Author Topic: Revised Plot and Planning Thread  (Read 22283 times)

ZeaLitY

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Revised Plot and Planning Thread
« on: October 15, 2006, 01:45:51 am »
Before the game

Belthasar comes to the future and builds Chronopolis, without telling the Central Regime. He uses the Frozen Flame, its generator, and a Time Egg to resurrect friends and others. However, the effort to save King Zeal backfires; he loses control of the King, who escapes on his own will with the Flame and Time Egg.

Prologue

King Zeal took interest in Crono, Marle, and Lucca. He gave General Montcrief funds and cyborg implants to cause trouble. Porre tries to reverse-engineer them to create other machines, such as a tank, but they aren’t skilled enough.

  • 1002 - Montcrief’s cyborg program releases its first candidate, Sorin, and sends him on a test run to assassinate the Chancellor. Lucca's prototype Time Egg backfires, sending the party to Chronopolis.

Chapter 1: Legacy of Zeal

King Zeal also contacted Dalton, and recruited him in preparation of his re-creation of the kingdom of Zeal. Dalton’s loyalty is dubious, as it was with Queen Zeal, but King Zeal doesn’t consider him a serious threat, anyway.

  • 11999 - While searching for Schala, Magus faints, is rescued by the First Village Elder and gets Sargon to let people use his healing square.
  • 11999 - Dalton retrieves the Silver Streak for King Zeal. Magus shadows Dalton but is defeated. Emphasis is put on the fact that Magus is much weaker than he should be. Magus is locked in stasis; he retains a dreamlike consciousness and begins reflecting on his past.

Chapter 2: Double Trouble

Having heard and observed the party, the Porre agent decides to discretly loot Lucca’s house to learn interesting stuff. He finds the Gate Key, and uses it to travel to Chronopolis (via the Telepod blue Gate). He downloads information about tank technology.

  • 2302 - Belthasar greets Crono and friends. He shows them the Time Dispatch Chamber, a machine which can send people to any year in time, but not bring them back. He also explains that the party’s arrival was due to the Temporal Catch, a powerful force field which diverts most time portals to Chronopolis instead of the End of Time.
  • 2302 - The party finds the Porre agent and tries to capture him, but they’re all caught in the Dispatch Chamber and return to 1002. They visit the Porre Camp. The agent waits for them to leave and enters to fix the tank prototype.
  • Montcrief attacks Guardia. The party fights off the invasion. The agent flees and loses the Gate Key. Lucca picks it up and they decide to go see if the Telepod Gate (or the Medina one) is somehow reopened.
  • 2302 - The party arrives in Chronopolis again. King Zeal releases monsters to test it; the party defeats them.

Chapter 3: Beneath the Azure

King Zeal resurrects Schala with the Flame’s power. He does this instead of simply preventing her from dying in the past, because he wants her to experience the same thing he has experienced.

  • 2302 - Belthasar notes that the monsters were from the same kind as the Ocean Palace ones. He sends the party to 11998 BC to investigate the Palace ruins.
  • 11998 - The party finds Schala and King Zeal. Magus feels something’s weird is going on and frees himself from the stasis prison. He rushes to the Ocean Palace and is confused to find his sister now even though he had already visited the place before with no result. Because of Magus’s presence, King Zeal picks up the Masamune to hurt him and then escapes, “entrusting” Schala to the party for the time being.

Chapter 4: Murmurs of Red

King Zeal’s removal of the Masamune alters the timeline. In the Middle Ages, Cyrus and Glenn died as normal soldiers. Kasmir lived on to become a powerful Mystic illusionist instead of dying young. In 600 A.D., Kasmir replaced Magus as the Mystic leader. A bewildered Glenn returned from the Lavos quest and founded the Vanguard order to restore peace quickly. However, the war dragged on until 650 A.D.

  • 2302 - Magus and Schala reunite, while the party requests to visit Glenn in 602 A.D.
  • 602 - Glenn is found in the Dorino Field, preparing to raid the Mystic continent. Kasmir is defeated in the tunnel, but as expected by Glenn, it was just another illusion.
  • 602 - The party must track back to save two Vanguard, while Glenn continues alone. He finds Vanguard and Porre troops discussing what to do with a small Mystic village claiming to be fed up with Kasmir. The three Vanguard captains have differing opinions, and Glenn must side with one of them:
  • Renault’s option: Help Porre raid the village
  • This option will show Glenn giving into his distaste for the Mystics, and ravaging the village. Porre will give you thanks for helping them. In 1002 A.D., tensions with Porre will have backed down somewhat, while Medina will become unfriendly.
  • Luther’s option: Prevent Porre from raiding the village
  • Porre will express incredulity at this course of action and will send forth some soldiers that Glenn will defeat. The Mystics will thank you and give you a reward. In 1002 A.D., however, you will find Porre to be much more hostile to you.
  • Roget’s option: Declare neutrality
  • This provokes a dismissive reaction from both sides. When it's over, the Mystic and Porre fighters will have been eradicated to the last man. The corpses are available for looting, and thus you obtain far more items than you would with either of the first two options. In 1002 A.D., both Porre and Medina will be unfriendly.

Chapter 5: Asking the Mirror

  • 2302 - The party returns to Chronopolis with Glenn. Magus joins the party following a dialogue with Schala.
  • 2302 - Belthasar remarks that the recent activities are starting to wear out the Chronopolis Dreamstone, so he needs his old Zeal notes to choose a new and better power source. He sends the party to 12001 B.C. with a Time Egg (so they can return).
  • 12001 - The party learns about early Project Mammon, recovers the notes, and avoids a patrol by Dalton.

Chapter 6: The Breaking Point

  • 2302 - Having recovered his notes, Belthasar gives a speech on Dreamstone and King Zeal. He then decides that the Dragoon Tooth, a legendary Reptite artifact, is what they need to power Chronopolis.
  • 2302 - The entire party depart to Prehistory, as Belthasar notes that they might need the extra hands for uncovering the Dragon Tooth if it requires a little work.
  • 64999998 - The party rescues Ayla and discovers that the “Dragoon Tooth” is actually a Reptite shamaness. They also find King Zeal, who followed the party around for some time and learned of Lavos’s presence in Prehistory. He didn’t know it directly because the Frozen Flame doesn’t want him to.
  • 64999998 - King Zeal notes how he and Lavos are both in a contest for survival, and he will kill Lavos. The Frozen Flame dispenses the Dragon Tooth, a male Reptite (we could call him Zavra, to salvage a name from the previous drafts), and the six party members through time while King Zeal attempts the Atash Kedah.

Chapter 7: An Emerald Dream (part 1)

The Dragon Tooth and Zavra arrive in 3000000 BC, get mutated by the Frozen Flame along with the humans, and produce a new population of Reptites.

  • 1 - Marle awakes to find Cedric and her ancestors, still sharing the planet with Reptites but on the verge of defeat. Marle locates Terra Tower and decides to explore it, hoping to find her friends or some magical device.
  • 1 - Marle is trapped by surprise by a Xamoltan time traveler, Cakulha, coming from 2001, and dies. Cedric’s village is destroyed by the Reptites.

