The Final Battle

We're, literally, in the belly of the whale/insect/alien, so we might as well finish what we started, yeah? Despite loving how hard Ayla can hit and gaining a newfound respect for Lucca and Robo, I'm gonna run with my primary party of Crono, Marle, and Glenn. I've always felt they have the most plot relevance and a wide assortment of combo techs. Magus has no such moves, severely limiting his fun, so he's not getting his revenge today. We're in one of the few places that doesn't have music, and in a game with the best OST in the business, it's the loudest thing.

But it's short lived as we reach the Lavos Core. It's a massive insect/human hybrid that kinda looks like first form Cell from DBZ. Both of his arms are targetable and annoying. The right arm (our left) can heal the body, and the left arm (our right) mostly just attacked us. I've read that you need to destroy both arms simultaneously, or else the remaining will remove equipment status benefits, which explains how Crono became confused. But the body is what you need to focus on to win and end the assault. I killed both arms and then started spamming Arc Impulse until I won. I needed a few Twin Cures, with Marle and Glenn, along the way. Twin Cure is so cheap for a full heal to everyone. We were doing over 3000 HP per round and running circles around the guy, so this went better than I expected. We won without needing to use items, but we're not done yet.

Lavos' Core will fade away and be replaced with an even more alien appearance. The true form of our parasite is before us. If we win here, we'll save our world as countless more throughout the universe. During the battle, the background will change to various areas we've been to, representing all we're fighting for. It's a bit blinding and might cause a seizure, so good luck. We're against three more opponents, but there's a slight twist here. Before I get to that, I'll just say to take out the Bit on our left. That guy can heal the center body, which may not help Lavos when I think about it... You see, the true form of Lavos isn't the thing in the center, but the Bit on our right. The center thing is the most dangerous thing on the field, but we have to ignore it if we want to win. For your information, the right Bit (our right) absorbs all elemental damage and only has about 2000 HP. The Center Body does the primary attacking. It can also use a move called "Time Warp," which changes the background. For some reason, this can cause Crono to counter. The left Bit (his left) has 40000 HP, and Arc Impulse takes out 3000 a go. It can buff its defense from time to time. I found that using a magic spell, I used Luminaire, will drop the defense and let us physically attack it. The defense is high, so we will need to do that. Triggering its defense can also cause Crono to counter, and I don't really understand. Try not to leave the side bits alone because they can counter with a pretty strong X-Strike. Don't be afraid to use megaelixirs because you will be at low HP and MP during this. The center body can half the parties HP and hit with some spells, and even a all hit physical attack, that did 800 damage. Both Marle and Glenn died at one point, so Lavos went down swinging. It's the final battle; you really should! But once the left Bit is destroyed, the other two will fall after... I wonder if you should just ignore everything and focus on the target?

A bell chimes in the distance again as someone tries to wake up Crono, who's back in his bed. We get up to see that it's not mom or Marle but a Guardian Soldier. Our stay of execution is up, so we're to report to the castle immediately. What's going on!? Marle runs into the throne room and attempts to persuade her dad to spare us. And I thought we moved past this, King? Marle goes to inform her dad what we've been up to since Crono "kidnapped" her, but before she can, he says, "saving the world." Suddenly, Doan from the Future, still in ragged clothes, comes down from the right tower. King Guardia from 600 AD follows, as does Kino! Lucca steps out from behind the throne to let us know she planned this whole thing as one big family reunion. It turns out that Kino is an ancestor to Marle, and Doan is from her lineage. It sounds shocking, but there are 65 Million years between two of them, and then another 1300 in a limited population pool for the other. It's statistics at that point, but enough of the boring stuff! The King tells us to enjoy the last day of the Millennial Fair and the Moonlight Parade!

