Chrono Cross Part #87 - Episode LXXX (Part 1): The Darkness Beyond Time

Part 87: Episode LXXX (Part 1): The Darkness Beyond Time

Welcome to the Darkness Beyond Time. This is basically the septic tank where dead timelines end up after being flushed down the temporal toilet. The place is a swirling vortex with small glimpses of dead eras floating past on their way down the drain.

This is also home to Lavos ever since it got its shit ruined by the events in Chrono Trigger. Apparently, it had been working out and lost a few thousand pounds between games. Good for it.

Of course, Lavos grew a mustache, bought a sports car, and hooked up with a blonde a fraction of his age. It also started calling itself The ~~Devourer of Time~~ Time Devourer. What, cosmic parasites can have a mid-life crisis.

Schala too has gotten a blonde dye job and bought a far more conservative night gown in the 12,000 years since we last saw her. Sure, why not...? Consistency? Who needs it!

So, time to battle the final boss of Chrono Cross. It is...honestly much easier than the previous dragon based Time Devourer. It even has 5,000 less HP than its predecessor.

They put even less effort into making this boss unique than the fused dragon god. It literally has no unique techs or magic whatsoever. They just gave it access to all the mid-to-high level offensive elements and called it a day.

Now, you may have noticed those orbs on the top of the screen next to the field effect. Those are a result of the having Serge equipped with the Chrono Cross. Each different element has its own tone that rings out thanks to the mysterious seventh element. So...guess how you use THE PATTERN...?

The thing is...that last massive clusterfuck of an info dump was the first time the game told you that you'd have to use THE PATTERN for anything. Sure, I've pointed it out several times. But, that's just because I knew it was coming. While playing normally it is very, very, very easy to overlook. Doubly so because Terra Tower was the final point THE PATTERN appears and you're not told "dude, you should look out for this special pattern" until AFTER you've already finished it. So...if you didn't catch it there then whoops! ...You're fucked.

This is not good game design... Not at all...

Then again...when is music based gameplay suddenly incorporated out of fucking nowhere at the very end EVER a good design decision...?

So, the vast majority of people will just pound the shit out of the Lavos-Schala hybrid into submission their first time through. Since....well, you just straight up killed every other enemy in the game and things worked out just swimmingly all of those times...right...?

Upon its defeat, the Time Devourer will violently convulse and erupt with beams of energy. The orb crystal thing holding Schala seems to make an attempt to break away but...no dice.