Monday, May 9, 2016

Chrono Trigger – Part 28: Close Enough

Summary: Raw frustration and rage as I attempt to fight through the Black Omen and fail miserably. Obtaining hope for Crono from Gaspar. Happy Mother’s Day, Crono’s mom. ---

Black Omen

-Heading past the area where Mega Mutant was at.

-Two new techs for Frog. Cure2, a single target full heal, and Cure Wave, dual tech with Robo called Cure Wave restoring ALL allies to full. Frog is now working on what look like his ultimate single tech, Frog Squash.

-Wow. I just died to the trash past Mega Mutant.



Shit just got real. I gotta start treating the regular monsters like bosses it seems.

-Seriously. Up until now, the techs in non-boss fights were mostly to speed things up even though auto-attacks would’ve worked. No longer the case. I have to use the heavy hitting and heavy healing techs to make it through this trash.

-More Cactuar-esque monsters here. Boss Orb and Sidekicks. Killed the Boss Orb and one Sidekick. The other one ran away, but I still got huge tech points.

-Maybe if I leave the middle one up and go for the side ones it’ll give me more points?

NOPE IT WIPED ME.



I left the Boss Eye up and it spammed group attacks and killed me. Jesus. Is it just me, or did the game like triple in difficulty since setting foot on the Black Omen?

This is why I doubt I’ll ever play Dark Souls.

-Reached a teleport area. Then an elevator going down. Two versions of Lucca’s robot from the Millenial Fair appear.



They spam Chaos on me. [Later edit: What makes this kind of monster so frustrating for me right now is that it the pair of fake!Gatos spam Chaos, and I only have one items, the Amulet, that protects against that status. How the hell am I supposed to take the pair out? Just solo Robo?]

-I haven’t gotten to a save point in a while and this elevator gauntlet of brutal monsters is scaring me. If I die and have to go through this again, I’m going to throw this controller.

-NOOOOO FUCK FUCK FUCK

I reached the bottom of the elevator. Then I went to what I thought was a save point, but it was the switch to bring the elevator up. I HAVE GO THROUGH THAT GAUNTLET TWICE MORE FUCK MY LIFE

I’m sorry to be whining about the difficulty ramp, but this is unexpected and frustrating and feels like it came out of nowhere.

-I died. I have to go through all that again. I want to weep right now.



-FHDJKLSFHDJKLSFHDLSFDLS DIED AGAIN ON THE FRIGGING ELEVATOR TO THOSE FLYING YELLOW GOONS

Ok. Fuck this. Sorry, but fuck this. I’m going to get out of here and try heading through the portal the End of Time to talk to Gaspar. Maybe he’ll give me some super weapon to let me bust through here or something like that.

Not even fighting my way out. Just going back to the save point where I started this waste of a session. [Later edit: I know, it’s not a waste of a session. I’m glad I got to get a preview of this place, but the sudden difficulty ramp really frustrated the hell out of me.]

---

End of Time

-There are two new portals in the little gate garden. One going to pre-historic Tyrant Fortress, the other to the place we just came from.

-Gaspar is sad to hear that Crono’s gone. He gives us… a song? “Memories of Crono.”



That’s it. Wow. Guess he might really be dead. (Though he’s still called “Old Man” in game, so my guess is that the party doesn’t know that he’s Gaspar yet.)

-He actually gives us something else. A glowy egg thing called a “Chrono Trigger.”

-Oh wait, maybe he’s not gone. This time thing is confusing lol. Says that we should take the Chrono Trigger to Balthasar, that he’ll know what to do with it.



We’ll put in effort to search for Crono, and the egg will somehow amplify our efforts. Or something. I don't quite get it.

-NOW the group gets it. They realize he’s Gaspar.

-Went back to the Dark Ages to get the Epoch and… hey, the interference cleared! I can travel back in time. Good. Going to avoid having to go into Black Omen until the very instant that they tell me I have to. Or until I have gear coming out of my ears and triple techs up the wazoo. 
---

2,300 AD – Keeper’s Dome

-Nu!Balthasar tells us that to somehow resurrect Crono, he has to be important to the timeline, and we have to have a clone of him. I wonder if the thing we got from the Millenial Fair sitting at his house will work.

-This is weird. I’m trying to think of why we’d need a clone. Best guess: the Chrono Trigger may attempt to find Crono’s soul and place it into the clone.



Either that, or it’ll be like Weekend at Bernie’s and we’ll just have to use the clone to convince someone that it’s actually Crono.

And what good could possibly happen on Death Peak that’ll lead to Crono’s resurrection? It’s the nesting ground of freaking Lavos! Maybe we just need to be around the raw energy that Lavos puts out to power the Chrono Trigger.

-Next stop is the present.

---

1,000 AD

-Time for one of the more uncomfortable conversations ever. Crono’s home.



-Except we don’t. Cause Frog totally ducks the question, saying “Sure, Crono? Fine health. No problem.” Bad job, dude. Though I guess maybe it’s okay to hold off until you see how this quest to resurrect him goes.

-Got the clone.

-Stopped by Lucca’s home for a present. Taban doesn’t disappoint, giving us Taban Suit for Lucca.

-OK LOOK I KNOW I’M NOT THAT PERCEPTIVE BUT I’M PRETTY SURE BLACK OMEN WASN’T HERE BEFORE



-Talked to Melchior who lives beneath it. He doesn’t know what it is, just think it’s an omen of something. Hence its name.

-A new guy is in Medina Square. Most people are worshipping Ozzie still, but one lone imp is singing hymns to the Black Omen.

-Gonna check out one last thing: whether the Black Omen is now in all time eras.

---

Middle Ages

-Yup. Still here in the middle ages. And the monsters seem to be the same as the Dark Ages. Mega Mutant is still dead, thankfully.

-There’s a new phenomenon in the desert by Fiona’s Villa. A sand swirl.

-Fiona’s husband is home!



Yay for Fiona.

---

Next time: Checking out the desert by Fiona’s Villa. Then on to Death Peak in 2,300 AD with the Clone.

Oh God. I just thought of a horrifying thing. What if… I mean, look, the Queen talked about how she wants to live with Lavos for eternity as immortals. Balthasar told us that Lavos lives on Death Peak reproducing. What if they’re…

No. You know what? Not gonna go there. I’m sure the Queen just wants to relax and eat cupcakes for eternity with Lavos. Nothing more.

One further note: if Black Omen kicked my ass this hard, I’m dreading the next place more than a little bit. Fingers crossed that I just was in the wrong place. We’ll see.

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