A new game. And not a Final Fantasy game wtffff!!?!?!?! Final Fantasy IX is next on my list. It’s coming out on Steam “early 2016.” Rather than refreshing the Steam game page every two minutes or emulating it or playing it on mobile, I decided to do an unspoiled non-FF game in the interim.
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Summary: Learning the basics of the game and the world as Crono in the kingdom of Guardia.
Introduction
-I know two things about this game: it’s supposed to be awesome, and it plays with time. (And the second is pretty obvious from the name I suppose.)
-Emotionally, I’m a bit nervous. The only JRPG I’ve played is Final Fantasy. Well.. I guess I played Dragon Warrior on NES for a bit when I was little, but don’t much remember that. So I’ll try to not assume I know stuff, or assume that stuff works here the way it works in FF.
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Starting Up
-Neat title screen. A pendulum and a clock.
-Started to get an intro cinematic where I saw a plane, but I’ll forgo that. Will try to go in as fresh as possible.
-Setting up battle timer. Choosing to use “Wait” over “Active.” New at this, so slowing it down.
-Main character already: “Crono.” Will he have a trigger! Only TIME will tell! (btw if you think I’m not gonna shove as many time puns as possible into this playthrough as possible you have another thing coming)
-It begins. Panning over a world map. A town, with a party, firing off balloons.
-Crono’s a kid or teenager it seems. Living with his mom and a KITTTYYYYY!
-Pretty standard status screen. Stats and armor.
Another spiky-haired jerk? We shall see.
Hopefully I’ll get a tutorial room at some point, but if not I may ask what some of these do.
-He’s got “Lightning” above his head in status. Class/job maybe? Also has various “tech” windows and Cyclone Tech.
-Crono has an inventor friend named Lucca and just by looking at her portrait art I can tell I’ll probably like her.
One of the playable characters in FFIV: The After Years was a dwarf engineer named Lucca. She was badass. I wonder if it was a homage.
-Nice, peaceful music here in town.
-I PET THE KITTY AND NOW IT’S FOLLOWING ME AND ALREADY THIS IS THE BEST!
-Not sure on the location, but the map says “AD 1000.” Interesting. Near the Millenial Fair now.
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Mayor’s Education Center
-Ask and ye shall receive. Tutorial time. Some stuff here is intuitive, so I’ll try to note the stuff that’s less so.
-Power buffs sword damage while Hit buffs bow and gun damage.
-Much of this will be a matter of learning the FF to CT translation. Like, potions are tonics, tents are shelters.
-Skills tutorial gives me some upbeat battle music!
-Group damage stuff seems to be now based on which monsters are close to each other rather than the FF method of hitting every enemy mob or only one. Positioning seems to matter a lot.
A lot to take in, and WAY different than FF. I get the gist and the possibilities are exciting. I’ll have to wait until combat itself to grasp it in context.
-Poison doesn’t just deal damage over time; it also reduces attack damage. Lock stops me from using “techniques.” (Can’t help but think of someone like Cyan or Sabin when I hear that word.)
-Techniques are magic/weapon attacks. I learn them as the game goes on. Whether that’s on level up like FFIV or after x number of killing blows or something like FFVI remains to be seen.
-One of the lessons I’m already learning is to talk to NPCs multiple times. I talked to the mayor once and he told me about techniques. Talked to him again and he gave me 300g for my persistence.
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Truce Inn
-As the name suggests, the Millenial Fair happening now is rare.
I’m betting we’ll see another Fair in this game, either 1,000 years in the future or the past.
-Paid someone at the piano to play some music. Beautiful piece.
-Earthquakes of late.
Probably a bad sign.
-Tried to open a box that’s been in a family for generations, but it’s “sealed by a mysterious force.” Gotta remember to come back here at some point.
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Lucca’s House
-Strewn with books and mechanical parts.
-Lucca’s not home. She’s at Leene Square with her dad, Taban. Her mom, Lara, is here.
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Around
-The king is the 33rd. The kingdom is Guardia.
-There’s a forest I can go through that leads to the castle, but I’ll hold off on that for the moment.
-Rumor that the king’s daughter is out of control. Where that means she’s evil or rebellious or neither is unclear so far.
-I can buy a ticket to head to Porre by ship. Won’t do that yet.
-Whirlpools appear in the ocean sometimes. I was about to say “it’s probably Leviathan” before remembering that I’m not playing FF.
-A relationship between Elaine and Fritz of some sort. Fritz is away.
-Good enough to start.
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Next time: Leene Square.
