I have completed my Decode Montreal programming boot camp! HORRAY!! Ah, it feels great to be done.
The last two weeks were stressful, to say the least. Surprisingly, it wasn't the code that cause most of the stress, it was having to work with people seven days a week in the same room for seven days. I am more introverted than that. I'm fine working on a team, but I need a weekend where I don't see any of them. Being around the same people eight days a week, if you catch my drift, is too much.
Fortunately, my extroverted teammates were willing to have a group meeting to discuss this stress. We worked past it and created a great final project. It was an administrator dashboard for a company called Dialogue. Basically it is a web app that allows their customer's HR managers to better manage their healthcare plans and employees.
You can see a video of the web app in action by clicking here. I highly recommend putting some music on in the background, more enjoyable that way. Blinded By The Light is my choice.
Anyways, what this means is that I am applying for jobs once more but also creating little coding projects and learning new skills along the way. I'm able to clean my apartment regularly again, spend time with family and friends, and cuddle with my adorable kitty Rogue once more. Ah, so wonderful!
I'm also playing with my look a bit. This is primarily due to my hair dryer, of over a decade, dying a few days ago. So, in order to add some fluffy volume, it's pin curls time! With bobby pins of course. Fortunately for me, I really like the outcome, even if they fall due to humidity I still have a nice bouncy wave going on. Blaise is pretty keen on them too.
Yup, bobby pins did this
So, you could say that while a lot has changed recently in my life, a lot is still going on. Admist all this controlled chaos, I'm back to doing my favorite hobby, video games.
I missed video games so much. Just sitting at HAL, my desktop, for hours murdering splicers in BioShock or pairing up couples in Kitty Powers' Match Maker. Animal Crossing kept me company on my DS but even that had time limits.
Now it's time to pour some hot chocolate, put on my slippers, and relax with some Fallout 4. It's back to video games audience!
So, I just finished, last week in fact, my introductory course in HTML and CSS. What am I up to at the moment? Well, I have to complete a prep course before the coding boot camp starts, Fall 2016.
Oh yeah, I was accepted in the boot camp course!!! It isn't a real boot camp, rather it is an intensive class that crams a lot of material into a short amount of time, two months to be exact. I know, some of these courses do more harm than good, easy in easy out.
However, computer programming boot camps tend to stick with most people. The fact of the matter is, they force you to apply what you've learned for eight hours, each day, for two months. That's a lot of repetition and practice.
Needless to say, I am very excited, as well as a tad nervous, to start my course. From now until then, it is learn as much as I can from the prep course and practice practice practice.
Going back to my intro course, we had a final project. The project was to hard code, write from scratch, our own website. The biggest catch was that our website had to be responsive; this means, that the website needed to look good across all platforms, like phones, tablets, etc.
Audience, I'm pleased to announce that I nailed responsive! My website looks great on any device. So long as you aren't using an old version of Safari or IE. Come on guys, Chrome all the way.
Besides that, I've changed my blog's appearance slightly, bit more blue and a bit less opaque in the sidebar. The latter was done with my fancy new HTML and CSS skills.
I will continue to work on the previously mentioned JavaScript Monty Python project. Hopefully I'll have it fully running for you soon enough.
In the meantime, enjoy the little JS Zelda game I created. It is at the bottom of the page. It's simple, but cute.
Oh right, to see my website simply click here or on the link in the upper right hand corner of the sidebar.
As for video games, my latest obsession is King's Quest 2015. I have since fixed my desktop machine, HAL, and can now enjoy PC video games. Ah, how I missed the slouching posture and cheeto dust.
Next time, I'll have a post about an actual video game rather than my programming.
So, this is a post to explain my absence. It has nothing to do with too much stress or anything dire. Rather, it stems from three sources:
Lack of motivation
Lack of playing anything except Animal Crossing New Leaf
Extreme interest and drive at learning JavaScript, in addition to HTML and CSS
The last one, numero 3, is the main purpose for this post. You see audience, I am currently learning some web development. Hopefully this will take me down a path towards a suitable career. So far, so good.
