Thoughts on Magus (Chrono Trigger) as a character?

Deleted member 29599 · Oct 23, 2020

I killed Magus in my first playthrough, his dialogue in the scene where you can opt out of fighting him is deliberately confrontational and the game nudges you in that direction. Didn't realise he could be used as a party member. Soon as i found out i fired up CT for a NG+ session and got him in my party who then promptly replaced Crono in my normal go to team of Crono, Marle and Lucca.

CT remains probably my favourite SNES RPG, it's just so fucking good at everything that it does. Nails the characters, the story beats, the little moments, even the replayability with all the different endings. Where the hell is the Chrono Trigger remake, Square?

zashga · Oct 23, 2020

I liked him as a character, but I always just let Frog kill him. Seems like a better conclusion to his character arc than "I dunno I guess we're cool now."

DiipuSurotu · Oct 23, 2020

NioA · Oct 23, 2020

I love him, he floats and has a lot of useful skill. His identity as Janus is well kept and I love the endings where he had some more dialogue with Schala.
My team in the end was Ayla/Frog/Magus or Crono.

JumbiePrime · Oct 23, 2020

DPB said:
He was supposed to be Guile originally.

Masato Kato: To let the cat out of the bag, in the early stages of development, Guile was indeed meant to be Magus. In our original plan, the true identity of Guile was supposed to be Magus after the events in Trigger. (At the end of Trigger, Magus [a.k.a. Janus in Trigger and Magil in Radical Dreamers] disappeared into a Time Gate to go searching for his big sister, Schala, who was lost somewhere in time.) However, as the game's development progressed and we decided to use such a huge number of playable characters, we decided not to make him be Magus. We thought it was impossible to portray the relationship between Magus and Schala adequately in this game. So we changed tracks, made the colors of the Magus character design paler, and turned him into Guile, the magician. In a way, it's a pity, as I really would like to have seen the valiant figure of Magus come to life again.

Okay that actually makes me angrier ..lol. The fact they wanted it but decided against it and instead just trash the character .ugh

DiipuSurotu · Oct 23, 2020

Ahjumbie said:
Okay that actually makes me angrier ..lol. The fact they wanted it but decided against it and instead just trash the character .ugh

They updated that with the Chrono Trigger DS secret ending. Guile is Magus.

Deleted member 1102 · Oct 23, 2020

Awesome villain
That first boss fight with him kicked my ass super hard
Great optional party member
Becomes pretty much useless story-wise once he joins
Not sparing him pretty much gives you nothing even though it makes more sense for Frog

Those are my thoughts on Magus. Cool character and it's awesome he joins you but he might as well not exist once he becomes a party member.

OdjnRyu · Oct 23, 2020

I feel bad for those who fought him instead of recruiting him towards the end. He, Marle, and Crono were my A-Team.

PeterVenkman · Oct 23, 2020

Top tier party member. Triple techs were fuckin amazing, and I'm a sucker for heel turns. He's a great pick for a fav character, too bad

FROGS RULE FROGS 4 LYFE

Taruranto · Oct 23, 2020

Dary said:
"What if Vegeta was a vampire?"

Thanks, cannot unsee now.

NeonZ · Oct 23, 2020

Ahjumbie said:
It was shocking that he wasn't Guile. I mean , he even shows is face to someone and she says something like "Oh that's who you are" I was positive it was him . Then the stupid internet came along and dashed that . He was my favorite character btw

He was supposed to be Guile originally, but they cut it when they chose to focus on a large cast. The DS/PC version of Chrono Trigger has a new ending that sets up Magus becoming Guile though so they basically made it official in the end.

Dylan · Oct 23, 2020

Scar said:
I wish Glenn turned back tono a human that you could actually use in fights if you opted to kill him. There's little to no payoff for offing him other then losing a powerful ally.

Yeah I wish the choice had more weight. Or at least it would be awesome if there was a scene where Frog flips out on the rest of the party:

"What, you DIDN'T KILL HIM!?!? You do realize that means I spend the rest of my life as a fucking FROG don't you?!?!. You pieces of trash, do you realize how hard it is to put on pants every morning? My life is agony, you fools. Did I not literally save you from the same wizard you just let free? And in return you repay me with a lifetime of froggery. Fuck the lot of thou. "

HustleBun · Oct 23, 2020

DiipuSurotu said:
No confusion. After the events of CT, Magus managed to open a portal to the Darkness of Time (called "Time's Eclipse" by the CT DS translator) and he fought the Lavos/Schala fusion, but failed. In a moment of clarity, Schala erased his memory and warped him to the present time. He is Guile from Chrono Cross.

Well that ending sparked a lot of debate, some felt that it confirmed Guile as Magus and others claimed that it opened up more plot holes, cementing that Guile could not be Magus.

Case in point:

Anoregon said:
Well there essentially is nothing in Cross to tie Magus to, since he was excised from it completely.

DiipuSurotu · Oct 23, 2020

HustleBun said:
Well that ending sparked a lot of debate, some felt that it confirmed Guile as Magus and others claimed that it opened up more plot holes, cementing that Guile could not be Magus.

