuse to open it, you can then go to 1000 AD and open the chest and get a better item. You can then go and get the regular item in 600 AD. Never knew the items upgraded before.

Edit: Also, on the talk about time traveling being canon from the beginning or not...

Spoiler:

I do not remember exactly, but when you first get to Medina village isn't the statue of the Fiendlord then once you complete Fiendlord's Keep, it turns into a statue of Ozzie? If I am remembering that correctly, that would imply you are altering the timeline somewhat.

You're absolutely right about that. I think overall, the evidence is in favor of Crono & co. altering the timeline. Once you get to the sidequests at the end, you definitely get to see changes from what you experienced earlier in the game. Also, ...

Spoiler:

I was always confused by the reptite ending, where if you beat Lavos before going to Tyrano Lair, the Reptites end up surviving the ice age and becoming the dominant species. I figured there was no way Ayla would have rescued her people and beaten Azala without the party's assistance, so the mere fact that the future isn't run by reptites is evidence that Crono's present takes time travel for granted. But when looking up information about the game's endings, I saw something that suggested that the reptite ending occurs because Chrono & co take Ayla away to fight Lavos, which means she can't be there to save her villagers, and you are altering the timeline.

Still making slow* but steady progress.

The right hand boss in Magus' Keep is now down.

I don't think I'll be too diligent about upgraded chests; I took a completionist approach the last time around and it kinda dragged things down a bit for me.

Full speed ahead!

(*) Last week I was spoiled on some minor details about The Return of the Obra Dinn, so I decided to take a detour on the good ship before any further mysteries were ruined.

I finally started over the weekend.

Not quite 2 hours in and already impressed with the pacing. 4 playable charaters, 2 time zones and a completed dungeon all with some good story and without feeling rushed.

Completed the Ocean Palace last night. I really like the ability to swap party members on the fly outside of combat. I came into the place with Crono/Ayla/Frog but realized that Crono/Marle/Lucca would be a better fit due to the enemy abilities and that they did not really have anything of value to Charm. I have been using Crono/Ayla/Frog a lot this time around, they have some good dual techs and having access to Charm is really nice.

Post Ocean Palace spoilers:

Spoiler:

I didn't remember exactly how it happened, but I knew Crono died at some point because back when I originally played this game, I thought it was so cool that the main character could actually die and the story continue on. I also enjoyed that once you get him back, he is not stuck in the party anymore and you can freely swap your party members. Thinking about it now, it means they got to do a bunch of cool triple techs that do not involve Crono (such as Dark Matter).

On a different note, the Blackbird section is a cool different thing. I brought Ayla this time around so I didn't have to use the vents if I didn't want to, since she fights with her fists and can attack without gear. I ended up doing the sneaky stuff anyway just because it felt right for the story. I do find it odd that Marle and Lucca couldn't even use techs without their equipment though. Seems off that these characters with magic are unable to use it if they are missing their weapons. Now I am wondering what the scene looks like if you bring Robo. Do they remove his hands? Seems like it would be hard to disarm a robot. I also like that there are two "boss fights", one who does nothing, and the other who is such a pushover that I killed him with a dual tech and normal tech.

Just a quick note to say that I'm reading and enjoying following this thread, and I have every intention to complete the game.

I'm working on finishing up Wasteland 2 first, then I'll switch over to this.

I got stuck for a little while on Rust Tyranno - tried the fight a bunch of times and couldn't figure out how to make it through. Once I changed my party up (mostly for access to Haste and Protect) I nailed it on the first attempt, and got my playthrough back on track... but... I had been bouncing off that fight for so long, I've forgotten what I needed to do next. Ah well, I'll just wander around for a while.

merphle wrote:

I got stuck for a little while on Rust Tyranno - tried the fight a bunch of times and couldn't figure out how to make it through. Once I changed my party up (mostly for access to Haste and Protect) I nailed it on the first attempt, and got my playthrough back on track... but... I had been bouncing off that fight for so long, I've forgotten what I needed to do next. Ah well, I'll just wander around for a while. :)

I'm only 3 hours in so far but already is quite startling to my modern sensibilities how little direction you are often given, particularly for something which is such a linear game.

