Lavos Beckons

The Undersea Palace isn't as long as I remember it being, but it's still one of the longest in Chrono Trigger.

As we enter the Palace, we see Masa/Mune blocking our way. He'll say some stuff about this place, and then we'll get a glimpse of what's to come. Queen Zeal, Schala, the Prophet, and six attendants are at the Mammon Machine. The Queen tells her daughter to siphon power from it (or however this is happening), but Schala hesitates. When asked again, though, Schala begins. Half of Glenn's sword disappears, and we can now head down into the depths.

My party is Lucca and Glenn for this dungeon. I wanted Marle, and I'll bring her in later, but the mob variety means diversifying your elements. With Masa/Mune at the entrance, it inspired me to bring Glenn along, just because. The mobs in the Palace tend to be magical in nature, so the Rune Blade and Demon's Sword are what I'm running with. Most of the creatures are scouters, and they'll absorb magic from all but their own type. They are why bringing a fire mage and a water user is the best bet. Crono can take out the yellow ones, Glenn the blue, and Lucca can go after the red. Stick to single target spells, or else they'll counter. Physical attacks work fine, but it'll take two to end them. Other things to worry about include: barghests, who'll shield an ally, mages, who can lock a character from using techs, and lashers, who will counter everything with a massive duel tech unless they're alone. There are a few others, but they're not a big deal.

The first area is a bit of a maze, where we'll need to push three switches on the sides of the room. All three are in separate rooms with no other gimmicks than mobs. New weapons for most of your characters are here, so everyone is equal on that front. The next section is a series of stairwells with lashers on them. Focus them one-by-one, without using AoE spells. Their counter is rough. After this is the other Masa/Mune. He'll let you in that they're a manifestation of Melchior's dreams, and we'll see another sight of the Mammon Machine. The Queen is still forcing Schala, who's suffering now, to energize MM. Zeal will stop at nothing to achieve her immortality, and the life of her only daughter means nothing to her! After an attrition battle on the world's oldest elevator, we'll get to s a save point.
 
Beyond that is our new pal, Dalton. He congratulates us on reaching this far, meaning that we aren't pushovers after all, but he reminds us this ends now. He summons the Golem Twins! The Twins have the same AI program as the first one, and the only difference is there are two of them. If I had Lucca learn Fire 2, this would have been the easiest fight in the game. Instead, I had Crono use his recently mastered final spell, Luminaire. It did over 1000 damage to both of them. I've totally forgotten what I had Glenn do, but Lucca threw some Napalm on one of them just to reset its AI and/or to have it hit us with fire magic. I equipped myself to absorb/cancel the element, so it made sense. I don't know if they share an HP pool or I took them both out simultaneously, but Dalton will be upset when he rejoins the room. But his immortality is at hand, so he leaves us alone. There are a few more rooms after this, but they're straightforward enough. There are no mobs to distract you, so step on the switches.

We come to the Hall of the Mammon Machine! Zeal is still killing Schala, so we do all that we can. We remember that Melchior handed us a red knife last night, so Crono throws it at the Machine. As it flies through the air, Glenn recognizes it as the Masamune! I wonder how it got to the top of the Denodoro Mountains from here? But even this legendary blade can't stop the Machine or Lavos. We begin to warp into a room that's becoming a calling card for our planetary parasite. We prepare to do battle with it once and for all!

Fire rains from the sky, and we die... The Prophet teleports in and reveals himself to be Magus, brought to this timeline when all four of us were sucked in from his castle. He takes out his scythe, swings, and does nothing. He, too, has lost. Zeal and Schala enter the blue psychedelic room, and the Queen laughs at our attempts to stop God. Schala succumbs to the presence of the source of all magic. Marle and Schala attempt to rise Crono from his near death experience, and they do. Despite being beaten in one shot, Crono tries to fight Lavos again. Before that happens, we cut to an anime cutscene.

Crono is determined to save his friends, Schala, and the world. Lavos begins to breathe in the air around us, and he unleashes a beam of light directly in Crono's face. Crono drops his sword as a ball of light flows out of his body and into the air. We cut back to when the boy in Enhassa told us, "The Black Wind howls... one among you will shortly perish." Our hero's last moments are the beam turning his body to dust. Nothing remains of him...

We cut to the surface of the planet, and there are more beams emanated from the sea. They cut through Zeal as if it was nothing. The Enlightened Ones panic as we see the landmass that was once their home fall into the ocean. The Earthbound ones rejoice for a moment, but that turns into terror as a massive tidal wave swallows their cave. The party, minus Crono and the Queen, return to the Mammon Machine room. With the last of the Pendant's power, Schala teleports us back to the surface. It's probably still safer than down here. This is the last time we'll ever see her.

