Life's Playthrough Topic

[Life]

Since I finished my last playthrough (first time I have too), I figured that I might be able to finish my next one. The thing is that I'm quite bored and I don't know which game to pick. So I'll have you guys do it!

EDIT: This is going to be where I log playthroughs and stuff like that. So I'll have various links and whatnots in this post.

Chrono Cross Playthrough:

Update 1

Edited December 26, 2010 by Life Admiral

[grandjackal]

Do FF5 or 3. I wanna see how you deviate from me if you play FF5 if you choose to do so, or we could do FF3 just to see a completely new game.

Don't worry about FF8. I'm about to have that covered.

Actually, do Chrono Cross. Was always interested, but never had the chance. Would be nice to see how that game plays.

Edited December 25, 2010 by Amaterasu

[Life]

Just clarifying some games.

Advance Wars refers to the first Advance Wars on the GBA.

FF3 is the original SNES game featuring Kefka Palazzo.

Megaman Battle Network refers to any game in that series.

I think that's it for clarifications.

[Lucent]

Advance Wars. It's the only not shit game on your list.

[Life]

Advance Wars. It's the only not shit game on your list.

[Life]

I have 10 votes and 3 for Chrono Cross. So... BLIND CHRONO CROSS IT IS!

Just gotta download it first. Might also be interesting to note that I've never played Chrono Trigger before. Oh well...

Edited December 25, 2010 by Life Admiral

[Lucent]

I have 10 votes and 3 for Chrono Cross. So... BLIND CHRONO CROSS IT IS!

Just gotta download it first. Might also be interesting to note that I've never played Chrono Trigger before. Oh well...

Wait longer. Don't subject yourself to that shit.

[Life]

Wait longer. Don't subject yourself to that shit.

I'm fucking bored and it's SUPPOSED to be good. Plus, I have no access to Steam and no mouse so no FPSs for me. Otherwise, I'd be playing Borderlands and shooting skags.

[Life]

Chrono Cross Playthrough:

The Usual FF Stuff.

Well, opening up the game immidiately reminds me of FF9. Don't know why but this is actually a good thing because I love FF9. Lot of characters and other stuff so... LET'S GET READY TO RUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUMBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAL!

Main character's default name is Serge and I have no reason to change that... so I won't. We zoom in on a... what is that? It's some sort of tower or something but it's kinda small. And shit, game's in medias res. Definitely a Square game, then. Apparently, Serge is on some sort of raid or something. And two people follow after him FF8 style.

A little down the path and I get my first battle! Battle system is similar to FF but hard to explain and I don't even understand it myself. So... I won't explain it. But Serge can shoot meteors at the enemies in his first battle which is better than any other FF character so I'll let it slide. Nikki (some emo chick) attacks with a guitar (yes, it's electric) while Kid uses daggers. So let it be known that I am killing enemies and have no clue how.

Anyway, there's a switch somewhere in these towers. Flicking it lets us use the warp in the middle of the place and... "what the bloody hell just happened"? Kid is definately Australian. We get to a door and... WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT CUTSCENE?!

Eh, turns out that it was just a dream. Great. Why does every RPG being with the person being woken up by someone? Anyway, I leave the room and chat to Marge, probably Serge's mum. We gotta go find some chick named Leena but outside, there's a giant sawfish! The guy who caught it loves his squid gut pasta... another reason why I'm happy that Jews don't eat seafood. Chatting to this guy lets you acquire a Komodo Scale.

There's a shopkeeper a little nearby where you can buy Elements and Weapons/Armour from. Screw weapons and armour for right now, I'm going with Elements (skills). I buy a Fireball, 2x Medicine and 1x Antidote, noting that I already have Cure and 5x Tablet, both healing. Medicine heals the flu and blue status effects while Antidote heals poison and green status effects. Cool. I look at the Weapons quickly and realize that it's a synthesis system to make them. Shit. Oh well, good thing I went for the Elements first, then.

Leena is north, at the docks. And she wants a Komodo Scale Necklace... wait, didn't I just get one of those scales for free? Leena wants me to collect 3 scales for her necklace so... fuck, I gotta go to Lizard Rock. Ungrateful bitch...

