When I first heard of Chrono Trigger, I thought it was a shooter where you go around shooting zombies, soldiers, robots, etc. with guns, often very violent games. This is due to /”trigger/” being present in the name. Little did I know that it was an RPG. Like I do with pretty much every RPG, I powerlevel to an extreme, always on the lookout for prime leveling grounds (places where you can quickly and easily gain levels). The robot in the Millennial Festival at game start was my first – level 8 with both available techs for Crono and Marle learned before the first time traveling stuff started (got the /”Lode sword/” too). It would be a while before I could use my second leveling ground – /”Dactyl’s Nest/” in the 65 million BC era (which made me think of dinos, without civilization being present). Upon doing the story events for putting the masamune together, I realized I had a prime leveling ground, my third thus far.
This is my first play of the game so I really don’t have any clue as to how much more remains with the game. I’m thinking that I’m about 1/2 to 2/3 finished. Storywise, I’m supposed to be going after Magus in A.D. 600, having just acquired the masamune. This was level 29 for Chrono. Since that point, I’ve been very focused on utilizing my third leveling ground.
Upon realizing that the petals, fangs, horns, and feathers could be traded for items (a slow and tedious process since you can’t zip through the text) which could in turn be sold for far more Gil (?) than any other battles seen thus far. A ruby gun (the most common item) sells for 2900 a piece making the battles in this leveling ground worth 967 gil a battle (since you always get 2 items, one petal and one fang). The less common feathers should be used up first as the stone arm sells for 3750 gil. This high rate of acquiring gil makes the worthy stuff in Medina Village (which is typically 65,000) much more easily in reach. While the costs of the tonics are nearly 1500 (and it climbs as game time continues), the costs max out at 65,000. Thus, wanting the best armor I can get (armor seems almost useless in this game as a boost of 7 has no detectable effect – weapons were first since they have a far more noticeable effect), this same leveling ground is excellent for aquiring the gil needed to get that armor (and weapons) this early in the game.
Throughout this video, after the first 2 battles, pay close attention to which enemies the two berserkers go after (after my tactics I use in Final Fantasy 12), the amount of damage dealt, when critical hits occur, and especially the order of these. You’ll find that every 4th battle is exactly the same. Battle 1 is the same as 5 and 9. Battle 2 is the same as 6 and 10. 3 is the same as 7 and 11, and 4 is the same as 8 and 12 (and 64 if you go that far out). Being able to predict when a critical hit will occur and know exactly how much damage each attack does with 100% accuracy is a strong indication that this game has a poorly designed random number generator. Normally, you shouldn’t be able to predict it at all and things should always be varied. This design flaw actually helps in this leveling ground. It wasn’t until level 31 that I began to notice this great consistency in damage and critical hits.
So then, how far am I going to go with this heavy level grinding? This depends on how long it’ll take to get at least 3 pieces of that expensive armor for everyone (that’s 5 more). Once this is done, I’ll either max out the level (if it maxes at 50 since it’s looking like it might) or just continue the story. If level continues beyond 50, then I’ll go as far as I can (until I get bored of it).
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