Leveling up while searching for some nostalgia

(tags Chrono Trigger, Dual Screen, NES)

I'm walking around with my DS open. You see I'm leveling up my Chrono Trigger, and it's totally brainless. I've been leveling up eating junk food, playing the Cube, walking up a hill to my house. According to my save points, it has taken me 3 or 4 hours to go up 10 experience levels. I am now within striking distance of "lvl 99".

And today I went to Nipponbashi Osaka Den Den Town. I had in mind to get a copy of the original Famicom release of Megaman 2, if it was findable and cheap. Actually for me, looking for old console games in Nipponbashi feels nostalgic, because I've been going there for more modern games, and also anime and manga stuffs. So today I finally stepped into Retro Game Revival and Super Potato and Big Tiger for 90s and 80s games after a long while. W00t.

As an aside, RGR had a game demo of Warashi's 90's shmup Shienryu, which I think was the PS1 version because it had lots of slowdown. Warashi's back in limelight with the moe-madness that is Trigger Heart Excelica. Anyway, I got to the third stage, just playing on reflex and really slow bullets. It was fun! I gotta dig this game out of my stash, I think I have it for the PS2 (or maybe not).

So yes, I did not see a copy of Megaman 2 anywhere, either for the Famicom or the Playstation 1. I know it's call Rockman (ロックマン) in Japanese, because I was finding copies of MM5 and MM3 going for mid-tier pricing at 1300 yen. I also saw a copy of Megaman 1 for 3500 yen, ohkay. A-Too has some selection, but that's because the prices are higher than even auction rates. 14800 yen for Dancing Sword for the GBA?!

So, to de-motivate myself from paying many monies for an old game, I kept saying to myself, when I get home, I will pull out the emulator and ROM and play it on my PC.

Then again, I bought some more used games, like Izuna (in English for 1980 yen!) and Kirby (needs no translation) for the Dual Screen. So, emulation evil averted! Also I was going to buy Pokemon Platnum, but the only Pocket Monster I want is Pikachu.

Feeling a little JRPG

(tags Chrono Trigger, Dual Screen, Trusty Bell, Xbox 360, RPG)

Acutally I haven't been playing much of Trusty Bell (Eternal Sonata). It's not that it's not fun, only that I rather not sit in front of my computer/Xbox 360 monitors. And, I have been playing some DS, just a little bit. I finally opened Rhythm Tengoku Gold, and it was kinda novel but I only finished the first two sets. I rather press buttons than flick the variable friction screen. Also I tried out Nanostray in English which I bought for 1800 yen a couple of weeks back, and I find it hard to get into. It's as if danmaku never existed.

Speaking of which, Zun's Shanghai Alice "Touhou" CDs are slowly disappearing from the shelves at Tora no Ana. I need to pick some of the soundtrack only releases. Lucky me I have all the games. At Melon Books they bundled the whole stack of Zun audio CDs and games and the total came out to 23500 yen. Nice.

So yes, Chrono Trigger. I decided to FAQ it. Well I did beat the game and got two endings. I was just wondering if I should go do the New Game+ or just continue levelling up? Right now I'm just levelling up doing the cheapest method possible that doesn't take much brain power. It requires the berserker rings, so that the AI takes over.

I read the GameFaqs forum, and there are some pretty hardcore acronyms there: LLG (Low Level Game) In other words, play the game intentionally at a low experience level for extra challenge. Ugh? Naw, I'm just going to have fun my normal way, complete all the items, endings and let the game go.

Actually it's funny, there was an guest essay in Weekly Famitsu this week by some pro-wrestler writing about Chrono Trigger. He didn't say much at all, just that CT was one of his favorites and he played it back in the day and now he's reliving it on the DS, just before jumping into the ring. I wonder why the editors chose to run that essay now, since the game came out four months ago.

Finally, (this is just thoughts scrambled) I did a rare combing through the DS used softs for the Final Fantasy JRPGs. On the DS, I found III and IV. There were no GBA stuffs. Actually I wanna try my hand at Final Fantasy VI (3US) again. That stupid software glitch back in the day killed my save data and my FF fandom. Then again maybe I should just pick up Pokemon Platnum somewhere, since I still haven't experienced it.

I should just get back to Trusty Bell. Really, it's cheaper that way.

What do I do with my DS now?!?

(tags game, Dual Screen, Chrono Trigger, Kumatanchi, Mario Kart)

It's old news to me, so this will sound like a diary entry.

I finished Chrono Trigger's DS extras about a week ago. Now I need to tackle the different endings and the crazy extra boss for the full unlock. It feels like work though, so I'm not actively playing this. I keep wondering why I felt this game was so good. After playing it for 40 hours, I am convinced that its lack of difficulty is what keeps this game ranked so high. I do like the music though.

Kumatanchi is almost totally complete. I unlocked and collected everything. Time travelling felt kinda sad though. Now there is just one more drama bit to be unlocked and I am totally finished. Then we can pull the battery out of this Tamagocchi forever. 2008-12-23 08:00. Never forget this date because I need to set my DS to this in order to keep Kumatan alive.

