Topics

1

General Discussion / Bedtime Story

« on: October 30, 2018, 01:45:52 am »

I tell the little one a story every night. Like, every. Night. I'm seriously out of stories. But a few days ago he asked me to tell the Chrono Trigger story again. Yay! I can stretch that out over several weeks, probably.

So I figured I'd share, that's what I'm up to around 9 every night.

Marle just disappeared when everyone thought she was Leene.

2

Chrono / Gameplay Casual Discussion / Is Schala The Entity?

« on: August 07, 2018, 11:22:57 am »

Continuing from a different thread so we don't hijack...

Acacia Sgt said...

Schala, post-merge with Lavos, as the one opening the gates? I doubt it much. Considering the general lack of predestination paradox the Chrono games use, the gates open before she merges with Lavos. Not even as a retroactive thing.

ThatGuy said...

I go more into it in other threads, but basically, if you notice that during the final battle with Lavos, he, and the party, seem to be existing in all time periods... then he is, in a way, outside of the normal flow of time. Schala could merge at any point, and then exist in all these time periods.

I go into it in these threads:

https://www.chronocompendium.com/Forums/index.php?topic=12575.msg224842#msg224842

https://www.chronocompendium.com/Forums/index.php?topic=12611.msg225201#msg225201

https://www.chronocompendium.com/Forums/index.php?topic=12608.msg225194#msg225194

https://www.chronocompendium.com/Forums/index.php?topic=12531.msg224825#msg224825

The idea is also mentioned here, second to last paragraph:

http://chrono.wikia.com/wiki/Entity

...
...
Can you tell I'm a fan of this theory?

Anyway, let's start a new thread on it if you wish to discuss so we don't hijack this one.

Acacia Sgt said...

Seem, but I don't think it's stated quite exactly what's up with that.

I still stand it goes against the nature of time travel as shown in the game. Schala wouldn't merge with Lavos until Lavos itself is defeated. We can't have a Dream Devourer until both Schala AND Lavos are sent to the DBT, not before.

It's the same way the Black Omen isn't already there when the game begins, or 2300 AD is still ruined even if Lavos is going to eventually be defeated, or the Moon Stone isn't already in the Sun Keep being charged before Son of Sun is defeated. Same applies for the existence of the Dream Devourer.

3

Characters, Plot, and Themes / CT2 Techs (WIP)

« on: January 21, 2018, 02:12:18 am »

So, I decided to make up some tech lists for my CT2 characters (only one of which is even named) with a new way to balance them- so to hopefully prevent any characters from becoming obsolete by the end of the game (looking at you, Frog). Kudos to Oswego del Fuego who inspired Empatha's stuff. You'll notice that generally weaker physical attack people have stronger magic, and vice versa, except for the last one, which is something new and potentially very (I hope) interesting. Again, inspired by ODF, who had the idea like, 12 years ago.

Let me know what you think!

PS, I don't predict this ever happening unless someone else wants to do all the programming, etc., but it's still fun to think about.

Marle Jr.
Katana
Water
Aura
Cyclone (area)
Ice
Heal (35% HP cap)
Spincut (one)
Ice 2
Heal 2 (60% HP cap)
Frenzy (akin to triple kick/confuse)

Crono Jr.
Throwing Knives
Lightning
Knife Throw (2 enemies)
Dart (damage + poison)
Lightning
Barrier (all)
Lightning 2
Life (25% HP)
Assassinate (instant death or miss)
Luminaire

Strong Guy
Broadsword
Fire
Chop
Dance (random chaos, slow, darkness)
Fire
Inspire (raise party's phys 25%)
Berserk (all, low HP = high damage)
Fire 2
Earthquake (huge phys damage, area)
Flare

Someone
Hammer
Water
Bulldoze (line)
Cure (50% HP cap)
Water
Intimidate (stop)
Water 2
Cure 2 (75% HP cap)
Life 2 (65% HP)
Smash (ultimate phys damage one enemy)

Someone Else
Gun or (Cross?)Bow
Shadow
Quick Shot (2 enemies)
Hypno Wave (sleep, one)
Dark Bomb (area)
Mug (steal)
Dark Mist
Vengeance (damage all if he falls, doesn't fall if wins)
Snipe (4x phys damage, one)
Dark Matter

Empatha
None
Lightning
1 Wisdom (ups one magic stat 25%)
2 Insight (ups one hit stat 25%)
3 Valor (ups one power stat 25%)
4 Haste (all)
5 Remedy (heals all status)
6 Perception (cut MP use 50%)
7 Ward (100% block magic attack, once)
8 Green Dream (auto-Life 2 all, one per battle)

PS
Another idea: the katana would be 50% based on power stat, 50% based on hit stat (like hybrid of lucca/marle and everyone else)

4

Crimson Echoes / Dammit!

