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Topics - FouCapitan

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1
General Discussion / MIDI or similar composers?
« on: April 10, 2009, 07:56:41 am »
I'm looking to start a project some time in the near future, and one thing I lack for it is a medium to compose music with.

Does anyone know of any tools (preferably free) that could suffice?

Looking to compose music of quality similar to MIDI or SPC formats.

2
Chrono / Gameplay Casual Discussion / Recycling bad guys...
« on: March 23, 2009, 03:54:51 am »
I'd like to take a moment to talk about what was one of the few things that actually bothered me about Chrono Cross' plot (besides the oft depressing or environmentally preachy moments).

The villains.  While good and well done in their own right, there was not a single true enemy in the game with any story relevance that didn't have origins from an enemy in Chrono Trigger.

Think about it.

Lynx and FATE are both remnants of Mother Brain from Geno Dome.

The Porre Army was retconned to be definitely a product of Dalton.

The dragons were the creations of an alternate dimension's Reptite future population.

The Time Devourer was Lavos reincarnated from the Darkness Beyond Time.

The only enemies that can even be considered original are the Acacia Dragoons, who turn out aren't even your real enemies in the game.

Here's hoping that if there ever is a fourth installment to the Chronoverse, it will feature some stand alone new villains.

I guess the dwarfs can count as original villains, but they're so damn annoying I'm gonna choose to ignore their existence.

3
Polling / Worst Sequel Ever!
« on: March 23, 2009, 02:34:42 am »
Following the "Lamest retcon ever" poll, what would be the worst idea for a sequel ever!

Many series have had games completely decimate the feel and spirit of their predesessors (Some even argue that Cross did that, but we ignore them with 'STFU nerfbats').  Castlevania 2, the CDI Zelda games, Final Fantasy X-2 (which wasn't that bad =P), Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter, and so on.  So what would be the be all end all worst sequel idea for the Chrono series?

Edit:  I voted for the Chrono Pokemon clone, because it sounds so bad that I'm ashamed to have thought of it.

4
Characters, Plot, and Themes / The Sparkle in Crono's Death Scene...
« on: March 16, 2009, 03:52:01 am »
It's been bothering me for quite a while how many people believe the sparkle to be Crono's soul during his death scene, (Especially on the GameFAQs forums *shudder*)  so I've decided to set the record straight here as to why it is undoubtedly not.


The confusion was never an issue before those neat little anime cut scenes from the PSX version came into existence.  During the SNES/SFC days it was quite unanimously agreed to be the pendant.  Shiny little sprite rises up from his body, pendant is found by party member X later.  1 + 1 = 2, no arguments.

Then in the pretty new anime scene we see...  Strange glowing ball rises, Crono gets dusted, pendant is found by party member X later.  Suddenly we have ? + 1 = y...  I'll mention now that I fucking hate the individual who planned out that scene...

In my opinion, the animators made the item rising from his body correspond with the spritework on the screen without actually confirming what the sparkle was representing.  They see a sparkle rise, they animated a sparkle rising, no added details in that scene.

Now suddenly a large amount of people think it was Crono's soul, or some energy ball from Lavos, maybe a passing UFO that emerged from a dimensional rift in Crono's shirt, who knows.  It's horribly ambiguous.

One thing I can state for certain though, is that it is not his soul.  The reason is evident when the party gets Crono back.

In the time freeze where they switched his body with the Dopple Doll, the sparkle was still there above his body.  Thus, when they pulled him out, the sparkle stayed behind.  This makes the most sense if you presume it was the pendant, so it is still found on party member X's shoulder later and their own past remains unaltered. (Don't give me that TTI crap, paradox's can happen to time travellers, otherwise there would be no damn point in using the doll in the first place!)

Now if they pulled back Crono and it was his soul represented by the sparkle it would still remain in the past to be destroyed.  Now I know he doesn't talk much, but I'm pretty sure Crono, post time-egg, had his soul still intact.