Chapter 8: An Emerald Dream (part 2) (this needs a distinct title)

  • 2001 - Lucca and Robo arrive to find themselves in the midst of robots.
  • 2001 - The robots wish to secede from Reptite control, and enlist the two to destroy an intelligence facility where a non-Maverick AI is being developed to stop the robot rebellion. Lucca notes that with the Frozen Flame taint, Reptites are as nocive to the planet as the humans...
  • 2001 - In exchange, the robots give Lucca and Robo access to Terra Tower, noting that destroying the Vision Serpent will cripple the Reptites for good. They learn about Cakulha, Coyopa, and Yaluk, but never meet them as they seem to have already gone in time.
  • 2001 - Lucca and Robo destroy the Vision Serpent, a prototype Dragon God (this relation is hinted, not stated of course). They can't go back in time since the portal too was destroyed, but this cripples the Reptites, allowing the robots to rule. Lucca and Robo seemingly enjoy living with the robots, and spend the rest of their lifes there.

Chapter 9: An Emerald Dream (part 3) (this needs a distinct title)

  • 1002 - Crono, Magus, and Glenn arrive in a forest. They head up a little and find a village (all one map) and Terra Tower, where a traveler blocks the entrance but is cordial.
  • 1002 - They see Reptites doing a strongman contest. They battle a few and win, earning a dinner with the time travelers.
  • 1002 - The two travelers explain their history and ask where the others came from; they say outer space.
  • 1002 - The party get elemental armor from a group who do not trust the new time travelers.
  • 1002 - When Crono meets with the religious leaders who doubt the time travelers, they'll reason that time traveling is going too far...that the Reptites have grown in harmony with the planet by restricting their ambitions, and that the time traveling seems to be a blind leap.
  • 1002 - The party find the Porre agent from Chapter 2, bewildered and thinking that he came to the wrong era. They almost fight, but decide to ally to figure out what's going on. His name is revealed as Sorin.
  • 1002 - They go to Terra Tower, and Magus detects a massive accumulation at the top of Terra Tower, and they break in.
  • 1002 - Crono sees Marle's skeleton in a cell with the pendant and immediately kills two Reptites trying to reason with him.
  • 1002 - King Zeal comes in and notifies the Xamoltan time traveler who is present, Coyopa, that Crono, Magus, and Glenn must also be apprehended, and that they're trying to disrupt Reptite civilization.
  • 1002 - Crono and the others kill Coyopa and use the portal to return to 64999998 B.C.
  • 1002 - Sorin follows them through the portal.

Chapter 10: The Stain of Regency

  • 64999998 - Crono, Magus, and Glenn burst in to the crater a few minutes before the initial time warps. Sorin arrives and jumps in the Dragon Tooth’s portal to prevent her from changing the timeline.
  • 64999998 - The party must choose once more to save Ayla or attack Zeal. A few battles happen.
  • 64999998 - Magus and Glenn are held back by a Light barrier, but Crono, being Light innate, is able to go through. King Zeal taunts Crono and talks about the Flame. It's such an illustrious shade of crimson...it represents the uncovered, unbound desire for more power and advancement. He notes that communicating with it has given him many new perspectives, and opened his mind to all sorts of things...but Crono knocks King Zeal to the ground, disrupting the spell.
  • 64999998 - Magus and Glenn join Crono to try and finish him off. King Zeal leaves, but notes that the spell will partly finish, and hopes they enjoy the fire. Magus, Glenn, and Crono are severely wounded before they can escape.

Chapter 11: (The Founding of Guardia)

  • 1 - The screen cuts here, where Marle is sleeping in a bed in a stone room. Cedric wakes her and they ride out to battle to find Antaeus. This time Cedric is truely "Cedric Guardia the Executor", a brutal conqueror (and Arbiter of the Flame!), not the polite and ordinary "Cedric" of the altered timeline.
  • 1 - Due to Marle's presence during the battle, the events are altered: Marle does something not very wise that draws the warriors' attention where it shouldn't have. The consequence is that Antaeus steals the Frozen Flame before Cedric can use it. Antaeus's body is charged with energy and he utters the already famous sentences:
  • "A thousand fires have sparked within my mind! I see everything! I know all! And I know this: you must perish!"
  • 1 - Marle realizes what she's just done and has to fight Antaeus in Cedric's place. She defeats him; Cedric grabs the Frozen Flame back and the Porre troops surrender. A Chronopolis agent locates Marle and takes her back, noting that the Entity apparently created a permanent Gate in this era.
  • 2302 - Marle finds Crono, Magus, and Glenn bedridden. She talks to Crono. Lucca and Robo arrive. Schala is busy tending to Ayla in Prehistory.
  • 2302 - Belthasar explains that Coyopa showed up in 1002 A.D., and that Lucca and Robo "took care of him."

Chapter 12: (this is a bit of Zeality's "The Gray Forgotten" and Hadriel's "Vanguard Apocalypse")

  • Belthasar informs the party that Cakulha is causing some crisis on Zenan mainland. He tells them to first recover the Epoch in 1,002 A.D. in case something would happen to Chronopolis.
  • 2302 - After doing so and returning, the party may learn about the future political situation by browsing a computer: in the aftermaths of a disastrous nuclear conflict in the 22th century, the nations of the world decided to unite in a Central Regime to prevent other tragedies. In reality, the Vanguard organization is almost synonymous with this regime: it controls most of it. Rebellions form from time to time but are always easily crushed. In 2,302 A.D., the situation is different because of Cakulha. He joined the current (terroristic) rebellion and has managed to acquire a nuclear missile that they plan to use on a city of the Central Regime. Belthasar doesn't really know why Cakulha joined them, but the party has to take care of him in any case.
  • 2302 - The party makes its way in the rebel base fighting a few robots and a majority of human enemies (we'll replace Krawlie with a mecha-armored fighter...or something). Whenever there are no enemy around the party to hear him, Cakulha appears on a computer screen and ask the party ethical questions about changing time. He also reveals that his only goal in this conflict is to gather resource and acquire the means necessary to find Chronopolis. He can't directly use the resource of the Central Regime, because he doesn't want to tell anyone about the Time Fortress and because they would have used him as a guinea pig if they ever found him. So he joined this non-xenophobic rebellion instead and tries to make them overthrow the regime. Cakulha in the missile base ridicules the world and the party for mucking in time, noting that dangerous, blind pursuits like this are like a cancer of space-time. After all questions are answered, one out of three possible outcomes for Cakulha is reached:
  • 1. He commits suicide (normal rewards).
  • 2. He's defeated in battle by the party (more EXP gain + some piece of equipment).
  • 3. He tries to stop the missile launch but is killed by the rebels (more GP + some Elixirs or Megalixirs).
  • 2302 - In the end, the remaining rebels manage to launch the missile regardless of Cakulha's fate. The party jumps in the Epoch and blows it before it reaches its target. At the minimum, the cutscene will show the missile, the Epoch, and some rebel jets flying above the ocean, and an explosion with DrawGeometry and fire explosion sprites. If we can, we'll add close-ups, lateral views, mode 7, etc.
  • 2302 - After returning to Belthasar, the party is told that a few rebel robots (including Proto 5-02C) actually managed to hear Cakulha and them mentioning Chronopolis, and that rumors of its existence is starting to spread on the mainland. People don't believe those robots, except the Vanguard of the Central Regime, who already suspected that their founder Glenn was a time-traveler...

