Author Topic: Magus: Humans didn't know what he looked like?  (Read 7524 times)

dan0211

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Re: Magus: Humans didn't know what he looked like?
« Reply #45 on: December 10, 2008, 04:55:17 pm »
I think the simple golden rule of NPCs. All NPCs must be stupid and unhelpful at almost all times. The rule applies to Final Fantasy, Zelda, Dragon Quest, Fable etc. So why wouldn't it apply to the Chrono series. If they programmed in original dialouge for every character which could affect the story in certain ways, a normal SNES cartridge wouldn't have been enough to store it all. But, it can be amusing to take advantage of their single digit IQs. :P

Umaro

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Re: Magus: Humans didn't know what he looked like?
« Reply #46 on: December 10, 2008, 06:51:16 pm »
Hear, hear. An NPC's only purpose is to be purposeless.

Acacia Sgt

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Re: Magus: Humans didn't know what he looked like?
« Reply #47 on: December 11, 2008, 12:43:39 am »
Hear, hear. An NPC's only purpose is to be purposeless.

Are you sure? You never know if there is one that tell you something that can help you a lot, or at least, tell something that can help understand something. You can never know.

ubermetroid

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Re: Magus: Humans didn't know what he looked like?
« Reply #48 on: January 02, 2009, 01:39:24 am »
Wait....  Maybe I am thinking about something else, but by the time you have Magus all his statues are gone from 1000AD.  They were replaced.  Everybody is thinking about the black omen.

utunnels

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Re: Magus: Humans didn't know what he looked like?
« Reply #49 on: January 02, 2009, 01:48:44 am »
That's because the history was changed, the fiends treated him as a traitor, and Ozzie became the new fiendlord.
Although, once you defeat Ozzie, there will be another change...

Magus22

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Re: Magus: Humans didn't know what he looked like?
« Reply #50 on: January 02, 2009, 09:39:32 pm »
Well, even if you put him with Frog into your party and do Cyrus' Ghost side quest, there won't be any special dialogue.
Although Frog will refer to Magus before Cyrus' grave.
XD

If with any merit, Magus's sprite changes. He looked away to the right during the Frog/Cyrus dialogue and wrapped himself in that nice cape of his.

Phillies64

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Re: Magus: Humans didn't know what he looked like?
« Reply #51 on: January 06, 2009, 05:01:43 pm »
This is 600 A.D. There are no cameras in this timeline. People are still a bit primitive. The only viable source of news seems to be via word of mouth. I guess it makes sense that most NPCs wouldn't know what Magus looks like.

mav

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Re: Magus: Humans didn't know what he looked like?
« Reply #52 on: January 07, 2009, 02:03:19 pm »
Indeed, that's a good explanation, but they have no notable reaction to Magus, and let's face it, he doesn't exactly look like the rest of 'em. I mean think about it, in today's society if we saw a man that resembled the description of Bin Laden, wouldn't there be some kind of reaction? Even if he's not Bin Laden, the fact that he looks like him during this wary time is reason enough for some people to have a reaction.

Phillies64

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Re: Magus: Humans didn't know what he looked like?
« Reply #53 on: January 07, 2009, 02:10:11 pm »
Indeed, that's a good explanation, but they have no notable reaction to Magus, and let's face it, he doesn't exactly look like the rest of 'em. I mean think about it, in today's society if we saw a man that resembled the description of Bin Laden, wouldn't there be some kind of reaction? Even if he's not Bin Laden, the fact that he looks like him during this wary time is reason enough for some people to have a reaction.

The description of Magus was probably greatly exagerrated. I doubt many people who saw him lived to tell the tale. So most NPC's would be clueless to his looks.

That being said, you're right. There should have been some sort of reaction to this creepy looking man. I'm actually surprised that there wasn't.

utunnels

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Re: Magus: Humans didn't know what he looked like?
« Reply #54 on: January 07, 2009, 02:14:40 pm »
Indeed, that's a good explanation, but they have no notable reaction to Magus, and let's face it, he doesn't exactly look like the rest of 'em. I mean think about it, in today's society if we saw a man that resembled the description of Bin Laden, wouldn't there be some kind of reaction? Even if he's not Bin Laden, the fact that he looks like him during this wary time is reason enough for some people to have a reaction.

Interesting, perhaps in RPG world, things are not that strict. Like in FF9, different tribes live together, fishman, hippo, birdman...in CC, demi-humans can be seen in many places. The creators might not think so much, they may assume it as a matter of course.