From the first time you leave your house everything is just cues in dialogue, and physical limitations on the world map. If you forget where you are meant to go next it would almost boil down to trial and error until you stumble on the next scene.

Completed all the side quests in the final act and started making my way through the Black Omen this weekend. This game sure went very fast compared to the last couple of games we have picked. I hope to wrap up my first playthrough this week. Thinking I will take some time to explore the extra endings this time around afterwards.

Last week was hectic for me, so not much progress.

I've just set foot in antiquity (cue awesome music).

Malkroth wrote:

I really like the ability to swap party members on the fly outside of combat.

I keep forgetting about this; thanks for the reminder!

A nice milestone has arrived:

Ayla learned Charm.
Ted wrote:

I don't think I'll be too diligent about upgraded chests; I took a completionist approach the last time around and it kinda dragged things down a bit for me.

Eh, so much for that sentiment.

I picked up all the goodies currently available to me and it didn't take too long.

Absorbing elemental damage sure is nice; it made ((spoiler-1)) a breeze and I think I'll go with ((spoiler-2)) to handle the upcoming ((spoiler-3)).

Spoiler: 1

Giga Gaia

Spoiler: 2

fire attacks

Spoiler: 3

Twin Golems' copycat attacks

(Do we have an inline spoiler tag here at GWJ? I spent about 15 minutes looking/experimenting and couldn't find anything.)

I don't think we do.

Those pieces of armor are valuable deep into the game! I think I was still using them up to the final dungeon, where I started replacing them with gear that protected against status effects.

Aaaand there goes that old hat. A beloved classic that I have now revisited, and it has brought many odd feelings to bear.

I may have missed a couple of endings, but I am calling this one done.

Congrats! It was really interesting to explore this old gem again, wasn't it?

I've leveled you up in the main thread.

LastSurprise wrote:

Congrats! It was really interesting to explore this old gem again, wasn't it?

I've leveled you up in the main thread.

It definitely was! It's also refreshing that it's on the short side as far as JRPG's go. So many staples of the genre got started in Chrono Trigger and it was rather amusing to recognize them again, much like seeing a cameo appearance of a character in games not their own.

I was overcome with nostalgia constantly as I played through it, both for the original time I played through it in the mid-nineties, as well as when I revisited it on the PSOne in the aughties.

Now, I just have to finish Trails of Cold Steel II sometime this century!

I hopped back into the game tonight, after a pretty big break. I'm kind of lost as to what I'm supposed to be doing. I'm in the area Beyond the Ruins and wandered around for a while. I got to a place or two, but didn't seem to have the things I needed, so I'm assuming I'm doing everything in the wrong order.

The good thing is that with all the combat encounters I leveled up a couple of times.

I figure if I keep wandering around things will sort themselves out soon enough.

Fun to get back to this, even though I'm a bit confused.

GB, if you need any hints, let us know! It sounds like you might be in one of the habitation domes, and I remember those being a little tricky the first time I played (years ago).

LastSurprise wrote:

GB, if you need any hints, let us know! It sounds like you might be in one of the habitation domes, and I remember those being a little tricky the first time I played (years ago).

Thanks for the offer, I might take you up on that in a bit. I did find a secret way under things in one of the domes that wasn't readily apparent, which seemed to help a bit. Let me poke around a bit more. I still have one or two things to check out that might unlock things. If I'm still stuck after that, then I'll definitely be looking for a hint!

Godzilla Blitz wrote:

I hopped back into the game tonight, after a pretty big break. I'm kind of lost as to what I'm supposed to be doing. I'm in the area Beyond the Ruins and wandered around for a while. I got to a place or two, but didn't seem to have the things I needed, so I'm assuming I'm doing everything in the wrong order.

