The Fated Hour

Welcome to Side Quest Week!

Northern Ruins:

To start this mildly annoying quest, head to 1000 AD. We'll have to head to a new area of the world, Choras. Choras is in the southeast, and it contains an aptly named ruin to the north. Bring Glenn along for this, and I'd suggest Magus, too, but his involvement is only visually different than anyone else. Inside the Northern Ruins is a ghost that is immune to all attacks. After our second round of fruitless nonsense, the battle against "Cyrus" will end. It will, after several attempts, utter our dear frog's name. As the battle menu attested too, Glenn knows this as the spirit of his long departed friend, Cyrus. Our path is blocked by an angry ghost on one side and a hole on the other. Let's see what 600 AD has in store for this place. It's more holes...

A man is drinking in the cafe, and he states that someone stole his tools. The carpenter has several apprentices in his workshop, so I wonder if we can get these guys to fix the Northern Ruins? Head back to 1000 AD and talk to another man with a crippling soda pop addiction. Talk to the sodakeep while you're here to get a soda pop. We'll ask the popped man if we can borrow his tools, and he'll let us, but we have to talk to his wife. His wife'll hand over the carpenter's tools, which we can use to spur the workmen in 600. They'll quickly get to work, so go check on them. They're done, sorta, but only because monsters are in their path! We'll have to clear out the three battles with skeletons before the workers can continue. The fights aren't too terrible but heal up after each one. As they die, they'll steal all your MP. Their attacks hurt a lot, so make sure you're prepared for a long battle. Use AoE moves on them, and I think everyone down here is weak to fire. Return to the carpenter, and he'll ask us for money this time. It's for Cyrus, so we agree. The same thing will happen, and there will be a third time we ask them to work on the ruins. 

 

After the third time, we can find the gravestone of Cyrus. A villager says they saw someone carry a large bag into the ruins ten years ago. I guess that bag contained the body of Cyrus and his gravestone. At the bottom of the ruins is the marker, which says that he was betrayed by Glenn. Or something disparaging to both knights. Glenn, now though, will apologize to his friend. As he does, a spirit raises from the grave to tell him it's alright. This is Cyrus, and he knows Glenn did nothing wrong. He says how great of a knight Glenn has become and thanks him for all he's done. He tells our frog to take care of Queen Lenne and finally goes to the afterlife. Suddenly, the Masamune begins to shine. If Magus is here, he'll turn his head away from the light. The sword floats in the air, and Glenn proclaims that this is the true power of his blade. Masa and Mune appear before us and talk to each other for a moment about true power. They'll then tell us that strength comes from within. They'll form into each other again, and we'll get the powered up version of the Masamune, Glenn's ultimate weapon. At level 38, it gives Glenn an attack power of 182, far stronger than anything else we've gotten so far. The gravestone will change, and we can continue on. 

There are more treasures here, but we shouldn't open them just yet. Inspect the sealed chests, obviously, but keep them closed. As before, we can get upgraded versions of them in 1000 AD. One such treasure is maybe Marle's ultimate weapon. It makes me want to know more about the Northern Ruins, but we're done here. Don't forget to return here in 600 AD for separate weapons. Honestly, the bow in 600 might be better since it randomly casts Stop on enemies. Up to you, though. And since we're in 600 AD, we might as well get Magus settled...

Ozzie's Castle:

This took me three tries because I'm an idiot.

I brought Magus, Crono, and Glenn in here because Crono is still my main character, and Glenn needs to make sure this war is over. As we enter the keep, Ozzie will welcome us! And then he'll get mad because the Great Magus is here. Ozzie calls him a traitor and goes off to prepare what we'll run into tonight. 

First up is a rematch with Flea. He, too, calls Magus a traitor. I think he has the same stats as before, so he's a pushover. 

Behind him is one of Ozzie's patented traps. He pulls two mobs to fight us, and they land on a conveyor belt. The belt then pushes them off the side. Traps foiled: one.

Next is a rematch with Slash. It's the same as before. Oddly, Slash said nothing to Magus.

