Part 6: Update Six: X-Strike
Update Six: X-StrikeHowdy, folks, and welcome back! Last time on Chrono Trigger, we entered the Manolia Cathedral, met Frog (
) and began our exploration. Today, we're going to finish out the first dungeon, so let's bounce.
There's a door straight in front of us.
With the obstacle in this room, we're not going to be going any further. These two Underlings (named "Henches" in the SNES translation, which I think is a much better name) will have to wait to die.
To the left is a Shelter, which is handy. There's a staircase, too, so let's--
whoaholycrap
This Underling is just snoozing along, apparently not noticing our falling for the trap.
We could have just let him sleep, but he has exp to give us.
Sneaking past you? I'm pretty sure I ran up to you and jabbed the shit out of your ribs with a finger, wondering if you were really asleep.
You should have called for backup, bud.
FUCK BATS
There's a skull switch here, and since I can see the spikes and I remember what the last switch did, perhaps we can now get through that little room.
FUCK MORE BATS
Mad Bats have 18 HP, with no weaknesses, and their only attack is a Blood Drain, which will restore their HP.
Techs and Double Techs are pretty powerful, and tend to be fairly cheap on the MP costs, so there's no real point not to use them all the time. It's easy to restore MP, as Ethers aren't all that rare (and can be bought fairly cheaply, too), so expect to see me use plenty of them in regular fights.
North leads us to this hallway and two treasure chests. Despite the indent in the wall, there's no real use for it. It almost looks like a way to dodge a rolling boulder, but Indiana Jones has apparently already triggered that.
The other chest holds a Potion.
Yeah, like this is going to stop us; we're RPG heroes, so we're going to go exactly where the enemy doesn't want us to, and the solution to get there will only stump those who aren't affected by Plot.
Underlings sometimes roll around; you can dodge around them to avoid the fight, if you'd like.
When this fight is triggered, another Underling rolls in, while the first one springs into the air to make a stylish pose before his demise. Seriously, look at the sprite-work there; the developers did a ton of little details like that, for enemies we won't see much longer. There is so much love and time put into this game, it's incredible. Animations are so smooth and well done, the monsters all look great, the music is fantastic--Chrono Trigger is hailed as one of the best RPGs of all time for a very good reason.
After cleaning those three up, we've looped around and are almost back where we started.
Another skull switch and another battle.
This one is the one that lowers the spikes in that other room.
Look at that fucker grind on that rail!
This time when we enter, a pair of Diablos join the battle.
Frog learned Slurp Slash last update and it's got a great animation.
It's like he's an actual frog, instead of just a character who happens to be a frog.
A detail I can't recall if I mentioned or not, but the color of Chrono's slashes change depending on the color of his blade.
After this fight, Chrono learns his first elemental Tech, Wind Slash. It's Light elemental. You'll see it in a minute.
Frog's weapon upgrade isn't supremely impressive, but more Attack is more Attack; I'll never turn that down.
http://tindeck.com/listen/qnygp
If you'll recall how we initially entered the cathedral, the puzzle here is simple.
Viola! There's now a door here.
There's also little details like this spread through the game; how many people would have thought to check that note after opening the door?
Dodging past these two Underlings may seem opposite of what I usually do.
However, when you run into these Nagas, then the two Underlings join the fight and I save a bit of time.
After this fight, Lucca learns her second Tech, Hypnowave. It puts enemies to sleep, and other than showing it off to .gif it, I highly doubt I'll ever use it again.
Just ahead of that fight is these two, which will provide convenient opportunities for me to show off our new Techs.
It's the mad scientist laugh at the end that does it for Silver_Falcon with this Tech. I'm forced to agree.
We use a Shelter, Save, and we're ready to fight the first boss of Chrono Trigger.
We seem to have arrived just in time.
The Chancellor!?
...No, wait, we already knew that.
Damn, she really is the spitting image of Marle. Or Nadia. Or whatever the fuck her name is.
"I'd hate to see your dress spattered in viscera, My Lady!"
She goes to stand by the door, presumably, and settles in to watch the "Chancellor" get fucked five ways from Friday.
Jesus Christ, the Telepod became sentient and regicidal!
I'd have .gif'd the Chancellor spinning around with the electricity and transforming into a monster, but it ended up too big.
When I was younger, I thought those horns of his were some sort of creepy bug eyes.
So, Yakra: 920 HP, no weaknesses, and the first boss of the game. He's nothing to write home about, but if you're not careful, he does have some ability to wreck your shit. If you'd like to see a video of this fight, click here. That goes back to when we entered the room, by the by.
As you saw in the last shot, I already had X-Strike highlighted. It's one of the easiest ways to win this fight, by just beating the shit out of him with this over and over again. Hell, I don't think I've ever fought him any other way, or heard anyone else propose an alternate strategy.
That 920 HP sounds like a lot, but when we're doing nearly 200 a shot with X-Strike, it won't last very long.
Lucca's Attack is too low for her to make good use of regular attacks, and Hypnowave won't work here (as far as I know), so Flamethrower is a good option for her. She's also useful to throw a Potion or two if you need it.
Yakra's regular attack is to try and gnaw your crotch off. It does respectable damage, but is far from his strongest attack.