In fact, I often become so excited about something new that I've learned, namely in JavaScript, that I decide to immediately start coding something random. My latest, and most driven, JS, HTML, CSS project concerns creating a click-based adventure game centered around the bridge keeper exchange from Monty Python: The Holy Grail. Yes, I realize that there may not be a nerdier or geekier phrase in the universe than that one.
I am hoping to have it completed before my family comes up to visit in July. I want it not only to function without major bugs, but I also to look like a million bells. Damn, Animal Crossing has really brainwashed me.
The only thing that I need to be wary of is biting off more than I can chew. I have a habit of trying to run before I can walk with new skills. Programming is not forgiving, in the slightest. Running often just causes crashes to occur. So, it is a good discipline for me to be learning because it forces me to constantly learn from trial/error.
Once my project is completed, I'll launch it on the Pixel Dust blog. It is a short game but has many possibilities. I hope that you will enjoy my work audience. Until that time, or if I pick up another game in between now and then, I bid you adieu.
Ah, it's time to mellow out. Let us go into a world with cute animal friends, bamboo shoots, alpaca sales associates, and a WiFi community that makes you wish for guns. Lots of guns.
Welcome to the world of Animal Crossing, New Leaf style! This 3DS title is the latest installment in the Animal Crossing series. New Leaf has honestly "wow-ed" me. It is a refreshing version of Animal Crossing with many new elements as well as re-implementing some old favorites. Bullet time!
Choice in Town Layout
Rover (again)
Mayor baby!!
Your very own secretary!
SWIMMING
Perfect Fruits
Bad puns
D-Pad Shortcuts
Bamboo Shoots
Silver Tools
DIVING
Badges
Playing.Card.Furniture.
WiFi Jackasses
Oh man, how am I going to fit everything into one post? Augh! Too much, man. Just, too much. This will definitely require secondary posts. At least I've included screenshots from my own file though, adds a touch. Where to begin...Hmm. I'll start with Rover, the annoying cat.
Let's have a long consequential chat
If any of you have played the first Animal Crossing game, for the Gamecube, then you know who Rover is. He is a sweater wearing cat who will not shut up. This seems like a touch of hypocrisy coming from a fellow blather-mouth, that's right blather, but I stand by my statement; Rover, you need to shut it.
Fortunately, you only deal with Rover once in this game. That's right, once. He is the first character whom you meet, such a throwback to 2002, and helps you set up your game. Rover asks you questions in order to determine your name, your gender, and your looks. The name and gender parts are very obvious, however the looks often requires some thought. There are tutorials that reveal which answers yield which face, but for first time players, I recommend just going with your gut feeling. If you don't like your face, just start over.
A new feature, in the Rover questionnaire segment, is deciding your town layout. Rover shows you four different maps and asks which one is your town. This is a new feature in the series and a definite step up from Wild World.
A quick note, I have not played City Folk, so I cannot pass judgement.
Anyways, there are few important factors in deciding the layout of your brand new town. Firstly, you want to have the town hall in a relatively easy point-of-access. This will be your main hub as mayor. Oh yes, you are the new mayor of the town audience. This only happens to your first character, all others are regular residents.
Right-o, the second aspect is the location of Re-Tail. This will be the shop where you sell everything. Personally, I put Re-tail near the beach in order to balance my town's look. That was a wise decision, you'll be visiting the beach often in this title. Do not put it in a tight corner or right next to the town hall audience. You want access to everything but need to have some space in between in order to create a fluid town. Desolate neighborhoods are never fun. Besides, you will have a downtown for all other shopping needs.
The downtown, called Main Street, is a pile of crap, in the beginning. There is almost nothing there. All you have is the post office, Tom Nook's housing company, the Nooklings' crappy cranny reincarnation, the Able Sisters' clothing boutique, and the museum. Compared to the final downtown, this is truly appalling. Still, you have to start somewhere.
Her head "is a bell" shape, get it?
Start, that's right! As soon as you exit that train, you are greeted by a very excited golden retriever named Isabelle. She explains that you are the new mayor of the town. No matter what you say in response, you are the mayor. Isabelle then takes over as the next leg of the tutorial. Bye forever Rover!
