Welcome back! We last left Serge as he was about to start murdering poor, defenseless Komodo Dragons in order to secure a piece of ass. What a great start for our heroic…uh…hero.
Before I head off to commit genocide, I run back into the local tavern to gather some info. Nothing too exciting going on, but I did find a Heckran Bone. Remember that pink dog? *Sigh* I guess I will go ahead and have him join my party. You know, for posterity. What follows is a transcript of exactly what Poshul says when you offer him the Heckran Bone: “Sergiepoo? A p-p-pretenth!? F-F-or I!?” Already, I am regretting this decision and wondering if I can somehow boot him from the team. The music that plays when the game tells you that Poshul has joined you is directly from Chrono Trigger, so I guess all is forgiven. Maybe these Square guys know what they’re doing after all.
I travel just a little bit south to Lizard Rock, a jungle/beach area that has not aged well in the last decade, thanks to decaying polygons. The enemies here are no match for my New Game +, so fret not, dear readers. The real challenge is sneaking up on the Komodo Dragon Pups. The little bastards see you coming a mile away and run off at the first sign of trouble. I’ve had a change of heart and decided they all need to die for this. I manage to trap one in a cave and it’s time to fight! A few quick hits later and that kick ass music from Chrono Trigger is playing again! That sure hits the sweet spot.
Okay, one scale down, two to go. The second one leads me on a merry chase, but fares no better than the first once I catch it. One more to go! This is a little too easy. I might be feeling guilty about this again…NOT! The third Pup goes down faster than Paris Hilton and my quest is complete.
Wrong! After defeating the third Pup, a Mama Komodo appears! My first boss fight! Once again, New Game + makes short work of her. Four hits and Mama lays softly on the riverbed (1000 cool points to anyone who knows that reference). Moving on from Lizard Rock, we come to Opassa Beach, which I hope isn’t a bustling tourist destination, since you know, I just had to traverse my way past several dangerous creatures to get here.
Which leads me to this question: How the hell did Leena get through Lizard Rock when I had to fight a bunch of enemies? Is she a Slayer or something? Does she take steroids? Do I even want to be in a relationship with someone who clearly is hiding something about the very nature of her being?
Enough ruminating. We’re in a JRPG and only the characters get to ask poignant questions and even then it usually has to do with their memory, identity or the nature of God. Leena appears behind me, inviting more questions, but I ignore the urge to ask them for now. Poshul asks if Serge and Leena are on a date and she says, “Oh, puh-leese!”
…FUCK YOU! I just slaved through a miserable, jungle area, fought off a bunch of monsters, killed several of what might be an endangered species, all to get some scales to make you a pretty necklace and you have the nerve to act like I am not getting anywhere? Like I just did this out of the kindness of my heart? What a tease!
That doesn’t stop Bitch, uh, I mean Leena, from accepting the scales from me. Leena starts to reminiscence about how her and Serge used to come here all the time. Well, if I have my way, this will be the last visit! She asks if I remember “that day” and I say no, I don’t. Oh, she seems hurt now! Apparently, Serge and Leena made a promise to each other. She keeps going on about the sea being timeless and how Serge almost drowned and blah blah blah, whatever, we ain’t on a date, so I don’t really have to listen to this, do I?
All of a sudden, outside the text box where Leena’s dialogue is displayed, Serge’s name appears, like that of a disembodied voice. An FMV cuts in and Serge has a flashback, seeing himself as a boy on the beach and a black panther’s eye, glinting in the sunlight. Green sparkles start to form around him and with a flash of light, everything disappears. I had nights like this in college, but that’s a story for another blog.
Serge wakes up on the beach, but Leena and Poshul are no longer around. Can’t say I am sorry. Instead, an old man with a pet Komodo Dragon Pup (!) are standing there. I resist my initial urge to murder the old man’s pet for a shiny scale. Serge asks (I’m assuming, anyway. He is a silent protagonist) about Leena and the old man says she is babysitting back at the village. She ditched me? Wow, I had relationships like this before and I know from experience it won’t end well for Serge.
Oh, look, Poshul is here, after all. Joy. I will spare you his idiotic dialogue, but if you want to re-enact it for yourself, take a hammer and slam it into your temple. Then you might understand a modicum of what I am enduring. Time to leave this beach and head back for the village.
Oh. My. God. Remember that game music from Chrono Cross I posted a few ways back? “Dream of the Shore Near Another World”? It’s playing now and I got instant goose bumps. This is my all time favorite game music and I might just sit here for hours. When you are on the world map, in the upper left corner, there is usually an indicator that reads, “HOME WORLD”. Well, now it reads, “ANOTHER WORLD”. So during that flash of light, we crossed over into a parallel world. Ha ha, joke’s on them, I am about to unleash Poshul on this poor, unsuspecting world! Oh no! What if there is already a Poshul here? Would the exponential effect of doubling the amount of Poshuls on this world cause the entire fabric of space-time to rip apart like Megan Fox’s career? Would all that would remain be two pink, lisping dogs, spitting inane dialogue at each other throughout all eternity? Do I even care?