Chapter 13: (Animal-like Persistence)

The party is saddened by Cakulha's fate, whatever it is, but Belthasar is just upset about the Vanguard searching the oceans for Chronopolis. For now though, he lets the party go visit Ayla in Prehistory.

  • 64999998 - The party find Ayla wounded, but alive. Things are back to normal in prehistory.
  • 64999998 - ...actually, are they? NPCs speak about a new leader among the Reptites. The party realize that the Xamoltans were three: Coyopa (killed in 1002), Cakulha (seen in 1 AD and taken care of in 2302), and Yaluk, the female leader whose fate is unknown.
  • 64999998 - Somewhere (Singing Mt or a new location), the party meet with the Reptites. Yaluk is indeed here, but reveals she doesn't want to fight. She ceased to obey King Zeal and plans to just live peacefully with the remaining Reptites, away from the humans, until her species die out (after her lifetime anyway). She dreams of a world in which Lavos never falls and the Reptites can leave in harmony with nature... but it's just a dream, isn't it? The party reveals her Cakulha's fate, but Yaluk's decision doesn't change in any case.
  • 64999998 - Yaluk tells the party that she knows of Azala, who may have had a chance to save the Reptites, but was so selfish and absorbed with his war with humanity that he did nothing and was crushed by the events of Lavos's fall. His desire became almost self-destructive. Yaluk cautions the humans against a similar fate.
  • 64999998 - After all those emotional moments, I suppose something less distressing is gladly welcome by the player: a strong and stupid Ioka man challenges Ayla to be chief of Ioka, citing her incapacitation as weakness. He challenges her to a game of getting the most animal hides off a tall mountain.
  • 64999998 - Ayla obviously cannot participate, but Glenn steps up to the challenge, comedically scampering around to get more hides than the other guy.
  • 64999998 - That night, Magus and Schala reflect on King Zeal. Schala reveals her sorrow, her feeling that back in the Ocean Palace when she woke up Lavos, she ultimately caused everything bad that happened since then and is in a way the actual responsible for every life that was suppressed because of it.

Chapter 14: The Glare of Midnight...

In Chronopolis, Belthasar thought he could handle the situation with the robots and Vanguard, but he can't handle it any longer. Belthasar decides to clean up the timeline: if the party recover the "past" Masamune and put it back somewhere in 11,998 BC, the Mystic War will revert back to its original state and the Vanguard will cease to exist to annoy Chronopolis. Belthasar reveals that King Zeal had given it to Kasmir in 602 AD after their first encounter (he put Masa and Mune to sleep too, but the sword isn't corrupted).

  • 602 - The party arrive to find Zenan set back by fighting which recently subsided. They hear that the attack was, at the last minute, led by Ozzie, Slash, and Flea, and that the Mystics have since retreated.
  • 602 - As the party arrive in Medina, Kasmir gives the clear for the Mystic genocide. Ozzie, Slash, and Flea spread to the three settlements to stop them.
  • 602 - The invasion is repelled and everyone meets at the entrance to the dungeon. The Mystic warriors and Magus break through, and the two groups split up.
  • 602 - They reach Kasmir, but realize that Porre just sent humans there as a reprisal. They know the humans will be massacred. The Mystic warriors volunteer to stop Kasmir if the others will save their kind.
  • 602 - King Zeal arrives and punts the Mystic warriors outside the fortress. He tells Kasmir that he needs his Mystics for a task, and leaves Kasmir behind, who promptly escapes the back way.
  • 602 - Crono finds the Porreans dead and returns to find everyone else gone. They decide to go to 1002 to see if anything has changed.

Chapter 15: ...And the Darkness of Noon

  • 1002 - Conditions are horrible now that the Mystics have grown close to Porre after several of them were martyred while trying to stop Kasmir.
  • 1002 - King Guardia and the Vanguard are staging a last ditch meeting with Porre-Medina to smooth things over.
  • 1002 - Crono decides to attend instead of returning to 602 since the meeting is taking place immediately.
  • 1002 - While at the meeting, Guardia Castle comes under attack from Mystics unleashed by King Zeal. The Vanguard seal the meeting room while Crono and the others rumble in the castle.
  • 1002 - Crono makes it up to the top tower, where he finds the portal and someone gets rid of it. He returns to the throne room to find King Guardia crawling to the throne. Marle rushes in, and he collapses and dies.
  • 1002 - King Zeal appears behind them on the throne of Guardia. He laughs at the turn of events and remarks that it's given him the opportunity to do some shopping in Guardia's treasury. Marle takes a shot at him, but he disappears. The Vanguard and guards get things under control. The Sun Stone is missing.
  • 602 - The heroes arrive, and speak to the Mystic Warriors. They note that King Zeal knocked them out and left Kasmir hanging, but they can't find him. They did find the Masamune though. Being dumb, they don't realize its power and agree to offer it to the party. Past Masa and Mune awake and say something to their present counterparts.
  • 602 - The heroes ask the Mystic Warriors to lead Medina again on the condition that they'll root out the love for Porre and not pull any trick like before.
  • 11998 - Glenn puts the past Masamune in some mountain in the wild. The party mention in passing that a Glenn fighting with two legendary swords would have been awesome.
  • 2302 - Melchior ponders about how a legendary weapon can elevate people's ideals so much... while it could also perverse other people's or even the same people's consciences, at the same time.

Chapter 16: (Stop the Porre Lab)

With the Masamune in history, 602 AD now returns to peace and the Central Regime (still existent, but with no Vanguard) doesn't try to find Chronopolis. King Guardia in 1002 is still dead since this was caused by King Zeal. The fact that Belthasar doesn't let Marle use the TDC to revive her father is justified by the robots/Vanguard "incident".

