Guardia Castle
-So that whole “killing the line of Leene” thing seems to have been a red herring. Yakra was just a forest monster, not an Ultimecia-esque figure bent on disrupting all of time. The real plot may be around Marle porting through time somehow.
-Went back to the Queen’s room, and… Marle’s back? She reappeared right before us.
-She was scared, went somewhere that felt like death.
Creepy. No real answers yet. I honestly thought this was going to turn into a fantasy version of Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego?, chasing Marle through the ages. This is better. I want her involved in the story, not something chased after.
-Marle admits that she falsified her identity because she didn’t want to be treated like a princess. Well, time to head back home.
-The music is tinkly and happy and not fooling me for a second. What horrors are about to emerge?
-Small thing I like: Marle isn’t underleveled. She is now at the same level as the rest of us (7), and with better gear that I didn’t equip on her. I HATE feeling like new characters are unplayably underpowered (see: me getting Yuffie late in FFVII), so this is appreciated.
-Explored the rest of the castle and left.
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Truce Canyon
-What next? Nothing new in town. Maybe we head back to the mountains where we first ported in.
-Yup. There’s a portal here, though I’d be pretty shocked if it took us back to the right time and not somewhere way in the past or future. Probably past.
-Lucca whips out a doohickey and widens the portal.
MARLE: “Lucca, you’re amazing!”
LUCCA: “Ain’t that the truth! …oh, I mean…”
<3 These two are great. Anyone else on Team Marlucca at the moment?
-Everyone hops in.
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1,000 AD
-Holy cats, it actually worked. We’re back in the present. The doohickey Lucca used, the “Gate Key,” opens up a stable gate. That’s awesome! I imagine this’ll open up some gameplay similar to Link to the Past where we can solve puzzles by going back to the past and hopping back to the present to reap rewards.
-Lucca heads home. Marle asks Crono to escort her home.
-Wandering around town, checking for any new stuff at home. Two cats now! I hope that every time I win a mini-game, I get another cat as a reward so my house just gets stuffed with cats.
-Bought a WAY better bow and armor for Marle.
-I could go to Porre, but again, gonna hold off for now.
-Visited Lucca in her home. She’s working on a bipedal robot.
-The cathedral is entirely gone in the present.
-You know what? Screw that. I have more to explore before I escort Marle home. Gonna check out the continent to the south and then Porre. “What’s the worst that can happen?” he said fate-temptingly.
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Porre
-No new weapons/armor in the market here.
-The dad in the mayor’s house is kind of a dick. Pays us 10g to act like a chicken just because he can.
-His kids either hate or are disappointed by him.
-The inn is the Snail Stop. A monster is playing at the piano – apparently some coexist with humans. Like the early years in FFVI.
-The innkeeper offers to sell Jerky (with a capital J) for 9900g. I DEFINITELY want to buy that because I’m sure it unlocks something awesome – I just don’t have the money yet. Will keep my eyes open for a puzzle that could be solved with Jerky. Like, maybe a dog guarding something.
-400 years ago, a woman named Fiona died trying to save a forest to the north.
This yeti can flat out PLAY.
-Took the ferry back to Guardia. Let’s head to the castle.
-There’s an open field in Guardia Forest that wasn’t there 400 years ago. It has the sealed chest in it.
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Guardia Castle
-Dang. Everyone freaked out (reasonably I guess) that Marle disappeared, and the Chancellor has the guards (with more modern armor than 600 AD, nice touch) over Marle’s protests.
-A TRIAL?? Hahaha this is awesome.
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The Trial
-LOVE the look of the courtroom. Beautifully imposing.
-Jeeeeez. The Chancellor is prosecutor, a dude named Pierre is the defense attorney, and the Chancellor is going for death by fire or guillotine. Maybe listen to Marle?
-I was afraid we’d be getting Cardassian justice, but Pierre operates in good faith and tells Marle’s side. Now Crono has to confirm or deny – who started it?
-Torn. The truth is that they ran into each other. Nobody started it. Sure, she asked to join, but he said yes. They both “started it.” I don’t think Crono should toss her under the bus given the ambiguity here. Let’s go the self-sacrificing option.
-Pierre calls a character witness. Is it
YES!! The girl whose cat Crono saved.
-Next question: has Crono ever stolen anything? I mean… it depends. He’s an RPG protagonist, so yeah, he breaks into people’s houses and steals their treasure. He also ate that meat lying outside of Gato to restore HP. I’ll still say no.
-Aw, crap. The Chancellor got a witness.
-Next: was Crono ever tempted to ransom the princess, or did he ever value her to get money out of her? Easy answer: no.
Ruh-roh. Forgot about that. After knocking into Marle, I grabbed it to hand back to her, but he saw that as valuing the pendant over the princess.
Come on – doesn’t it help that he gave her the pendant immediately? Like, if I knocked into someone on the street, picked up their wallet, handed it to them, and asked if they were okay, that wouldn’t be a strike against me.
Also, when the merchant asked me to try to convince Marle to sell the pendant and I said yes, he saw it. But that wasn’t out of temptation to steal the pendant! Marle would’ve gotten the money if she wanted to sell.
-Well. Crono is fucked. Guilty, 5-2. Solitary confinement, execution in three days.
-Marle emerges and protests, but the king comes out and shuts her down. Crono’s taken away and the music that blasts in is amazing.
-This is really unexpected. I thought Crono’d get like a feast in his honor for helping return Marle to the present! Also very pleasantly surprised how much my individual actions and choices impacted this.
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Next time: Squall goes to solitary confinement, gets executed, and Lucca teams up with Marle to take over as protagonists. Or something else. We’ll see!