I think we’ll leave it there for now, but check back next week to find out what is so different in this strange, new world. BTW: still listening to that music. Here it is again in case you missed it last time:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROKcr2OTgws[/youtube]
Oh man, this is simply hilarious. Someone needs to put Leena in her place, dude. Also, do you have to recruit the dog? It’s crazy thinking back to all this. I played through a little bit over half the game before I lost my save, so I’m actually remembering some of this. Can’t wait for the next part.
No, but I think Poshul forces its way into your party later on, so I thought I might as well.
Poshul even looks like a nightmare. Anyway, these are hilarious.
Great story. I keep thinking that in the song, they’re going to bust out a Heavy Rock theme, as is the case in many a JRPG.
I think that, not my favorite theme, but one of the most memorable for me for my generation was the theme for traveling through Tales Of Symphonia’s Tower of Salvation after the meteor bombing of Elven city Heimdall, once you reached the angelic Half-Elven city Derris Kharlan. The music really fit walking around the technological fortress with a half-dead and homicidal Colette (if I remember her state at that point), which wasn’t desolate, so much as all the Half-Elven angels there were next to dead: their souls having been sacrificed by Mithos to his long dead sister-god.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqWU2fcJA4c&feature=related
I can’t remember the name of my favorite theme of all time, but once I find it I’ll post it here.
Another good theme (accused of the rock ballad) is the theme when you reach your battle with Kratos in his form. What really sets this theme off is the fact that you know that the man who trained you in part to be the fighter you are, who betrayed you to kill your friend/lover and savior of the world the chosen Colette, the man who you later realize is your father (maybe a homage to Star Wars), is going to kill you on the supposedly holy grounds of Derris Kharlan and to continue to propagate the mass genocide and lies of Mithos and the rest of the Cruxis angel society. Plus, you know that you can’t win at that point, and it will be difficult to just survive with him summoning rays of holy fire, flying/teleporting all over the place, and releasing that damned chain stunning stab, thunder attack combo. Knowing all of that, the atmosphere is extremely tense, and the music fits it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTT5TowXd74&feature=related
By the way, what’s Chrono Cross about really. I’ve been in the mood for a good JRPG, but I haven’t found a recent one that has the level of story in the final fantasies or Tales Of Symphonia and is not a rehash of old RPG’s, so I might just play an older one, though, if it has “cute” annoying animals that talk to me in human-speak, I’m going to put it in a bonfire.
Travellingman, check out the earlier blog posts about it. Just search Chrono Cross on the site. Should help!
[quote comment=”12430″]Travellingman, check out the earlier blog posts about it. Just search Chrono Cross on the site. Should help![/quote]
Do you have any recommendations for other good RPGs?
Something that tackles mature subjects (even if it isn’t necessarily mature itself) and has some depth to it . Good gameplay, with the standards in magic and swordplay, preferably strategic/tactical or turn based.
Here’s a few more memorable level themes from me. Again, not my all time favorites, but I doubt I’ll remember the name of that one, as its from an old game which I can’t remember the name of, much less the song name.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DaQ_LR5sME&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inBzLi6_omY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75I966sBMgI
FFCC is one of the worst botched subfranchises of all time. Beautiful game and a compelling story (if you could sit through the story being only halfway explained until later in the game), very original music, great action/rpg combat system, and some of the most fun I’ve had playing an RPG co-op with friends. and I think Square Enix allowed it to be used as a test subject for too many things, dismembered it of everything that made the first game such a great success, and transplanted a whole lot of Nintendo family gimmicks.
Hey, TravelingManIII, i’ll just leave this here while we’re talking about Tales of Symphonia. This is probably one of my most favorite tracks in the game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRTtITgXpoM&feature=related
[quote comment=”12436″]Hey, TravelingManIII, i’ll just leave this here while we’re talking about Tales of Symphonia. This is probably one of my most favorite tracks in the game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRTtITgXpoM&feature=related%5B/quote%5D
Yeah. I liked a lot of tracks from the game, not the ones that focused on the guitars so much. The tracks that were more ambient/classical from that game were pretty good, but there was a lack of them, with all the guitar stuff.
Anthony, did you get to listen to any of those songs? I think the one’s you’d like the most are in the second song post. And here’s an addition to that:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lz-jFRuvA2o
One of the most beautiful game sound tracks I have ever heard. And what’s more impressive is that there’s a good backstory to the song development too. Not to mention that it’s a battle theme, which makes it even more impressive in my opinion.
And here’s the world map theme from BK:O
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6YOJP4tEWs&feature=related
And I’d throw in a theme from “Ys” but I think that that’s enough.
Shit, some of the greatest RPG’s that not enough people know about/played came out on the GC or during the GC’s time, that don’t get enough recognition. I blame that partly on the anime culture that surrounded/surrounds new RPG’s, but it doesn’t make their stories any less epic.