In a nutshell,
Sparkle rising from Crono during death scene = Soul = WRONG!

5
Welcome / Birthday / Seeya! Forum / Another year down...
« on: February 15, 2009, 06:18:39 am »
This one passed me by rather quickly.  Seems like the years speed up as you get older, with time flying by before you even have an idea of what you'd like to do with it.

So I turn 26 today.  The feelings of being young at heart seem to drift a bit further away, but not so far as to be forgotten.  Indeed there's still a long road ahead in my life, and hopefully I've yet to reach the halfway mark still.

Still, I can't help but feel old now...  Maybe it's the surroundings here, with most other forum goers bein' younger than me.

But enough of that, it's time for me to have FUN!  Got most of the week off for vacation, going to shoot some cops in paintball, and got a big party planned for tuesday!

6
General Discussion / Game Soundtracks
« on: January 31, 2009, 07:10:04 am »
I know something along this topic has been done, but rather than pick out your favorite songs, list your favorite video game soundtracks altogether.

My personal top 10.

#10 - Lost Odyssey [Xbox360]
The music set to the 1000 years of dreams sequences sets the mood of the writing phenomenally well, and stands out prominently in this soundtrack.  If you have a 360, do yourself a favor and check this game out.  A good RPG, with wonderful writing thrown into the mix, and great mood setting ambiance to go with it.

#9 - Breath of Fire IV [PSX]
A fantastic game with a fantastic soundtrack.  Blending classical orchestras with eastern influence and even some techno mix, every battle and scene in this game is set with wonderful ear candy.

#8 - Suikoden II [PSX]
Another example of east meets west orchestrations, this soundtrack is just phenomenal.  Sadly the US release of this game was beset with a poor translation and a few bugs, which in two instances silenced the awesome soundtrack (One of which results in a singer preforming to dead silence *sob*)  Still, even with those setbacks it's a wonderfull example music done right.

#7 - Legend of Zelda [NES]
Pushing the quality of game music to its limit back in its day, and still wonderful to the ears now.  I remember sitting back and waiting through the start screen to hear the classic theme over and over as a kid.

#6 - Halo Series [Xbox360]
Brilliant orchestrated scores in a shooter?  Yes please!  In addition to the wonderful orchestra it's also set to rocking themes including many from Incubus, and heavy metallic percussion to set the perfect futuristic wartime mood.

#5 - Final Fantasy VIII [PSX]
"Eyes on Me" was just beautiful, and set this one apart from the other FF soundtracks IMHO.  Strangely, while many critical gamers trashed this installment for it's awkward GF battle system, and laughably cliché cast of angst filled teenage characters (Except Zell and Selphie, they carried the team on with gung ho enthusiasm!) this was actually my favorite Final Fantasy to date.  One strong reason has to be the music, which in my opinion is still among the best Nobuo Uematsu has composed to date.

#4 - Kingdom Hearts Series [PS2]
What do you get when you mix the New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, Hikaru Utada, Yoko Shimomura, and dozens of classic Disney themes?  The answer is pure gold, and that's the simple and clean truth.

#3 - Chrono Cross [PSX]
From the opening sequence set to Time's Scar, to the ending credits set to Radical Dreamers, it's hard to find a single song in this entire arrangement that I don't love.  Maybe Hurricane, but let's face it, with the exception of Breath of Fire IV, few games have battle tracks that don't become irritating by the time you finish them.

#2 - Secret of Mana [SNES]
There were many days through Junior High and High School where I would play songs from this game in my head, passing the boredom by.  Each track sets a different mood, ranging from the upbeat and cheerful 'Color of the Summer Sky' and 'What the Forest Taught Me', to the mysterious and magical 'A Wish' and 'Fear of the Heavens', to the eerie and macabre 'Ceremony' and 'The Oracle'.  Over 40 tracks of brilliant music, for one of the greatest games of all time.

