PrinceWatercress plays Chrono Trigger (Super NES) - Part 38 of 70

In this entry, we finally bring Crono back. Let's get to work.

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Death Peak Map (by Rick Bruns)

When you go into the cave across from the save point, you'll face a Krakker and you'll also be able to get a Star Scythe for Magus. Afterwards, you'll face your second Lavos Spawn. Fight this one just like you did the first one. Once you beat it, go back and save so you don't have to do this again.

In the next section, you'll meet the second blue Pozoyo doll, who will tell you to be careful not to fall. Once you move past it, the wind will push you downwards, and if you fall off the edge, you'll be taken back to the save point. Thankfully, you won't be pushed back very far.

After facing up to as many as eight Krakkers as they slide down the next screen, you'll soon face the third and final Lavos Spawn on Death Peak. When you beat it, the shell will remain. Push it to the ladder that you cannot reach, then press Up and A on the shell and you'll climb up to the ladder so you can climb to the top.

You'll then reach the top of Death Peak. The pendant will react with the Chrono Trigger, which will soon shatter. At first, it seems as if this was all for nothing, but an eclipse is seen at the clifftop. You'll then be taken to the moment in time where Lavos kills Crono. From here, go up to Crono, hold Up and press A, and you'll replace Crono with the clone. You'll then bring Crono back from that moment in time to Death Peak, where he will be alive again.

The End of Time Map (by Rick Bruns)

You'll then head back to The End of Time. From here, you can fight Lavos or head to the Black Omen, but we'll leave all that alone until later. If you talk to Gaspar, you'll find out that you have some side quests: which are as follows:

"In the Middle Ages, a woman's sheer determination brings a forest back to life..." - In 600 A.D., the Sunken Desert will show up near Fiona's house. This side quest only shows up if you told the woman with the mystical sapling in Zeal Palace to secretly plant the sapling. Head to the Sunken Desert and face the monsters, and the trees will soon be able to grow again.

"A fugitive in the Middle Ages, Ozzie, maintains an evil hideout..." - In 600 A.D., Ozzie has his own fort. You'll have to face him one more time.

"There's a task to be done in the Future, where machinery originated." - There is a place called Geno Dome in 2300 A.D. on an island we could not reach until now. We'll need to head there.

"And there's a very special stone that can shine its light on each generation, from the distant past to the far future..." - In this quest, you will have to find the Sun Stone.

"There's the ghost of a lofty knight, slain by Magus in the Middle Ages, who haunts the present..." - In Chorus Village in 600 A.D. and 1000 A.D. lies the Northern Ruins. You'll need to head there to put Cyrus to rest once and for all.

"There's an object in the Middle Ages that sparkles like a rainbow..." - The Rainbow Shell has been found in 600 A.D., and you'll need to go get it.

PrinceWatercress plays Chrono Trigger (Super NES) - Part 37 of 70

In this entry, we get a clone of Crono from the Millennial Fair, then undertake the trek to Death Peak.

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The End of Time Map (by Rick Bruns)

World Map (2300 A.D.) (by Rick Bruns)

Keeper's Dome Map (by Rick Bruns)

Go back to the hallway you went through to get the Epoch. This time around, you'll receive instructions from Belthasar on what to do with the Chrono Trigger from the creature guarding the door where you first saw the Epoch. Before you talk to the creature, however, you'll want to pick up the sparkle on the floor just before the door. It's a Magic Tab.

When you talk to the creature, it will tell you that you will find the power to restore life on Death Peak. In order to activate this power, however, the individual in question to be revived must be important to the space-time continuum. Since Crono is obviously part of the efforts to save the world from Lavos, he obviously fits the bill there. In addition to the Chrono Trigger, you must also have an identical clone of that person. You'll then be told to head to Norstein Bekkler's tent to play the "Simon Says" game for a Crono Clone, and while you could get it early enough if you were good at the game, this is where the game requires you to do it.