  • 2302 - The party return to Chronopolis, where Marle argues with Belthasar about saving her father's life. Belthasar reveals that he was soon to die anyway. He tells the party they can rest or return to the present while he's trying to locate King Zeal. The party feel like they should check Medina 1002 after all that happened.
  • 1002 - Hutch tells them Toma XIII has gone missing. The party search at the sealed pyramid and find the door to something. However, they can't open it, and Hutch is worried about Toma. The party decide to go see the first Toma.
  • 1002 - They bring him to 1002 A.D. and he opens it up. They enter and go down a few hallways to find a Porre lab conducting experiments on Mystics. The lead researchers are Luccia's parents; she's there as a 10 year old kid along with her older brother (the man who would create Grobyc in CC). Anyway, they're trying to infuse humans with magic, and create monstrosities as a result. Toma attempts to bust out his descendant as the party fight some of their creations. (Wild idea: photoshop the CT monster "Mutant" to make him look like a CC monster "Neo-N-Bulb": they already look a bit alike.)
  • 1002 - They eventually find Luccia and her parents, who confirm that these ruins belonged to some weird civilization. The boss comes out and tramples her parents. The party defeat the boss. Before dying, Luccia's parents tell her and his brother to finish their research and complete a new cyborg (the first Porre cyborg was completed only thanks to King Zeal's help).
  • 1002 - The party set bombs to demolish the place to limit knowledge of Zeal. They take Luccia and her brother outside with the Tomas, who have an interesting scene together. William Ishito shows up and remarks that Porre might form a Black Wind unit to replace the losses there, and that he'll join it to make sure things don't get out of hand. His 8 year old brother Norris is with him and notes that he'll join too, as he wants to be a hero. Ishito shrugs it off, and Toma goes to check out his museum before returning to 602 A.D.

Chapter 17: Once More Unto the Breach

This chapter is a strong opportunity to demonstrate Belthasar's philosophy that the end justifies the means, as well as the actual unreliability of Crono's party. Ultimately, this will show why Belthasar didn't work with most of them in Chrono Cross...

  • 64999998 - Ayla, if the party decided to stop King Zeal, heals.
  • 2302 - Belthasar, flabbergasted, suggests the party strike at the Frozen Flame to lure King Zeal out for battle. He notes that in a few days, it will be one year exactly since the Ocean Palace incident, and that the party can strike at the Frozen Flame -- inside the Mammon Machine -- in the interim period between the Ocean Palace's destruction and the creation of the Black Omen.
  • 2302 - Belthasar notes that Schala must be present to allow the party to get close to the Frozen Flame. Magus objects but relents after being told that this will give him a shot to kill his father. Once the Mammon Machine is exposed, Glenn will use his Masamune on it. Whereas the Red Knife failed, the full sword should do the trick.
  • 2302 - Striking the past Frozen Flame actually has more consequences than it seems: if the party would succeed in destroying the Flame, Guardia would simply disappear from history, as Antaeus would easily butcher a Flame-less Cedric! In that scenario, past Marle might still defeat Antaeus anyway, but Guardia might not dominate over the other tribes on the long term. The risk must be taken according to Belthasar, who slightly hints towards the fact that Chronopolis would still exist in a Porre dominant world anyway; moreover, he reminds the party that they already destroyed one world, the Reptite one, and that they must not have remorse in destroying another one... because it is necessary. The party, as well as Melchior and Gaspar, are in a dilemma, and this is more or less why the assault is a failure: the party don't totally intend to destroy the Flame, but rather to "poke" it to lure King Zeal out.
  • 12000 - The party arrive to find a strange Ocean Palace. It is filled with certain monsters and Zealians. They get to the throne room and find the Mammon Machine.
  • 12000 - Glenn plunges the Masamune in the machine. To protect itself, the Flame discards the Mammon Machine into the Darkness Beyond Time, and the Masamune flashes to its "evil branch" form for one second or so. Schala falls in the distortion before it closes. King Zeal feels the attack and arrives with his Frozen Flame. He explains that destroying the old copy wouldn't have hurted him anyway, and thanks the party for coming to him.
  • 12000 - King Zeal is temporarily stunned to learn that Schala has been sucked in, and Glenn slashes him with the Masamune. He goes into a stasis, leaving his Frozen Flame uncovered. The party (absolutely all members) approach it.

Chapter 18: Born in Sin, Die in Sin

  • 12000 - The Frozen Flame beckons and challenges the party to see if they can tame it. All six members (seven if Ayla is healed) approach, disappearing.
  • 12000 - Only active party members get Flame scenes.
  • ? - Marle goes through a Guardia Castle dungeon and must face the torment of witnessing those close to her die. She sees her mother, who turns into Yakra. After killing him, he turns into King Guardia, who mutters that he killed Aliza, and now Marle has killed him. She falters.
  • ? - Glenn goes through a forest / Denadoro tileset dungeon and observes scenes of cruelty in his era, and is faced with being powerless to stop them and a failure to Cyrus. He is taunted by what appears to be Magus, and is told Magus is going to destroy Chronopolis to find Schala. Glenn is tormented with the decision of killing him, and afterwards, Magus's corpse turns into Kasmir. Glenn falters.
  • ? - Robo enters a dome of the ruined future. He must battle robots and kill humans who blocks his way to continue. The Flame torments him by calling him an in-betweener, caught between the world of humans and robots but unable to fully participate in either. Atropos later appears and says he is infected; he must fight Atropos to survive. Horrified, Lucca seems to appear and begins dismantling him. He ultimately kills her to survive, but falters.
  • ? - Lucca must go through a series of 1000 A.D. houses, laboratories, and Leene Square. The Flame ridicules her science as merely a tool to be used by governments and those more powerful than her, and that she'll never see the bright future she's creating. The scene shfits to her house, where R-series blue robots have killed her parents. They note they must kill her and assimilate her technology. After killing them, she discovers they were piloted by children, and falters.
  • ? - Magus enters what appears to be his lair. The Flame torments him by revealing just how many thousands of humans and Mystics died as a result of the war. Magus shrugs it off and keeps going, and after passing a few rooms with broken bodies of Mystics, he shouts "Where are you!!?" and enters the next room to find Schala. The Flame taunts him and blames him for the destruction of Zeal on account of his being to weak to stop his mother. What appears to be King Zeal arrives and challenges Magus in battle; this is a new enemy and he simply sits with a load of HP while a Schala enemy throws spells at Magus. Magus wears them down to the point where Schala cannot fight. King Zeal appears to launch a dark spell, and Magus is forced to counter it. As a result, Schala dies, and Magus falters.
  • ? - Crono appears in the inner shell of Lavos. As he walks, he sees bodies broken upon the ground and must fight weird monsters. The Flame ridicules him for killing scores of people across time, and notes that he's nothing more than an assassin. He continues walking and sees the bodies of all manner of NPCs (important ones). He keeps going and sees the bodies of his friends. The Flame taunts him, saying that though everyone dies, Crono will continue on killing for eternity. He finds Lavos in the final chamber but is transported to a new area resembling Magus's lair. All manner of weird crap is there...however much the palette limit will allow. Robots, Mystics, humans, enemies. The Flame tells him they're all created by Lavos anyway. He's transported to fight the central Lavos bit (weakened to fit the game's difficulty) and after its over, Lavos turns into a kid who says "Forgive me." Crono kills it, and he's told that he's just subtracted yet another lifeform from the world. He runs around in the empty room before faltering.
  • ? - Ayla, if available, appears in prehistory. She says "Home?" and scampers around before Reptites surround her. She wanders around and defeats them. The Flame taunts her for being a ruthless killer, but she echoes "law of earth. Win and live. Lose and die. No change law." (In the JP version it was the law of earth, not rule of life.) She's transported to a factory. No battles here; the Flame just ridicules her for not being able to even comprehend the future of life. She notes that life is simple; eat and live, love friends and lovers, and live for the betterment of the world. Defeated again in this little game, the Flame takes her back to prehistory. She wanders around and destroys more Reptites before confronting a Nizbel creature. The Flame interjects that humans can never co-exist with other life. She asks Nizbel if he wishes to fight. Nizbel declines, and Ayla opts not to fight him. Ayla states that one must protect oneself, but that all life is precious. She is transported to a black screen, and approaches the Flame before hearing a KING ZEAL: No!!
  • 12000 - At the Ocean Palace, the Frozen Flame notes that none of them are worthy to control the evolution of God...but if Ayla is present and succeeds, it can say something like "Speak...voice of the land. What are you...?"
  • 12000 - The party (three of them) materialize back at the Ocean Palace, where King Zeal has recovered from his stupor and stops the party from accessing the Frozen Flame.
  • 12000 - The party must battle the Frozen Flame.
  • 12000 - After the battle, King Zeal exclaims that something huge is happening, and withdraws through a portal with the Frozen Flame. The party returns to Chronopolis.

