Beyond the Ruins

The loading times are hurting my soul!

The team crossed Lab 32 last night in search of a time Gate to anywhere but here. We need to get home and defeat Lavos on the way! Far to the south is Proto Dome. It's filled with various robots designed to kill bugs, but there's a strange, yellow humanoid robot in the back. We get our first Dragonball Z style cutscene of the game here. The group walks into a room, scarring the rat away. We see a ruined and utterly broken robot sitting lying on the ground. Lucca pulls out a screwdriver, applies a sly smile on her face, and gets to work! Meanwhile, Marle tries to open the door behind it, likely to the Gate.

Paying that no mind, Lucca prepares to boot up her robot. Marle is concerned it will attack us, but Lucca assures her it won't. She removed the possibility and states that robots aren't evil. It's humans who program them to be. But a future Prometheus is activated and whirls into motion. It had a thankful and humble demeanor about itself until Lucca asked to be called simply by her name. She and Marle bond over a disdain for titles. I assume this is a "name-san" scene, which usually falls flat when translated, but this one is smoothly done. Good job, translators! Lucca then asks for the robot's name. "R-66y." Lucca hates it and wants a real name. The default option is Robo, but I rarely name him that. It's either Promo because I know the future or Proto because I forgot the future. But this time, I realized his callsign is almost a name, so R-66y will be called Robby on this playthrough. Robby informs us the door behind him is locked as the power is out, but we can turn it on in the Ruined Factory north. Before we go, we discuss why nothing is here. Robby says that humans and other bots used to be here, but we think something bad happened...

The Ruined Factory usually confuses me a bit. Take the right elevator down and find the conveyer belt at the bottom. Run against the direction but don't make contact with the ninja bots. If you do, then a drone will pick us up and carry us away. Follow the upper path this leads to, and we'll come to several rooms. One contains drone control codes, controller button prompts, and another is the control mechanism. There are also some treasure chests up here. The goal up here is to direct the drone to remove the red containers in our way. Simply input the codes and make your way back down. Take that path, which'll lead us to unlocking the left route and the final security code for Zabie (I think).

The left path takes us to the very bottom of the facility. We'll need to remove the laser grid to get to the power switch. Use the Zabie code (clockwise on your controller) and flip the lever. As we do, alarms will ring, and we'll need to fly. The doors before us will begin to shut, but Robo can hold them open. The elevator is out, so we'll have to take the stairs. We eventually get to understand why Robo was alone...

We'll be confronted by six R-Series robots that look like Robo. Robby will try to interact with them, but they say he's malfunctioning and begin to rugby tackle him. Crono can attempt to interfere, but the mass of bots throws him off. In time, they thrash Robo and throw him in the trash. And then they turn on us.

I died here! I've never had issues here, but I learned you shouldn't leave one alive. Doing so will have the remaining guy counter everything with a massive explosion to Crono and Lucca. They're not strong, and two cyclones to each group of three will finish the job. Lucca will take Robby out of the trash and drag him back to Proto Dome. She'll manage to repair him and asks what he plans to do after. It's a sentence he's never thought about...

The Gate is behind that door, and Robo wants to come with. There's nothing here, so why not? The four of us jump into the blue hole, but a spark of electricity shoots off us.

We come to a cold, dark room, dimly lit by a single street light. An old man is beneath it, and he tells us this is where travelers come when their group has four people in it. This is the End of Time! It's our home base of sorts and where our party members wait when I don't want them on our team. Gates lead to and from here, so it's perfect. Before we head back to 1000 AD, the old man says we should enter the room behind him.

This is the God of War, Spekkio! His appearance will change based on our level, and we can duel him each time. More importantly, he teaches the party magic. Crono is a light/electric/heaven mage, Marle has power over ice, and Lucca likes fire. Robby isn't human but can deal shadow magic! With that done, head to 1000 AD.

We'll pop out of an imps closet, but they're oddly cool with it. They'll warn us their village, though, won't be. We're in Medina, home to Mystics who sided with Magus 400 years ago. Most of them hold him in high regard and hate humans. In the village center, we can hear them chanting towards Magus and the monster he tried to summon back then: Lavos.

To the west is Hecran's Cave. Outside that is Melchior's Hut. He's a weapons dealer with new gear, and he tells us a path to Truce is through the cave. Inside are mobs weak to magic but strong against physical attacks. We'll need to spam our new magic spells to get through this. I probably should have brought Robo to deal with the multiple targets pet fight, but oh well. In the back is the guy who owns this place, Hecran.

Keep spamming magic, and don't attack him when he asks you to. His counter hits hard and should be avoided. Use this to heal. He'll trigger the party's idea to return to 600 AD to fight Magus before he summons Lavos, but we'll do that...

... tomorrow!

I walked through Lab 32. It's a waste with only a Race Log and mutants inside. I also made sure to get Taban's armor for Lucca. Anything that ups her speed is a must have! You can also have gone to 65 Million BC, but I'll save that for later. I think tonight was the worst part of the game, and it's still a four out of five.