Part 67: Episode LXI: Lynx and the Land Time Forgot
Well, that was quite the silly little adventure. But hey, we got a very broken weapon for Lynx out of the deal. And some crummy tech for a character I'm never going to use again. So that's nice, I guess...
The game probably assumes you won't turn right around and re-enter the ruins of Viper Manor to check-up on Dario. So...let's just assume this part takes place a couple weeks in the future. For plausibility sake, of course.
Music: Chronomantique
Note: Another upbeat but chill little remix of the main theme of Chrono Trigger. Not sure why they only used the track for a two screen optional area after an easily missed optional sidequest, but hey...
So, Dario has really gotten his ass in gear with restoring Viper Manor and is converting the joint into a big friendly orphanage with bright colors and friendly music. That was nice of him.
There's not much at all to be done here other than gabbing with some of the kids running about or listen to one of the bitching construction workers. But, I've got to hand it to 'em...
Seriously, for five minutes worth of work, Dario has done one hell of a job fixing this dump up. He was definitely wasting his talents doing knight crap with the dragoons.
In any case, the next leg of our quest to beat down every single dragon in the known world will take us back to the Hydra Marshes of Home World. Lynx and his entourage must climb up to the crazy super-high vine growth canopy to go beat up another indigenous species of the swamp.
If we follow the path up here we'll come across a "Beeba". It gets pretty pissed we're stepping in its turf and decides it's gonna have to kill us for walkin' in the wrong neighborhood.
Now, you have to remember Beebas are living in the same region as those fuckhead Dwarves were. Sure, they tend to hang out up on the bramble scramble above the area. But, they still troll around the swamp too. Even with the last Hydra dead, funny thing they're still hanging around just fine while the dwarves were "forced" to invade a neighboring island.
Sure, they're extinct now. But seriously, fuck those dwarves.
Anyhow, these guys are pretty obnoxious if we had encountered them earlier on (the were featured somewhat heavily in the Saving Kid from a Slow Death by Poison quest we blew off.) They're not very physically threatening. They just stick mostly to basic attacks and the occasional element usage.
The annoying part about battling them is that they'll call a buddy after taking a few hits. And keep calling buddies until there's like six of the jerks lining the field.
But, that was if we came here early on in the game. As it stands, Lynx can just annihilate the thing in two strikes and call it a day before it can so much as yelp "holy shit stop killing me!"
"This beeba Ancient Fruit found in Ancient Ground. You will beeba-ble to tame Wingapede with this. All you have to do now is blow the Beeba Flute. That beeba the truth. I f you blow this flute further down the branch where my friend beeba standing, you will beeba-ble to ride the Wingapede to Ancient Ground."
So, the beeba hands over its flute for summoning this giant bug critter...
...and a durian fruit so it won't bite our faces off upon summoning. And with that we can ride over to Gaea's Navel to go kick the shit out of the Green Dragon. Spiffy.
"The hell is an Ancient Ground?" "The legendary 'Ancient Ground' of us Beebas. You know it as 'Gaea's Navel.' It beeba a remote island surrounded by cliffs, in the sea of El Nido. It beeba a mystical place where a 'Primeval Forest' may still exist." "'May exist'? Didn't you just say you came from there?" "Beeba I say that? Maybeeba you mistaken."
"Right... I'll just beeba leaving now before I get a frickin' headache."
"Alright, so we just gotta blow this whistle and..." <toot> "..." "Nothing is ha-"
"-aaaaahhhh! ChuChu Christ!!"
And so the nice giant dragonfly gives us a ride in its mandibles over to Gaea's Navel.
Music: Navel of the World
Though, to be honest, it could really work on the landing portion of the trip. Or lack thereof.
"Gee, can't wait for THAT to happen. By the way... Where...the hell are we...?"
"Eh? Who said that?! Show yourself!"
<groan> "What is this crap!? Hey, kid! Get down from there before you hurt your..."
"Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh SHIT!"Despite jumping sixty feet down, the little cave girl lands safely on the ground. We're operating on cutscene gravity, remember...
"Father?"
"You know-um father? Father is-um brave warrior. Leah lose-um father when Leah very little. Grandma say-um father went-um to sky. You come-um from sky, so Leah think-um you know-um father." "Uhh...kid. I don't think the sky your granny was talkin' about is the same one we came from... I think...more your pops probably is uhh..." "???" "Uhh...a little help here?"
"By the way... Where are we?" "Leah don't know-um either. Leah face-um land anger and end-um up here. Villagers not-um here. Only Leah and he come-um here." "I'm not gonna like who this 'he' is, am I...?"A huge roar comes from the distance...
"He pretty tough-um. Leah help-um if you fight-um him. Leah winning-um so far." "Sorry, kiddo. But we don't have time to babysit. Besides, the party is all filled up at the mo-" "What-um we wait for? Leah wanna fight-um!" <picks up and launches a boulder at a wall> "Holy shit! Uhh... Hey, Viper. You any good at stealing?" "Me? No. I wouldn't bring myself to that level. I thought that was this rogue's specialty." "Who ya callin' a damn rogue? Imma pirate. I ain't no dainty rogue!" "That's what I thought... Welp, have a fun walk back, General!" "But I...?"
So, here is our youngest party member: a ridiculously strong, axe wielding six year old time traveling cave girl. Sure, why not? You'll notice she is "temporarily" a party member. That just means we need to finish our business in Gaea's Naval before she permanently joins. Otherwise, she'll just leave the party when we depart.
Immediately north of where we begin is the heart of the island. At the moment, it is temporarily blocked by some magical energy field and Lynx doesn't feel like taking a swim around to circumvent it. Wet fur and leather? That's just asking for trouble.
So, the Green Dragon is, obviously, behind said barrier. Now, the method of lifting the force field is quite simple:
Purging the area of ALL life. Indeed, the game does not progress until every single living thing in Gaea's Navel is sent back to the stone age.
Gaea's Navel itself is just a big loop. Venturing straight east or west will eventually land the party back at the starting area with no results. Only murdering each and every thing the party comes across will satisfy the conditions to progress. Welp, time to put a few more extinction notches on Serge's belt.
Seeing as Gaea's Navel is basically Skull Island from King Kong, the usual staples are all present (minus the giant ape, unfortunately):
You've got Pterodactyls doing...nothing really special but looking kind of silly and flapping their wings.
Crazy giant insects that poison their victims with deadly venom from its stingers (hope you brought some poison antidotes!)
And dancing primitive tribesman that rock out to wild jungle beats that cause confusion.
And all must die violently to satisfy the whims of the dungeon master. Our little hyper violent cave kindergartner friend will be more than happy to lend a hand in securing humanities dominance in the region. Gotta get them on board with subjugating lesser species at an early age, after all.
Upon causing the secondary extinction of several prehistoric creatures, a stifling silence overtakes the initial area of the world's bellybutton.
"This should be rich..."
Out stomps a rather sad looking fantasy T-Rex. I've got to say, dinosaurs are a bit less impressive in a world that has dragons running around regularly.
As it turns out, Leah's nemesis is a baby Tyrano from back in Chrono Trigger. It is a far cry from the big ass fire breathing big daddy creature that was stomping about during the fall of the Reptites back in the first game. Indeed, it's a pretty piss easy challenge.
For the most part, it just sticks to doing one or two physical tail-whips or headbutts for a whole 30-40 HP of damage per strike.
After taking a bit of a beating, it may attempt to take a chomp out of one of the party members for a good 150+ HP of damage. But, that's basically the only remotely damaging move in its arsenal.
The dino only has a weaksauce 1600 HP to its name. Couple that with the fact the newly acquired Mastermune does in the ballpark of 350-400 damage per heavy strike and a
Following the slaying of the last dinosaur, a roar followed by a crash comes from the north. Leah rushes off to go check out what is up and the rest of the party chases after her.