The tutorial is the usual thing; meet your neighbors, visit important buildings, decide where you'll live. Wait, I can choose where my home will be? It's a dream come true! Dear audience, I built my house next to a scenic river. Oh should I say, I pitched my tent. Yeah...you start the game by living in a tent. It is motivation to upgrade your home. Who ya gonna call to do that? Tom Nook!
Oh Nook, you are a wily tanuki. This old raccoon dog has moved up from being the only shop owner/landlord to being the only landlord in town. Wait, what? Yes, he gave his shop ownership to his adorable little nephews who are, somehow, greedier than him. Seriously, every time you buy something in their store, they gleefully exclaim how shiny all your bells are, ugh.
Warning: Do not sell anything to the Nooklings. Re-Tail gives you 25% more bells per sale on your items. This will not change over the course of the game. It is, ridiculously stupid.
Bells! I forgot about bells. In Animal Crossing, the form of currency is called bells. The reason, coins make a chiming sound when they hit, well, anything. This is why the creators coined the term "bells" for the game's coins. You adjust, eventually.
Hold up, wasn't I talking about living in a tent? Right, Tom Nook is the one you go to about remodeling your home. Just like before, you go to the post office to pay off any debts you have. You can also access a bank account, from the beginning, at the same ATM. Once your debts have been cleaned, you don't have to do anything. New Leaf gives you the choice to expand your home, rather than forcing you. So, if you are fine with a modest sized house and want to focus more on community projects or Main Street, you can. Without anything hanging over your head!
Now, I mean, I of course went as big as you can go audience. Let's be real, when I play Animal Crossing I play to perfection. It did take some time paying off my mortgage though. That is where the beach comes in. Well, rather, Kapp'n.
Quoi de neuf, Blaise?
After a few days of exploring your town, receiving advice from Isabelle, making friends with personified animals, and namely, paying off your first home upgrade, you'll be able to access your island. Isabelle will introduce you to an old friend, a turtle named Tortimer. In the original game, he was the mayor, so there is going to be some throwback. He invites you to travel to his island in order to relax and have fun. This is the golden land you need to make bells and become obsessed with mermaid furniture in the process. Blaise knows what I'm talking about. Find Kapp'n, the Kappa, on the beach and fork over 1,000 bells in order to sail to the island of wonder!
Quick Tip: Although Kapp'n's lyrics are amusing, you can skip all that by tapping the "B" button a few times. He will be a bit grumpy but you'll arrive faster.
The island has three new characters and one very familiar one. Hi, again, Tortimer. Having fun being tour director?
The new characters are Kapp'n's family; his mother, his wife, and his daughter. His wife, Leilani, is in charge of tours and returning you home. Tours are how you earn island currency, medals. In order to buy the island exclusive stuff that Grams sells, you'll need to reel in some medals. This is best done by playing tours that are intermediate to expert; the higher the difficulty, the more medals you can earn. Play a number of tours in order to see which ones you enjoy as well as which ones you are talented at winning. Do this a number of times in order to buy that snazzy wet suit!
Quick Tip: Always earn double the amount in tours. This means, if you need to catch four fireflies in a challenge, catch eight instead. This will guarantee that you will earn the most medals possible. This also applies when playing with other players.
Near the door to the island cabana is a basket. You must, and I mean must, put anything you want to take back to your town in that basket before you leave the island. If you don't, you'll find your pockets empty on arrival with some small change in the bank. Leilani always warns you before you leave, so don't fret too much audience.