West of the village you can find Radius who will finally explain how to, you know, kill shit. Basically, there are three types of attack levels that number from 1 to 3. Each have corresponding hit values and the stronger the attack, the more inaccurate it is. Also, Elements have colours and affect the field of battle. How? Don't ask me. Also, most Elements are similar to FF6 Espers in the fact that if you use it in a battle, it can't be reused in that battle. Others will be used up permanently, such as Tablet, Medicine and Antidote. And they can't be used right off the bat.

After Radius beats the shit out of Serge twice, I set Fireball as the Lv.3 Element. My 5x Tablet are in Lv.1 and Cure is in Lv.2. Should be good for the moment. Heading out of the town to the east puts you on the World Map and Lizard Rock is pretty close. Head there to kill stuff.

A nearby chest spits out Fireball after killing the enemy guarding it. Trap the Komodo Lizard and touch him for a battle. Fireball should basically OHKO anything including the Komodo Pups so use it. Another chest will give you 1x Tablet while a third grants you with a Bone (synthesis item). And then... AN IVORY HELMET! YES! And one final chest gives off a Silver Loupe which improves Hit %. God knows I need it. Grab your 3 Scales and head to Opassa Beach to meet up with Leena.

Or not. Since Leena didn't appear at Opassa Beach, you can find her at Arni. BITCH WANTS ME TO COLLECT 3 SCALES MYSELF?! FUCK YOU! This is why I don't get shit for women. They bitch about whatever I get them.

After you kill the third Komodo Pup, Mommy will show up to play. A full 1-2-3 combo followed by Fireball should put her down for the count. Time to finally meet Leena at Opassa Beach.

Soon after you arrive, Leena joins you. She grabs the Komodo Scales and sits down on the beach, reminded of her youth. Apparently she and Serge made a promise when they were kids which Serge has forgotten (SOUND FAMILIAR ANYONE?!). Serge then starts hearing voices and let the FMV roll! He collapses and... yeah, this game is kinda weird.

That was a nice nap...

Serge comes to thanks to an old man and... wait, where's Leena? She's... babysitting? Wasn't she here on the beach with Serge? Running back through Lizard Rock nets new items in chests. An Ivory Helm, Feather and Bone, to be exact. Leena is at the dock but she can't remember who Serge is? This is kinda creepy, especially when Serge lives here... does he? In fact, nobody remembers him.

Wait. The boy next door to Leena drowned 10 years ago. And according to Leena on the beach, Serge almost drowned 10 years ago... What the hell is going on? Apparently, Serge's grave is on Cape Howl so why don't we look for some clues there as to what's going on? Oh and Marge died soon after so... shit, there goes Mum. I grab an AquaBeam from the Element store along with bring up my Medicine and Antidote count to 5. Only costs about 110G so it's pretty cheap.

Going north lands you at Cape Howl. The first chest holds an ElectroJolt so I suggest grabbing that. There's also a Bone in a nearby chest. Going on nets you at Serge's grave... if Serge was dead, that is. Suddenly, I'm ambushed by a guy named Karsh and... wait, is that Kid? Kid from the beginning of the game? Thank god, I'm saved! And time for a boss battle.

Karsh, Solt and Peppor aren't that hard. Use Solt and Peppor to build up your combos and hit Karsh with your Elements. Kid comes with 2 Fireballs and a MagmaBomb while Serge has Fireball, AquaBeam and ElectroJolt equiped. Heal Kid if necessary since she starts with only 51 HP. For beating the trio, you'll get a Bone Axe, Ivory Vest and Ivory Helmet.

After the battle, you get to name Kid. Let's go with... Kid! You'll head back to Arni for the night and then Kid decides to tag along. The duo then make their way to Termina since... fuck, where's a good Majora's Mask joke when you need one? She also gives me a Tele-Porter which does fuck all. I grab another Cure and AquaBeam from the shopkeeper and then GTFO Arni since clearly nobody likes me.