It is more absurd in RD, since Lynx(a human noble of course), uses monsters to guard his house. There're few humans in his house, but full of goblins, skeletons, ghosts, gryphons, demons.... what did Kato think he is, fiendlord?

-----------------

Edit*

Magus is a human of course, but talking about his face, it might be just a reference to his personality or characteristics, like in some anims, many characters don't look like normal human if you see then in real world you will ceratinly get scared, Perhaps they just over did it, if characters were not designed by Akira Toriyama, Magus might look like a normal human.
« Last Edit: January 07, 2009, 03:01:12 pm by utunnels »

maggiekarp

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Re: Magus: Humans didn't know what he looked like?
« Reply #55 on: January 07, 2009, 03:59:25 pm »
Lynx also uses a scythe in Cross, doesn't he?...

Anyway, I think in 600 AD, people told themselves that it'd be impossible for the Fiendlord and the Heroes to be palling around, so it's probably just their creepy friend. As for 1000 AD, nobody but the Mystics even really cared or knew what he looked like (And as said before, after the Ozzie sidequest, even the Mystics probably forgot what he looked like exactly).

I'm also seconding the word-of-mouth distortion idea. Magus could have looked like a fairly normal but tall and pale dude (there's nothing weird about his appearance in RD besides his outfit), but been said to be a complete monstrosity. Just look at the wide variety of interpretations of him in fanart.

Zephira

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Re: Magus: Humans didn't know what he looked like?
« Reply #56 on: January 08, 2009, 12:39:08 am »
I'm also seconding the word-of-mouth distortion idea. Magus could have looked like a fairly normal but tall and pale dude (there's nothing weird about his appearance in RD besides his outfit), but been said to be a complete monstrosity. Just look at the wide variety of interpretations of him in fanart.
Here's some good examples of variety in interpretation, found on deviantArt:
http://mdkakusha.deviantart.com/art/Magus-72940453, http://kjanuary.deviantart.com/art/CT-Magus-v1-2-26025465, http://hastati95.deviantart.com/art/Magus-87785406, http://spoonybards.deviantart.com/art/ct-crono-and-magus-53262063.
Without prior knowledge, it'd be pretty hard to identify them as the same person.
And let's face it. If someone did see Magus in battle, it probably wasn't for long, and they most likely died. Frog is the only known person to get a really good look at Magus and live, but I doubt anyone would trust the word of a "monster".
Then you have to think about what he was doing in any supposed sighting. If a Guardian knight saw Magus in battle and espcaped, he would remember a very angry, very deadly monster (akin to the first link above). If Magus was just hanging around an inn or city, NOT trying to kill someone (the last two images), you wouldn't recognize him as that same bloodthirsty monster.

mav

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Re: Magus: Humans didn't know what he looked like?
« Reply #57 on: January 08, 2009, 01:19:06 pm »
I suppose--during an emotional moment, I suppose that a person's interpretation of Magus would be greatly exaggerated. And perhaps, if most Mystics didn't know what he looked like, it wouldn't be too strange for Magus to look human: Ozzie and co. knew Magus as a young boy, and if they're essentially the only ones that had seen him, then I doubt anyone else would know or care about the man's appearance.

Onikage725

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Re: Magus: Humans didn't know what he looked like?
« Reply #58 on: January 08, 2009, 06:24:32 pm »
Magus is in question? What about when you tell a normal woman of the middle ages that you'll help her fix her forest problem by leaving your helpful android from the future as an immortal and tireless assistant?

These were apparently some very open minded folk.

And as was pointed out, the average citizen probably only had word of mouth to go on for what Magus looked like. For all we know, people could have thought he was 11 feet tall with lightning crackling from his eyes. Or, with Ozzie leading the charge on the bridge, maybe the average person thought his front man was actually him?
« Last Edit: January 08, 2009, 06:50:35 pm by Onikage725 »

Zephira

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Re: Magus: Humans didn't know what he looked like?
« Reply #59 on: January 08, 2009, 11:04:22 pm »
Not so sure about that Ozzie == Magus bit. The knights did mention that the three generals had been released, and there was no mention (that I could find) that they thought Magus was actually on the bridge. </runon sentence>
Besides, I'm guessing Ozzie was around a while before Magus ever appeared in the Middle Ages.

I like that eleven-foot tall with lightning imagery. Over exaggeration is always fun.