Chapter 19: (The Dreamtime)

The party returns to Chronopolis and finds everyone dead except Atropos and FATE. Atropos explains that King Zeal just appeared, went on a rampage and kidnapped Belthasar and Melchior. The party, wondering what King Zeal is up to, assumes that he will probably look for Gaspar as well. The full party (7 characters) travel to the End of Time.

At the End of Time, Spekkio appears and asks for a battle, just to entertain himself. He also requires Crono's presence (this is a convenience for the plot in the next scene). After the battle, Spekkio states that King Zeal didn't come here, and that Gaspar traveled to the far past a while ago anyway. The party (3 characters including Crono) uses the Gate left by Gaspar: it leads to the Dreamtime (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamtime)--basically an indefinite era in the far past, when biological life didn't exist yet but weird spiritual phenomena were present in the forms of "Entity emanations" occasionally bursting here and there on the barren surface.

The party makes its way across the barren land fighting curious spirit creatures (perhaps reminiscent of the Terra Tower ghosts). However, they remark that their magic Techs have somehow all disappeared! Nevertheless, they reach Gaspar near a small crack, observing some of these strange emanations bursting. Suddenly, King Zeal appears from nowhere and attacks Gaspar. Crono rushes and saves Gaspar, but is hit by one of the emanation and faints. King Zeal explains that physical life forms can't release their full power here due to the era's strange properties (perhaps Gaspar explains it's a sort of sanctuary or something), so King Zeal resorts to teleport without Gaspar to 11998 B.C., where he took Belthasar and Melchior. The party explains the whole situation to Gaspar, who then reveals that it was most probably Belthasar who revived King Zeal, as he already wanted to do that way back before the events of the Ocean Palace in CT.

Chapter 20: (Dalton’s Last Stand)

See this post.

Chapter 21: Let us Part in Zealous Regret

The party returns to the End of Time (they regain their magic Techs too) and the inactive characters tend to the unconscious Crono while the active party and Gaspar go to 11998 B.C. At Sargon's house, King Zeal leaves the Sun Stone and instructions to Sargon and other people for the re-creation of the kingdom of Zeal. He explains he will then leave do "something else" (the Time Devourer is calling him to the DBT). King Zeal intended to gather the 3 Gurus here so they could watch the scene and be amazed by his glory (or something)--before dying by his hand. The villagers seem happy about King Zeal's plan and don't care much about the Gurus, and even the few dubious persons are comforted by the fact that King Zeal will leave, i.e. they'll have all the good stuff (Sun Stone, etc.) and not the worse ones (no king, no dictatorship). King Zeal even tries to convince Belthasar, knowing that Belthasar still partly yearns for the kingdom of Zeal (the reason he built the Epoch in CT was explicitely to return to his era, according to the Japanese version). But Gaspar lambasts him like in the previous plot outline, etc.

To get rid of the party, King Zeal summons the CrimseSun, a pumped up version of the Sun Stone "Son of Sun", before leaving to North Cape. After defeating the creature, the party hurries to North Cape since it's more urging. King Zeal says some stuff (but doesn't explicitely mention the Devourer of Time yet), before being flung straight upward into a huge distortion leading to the Darkness Beyond Time. The distortion remains as a vertical and gigantic black rift in spacetime hovering above North Cape. A weird composite tower seems to occupy its surface: this is the Spire of Telos (name borrowed from the first plot draft). This location will serve as both the "ancient flying fortress" of the game (like the Black Omen and Terra Tower in the previous games) and the final dungeon that we came up with in the previous plot outline (this will be the place with the discarded scraps of timelines, while the actual DBT, at the end of the dungeon, will be a totally empty and smaller place like it is in CC).

But anyway... the party can't access it yet due to a gravitational barrier (plus they need the Epoch to fly there), so they head back to Sargon's place where the Gurus remained to talk with the villagers. Glenn does his speech like in the previous plot outline:

Quote
Lucca wonders what does give their party the right to dictate how time should be, and what denies Sargon that right. Lucca starts to come to the conclusion that might is right...they possess temporal technology. But Glenn arrives to deliver a stirring speech.

"No, might is not right. Lavos has demonstrated that well enough. He possessed enough strength to wipe out the world, yet through our resolve, we were able to send him packing and allow life to continue.

We may obey no authority but our own when time traveling, but this is not necessarily bad. We have done what we believed to be right. We believe in humanity's right to live and flourish, and humanity has done that -- each person dictating how he or she will live and affect the grand scope of history. We merely have ensured that right.

Some of us have acted in our own interests --"

Magus: ...

Lucca: ...

"but we have still summarily fought to give life a chance.

You might ask, why don't we try to save every wronged person in history? Why don't we see how it all turns out in this little universe millions of years from know? Well, who knows where humanity will lead itself through history. Perhaps it's our belief in ourselves and our desire to make things right that led the planet to dream of us and enable this power.

Time travel is an strength like any other -- as long as it is in the hands of noble people with high aim and, above all else, the power of discretion -- it can bring about wonderful things. And we have that discretionary vision and focus to only do what we truly believe in, and nothing else. Even without Belthasar's messing around time and mistake of reviving King Zeal, Lavos would still have been creeping away down there in the Darkness Beyond Time.

And despite all our mistakes -- all our failures, shortcomings, and doubts -- we once again have the power to eradicate an evil influence in time. Let us use it -- not because we merely have it, but because we can unleash some good in this world that others cannot. Lavos -- the Time Devourer -- whatever you wish to call it, is poised to once again snuff out the aspirations of living beings to discover and love this magnificent and complex universe. And we are the only ones poised to stop it.

Time travel is dangerous -- but here, we don't only feel like doing it because it is "right" -- we are compelled to do it as ones who believe in humanity and the growth and understanding of our reality. And just maybe, this world can be improved a little as we struggle through our journey.

So do not falter; let us ride again on the Wings of Time to fight for what we hold important and beautiful. Let us follow Crono's example and charge into the unknown to liberate our future. The Darkness Beyond Time, a black dream with no beginning or end -- is but our finest battleground! Let us not be late for our appointment with destiny!"

