Part 9: Snow Chronicles 2: A Parade of Peg-Legs

Snow Chronicles 2: A Parade of Peg-Legs


Music: To the Warmth of the Sun



With the completion of Chapter 3, it’s time to take another look at the Snow Chronicles. Looks like we’ve still got a ways to go for filling up most of the junk in here. Other than the Magic Consortium tally, which I seem to have run into a bug deciding it was 100% filled (it is not.)

There are far fewer entries to burn through this go around and we can skip past the ones we know to be a waste of time. Let’s get started with...

***** Characters *****



I know it’s just the art style and you never see the characters’ feet, or lack thereof, outside of the model viewer here. But given his beaten up face and missing eye, it really does look like Nidr has two peg-legs. In fact, I’m just going to go ahead and assume that is canon.



Didn’t I take quests for the Dark Brotherhood from this guy in Oblivion? Retail work sure has changed since I was young.



Given this is anime years, I’m guessing “quite old” translates to “over 30.” Though they at least bothered to give her a slightly wrinkled face. I suppose that’s better than the usual middle-aged anime mom whose only indicator of age is having slightly tired looking eyes.

***** MONSTERS *****



A few new categories have cropped up in the Monsters tab. Though, two of them are really stretching the definition of Monster here...



New to the Sea Monsters we have everyone’s favorite dangerously bloated suicide bomber seal. Don’t worry about the why or how this critter manages to ignite the gasses in its body to fucking detonate like a bomb. You wouldn’t understand the science behind it.



Warning: This sea gull can flip you the bird. Dispose of it with the utmost haste and urgency to preserve your honor.







I think I only mentioned the one, but I have encountered all three variety of owl monsters in this chapter. The trouble is that our characters are literally not fast enough yet to do anything but see these jerks immediately flee from battle. There’s actually a special battle music for these encounters that’s pretty good. But, you’d only hear it for all of 20 seconds if playing yourself.



Human Foes is a new category, for isn’t the greatest monster of all man? All three of the resistance soldiers under Freyja that the party wrecked in a brief battle have ended up here. We have Plump Young Man who... actually looks fairly fit to me.



Especially, since Shrewd-Eyed Young Man has an identical build and isn’t being weight shamed. Also, you’d think Shrewd-Eyed Young Man deserved a real name considering he had 5x as many lines as his comrades and several scenes off by himself. But alas, thus is the way of a mere soldier...



Maybe one day Baby-Faced Young Man will fully develop a pair of eyes and become a real man. One day...



Finally, The Reaper class is where The Reaper hangs out as his own thing. Wait... That hair... Leon S. Kennedy, what are you doing moonlighting in a JRPG? I know Resident Evil 6 was rough, but this isn’t the answer!

***** WEAPONS *****

Everyone did pick up a new weapon this chapter or recently joined carrying something we’ve yet to see. Let’s take a brief look at the new hotness in weapon design and lament how much better they would have been with Weapon History stories.



You’ve always got to be on the lookout for tweekers and degenerates stripping Levissium wiring out of construction sites for a quick buck.



I hope Setsuna’s weapons increase in size and absurdity until she’s got a hair ornament modeled after the Dragonslayer sword poking out of her scalp.



Antipode is another Chrono Trigger reference. It was a series of Dual-Techs Marle and Lucca could perform by combining their fire and ice magic. Now it’s a middling knife that does time magic. There’s some kind of commentary on the end product of I Am Setsuna there, but I won’t touch it.



Last up, we have Nidr’s huge ass sword. Guard’s Sword isn’t the most creative of names. But it least it isn’t like Auron claiming his boat oar sized blade was totally a katana.

***** SPRITNITE *****

We’ve picked up a handful of new Spritnite in our latest adventures. Like maybe one of them aren’t just a Chrono Trigger expat. Let’s see here...



Aura was the first healing Tech in Chrono Trigger. There, it was only a single person heal spell and certainly didn’t dispel all status ailments. It also belonged to Marle, the fairly weak healer character who was the Setsuna equivalent. But fuck it, let’s give the main character one of the best healing spells in the game. May as well make Endir capable of being a near unstoppable solo mercenary if he wasn’t stuck on babysitting duty.



Lightning was also a Chrono Trigger spell. Though in Setsuna, Light is a blanket element for a few different spells. Not just electricity.



Okay, Incite wasn’t the name of a Chrono Trigger ability. But... Provoke, the status effect it inflicts, was... Though, I don’t think Setsuna slaps her ass to piss off the enemy like Marle did.



Let’s see here... Protect? Yep. That was the one defensive spell Lucca learned fairly late in the game. Though Setsuna’s is an AOE buff instead of single ally. So that’s something, I guess!



Finally, Endir only comes with a single Tech and that is his sword jump, or Aerial Strike. Which was the original Japanese name (and updated translation) for Frog’s Leap Slash Tech. Well... At least it looks different from that one.

***** MAGIC CONSORTIUM *****



The Magic Consortium tab is new to this chapter. It’s just a reference guide to all the available Spritnite techs and which Materials must be sold to the Consortium to unlock ‘em. Handy enough if we want to grind out a certain enemy to gather materials for a tech. But not worth exploring here.

***** LOCATIONS *****



The Floneian Territories has been our setting for the duration of this chapter. You can see they keep track of which shining spots for food ingredients we’ve come across in our travels. There is no achievement for obtaining EVERY shining spot. Though there are some related to eating certain foods that require getting quite a few of ‘em.



Jersey has hit on some hard times.



I’m just picturing a Berserk style hyper violent town massacre of the villagers by mascot character penguins, cutesy beach ball seals, and derpy walruses. Someone with some art talent get on illustrating that.



Ah yes, the mild climate of mostly snowy instead of constantly snowy. I see they’re on Canadian metrics of temperate.



...Just walk to the edge of the map. How are idiots getting stranded there? I walked off it by accident!



Someone once suggested just following the coast and circumvent the mountains altogether. He was burned at the stake as a heretic. We’ll have no such blasphemous talk of world map circumvention in this good and god fearing kingdom.

***** NOTES *****

A few new notes have been added to our extended journal. I don’t think there’s any more generic combat notes for the duration of the game. So that’s one less menu option to worry about.



Yeah, The Resistance really isn’t a great name for a JRPG militia when that term is basically synonymous with a group fighting an evil empire. You could have gone with maybe The Vanguard or something if you wanted a generic group name.



Are you telling me the group whose only contact is an eyepatch sporting Sith Lord looking motherfucker might not be entirely on the up-and-up? That just seems paranoid.



I cannot believe Talli is fucking dead. May anyone else involved in the systematic convolution of the Spritnite system follow him to the abyss.



Thus we are reminded of the terrible fact that most all things we consume was originally some shit someone found on the floor and stuck into their mouth, hoping for the best.

***** STORY *****



And with a summary of the completed chapter, we close the door on the Snow Chronicles until next time...