Next stop is Fossil Valley (south). There's some sort of excavation going on but we can pass so it's all good. Sticking the low road has us running into... Solt and Peppor. Great. Beat the buffoons up again for a Copper and an Uplift Element. Rather than following them, tell the guards that you are the exorcist and you'll be granted access to the top level. The enemies get a pretty big boost in power, what with the Dodo being able to OHKO Kid with Peck. Just slowly work it over and do NOT use Dash&Slash since the White element will actually power up Peck (not a good idea). Work the Dodos over with Red Elements and Kid's Pilfer. Grab the Big Egg and Bellflower from the top along with Heavy Skull and then book it out of the valley.

Termina is a big city on the sea. You can't miss it. Walking in, you'll see a man mention Karsh and a group called the Acacia Dragoons. Huh. Run into the Inn and save.

That's it for now!

EDIT: Here's my Element set-up as of right now.

Serge:
Uplift          Cure +1      AquaBeam +2
ElectroJolt -1  Fireball +1  Dash&Slash

Kid:
Tablet x5       Fireball +1  MagmaBomb +1
Cure            AquaBeam +1  Pilfer

Edited December 26, 2010 by Life Admiral

[Original Alear]

Just slowly work it over and do NOT use Dash&Slash since the White element will actually power up Peck (not a good idea).

I'm...pretty sure that only happens if it's 3/3 white, right?

[Life]

I'm...pretty sure that only happens if it's 3/3 white, right?

I don't think so. I think that the more colours in play, the stronger a move gets. It's how I keep succeeding with Pilfer.

The Element shop in Termina boast some pretty nice stuff. You have your average Lv. 1 +/-7 stuff of Fireball, AquaBeam, Uplift and Bushwhacker (a green version of the previous Elements) and then the Lv. 2 +/-6 stuff of MagmaBomb, IceLance (Blue), AeroSaucer (Green) and ElectroJolt. It also has 1x Brace (heals Yellow status effects and sprains), 1x Ointment (heals Red status effects and burns) and Heal (Green healing). Not bad. I stock up on what I don't have and buy multiples of other stuff.

After the buying, I reorder my Elements. Each element is weak to another colour. White is weak to Black, Red is weak to Blue (I think) and Green is weak to Yellow. And vice versa. Serge and Kid also have 2 innate Lv. 3 abilities which correspond to their strong colour. Serge has Dash&Slash which is White while Kid has Pilfer (Red). Unfortunately, I don't have any White Elements so I can't power up Dash&Slash... but I can power up Pilfer! However, I want Kid to be able to hit Red based enemies too so I give her some Blue Elements to play around with. Serge goes more Yellow and Green based for the moment.

If you talk to the old man who shines the Lord Viper statue, you'll find out about the layout of Viper Manor. Where guards can kill monsters in a single hit. AYIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII! Kid then has the bright idea of... sneaking in. Great. Another man mentions mushrooms and some sort of secret passage leading to Viper Manor so that's probably the way to go.

Termina boasts some other characters. That Nikki chick from the beginning of the game is on posters around here, a Dragoon by the name of Gleen has a dead father and brother around here and some sort of demi-human named Korcha raises hell on the streets. Oh and Glenn and Riddel (the girl he is with when praying at a grave) know Karsh is ghost-hunting... for me. Shit.

Also. Nikki is apparently a guy... and he's missing. Huh. Miki (his partner) then recruits us to go look for Nikki. Great... Time to head to the Shadow Forest then.

A screen in, you'll find Nikki who will then run off. Grab the treasure here which is an AeroSaucer and Uplift. If you're lucky, a Bulb might drop a Bushbasher which is a Lv. 3 +/-5 Green Element. That's always nice. After that, chase after Nikki and save his ass. Pilfer an Ivory Mail while you're at it, it's always nice. After the battle, chase after Nikki and he'll join the party. GrandFinale is Blue based so fill his Elements up accordingly. There's also an Angry Scapula by the notebook on the ground and Skully (the skull you picked up a while ago) will comment on it.

Lead a jelly thing to the Quadffid and beat it up afterwards. He can use Heal and Bushbasher which will leave a serious hurting on its target, especially if there's any Green existing on the field. Change the colour to Red ASAP and bring out Pilfer for a 1x Antidote (free Elements are always nice). Serge's Dash&Slash will always do great damage too so don't be afraid to pull it out.

