Is Magus really all that cool?

[kingpingu30]

Magus really is all that cool imo.

[Crono666]

Yes Magus is very cool.
He has a interesting backstory that explains why he is the way he is.
But I can understand, why some people may not like him.
They may find him to be overrated.

[dinorider88]

his character works well, especially compared to alot of the other characters (who are fairly one-dimensional)

Chrono likes to beat things up with his sword/holy magic of doom, ends up picking a fight with lavos, getting disintegrated, comming back, and whuppin ass. fairly boring

Marle grows up a bit but its a typical "my father is a douchebag" attitude to "my father is sort of a douchebag but he's also not a dumbass"

Lucca has the bit with her mom, but by and large we don't track her changes, she starts out a nerd, ends up a nerd with a bigger gun

Ayla likes to hit stuff, that dosen't change that much

Robo starts out a good robot, ends up a good robot who found out that all this time he's been disobeying his programming, and then responds with "fuck you" to mama brain.

Frog (my favorite) on the other hand starts out as a little kid who's a pacifist because even though he's damn good at it (storyline wise, gameplay i actually find him to be on the lower tier, chrono mags and robo are my smackdown party), cause he dosent wanna hurt people. then cyrus gets killed and glenn turns into frog and becomes sworn protecter/revenge knight on mags (with a bit of emo depression thrown in, but he dosen't get toooooo wangsty). eventually he learns that sometimes hitting people in the face with a nice sword is less about hurting and more about protecting and goes off to go stab cthulhu in the face with a shiney sword.

magus we first see as a generic monster/wizard thing. and we think at first he's nothing more than a really tricky halfway boss. then we find out that "oh shit, he's not lavos's creator after all, he was summoning him for some purpose or another" (we don't find out immediately that he wants to summon lavos to dark matter the shit out of him). then we meet him again (although we don't know it) both as kid janus and as the prophet. we find out kid janus is huuuuuuuuuuuuugely dependant on his sister, even if he is sort of a douche. then WHAM! the ocean palace goes to shit, lavos royally fucks up everyone's day, and then we find out that magus and janus are the same person, and that magus had his goals aligned with the party's all along (and to think, if they had just talked they could have saved alot of lightning bolts to the face on both ends).
now that's a bit of a character arc

plus it don't hurt that he's got the coolest spells in the game

[xcalibur]

yes, magus is cool.


Best bump ever.
               ~V_Translanka

[MagilsugaM]

Yeah Magus has the best story... but he had something missing and was any cool skills with his scythe...
I was always wondering when he will use some physical attack... ended up having the best and strogest magic in the game.
But still... i was dissapointed LOL

[Lennis]

Is Magus really all that cool?  Absolutely!  And even with his established character development, he still has a lot of potential for growth.  This is why you see so much fan-fiction and fan-art devoted to him.  It's well deserved.

Magus was never really given a sense of closure in the canon games, so any true sequel or resolution to Chrono Cross (whether it's in the form of a new Square/Enix game or a fan-fic) would have to focus on him pretty heavily.
I don't think many would disagree.

[crono123]

Magus is pretty awesome, but it is quite irksome when people say that he is the best character in CT. I prefer Robo or Chrono to Magus  

[Nangbaby]

Magus is cool, but I can understand the original poster's point.  Some fans do seem to deem him as "the most awesome character ever" and that does get annoying.  As good as his personal story is, you really don't get to see that much actual development of the character if he joins your party.  Then again, as memorable as all the Chrono Trigger characters are, most of them are one-dimensional and static.  What attention Magus gets in the game only makes him better by default.

It's weird, but I usually tend to dislike characters of the same archetype (The "proud, tough, standoffish, selfish powerhouse who holds no compassion") but then again, at least with Magus, at least there are some hints that his outlook and words, while harsh, don't speak as loudly as his actions.  That and the fact that since he was one of the first I encountered, it wasn't something I hadn't gotten sick of.

[blackflan]

i only want to said.....FORGET WHAT ALL THOSE PEOPLE SAID!!!..MAGUS IS THE BEST!!!...XD....just kidding......i think all people like him because of his mysterious past
..i like that too...but my favorite character is lucca....is only an opinion..if you don't like too much Magus...no problem.....
...
.....
BUT HE IS COOL!!!...XD

[GenesisOne]

Then again, as memorable as all the Chrono Trigger characters are, most of them are one-dimensional and static.  What attention Magus gets in the game only makes him better by default.

That's not to say that some of the characters are given a backstory that one observes (Frog, Magus) and can even alter (Lucca).  CT is what you would call an "Ensemble Game", where all the characters are worked into the story to be given equal screen time (for lack of a better word).

It's weird, but I usually tend to dislike characters of the same archetype (The "proud, tough, standoffish, selfish powerhouse who holds no compassion") but then again, at least with Magus, at least there are some hints that his outlook and words, while harsh, don't speak as loudly as his actions.  That and the fact that since he was one of the first I encountered, it wasn't something I hadn't gotten sick of.

It those character archetypes that allow us to identify ourselves with a specific character in a story.  Archetypes like the Callow Youth, or the World-Weary Swashbuckler, the Damsel (not always in Distress) , or the Old Wise Man are just a few examples.  Your personality is bound in fall into an archetype somewhere, and in this case, we are somehow drawn to the "proud, tough, standoffish, selfish powerhouse who holds no compassion" called Magus.  That's what makes him cool; our ability to see him as "cool".

[TMC]

Magus has the most interesting backstory, definitely, so that makes him cool. I can see the "overrated" comment though. He's in my team when strong magic is needed but still I prefer my Crono, Ayla and Robo team, for me they kick ass best.

[_Janus_]

Until later in the game, I didn't really like Magus that much, but, when I learned that he was in fact Janus, and that he wanted to summon Lavos in an attempt to destroy it, he started to seem pretty cool, to me

[Meushell]

Wow, old topic, but I see people are still replying.

My opinion on him varies. He's fun to have in the group once in a while, but I usually have Frog defeat him in the end. I'd probably keep him more often if there was less people to begin with...though I wouldn't want to get rid of anyone.

I agree it can be tiring to hear everyone act likes he's the best, but it depends the situation and how they feel about other characters. If it's outside of a normal Chrono Trigger situation, it's neat to see CT acknowledged. However, it's annoying when say he's talked about greatly while everyone else is put down.

[utunnels]

... but I usually have Frog defeat him in the end.

Hah, they should make the fight tougher to give me a gameplay wise reason not to kill him but sadly because Lavos weakened him much, even Frog himself can defeat him easily.
 

Wow, old topic, but I see people are still replying.

Well, it is a sticky topic.

[ZeaLitY]

Yeah, should we unsticky?