Some people agree with him, some don't. Sargon tries to activate the Sun Stone but, curiously, fails. A voice is then heard saying he (the voice) sealed the Sun Stone's power. To the party's (and player's) surprise, the person appears to be Crono! He comes in with the inactive characters and speaks, saying something to further Glenn's previous speech (but let's keep it short please...). The full party and the Gurus then return to Chronopolis, leaving the people with a useless Sun Stone (it's a Moon Stone then! curious thematical reference to CC).

Chapter 22: Dreaming Across Time

Back in Chronopolis, Gaspar explains that Crono was apparently infused with a small part (or copy) of the Entity's consciousness when he touched the emanation in the Dreamtime. As a result, he is still himself but not totally; he shows traits of the Entity without being the Entity (thus why his textboxes are visible, and how he managed to seal the Sun Stone). Gaspar comments that this is probably not permanent, but he is unsure of all the effects this will leave on Crono's mind and body. Basically, this plot point is a small gift to people who wanted Crono to speak in this game; as well as a device to explain why he can't prevent the Fall of Guardia caused by time-traveling King Zeal (he'll be exhausted).

Anyway, Crono and Gaspar comment that something huge is probably happening in the DBT, but that they should still take the time to repair things in the timeline to gain more power--i.e. this is the sidequest chapter.

Chapter 23: Where Dreams go to Die

Having finished sidequests (or not), the party enters the Spire of Telos with an Epoch powered up by Belthasar. Throughout the place, emanations explain Lavos's history and the "Arbiter of Time"'s role. The discarded scraps of timeline visited include:

  • the bad 602 A.D. with the 3 Vanguard leaders;
  • the Reptite world with the 3 Xamoltans and the Vision Serpent;
  • the future of the Reptite world, with the discarded Lucca and Robo from Chapter 8;
  • the ruined 2300 A.D. of CT with Johnny and the discarded Mother Brain;
  • a glimpse of the new Zeal kingdom that was prevented in Chapter 21, with Sargon and Mystics living a happy life.

Gradually, emanations of Lavos reveal the role of the Arbiter...Lavos's history and original desires...and the spurned Lavos's desire to end it all. At the end, the player characters reveal what they've learned. Magus represents this well -- "...What stupid, destructive desires. Zeal and Lavos are the same, consumed by their own power. Such pathetic things are ashes in the Black Wind. You writhe and scream of deceitful dreams...and lament your sorrows with hateful art...But you have delayed the inevitable. Nothing can live forever! The darkness has at last come to claim you. I will personally send you to hell, Lavos!

The final area is a strange place composed of reddish, spiky rocks. At the end of the path, the party falls into an empty area (the DBT as seen in CC), from which they look back and realize that the spiky place they were walking on was Lavos/the Time Devourer itself (he's gigantic, much bigger than in CC). King Zeal is in front of the TD's "face", and reveals its wish of destroying the universe and his impending merging with it. The party notes that they can feel the presence of previous Arbiters within the TD, including Schala (who's visible on the shell) in addition to... Cedric the Executor! Anyway, King Zeal comments that he (Zeal) is strongwilled enough to resist the merging for a short amount of time, just the amount he needs to kill the party by his own hand. He is defeated in a climactic final battle, after which the Frozen Flame explodes and the Devourer of Time begins to shatter and crumble. The party escapes the DBT, except Magus, who stays with Schala even though she's stuck on the TD's shell.

Cutscenes depict Ayla, Glenn, Lucca and Robo returning to their eras, and Marle tending to an exhausted Crono (whose textboxes are not seen anymore) in Guardia Castle. Everybody thinks it's over. However, a cutscene then shows Belthasar in an empty, bleak Chronopolis, pondering alone in the night. The Frozen Flame suddenly materializes in front of him in a perfectly reversed way of how it exploded in the DBT (to imply that it was just a teleportation, that it faked its death). The voice of the Flame explains that the Devourer of Time was damaged, but still exists. It then challenges Belthasar to a grand "game" between the TD and him to decide of the fate of the entire universe itself (CC!). Belthasar slowly approaches the Flame as the screen fades to black...

THE END.

After the credits, a final cutscene between Magus and King Zeal occurs like in the previous plot outline.

~

Explanation on the Origin of Lavos:

Lavos did not only evolve the human species, Lavos IS humanity. He represents the desire of evolution taken to an extreme. He wants to keep on evolving and improving himself continuously but too wildly: if we could ask him why he wants that, he'll probably have no answer to give. This is kind of the same thing for humans:

Quote
Kid: So that's Terra Tower's  final, true form... In the end, we're all the same... Everyone dreams of bein' greater, more powerful...

They want self-improvement, scientific progress, etc., but where are they heading to with all this? The same question can be asked for the Reptites and every other living beings too, but the game will focus on humanity because they're the ones who got in contact with the Frozen Flame. In CC, the humans are compared to Lavos; throughout CE we could hint at the reverse, that Lavos can also be compared to humans. The original Lavoids would have originated on a planet in which humanity was so advanced, yet so selfish and destructive, that they evolved into Lavoids (this would take thousands of millennias of course). In addition to what we know of the Lavoid life cycle, the humans would also fit somewhere in there, being evolved by Lavoids, but also becoming Lavoids. The Chrono planet basically risks the same fate if the humans don't take more responsability in their free will. In a way, I guess this cycle is comparable to the Hindo-Buddhistic notion of Samsara, the wheel of perpetual reincarnations.

Maybe we could put this little scene in some nightmare or DBT area too:

Quote from: Quote from: Hadriel on Monday 25 July 2005, 04:03:42
On Lavos' form in the Defiled World: I'd wanted to implement this idea a while ago, and this is a perfect place for it.  Remember the demon sculpture on the top of Magus' summoning altar in the original game?  Lavos' form here will basically amount to that brought to life.  It's a twisted form that reflects Lavos' sick desires

Some character could note that it's a twisted form that reflects Lavos' sick desires, but that also depicts him as a humanoid (despite the horns and extra arms).

Now, about the Frozen Flame's origins. Its creation was actually accidental. In order to evolve, Lavos just has to slumber in the planet's core, he doesn't need anything else. However, a piece of his shell splintered by mere chance and remained on the surface. Lavos never wanted other beings to use the Flame's power, so he wanted to retrieve it.

Lavos succeeded in recovering the Flame in 12,000 B.C. in the original timeline, when he tricked Queen Zeal into setting forth the conditions of the Ocean Palace disaster (yes, this is an adaptation of DBoruta's theory, we'll have to thank him hugely). After retrieving the Flame, Lavos simply destroyed it, or something, because he already has similar powers to it. However, in Keystone T-1, the same attempt failed because of Crono's intervention (in Keystone T-2, the TTI-fied Lavos pulls Chronopolis back in time to try a second time to retrieve the Flame, but that's after CT:CE).