By the way, you can rename Epoch at the computer at the Keeper's Dome entrance, if you wish.

World Map (1000 A.D.) (by Rick Bruns)

Leene Square Map (by Rick Bruns)

From here, head to the Millennial Fair in Leene Square and enter the tent northeast of where you enter and talk to Norstein Bekkler. You'll automatically play the "Simon Says" game with a clone of Crono. L raises the left arm, R raises the right arm, Y performs a laugh and A performs a surprised expression. You'll need to press the correct button to match what Crono is doing, and the more times you do it successfully and the longer the game goes, the faster you have to press the right button. The better you do, the less money you'll have to pay for a Clone. If you're really good, you can get it for free.

Head back to Crono's house. Crono's mom will be in Crono's room upstairs (which makes me wonder where Crono's mom sleeps). Talk to her, and after a slightly awkward conversation (what with Crono being gone), you'll be able to take the Clone.

Head back to the Keeper's Dome in 2300 A.D. and talk to the creature. He will go into the door and execute three programs in the form of three blue Pozoyo dolls, which then rocket to certain points on Death Peak. You'll then be able to head back to Death Peak, and the creature will ask you to let it rest eternally by flipping the switch on its stomach. This is completely optional, but if you walk up to the creature and press A afterwards, you'll get a choice to flip the switch. You can then flip the switch to let the creature sleep beyond the flow of time.

Death Peak Map (by Rick Bruns)

When you enter Death Peak, talk to the Pozoyo doll you see. It will tell you to walk when the wind is not blowing and hide behind the trees when it is, then create two trees to use as cover from the gale-force winds. When the wind kicks up, you'll not only want to hide behind the tree while also walking into it, essentially walking in place into the the tree while behind it. Otherwise, the wind will blow you off Death Peak and you'll have to re-enter. You can even hold the B button so that your lead character is behind the tree while shaking their head. That works, too. Incredibly, the game does not hint that this is what you need to do, and forces you to figure this out on your own.

When you finally make it past the first screen, you'll then be in Death Peak proper. The Krakkers are like more powerful Egberts from the Sewer Access area and can absorb more than 100 HP if they eat you and spit you out, and the Macabres, while carrying scythes that can do a good amount of damage, are highly susceptible to magic attacks.

Along the way, you will face Lavos Spawns. To defeat them, you'll want to hit the yellow eye part at the front of the creature and only the yellow eye. Do not do anything to the shell at all; attacking it or casting any Tech on it will cause it to attack your party with powerful needle attacks that will do a lot of damage. You can charm the yellow eye part for an Elixir, but the shell will give you nothing. 

Along the way, you'll find the Giga Arm for Robo and the Brave Sword for Frog, which does double damage to magic-based enemies. You'll also find a Magic Ring, which increases Magic by six points, a Dark Helm that cuts Shadow-based damage by half, and a Wall Ring that increased Magic Defense by ten. 

You'll eventually reach a dead end on a cliff. At the north end of this cliff, there is a sparkle. If you press A at the sparkle, you'll open a cave across from the Save Point on Death Peak.

PrinceWatercress plays Chrono Trigger (Super NES) - Part 36 of 70

In this entry, we look for Crono...and we get some help from an unlikely ally.

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12,000 B.C. (World Map) (by Rick Bruns)

If you told the woman with the sapling in Zeal Palace to save the sapling instead of burn it and head back to the Commons now, you'll see her with the plant again. This time, the sapling will be a plant. Also, Alfador, the purple cat who followed Janus around, will follow one of the kids around.

By talking to the people in the Commons, you'll find out that someone was looking for you and was last seen at the North Cape. Since you're stuck here in 12,000 B.C. until you advance the plot, you have no choice but to go there.

When you head to North Cape, there will be a sparkle at the north end. If you walk up to it and press A, Magus will show up. Magus will mention Zeal Kingdom sinking to the bottom of the sea in the events at the Ocean Palace, then reveal what was probably known all along: that he was originally from 12,000 B.C. and that his name was originally Janus.

