Let's Play Chrono Trigger: Crimson Echoes!

[Flarecobra]

Lucca and Robo was quite a combo too.

[Dracorion]

Shush.

Crono-Ayla-Robo forevarz.

[rpgdemon]

Haven't caught up, just read the first one: But TTI wouldn't have protected Marle yet, would it? Since she wasn't a time traveler yet?

[Dracorion]

She was a time traveller. When she disappeared due to Leene's impending death, Marle was in 600 AD, impersonating her ancestor.

[Ryong]

Crono-Ayla-Frog, best team. Everyone hits hard as hell.

[Locke cole]

See, I tended to have Chrono/Lucca/Marle at that point in the game due to my need to have everyone as evenly trained as possible. See, I always went through Magus's Castle with Frog and Robo (to have as many options for breaking through Wallchange as possible: also, the game's first Triple Tech), and then through Tyranno Lair with Frog and Ayla (Spire!), so Marle and Lucca were next when I went to Zeal.

As for the Dalton thing, I like to imagine that the crew in the CTDS timeline went on to stop Dalton before he started, because he told them when and where he'd be raising an army. Be pretty dumb of them not to stop him, with that info. And then Cross happened in an alternate timeline, where the alternate, amnesiac Magus went. That's be a timeline where the crew didn't do the bonus dungeons, and therefore didn't know that that chump Dalton was even still alive.

I will admit this: Once-King Dalton was a surprisingly hard fight. It's not as bad as the Steel Shade, Crimson Shade, or Dream Devourer, though.

By the way: on the subject of higher-level Antipodes. Why is it that we get an Ultimate Fire spell (Flare), an Ultimate Heaven spell (Luminaire) and an Ultimate Shadow spell (Dark Matter), but no Ultimate Water spell? Both Marle and Frog get to the second level of their water techs and then stop learning water magic altogether. Heck, Antipode 3 is Flare + Ice2, and that Nu in the bonus dungeons counters water spells with Ice2. Couldn't one of them have gotten a stronger Water spell? Heck, repurpose that Hexagon Mist spell that Queen Zeal uses, or something.

[Dracorion]

Yeah, Marle and Frog get shafted in the endgame department.

After a couple of New Game+es, your ideal party should be Crono-Lucca-Ayla or Crono-Robo-Ayla. The latters needs you to pump Robo full of Speed and Magic Tabs so that he becomes an excellent jack of all trades, good healing and good damage that easily hits multiple targets.

Crono-Lucca-Ayla is if you want to forgo healing and just murderize everything.

[rpgdemon]

I went Crono/Marle/Ayla, when I played. Sometimes it was Robo.

[tacticslion]

Personally, my first finished game, I believe, was with Crono/Magus/Robo at level 45, but I don't think I'd done all the sidequests yet. After that, however, I went back and my favorite party became Crono/Marle/Ayla, especially because of Marle's and Ayla's Cube Toss (I think that was what it was called) and their ability to gain extra items in most every fight. I remember when I fought Lavos, I always saved immediately before and went through each fight multiple times so I could have every scrap of dialogue in those moments and being confused at some of it and/or the order it came out on occasion. It was pretty glorious, though. Eventually Ayla became my favorite because of her ability to deal 9999 damage with her bare hands. I also highly enjoyed playing with Magus because I just really thought his Dark Matter was really cool.

[Dracorion]

Episode Five: Lucca versus the Wonderful World of Tomorrow Part One: The Guru's MenaceEpisode Five: Lucca versus the Wonderful World of Tomorrow Part One: The Guru's Menace

Last time, Magus had been captured by Dalton. So as to spare us from the horrors of Dalton's sexual torture, the game cut away to Crono, Lucca and Marle who had just been transported to the future.




We've seen this scene before, at the end of the prologue. Next, Lucca asks where they are, and then Belthasar shows up.



As soon as Belthasar starts talking, the music kicks in. It is not, regrettably, Robo's theme.

Music: Remains of the Factory

That is correct.
Ah, perfect! Lucca, Marle, and Crono -- you must excuse me. The version of me that you encountered was from a ruined future, in the previous timeline!

Technically, they only encountered a Nu that contained your intelligence, unless they bothered to trek through the sewers before the fall of Zeal to waste time at your dome.

"I" have actually never met you! Until now, that is! Though I've long studied your adventure to defeat Lavos...

You know, Belthasar was the pussiest of the three Gurus. Melchior, Guru of Life was forced to make and sell weapons, intruments for taking people's lives, for the rest of his time and he was totally chill about it. Never once did you hear him complain or so much as sigh.

... Wow!

And then there's Gaspar, Guru of Time, who was sent to the End of freakin' Time, a literally empty void. Y'know, just about the most horrible fate ever. And Gaspar just made a nice platform and lamppost out of nothing, and then eventually added a room to house time portals and another for his roommate, the God of War. And then he spent the rest of eternity greeting wayward time travellers or sleeping until two in the afternoon just because he could.