Case in point:

What plotholes?

He has tons of scenes in Cross that fit.

Deleted member 8468 · Oct 23, 2020

Well I'm not very happy OP pointed out his leather underwear (I never noticed) but I still think he's a great character.

My experience of Chrono Trigger when younger was renting it from the local video store. It was only on occasional weekends when I'd get to rent something, but we lived in a small enough town so that my game save on the bottom was never erased. After some time I eventually got to Magus' castle for the first fight against him, cleared the encounter and had to take the game back to the shop shortly thereafter. After that the video store in question sold all their SNES games, and I never got to play it again until some years later. It made the twist sink in even harder!

Chrono Trigger is such a great game.

headspawn · Oct 23, 2020

I've been alternating between Magus & Schala theme as my alarm for like well over a decade, yah, I'm a fan.

Dreamboum · Oct 23, 2020

DiipuSurotu said:
magus, guile, and magil (chrono trigger and 2 more) drawn by yohane_shimizu | Danbooru

View this 811x1131 243 KB image

danbooru.donmai.us

cool!

blanton · Oct 23, 2020

Yeah, Vegeta's pretty cool, I guess.

DiipuSurotu · Oct 23, 2020

blanton said:
Yeah, Vegeta's pretty cool, I guess.

Pocky4Th3Win · Oct 23, 2020

I thought he was a pretty deep character at the time of release. Especially compared to some other console rpgs. I do have a bias as I went as |MaguS| for a long time online in the 90s and early 2000s.

Buckle · Oct 23, 2020

Magus is a better Vegeta than Vegeta.

You can't really beat that feeling of someone you thought was going to be the big bad joining your party.

Htown · Oct 23, 2020

Ahjumbie said:
It was shocking that he wasn't Guile

this is the single most infuriating thing about chrono cross

Richietto · Oct 23, 2020

Love him. Still disappointing they replaced him with Guile in Cross. Like why? They could have done some great shit with him and Kid. Would have really put a cherry on top of Magus' story, but sadly that's just forever incomplete.

DiipuSurotu · Oct 23, 2020

Did you know? Radical Dreamers doesn't just have Magus, it had a flashback of Janus, too:

Once the light has faded, we're treated with a scene of a vividly colored, beautiful courtyard...
Amidst a number of trees' shadows, a boy and a girl are sitting and playing.
Somehow I know that the boy is Magil. Even as a child, his trademark spirit shines through.
The girl, however, looks strangely familiar. Where have I seen that face before... perhaps that painting in the study?
They're talking happily together. We're too far away to hear what they're saying, though.
Then all of a sudden, he says something with a serious look suddenly in his eyes.
Although surprised, the girl listens to what the boy has to say, and then nods.
The two press their hands together, linking fingers. It looks as though they're making a promise of some sort.

Buckle · Oct 23, 2020

zashga said:
I liked him as a character, but I always just let Frog kill him. Seems like a better conclusion to his character arc than "I dunno I guess we're cool now."

Magus is one of my favorite characters but I always loved that badass moment.

"Crono was a bitch."

"...Stand back. I'm going to kill this fucker myself."

Laser Ramon · Oct 23, 2020

PeterVenkman said:
Top tier party member. Triple techs were fuckin amazing, and I'm a sucker for heel turns. He's a great pick for a fav character, too bad

FROGS RULE FROGS 4 LYFE

Heel Turns are when a good guy turns bad. Magus has a Face Turn.

BasilZero · Oct 23, 2020

I like the character.

On my last playthroughs I've always used these combination of characters

Crono + Ayla + Robo

Crono + Marle + Frog

I'll probably use Magus in a future playthrough (maybe not on PC but if I replay the SNES or PS1 ver).

SolVanderlyn · Oct 23, 2020

Oops, guess I forgot he had some triple techs.

Still, his lack of cooperation is pretty much the only thing keeping him out of my party at all times

Psxphile · Oct 24, 2020

RyanG said:
I killed Magus in my first playthrough, his dialogue in the scene where you can opt out of fighting him is deliberately confrontational and the game nudges you in that direction. Didn't realise he could be used as a party member. Soon as i found out i fired up CT for a NG+ session and got him in my party who then promptly replaced Crono in my normal go to team of Crono, Marle and Lucca.

CT remains probably my favourite SNES RPG, it's just so fucking good at everything that it does. Nails the characters, the story beats, the little moments, even the replayability with all the different endings. Where the hell is the Chrono Trigger remake, Square?

Yeah, he was really egging for a fight. It struck me as almost suicidal considering he was unable to change his own personal history and save his sister. Talking shit about one of the heroes who had been just lost, especially to the one guy equipped to take him down for good, seemed like he had completely given up on challenging Lavos again. Maybe he wanted to die?

Then you deny his death wish and he eventually comes to the realization that these motherfuckers have a fucking TIME MACHINE.