You then see a cutscene explaining how he, Melchior, Balthasar and Gaspar were all sent to other eras. At the Ocean Palace, Lavos opened gates that flung the four of them into different time period, with Queen Zeal not even giving a care about what was happening to any of them, especially Janus. Janus was thrown into the medieval era and was more or less adopted by Ozzie for their war against the humans, Melchior was thrown to the present day where he ended up in Medina Village, Belthasar was thrown into the far future where Lavos had already decimated the world, and Gaspar was thrown into The End of Time, revealing him to be the old man we have been talking to the whole time.

Magus then explains that it was his modus operandi to destroy Lavos as revenge for throwing him into the medieval era all along, even as the Mystics wanted him to help them destroy the humans, and reveals that when we stopped him as he was summoning Lavos, he was thrown back to his own era to a time before all the events that made him into Magus happened, and he pretended to be a prophet in order to get close enough to Lavos and destroy it. Meanwhile, we were thrown into the prehistoric era, and our time there taking on Azala and Black Tyrano to help the humans beat the Reptites gave him enough time to start making moves.

He brings up Crono's death, calling him a fool for even daring to take on Lavos before mocking the rest of the party for even trying. This causes things to get really heated between the two parties, and you get the choice to either fight him or not. For the purposes of this Let's Play, we're going to not fight him. By picking this option, your party leader comes to the conclusion that defeating Magus will not bring Crono back. After that, you can head back towards the world map, and when you do, Magus stops you and tells you that there is a way to revive Crono, and in order to do that, you'll need to talk to Gaspar, the old man at the End of Time.

From here, Magus will also join your party. Magus is a very, very optional character who attacks with a scythe just like he did when you battled him in 600 A.D. He starts off with an Amulet for an accessory, which negates all status ailments from being inflicted on him. While he starts with Lightning 2, Fire 2 and Ice 2, he can learn some more magical Techs, up to and including Dark Triangle, which he also used in the 600 A.D. battle and does massive Shadow-based magic damage.

Back at the store, talk to the Nu, then wait. If you wait long enough, the Nu walks away, and you can get the Magic Tab that was behind it.

If you go into the Commons with Magus, Alfador will start following Magus around and start meowing endlessly. If you talk to the kid who was playing with Alfador, he will ask if the cat belongs to Magus. (Sadly, Alfador can't come with you. Would have been nice, though.)

There's nothing more to do here, so hop into the Epoch. When you do, a strange floating vessel shows up in the sky. This is the Black Omen, which is the Ocean Palace in an airborne form. Don't even think about going there yet; just head to The End of Time. You're just going to get destroyed over in the Black Omen, anyway. 

The End of Time Map (by Rick Bruns)

At The End of Time, talk to Gaspar. He will ask where Crono is, then says that he wishes he could help with Crono's death. From here, walk away from Gaspar, and he will get your attention. Talk to him again, and he will tell give you the Chrono Trigger: a time egg with magical properties. He will tell you that it is pure potential, and that the chances of its magic working are directly related to how much effort you put into getting Crono back, and even then, there is no guarantee. He then tells you that there is a way to replace lost and misplaced time streams, and to do that, you'll have to talk to Belthasar in the Keeper's Dome in 2300 A.D.

Up until this point, this part of the game was akin to the World of Balance in Final Fantasy 6, in that something apocalyptic had not happened yet and you were forced to advance the plot in a singular storyline. When you get the Chrono Trigger, the game opens up big time, much like in Final Fantasy 6's World of Ruin. You can fight Lavos if you want, but good luck beating him at this point in the game. You can get Crono back, but even then, it is completely optional, and you can even beat the game without him in your party. If you know where the post-Ocean Palace side quests are, you can also do them now, and all of those are completely optional. You can even go to the Black Omen at this time, if you wish, although you may want to level up a bunch before taking on Lavos or the Black Omen. At this point, the choice is yours.

