At last! The final frontier! The finale chapter of this epic time-travel saga! Lets see how this all turned out. I bet you're all eager to find out!
That wave of destruction was quite terrifying, even for an SNES game let alone a more recent DS game. Many games don't come close to that kind of somber feeling of despair. I was so sad to see the world as it had become, with all that death. I was surprised too that Crono was in fact gone and that I had to continue on without him.
Any good movie, or story in general, puts the characters at their greatest low just before the final act so that they can rise up against insufferable odds. Chrono Trigger does this when they remove Crono and then we find the characters on the Blackbird, item-less. Our heroes are at their very worst off right now. The stealthy seciton is pretty great. Having to sneak around and collect your stuff adds to the tension. As Ayla, I was able to fight but nobody else could. I don't know if this is because Ayla only uses her fists or not, but it was useful so that I could fight off some baddies. Then after all this came another plot-twist.
Magus has joined the party. Well ain't that unexpected. This game is pretty good with going in different directions. Also, he has the coolest way of moving. While Alya's running on all-fours is cute, the Magus flying pose is bad-ass. He makes for a cool addition to the team. Despite his level being so high, he isn't as strong as Ayla or Marle is seems.
Then came Death Peak. This is hands down the stupidest part of the game. You have to use the little helpers and the trees to hide you from intense winds. The thing is, the catch, is that you need to be right next to the tree and running in it's direction the whole time while the wind blows. The problem that lies is that unless you aim it perfectly, you will run past the tree. There is hardly any time to correct an ill-placed aim so it can get unbearable. I realized though that you will literally stop in front of the creature if you don't talk to him (and thus transform him into a tree). That little tip helps make the first part easier and luckily I discovered it was a rather short portion. The other helpers come into play later in other ways. As I encountered other enemies in this area I realized how nice Magus' speed is for his blue attack bar. He's not the fastest character but I'm glad he's up there with the rest of the best.
For a game about time travel, it's about time that plot point paid itself off. The doppel-doll replacing Crono just before his death was great. Way to stick it to the man Marle and company! In watching that whole sequence play out, I was glad to have Marle, Ayla, and Magus in my party. Magus was great with his amazement of the process, while Ayla was cute with her prehistoric cave-babe dialogue, and Marle, who has a real connection with Crono from the start of the game, got her well deserved reunion.
The Hug of a lifeTime.
His time was short lived, but once Crono was back, I put Magus away. I'm sure Frog will hate that Magus is chilling at the End Of Time with him, but maybe they can resolve things while Crono, Ayla, and Marle are saving the world. However it's an example of this game's humor and consistency that Magus stands way at the other end of the room... He wouldn't wanna cross paths with Sir-Croaks-A-Lot. I decided to keep Marle, not only because she's a healer but she's also the love of Crono's life. I want her to fight beside him, till death do they part. I also decided to keep Ayla because she's already fought so hard for the group and I find her adorable. Plus, her high HP and that 'Cat Attack' were the reasons the team beat all those Lavos Spawns we fought to get to that peak.
Now though I found myself on a quest to fight Lavos. I decided to go through the Black Omen for two reasons. First, I could use all the experience points I can get. My characters are at levels 36 through 39, with my main party of Crono, Ayla, and Marle all being 39. Still, I could use more. The second reason being, the Queen really needed her ass kicked.
As I battled through the Black Omen, I reached a boss or two and realized that Ayla wasn't very effective. I had the Haste Helm on her which was nice but her physical attacks weren't good against all the enemies who were resistant to that. So I swapped in my flying-demon-man, Magus. I got to Zeal, but I decided to switch to Ayla again. I wanted the backup healer in case Marle died. While fighting Zeal I realized this might not be necessary but Ayla came in handy because of a stupid decision I made. I gave Crono the Berserker Ring. During the Zeal fight, if you hit either of it's hands, you either lose all but one hit point, or all your magic points... and well, Crono, being all berserked up, didn't know this. He was a waster for a lot of it but luckily he got in some strong hits still. Ayla saved the day here. Go Cave Babe! So not to make the same mistake with Lavos, I took the Berserker Ring off and threw on the Golden Stud again because it'll help with the magic point consumption. The Lavos Shell was actually really easy. Since it mimics old bosses, by this point I'm at Level 45 for my party and thus I kicked a lot of ass in that battle. Then I entered the Lavos Core and said one thing to myself...
Thank God for a Save Point!
I was hoping they wouldn't screw me like that and neglect a save point for this entire process. I would have been pissed. That said, these are my stats for the final part of the game and what I went into the core with.
Crono / Lvl 45 / HP = 856 / MP = 85
Weapon: Swallow
Helm: Vigilant's Hat
Armor: Nova Armor
Accessory: Golden Stud
Ayla / Lvl 45 / HP = 900 / MP = 81
Weapon: Fist
Helm: Haste Helm
Armor: Prismatic Dress
Accessory: Power Crest
Marle / Lvl 45 / HP = 999 / MP = 88
Weapon: Sonic Bow
Helm: Vigilant's Hat
Armor: Aeonian Suit
Accessory: Golden Earring
I'm going to face the final battle tomorrow after a good night's rest. You'll hear how it went in the conclusion to this running Chrono Trigger edition of Playing The Classics. Then I can finally get back to Golden Sun: Dark Dawn which I started neglecting heavily to finish Chrono Trigger up. Stay tuned for the stunning and shocking and epic conclusion! (I hope.)
Read Part 6
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