Yet, simultaneously to these attempts, and all the more after them, Lavos also communicates with the person possessing the Flame, if this person is fitting or special enough. This person would be the Arbiter of Time, someone Lavos discusses with and gives a chance to stop his never-ending quest for evolution, i.e. the mediator between Lavos and the planet's inhabitants. Lavos will, explicitely or not, interrogate him about the meaning of life and their purpose in the universe (Lavos' and the Arbiter's purpose, which is the same). Whether the Arbiter can answer those questions or not, he will eventually have to make a choice: either merge with Lavos and join him in his quest to find the answers, or refuse to do so and possibly remain alive if they're strong-minded enough, in which case Lavos will still destroy the planet sooner or later and continue his life cycle anyway. King Zeal and Schala were the latest Arbiters. There were a certain amount of Arbiters before them too, and whether they fused with Lavos or not, they all contributed to add to Lavos's sentience and knowledge of things (Lavoids are all sentient, but this particular Lavos is even more...cognizant thanks to his contact with the surface species; there is a bit of the "Reconciling differences" theme in here).

The last point is the defeat of Lavos in Chrono Trigger. This has viciously altered Lavos' perspective on the universe. Instead of wanting to seek some metaphysical knowledge, he has given up and began to wish for the destruction of all space-time instead. In CT:CE, King Zeal is the Arbiter of Time. He's supposed to have the choice to not fuse with Lavos, and hugely prefer a new Zeal Kingdom actually, but he eventually falls. Perhaps he could somehow come to a conclusion reminiscent of Miguel's speech (about res nullius, fusing with eternity, etc.). Whether it's because of his madness, Lavos' will, or his conscious choice, we don't know and we defeat him before the fusion anyhow.

At the end of CC, Serge uses the Chrono Cross to "heal" the Time Devourer. Whether it answers Lavos' questions or not, we again don't know, but the liberated Schala does seem to have grasped something deep about the meaning of life.

So, that's it. It can be gradually explained throughout the game, with the big Arbiter/choice and alien/human thingies being revealed in the DBT mentioned pop-ups. I suppose this still doesn't exactly hasten things at the end of the game, though perhaps Lavos at North Cape could actually be calling the cast to the DBT to expose them his immense dilemma... this would at least make them and the player curious, and give the Entity's test another reason to be (to make sure they don't suddenly agree with Lavos' philosophy or something like that).

This interpretation explains a lot about Lavos, and gives him some personality, while still keeping the focus on humanity and the struggle of free will and fate, as it is in the rest of the series. But of course, that's a suggestion.

~

Also make sure Belthasar notes that Chronopolis will be pulled back by an attempt to get the flame. That's a great plot point.
« Last Edit: December 01, 2007, 04:41:05 am by Chrono'99 »

ZeaLitY

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Re: Revised Plot and Planning Thread
« Reply #1 on: October 15, 2006, 02:08:47 am »
What year should the formation of Dreamstone take place in? Because we have to go pretty far back if we're talking minerals, I guess.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geologic_time_scale

I posted the list of tilesets. The most obvious thing we could recycle is Future / Dome with Guardian, since the robot won't be making an appearance in CE. But that doesn't lend itself to an entire underwater scene, I guess. We'll have to also think if we want to use any one-shot tilesets for special presentations like Mt. Woe Summit. Maybe a custom thing for the final area of the DBT?
« Last Edit: October 15, 2006, 03:03:33 am by ZeaLitY »

ZeaLitY

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Re: Revised Plot and Planning Thread
« Reply #2 on: October 15, 2006, 04:31:07 pm »
I've listed the tilesets. It seems we have a lot more unused tilesets than I previously thought. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but multiple tilesets can use the same graphics, right? Even so, there are still a lot of portions of unused ones (like the Guardian, or the bridge in the prison dungeon, or Giga Gaia's pedestal) that could be edited and merged into one. What we should do now is figure out how we could add to the plot with new tilesets. The limiting factor is how much we want to swamp graphic artists with work, I guess.  But it seems the sky's the limit now.

nightmare975

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Re: Revised Plot and Planning Thread
« Reply #3 on: October 15, 2006, 09:08:41 pm »
Don't forget Lavos' insides, plus, are we using the Tesserect?

Chrono'99

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Re: Revised Plot and Planning Thread
« Reply #4 on: October 17, 2006, 01:07:54 pm »
Here are other tileset ideas. It's listed roughly with what I think is the most important and/or easiest to realize at the top of the list.

  • Atash Kedah seen from space (we don't even have to graphic-hack anything for this one, the Celestial Gate tileset already has a planet picture, and the explosion can be done with a DrawGeometry command)
  • DBT whirlpool (the moving bubbles can be put on an edited layer 3)
  • Porre Lab (blend of Lucca's House and Zeal City?)
  • Epoch hangar(s) (for the Cathedral, and/or Chronopolis)
  • Nautilus shell
  • Reptite Town interior or exterior or both
  • Vision Serpent's body
  • Coliseum (wouldn't it be nice?)
  • Terra Tower exterior (like the Magus Lair in CT; the obvious issue here is the difficulty to draw or photoshop a decent picture with only 16 colors)
« Last Edit: October 17, 2006, 01:10:19 pm by Chrono'99 »

Chrono'99

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Re: Revised Plot and Planning Thread
« Reply #5 on: October 18, 2006, 06:47:01 am »
It seems we have much more limitations with NPCs. I skimmed through the list and these are the only ones I'm sure we can replace without sacrificing too much:

08 Dactyl
1A Dome survivor - man
1B Dome survivor - woman
21 Prehistoric villager - old man
46 Guardia Castle chef
CB Human Glenn (if we complete PC Glenn, NPC Glenn will be free to replace)

Children size:
1D Dome survivor - little girl
54 Millennial Fair visitor - little boy
55 Millennial Fair visitor - little girl

And even then, these sprites may have annoying restrictions, like symetrical bodies, etc. It would be nice if we could put Porrean soldiers and William Ishito somewhere.


EDIT: Here are the monster sprites we might be able to replace with humanoid enemies (Porrean soldiers in battle pose, the cyborg, Reptites, etc.).

04 Krawlie (yes indeed!)
06 Omicrone (Antaeus)
1E Nagaette
31 Guard
46 Evilweevil

Plus these ones, provided they don't use the same graphics as their alternate versions:
6D Thrasher (Lasher with a bo)
74 Ogan (Goblin with a hammer)
75 Flunky (with a saber)
76 Groupie (with a crossbow)
9D Slash (bare-handed)
« Last Edit: October 18, 2006, 07:24:32 am by Chrono'99 »

Vehek

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Re: Revised Plot and Planning Thread
« Reply #6 on: October 18, 2006, 11:28:47 am »

Plus these ones, provided they don't use the same graphics as their alternate versions:
6D Thrasher (Lasher with a bo)
74 Ogan (Goblin with a hammer)
75 Flunky (with a saber)
76 Groupie (with a crossbow)
9D Slash (bare-handed)

I checked, and they do use the same graphics. They're different in-game because they use different animation data and/or sprite assembly.
« Last Edit: October 18, 2006, 11:32:06 am by Vehek »

nightmare975

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Re: Revised Plot and Planning Thread
« Reply #7 on: October 18, 2006, 11:57:24 am »
I think we should keep the Dome survivors for the DBT. With them still living there, it could freak out the heroes.

