My brother was in town for the weekend. We decided to get a
few games of Civ V under our belt
since our internet connections won’t allow us a game longer than 10 turns. I
found new inspiration to knock out a few games after he left as well.
Particularly fond of my first victory on Prince difficulty (I know, I’m lame)
with Songhai. I drove for a Cultural Victory, but was ahead in Technology as
well. I also had the second strongest military which led to some interesting
stand offs against rivals. Victory could not be duplicated again with Russia.
This week marked my adventuring party’s triumph over Normal
difficulty in Diablo III. I’m really
excited to take my Monk into Nightmare difficulty, but I haven’t had the
opportunity yet. I’m learning to use the Auction House feature to my advantage,
but I am also constantly vexed that it is unavailable due to maintenance. I’m
still debating the possibility of a documented adventure in Hardcore, but I
continue to put it off to play with friends in Softcore and fight the good
fight on new characters. I am leveling all but Demon Hunter on Softcore at the
moment.
My brother was interested in checking out Terraria so I loaded it up and showed
him around. He made his own character and messed around in the early stages of
the game, building a shelter. We didn’t play too much, unfortunately. If we had
two copies of the game I could see us really tearing it up, but as it stands my
Terraria adventure is on indefinite
hold and I am awaiting Starbound. Diablo III is simply too distracting.
I spent 6 hours over the weekend tearing through Shadow of the Colossus. I didn’t spend
my usual obsessive amounts of time hunting down lizard tails, so other than a
scattered sighting here and there, I managed to play through the game rather
quickly. It was my intent to highlight the battles which each of the 16 colossi
for a small audience. I love that game and I’m glad it’s back in my possession.
It feels good to take down a colossus every now and then. It’s a little bit
symbolic of the real world in that way.
This is part of an ongoing series about my favorite memories
from video games. You can find the original list and table of contents in an earlier post or by clicking here. Please be aware that these posts are going to be full
of spoilers which may ruin the impact of these events on anyone who wishes
to experience them on their own in the future. I’m truly sorry this is a day
late this week.
#8 – First Battle with Magus (Chrono Trigger)
When I was 14-years-old, I somehow knew Chrono Trigger was going to be one of the most amazing games I
would ever play. I remember my first glimpse of the game was in Nintendo Power
and from that moment on I
was sold on the project. I craved it with every ounce of my being. It
was the better part of a year that I awaited the arrival of this game,
all
the while talking it up to whoever would listen. I was sure it was going
to be
outstanding. In retrospect, I don’t know what about the game got me so
riled up. I was not aware that it was being produced by a “dream team” of
video game
makers that would never re-assemble for a project again. Though I may
have
known Nobuo Uematsu and Akira Toriyama, I had no recollection of
Yoshinori Kitase, Hironobu Sakaguchi, Yasunori Mitsuda, Hiroyuki Ito or
Masato
Kato. Those names weren’t included in my database of excellence until
much
later. I loved the idea that makers of my favorite
games (“Final
Fantasy” series and Secret of Mana)
were making a game that dealt with jumping
through time and resulted in multiple endings. Writing that sentence just gave
me a shiver of excitement, so I think I just nailed down what was the source of my obsession with this project as a teen.
It’s not often that I get this worked up anticipating a
game, due to countless instances of disappointment after hyping a game up
in my head so much. Back then I was always excited for any new
Squaresoft game to hit American shelves, but there was something magical about Chrono Trigger. It was even more magical that I was not disappointed after such a mental build up. Not once did I think the game could have been
better, or that I shouldn’t have expected so much. Chrono Trigger is everything I dreamed it would be and more. It
kept me entertained for over a year to come, and still manages to creep onto my
playlist from time to time fifteen years later. In short, I believe Chrono Trigger is a perfect game, a
masterpiece. It is truly the product of industry giants coming together for one
unbelievable project, an event that I don’t believe has been duplicated since.
The game begins with the opening of the Millennial Fair in
the year 1000AD, and here too begins the first of the game’s story arcs.
Although the fair is celebrating the kingdom's 1000 year anniversary, most people at the fair seem
fixated on the events 400 years ago that threatened the very existence of the
human race. They go on and on about a crazed leader named Magus leading an army of Mystics
(non-humans) in an attempt to conquer the world. Since this is a game about
time traveling, this might strike you as important foreshadowing as you work
your way through the light-hearted events of the fair. Although the game does a
good job of making the first few trips through time seem like unrelated
episodes, the game is fully steering you toward a showdown with Magus. Each
jump through time subtly presents new clues and information on Magus until the
party from 1000AD finally see the destruction a being
called Lavos wrought on the world and decide to stop it – by stopping its creator, Magus.
Magus in a Steve Zissou pose.
The party’s preparation to defeat Magus is perhaps the
largest build-up to a climax the game offers, excluding the final showdown and resolution, of course. Before the player’s party
can storm Magus’s gates and challenge him to a fight to the death, they first
must learn how to use magic – an art lost thousands of years ago and only practiced by the Mystics in 600AD. They must also
reconstruct the Masamune, a legendary sword that cuts through Magus’s magical
defenses. It is often described as Magus’s only weakness and it’s not in good
shape when the party discovers it. All of this involves hopping around time
using the previous clues and foreshadowing to direct the player on his quest to
defeat Magus. The game spends so much time preparing to fight Magus that when
you’re finally standing on his doorstep, his tower feels quite intimidating.