Yes! Well, follow me!

Also, he's secretly God. Gaspar, I mean, not Belthasar.


Meanwhile, the Guru of Reason got sent to a future that while bleak, is still nowhere near as bad as the End of Time and went promptly insane. Because he's a pussy.


I am pleased to see you again Lucca, Crono, and Marle!
I'm sorry we can't celebrate this right now though, as I must keep an eye on the computers.
We'll talk after the visit, then. I have so many things to tell you!

The thing that strikes me as off about this whole sequence is that Crono and company just ended up in the future they created after they beat up the world-ending alien abomination, the future that replaced the shitty one they originally travelled to.

And all anyone has to say about it is "wow!"

How many times has the CE team stumbled like this now? I lost count. Actually, I can't be assed to keep count in the first place.

You know, maybe I'm being too demanding from this game. ANYWAY.



Music: Brink of Time

I created this temporal research institution after finding myself in this era.
Though magic, long lost in this time period, and current science, we are able to conduct all kinds of research on temporality.

Must be hard when you're the only one around who can use magic.

I rounded up a few trustful scientists, who avidly delve into the nature space-time. It's a far cry from my old laboratory!


Ah! Through that door is a hangar intended to house my next project, the Epoch II -- or, the Neo-Epoch. Whichever you prefer!
Currently, the technology needed for a time machine that can travel to nearly ANY era is too crude and cumbersome for a mobile vehicle.

What this means is no getting the Epoch early. What we get instead is a cocktease of the Epoch.

Which brings me to my next work!
*Addressing a certain pink robot nearby* Hey, are you Atropos? Is everything okay?

This seems like a weird way to greet someone you killed in an alternate future. I mean, weirder than the standard awkwardness one would expect from greeting someone you killed.


But Mother Brain, even though she is used as a supercomputer, is restricted by adequate security parameters. There is nothing to fear!
Interesting! So the Mother Brain AI is still in use! Hm...

There is no way this could go wrong ever!

(It does go wrong eventually, but only in Chrono Cross.)


Called the Temporal Dispatch Chamber, or "TDC", it utilizes a magnificent store of energy kept in magically tuned time circuits...
...to transport the contents to almost any place in time!
Whoa! This time machine can go anywhere?

Anywhen. Someone should teach Marle some basic temporal grammar.

Correct! Well, actually... it can only travel on a yearly scale. 1001 A.D., 1002 A.D., 1003 A.D... I can't break it down more. Such a feat is possible with a Time Egg, but the integrity of those is too fragile to sustain energy usage of this magnitude.

I'll get into this game's treatment of Time Eggs as soon as I can gather my thoughts on the subject.

The TDC only works one way, though. It can send people, but it will not bring them back!
This is why we have the Temporal Catch, which is located in Robo's room. The Temporal Catch only works if a strong temporal disturbance already exists somewhere, by forcing it to open and "catch" a nearby traveler.

In layman's terms, Chronopolis is going to replace the End of Time as the party's central hub. The End of Time used to be the time-space coordinates of least resistance where wayward time travelers end up, but then Belthasar made Chronopolis into this.

This, coupled with a certain McGuffin we'll be getting our hands on in the future, is meant to be a subtle tie-in to the Time Crash from Chrono Cross.

... Amazing! You're a genius!
Hoh! I suppose the feeling is mutual, my dear. Well...


This facility has a large lower level, which can be accessed through the elevator to the left. Have fun!

Yes, let the peasants from a thousand years in the past walk around unchecked in your top secret time base. Nothing could possibly go wrong with this plan!

Spoiler: Nothing actually goes wrong with this plan, sadly.








Well, Lucca is now our party leader. Everyone has some basic equipment, though that Nautishell on Marle is actually the one we got from Crono's mom back in the prologue. Everyone's techs seem to be the same, too, though they start off with access to their first three. This is going prove essential later in this update.



What's the El Nido sea, you ask? I have a map that will illuminate you:



The Great Sea of Retcon, AKA the El Nido sea, is where the events of Chrono Cross take place. Only, it's an archipelago in CC. How does it go from sea to archipelago? Good question. Chrono Cross has the answer, and CE lays some more groundwork for it.

Anyway, at this point Belthasar just tells us to look around, the other guy asks for our autographs because Crono, Lucca and Marle are heroes that saved the world, Atropos has a little robo-orgasm about the Epoch hangar, and Robo just repeats the last two lines he uttered when we first arrived.

Instead of heading to the elevator, though, we head down from the Time Dispatch Chamber.


The chest down there holds a Mid Ether for us, which is great. Though kind of overkill with our low levels.


If you've played Chrono Cross, you might notice this room is a nod to the entrance of Chronopolis in that game. See the similar layouts? Of course, the blue robot is supposed to be a precursor to PolisPolice.



And that's the end of this update. Come back in January for the continuation!








... Or just go to the next page.