Author Topic: Dream Fragments [Short Form]  (Read 3539 times)

ZeaLitY

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Dream Fragments [Short Form]
« on: June 21, 2018, 04:00:45 pm »
These are ideas i need to get down. These probably shouldn't be counted as actual entries.

Zeal Gaiden

If Chrono Break were ever made, I also imagine it being a kind of fanservice tour-de-force with the old gang (CT, CC, and RD's best characters combined), but I always had an idea about King Zeal I wish I could do. (Crimson Echoes spoiler.) He liberates himself from where Magus had been holding him, as Magus hasn't returned in quite some time. He pays a visit to the End of Time and discovers what's transpired regarding Project Kid and the Ideal Timeline. In this continuity, whatever we're calling "Schala" has gone beyond to the Sea of Zurvan, and having no further business with his son, Zeal decides to seek out the sea and find out once and for all what lies at the apex of dreaming. The philosophical themes are a bit like Moby-Dick, dealing with the fundamental meaninglessness of the universe, eternal recurrence, etc.

Anyway, as enchanting as that sounds, the real ideas are in the rogue's gallery of teammates Zeal would recruit for his cause. The party and their innates would be (and forgive that there are no names):

  • King Zeal - Shadow
  • The Zeal Woman - An aide to Gaspar who suffered long exposure to ill effects of Time Egg R&D and now has unreliable, out-of-phase but sometimes-broken level Shadow magic
  • The Chrono Cross Innate - If the Chrono Cross is the lost eighth element, why can't there be an innate? I'm not sure how they come about, but by being a Chrono Cross innate, they're inherently on the edge of dimensional stability and have extra-sensory awareness of probabilities/eventualities
  • The Shade - One of the shades from CT DS, potentially Crono, revealed to be a fragment from a discarded timeline that survived through use of a special Time Egg (and this could be a villainous design by King Zeal), preferably from a darker timeline as to give this person a believable enmity for their true, Ideal Timeline counterpart

Beyond that, my ideas are scattered. At some point, the End of Time terminus idea would be used, where denizens of planets/entities across the universe start linking each other's realms via each respective planet's End of Time/Time Error zone. As Gaspar customized our End of Time to look like a Victorian station, the terminus is represented by a rail line now connecting to the End of Time, allowing faster-than-light travel to other planets. None would necessarily be visited, but the tantalizing idea is that entire waystations would result, and a kind of Time Error civilization would come about of errant time travelers and others who'd transcended the normal flow. Zeal would use these to eventually reach Zurvan, realizing that...oh, who knows; it could be some physical place allegory for baryonic asymmetry, whatever.

Radical Dreamers II

CT ROM hack involving the use of four overworlds to represent 1020 A.D., one to represent an unspecified time between 12,000 B.C. and 1 A.D., and one potentially representing prehistory. Serge, Magil, and Kid are totally embroiled in a fiasco after attempting to burglarize part of the old Guardia estate near Truce and are persona-non-grata on the northern continent. Legends of a Mystic treasure take them farther south, where they get swept up in a centuries-in-the-making plot to conceal the mysterious backup plan should the summoning of Lavos have failed.

Agents of Porre in search of power, Guardia guerillas seeking a way to restore the Kingdom, Chorasian explorers (including a Toma descendant) in search of a way to resist Porre's inevitable maritime invasion, and Mystics seeking to protect the sacrosanct treasure all conspire to reach it first, sometimes crossing paths with, and other times following the trail of the Radical Dreamers. Many other world-building takes place, including a flesh-out of what exactly happened in that timeline, such as Crono never being revived and the RD origins of Lynx. At some point, the trio stumble upon Slash & Flea's former abode, which has strangely not decayed over 420 years. Inside, a Gate takes them to an undisclosed warming Ice Age period, where certain Mystics gather to refine their magic in a way that will not disturb history (almost like a CT colosseum), with not all of them aware that some among them came from other time periods.

After some boss battles occur (Slash and Flea, as well as other Mystics in a worldbuilding capacity, and best of all, Spekkio), Slash and Flea privately confront Magil and reveal they know his true identity. After the collapse of the Mystic Army, Ozzie settled down and had children, while Slash and Flea were contacted by Spekkio and invited to participate in his little gathering of Mystics, giving them a plausible connection to the Bend of Time in Chrono Cross. Magil challenges them for knowledge of the location of the Mystic treasure, which predated even his leadership in the army (he had no use for it, and honestly believed it to be a fairy tale). They point to prehistory, and...unfinished. They eventually return to 1020 A.D. and settle on the Frozen Flame as their next target.

Boo the Gentleman Caller

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Re: Dream Fragments [Short Form]
« Reply #1 on: June 23, 2018, 03:18:32 pm »
Quote
Zeal Gaiden

Super fun idea, but I'm trying to understand where/when the bulk of the game would take place. At various waystations across space-time? Or would it be more limited to a single planet (the world of Chrono), with various time eras / timelines / an entire multiverse to explore?

PrincessNadia78

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Re: Dream Fragments [Short Form]
« Reply #2 on: June 25, 2018, 02:15:39 pm »
I love the ideas that you have for Radical Dreamers II. I would love to see what else you have in mind for that!

Mauron

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Re: Dream Fragments [Short Form]
« Reply #3 on: June 29, 2018, 07:56:44 pm »
I always like the idea of more CT ROMhacks.

Quote
the use of four overworlds to represent 1020 A.D.

This would probably take some doing to make possible, since Chrono Trigger wasn't quite designed for this. Maybe if overworld access was limited in some way? Like if the Truce continent was one map, and only the ferry or Zenan Bridge could get you beyond that part of the world.
« Last Edit: June 29, 2018, 08:39:12 pm by Mauron »

ZeaLitY

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Re: Dream Fragments [Short Form]
« Reply #4 on: June 30, 2018, 08:34:59 pm »
Yeah, I was going to have very zoomed-in regions, connected via border checkstops or towns. It'd make a convincingly easy way to control the player's movement as well, because the Radical Dreamers' notoriety would mean they'd be very hesitant to pass by any Porre checkstops.

Boo the Gentleman Caller

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Re: Dream Fragments [Short Form]
« Reply #5 on: July 01, 2018, 02:30:28 am »
Makes sense. You could easily block off regions with natural landscapes: forests, mountains, rivers, etc.

The only way to pass between regions would be, as Zeality said, checkpoints, mountain passes/roads, bridges, etc.

Mauron

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Re: Dream Fragments [Short Form]
« Reply #6 on: July 01, 2018, 02:41:15 am »
And make sure there's enough space at the edges so you can't see the map loop.

TheMage

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Re: Dream Fragments [Short Form]
« Reply #7 on: August 11, 2018, 02:46:42 pm »
Ahhh! I love these ideas! All the yes!

the four 1020's could definitely be done with some work, but the zoomed in regions and checkpoints mountain passes etc would make it much easier than the repointing hell I was thinking of when I first read this. xD