A little onwards and you'll run into Zoah, one of the 4 Devas of the Acacia Dragoons. And he's flocked by... Solt and Peppor. Jeez, those guys are almost as bad as Adecor and Boccos. Solt will start the battle off with Golem... and fail since the Field Affect needs to be entirely the same colour. Sucker. Anyway, all three of the Dragoons are Yellow innate. Stick to your Greens and you should be OK. Additionally, Serge with the Copper Swallow should be able to ORKO Solt at the very least. Grab Zoah's Knee Pad before taking him down a peg.

There's a Heal and a MagmaBomb after beating Zoah. Grab 'em for kicks. Keep going until we hit the bottom of a well. Once night falls, time to infiltrate. Fight the Dragoons since they can drop nice stuff like 1x Tablets and PhotonRay (1 +/-7 White Element, just what Serge needs). Chests include a 1x Ointment, TurnBlue and TurnYellow (the last of which is useless against Dragoons). And that this point, Serge should be doing nuts damage with Dash&Slash, especially if you put some White on the field.

Anyway, go find the stable and feed some dragons. Grab the key and make for the main entrance. Once you fall down into the trap, Kid will bait the Dragoons who foolishly let you out to "teach you a lesson". Oh dear. Afterwards, you'll steal their clothes and get to check out the inside of Viper Manor. Raiding the treasure room nets you some pretty nice stuff. Oh and you'll find Glenn inside too.

Grab the Silver Pendent from the treasure room to meet Luccia. She'll sick some of her creatures on you but aside from Bushbasher, they're not that scary. The next door contains Man-o-War suits of armour that can hit pretty hard but more importantly, give up GravityBlow (Black 1 +/-7) upon being hit by a successful Pilfer. Up the stairs you'll find... hi Karsh. Apparently, some visitor from Porre has a bone to pick with Serge and yet Serge has no idea what's going on (apparently). Go back to the first room and twist the statue 1 to the right and 6 to the left to unlock the door.

The tower to the left houses the Prophet of Time and Marcy. And apparently, Serge isn't from this world... HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I HEARD THAT ONE BEFORE (Galuf, Zidane...)? Anyway, Serge is indeed dead in this world but in a parrallel one, he's still kicking. And somehow, he crossed the boundary between the two. Huh. Musta been those hash cookies that Marge used to serve... And turns out that Marcy is in fact a Deva. Which means that I've fought 3 out of 4 of them and the last one is dead.

Marcy hits pretty hard for a little brat. She's also got innate Blue making Nikki terrible and Kid pretty awesome in this battle. Pilfer her Silver Loupe and then start wailing away. Heal is better for healing since Cure is Blue and it will power up Cat'sCradle and IceBlast.

Head back to the main room to meet Harle, who has a thick French accent. After, find a switch on one of the poles to move onwards. First door contains Viper and Lynx. And Kid apparently has a score to settle with Lynx. So, let's fight!

First things first. Lynx is Black while the field effect starts off Black, Yellow, Yellow. Abuse the Yellows and then start working on Red to get Kid to successfully pilfer Lynx's Magic Ring. After that, White is the best way to go.

After that, Riddel decides to walk in and Kid uses her as a hostage, whispering in Riddel's ear that she isn't going to hurt her. That's our cue to book it out of here. Then we get cornered on top of a balcony and Lynx nails Kid in the arm with a thrown sword. Kid falls off and Lynx says something about the Assassin of Time AKA the Chrono Trigger. Makes me wish I played that game first. Serge and Nikki then jump off the top of the balcony and Lynx yells out in frustration. God, I love it when a plan just comes together.

The next day, Serge wakes up in a strange woman's house, not unlike me after a night at the bar. Kid, Nikki and Korcha are outside waiting for Serge. Korcha apparently saved us last night so... yeah. And then suddenly, Kid collapses. Fuck, a poison sword. Should have known.

Taking Kid to the doctor tells us that Kid has 2 days to live. And Harle then walks in. Way to make an entrance.