There's another trap behind Slash, but we can ignore the chest. As we get closer to Ozzie, an imp will walk in a be cut to pieces by the guillotine. It's right there, dude; nothing was hidden. Ozzie will run away, and we can open the chest to get a Mid Ether. Traps foiled: two. Don't climb the stairs yet because there's a secret passage here. On the wall across the stairs is a small area that leads to Magus' best equipment. It's stuff only he can wear. If you want to, swamp Glenn and Crono with Ayla and Marle. The next fight has some things that MIGHT be worth stealing if you're a completionist.

Climb the stairs, and we'll meet with all three of Magus's generals. They'll tell us about their unique magical equipment: Ozzie's Pants, Flea's Vest, and Slash's new sword, Slasher 2. A fight will take place, and it's actually kinda hard. You can steal all of those items, but only Flea's Vest is worth it. Ozzie's Pants is a hat that causes confusion and poison, and Slash's sword sucks. Either way, take out Slash first. Flea and Ozzie will counter with a move that hits the entire party for massive damage. Slash, though, will only retaliate against the one who struck him. I think it's a fire move if that matters. If Slash goes first, then most of the enemy DPS is gone. Since Ozzie usually mimics the Magus Sisters, one dead ally will cascade their chances. Slash dies, Flea runs away, but Ozzie has one more trick up his sleeve. 

He turns himself a block of ice again. This fight is as it was before, except there are only three switches behind him. Hitting one will drop us painlessly to the room we were just in, so we can try again. Before we can, though, a cat walks in and presses the third switch. I don't know where Ozzie falls too, but he died. If we go to the Mystic Village now, everyone will be super chill. I suppose it's been Ozzie's decedents that have been fueling the fire of hatred all these years. The former leader of the town, Ozzie VIII, is now a maid. 

Fun facts: the equipment names have been altered. They were supposed to Ozzie's underwear and Flea's Bra but were changed when they became musicians. They were condiments in Japan: Vinegar, Soy Sauce, and Mayonnaise. Also, I wonder where Flea ran off to? 

King Guardia:

For reasons, I went back to the castle. The Chancellor suggested we bring him our dad his favorite food: Jerky. The cafe in Porre sells it for 9900 Gold. Bring to the King to make amends, and... we get kicked out. The King has high cholesterol, and this rich meat is filled with it. I'm starting to have my doubts about Chance. 

 

Let's go to the Future!

In the southwest, sorta, of the map is a mountain. Inside is a single room and a boss. The boss is Son of Sun, and we've entered the strange part of the game. The dungeon we're in in the Sun Keep, the old power plant of Zeal before they started to harness Lavos. SoS is the most unique boss in the game. Before you head in, equip as much fire absorption as you can. This'll make it pretty much makes it impossible to die as most of what we're about to be struck with are flame spells. The fight is against a giant red eye that avoids all damage and their five sentient campfires. The trick to victory is to hit one specific fire, but there's no indication of what that is. Should you hit the wrong one, it'll breathe fire on you. Every few turns, SoS will change the position of its guardians, and we'll have to find it again. You can go one-by-one and hope, or cast an AoE spell and then go after whoever doesn't counter. Every time you hit the correct fire, it'll damage the eye. Equipping Ruby Mails, the new item at the Prehistoric barter house, will make this fight simply tedious. In time, we'll win, and the eye will retreat deeper into the room. We'll find it sitting up some stairs, where we can pick it up. One of our characters will inform us that we might be able to make something out of this stone if it absorbs the sun for aeons. The only such place to put this stone is the random triangle island in the upper right of every era. It's always just off a/the continent, and this is its sole purpose. Head to 65M and let it sit there until the end of the world. Return to the Future to pick it up... ITS GONE!