Tiptoe, to the palm tree, on the island, 'neath the moon
Outside the cabana, you'll find your private island. Here is where it can rain money. The gyroid, his name is Lloid, will allow you to borrow tools to use on the island. He will take them back, even if you keep them on you, before you leave the island. After dark, your island is on the same clock as your town, big juicy beetles will appear on the palm trees. They range from a selling price of 6,800 to 15,000 bells. That is a lot of bells. The ideal island set up, lemme bullet it:
Palm trees on the east and west coasts, spaced with at least four steps in between them
Zero flowers
Zero shells on the sand
No trees on the south coast
One to two regular trees on the center of the island, Rainbow and Giant Stags
With this setup, you can easily weave in and out of the trees, thus maximizing your beetle catching potential. Golden Stags and Hercules beetles are touchy, they require a very slow approach, but yield high sell prices. Find a routine path to take through the trees, I often do an infinity shape. in order to keep respawning new bugs. If the beetles aren't appearing, there are probably other bugs preventing their spawn rate. These jewel beetles, roaches, and hermit crabs can easily be spooked by slamming your net nearby. Load up on beetles, stash them in the basket, and head home to reap the rewards.
Quick Tip: Use the D-pad to switch between tools. This is much faster than constantly re-opening the menu. On the mainland, store any extra equipment in opened letters. This frees up space in your inventory.
There are other ways of earning bells in New Leaf. The beetle grind can become tedious and suck some of the fun out of the game. So, I'll give you a quick list of alternatives and how to capitalize.
Perfect Fruit
Bamboo Shoots
Fossils
Turnips
Sea Creatures
Mushrooms
Another new addition to this game, the perfect fruit. In previous titles, you would have to either visit different towns to find fruit or randomly be rewarded a new fruit species for doing a favor for a neighbor. You see audience, the fruit that is native to your town, it is not worth much in your town. Native species sells for a mere 100 bells per fruit. Foreign fruit though, they go for 500 bells. The goal was to cover your town in various fruits in order to make a tidy profit. Then, the perfect fruit happened.
I stumbled on perfect fruit by accident. I saw that one of my apple trees had a shiny looking apple among two normal ones. I shook the tree, snatched up the shiny, and discovered that it was a pomme parfaite. I immediately planted it and hoped for the best. Sure enough, a healthy tree sprouted and I had a perfect apple tree. It did not take long before my entire town was covered in perfect apple trees. These little babies sold for 600 bells at Re-Tail, a serious bargain. They sell for even more. 3,000 bells per fruit, in foreign towns. How sweet is that!
Lots of apples for me to crunch
Trees all around growing by the bunch
Quick Tip: Fruits can be bundled together. Simply drag and drop the fruit onto another of the same type. The maximum number of fruit per basket is nine. This is great for storing fruit in your home as well as carrying it around.
Then, I discovered the drawback; perfect fruit trees do not last forever. Eventually, they lose their leaves and drop two perfect apples along with a rotten one. This requires a constant need for an ax and a shovel in order to keep your crop fresh. Fortunately, Lief, the sloth, opens a gardening store in Main Street where you can acquire axes.
Bamboo shoots are another crop in the game. They must be bought, or taken from a foreign town, at the last upgrade of the Nookling's shop. In order to harvest the shoots, you must have full grown bamboo stalks. After a few days, you'll see some "X" marks in the ground. These are new shoots that are harvested via shovel. They sell for 750 bells at Re-Tail. If you don't dig up the shoots, new bamboo will grow and take over the town! Motivation enough to harvest those suckers.
Fossils, these little babies will be the bulk of your bell earning on the mainland. In order to find fossils, you must dig up "X" marks, like bamboo. There are usually three to four fossils buried in your town daily. You must take them to the museum for Blathers, the curator of an owl, to identify them. Happily, you can select multiple fossils so that he can identify them all at once. You then have the choice to either keep them, or donate them to the museum. I always donate in the beginning because then my museum is full and Blathers doesn't guilt trip me.
Turnips. Ugh, I hate turnips. Every Sunday there is a sow named Joan who appears and sells you turnips. They function like stocks in the game. In fact, there are many stalk market jokes in-game, oh Joan.
Warning: Turnips go bad after seven days. Even if you set the time back a day, they will still go bad. Rotten turnips are worth nothing and cost a fee at Re-Tail for disposal.
You cannot sell turnips at Re-Tail on Sunday, that would be cheating, but can every other day of the week. Each day, Reese, the Re-Tail alpaca, will give you a buying price for turnips. This fluctuates daily. My advice, sell turnips in bundles on days when the price is higher than what you initially paid for. Sure, you might have fewer turnips for the really big blowouts, but you won't lose everything either. Safe stalks makes for steady income.
