Chrono Trigger - Low Level Game Part XI: Magus 1/2

Playlist of the whole challenge
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=96A60192F8D710AF

I've been fighting him for the last 4 days constantly and this is the first time I am able to beat him in an LLG.

In this video I show how I managed to defeat Magus with a level 13 Frog, no save states used, I add to my honour.

The first phase is a difficult one, however, after fighting against him over 20 times for the last few days I know him as much as I know the fingers on my hands, so this video shows the first phase as an easy one. It IS not hard if you know what you're doing. Which is...

Attack Magus until his weakness becomes Water. Frog is the only one who can survive his counterattacks, so it doesn't make any sense to revive Crono (his Lightning spell is weak due to his level 1 stats though) and Marle. Once Water is his weakness, attack him with Masamune to reduce his magic resistance and then cast the spell.

I handle this phase easily because I've learned that the best time to trigger his counterattacks is after his normal attack. The reason? Besides the spell counter, he uses Geyser which deals minor damage and a normal attack with his scythe, which is fatal when used right after the Shadow counter. Therefore, wait until he slashes you and only then cause him to counter, thus changing the elemental weakness.

Once he has lost over 2000 HP, you should know he is about to enter the monstrous Dark Matter phase. In order to get the most out of it, revive both Crono and Marle who will restore Frog's status and HP and help him to deal damage until the first Dark Matter. The video shows it very well.

If you wonder, why I healed him with Water when he was weak to a different element, I'll tell you: it wasn't a mishap from my side. I just wanted him to throw him straight into the second phase without seeing a counterattack fall on my party (once again, Frog is the only one who survives it at full health).

So... yes, Dark Matter.

It normally deals way more damage than Frog can absorb, so we use a Barrier in order to reduce the damage dealth by 1/3. I set the battle speed as the highest in order for a single Barrier to last two Dark Matters. It isn't that simple though, so we use a Barrier right before he casts his deadly spell. I came to the conclusion that it works well if you start counting Crono's turns when Magus starts charging for Dark Matter and use a Barrier on his 3rd turn. Sometimes, you can even have Crono attack him afterwards. This is repeated once again (we only have 2 Barriers) to survive Magus's 3rd and 4th Dark Matters. The fifth one will kill us unless we conserve turns. This is done by having Frog revive Crono after every Dark Matter, so that the punk rocker uses a Mid Tonic on Frog and sets up another Barrier (for the 4th Dark Matter).

The tricky part is that despite playing on the fastest battle speed I could NEVER manage to kill Magus off before the last and fatal Dark Matter. I even counted the damage I dealt to him, and he always had 200-400 HP left. I had no idea what to do, so I used 5 Power Tabs on Frog to make his physical attacks more effective.

As you can see, it worked, and I am very relieved that this battle is finally over.

If it wasn't for big_kake's tips in his LLG FAQ, I probably wouldn't have defeated him on my own, so gotta give credits to his excellent in-depth guide.

Once again, PHEW!

A veeery late edit: I just realized, weeks after doing this battle, that I actually didn't switch the battle speed all the way to the fastest and by a weird mistake changed the speed of subtitles or whatever. That explains the necessity of having to use Power Tabs on Frog to be able to win this battle. Wow!

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• chrono
• trigger
• low
• level
• game
• llg
• crono
• frog
• marle
• magus
• janus
• black
• wind
• howls
• boss
• battle
• challenge

[ChaosChronicle]

Why didn't you use the SilverEnrg or whatever - it increases your max HP so Frog can easily withstand Shadow Counter + Regular attack. It at least takes the difficulty out of Phase 1.

[MoogleBoss]

I'm pretty sure I did, and he still had problems surviving it.

[dartrip4]

uhhh, how come after he cast geyser your hp didnt slowly drain away? is this a rom, or is there a way to counter the hp down effect?

[MoogleBoss]

I think as any status it can be healed.

[Link13112]

nice vid but i ask did u ever know that ice is the same as water?

[MoogleBoss]

Yeah, I do, but I did not at the time I wrote the video description however. Taking a challenge kinda makes you get more precise knowledge of the game, which despite the previous playthroughs I knew superficially, as I now see it. I'll edit the video description, since, as you put it, the remark about Magus never using Ice 2 doesn't make any sense.

[GrievousAlucard]

Wow.... Magus came pretty close to saying Bieber instead of Zieber XD

[banjotenie]

@cloud6363 then level up on the bats in the previous room until your about level 40..at least thats what i did

[KarlBonner1982]

@Link13112 It's interesting that Ice / Ice 2 is more of a "standard" water attack spell than Water / Water 2. Magus gets Ice 2 instead of Water 2....Spekkio uses Ice instead of Water....and I think Blue Scouters also counterattack with solid rather than liquid water.

[BluedawnDX]

you need to get tech points. you get them by beating enimies

[joetharpe]

this is the best super nintendo game that I have ever played and as well the only rpg that I have ever liked, never was into final fantasy or anything of the sort. LOVE this game. Beaten it with almost ever possible ending that you can get. Great everytime.

[cloud6363]

i could never beat this guy sadly :(

[Vegeta20009]

how do u get lighting up a lvl

[darknumber000]

Whoah, you're good..... I just kept using Aura whirl and then Cleave. If you have Lightning 3 by now, it's a bit easier to drop his HP.