We now have to head to every era to see where it's not. I'll save you some trouble and let ya know it's the Present. The mayor of Porre has it, but he's claiming he doesn't despite the sparkles coming from his house. All his family members hate him because he's so greedy, so I wonder if we can change that. Buy some Jerky while you're here, though. In the Dark Ages, we can talk to a woman trying to make supper at the mayor's house. She'll ask to buy our Jerky for 10000 gold, a mere 100 gain for us. However, if you just give it to her, she promises to teach her children about charity. Return to the Present, and the mayor-forever-family will now be generous. His family loves him, and he happily hands us our Moon Stone. Return it to the spot, and try again. This time, it'll be there, and Lucca thinks she can make some stuff out of it!

We skip to her house just as she's finishing her tinkering. Her work, sorta, pays off, and now we have her ultimate weapon. It's called the Wondershop, and it does random damage. It's usually pretty respectable, but I'm not fond of RNG. I will have it equipped for the rest of the night to test it out. Tabon was also messing around with our stone, and he's made the SunShades, an accessory that ups our attack, but it doesn't show it on the stat screen. 

 

The Birth of Robots:

There's one more thing in the Future to do. South of the Proto Dome and Ruined Factory is the Geno Dome. In later releases of CT, it's the Genocidome. Robby is the only one who can unlock the door for us, and he's plot relevant here, so bring him along. This place has the best TP grind in the game because of the early conveyor belt. We can go through the dust shoot afterwards to try again, but we're locked in here, so I'm not sure how long we can do that for? But we need to navigate past several little tricks. Head right to find an electric charging station. We'll need to use this to open three doors on this floor, but we can't get to one without changing the treadmill's flow, which we'll need to use the elevator for. Along the way, we learn that robots were servants for humans before 1999. But most of the biological mass got wiped out by Lavos. This caused the robot mainframe, Mother Brain, to trigger a genocide against the remaining humans. She found us too weak to continue to exist. But there is a hint of self sacrifice in her words. Before he shut her down, a friend of Robby, Atropos, shows up. She's a pink robot who looks just like him. She informs our party that Robby, Prometheus, is malfunctioning. Robby is supposed to kill humans like the rest of his kind, so she'll try to fix him. Robo will fight this one alone, but it's pretty easy. At one point, all Atropos does is Area Bomb, which does less than 50 damage. Withstand the early storm, and you should be fine. This'll fix our new pink friend, and she'll return to normal. Sadly, Lucca can't fix her, and she'll die. As she does, she'll give Robo her ribbon, which is a direct stat upgrade for him that we don't even need to equip. It automatically ups his speed by three and magic defense by ten! Continue down the path to see the facility making soylent green before taking on Mother Brain. But back to the sacrifice real quick. Mother Brain tells us that robots can keep the offspring of Lavos from jutting off to other planets, saving them from the same destruction we went through. I don't know how much of that she means, but it's worth thinking about? Maybe she's not totally evil? A good Plan B, really. Or I'm thinking too much about it...

But we're Plan A, and Robo needs closure! We fight Mother Brain and her three monitors. These CPUs heal her, but they keep her worst attacks in check, so it's wise to keep them around. Have Lucca use Hypnowave for the first time in the game to put all three of them asleep. It took me two tries, but I got all of them. From here, MB only does weak, single target moves that I think might be shadow based. Focus her with single target techs for a few minutes. This isn't hard. Robby will shut down the systems, and we'll never get to return here again. But he does his get best weapon, Terra Arm, and a fun/niche weapon, Crisis Arm. CA increases his power based on how low his HP is. I'm not into moves like that, but I'll stick with Terra Arm. As a last note: when we found Robo, Lucca said it's humans that program robots to evil. I wonder if she still thinks that?

Dark Omen:

We can fly to the former Undersea Palace of Zhul, but there's nothing here. Queen Zeal tells us that Lavos is gone and will teleport away, so I'm curious what she's been up to/is about to do. But the door's locked, so let's go on...

Rainbow Shell:

We're done with the Future, prehistory, and Antiquity (sorta), so let's finish the Dark Ages. Remember that Soda you bought? Take it to Toma's Grave near Choras. We'll pour it on his grave, and the spirit of the adventurer will appear before us. He'll tell us that he's found the Rainbow Shell in a mountain to the north! 