Marle and Glenn call out to Crono as they wake up in a small hut. An old man enters and informs them they're in the last village on the planet, and he has no idea who Crono is. Marle is despondent and can only call out to her dead friend. Epoch is fine, but it's inaccessible now, so we rest and head to the Commons. A few survivors of both clans seem oddly optimistic. The Zealots, of course, are worried, but there is no difference between Earthbound and Enlightened Ones anymore. And it seems the eternal blizzard has ended... As we speak to the Elder, four slashers will herald the coming of our new King, King Dalton! He'll blow us up and take us to jail.

We wake up in a jail cell without our supplies, weapons, or money. The exit is blocked, but there's a ladder up. The party will climb it to reveal that we're in the air. The Blackbird has taken flight! As we climb back down, Glenn will notice a was into the air ducts. We can't fight, so this is a stealth mission. Ayla can punch things if you've brought her along because she doesn't use a weapon at any point in the game. But Marle and Glenn, despite having healing powers, just sit back and watch. From here, we need to navigate the ducts to find five treasures. I found a map online because I got lost. I don't remember this being so annoying before... Make sure to go to the bottom of the ducts to see that Dalton is modifying Epoch and renaming the Dalton Throne or some nonsense. Eventually, you'll make your way out the wing of the Blackbird. Turrets function like rubble on Mt. Woe, so do what you will. Try to avoid getting into a fight with multiples of them. As we get to the end of the wing, we'll be attacked by a golem.

Golem Boss is afraid of heights, so he just lets us beat up on him. After that, we'll see Dalton flying our Epoch! Marle, blaming him for what happened to Crono, will jump down to him, and we'll get our revenge. I accidentally had Ayla berserked for this fight, and she did 1000 damage a punch. Dalton counters everything with the Iron Ball move, and I think that's all he did, actually. When Ayla did enough damage, Dalton tried to summon Golem Boss again, but nothing showed up. I guess he didn't get the memo we beat him? Dalton, instead, will be sucked into his summoning gate, and we'll win. The party is confused that Epoch can fly, but we'll sarcastically thank him anyway before realizing we can't pilot Epoch. The game will appear to freeze, but it's just waiting for you to press the Triangle button. Lasers will shoot out the front of our ship, and we'll destroy the Blackbird! Everyone liked that. We'll land the airship, and the game will have a minor bug. The wings fall off for a moment, but it doesn't change anything.

I revisited the Elder and saw more survivors. One of whom is a purple cat. There's also someone with the magical plant, so I'm glad she followed our advice and didn't burn the seed. Apparently, this is a descendant seed to the one we got from the Dome in 2300 AD. A bunch of people tell us that someone is looking for us, and we go to the North Cape. I put Glenn up front and headed there.

Inspect the shining light, and Magis pops in. We'll draw our weapons, but he'll tell us a story. He once lived on Zeal, and then he recounts what happened before we messed everything up. In the original timeline, the Three Gurus joined Zeal and Schala. Suddenly, Janus showed up just as it all went to hell. Portals appeared beneath the Gurus and took them to where we met them. We also learn the Old Man at the End of Time is Gaspar. Janus got caught in this, too, and was sent to ~600 AD, where Ozzie attacked him with imps. We return to the "present," and Glenn assumes that Magus is Janus, the boy who told us one of us would die. At this point, a choice can be made. Magus will ask us if we want to fight, and your answer has a slight change on the end of the game as well as going forward.

If you agree to the fight, Glenn will battle his rival one-on-one. Magus' physical attacks are pretty bad, but his magic is deadly. He doesn't use any spells for a while, so don't let him lull you to sleep. Equip a spell absorbing armor and remember that Glenn can heal. If you win, Magus will tell us the curse on Glenn is broken, but we don't see it until after the game. Magus' final words to us are to find Gaspar, as he knows how to revive Crono. He drops an amulet as he ...dies(?).
If you say no, Glenn will say killing him brings no one back, and we'll leave. As we try to, Magus catches up and says he wants to join the group. Glenn is shocked, but Magus thinks following us will bring him to what he wants most. We can rename him, see he kinda sucks compared to the rest of us, and we'll get a new party member. Magus still tells us about Gaspar and has the amulet equipped. Return to the Commons, and the purple cat will follow Magus around. I'm glad Alfador is still alive.
 
We'll get ready to go to the End of Time, but there's one more surprise for us! The Ocean Palace will rise and call out to us. But we've reached the end of the mandatory story in Chrono Trigger! Besides the final boss, everything else is considered a side quest, including reviving Crono. So I have to figure out what I'm going to do...

...tomorrow!

Gaspar revealed himself once Magus realized and handed us the Chrono Trigger/Time Egg. He also suggested we find Balthazar, so there's our only clue. I'm probably going to do everything because I love this game, so I expect we'll be done here this weekend. This final review will be much different than it usually is.