Chrono'99

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Re: Revised Plot and Planning Thread
« Reply #8 on: October 18, 2006, 05:29:01 pm »
Damn! I've started making sprites for Porrean Soldier and William Ishito, but I think I may have to restart them because I took a non-symmetrical base, and the NPCs in this list all have a left-right symmetry (in the front frame), except 1B Dome survivor - woman and CB Human Glenn. I also agree that she should try to keep the dome survivors, and we probably shouldn't touch NPC Glenn at all until PC Glenn actually exists... so, er, I have to restart those sprites (symmetrical front frames will be uglier and Ishito will probably lose his sword :( ).

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Chrono'99

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Re: Revised Plot and Planning Thread
« Reply #9 on: October 18, 2006, 06:31:27 pm »
Wait, false alert. The Prehistoric Old Man's front frame isn't symmetrical... I guess I'll have to check if the Castle Chef's is or isn't. Those 2 sprites are the only adult ones we can replace in any case, if we don't touch the dome survivors and NPC Glenn.

ZeaLitY

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Re: Revised Plot and Planning Thread
« Reply #10 on: October 18, 2006, 06:51:28 pm »
I updated the thread with music selections. We need to determine what we will and will not use. Right now, it seems like we could import five or more tracks. That number may even increase!

The list is below. I want at leaset one person to check through it.

~

21. The Kingdom Trial
22. The Hidden Truth

These could work for Porre drama, I guess.

23. A Shot of Crisis

This is good for tense situations, but like "Strange Happening" it's just a generic "bad situation" song.

24. Ruined World

Where can we use this?

25. Mystery of the Past

Maybe it could play on a mysterious inscription? I have no idea.

26. Dome-16's Ruin

2302 A.D. mall, probably.

27. People Who Threw Away the Will to Live

This is general use; we can play it whenever something bad has happened or someone is weak.

30. Bike Chase

Have to use this for the Johnny mini-game, right?

31. Robo's Theme

This will come into play at Chronopolis and in other areas.

33. Remains of the Factory

Reptite 2001 A.D. factory, right?

35. Fanfare 2
38. Fanfare 3

Not sure about these. Fanfare 2 is always fun and 3 is what plays after getting a tab.

44. Burn! Bobonga!

Unless we use it after Glenn collects hides, it may have no use.

47. Battle with Magus

This is definitely in.

49. Tyran Castle

If we reuse that music we imported, I guess this will be overwritten. Otherwise, perhaps we can use it in the Reptite world?

54. Sealed Door

When things go awry, perhaps this will be Chronopolis's theme for a while.

58. Black Dream

Second time through the Ocean Palace?

59. Determination

No reason to use this when we can use Chrono Trigger.

60. World Revolution
61. Last Battle

These two are in.

62. Festival of Stars

Are we using this in the ending?

63. Epilogue ~To Good Friends~

We could simply eject Crono & Marle and play this instead, although...I don't know.

64. To Far Away Times

This is definitely in.

65. Rat-A-Tat-Tat It's... Mitsuda

This is definitely out.

67. Sounds of the Ocean

This was the 1000 A.D. scene at the beginning of CT. We don't need it.

72. Prison Tower
73. Mystic Chant
74. Rain
75. Lavos Scream
76. Strong Wind
77. Earthquake

Do we need the above? I recommend keeping them all, I guess.

78. Fall of Mt. Woe
79. Fall of Zeal
80. Blackbird (Inside)
81. Blackbird (Outside)

We don't need these, though we could keep one of the Blackbirds as a generic machinery sound in the future.

82. Inside the Shell
83. Breath of Lavos

I take it we don't need these, but Inside the Shell is still sort of dark. We could keep it and simply mute the heartbeat (that'd be scary) and use it near King Zeal or in the DBT.

Vehek

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Re: Revised Plot and Planning Thread
« Reply #11 on: October 18, 2006, 07:33:57 pm »
"People Who Threw Away the Will to Live" was replaced with the prerelease "Keeper's Dome."

Chrono'99, don't forget that it's possible to hack sprite assembly of NPCs too!
Be careful though, I discovered during my sprite assembly hacking that Geiger apparently mixed up Sprite assembly and animation data in the PC/NPC sprite data format, and Chrono Tweaker has that mix-up as well.

Chrono'99

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Re: Revised Plot and Planning Thread
« Reply #12 on: October 19, 2006, 12:47:57 pm »
Just some comments. I omitted the songs that I don't really know what to say about (but it doesn't mean that I think we can remove them, or not remove them).

24. Ruined World

We should see how different it can sound with the "Ruined World Clanging" instrument replaced with something else. If no rearrangement sounds good, I guess we don't need that song at all.

62. Festival of Stars

It will depend on the ending... The currents ones are so sad, catastrophic, painful, etc. that it could be hard to place this song.

65. Rat-A-Tat-Tat It's... Mitsuda

Really, out? I thought it could be funny and unexpected if used in a... funny and unexpected situation.

67. Sounds of the Ocean

This could be used before the Entity underwater sequence, in a beach area (we can mute the bird sounds). It would be used only once though, so yeah, if we absolutely need to replace this song, I guess we can.

73. Mystic Chant

Could be nice in Magus's nightmare in the chapter "Born in Sin, Die in Sin". Or anybody's nightmare, actually.

74. Rain

We could need this if we make some event(s) happen in a rainy day or night (just for the drama!).

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Totally off-topic, but I've just realized this: The theme of Arni Village in Chrono Cross is actually a rearrangement of the melody that plays after 1:30 in Epilogue ~To Good Friends~! CC basically starts with the theme that ended CT, and there are still people who think the games are totally unrelated!

ZeaLitY

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Re: Revised Plot and Planning Thread
« Reply #13 on: October 19, 2006, 12:54:38 pm »
Sounds of the Ocean should be covered by Ocean Tide, which is the same thing minus the seagulls. I'll revise the list with the suggestions.

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Re: Revised Plot and Planning Thread
« Reply #14 on: October 19, 2006, 01:23:36 pm »
I shortened the list considerably, if you could take another look. We already have 8 songs to import, so I recommend downloading these:

http://www.snesmusic.org/v2/profile.php?profile=set&selected=15734
http://www.snesmusic.org/v2/profile.php?profile=set&selected=15735
http://www.snesmusic.org/v2/profile.php?profile=set&selected=456
http://www.snesmusic.org/v2/profile.php?profile=set&selected=877
http://www.snesmusic.org/v2/profile.php?profile=set&selected=14781
http://cc.herograw.org/Black/Music%20(Chrono%20Trigger)/rds.rar
http://cc.herograw.org/Black/Music%20(Chrono%20Trigger)/ctp.rar

...Wow, listening to Arni home has made me really nostalgic for Chrono Cross. It's always like that; I dive headfirst into updating some Chrono Trigger stuff, and then when I hear Chrono Cross again, it's like...a dream...