Head over there, and we'll recognize that it's the remains of the Tyranno Lair! I guess Lavos just smashed it beneath him, somehow, without destroying it. The mobs are a lot stronger now, though, but aren't that bad. Keep watching out for those apes, the flying guys are weak to fire, and there are two rubbles down here! At the very bottom is the undead Black Tyrano, Rust Tyrano. It fights as it did without Azela, so prepare for that. He'll countdown from 5 to 1 and then unleash an ultimate attack that did an average of 100 damage. That's its only attack, so this fight is another tedious thing. If you found the Rage Band, an accessory that ups the counter rate to 80 percent, then the random roars it does between countdowns will be countered. Behind it is the glorious Rainbow Shell. The three of us try to pick it up, but we can't. Marle gets the idea that we should talk to the castle, so we skip there. The King and Lenne mutually agree to do so, so the castle gets something new that our dumb dad can stop us from having. But doesn't that mean Toma doesn't find the Rainbow Shell? 

Speaking of King Guardia and the Rainbow Shell, let's head back to him:

With the Rainbow Shell in the castle, presumably, let's see how papa's messed it up? The guards tell us the Chancellor has brought him to trial... 

Heading up to the courtroom where it went poorly for Crono, we can confirm that the King is in the courtroom on charges that he's sold the Rainbow Shell. There was a note saying that the Shell was to be brought out during the Millennial Fair, but no one knows where it's at. Marle bum rushes through two guards and interrupts the proceedings. We know what's going on, but ol' Chance doesn't care what he has to say but promises that proof of the Shell's location is all that can show innocence. We're then kicked out of the courtroom and begin a search mission. 

On the way down from the courtroom, we spy a locked chest. I'm sure it's nothing. There's also a new wing just off to the side. It takes us down to where we see a soldier knocked out. His last words are that the Chancellor has brought monsters into the castle. Just around the corner are familiar monsters from back in the day. They let us in that the current Chancellor is enacting revenge from thirteen generations ago before they attack us. They are, literally, the same mobs from Manoria Chapel in 600 AD. As are the rest of the battles in our short hike upwards. As we look for the Rainbow Shell, we occasionally cut back to the King. The Chancellor is bringing in witnesses, and we can tell the fix is in. Even when we find the Shell, the jury decides the King is guilty. Marle finds a strange way in, through the stained glass windows, and shows that the Rainbow Shell is still in the castle. Alas, the jury has stated Guardia is guilty, and the royal linage dies now. We offer a counterpoint: our swords! The Chancellor turns into another familiar boss, and we rekindle a tale 400 years old!

Yakon XIII fights exactly like his ancestor does, but he doesn't counter, making him much easier. I didn't bother casting Haste and went full out with the Tipple Tech Arc Impulse. Sadly, I didn't rest after the Tyrano Lair, so I'm low on MP. It didn't matter since our opponent was weak. His attacks only hit one person and only for about 200 HP. Somehow, he knows our weaknesses from the past, which don't help him much. I'm confused... As he dies, he hits the whole party in one, last, desperation attack, which is only slightly more effective than his usual stuff. He dies, and a touching scene plays out.

The King admits that he's been stubborn and apologizes. He relives a precious memory of his, despite it being pretty sad. He tells us how Aliza died, but Marle/Nadia was happy. "Daddy, all my favorite people are here." Marle was too young to know what was happening, but her smile let her mother die in peace. Marle is shocked that she called the King "daddy," but does so here to end their silly feud. The King is back on our side as we all return to the throne room, finally at peace. We talk some more before Melchior enters the castle. He lets us know it's his time to shine and heads down to work on the Rainbow Shell. We regain control, and I wanted to pick up something we didn't in the courtroom. When Yakon died, he dropped something. That something is a key to the locked chest just below us. As it did in 600, the real Chancellor popped out. Being the diligent man he is, he instantly gets back to work preparing the Moonlight Parade, the grande finagle of the Millennial Fair.

