Playing The Classics: Chrono Trigger: Vol 3

-- Part One -- Part Two --

I don't think I'm honestly THAT far into the game but still, I've made significant progress since I last checked in. I'm glad I have this game for one. It's been a lot of fun so far though early on there was a lot of just mashing the A button to attack. There still is that factor sometimes but more and more strategy has come into play as my magic abilities grow and such.

The plot picked up quickly and while I knew this game was about Time Travel, I still found it surprising and fun when things got all Marty McFly on us. Lets hope Crono doesn't disappear while rocking out on the guitar. I didn't expect Lucca showing up so soon but she did and it was great having another member of the team. I fought my way through finding the Queen who had been kidnapped, though I had trouble that made me feel ridiculous. For instance, it took me quite a while to notice those faces on the wall in the secret chamber of the cathedral. They removed the spikes and wow,... I felt stupid after realizing that. Then again, I also had to GameFAQ it for learning how to save. I didn't know how for a while but then I saw I could anytime while on the Overworld. That changed things, haha. After the trial, which was a neat little segment, I escaped the castle. I vaguely remembered fighting on that bridge and when I came to that boss, I had no problem with my strategy. Destroy the head. Then the wheel. Then the body. Once all that was over, I made my way through the Ruins to the Arris Dome. That first patch of 'ruins' was the last place I got to the first time around oh so long ago. I was pleased to be past that point and experiencing the game for real.

The rats the stole my potions were douchebags and I didn't appreciate them. I also didn't really like the real-time battling because it was so stressful. Still, at this point I kept it as it was. The plot continues to thicken and I was having fun. The constantly swapping of heroes has been interesting. Now though, Lucca permanently sits in the time world and I am using Crono, Marle, and Robo. Once I earned Robo, that was about the time I decided to switch to the wait system for battling. There isn't too much of a difference but honestly, I need that extra moment to think. I'm not used to the menus and it only pauses when I'm selecting a move after I've already decided to do one. I don't feel bad about it anymore, though I don't know if this was in the original SNES cart or not.

When I made it to the blue creature with the water moves, the Heckran. That's when things got hard and tricky. I died multiple times and felt like I was stuck. There's no place to really level up or grind, but I've heard that's not really necessary in this game anyway. After setting the game down and going back to it later, I realized my problem quickly. I was attacking through his taunting phase. If I didn't though, he wouldn't attack me. This made things easy. I'd use Robo and Marle to heal and Crono to kick ass. That Heckran went down easily. I felt proud.

I ended up in the caveman times and I wasn't sure where to go. That's the one major problem I have with this game. Sometimes you just have to look really closely but sometimes it's just a plain mystery on where to go next. I got all the way through to some area after fighting hard enemies and then I realized I was a section or two ahead of where I was. I went back to my own time and now I think I'm on track again but it sucks there was nothing to stop me from wasting my time with the Flintstones for that little while. So far so good though. I'm pretty sure Lucca's been leveling up with me despite being on the bench and for that I'm thankful. It would suck to want to use her later in the game and have her still at Level 13 when everyone else is at 20 or 30.

Read Part 4