Hey maaaaaaan.
Ah, catching sea creatures. In order to hunt down the treasures of the deep, you must acquire a wet suit audience. These can only be bought on the island. They are the tool necessary to swim which makes them very invaluable.
Once you are suited up, go to the ocean shore! There, you can enter the water and swim around. Pretty soon, you'll start seeing black shadows with bubble trails. These are your targets. Press "Y" to dive and "A" to move around in the seabed. Your shadow must touch the other shadow in order for you to catch the sea creature. The ones worth the most amount of money are the hardest to catch, the crabs.
It is best to practice as much as possible so that you can minimize your escaped prey count. There are jellyfish in the waters and they will temporarily paralyze you, bastards. Be careful of the bouey boundaries as well; crabs love to swim past the bouey line rendering it impossible to catch them. Just keep to the seabed and mash "A" when chasing a target. You'll have fun swimming, regardless.
And finally, mushrooms. This crop is a funny one. Yes, more funny than bamboo shoots. Mushrooms will grow under two conditions; the month of November or special tree stumps. November is the mushroom hunting month in Animal Crossing. They can be found at the base of trees. Every day, new mushrooms appear all over the town. One of them is even a piece of the mush furniture series, oooh. However, when it is not November, you can still harvest mushrooms by having a special stump grove in your town.
May the Triforce be with you
What are special stumps? They are tree stumps that do not have the regular ring pattern on them. Instead, they will have a heart, butterfly, triforce, musical note, leaf, etc. The likelihood of finding a special stump with a regular ax is low, annoying low. However, there is a silver ax that almost always yields a special stump.
This ax is found on Club Tortimer, the name of the WiFi island that you can visit. The silver ax does eventually break, but lasts much longer than a regular ax. It will take many tries to find a WiFi island with a silver ax. Thus, you should always have some medals saved up before surfing the online the waves. You also need to watch out for trolls, they could ruin your WiFi experience by simply crashing the connection.
Alright, this post has gone on far enough. I know that I have more to say about New Leaf, I'll just say it later. I'll make a post specifically about the WiFi jackasses. In fact, I'll even categorize them. I love you New Leaf, clearly, but this novel needs an ending.
Audience, voting time is over. All who participated, thank you. I'm happy to see that each of the games received at least one vote, poor Pokemon Blue, which means that they will probably have their own posts in the future. Probably.
In any case, congratulations Chrono Trigger! I am not surprised that this title won. After all, it is one of the greatest RPGs in the world of video games. How can I possibly write a post that hasn't already been written about such a fulfilling and mind-blowing game? Simple, I'm going to go on tangents and drop tips along the way. This approach usually turns out alright.
Now get in the car Marty!
Where to start...how about the title? Chrono is the name of the main character, the spikey red haired dude pictured above. However, a Chrono Trigger is a magical weapon in the game. Its purpose is revealed about halfway through the game. As always, I'll stay away from major spoilers. I want you to play this game, remember?
Fun Fact: The FMV, full motion video, cut scenes as well as the box art were drawn by Akira Toriyama aka, the father of Dragonball and DBZ.
The game itself is about a group of adventurers trying to stop an alien life-form that is devouring the planet. This monster has a name, Lavos. Depending on when, yes when, you stop Lavos, you will experience a certain ending of the game. We'll touch on those possible endings later. For now, bullets baby!
Storyline is amazing
Chrono is the main hero
Six other party members
The sixth member is a secret
Soundtrack is beautifully overwhelming
Magic attacks depend on characters
Creepy Fair Games
Replayable with overpowered stats
You can name your playable characters, anything
Countdown attacks
Riddlesome* Quests
Magic combos
Sake Soup drinking contest
Ahem, Chrono himself is not all that interesting. I say that in the sweetest way possible. Similar to my beloved Link from the Legend of Zelda series, Chrono is a silent character who is designed to be a reflection of the player. There is nothing wrong with this style. It worked. It still works. Regardless, the game went above and beyond by trying something new for the time; it gave the player six five other main characters with distinct personalities. Rather than imagine character traits, Chrono Trigger assigns them via character specific dialogue, attacks, and quests.