Head back to the Shell, and we see Melchior doting with it. He asks us what type of armor we want: three okay enough prism helms or one amazing women's armor, the prism dress? I plan to wear Vigil Helms into battle going forward, so I choose Marle's best armor. it just makes sense since this is her sidequest, anyway. If you have the Sun Stone, he can make upgraded Sun Specks because Tabon sucks. Finally, he'll forge Crono's best sword, the Rainbow. With that, I can call this portion finished. 

Fionna's Forest:

In the year 600 is a woman trying to turn a desert into a forest north of Porre. She's come into possession of the "Mystic Seed" and hopes to plant it. The war is over, so her husband Marco can help, but they have another problem now. Monsters have invaded the area nearby. Should she plant the seeds, they probably won't survive. So head into the desert whirlpool and cast water magic a lot. Everything down here is weakened by water or ice, so Glenn or Marle are a must have. Collect the treasures and kill the mobs in the first room before heading down. The screen will shake, and jaws will spike up through the sand. It's annoying, but we need to make contact with those jaws to start the boss battle. Collect the treasures as you go and hope the enemy appears nearby.

Retinite is also weakened by water magic. It won't harm it, but it will lower its incredibly high defense. After one cast, I started attacking, but you can see if the debuff stacks. From here, do not hit the Core. The Core will runaway, somehow, if struck, and it causes the skeletal body of Zombor to go amuck. It makes this battle far harder than it should. Focus on the top, then the bottom. I think I took out the Core and the legs at the same time, but who knows. I won.

Return to Fionna, and she'll begin to regrow the forest. She wishes she could live long enough to see it, so Robby offers his aid in doing so. The immortal robot can then be seen on the world map plowing and planting the desert with the seeds. But this means he's gone from our party forever? Nope. Epoch your way to 1000 AD and gaze over the lush forest the three of them created. A new church building that reveres Fionna and Robby (but not Marco) will be there. And in the very back is the rusted and overgrown metallic body of R-66y. Crono pulls him off his pedestal, and his systems turns on. It was a mere hop for us, but it's been 400 years for our friend, and he's glad to see us. 

That night, Lucca is repairing Robby for the third time, and the whole party is there. Robby brings up that he thinks something other than Lavos made these time gates. Glenn adds that he "knows" that people see their life flash before their eyes as they die, but they're usually the bad memories: visions of regrets and sorrow. Is there another Entity that is guiding us on this path? If so, Magus is the first to ask who it could be. They all call it a night until Lucca is woken up soon after. She walks off to find a red portal? There's a reason I mentioned the color of the portals in earlier blog updates, and this is why. There is only one red portal in the game: this one. Lucca steps through, and it takes her to her house.

Read the diary to find out this is the year 990 AD. Take the stairs down. DO NOT GO OUT THE SOUTH EXIT. From this small hallway, head north into the kitchen to find another note about a password. There's nothing up the other set of stairs to head into the living room. We'll see a young Lucca and her mom Lara. Lara is walking around the room. If you've spoken to her at all, you'll have only ever seen her sitting down and being grumpy about science. This scene is why. Lara goes to dust the contraption Taban made, but her dress gets caught. The conveyor belts begin to move, and they're dragging her in towards them. Lara will call Lucca to turn off the machine, but the young girl doesn't know the password. But we gain control of our Lucca and can inspect the lower right corner of the thing. It'll ask for a password, which we'll have limited time to input. The note in the kitchen tells us the password is "the name of my beautiful wife." So it's Lara, but how do we type that on a controller? On the SNES, it makes sense. L(eft button) A (button), R(ight button), A (button). Lara's name can be spelled on a SNES controller. On the PS1, replace A with Square. Should we fail to read the note or press them too slowly, Lara will be sucked into the machine, and we'll hear a scream. I don't know if she lost her legs in this accident or became paralyzed, but Lara's hated her family ever since. But if we save her, she'll be a mobile and cheery person. 