PrinceWatercress plays Chrono Trigger (Super NES) - Part 35 of 70

In this entry, we get overpowered and captured by Dalton, and we have to break out and get all our stuff back.

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12,000 B.C. (World Map) (by Rick Bruns)

Before you do anything, put Ayla in your party. It doesn't matter which position she is in as long as you put her in there.

The middle of the three huts is a shop. At first, it will have just healing items, but it will have other stuff later on.

When you head to the Commons, which is the area in the forest, you can talk to people, but you'll advance the plot if you talk to the Elder. When you do that, Dalton returns with two of his flunkies and decimates your party before holding you prisoner.

Blackbird (Flying) Map (by Rick Bruns)

You'll be locked in a room with a save point. Your weapons and armor, items and money will all be gone and taken away from you. The only ways out are a door (which is guarded and locked), and a ladder. You'll want to use the ladder first. When you do, you'll find out that you are on Belthasar's flying ship: the Blackbird.

Go back through the door and go back down the ladder. One of your party members will notice that there is an air vent, as there is a ladder that is barely peeking out to the left of the one that took you outside. (Fun fact: I have never noticed that ladder until I wrote this blog, and it's the one hint that tells you there's something there. You can barely see it.) If you stand beneath the ladder and press A, you'll jump into the air vent. 

This is one thing you can do. From here, you can also knock on the door. When you're given the option, pretend to be sick. This will cause a guard to show up only to get knocked out. From there, you can go through the door, but if you get caught or seen by any of the enemies moving about, you'll be thrown back into the room and you won't be able to do this again.

This is where having Ayla in the party comes in. Since her fists are her weapon, those cannot be taken away from her, and if you have her in the party, she will be able to defend herself. This makes things a lot easier.

The air vents, on the other hand, make it a little easier to get to where you need to go...if you know what to do. You can press A at any of the grates on the ground to look down below and see what is below you, and the ladders will take you to other areas without having to go through the halls of the Blackbird.

At the south end of the air vents, you can find Dalton with the Epoch. It appears that he has taken that, too.

There is one room near the northwest corner of the air vent maze that can only be reached via the air vents. You'll be able to which one it is, as it's the one in that general direction with the air vent directly south of the ladder. If you look into the vent and see a guy sleeping near the chest, that's the one you want to go to first. Go down that ladder, then open the chest to get the weapons and armor for your party leader. While you could put Ayla in the first position, you can also put Ayla in the second or third position and give yourself two fighters, even if one doesn't have armor.

From here, you can go through all of the doors and open up the other four chests. There are five: three for the weapons and armor of your party members, one for your money and one for all your items. You'll want to open all five and get everything back before you go through the southwest door in the upper section of the ship and head up to the west wing of the ship, although you can do that without getting everything. If you try to do that, the game will remind you that you haven't found everything yet, but you will still have the choice to continue anyway.

Speaking of getting all of your stuff back, if you do just that, get back into the air vents and head to the northeastern-most point, you'll find a Magic Tab at the dead end. It won't be there until you get everything back, though.

The enemies here are not that bad. The two enemies you'll see on the ship are the Lashers - purple masked guys with rods - and Bytes, which are weaker versions of the Bits from the Guardian battle at the early stages of the game. They are easily beatable.

At the west wing of the ship, you can face the Turrets. The Turrets are just the Rubbles from Mt. Woe that can shoot weak lasers. They can cast Lock All to keep you from using Techs and items and can only be hit by physical attacks that manage to get past their high evade, and you'll be able to get 100 Tech Points for beating one, too.

When you reach the southwest corner of the west wing, you'll face the Golem Boss. The Golem Boss will count down, but when he goes down to zero, he will not be able to do anything because he is afraid of heights. He will eventually disappear if you leave him alone long enough after that, but if you actually defeat him, you will get some extra experience and Tech points.