Magus's Tower depicted in one of many endings.
In the continuing efforts to make Magus appear to be the
final boss of the game, Magus’s tower is one of the longest and most
challenging dungeons faced at this point in the game. It is full of fights you
cannot avoid and there are three mini-bosses awaiting you as well, Flea, Slash
and Ozzie. The game is pulling all the stops to make this encounter feel like
an ultimate showdown. Here you will stop Magus and save the future by
destroying Lavos at its source.
The atmosphere feels quite foreboding when the music of Magus’s
tower fades away and you enter a dark room filled with haunting chants.
I will never forget my feelings of dread as I cautiously made my way down the aisle of
this dark chamber with flames springing to life around me. At the
end of the aisle, these flames form a circle around the scene slowly fading into view. There’s an innate summoning circle on the ground before a large demonic statue.
Magus stands at the center with his arms spread wide, his purple cape and
otherworldly blue hair fluttering in the wind. With his back to the party,
he taunts them and seems otherwise unimpressed with their arrival. As Frog
pulls the Masamune out, the black wind begins to howl along with the intro to
Magus’s battle theme. When he finally turns, he’s wrapped in his cape like a
vampire, but soon tosses it back and begins his magical assault on the party.
Throwing down with Magus at his dark chapel.
I have to hand it to the developers here. They did such an
amazing job building to this moment, but more importantly they set an unbelievable mood for the player's arrival. The combination of
effects used - the difficulty of the fight, the eerie atmosphere of some
defiled chapel, the vampire/angel of death design for Magus, and the
outstanding use of music – creates this unforgettable moment which is only
further solidified when the player is slapped with the first major plot twist.
Victory over the formidable foe only leads to the revelation that the characters
were wrong. Magus was not the creator of Lavos. In fact, Lavos existed long
before this moment in 600AD and the quest to save the planet goes on. Once
again, the party is thrown into a time gate and Magus lives to fight another
day, but everyone is left with doubts about his true motivation? The deeper mystery only serves to pull the player into the story more.
It is 17 years later and I’ve got 17 years worth of
experience playing games and consuming stories, yet I’m here writing this
article about Chrono Trigger. I am realizing that the
events leading up to Magus are what demonstrate the amazing job this
game does telling a story. The direction and pacing of the plot is so skillfully
woven together with the imagery and the music players are quickly drawn into this world, and the controller gets harder and harder to put down. As a result Chrono Trigger is full of memorable characters and scenes. “The
First Battle with Magus” stands out of the crowd because it marks the end of
the first story arc, pulling all the stops to set up a climax for the first
time in the game, and introduces one of the most unforgettable characters in
video games – Magus, the tragic, otherworldly antihero.
I beat Radiant Historia with 100% completion this week. It’s
a great game. Atlus continues to impress me. I believe a true strength of this
game is its characters. The main character in particular is an accomplished spy
and swordsman, a far cry from the standard RPG hero who starts out as a nobody.
Shuffling around two timelines of activities is a unique experience, akin distantly
to Chrono Cross. If you like traditional
role-playing games, this one is a must play. It is among the few true
traditional-style RPG (a.k.a. “Japanese” or “JRPG”) around in the last decade.
Diablo III was
released this week. I was not particularly excited because I did not play Diablo II so I did not know what I was
missing. I knew it would be a big event for most of my game playing friends, so
I decided I would get it to play with them. So far, I have not been disappointed.
I always have at least one friend on to team up with and the game itself is a
lot of fun. I’m playing a Monk with my wife and a Wizard without her (she’s
playing Wizard).
It took him two days of hard work at Gerdur’s mill, but
Genjo finally saved up enough money to buy a house. However, the roads of
Skyrim aren’t safe, my friends. What adventures befell him en route to
Whiterun? I’m hoping to have a complete write up of his adventures later this
afternoon, so look forward to it. Other than Genjo’s adventures, I have not
been playing Skyrim due to Terraria and Diablo III. When I do play, however, I get pretty absorbed and have
lots of fun.
So building in Terraria
completely took over my weekend last week. I decided at some point that my
little underground bunker wasn’t good enough for the people of Terraria and built a few homes. I built
a Toad House for my Merchant (and later on the Arms Dealer and Clothier). I
also built a Heart Container for the Nurse to use as an Infirmary. Over by my
vast garden area, I built a hut for my Dryad out of mud, stone and grass. I
plan to continue a hanging garden all around her house for Waterleaf plants if Diablo III doesn’t keep me away.
I attempted to play a game of Civilization V with my brother last
night, but we could not stay connected for more than a handful of
turns. We spent an hour trying to get it to work but eventually gave up.
Great disappointment was had by all. Since I didn't technically "play"
the game, I won't post pictures but I thought I'd mention it
nonetheless.
I spent 6 hours over the weekend tearing through Shadow of the Colossus. I didn’t spend
my usual obsessive amounts of time hunting down lizard tails, so other than a
scattered sighting here and there, I managed to play through the game rather
quickly. It was my intent to highlight the battles which each of the 16 colossi
for a small audience. I love that game and I’m glad it’s back in my possession.
It feels good to take down a colossus every now and then. It’s a little bit
symbolic of the real world in that way. 