Music: Garden of the Gods
"Yeesh... And I thought the Water Dragon was the ugly one of the group..."
The Green Dragon gets annoyed with the party barging in disturbing its nap on its comfy vegetation mattress.
"Hey. Sorry for waking you up. We're here to like...fight and stuff for the relic dealie you're carrying. I woulda figured one of your brothers or sisters would have sent a letter or something. I mean you're like second to last. I thought word woulda gotten around by now..."
"Hmm? I see... Thou seeketh relics? Come hither..." "Uhh...sure thing... So, how are we gonna do th-" "And now for lunch." "Well, that's just rude. No wonder nobody sent you a telegram that I was gonna kick your shit in. And...what the hell is that smell?! Ugh..."
Alrighty, then. Time for the penultimate dragon battle: The Green Dragon. Really, the most difficult part of this dragon was just going through the trouble of getting to the damned thing. The actual fight is no real sweat. Just kind of annoying.
The Green Dragon is one of those dickish bosses that just loves status effects and messing with the field effect constantly. It's rather obsessive with turning the whole field green (and will do so frequently.) So, the first order of business when it casts GreenField is to immediately use a non-Green element to disrupt the set-up.
Alternatively, you can just cast a few Carnivore traps and stock-up on some of the high end Green element.
The nature dragon will always follow-up with the Carnivore element if the field is left unattended at full Green. Carnivore is a pretty heavy hitting attack that pounds the entire party for a good 200+ damage and has a good chance of causing Poisoning. So, unless you're trapping it, it's best to nip that in the bud straight away.
In addition to that, Green Dragon also steals a page from its equally ugly bright green cousin, the Marboros, and has a multiple status ailment afflicting attack. The effects are randomized instead of just whacking the party with everything but the kitchen sink. But, it can still be annoying of someone is hit with blinding or confusion.
Other than that, it's a pretty straight forward battle. Yellow elements absolutely wreck its day (making Leah quite useful for this battle.) In addition, Lynx's Mastermune feels practically like cheating since it does nearly 400 HP of damage with each heavy strike.
Just don't get overzealous mercilessly pounding the thing into submission and forget the Green Plate. Wouldn't want to break up the set, now would we?
But hey, anything to make this collect-o-thon hurry up a bit is OK in my book. And, we're now up to a nice solid 35 Stars. The 35th star unlocks Lynx's (and several others' as well) Level 7 Tech which is...pretty silly. But, you'll have to wait for another day to see that.
The Green Dragon also hands over Robin Williams to aid us in battles. Uhh...I guess that is nice of it...
"What...? That's it? Just 'impressive' and you're leaving? Not even a 'get out'? Man, you guys are really phoning this stuff in."
The Green Dragon gives us some manner of emerald plant. That...actually kind of makes sense, I suppose.
"Like all the friggin' time lately. It's getting ridiculous! That was like the fifth dragon this week." "Looks-um fun. Leah decide-um. Leah come-um with you! OK, Serge?" "Well, I guess it would be irresponsible to leave a little girl in some land before time Jurassic park world of tomorrow...even if you could like rip that painter kid or that baby dragon thing in half... Sure, come on kiddo." "Also, Leah need decide-um something. Leah decide-um right, Leah return-um to village." "Whatever you say-um, space cadet." "Oooga-Booga!!! Let's go-um!!!"
And so we're down to the final three party members left unattained. One of them is the kung fu waitress Orlha. One we've already spoken with in the past, but not for some time. And the third one we've never seen and is bar none the stupidest fucking character in this game. Yes, even counting Poshul (Poshul still wins for stupidest accent though.)
But, that too is a story for another day.
And so we ride on the wings of the terrifying dragonfly monster and leave behind that
Leah's Rock Throw and Tailspin
Leah Official Art - How did prehistoric cave women have salon fresh hair? Tonight on the History Channel
Gaea's Navel Artwork
Chronomantique
Navel of the World