Chrono Trigger - Ocean Palace
It has been a while since I last played Chrono Trigger. I had severely underestimated the amount of time I would need to finish this. All the vacations and road trips have come and gone. Even though I am pretty close to the end, I had originally thought I was going to be deep into NG+ mode by now. As it happens, I am yet to face Lavos for the first time.
The way to the Ocean Palace is through the Zeal Palace. Our friends find no obstacles as they enter the kingdom. Even the sky elevators have turned back on. There is no one guarding the palace, and for the second time we find ourselves inside the giant throne room. Only this time none of the royalty are present, but the trash bag made human that goes by the name of Dalton is still here.
Ugh Dalton!
Dalton has more confidence than he has fighting ability, so this turned out to be an easy fight. I loved wiping the floor with Dalton’s smug face. The only downside was he ran away before I could finish the job. This guy is turning out to be a real thorn in Crono’s side. Everyone else has already gone over to wherever the Mammon Machine is, and we will be heading that way shortly. A gate opens up in the throne room once Dalton escapes. Crono and his friends take it and emerge in the Ocean Palace.
There are quite a few strong enemies here, but I think I have over levelled my characters. I beat all of them with ease. Crono finds his way around until he can get to the stairs and go deeper. This place reminds me of the Fiendlord’s Keep. Magus must have seen this place when he was younger. He probably came here with his mother and Schala. When it was time for him to build his own castle, he ended up imitating the only other ominous palace he had known.
There is less water in Ocean Palace than I anticipated.
As Crono and others are fighting hordes of enemies and climbing down the stairs, we get a cutscene of the Queen activating the Mammon Machine. She demands Schala crank the power up all the way. If she keeps this up, the whole place is going to start falling apart. Crono, sensing the Machine coming online, hurries on to put a stop to it before Lavos is summoned. The Queen herself seems to have no regard for the lives of her children or her subjects. All she is focused on is achieving immortality.
The death of the King of Zeal has shaken her to the core. She had not had to face the fragility of her own existence until the death of her loved one. The Queen probably felt the magic would protect her from death just as it had helped her live a privileged life. When she saw the King could not delay death, however strong his magical powers were, she had to come to terms with her own mortality. Instead of accepting the inevitability of death, she started looking for a way to avoid it at all costs.
This is her motivation for tinkering with the Mammon Machine. Even though she is smart enough to know what disaster messing with the powers of Lavos would bring, she can not stop herself. Power of Lavos gives these people their magical abilities so they are already comfortable with relying on a dangerous power source to some degree. It probably did not take her long to justify the use Mammon Machine to herself. Then she banished every single adviser who tried to warn her of the danger she was putting all her kingdom in.
Golem Twins
The name Mammon is aptly used here. The machine is used to create magic that has generated immense wealth and class for those exploiting it. These people have become so rich and powerful they live on islands that float in the sky. Instead of working they sleep away, lost in the dreams. These magic users have cut off their brethren who can not use magic by leaving them on the ground, wallowing in poverty. For them, only their material wealth is important. They choose to ignore the plight of less fortunate. Their worship of the machine and the parasite it represents will only bring ruin and disaster for them. But they can not stop themselves. They even have a false prophet who is accelerating the collapse of their society, and they recognize he is a harbinger of their end. Yet they can not find enough courage to abandon their ways.
Crono finally arrives at an elevator that takes him down to the where everyone is. There are quite a few enemies who pop up on the elevator, but they are dispensed away with ease. Before we can go in and destroy the machine, Dalton shows his ugly face again. After the beating he took last time, he is a little more reluctant to fight himself. Instead, he sends out his pets, the Golem sisters to fight for him.
As much as the Mammon Machine foreshadows the calamity that is about to befall the people of Zeal, these golems are the subversion of the golem that protected the chosen people. Here there are two of them and they will not be able to save these people, even though they are one of the tougher fights in the game. My party included Crono, Robo, and Ayla. Robo was my healer. The Heal beam was again great at keeping everyone alive and well. Ayla gave out some physical damage, unless I needed her to heal a member who was dangerously low. My main damage dealer was Crono with his Lumianaire. This is going to be the last time I will be using it for while so I might as well use it as much as I can. The golems copied my attacks and gave it back as hard as they got. But with this party combination, I was able to finish them off without having any party member die on me.
01-15-2021
Nothing good has ever happened in the history of raising the output to the limit.
