A SNEAKY SURPRISE ATTACK AT THE START OF THE ROUND

Magus

NOW THAT'S WHAT I LIKE TO CALL BIG DAMAGE

BecNoir

-uses Masamune-

glennmagusharvey

The Masamune is responsible for not one but TWO complicated battle scripts in Chrono Trigger.  First, Masa&Mune and later Magus.

Maybe also the Mammon Machine but I don't think so.

BecNoir

^ Masamune siphoned energy from Magus and Mammon Machine. You couldn't use it in the fight against Masa & Mune, seeing as a. you didn't get the sword yet and b. they pretty much ARE the Masamune

glennmagusharvey

They had a distinctive set of battles because of their plot importance; not saying that using the Masamune would do anything.

That said, have you seen descriptions of Magus's battle script?  I would link you to the bosses list for Chrono Trigger at RPGClassics, but shrines.rpgclassics.com is currently down...

BecNoir

High Physical defense until damaged to a certain point, Absorbs all magic except the magic most recently used by Magus (for example, if he uses a Fire attack, he's not immune to Fire) until damaged to a certain point, Being hit by the Masamune lowers his Magic defense until he uses a magic attack until damaged to a certain point, Physical damage and causes HP to drop steadily to all characters until damaged to a certain point, Physical/Magic damage to 1 character until damaged to a certain point, Counterattacks against all attacks except Masamune by attacking with either a Fire attack to all characters, a Water attack to all characters, a Lightning attack to all characters, or a Shadow attack to 1 character until damaged to a certain point (however, WILL counterattack against the Masamune if attacked by it twice in succession), Raises his Magic Defense after being damaged to a certain point, Shadow damage to all characters after being damaged to a certain point

You mean this?

DYRE

Capcom vs. SNK 2 > Chrono Trigger.

Bee

^^ And weirdly, that's actually not that complicated from a scripting standpoint.  The cutscenes before and after were probably harder to do.

glennmagusharvey

^^^ Yes.  It's the longest description in that shrine.

It could have been simplified, admittedly:

Phase 1: physical damage and HP down (targets all), physical/magical damage (targets one).  Counterattacks all hits (except from Masamune) with barrier change: Uses level 2 magic spell (targets all) of randomly chosen element and becomes weak to only that element (absorbs all others).  When hit by Masamune, first hit in succession lowers magic defense and does not counterattack, second hit resets magic defense and counterattacks as above.
Phase 2 (after sufficient damage): Casts harmless warning sign, followed by level 3 shadow magic (targets all).  Barrier from first phase remains intact until warning sign is cast, after which (I think) vulnerable to all elements, and does not counterattack.

^ Yeah, though I've actually wondered, how hard would it be to develop an actually competent script/AI for a JRPG boss.  There are a lot of bosses like Dullahan from Golden Sun TLA that have insanely powerful attacks and just spam them completely randomly, which is both strategically annoying and intellectually dull.

Icalasari

^ Make it look at the stats and target the one with the largest difference in attack+magic and defense+resistance (attack being highest). Have it use disabling status effects on the character with the highest attack/magic period to take care of later. Have it react to a character using a healing spell by putting them to sleep

Heck, I could do that in RPGMaker. It shouldn't be hard for an actual programmer once the engine is up