That was a regular attack from Lucca; Flamethrower did around 50.
When he shrieks in rage, you're about to see his full-party attack.
He hits every party member in turn (there's a bell noise associated with it that you can hear in the video). It doesn't deal a ton of damage, but this is one of the first instances of attacks that will hit the whole party.
I don't even want to know what those needles are made of.
But they fucking hurt. Chrono has a around 150 HP max, so an attack that can deal 1/3rd of that is kind of scary.
Lucca throws him a Potion, just in case that attack comes by again. You're never in any true danger in this fight, but Yakra can still take down one of your people if you're not careful.
Just one of Yakra's animations for when nothing is happening. It looked cool, so I thought I'd show it.
He's finished with X-Strike, and when bosses die, they do the same sort of inverted freakout Chrono did when he was first warping through time.
We also get $600 from him, but no TP.
Edit:
Bregor posted:
One small thing though, Yakra does give 5 TP, you've just learned all the techs you can at this point.
As it turns out, I was wrong about that. The game doesn't display when you've gained TP when all of your Techs, to that point, have been learned. Thanks for letting me know, Bregor. I'd give you a high-five or something, but I don't think those are cool anymore.
Are Chrono and Lucca chopped liver or something?
We've also got to go and check to see if Marle was saved or not.
It was our pleasure, Frog.
If saving the Queen doesn't get you a spot on the VIP list, I don't know what would.
Leene walks off, but there's treasure to be had here. Mid-Ethers restore 30 MP.
Why would Yakra keep the old Chancellor alive? He'd already successfully impersonated him, so there's no reason for this man to remain among the living.
Yeah, she seems real concerned, Chancy.
And the Chancellor shoulder-checks the Queen in his race to get the hell out of here.
When we leave that room, we're automatically taken back to the Throne Room, which is kind of nice, but I'm sure there were more things I could have gotten exp from.
How the fuck is a stricter justice system going to prevent monsters being monsters? Unless you're proposing some sort of Medieval Ghostbusters-esque sort of group to go and exterminate any monsters they can find. Because if you are, sign me the fuck up right now.
You rescued her in the end, Frog. It's okay.
He seems pretty torn up. He's just flat-out ignoring Queen Leene.
The Chancellor just repeats his line about the criminal justice system, but the King and Queen have new dialog.
Let's not think about that, Majesty. Seriously. I'm sure Yakra had some sort of scheme to become the royal successor or something, or to even take your spot.
Ugh; I just imagined Yakra in a dress and now I think I've lost my train of thought. Who's this girl again?
I had a valid excuse, Lucca. You two went there not only to rescue the Queen but to specifically rescue Marle's ass from whatever time-snag she'd gotten caught in.
Wait a second, Chrono told you about her disappearing, but didn't mention they were in the Queen's bedchambers at the time?
MAAAAAAARLE
The knight doesn't have anything new to say, repeating his line about gossip, but I find it interesting these two maids aren't concerned there was an imposter in the Queen's spot. Then again, if Marle tried to deny she was Queen Leene, does that really make her an imposter?
When we enter, there are these little bits of light converging on where Marle disappeared. The fanfare plays when she reappears.
I think this is a fairly appropriate thing to say after being...Temporarily wiped from existence? Or set outside of time because your future was uncertain.
Marle doesn't give a shit about this new person; she's more than pleased to see the man who risked his life to come and save her.
It's okay now, Marle. You're back in the real world, and you're safe.
For your sake, I hope you never have to wonder about that again.
Lucca did; I don't think Chrono realized it until she explained it to him.
I'm pretty sure you actually did, since you lied about your name and all that.
.gif)
: I just wanted to go to the fair and have fun like everyone else! But if you'd known who I really was...
Shit, Marle, I'd have rocked around with the Princess.
By the by, look at the name of that song.
That's what I came here for.
In my haste to get the hell out of what looked like a bad situation, I didn't open this chest. I wasn't really missing anything not having it, but I try to leave no chest unopened.
And yet another new piece of dialog from this maid.
Downstairs, Queen Leene understands the error made.
...Marle, did you just tell them that--
Never mind, you did. You totally told those two to make sure they bump uglies.
Nice save there, Marle. Smooth.
I suppose the modern-day tomboy would be a bit different than the Middle Ages Queen in terms of refinement. Or something.
Well, you could give me half of what's in the royal coffers...
We already covered this, Chancy, but thanks for catching up with the rest of us.
Frog!
But you helped save her. If not for you, Yakra would have been a much deadlier foe.
Now, this next shot won't make it quite clear what is going on, but Frog is going to examine Marle and see just how similar to Queen Leene she is.
Looking at this out of context, you probably wouldn't be called out for assuming Frog hid behind Chrono to honk one of Marle's boobs.
Well, Frog, you were a hell of a guy. I don't think you failed the Queen, but maybe something else can convince you of that.
Shit like that is why I love Frog; even facing feelings of failure, that he couldn't protect the one person he pledged to defend, he won't skip the chance to make sure someone knows their own potential.
Yeah, they're pretty great.
Let's end on this note.
Next time, on Chrono Trigger, let's find out if we can make it back to the present day! Stay tuned!