#1 - Chrono Trigger [SNES]
Do I really need to say anything about this pick?   :)

7
Time, Space, and Dimensions / Time Traveller's Immunity Does Not Exist
« on: January 20, 2009, 02:56:02 am »
Time Traveller's Immunity states that travellers through time are immune to actions that would alter their own existences.  This has constantly been a theory used to explain why instances where the Chrono crew's lives depended on their own actions in the past, they would remain unaffected by their lack of action or progress.

This theory has been clashed by one major plot point in the game, Marle's disappearance from the timeline in 600 A.D., referred to as the "Marle Paradox."

Two items that support TTI, are Magus' interventions in his own past, and Melchior's unaltered future during Magus' interventions, and meeting the Chrono crew.

To explain the latter, minus TTI, I put it that the changes made in history by Magus and the others did in fact change Melchior in the present, however at no point in the meddling done was his position there neutralized.

This is because the nature of Melchior and the other Guru's travel from 12,000 BC to their respective time periods was not in relation to their proximity to Lavos.

The Entity began affecting time in an effort to protect itself (The Planet) from destruction at the hands of Lavos.  Naturally this would require it to protect the lives of those who would play an integral part in achieving this goal.  The gurus each played such a role, thus it was the Entity, not Lavos, who originally and still in the altered timeline sent them through time at the moment of Zeal's destruction.  This is supported by the statement that the Earthbound ones saw Melchior and Janus pulled into black portals after the Ocean Palace incident (The same black portals found during Magus' flashback to Ocean Palace).  When Melchior was imprisoned on Mt. Woe, I theorize that the Entity still pulled him from his prison through time, to preserve this same outcome, regardless if Crono and the rest rescued him or not.

As to why Melchior never makes mention of recognizing Crono and the others, I believe this is because he realized upon seeing Crono in the Millennial Fair that he too was sent through time, and felt that he may play an important role in time.  With this knowledge, rather than react to Crono with recognition, he feigned ignorance and behaved as if he were meeting him for the first time, in order to preserve the newly forged past he found himself with.

Explaining Magus' past being affected by his own actions is a different story.  While the actions he took would indeed change his current self, the memories of the lost timeline destroyed by his actions remained.  This would actually carry support for Zeality's theory of lost memories not dissappearing into the Darkness Beyond Time entirely, but rather channelling into the most similar incarnation of that memory, or dreams as he put it.  Link Here.

This would explain how Magus could still recall the original history of the Ocean Palace incident, and recite it for the Chrono crew.  As with Melchior, his own existence (Janus' future) was never altered during his meddling, as the Entity was always ready to ensure his time travel at the moment of Lavos' emergence.

Any arguments to this?

8
Submissions / Chrono Breaker (Fanfic/Game Script)
« on: January 11, 2009, 08:04:12 am »

Author Forward:

This is a fanwork in progress.  Right now I'm presenting it in script form, writing it as a proposed game, rather than a simple fanfic.  The story will follow a new adventure of Kid (Schala) following in Chrono Cross's footsteps.

As such, this work will contain spoilers for all other games in the series, including the DS remake.  There are also some references to Radical Dreamers within, so if you haven't played through it, I highly reccommend finding a ROM and using Demiforce's latest English patch.

Finally, I'll remind everyone that this is a work in progress.  Please notify me of any grammar, punctuation, spelling, continuity, or readability errors you may find.  Positive feedback will be welcomed with cookies, constructive criticism will be recieved with an open minded nod, and arguments over which theoretical endings from Chrono Cross I should be using as canon for this story will be met with a "NO U" reply.

Without further ado, I present draft one of the introduction scene to Chrono Breaker.





Scene 1

Open in a public library, mostly empty with only a few inhabitants lost in their own literary worlds.  Dust hangs heavy in the room, as beams of sunlight cut through it, providing the only illumination for the readers within.

We focus on one person in particular.  A blonde girl in her late teens, her hair done in a long braid adorned with red ribbons, clad in rough travelling clothes.  Resting against the side of her chair we see a large leather container, and propped up in front of her is a monstrously thick book entitled "World History Vol. 6: 501 A.D - 1500 A.D"

As we focus in on her, a reading of an unseen journal is heard in a woman's voice, and written on the screen.