Quick Tip: The game allows you to switch between the characters once your party exceeds three members. Try to play with different character combinations in order to not only unlock all group attack sets, but to also experience different dialogue reactions. Having a kickass all-girls team is most satisfying.
By the by, let's quickly summarize these various characters. I'll even include my names for them:
Marle (Mare) the cheeky daddy's girl/white mage of the group. She is honestly the best healer and can also dish out some sick ice attacks too. I only named her after me because her name is one letter away from Mare.
Lucca (Bulma) the brains and mechanical know-how in every situation. She is Chrono's best-friend and burns enemies with her fire magic. Like Bulma, she is a scientific genius. Also like Bulma, Lucca has purple hair (books). Unlike Bulma, she is not an obnoxious damsel in distress at all times.
Robo (Droid) the personified robot aka The TANK. Robo can handle several hits to the face and is one of two playable characters who does not use a type of magic.
Frog (Kirby) is well, a talking frog. He is a so-so fighter and healer, kinda the red mage of the crowd. Though, even there he is in second place, wink wink secret character. His healing targets the entire group but does not heal as much as Marle's spells. His magic is water based...he's British though?
"What you say? No rubbish, or NayNay head go boom!"
Ayla (NayNay) is the barbarian babe of every nerd's erotic fantasy. She speaks in broken English but has a strong wit about her. Ayla is the other non-magical character, preferring to use her strength. She also does not have a weapon, just a rock hard fist. I named her NayNay after one of my best-friends for two reasons; she's a beautiful blonde, and the fact that the name "NayNay" sounds hilarious in caveman dialogue.
...there is a sixth companion but that identity is going to stay secret. I'll tell you this though, I named that character Cell. Yes, from Dragonball Z.
Those are the main characters in a nutshell. You can change their names after a while, a nice trait if you make any spelling errors or regrettable jokes. Also, your party appears as a group in the overworld as well as the towns. That's right, one character does not represent your entire party. Instead, they are all realistically displayed onscreen. Their outfits don't change, but put this game in its era. Having multiple sprites as a moving entity was big for the mid nineties.
Quick Tip: You can save in the overworld as well as swap out your party members, heal, change game settings, etc. It took me far too long to realize that all of these options were available to me there. I kept going to The End of Time...avoid that stupidity.
Now, this game's central setting is time travel. In the beginning, you are only exposed to a limited number of eras. This, of course, grows over the course of the game. The End of Time is the central hub for all your time-travel needs. Before your Delorean that is. You can name that too! Mine's called Nimbus.
Go Nimbus Go!
Enough with the names Mare. Let's cover some battle tactics now, shall we?
I mentioned that there are countdown attacks in Chrono Trigger. This means that a certain amount of time must pass before you can attack an enemy. This is represented by a depleting bar that is located underneath each character while in battle. The speed of the bar depends on individual levels as well as character choice. For instance, Robo has a slow countdown since he is the defense tank. Whereas Marle is all about agility and healing, so her countdown is much faster.
Depending on whom you have in your party determines the overall quickness of a battle. This matters greatly later in the game; there are some nasty enemies who love to paralyze your party before you can even land a blow.
Other aspects of battle, ah! I mentioned magic and combos before on the list too, right? Magic is elemental in this game and is assigned to specific characters. In order to unlock magic, Chrono and the gang have to deal with Spekkio. He's annoying as all hell but does give you elemental magical powers. You'll meet him. You'll hate him. Guaranteed.
Anything else on battles. Hmm. I'm certain that I left out Magic Points. Let's talk about that!
Magic is different than Magic Points, MP, because something has to be confusing. Magic Points are what enable your party to do special attacks, Techs. The other two letters in battle, TP, refers to Tech Points. This is your general experience that is earned from each battle. As you level up your characters, they are able to do more Techs and hold more MPs. The maximum amount of Magic Points is character specific and plateaus at level sixty. Health will also reach a maximum, 999/999, eventually. Though there are only a certain number of Techs in the game, TP does not cap like health or MPs. Go EXP TP!