So here's the scoop. The only cure to Kid's illness is Hydra Humour. But there are no more Hydras in this world. Notice I say this because I'm pretty sure in that parallel world where Serge lives, there gotta be Hydras. Kid also reiterates the Prophet of Time's words. Korcha now joins the party and it's time to save Kid.

[Iris]

Normally, I don't read/watch playthroughs, but when I saw that you were pting Chrono Cross, I couldn't resist. C:

I have played this game through enough to get all endings including the true one.

Best PS1 game ever. If I ever decide to emulate this game, I'll do a video PT on it.

Might also be interesting to note that I've never played Chrono Trigger before. Oh well...

You don't need to play CT to understand CC at all. I haven't finished CT yet. As far as I know, there are only miniscule references to the game it's supposedly a sequel of.

Mmm, it seems you missed out on recruiting a lot of characters, but well, I guess they're easy to miss? Blind playthoughs are just that cool. 8D

I would've told you not to save Kid, who IMO, is not that great of a character. You get better characters by not saving her. But hence, it's a Blind PT.

Anywho, focusing on the task on hand... IIRC, you've gotten Serge (duhh), Kid, Nikki, and Korcha. Small group, but if you equip and allocate carefully, you'll be fine. I think...

Looking forward to seeing more. You haven't been KOed yet, by anyone, have you?

[Life]

Mmm, it seems you missed out on recruiting a lot of characters, but well, I guess they're easy to miss? Blind playthoughs are just that cool. 8D

I would've told you not to save Kid, who IMO, is not that great of a character. You get better characters by not saving her. But hence, it's a Blind PT.

Anywho, focusing on the task on hand... IIRC, you've gotten Serge (duhh), Kid, Nikki, and Korcha. Small group, but if you equip and allocate carefully, you'll be fine. I think...

Looking forward to seeing more. You haven't been KOed yet, by anyone, have you?

I like Kid. Probably because Pilfer has been fucking awesome to me so far. I do want to recruit Glenn though and I did give Glenn some flowers of some sort so maybe...

Also, yes, I have been KO'd already (Kid died a couple times, I think). And my party right now is Serge, Nikki and Korcha who needs Elements. And I heard that there's something like 40 characters that you can recruit in this game.

EDIT: I think I just cried when I found out that I missed out on Doc. FUCK HE LOOKED SO COOL.

Edited December 28, 2010 by Life Admiral

[Acacia Sgt]

I like Kid. Probably because Pilfer has been fucking awesome to me so far. I do want to recruit Glenn though and I did give Glenn some flowers of some sort so maybe...

Also, yes, I have been KO'd already (Kid died a couple times, I think). And my party right now is Serge, Nikki and Korcha who needs Elements. And I heard that there's something like 40 characters that you can recruit in this game.

You're out of luck now. Choosing to save Kid results in Glenn not joining. It's on the other path where he joins.

44 in total. don't expect to get them all in one playthrough though. You need at least 3 and the use of NG+ for that.

[Life]

You're out of luck now. Choosing to save Kid results in Glenn not joining. It's on the other path where he joins.

This is bullshit! I'm starting over! And I'll record it too (I have HyperCam).

So yeah. Starting over. Forget the updates above.

EDIT: I'd like to point out that GJ started over when he missed a Mercury Djinni. While I'm not so anal about missing shit, characters as cool as Glenn and Doc are NOT worth missing.

Edited December 28, 2010 by Life Admiral

[Life]

So I restarted and this time tried blowing off Kid. Lo and behold... Leena, Poshou and Guile join my party? What is this shit? Also, Van started with Serge and Kid in the opening scene, not Nikki. Huh.

So I can have a thief... or I can blow off the thief and recruit everyone else in the game? Huh?

[General Spoon]

What do you mean you didn't recruit Poshul and Mojo?

Edited December 28, 2010 by General Spoon

[Life]

What do you mean you didn't recruit Poshul and Mojo?

I never even knew that that pink dog (I guess Poshul is his name) existed until I blew off Kid.

[Acacia Sgt]

So I restarted and this time tried blowing off Kid. Lo and behold... Leena, Poshou and Guile join my party? What is this shit? Also, Van started with Serge and Kid in the opening scene, not Nikki. Huh.