"Day 1:

It's been one year since then.  We had gone through so much together, and so much changed in the end.  Even though it seemed he wouldn't remember any of it, I didn't care.  I found someone special in him.  Something inside him that I knew wouldn't change, even if the time we spent together was erased.

One year, and no luck finding him.  I searched El Nido and all of Zenan for him.  Our former companions, who also forgot the journey we went through, had no recollections of him of course.  Only that girl, Leena.

She told me he had changed after that day on the beach, and left Arni in search of something.  I only wish I knew where, or when..."


We cut to the girl's face, her eyes intently passing over pages in the history book as she turns them.

"But I'm getting ahead of myself.  Never really kept a journal before this one, so I'm not even sure how to begin.  Maybe in another life, another dimension, I would have a knack for writing something someone would want to read later on.  Oh well, work with what you're given.

To begin, my name is Kid.  Schala "Kid" Zeal to be long-winded about it.

I was born in 12,016 B.C, a time known by modern scholars as 'Antiquity'.  My parents were the King and Queen of the magical kingdom that ruled there.  Life was good in those days, but mankind was as ignorant of their surroundings as they ever would be.  We had a source of power there, a magical energy that granted many great things.  We eventually learned that the center of that power lay within a creature known since ancient times as Lavos, who lay dormant within the earth.

When I was about 15, my father passed away.  My brother Janus and I helped each other through the pain of loss, but our mother grew distant from us.  Instead, in her grief, she turned to Lavos.  Breaking stride with the path the kingdom had taken so far, she made developing raw magical power the number one goal.  Getting closer and closer to Lavos with every passing day.  Janus saw her ambitions clearly for what they were, madness.  She was no longer the loving parent we grew up with.  Every passing day I regret not standing against her, and not depending on my own strength."


Kid closes the book and slides out of her chair, heading towards a bookshelf with the large volume in her arms.

"Needless to say, the power of Lavos brought the ruin of the kingdom, and what I distinctly remember as the end of my life.  It wasn't death, so to speak, but something probably worse looking back.  I was outside of everything, and with it all at the same time.  Caught between existing and not existing, and in that void I was combining with that creature, Lavos.  Any memories of that time I'd rather not recall vividly.  All I know is that I turned my back on everything.  My brother, my life, and the world.

But somehow, through all that, I found him.  I heard him crying out, and something about him made me want to exist again, and be with him.  I can't remember anything of that life for a while after that though.  All I know is that this was around the time when I would be born again."


As she places the sixth volume back on its shelf, Kid grabs the next volume in the World History series, 'Vol. 7: 1501 A.D - 1998 A.D'

"My second life began in 1004 A.D.  A clone of my other self I had created in hopes of reaching him.  I was found by a woman named Lucca.  She raised me up, along with several other kids who had lost their parents, mostly in some war that had been going on.  She was a great person to live with, and I was proud to call her my big sister...

It's hard to remember the rest now though.  Part of me remembers living there, happily growing up with all the kids and listening to Lucca spin her stories of adventure, while another part remembers all happiness being ripped away."


Kid sets the book on the table with a large audible thud, echoing through the library.  A stern man behind a desk glances up momentarily at the noise, and shakes his head with dissapproval as he returns to his work.  Kid takes her seat, and begins scanning this volume through.

"I remember a fire, and a man named Lynx taking Lucca away from me.  I remember hating that bastard with every fiber of my being.  I remember that taking his head became the sole purpose of my life for a long time.

Then I remember him.  Serge.  At first glance I liked him, and helped him at my first opportunity.  Maybe some part of my other life had meant for me to find him.  My own goals seemed to give way to his as we travelled together, searching for the solution to the puzzle of his life.  Split dimensions, ironically caused by me.  I think I wound up travelling with him many times, in many lives, but none of those travels seemed to end happily, until he found the original me.