Now magic is a lot of fun to use. There are five factions of magic; light(ning), ice, fire, water, and shadow. Magic Techs will be represented by an elemental symbol in the attack selection. Enemies are elemental as well, this is displayed in battle, and can have up to two element types. Light Techs will hurt water enemies, but things become tricky when an enemy is both water and light affiliated.
Obviously, same elemental attacks will do squat against the same magic-based enemy. Keep that in mind when exploring new areas. You don't want to be fucked over having to use Lukka against lava monsters.
Just like enemies, you too can have elemental combos. In fact, you can have tribos, triple combos. Certain Techs exist between characters. This means that you will need to have both, or all three, characters active as well as the Techs unlocked in order to execute the attack. These Techs cause massive damage but cost a pretty penny to use.
Quick Tip: There are some hidden triple Techs in the game. They are unlocked via gemstones scattered across dungeons and time. You must have the unique gemstone equipped in order to use these awesome Techs.
The enemies in Chrono Trigger are pretty story specific. Certain ones exist in certain areas as well as eras. You enable battles by triggering parts of an area, rather than random encounters on the overworld. These triggers can be anything from grazing an enemy sprite to stepping on a certain patch of grass. After exploring certain areas so many times, you'll have the fastest routes mapped out.
Besides possible spoilers, I suppose I could mention the coolest part of Chrono Trigger, the endings.
What? Is that an oxymoron? Mare, how can you talk about the endings without spoiling the game? Easy, there are twelve possible endings to Chrono Trigger. I actually have achieved them all, serious Lavos dedication. They are triggered when you initiate the fight with Lavos, the big bad alien/planet eating parasite. Since there are several eras to visit, and certain era changing events that occur in Chrono Trigger, there are many possible conclusions to the game. My personal favorite involves dinosaurs which requires a second play-through.
Don't Panic: Chrono Trigger is designed to be replayed. Once you beat the game for the first time, you are able to roll over all of your experience and weapons to a new file. Basically, you play as an overpowered renegade and can do so again and again.
Anything left? Well, yes, so much left. But what to talk about? I did mention the save-thing already. Also the riddlesome quests, though I don't want to spoil those beyond the word "riddlesome". Perhaps you're wondering about the fair games or the soup drinking contest, audience?
Games from Hell...Eh, they're weird.
Ha, those are actually important to the plot, namely the soup drinking. The fair games function as optional mini games too, but are necessary at one point. There is one game where you can win cat food. The more cat food you win the more cats you'll have in your home. The number can be a normal two to a ridiculous twelve. Even the crazy cat ladies of the world are shown some love in Chrono Trigger.
This game is beyond fantastic. It is, not was, revolutionary in the world of gaming. Chrono Trigger gives the player choices with vastly different outcomes, an actual RPG. Not the,"good" ending, "bad" ending, and "crap" ending choice of the subsequent RPGs. It introduces multi-functioning attacks that required the player to experiment with all of the characters in order to have the full scope of the game. Then the dialogue diversity revolved around party selection, it is just amazing.
Chrono Trigger was so ahead of its time, hell, it's ahead of this time. Whoa, just like in the game. Chronoception.
Until next time audience! Here's some music to bridge the gap.
*Riddlesome (adj), a troubling problem related to solving riddles. (Coined by Mary)
Hello my darling audience. Let's ignore the gap between this post and my last one, ok?
Moving on, I have a proposal for you all of you who read this blog. Lately, I have had ideas for blog posts but cannot decide about which ones to write. Such a hard life, yes.
This is where you guys come in. There is a poll below that will enable you to decide which game will be featured as the topic in my next post. I'll gather the results at the end of nine days, giving everyone plenty of time to vote.
Now, this will not be an every post thing. I thought that I might try it out though, give you, my audience, a choice in the matter. That way, everyone wins. Plus, I'll probably write the other posts later, unless they do not have any votes. Then, meh, screw 'em.
Please, choose wisely. Or don't, it's your choice audience!