Lucca returns through the red portal, and Robby is waiting there. He compliments her and gives her a new accessory, Green Dream. It's made from tree sap he's been pressurizing in his body for 400 years and prevents a single KO. These are maybe the most important scenes in the entire game. Not only does it gives the players a clue towards something not mentioned in Chrono Trigger, the Entity, but it shows off the red portals. I wish more characters got them, though. I've come around on Lucca, but why is she the only one who gets to undo a regret in her life? Why let us keep Marle's mom alive? Or have Glenn not turned into a frog? Maybe Janus once said something to Schala he regrets? This entire section is filled with a lot of subtlety that I didn't get until a few years ago. Does it change the plot of the game? Not really, but it fills it with an air of mystery that makes me want to know more. It's why I saved it for the penultimate sidequest (I didn't, but pretend I did)! There's one more place to go, and it's the closest CT gets to a final dungeon. 

The Black Omen:

I'm bringing Crono, Magus, and Robby in here. Robby still has two more spells to learn, Magus' mom is at the end of this, and Crono is still my main character! The only exception will be for bosses and a mob called panel. All of those have things worth stealing, and I want them. I brought in Marle and Ayla to replace whoever had their skills mastered. But more on them later.

If you enter this shining dark beacon of Lavos from the Future, Queen Zeal will be waiting for us outside, and she'll let us know that the great Lavos is gone. She'll then teleport away, leaving the door locked behind her. So don't bother here unless you want to ruin the outside security, who won't respawn in earlier timelines. Go figure. I went into the Present Black Omen because I thought about going into all of them. I should have gone into the one in Antiquity, though. I feel like it saves the Planet some pain and makes sure no other time period has to deal with that abomination. Some people are really into it, like our mom, but they're weird and not to be trusted. It took me two hours to get through the whole thing, which is why I won't be redoing it.

As we enter, Queen Zeal will continue to extol the virtues of Lavos. She doesn't think we're capable of defeating her god and suggests we join them. We get on the bandwagon if we die, so the Queen attacks us with Mega Mutant. We'll see this guy a few times, and each time will be with different AI programs. I didn't bother to remember how to attack which, but strategies vary. Sometimes you'll need to go at them with magic, sometimes they use status effects, at least one will steal your HP. The last one likes to smack you down to 1 HP. I know that. For the first one, Charm the bottom, for sure, since you'll get a Vigil's Hat. You'll run into a lot of confusion causing buggers in this dungeon, so anything that prevents status effects is a must have. I don't remember the top part, but it was probably an elixir.

After this are the first round of mobs. I'm just gonna get everything you'll fight down here that's worth mentioning out of the way. The panels are great! They barely do any damage, but you can steal a speed tab from them. When I finished this place, I had nearly twenty of the stat boosters in my inventory. I was able to get five of my seven characters to max speed (16), and it's all because I stole from these guys. Other creatures worth talking about are:

Tubsters.) They counter everything thrown their way but are weak to fire. They come from vortexes, so you can prepare for them. 

Boss orb and sidekicks.) These act like slightly more dangerous rubble. The boss orb can do damage, but it's terrible, and the sidekicks run away a lot. The boss orb gives nothing of value, but the sidekicks give 100 tech points a defeat. Good luck killing one of them, let alone two, though. There is a fight against four of them, but...yeah... 

Goons.) You can steal Nova Armor from them, which gives you status immunity. Chrono Trigger has a lot of fun things to equip on your head, so you may want to use body armor instead to provide your ribbon effects. 

There are a whole lot more, but they're relatively typical fodder.

As for treasure, there's a Haste Helm that I equipped to Crono as soon as I brought him back into my team. He has body armor that gives him immunity, so the next best thing is speed. Who needs defense when you go faster than your opponent? 

There is very little story in this Zealian architecture, so we'll eventually come to the next boss, Giga Mutant. He stales MP but is pretty much the same as the other Mutant. After this will be the final form, Terra Mutant. This is the one who brings your HP to 1, setting up an easy kill. Keep your healer ready. But these three aren't the only bosses. There's a unique version of the Lavos Spawn. It's tougher than the ones killed on Death Peak, and you can steal a Haste Helm from the face this time. The Shell has another Vigil's Helm if you need one. In case you forgot, only hit the mouth. Magus was a bit useless here, but Ayla did some work! 