DiipuSurotu said:
Did you know? Radical Dreamers doesn't just have Magus, it had a flashback of Janus, too:

It's been a while since I've last completed RD but I don't remember this passage at all, is it one of those optional scripts that you never see unless you trigger certain flags?

jacket · Oct 24, 2020

Dice said:
Frenemies are like my favorite archetype/trope.

Same

rustyra24 · Oct 24, 2020

He was always one of the better party members because his magic is so strong.

Rats · Oct 24, 2020

Magus is dope. I don't love using him because of his lack of party synergy but I've definitely done it.

Kenai · Oct 24, 2020

Erpy said:
It kind of fit his character though. While the other party members were True Companions in the true sense of the word, Magus remained kind of a dick who was tagging along because it suited his purposes, but wasn't gonna get chummy with that naive bunch of do-gooders and it was neat seeing this aspect of him translated into actual gameplay.

Only kind of though, especially if you consider his entire character arc rather than the present him. Since the techs are such a big part of the game and he's not OP enough to offset that I would have liked a few more unlockable ones at least

Deleted member 5621 · Oct 24, 2020

There are exactly two kinds of people:
The ones who let Magus join their party
And the good ones

DiipuSurotu · Oct 24, 2020

Psxphile said:
It's been a while since I've last completed RD but I don't remember this passage at all, is it one of those optional scripts that you never see unless you trigger certain flags?

Yeah if I recall correctly it's optional dialogue if you ask the Venus statue about Magil or something

Giever · Oct 24, 2020

+Hovers while dashing

He has triple techs btw, they're just all dependent on equipping accessories.

The lack of dual techs really sucks though.

skeezx · Oct 24, 2020

as a kid i thought he was the coolest mother f'er in the world

now i just can't get over his hairline, insipid as that sounds. you want jrpg characters in their late 20s+... but when it happens...

JahIthBer · Oct 24, 2020

Janus is awesome, really wish we got a proper chrono trigger sequel that followed up on his story, Crimson Echo's does a much better job than Cross despite being a fan game.

Deleted member 29599 · Oct 24, 2020

Psxphile said:
Yeah, he was really egging for a fight. It struck me as almost suicidal considering he was unable to change his own personal history and save his sister. Talking shit about one of the heroes who had been just lost, especially to the one guy equipped to take him down for good, seemed like he had completely given up on challenging Lavos again. Maybe he wanted to die?

Then you deny his death wish and he eventually comes to the realization that these motherfuckers have a fucking TIME MACHINE.

Never thought about it that way but if you consider how the initial Lavos fight went down it actually checks out. He spent all that time and effort posing as the prophet to get his chance to take out Lavos and when it came down to it he couldn't do shit, basically. Especially considering how cocky he was of his own power it probably messed him up more than he already was.

DiipuSurotu · Oct 24, 2020

RyanG said:
Never thought about it that way but if you consider how the initial Lavos fight went down it actually checks out. He spent all that time and effort posing as the prophet to get his chance to take out Lavos and when it came down to it he couldn't do shit, basically. Especially considering how cocky he was of his own power it probably messed him up more than he already was.

I'd want suicide too if my foster parents were Ozzie, Slash, and Flea

Deleted member 3010 · Oct 24, 2020

Not only is his story good and extends beyond the game, his look is a mix of Vegeta and Sephiroth with a fucking scythe as a weapon.

What's there not to like.

Tpallidum · Oct 24, 2020

I killed him because Frog is the homie

Hieroph · Oct 24, 2020

One of the best handled bonus characters ever. Not having dual or triple techs makes perfect sense for his character.

antitrop · Oct 24, 2020

The first time I fought him is one of my greatest gaming memories. I absolutely loved his battle theme and his animations.

batfax · Oct 24, 2020

he's cool as a character, but kind of crap as a party member and when he joins in CT is at a point in the story where he never really gets a moment to shine as someone on the crew

viandante · Oct 24, 2020

i think he's super hot.

DiipuSurotu · Oct 24, 2020

The reason Magus is weaker and has access to less spells as an ally than when you fought him is because Lavos drained his powers

Amauri14 · Oct 24, 2020

Ballou said:
To this day, I've never actually done that lol.

I just did it in my first new game plus to see what happens, as I honestly was expecting it not to be a real choice like so many games do. I regretted that I did it later on but I continue playing the game without him in the party. But I regretted that later as on other new game plus there was a big level disparity with him and the rest of the team.

Tuorom · Oct 24, 2020

Tpallidum said:
I killed him because Frog is the homie

and we're done here

Psxphile · Oct 24, 2020

who needs dual techs when access to all three Tier 2 elemental magics + Gold Stud will clear about 90% of all mobs and leave you with plenty of magic to spare?

He's definitely not great against bosses, or 'strong against magic' and 'absorb Shadow' enemy types though.

Thoughts on Magus (Chrono Trigger) as a character?

How do you like Magus?

He's my favorite character!

I like him a lot, both as a character and a party member

I like his character but I don't like to use him in combat

I only liked him as a villain

I don't like him at all

Losing is fun

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