After the battle, you'll see Dalton, who is now piloting the Epoch...which now has wings! After re-christening the Epoch "The Dalton Aero-Imperial," he will fly around and fire lasers at you. Somehow, for reasons never explained, everyone jumps off the Blackbird and lands on the now-flying Epoch to fight Dalton.

Dalton is now Dalton Plus, but there's nothing "plus" about him. You can still Charm him for a Power Meal like last time, but his attacks outside of the Iron Orb are a lot weaker and you can easily beat him up as long as you heal up that Iron Orb damage. Once you beat him, your party will try to figure out how the Epoch works again. When you just see the Epoch on-screen with no message box after someone asks what a lever does, press Y. This will allow you to fire the laser. You'll then be told to press the X button. Press the X button after the message box disappears, and the Blackbird will go down from all the laser fire from the Epoch, and the people below will celebrate.

From here, you'll land the Epoch in a last-ditch effort to find Crono in and around the survivor's village. You won't be able to use the Epoch again until you advance the plot.

If you head back to the shop in the central hut, you'll be able to get any weapons you may have missed in the Ocean Palace as well as more Aeon Suits and Aeon Helms if you need them. You'll also see a scythe weapon in the shop called the Hurricane. Now who do we know who uses a scythe? Hmmm...

PrinceWatercress plays Chrono Trigger (Super NES) - Part 34 of 70

In this video, we try to stop Queen Zeal, but it ends up bringing the absolute downfall of the kingdom of magic and the floating continent. Also, a prophecy comes true...

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Ocean Palace Map (by Rick Bruns)

When you go through the door south of the save point, you'll find the elevator. You'll have to fight some monsters before you can use it, then you'll have to go up to the switch on the left (the one that's sparkling) to take it back up. You'll have to fight even more monsters before you can finally reach the Magic Tab on the wall mentioned in the last video. Once you do that, don't go back through the door to the north; instead, take the elevator all the way down with the switch on the right so you don't have to go down all those stairs (and fight those monsters) again.

In the next area, you'll need to enter the two doorways to the sides, beat the Scouters and press A to flip the switch on the back wall. When you flip both switches, you can then go to the button across from the entrance to this area and take it downwards to an Elixir and another save point.

In the next room, you'll encounter Dalton. Dalton will not be pleased that you made it all the way here, and from here, you'll face the Golem Twins, which is basically two Golems. Fight them like you did the singular Golem in the throne room, and use a multi-target Fire spell at the start of the battle to make sure they attack with weak attacks after the start of the battle. From there, keep hitting them both with magic. Once again, don't use physical attacks unless you want double the Iron Orbs and double the trouble.

After the battle, Dalton will retreat, citing that he does not want to die before he becomes immortal, then you'll be able to move forth towards the Mammon Machine. After talking to a Nu to get out of the way, you'll encounter Queen Zeal, who has Schala and the prophet with her. Crono will throw the Ruby Knife at the Mammon Machine in an attempt to disrupt the queen's plans, and the knife turns into the Masamune. Unfortunately, Lavos awakens.

At this point, Lavos will completely annihilate you. Thankfully, losing this fight does not lead to a game over. After your party is wiped out, the prophet reveals who he really is: Magus, who summoned Lavos in 600 A.D. in order to destroy it and get revenge over what happened in this era. Unfortunately, even Magus himself is felled as Schala pleads in vain for her mother to stop.

From here, the only way to stop Lavos is to sacrifice yourself. Crono will eventually get up, and you'll have to walk up to Lavos and talk to it with A. Lavos will utterly destroy Crono, and Janus' prophecy comes true. Afterwards, everyone else - minus the queen - teleports back to the Ocean Palace, and Schala teleports Magus and the other members of your party to safety.

After this, Lavos' power shoots upwards into the heavens and blasts through the sky continent, completely destroying the Kingdom of Zeal and bringing the kingdom of magic to a violent end. The falling pieces of the continent are so big that they create tidal waves and flood the earth when they land, leaving most of the world underwater and leaving few survivors.