Jeeze this is confusing to write down.  To explain it better, Serge found his way to my first self, born in Zeal, and trapped beyond time.  I was beyond consciousness by that point, and Lavos had full control over my actions.  Until Serge played a song.

Silly that of all things to stop me from becoming the most terrible monster ever to exist, something as simple as a song would do the trick.  It was familiar.  Not of my life as Schala, or my life as Kid, but I knew that song.  The dimensions had been torn down to ribbons by that time, so maybe it was from just one of those strands that I picked it up.

Anyways, the song awakened me.  I knew where I was, who I was, and who had played the song for me, all in an instant.  Strangly enough, it's the first vivid memory that I can produce since I lost my will at fall of Zeal.  At that point I took control of my life for the first time ever, and severed myself from Lavos.

I'd hoped to set things right, right then and there.  I just don't know what went wrong.  I set the clock back, merging all the dimensions that I'd split when trying to reach out to Serge from beyond time.  Undoing what I'd done using Lavos dwindling power at my disposal.  Then I put my two selves together, in hopes that both lives could be complete.

I planned to go to him, to meet at that beach where his adventure started a year ago, and to start a life worth living."


Kid finally reaches the end of the last volume, with a dissatisfied scowl spreading across her face.

"If only I could figure out why the hell he wasn't there."

Kid grabs the book by the spine and flings it across the room with a loud growl, sending it crashing into a bookcase.  The librarian stands alert at this, and glares at her, while pointing his finger towards the exit.

Librarian - "You!  Out!  Now!"

Kid scoffs, the scowl deepening on her face as she grabs the large leather container, slings it over her shoulder and walks past him.

Kid - "No problem.  Place is bloody useless anyways."


We cut to Kid walking down the street in a modern metropolis setting, passing people on the sidewalk.  We continue the narration of her journal as this scene plays.

"He was nowhere to be found, like he'd dropped off the face of the planet, with only those from his village even knowing he'd existed.  I searched everywhere, the entire world, looking for him.  Finally, I decided to start searching beyond that, through time."

Kid pauses at an intersection, waiting for the crosswalk to turn while she thoughtfully thumbs her amulet which hangs in her right hand.

"The amulet I had back when Lucca found me still had some magic in it.  Magic that originated from that Lavos abomination yeah, but magic no less.  It took me a while to find one, but I eventually found one of those things that Lucca spoke of in her stories of adventure, a gate in the forest on El Nido's main island.  A gate through time.

I had no idea where it'd take me, but I was certain that Serge was no longer in this world, and I wasn't going to sit back and accept that fact."


Kid continues walking down the street, as the camera pans up to show the spreading city, concealed under a large transparent glass dome.

"So here I am, at the first step in a new adventure.  The gate I found in El Nido led to 2000 A.D, further into the future than I'd imagined I'd wind up.  I plan to use this era to my advantage, and search through their recorded history for any sign of Serge's existance."


We cut to the inside of an adequately furnished hotel room where Kid opens the door, tosses the leather container to the ground with a large metallic clang eminating from it, storms over to a desk, angrily opens a journal and begins to scrawl in it while reading her own writing aloud.

Kid - "Day 2:  NOTHING!  Not a damn clue to his existance!  Nothing on file, nothing on their networks, nothing in their LONG BORING BOOKS!  It's like he never existed at all!"

She sighs as she closes the journal shut and flops back onto the bed, staring at a fan on the ceiling.

Kid - "What the hell happened to ya, mate?"

9
Greetings Chronoholics.

I'm here just to be here, can't really say there's much more to it than that.  Love every single Chrono game (Can finally say that after getting around to playing RD) so I figured I'd partake in a nice community based on them.

A little about me then.  I'm 25, from Colorado, and enjoy many nerdy things in life.  Former army mechanic, currently working your average clerk job while deciding what I want to get out of college.  I like drawing, writing, playing video games, comedies, some anime, and getting wasted with friends on a weekend.

Pleasure to meet'cha all.

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