RPG Progress Report

[Ack]

No worries, you'll hear the name over and over again.

[BoneSnapDeez]

I'm inexplicably playing Phantasy Star II again. Slowly. Like, 2 hours a week.

Starting it right after part one was actually a good idea though. Interesting to see how the stories relate. The terraforming of the Motavia planet was a pretty interesting plot device.

Also, that Chrono Trigger plot summary has me wanting to play the game again. So epic.

[MrPopo]

They explain why Frog is a frog in the very near future.

[Lazer]

I'm playing Chrono Trigger for the first time. I was thinking about the plot last night as I fell asleep, because I'm pretty bad at following RPG stories, so I'm trying hard to follow this one. Here's my recap so far:

In 1000 AD in Guardia, Chrono meets a girl named Marle (but she's really Princess Nadia) at the Millenium festival in Leene park. While participating in Lucca's transporter experiment/show, Marle disappears due to a malfunction or something. Chrono disappears after her to 400 AD. In 400 AD the queen of Guardia (Leene, who the park is named after!) has been kidnapped by rival kingdom Magus. Marle is a direct descendant of Queen Leene (who reigns in 400 AD), and is mistaken for her in that time. Because she is mistaken for the queen, the real queen isn't saved, i.e., the timeline has been changed. Thus, Marle fades from existence like Marty McFly (except she is more violently ripped apart). To save Marle, Chrono (with Lucca, who has since shown up in 400 AD) goes to rescue the real queen. It works, and Marle lives. Turns out the Chancellor in 400 AD was an imposter, a monster named Yakra. So the real Chancellor is also saved. Yay. (and frog... he was Leene's personal guard or something? Why is he a frog? I missed that... think I spaced out a bit)

Back in 1000 AD, people think that Marle had been kidnapped while she was at the festival with Chrono. They instantly (led by the Chancellor who looks just like/and is an asshole just like (at least like the fake one) the Chancellor from 400 AD) blame Chrono for abducting her, he is roughed up, put on trial, found not guilty (the trial was awesome by the way... love the character witnesses), but still sentenced to 3 days of solitary confinement. The Chancellor goes rogue, and changes the sentence from solitary to death, Chrono is roughed up some more, and imprisoned. He escapes and is "rescued" by Lucca, they destroy the dragon tank, find Marle, and barely escape the guards by jumping into a timegate, landing in the distant future.

The future is a wasteland full of starving, wretched humans, monsters, and killer robots. The gang discovers that the world was destroyed back in 1999 AD by a giant beast (can't recall the beast's name... probably important). They are extremely distraught, and vow to change the future (this wasteland distant future/their current present) by changing the past (presumably by killing/stopping the beast).

So... it nows seems the true heart of the plot is revealed... the gang must save the future. All the queen saving/Chrono trial stuff was kind of a prologue. An awesome prologue

continuing my recap/progress:

They need to get back to there own time, so they fight their way out of 2300 AD (win a bike race, repair their robot friend, etc.), and head back to 1000 AD... but somehow wind up at the "end of time" (can't remember exactly). The end of time is cool, they learn magic from... something. They hang out with... some guy. And they learn that they can freely travel to the different time periods, including directly to 1999 AD, the "Day of Lavos" (so this is what BoneSnapDeez had mentioned? Being able to fight the final boss early on?). Anyway, I left the robot there and stuck with my original 3 kids, headed back to 1000 AD. Now, my memory fails me, or maybe I was just spaced, but somehow (can't recall the details) they learn that they need to find the legendary sword "Masmune: to defeat Magus... I'm not too concerned that these details are foggy, I'll pick it up on the next playthrough). So, back to 600 AD, they traj down "the hero" Tata, find out he's a fake, battle Masa & Mune, get the blade of Masamune, talk to Frog, get the hily of Masamune, go see Melchior in 1000 AD, and learn that they need Dreamstone to reforge Masamune, so we travel to 65,000,000 BC (!) to find these stones.

The more I play, the more I love this game. I really enjoyed the mountain level (on the way to Masa & Mune). The music and the graphics in that stage are simply a joy to experience. The waterfall flowing through the level is beautiful! It is amazing what the artists were able to create using the SNES hardware. I think that may be some of the best water I've ever seen in a video game.

[BogusMeatFactory]

So I have been playing Earthbound and when I initially started the game in January, I was somewhat unimpressed. I put it down until recently as a way to pass the time as my baby naps on me for her afternoon nap. One of the things everyone has said when talking about Earthbound is how AWESOME things get when you get to the town of Fourside and Moonside. Just finished through Moonside and scratched my head. It was about 15 minutes of gameplay, why was it such a mind blowing idea?