After that will be our main event boss rush! We'll see Queen Zeal in her throne room, flustered that we're still around. But she's not too fazed because she's immortal. If Magus is here, he'll call his mom an idiot and tell her that nothing is forever. Zeal doesn't recognize her own son, so she still calls him "Prophet" and promises to make him regret what he did all those eons ago. Our fight against the Queen is more annoying than anything. She loves to spam a move, Halation, which drops the entire team to 1 HP. If you don't want to steal two megaelixirs from her, bring in someone(s) who can heal the whole team. It makes the battle a lot easier. I had Magus spamming Dark Matter, doing nearly 2000 damage. Ayla, meanwhile, kept using Triple Kick, hitting nearly 1600. Zeal has some high magic defense, so Marle's damage/Cube Toss is a bit disappointing. Despite using max MP moves, I won before I ran out. 

She's still alive, but I think she respects our strength. Zeal knows she can't win, but she might be able to throw us into the Mammon Machine! I don't know what makes this fight a boss fight. Any magic attack on it raises its magic power, and any physical attack ups its defense. Stealing from him is another waste since all he's got is a megaelixir. Because of that, it's best to bring in Glenn and his Masamune to absorb the magic increase, negating that threat. Occasionally, MM will unleash what it's stored, but the damage is oddly low. Do stick to magic attacks despite the risk it runs you. 

From the ruins of the Mammon Machine will rise a new threat. Queen Zeal will appear as a strange Mother Brain looking creature. With her are her two hands, each you should ignore. However, this is why bringing in Ayla/Marle is worth it. From one hand, a Prism Dress can be stolen. It's the strongest female armor in the game and worth it if you're running a party with two women. From the other hand is a Prism Helm, the strongest helm, which also acts as a ribbon, I've read. (double check that, though). Never target them, though, as they will counter, and it will suck. One hand takes all of your MP, and the other steals your HP. It's an easy way to end up defenseless, which you don't want with Zeal throwing down magic spells on you. Magic Wall might be worth casting on everyone, but I felt like it didn't do that much to help. Ayla still got messed up by the constant spells. As she did before, Zeal will use Halation a lot. I didn't want to mess around after two other battles, so I used a few of the newly begotten megaelixirs. If you're not interested in stealing, a teamwide healer is so helpful. Frog/Crono/Robo would have eased so much tension. As one more attempt to get what she wants, Zeal will call out to Lavos, begging him for power. For some reason, he responds, and we're brought to Antiquity. A light will emerge from beneath us, and Lavos will attack.

We'll stand before our planetary destroyer for one final battle. Unlike before, we're ready. Lavos will enter attack mode, which will cause him to alter his tactics. I'd have kept using the one he used when he killed Crono, but I'll take what he did. His tactics change to various bosses we've fought along our journey. Stats and AI are the same as they were long ago, so he's a pushover. In between each form, we can heal up and switch party members. We even get a glimpse of what's to come to make sure we're not out of formation. I didn't bother to see if we could steal... Every mandatory boss, from Dragon Tank to Giga Gygas, is here. There will be one more fight against Lavos proper, but it's oddly easy. I used all my tabs before this, so I think I'm too strong. I'm as fast as can be, nearly at max HP/MP, and have over 200 attack power. Am I OP? I didn't do that much grinding, but I don't think I've ever been this strong! After the final Lavos sequence, his head will explode! But his Shell remains. Glenn knows we just beat his armor, and the real Lavos is inside. We all climb in and drop into a small cave. There's a Gate out if we wish to return to The End of Time, but I save. I want to finish this, which I'll do...

...tomorrow! 

This next part can be time consuming, and I ran late enough as is. Plus, I've written a small book about these sidequests. The chapter also changed, so this was the right call. I thought about running the Dark Omen once more in Antiquity, but I'm ready to end Chrono Trigger. With the Lavos summoning, clearly, being in 12000 BC, the plot McGuffin of the Black Omen being in a strange time bubble in time, I'm gonna keep on from here. We finish my second favorite game on my birthday, so I'll write what I really think about it on my anniversary. Perfect timeing... I love you, Lucy!