Chrono Trigger - The Earthbound
Back in the snow covered fields of Antiquity and Crono discovers the elevator to Zeal has also been turned off. It would seem the prophet does not like doing things half assed. When the portal from Pre-History was closed off, he made sure the elevator would not stay on either. Just on the off chance our heroes figured out another way to come back here. With the access to the islands in the sky cut off, the only thing to do now is to go talk to the Earthbound and as for their help.
This battle is a lot easier if you have Luminaire
These people are destitute and living in poor conditions. Not that long ago, the magic users and Earthbound lived in peace and harmony. All of that changed once the King died. I still think the Queen was not as benevolent before her corruption by Lavos as the people of Zeal want to believe. Only those who reaped the benefits of her tyrannical rule think of her as a benevolent leader. It has been a while since I last played Chrono Trigger. This time around I feel I am finding more depth to the stories presented here. For example, I never realized this era was a story about how marginalized people suffer when the privileged avert their eyes. The people of Zeal are busy sleeping in bliss, or they live in the skies where they do not have to see the Earthbound. For them, everything was fine until Lavos corrupted the Queen’s mind. It is strikingly relevant twenty five years later. I don’t know if I should commend the Square team for being omniscient or lament the fact inequality still exists two and a half decades later.
Crono and friends go into the caves and find these people living in abject poverty. Their living space reminds me of how fiends were living in the caves when we first fight Azala. At the same time there are other fiends who live in the giant stone built keep. I wonder how much discrimination was there between the two groups of reptites.
Foggy and hilly… Reminds me of Tennessee
AS Crono climbs down, he is warned of mudbeasts. Every time they are hit, their attack goes up. It is a good idea to take them out quickly or else these fights start getting dicey. To make sure I was taking care of the mudbeasts before they could do serious damage, I had to switch mu party around. Marle has too weak a physical attack to stay in the party. She was replaced with Robo. He has a strong physical attack and ability to heal, which can be upgraded to heal the whole party in one turn. Both Ayla and Crono have strong attacks. With this party, mudbeasts never became a problem.
This was also the first time I did some grinding for experience in this play through. The mudbeasts give about 10 TP per encounter. My aim at this junction was to have Crono gain the Luminaire Tech before moving on the next boss battle. This spell does Holy damage to all enemies. Usually, I have this by the time I get to this part of the game. It makes the boss battles a lot more manageable. The imp shows up with a red and a blue mudbeast. Theses are quite hard to hurt and their own techs deal some heavy damage. Without luminaire, this battle drags on. But with it, Crono need only cast it three time before they are all defeated.
With the beast gone, Crono can finally climb up to the levitating mountain. This place is covered with fog and crawling with various kinds of imps. The part makes its way through the fog and chains until we happen upon a giant crystal. Before anyone could make heads or tails of this thing, the whole place starts quaking. Giga Gaia emerges, and our friends get ready for another fight.
This creature is awe-inspiring. The sheer size of it dwarfs our party. I was glad to have switched Marle out for Robo before I got here. This battle needs an all out physical attack. Between Ayla and Robo I had gone in with the strongest physical team with added bonus of all team healing tech from Robo. This freed up Crono to use Luminaire every turn. Once the arms were destroyed, I used the physical attacks from the other members. Crono made sure arms never came back.
Who gave Waluigi all the PEDs?
With Giga Gaia dead, Guru of Life is released from his prison. It is Melchior! He does not recognize us at this time since we only meet him much later in the future. Everyone gathers up in one of the caves of the Earthbound, and Schala comes by to see what has been going on.
Mammon’s Machine (the giant mech thing we saw in one of the prison cells earlier) is being used to harvest energy from Lavos, but it has been exerting its effect on the Queen through the machine at the same time. Only Schala has the ability to use the machine and she has decided to not help the prophet turn it on anymore. In an effort to do so, she and her brother escape from the palace and come to these caves.
We have not even begun to process all this information when Dalton (ugh) shows up. He pushes Melchior down and makes off with the two royal children. Melchior is ready to give in. With Schala and Janus abducted there is nothing we can do to stop Lavos. All is lost. No one can save humanity. Will there be a hero who can step up to this virtually impossible challenge? As usual, Crono raises his hand to volunteer. Melchior is grateful and a little surprised, these adventurers would help so selflessly. But now is not the time to question the motivations of our heroes. Instead, he thanks them and gives them a knife that can be used to destroy the Mammon Machine.
Even with the knife, this will be no easy task. Crono has his work cut out for him. He has to find a way back to Zeal, infiltrate the Queen’s palace and then find a way into Ocean’s Palace. Hopefully on the way there we will have an opportunity to teach Dalton the turd hamster a lesson or two.
12-27-2020
Ugh Dalton!