I guess this is where nostalgia kicks in for people, because at the time, I would see the events that take place in the two towns to be mind blowing. The city of Fourside seems sprawling, the museum interesting and definitely creates a massive appeal that seems unheard of for console RPGs at the time.

Regardless of that, I am still greatly enjoying the game and can't wait to continue onward on my quest. I have said before that having a child and feeling the concept of family really creates more meaning and impact on the game itself. A child growing up, having life adventures, keeping in touch with their family. These little touches are what make it special and what makes the game good and not a product of its time. A lot of the charm, wit and quirkiness in enemies and world design are something that have been replicated time and time again in modern design and although I appreciate it, it doesn't sell the game to me. What sells it to me is the heart in the little things, like the main character getting home sick and having to call his mother or the huge variety of items that do things that are unimportant, but are still interesting and intriguing.

I love that.

[Ack]

Risen

I finally got through the town and decided to side with the Inquisition, and it was like a cork unpopping in the game. I flew through Chapter 2 and am now deep into Chapter 3 of the game and raiding the volcano lair of a horde of lizardmen. After clearing out most of the monsters on the island in the first chapter, I went back and discovered only a handful of new monsters spawn between each chapter, primarily wolves in Chapter 2. I also started discovering the teleport stones, which have made getting around the island significantly easier. I wish I had had these in the first place, as travel time is now minuscule in comparison.

In terms of power, I'm now able to take on many critters which earlier easily bested me. Ghouls generally aren't a problem now, and more than once I've taken on a group of the bastards and mopped them up. They're still tricky to fight, but I can beat them. The dreaded Thunder Lizard is much easier now too, and Scorpions can still put on the hurt but die quick enough. I finally beat my first Ogre, though he was a special case and seems weaker than the usual breed. And Ashbeasts are still a no go. But only two monster types I can't deal with... My list of enemies keeps getting smaller.

Also, I love the way the lizardmen look. Those dudes are massive and just look nasty.

[MrPopo]

More Septerra Core. Someone got their point-and-click adventure game in my JRPG. Adding that to the incredibly tedious combat and shitty voice acting (pretty sure they just rounded up people at the Home Depot) and we've got the makings of a game that I can't figure out why people speak good of. The combat drives me crazy. All the enemies are faster than you and it takes multiple full power attacks to kill anything. And I'm still in the stage where I can only cast three spells before being dry, so there's absolutely no tactics involved; just whale on things and snack on bread.

But man, what's up with the point-and-click aspects? Having to solve random puzzles by noticing something clickable with investigate, then go find the appropriate key items and use them on some other spot. And it's a separate interface from the inspect on the target.

[Lazer]

Chrono Trigger...

Travelled to 65,000,000 BC! Met a very nice girl (Alya?), went to a party, battled some reptids, and got some dreamstone. A very nice trip!

Back in 1000 AD, Melchior (with Lucca assisting) has reforged the Masamune using the dreamstone.

In 600 AD, we present the Masamune to Frog, which stirs up his memories of Cyrus. Turns out Frog is really Glenn, a friend of the deceased legendary knight Cyrus. Glenn was turned into a frog by Magus after Magus killed Cyrus (burned him to death). It seems that Glenn/Frog is an excellent sword fighter, but also a pacifist. After some soul-searching, Frog decides that he will kill Magus and restore peace to the space-time continuum.

So now I'm rolling with Chrono, Frog, and Marle. We're heading into the Magical Cave...

[MrPopo]

You might want to make a detour to the End of Time before you go to the Magical Cave.

I continue on in Septerra Core, and I now have six people in my party. The way the game handles the speed stat continues to annoy me, and it makes one party member utterly useless. The game also has a habit of giving you the option to purchase a weapon before you get the party member who can use that weapon. It will be better than what that party member comes equipped with and you probably won't get a chance to go back and buy it after you get the party member for a while. I figured this out and did manage to get one of my new party members equipped well; the part where I was using her would have been far more frustrating otherwise.

I'm really hoping that the How Long To Beats of 50 hours are a mistake, because I'm only 5 hours in.

[Lazer]

Yep, the game actually prompted me to go back to get Frog some magic. I also replaced Marle with Lucca because I like to know the enemies HP, and I like her fire magic. Of course Marle has the healing magic, so we'll see.