12,000 B.C. (New World Map) (by Rick Bruns)

You'll then end up in the last remaining bit of land left due to the cataclysm caused by Lavos. You'll wake up in a makeshift hut, and the elder of the Earthbound Ones will wake you up. Sadly, Crono is nowhere to be found, and Epoch is behind the trees where you cannot get to it. The elder will tell you that few people survived, and that he will meet you in the nearby commons. From here, you can completely customize the order of your party and put anyone in it that you want.

PrinceWatercress plays Chrono Trigger (Super NES) - Part 33 of 70

In this entry, we start making our way to the Mammon Machine in our attempt to stop Queen Zeal.

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Zeal Palace Map (by Rick Bruns)

Ocean Palace Map (by Rick Bruns)

Once you go through the portal leading to the Ocean Palace, you'll be met with some of the best music in the game. You'll also run into Mune, who tells you that Lavos is waking up due to Queen Zeal's use of the Mammon Machine. You'll then see Queen Zeal commanding Schala to raise the power of the Mammon Machine to its limit, not even caring if this brings great pain to Schala herself.

In the next room, you'll have to enter the rooms to the sides in order to open up a path leading to more of the Ocean Palace. Not only will you have to hit two buttons to raise two platforms in the next room to the south.

You'll meet plenty of enemies while you're doing this. Jinn and Barghest will always face you as a team. Take out Barghest first, then hit Jinn to lower its shield so you can defeat it once and for all. Not only can they both create an explosion that does damage to your party, but Jinn can also absorb Barghest into itself to replenish its HP despite losing its shield in the process.

The Scouters come in three colors: yellow (Scouter), red (Red Scout) and blue (Blue Scout). Yellow casts Lightning spells, Red casts Fire spells and Blue casts Water spells in the form of Ice. Yellow can also put one party member to sleep with the 10,000 Hz attack. Use their own magic against them by using the same magic on the ones that cast it: Lighting on Yellow, Fire on Red and Water/Ice on Blue. Doing otherwise will heal them.

The Mages can not only punch you, but they can cast Lock on one party member, stopping them from using magic. Thankfully, you can use a Heal or a Power Meal to get rid of the Lock status ailment.

In the first room, you'll be able to find some good weapons and Armor. Not only can you find an Aeon Helm and an Aeon Suit, you'll also be able to get a Rune Blade for Frog and a Star Sword for Crono, which is more powerful than what you got in Mt. Woe and the new weapons sale in Enhasa.

The diagonal doorways on the south side (the southeast and southwest exits) lead to a third button that will open up another area in the first room after the entrance, but you'll have to fight your way through some enemies to not only reach the button, but to open all the chests in the area. In this area, you can find a Kaiser Arm for Robo, a Sonic Arrow for Marle and a Shock Wave for Lucca; be sure to equip them both. South of the button is a hidden wall leading to the Demon Hit, which is another weapon for Frog. Both the Rune Blade and the Demon Hit have the same attack power, but the Demon Hit does 50% more damage to magic-based enemies.

Once you hit the third button and raise the platform to the south exit in the first room, you'll find a doorway leading to an elevator platform (and a Magic Tab, which you'll have to put in some effort to get), and a stairway leading down. Since the elevator is not in the next room and you'll need to go downstairs to use it, you'll have to take the stairs.

When you do, you'll face two new enemies: the Thrashers (yellow and purple with staves) and the Lashers (yellow and black with knives). Both of them can be nasty, as multiple Thrashers can hit the entire party with a powerful wind-based attack while multiple Lashers can hit X Strike on one of your party members. Both of those attacks are counterattacks that they will pull off if you don't do enough damage to kill them. The third platform on the way down can be a pain, as the statue will shoot fireballs at you that can stun you just briefly enough for the enemies to run into you and trigger a battle.

At the bottom of the stairway, you'll face another Jinn and Barghest, then you'll be able to save your game.