« on: January 19, 2018, 07:04:24 pm »

Aw man, I thought I did a save-state in addition to actually saving the actual game... But apparently I didn't, from Magus going into the whatever-forest (when we first meet him) all the way to our party visiting 2305 and going back to 1005 and being outside Porre's fort...

Well the save games didn't work, I only have the one I saved with Magus in the forest! Which is where the save-current-state thing is!!!

I don't want to do it again!

5

Characters, Plot, and Themes / Lavos and the Time Gates

« on: December 16, 2017, 03:19:55 am »

So it just occurred to me that almost every time gate in CT seems to be closely correlated with Lavos in some way. Of course, good story plotting would require this, but great story plotting would also include an explanation for this potential "coincidence."

So, 65mil BC is Lavos's arrival. Kind of a big deal for the creature. 12000BC saw Zeal, who knew of Lavos, messed with him, enough to actually wake him. 600AD is when Magus summoned him, and I'll skip to 2300 AD, when his spawn are growing up.

If you go with my theory that Lavos time travels when he goes to new planets, the time gates in 65milBC and 2300BC are especially accounted for. Otherwise, whenever he's summoned in some way, it seems like, again, time gates show up.

Except for 1000AD. That's the only place where he didn't do anything significant and we see time gates. But we have the telepod, and we have the pendant. Which is why I still like my theory that Schala was the entity behind the time gates. Considering that she merged with Lavos and so on, it makes sense that she could have opened them in order to send Crono and co. on their quest to stop Lavos.

The ooooonly one that stands out is the Medina village gate. It connects to 2300AD, which is fine on that end, but why Medina village? If anyone can help me out with a decent explanation for that one (left over from Magus's castle, perhaps?), I might have a solid plot thread for my CT sequel I'll probably never get around to writing. In fact, as I write this out, left over from that giant portal that Magus caused is actually a good enough explanation for me...

Okay, so what do you all think? Lavos's influence (since he's a time traveler) caused ruptures in space-time that allowed time gates to be opened. And maybe it was Schala who opened them via the interaction of the telepod and her pendant. I like how that works out.

Aw, shit, what about that stupid plot-convenient gate in Guardia forest though? ... Shit. I'm just going with Schala/telepod/pendant again.

6

Characters, Plot, and Themes / Just Realized Something- multiple Lavos Apocalypses

« on: December 06, 2017, 11:19:53 pm »

So opening and looking at this fan art piece of Zeal, I realized something!

Zeal was thouuuusands of years before Guardia and all that. And it was wiped out, almost totally. People started completely over. So the timeline isn't objectionable, in a way (unlike the 65-million year BC where humans were around), it's just that humanity had to really start all over after that.

Kind of like 2300 AD.

So, really, 2300 AD is similar to 11600BC, or so. I never thought of it this way- but Lavos caused a near extinction event more than once...

...

And now, as I write this, it makes me wonder if there's another story between that 12,000+ year time period. Did Lavos fuck up the world then, too?

7

History, Locations, and Artifacts / My 1999AD map

« on: August 23, 2017, 04:24:32 pm »

So I've been busy filling out the 1999 map, and here are the results! I based it on where things were in 1000 as well as 2300, and kind of considered that Lavos's emergence would likely have shifted things in 2300 more than they otherwise would have. The original part seen in the Day of Lavos video is unchanged. Wanted to share.

If there's anything anyone likes, or doesn't like, do let me know! I like taking in ideas.

The intention of this map is to take place in 2019 or thereabouts. The one thing I'm thinking about is including some kind of crater or... something... where Lavos emerged. But then, now that I think about it, maybe there should be something else erected over it where people go to study the strange phenomenon? Hmm...

Anyway, enjoy.

8

Chrono / Gameplay Casual Discussion / CT2 - Probing For Interest

« on: August 18, 2017, 03:17:39 pm »

So, I've been brainstorming with myself (aka daydreaming) about various things, and I'm just curious- who would be interested in creating a 16bit Chrono Trigger 2 game? (I know, Crimson Echoes exists.)

What I'm thinking of would be a next generation thing. Basically it could start with Crono/Marle's kids. It would require new sprites (that would be largely based on the old ones), the creation of new environments, of course, and a new story line (my expertise!).

In my mind, the gameplay, the feel, would all be heavily, heavily based on Chrono Trigger. It'd almost be like, another one. And who could argue with that?

Anyway, if anyone's interested do let me know, it's at least worth a conversation.

9

Characters, Plot, and Themes / Let's Plot Chrono Trigger 2 (Just For Fun)

« on: July 27, 2017, 04:27:29 pm »

How would you do it?