So I can have a thief... or I can blow off the thief and recruit everyone else in the game? Huh?

The third party member in the opening sequence is always randomized. So it could be any of the remaining 42 party members. That can sort of spoil you if you get specific characters, though. But there's nothing you can do about it. Oh well...

Yes, that's part of the deal of not everyone joining in one playthrough. Getting a character means not getting someone else.

[Iris]

This is bullshit! I'm starting over! And I'll record it too (I have HyperCam).

So yeah. Starting over. Forget the updates above.

EDIT: I'd like to point out that GJ started over when he missed a Mercury Djinni. While I'm not so anal about missing shit, characters as cool as Glenn and Doc are NOT worth missing.

I stopped playing GS for a while after I missed some Djinn. I still haven't gone back. 100% completion is for me.

Doc really isn't as great as a character as he seems, but I guess he's not that bad. Glenn is effing amazing. Use that dude when you get him. 8D

You know, even though Kid is on box art and everything, you can pretty much go through the whole game without using her.

I did on one of my numerous playthroughs, and got the true ending that time, and if anyone knows what the ending is, it doesn't make sense at all. 8D

So, where are you in the game now? Viper Manor?

Actually, I never found Marcy hard, but I grind my characters' stats after every boss battle. And I never buy elements being the cheap Asian I am, but yet the game isn't too hard.

Just some non-spoiler recruitment tips:

Are you not getting the key items? Some are important to get to recruit some characters.

Since you're already past that point, lemme clarify on how you would recruit said characters.

Serge

Poshul - Show her the heckran bone you can get near the beginning, and she'll join. Alternatively, if you don't recruit her, she'll join the party when Leena joins.

Kid - You can recruit the girl whenever. I normally do so in Termina after I recruit Leena, but you're already past that point.

Leena - If you refused Kid the first time, you recruit this girl. She's not that bad. I reccomend using her, my favorite blue innate character, but you may prefer Marcy or Orhla to her.

Mojo - Is not worth it to reset the game to recruit him. You can get him if you get the Shark Tooth Amulet key item from Kiki's dad in home world and then show it to Kiki's dad in another world [in Arni]. He's just some voodoo doll, so no worries.

So these three, you need to recruit one of them to get into Viper Manor. You can only get one every playthrough, so whatever floats your boat.

Nikki

Guile

Pierre

If you do save Kid, you get these three, Razzly is pretty much the only good one, unless you like to have two thieves (Mel) is on your team, too. You can always get another thief later, though.

Korcha

Razzly

Mel

So, if you decide not to save the girl who saved you, then you get these badass characters. Yeah, I know it makes no sense, but well... Glenn is too awesome to miss if you're only playing one PT.

Glenn

Macha - Just wanted to say that she is arguably the best red innate character out there. I don't really use her, so I don't know.

Doc

So it's two good characters (not saving Kid) vs one good one (saving Kid). Hmm. Whatya gonna do?

Edited December 29, 2010 by Iris

[Esau of Isaac]

Save Kid. DON'T YOU WANT TO SAVE YOUR VIDEOGAME WAIFU.

Why do they make you choose by putting Glenn on the other side? WHY?! This means that I only ever get Glenn the third time through. :V

[Iris]

Well, Kid will still be alive, so don't worry too much about it. ^ _ ^

She'll be controllable later, and she won't hold and grudges against Serge.

[General Spoon]

I'm not so sure that Life knows that the Heckran Bone is found in the backroom of the bar&restaurant, by the bed IIRC.

[Esau of Isaac]

Well, Kid will still be alive, so don't worry too much about it. ^ _ ^

She'll be controllable later, and she won't hold and grudges against Serge.

She won't talk about it, but deep in her mind she'll hate him forever.

[Life]

UPDATE!

After storming Viper Mansion, I choose not to save Kid's ass and have to save her anyway. In return, I end up recruiting the following characters:

Macha

Greco

Doc

Glenn

Kid

I am now in the Volcano after saving the Blue Dragon's ass. My team is Serge, Leena (she might be shit but innate Blue is awesome right about now) and Glenn. Aww right!