Chrono Trigger – Part 9: That Old Gang of Mine

Summary: Fighting through the factory to open the Gate to the past. Robo sees some old friends and learns about his former role. More pain and feels than I would've expected regarding Robo.


Factory

-Robo hacks past the security system that stopped us before. We’re in.

-Nice! First dual tech not involving Crono. “Aura Beam,” a tech between Marle and Robo healing some party members.

-lol wtf. I just tried “Provoke,” one of Marle’s techs I hadn’t used before. It says it confuses enemies, and her animation her smacking her butt.

I don’t think it’s meant to be sexual; more like “neener neener.” [Non-rhetorical question for y’all: what is this supposed to do? Doesn’t seem to have any effect. Would’ve expected it to at least stun the enemy for a few turns.]

-More Robo techs. One where he grabs Crono, runs to the enemy, and starts spinning and hitting with Crono’s sword.

-The factory itself is confusing as hell. A conveyor belt system, cranes to shift barrels around to open paths, and killer robots along the way.

-The crane especially is a bit tedious, since I have to try every button combination between four different buttons, but eventually I stumble onto the two that make the crane remove barrels blocking my path.

-…lol. Like two minutes later I found the terminal in the factory that gave me the codes. XD No trial and error was necessary. OH well.

-I love Robo’s move where he send an extendable fist flying at the enemy.

-Some kind of final defense lock code is “XABY.” Remember that, Coldrun.

-Because I have no sense of direction, I find myself circling back through this place a bunch, refighting the same sets of fights. I don’t really mind since combat’s pretty fun and I get experience.

-Done in the production area. Onto the lab.

-Reached the center of the lab, used XABY to deactivate a final defense lock. I feel a boss coming on.

-ROBO NO!!! We have to escape, and doors are slamming on us that we just evade. Robo wedged themselves between the doors and I thought they were dead meat for a second. They escaped. PHEW.

-ah shit a swarm of robots come to attack

-hee! No problem though, they’re Robo’s buddies.

-…fuck. They turned on Robo. I expected a fight, but I’m strangely sad that the fact that Robo was fixed up means he loses his old buds.

-Nooooo! Dammit game, stop making me have feels for a robot. They’re crushed to learn that their former purpose was to exterminate intruders. The guards start beating the living shit out of Robo.

-JESUS. This is so brutal! Robo just sits there and takes it, asking us to back away, even now to not hurt their former friends. What the sweet fuck.

-They finish Robo off. Dump them into the conveyor belt. ???????For real?

MARLE GOES STRAIGHT FUJIN MODE, SHE IS RAAAAAGING. I’m now sad I didn’t get Lucca for this – she would’ve set these fucks on fire.

-Boss fight against the R-Series. I fight out of rage myself, not screwing around. Squall uses Cyclone to take out three of these buckets of bolts at a time, Marle heals us up.

-After the fight, we drag Robo out of the trash compactor, across the overworld, back to Lucca.

Pleasepleaseplease let her repair them.

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Proto Dome

-Repairs are going okay. Robo is talking.

-This is beyond heartbreaking. Lucca asks Robo what they plan to do after the repairs. Robo’s response?

-Lucca’s the first person to treat them as an individual with their own will.

-HELL YES – Robo joins us for good.

-The door opened up and we head for the Gate. That triumphant Gate music starts up. We head on through.

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1,000 AD

-This is a strange area. Platform in the middle of nowhere. Sort of. Hard to say.

-Not sure what town is the town, but haven’t been to the eastern kingdom then yet. There’s a dude in the middle of what looks to be a town square. Save point.

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Next time: Investigating the Day of Lavos in the present.