I was thinking the other day... I think it'd be cool if it stared Crono/Marle's kid(s). Let me say right off the bat that neither they nor Lucca are dead, and I'm completely willing to disregard everything that didn't happen in the original SNES version. So there, and nana-nana-booboo.

That said, you could have Guardia fall and Crono/Marle no longer royalty. That's actually not a bad start.

So anyway, stars Crono/Marle's kid, who is same age as Crono. (Boy? Girl? Hmmm...)

I was thinking this time (pun not intended, pun remains), maybe another Lavos could show up.  A stronger one, even, because the first was defeated. And the Lavos-es of the universe are like, aw hell no, whenever that happens.

Or! (And this still has nothing to do with Chrono Cross...), there can be a (or many?) dimension-hopping Lavos-es. Not that we keep creating new timelines and realities and whatever, just different dimensions, period. So instead of just traveling through time, Crono Jr. and/or Marle jr. go travelning through dimensions. Or... both?! Could be fun.

But the idea of Lavos would be the same. To collect all the DNA in order to- what do you think?- create the ultimate being, perhaps? Only this time it's not just all over the universe, it's all over every universe.

We could even consider winding this all the way back to Lavos's creator, if such a being exists. Alternatively, discovering how such a creature evolved.

Let's definitely not do it like some esoteric "the universe had to balance out life with death" or some shit, like in CC (according to one explanation I saw, anyway), just pulling the Dinopolis timeline (that never had reason to exist, ever, anyway, since in all the timelines, Lavos killed the reptites off!). That was ridiculous. It needs a cause and effect. Keep things Newtonian.

Anyway, I'm done rambling for the moment. Oh, except one more thing:

Since I'm happy to discard CC, we can do anything we want with Schala. I would LOVE it if she were the entity they talk about who created the gates. It makes so much sense. She should definitely be involved in the sequel, somehow, and maybe as the catalyst (again) to dimension-hopping, should the plot utilize that... or whatever else.

Okay, so now I'm really done rambling, who else wants to shoot the breeze and hope someone in Japan is listening?

10

Magic, Elements, and Technology / Dreamstone, the Red Rock, Religious inspirations

« on: July 25, 2017, 01:08:43 pm »

You know, if you read Belthasar's journal in which he says...

"It all began aeons ago, when man's ancestors picked up a shard of a strange red rock... Its power, which was beyond human comprehension, cultivated dreams... In turn, love and hate were born... Only time will see how it all ends."

... dreamstone seems to serve the same purpose as the forbidden fruit in the Creation Stories. It created a higher level of thought beyond instinct, thus elevating humans from other animals. Just like Adam and Eve developed "knowledge" and realized they were naked and so on.

And it also seems to function as the Eastern god(s) do. If you listen to Alan Watts explain that God dreams the world into being, and we're all a part of him/it/whatever... Dreamstone (thus the name?) appears to cause something similar.

Or maybe (and now we're getting deep) the "cultivation of dreams" simply means it brings out the potential within us as a species. We seem to generate and grapple with ideas in dreams first. Freud and Jung talk about this to levels I'm not qualified to explain. But it's in dreaming that the mind will confront problems. And dreaming, really, is the mind imagining things. Maybe imagining them uninhibited.

Think about this: we're different from animals because we can imagine the world and our actions as possibilities without experiencing them. We can reason out the best course of action without having seen it before. This is, in a sense, dreaming. So you could say, in the context of CT, that dreamstone is what gave humans this ability, and thus elevated us above the rest. (Which ties back into the forbidden fruit of knowledge, concepts like love and hate being born, on and on.)

11

General Discussion / Schala's Last Scene, Memory Corrupted?

« on: July 20, 2017, 01:01:15 am »

So, I could have sworn that right after Schala sent everyone through the gate to escape the Ocean Palace, she crouched like she does, and rubble started falling from the ceiling.

I've played through the ROM lately, and I checked a youtube just to be sure, and... no rubble. Was I just imagining this? Did my memory create it at some point? I was always convinced that was it, she died in there, but now I'm left wondering because what I thought killed her (the structure falling on her) didn't actually happen?

Am I taking crazy pills?

12

Lavos, the Planet, and other Entities / Schala Entity and Sequel

« on: July 20, 2017, 12:59:04 am »

So, two things stood out to me from the campfire scene.

First, Frog says, and I quote...

Lavos playeth an integral role in the fortunes of this Entity...

Then Robo says...

Our journey may come to an end when we finally discover the identity of this Entity.


So, starting with Frog's little statement. He really had no way of knowing this. Could this have been the programmer's little clue? Could the theory that Schala is the entity (I can't find the post that proposed this, someone help me out) be true? It fits Frog's strange statement.

