Chrono Trigger DS

[DmitriW]

A thread for discussion of the new re-release of Chrono Trigger in portable form.

I'll start off with a question: if I save my New Game Plus file over my old file, do I risk losing anything? Or is ALL of my old save data contained in the NG+?

[Kag]

No, that's what you're supposed to do.

[AwesomeAndrew]

Yeah I'm pretty sure that's what you're meant to do. Quick question to everyone who's interested: Favorite Character? Personally mine's Frog, a balanced character, cool story and an AMAZING theme.

[Tim]

Crono is so powerful...

But really, Marle is the must-have, IMO.

[Hakaryu]

I dunno. I did the game with just Chrono Magus and Frog. Then I went and beat lavos with just crono

[DmitriW]

Thanks, guys. The other games I've played with New Game+ options have always kept my playtime counter running. This one resets it and it threw me off.

My "dream team" is Chrono-Ayla-Frog. Put the Rainbow in Chrono and he's unstoppable--even more so if you put on the Prism Spectacles to boost his damage. Ayla's impossibly powerful, and Frog has *Heal for healing the whole party at once for a fair amount.

The only downside is that Frog doesn't seem to have any consistently-powerful Single Techs. But since I generally just use him in a healing capacity...

[Evil Jim]

I bought the game a couple months ago & just love it. It's just as good as everyone has been raving about. Unfortunately I've accidentally taken a hiatus. I will however, be returning to the game after my birthday next weekend.

As of yet I don't have a favourite "dream team" of characters. I like whomever works best for whatever story arc is at hand.

[Kag]

Robo with the best equipment (Crisis Arm/Haste Helm/Nova Armor) is unquestionably the best damage-dealer in the game, and his group heal is almost twice as strong as Frog's.

Chrono with the Rainbow or Dreamseeker is also pretty good at dealing physical hits and can unload with luminaire against big groups or resistant monsters.

Third guy can be pretty much anyone, but Lucca and Marle are pretty much awful, so I avoid them if at all possible.

[Lavos]

Robo with the best equipment (Crisis Arm/Haste Helm/Nova Armor) is unquestionably the best damage-dealer in the game, and his group heal is almost twice as strong as Frog's.

Third guy can be pretty much anyone, but Lucca and Marle are pretty much awful, so I avoid them if at all possible.

Zerk ayla with **pow and haste casted on her. gg.

Lucca is the most imbalanced character in the game, youre doing it wrong.

[DmitriW]

Lucca is the most imbalanced character in the game, youre doing it wrong.

Megaton Bomb is a pretty great skill. Haven't tried flare out yet.

[Kag]

Zerk ayla with **pow and haste casted on her. gg.

Lucca is the most imbalanced character in the game, youre doing it wrong.

Ayla might be able to do as much damage or more if she has the absolute maximum attack power possible and is level **. It kind of defeats the purpose of the discussion if your entire party is so strong nothing poses a threat.

Lucca is too slow and Magus' weaker spell only comes into play when they have the same magic stat, which, again, doesn't happen until you're ridiculously high level.

[Zivlok]

I think my favorite character is either Gato or Frog, and yes, because of the themes associated with them. Frog probably wins out because of his moveset.

And the fact that he's, you know, playable.

[Evil Jim]

Found some nice Chrono Trigger pixel art magnets on Etsy.

[notomtolose]

You guys are all doing it wrong. There's no skill in playing until your stats kill everything - the challenge is to do it with LOWER stats, or faster.

I really like Chrono Trigger. Once upon a time, I played it emulated, and made save-states just before all the endings so I could show my friend. I got them all again on the PSX when it came out in FF Chronicles, but the load times were awful - I'm really glad a decent new version is out now.

[ThrashJazzAssassin]

You guys are all doing it wrong. There's no skill in playing until your stats kill everything - the challenge is to do it with LOWER stats, or faster.

Given that the ability to replay again and again until your stats are ridiculous is a special feature of the game, I'd... tend to disagree. Besides, repeated use of New Game + is fantastic:

Any time I like, I can replay the entire game fairly quickly just for the story. Which is worth it.
Unless you're playing with a walkthrough on alt-tab, you're unlikely to do all the sidequests or fully explore the game on your first try, so it's nice to go back and do extra story stuff without having to grind levels all over again.
I can pound Lavos's head into the ground, right at the beginning of the game, WITH A MOP. Tell me that ain't worth it.

I do, however, agree with you about the PSX version. So... goddamn... sloooowwwww!

[Dave-O_Boy]

After playing til the open world stuff I kinda lost interest for some reason. It's still spiffy. Of course I remember it being so much better then it actually is. heh.
My favorite parties are Chrono, Frog/Lucca, and Magus/Robo.

[notomtolose]

Oh, it's a great feature, I totally agree - it's just nothing to brag about. Laughing your way past Lavos at L99 doesn't take any skill. If you want to brag you've gotta play LLCs (Low Level Challenges) and other stuff like that. Check the GameFAQs.com entry for any major RPG and you'll see what I'm talking about.

For the record, I'm not that hardcore, either - I'm just sayin': maxing out the clock doesn't make anyone 1337, yo.

[Evil Jim]

Dang, I gotta get back to playing. I haven't even finished the game yet. I'll jump in again once I've finished the little RPG in Retro Game Challenge.

[What?]

Am I the only person who had zero problems with the load times in Final Fantasy Chronicles?

[Evil Jim]

No. They didn't bother me either. Mainly because I never played it.

[Jillers]

Am I the only person who had zero problems with the load times in Final Fantasy Chronicles?

I think so..

...Did you ever play the originals?

[What?]

No, didn't really get into RPGs until Pokemon and Legend of Dragoon. But just comparing it to what I think is reasonable, it doesn't even come close to touching that line.

[Jillers]

No, didn't really get into RPGs until Pokemon and Legend of Dragoon. But just comparing it to what I think is reasonable, it doesn't even come close to touching that line.

Having played the originals, then playing Chrystal Chronicles and Anthology, the load times were unbearable... maybe you're just more patient than the rest of us.

[notomtolose]

Agreed. The game is entirely playable with load times; the greatness of Chrono Trigger cannot be muted by a bit of extra stuttering. To the faithful, however, it was an unforgivable desecration of such a wonderful, classic game. Quite infuriating.

[Sachiel]

In the original, one of the cool things was that when you entered a battle, it was immediate. There were no swirly transition screens, load times, or other major interruptions in game flow. At the time, we had never seen that before in an RPG. The Playstation version was good, what with the added cutscenes, but the load times were definitely annoying to one who had played the original.