So I'm playing Mario Kart on my DS now. Copyright 2005, but I am still trying to unlock stuff because I rarely put any time into this game. 150cc is pretty hard for me, though. I never did clear 150cc on the SNES or GBA versions. On the DS version though, 150cc isn't too much of a death march. I hate how unfair the game is. Oh and I still don't understand how to power-slide. Right. Oh I totally forgot about the missions. Stuff to do.

All this racing is making me think about my PSP again, and how I wanted to get Wipeout Pulse and a new PSP-2000 series hardware. Hm, maybe over break I'll think about it.

I got Guitar Hero DS for cheep because the store is getting rid of non-DSi softs. Music games. Which reminds me of the Rhythm Tengoku Gold I haven't started yet. The original soundtrack for this game and the GBA version comes in one package but is about 5000 yen. Gotta play the game before buying the CD, right?

Can't figure what to do in Chrono Trigger

(tags game, Dual Screen, Chrono Trigger)

One last post that is text only to push down the picture-laden ones. :-]

I beat Chrono Trigger and I got two endings out of lots. Now do I start the New Game+ mode or do I keep on poking around? I'm at a standstill with the latter. I figure out the two dungeons are totally unrelated to the main game, so it's like two seperate worlds in one cart. Just being aware of that is jarring. *shrug* What else can you do, man. Don't mess with genius working code.

And yes it still feels like work. 40 hours of work. I hate menus. I hate scrolling. There has got to be a menu for experts. This UI sucks. :-/

Chrono Trigger satisfying plateau?

(tags game, Dual Screen, Chrono Trigger)

Uh oh, I don't remember the magic of Chrono Trigger. :-( wut?

I think I'm at the end of the game now, just before I beat the story boss. But other than that, if I go anywhere else on the map, I encounter really hard monsters that kill me 1000 HP in one shot. Trouble is that I don't know if this is the added content or the regular content but meant for after completing the story mode. Thus I get wacked for strolling into a seemingly benign cave.

Menu grind woes. Actually the game isn't that repetative as far as the menu fighting is concerned. I have the menu speed set to one faster than normal, but I bet I'm going to set it to slowest on those killer "new game+" content.

More work than fun: Chrono Trigger DS

(tags game, Dual Screen, Chrono Trigger)

Chrono Trigger DS is my daily affair.

However, I don't like how small the text is in CT, or how the visual interface when applying items like potions sucks (characters are lined up vertically, but you have to press left or right to select them), or how the two screens are really detrimental in the DS mode because enemy positions and enemy names don't match. I don't use the touch pen for anything, and the classic mode text is tiny (crispy, but tiny). I dunno how they can improve the touch-pen positioning interface, but I have a lot to say on using the D-pad and buttons.

I'm not sure if I'm having fun yet. I played the game to its conclusion back in the day, so it's not exacly spanking brand new to me. My guys are leveling up but I feel like I'm in the old FF-style menu grind. I'm glad I forgot the tiny plot twists though, my forgetfulness makes it feel new again. 

Don't get me wrong, there are some parts that I enjoy. I especially like Marle's winning pose (jump for joy).

Perhaps when the story is over, I can embark on collecting all the endings and the new dungeons.

Chrono Trigger in English

(tags RPG, Chrono Trigger, Dual Screen, English, Japanese)

I was totally surprised that Chrono Trigger for the DS is also in English as well as Japanese. W00t!

Dual Wield Dual Screen Duel: Pokemon Pikachu DS and games

(tags hardware, game, Dual Screen, Pikachu, Princess Maker, Ketsui, Chrono Trigger, telephone card, television)

The other reason I was in shop today was to pick a screen protector film for my Pokemon Pikachu DS. Yes I haven't opened it until now and I've really been meaning to do it. The film made by Suncrest and called "magic film", claims to "self-heal any scratches". Sure. I only tried it out because it's about the same price as the other films. Anyway, slap that puppy on. I'm pretty happy with how I positioned the film. Usually I'm pretty sloppy. Unfortunately air bubbles and dust never seem to leave me alone.

So I recommissioned the DS (lite) I have been using, my pink Love and Berry DS, as my permanent One-Seg TV in my rack. I can't keep it on twenty-four seven: there seems to be a hot-spot that whitens the center of the screen after a day or two. Don't worry, it seems to disappear after I power off for a couple of hours.

Anyways, in a couple of days, I will have two DS games in the "training" catagory. (How else do you translate "育成"?). One is Princess Maker 4, of course I cannot pass up the ero-kawaii Naoto Tenhiro telephone cards. The other is the Kumatan-chi (くまたんち). I only liked it for the 2D static graphics, then I saw a gameplay/official trailer video and I was completely (re-) sold. The animation is so fluid and so cute. Plus the telephone cards FTW.

And Japanese shopkeepers never remind you to preorder. That's just too pushy. Instead, they have a wall where you can anonymously gawk and slack. I took a ganderand there was Ketsui DS coming around on 2008-10-23. Shmup action on the DS, bring it! Also Chrono Trigger DS as dated as 2008-11-27. I am not missing this one either, in both senses of the word. (Still need to dig out Chrono Cross, ugh) Neither of them have telephone card type omake, but they come with soundtrack CDs, I think. Perhaps Ketsui has a "superplay" video disc?

Surely now I can restart my Mysterious Dungeon: Shiren The Wanderer stuff again?