So, maybe Schala's spirit or whatever was, in fact, the Entity Robo hypothesizes, and she somehow was able to influence Marle's pendant once it was in the vicinity of Lucca's telepod, to create the time gate(s). In whatever state she was in, she understood the timelines and potential timelines and knew certain ways that Lavos could be defeated. She seized upon the one opportunity she had (via Marle's, formerly her, pendant) to create one of those timelines.

Now, with Robo's statement, that could lead perfectly into a direct CT sequel. After all, they haven't discovered the identity of this Entity! Their journey hasn't come to an end yet!

!!!



... You know, as a kid, I always thought that was some kind of silliness that referred to the game player being the "entity," but now that I've been exposed to the theory that it was Schala from the original timeline, or even the new one (or both?), I really like the theory. And I think it totally works. And would work perfectly into the sequel we all want and need.

Someone should call square...

13

Lavos, the Planet, and other Entities / Random Lavos Thought(s)

« on: July 20, 2017, 12:05:28 am »

You know... we always think of the Lavos spawn as these things that all go out to devour their own planets, right?

But what if they're more like seeds of a plant? What if the majority of them never find anything and float forever? Maybe even Lavos has a way of narrowing it down, the way NASA is trying to now, as to where life hospitable planets might be.

(Ever notice that Lavos, having consumed and stored DNA, is basically under the assumption that all life on all planets uses/has DNA?)

Alternatively, maybe Lavos is at least partially responsible for the time gates (as opposed to the "Entity, though I'm about to post a theory on that too) and he uses them himself to go to the planets at the right time.

Consider this: the Lavos we know existed on this planet for 65-million years. Who knows how long it was in space. That's a really long time, and the galaxy isn't all that old on that kind of time span. A quick google tells me that's enough room for ~26 generations. Not a lot. BUT! If you think that Lavos travels through time to whenever a planet is starting to show signs of higher order life, or maybe it's even a give-or-take thing (thus he showed after life had been around for a while, but close enough to the beginning so whatever), then Lavos could be going around the galaxy somewhat independent of time. To put it shorter: the Lavos spawn may have missed some other planet's life by a few ten-million years... but it could just time-warp itself back a few ten-million years, and boom! Crash into that planet at an earlier time than it was "born."

Now, as for the thought out there that Lavos guided life or something... I see no reason for this. Life was started, including human life (silliness, in dinosaur times!), before he got to the planet. So I throw that one out. And I especially throw out the idea that we existed "for" or "because" of him. No, he was just hanging out, stealing our shit, then killed everything to reproduce.

But wouldn't it be cool if the Lavos-es of the galaxy/universe all went out, then got back together at a later point? ("Later" maybe not even literally, because they can time-warp.) That's the endgame! To collect ll DNA ever and then put it all into one mega-Lavos or something! It's (or someone's) creating the ultimate being!

And! What if the Lavos that failed thanks to Crono and friends is followed up by yet another Lavos!!! (From the Lavos Collective or something, I don't know.)
#sequel



... I also thought, way back in the day before Chrono Cross happened, that a dimension-hopping Lavos might be the next stage... so I guess the Japanese guys kiiiind of were thinking the same thing? But not really. The idea is, Lavos isn't just collecting the DNA of planets in this dimension, but many dimensions.

And you know, with that, you could just stick to CT canon with that idea, ignoring CC, and have a sequel on a whole new level.
#sequel
#again

14

Chrono / Gameplay Casual Discussion / Black Omen's Appearance

« on: July 19, 2017, 02:58:41 am »

Waiiiit a second.

What did Crono and co. change that caused the Black Omen to appear in the new timeline?

The disaster happened in the old timeline. Zeal fell when Lavos blombarded it, everyone was sucked into the time gates...

I mean, did the Ocean Palace just sit there in the ocean for all that time instead of floating? And even if it did, the question remains: why?

15

Chrono / Gameplay Casual Discussion / Best Level Grind for Emulator

« on: July 19, 2017, 01:03:24 am »

Just wanted to share this since googling it didn't give me a good answer...

There is a point is the Black Omen just after you encounter the two Nus who will either sell you stuff or warp you back to the entrance.

You fight a yellow beast, whatever he is, that you can charm speed tabs from (and do so forever, FYI...).

The next room contains two of those blue Gato robots. If you status protect yourself, which you should be able to with Amulet and... some helmets or something... Chaos won't affect you. You can now fast forward the fight ad nauseum... up down, up down... and level 99 everyone pretty damn quick. Thanks to that fast forward! Just spam the a button. I got everyone to 99 in less than an hour watching Seinfeld.

The trick is, they'll halve your HP, but if they can't cause chaos they can't ever actually kill you. And there was a save point just a room before for shelter use. So there you have it.

Tech points, if you need them, can be from those big eye things that always lock your techs/items. It's some outrageous number I forget, also pretty wasy.