A mystic and two dancers enter the fairgrounds with Marle and Crono behind them. A few more stuff follows us as a cat takes charge as we walk around the area. We can see that Lara and Taban are here, and Lara wants to dance. It's a nice reminder of what Lucca did as Lara isn't here if we didn't save her. Our mom is nearby, upset we haven't fed the cat in a while. There's also Melchior, who seems to be quitting the weapons business. Business isn't booming these days... Head up the steps, and we'll see Lucca and the Gate Key go to her telepods, where this whole thing started. There's not much in the second area, so just go after her.

All of our friends are waiting, but we learn that the Gate is weakening. We bring up what we talked about the night Robby rejoined us at Fionna's, and we think The Entity is at peace. It's time to say farewell to everyone.
Kino and Ayla are first, and Marle hopes they have strong kids for her own sake.
Glenn, still a frog, and his King head in next.
Afterwards, Magus goes through without saying a word. Marle knows that he's going to look for Schala, though.
There's a tearful goodbye between Lucca and Robo, and they bring up the fact he may not exist in the new timeline. Is there a need for an execution bot in a world where humans still reign supreme? R-66y thanks us for teaching him all these emotions and even starts crying as best a robot can. But he and Doan go through, leaving us all alone.
Crono's cat and mom come up, still wondering about food. Suddenly, the cat goes through the portal, and mom goes after it just as the Gate closes... Well, it's a good thing we have a time machine!

Down the stairs is King Guardia, and I now notice that Lenne's Bell is gone. The King brings in its replacement, Nadia's Bell, but the balloons it's tied to aren't the best ballast. He gets caught up and is hanging there, so he asks his daughter for help. Alas, we have an adventure to go on! Taban comes in, and he, too, blows off his liege. He also blows off some fireworks as the credits start to roll. Halfway through, we get a last glimpse of our friends as we fly by on the Epoch.
Prometheus and Atropos are sitting on a mountainside together.
Glenn, still a frog, is leading a royal procession across the Zenan Bridge.
Ayla and Kino on the dactyles.
Magus can fly now, but I'm uncertain what time he's in.
The credits finish rolling, and we see the word I dread pop up.

"The End"

But wait, there's more! That was the SNES credits, and this is a PS game now! There's one more anime cutscene for a more final vision of a few of our friends.
Crono and Marle just got married, and the entire Kingdom came out to greet them. Everyone knows that we saved the world, so they're cool with their Princess marrying a commoner.
We then see Ayla propose to Kino in perfect Ayla fashion.
Glenn, now a human, is officially being declared a knight. We see him walk out the same doors that Crono and Marle do as we cut back to them and Melchior holding a beverage in preparation.
There's one more cut as we go to Lucca and her mini-Robo in the woods. Just off the path is a strange blue light, which Lucca examines. There she finds a baby and a shining necklace. The credits finish rolling, and we get the words one more time, for real this time.

"The End"

These scenes play out slightly differently depending on who's in our party. Human Glenn can appear instead of froggy if you beat up Magus in Antiquity. Gaspar can also show up if you didn't save Crono, but that's considered a separate ending altogether. Each is also different depending on if you have the Epoch or trashed it. And that's saying nothing about the other ten endings that take place depending on when you beat Lavos. I'm not going for them, but they're there.

I loved revisiting this classic. The characters were great, even the ones I have a sordid history with. Everyone brings something different to the table. The music is as good as it gets, as does the battle system. Double and Triple techs need to be used more! The story has some plot holes if you're interested in quantum time physics, but dumb people like me barely even think of them. And Chrono Trigger oozes charm. It's got that It Factor that very few games have. But is it better than Final Fantasy X? We'll find out tomorrow. In lieu of a normal review, I'm going to compare them, so consider this the end of my Chrono Trigger write up. Thanks for reading, and Fire Emblem: I-don't-remember-the-subtitle will be coming up soon. I've got a booster appointment tomorrow, so I suspect it'll knock me out for a day or two. But if it kills me, then the last game I'll ever play is Chrono Trigger. Honestly, it's probably the best time to go, yeah?