This always seems to be my problem with Chrono Trigger - I end up getting distracted maybe 3/4 of the way through, and when I get back to it I've lost the thread completely. I've cleverly solved it this time though, by getting distracted 1/4 of the way through instead! Ha. Hope to get back to it soon.

Another half hour in the game tonight, up to 4 hours now. Everyone is Level 12 and I think I got myself unstuck. I know where to go and how to get there, I think. And the plot has jumped forward too. Progress!

And done, with Robo, Crono, and Ayla as my final party.

I did something I've never done on previous playthroughs:

Spoiler:

I flew the Epoch to 1999 and crashed through Lavos' shell.

What a cool cut scene! Lots of Mode 7 on display there.

For all my previous playthoughs, I've worked my way through the Black Omen, but not this time.

Instead, I snuck in for the treasure located at the halfway point, charmed some tabs, got some levels, and got out.

I had a lot of fun revisiting this classic.

Thanks all for the selection and discussion!

Congratulations, Ted!

I finished a little while ago, but I'm considering the best way to go back for the different endings.

I started a New Game +, I think I rescued Marled? and then I got sidetracked into other things.

bobbywatson wrote:

I started a New Game +, I think I rescued Marled? and then I got sidetracked into other things.

Sounds about how my experience with this game and NG+ tend to go. I look up guides, try to plot out how to get the most different endings in one go, see one or two, then realize that blasting through the game effortlessly with no new techs to unlock or gear to equip isn't super fun, and move on to other things.

SpacePProtean wrote:

I finished a little while ago, but I'm considering the best way to go back for the different endings.

It's been a while, but when I played?... the alternate endings are mostly about deciding to go fight Lavos at various points throughout the story. I shamelessly got a guide/walkthrough and, over the course of one New Game+, picked up all the alternate endings.

If you're a completionist, you'll want a guide. A lot of them you can guess, a major plot event happened, okay, I can trigger a new ending now. But I recall one or two requiring unintuitively walking away in the middle of a major event to trigger the fight.

And wrapped up the main ending this morning. My save file has about 31 hours total, but about 5 of that is probably idle time and then I did some charm grinding in some areas to get a bunch of items (which I didn't need).

After seeing the final fight and the ending, I don't think I actually ever beat Chrono Trigger back on the SNES. I do not recall any of the fights in the Black Omen, with Lavos, or the ending scene. I probably got to the final chapter and started doing side quests and then just never finished the game or it was too difficult for me back then. It was fun to revisit an old classic which still holds up fairly well. There are some definite points where if this was a more modern game you would see a lot more dialogue or even a cutscene, some big story moments seemed to just breeze past by modern standards.

I am saddened that the triple techs are all pretty much worse damage wise than using a single and double tech among the three characters. Especially since on the Black Omen you can steal enough Golden Studs to outfit your entire party with one if you really want to so the MP saving on 2nd and 3rd characters doesn't matter.

Congrats on finishing! I'll update the main thread momentarily.

Memory's a funny thing, isn't it? I know I went through the Black Omen in the past, but I had no memory of the dungeon, unlike nearly every other part of the game where I at least remembered something. Definitely agree about how quickly the story beats passed.

I found some of the triple techs useful and to have a decent damage output, but definitely also noticed that the double techs often were on par (or sometimes better) than the triple techs -- especially towards the end of the game, as the characters powered up a bit. For me, sometimes the triple techs were most useful in converting a character's damage type -- as when it was better to have Ayla do elemental than physical damage.

beeporama wrote:
SpacePProtean wrote:

I finished a little while ago, but I'm considering the best way to go back for the different endings.

It's been a while, but when I played?... the alternate endings are mostly about deciding to go fight Lavos at various points throughout the story. I shamelessly got a guide/walkthrough and, over the course of one New Game+, picked up all the alternate endings.

If you're a completionist, you'll want a guide. A lot of them you can guess, a major plot event happened, okay, I can trigger a new ending now. But I recall one or two requiring unintuitively walking away in the middle of a major event to trigger the fight.

Thanks, but by "best way," I meant more Which of the myriad ways I have to play Chrono Trigger should I use?