Part 22: Update Twenty One: I'm Burnin' For You

Update Twenty One: I'm Burnin' For You

Welcome back, folks! Last time, on Chrono Trigger, we killed a scary skeleton monster, and learned a bit more about the legendary Hero that's recently shown up; we also learned he's climbing the nearby mountain to claim the Masamune to defeat the evil Magus, so we're going to follow him and see if we can lend a hand, so let's bounce.



As per the voting, Robo and Lucca are coming along. As per my preference at the moment, we now have a nice wood finish for our menus.



Before we go too far, let's visit this Cursed Woods that are nearby. There've been rumors of a frog man living here.



Man, where's Quina when you need her?



We'll be snagging a lot of treasure this update, too, and some of it is pretty fantastic.



If you run into one of the frogs here, these two snakes pop out.



These two enemies are normally the only enemies you'll see here, and I find every encounter with them a pain in the ass. Not for any specific reason, mind you, just that they're annoying.





Edible Frogs have 150 HP, with high Defense, but no Magic Defense. Literally. It's a big fat 0. They're not weak to anything, either.



And they also counter attacks with this rain, which does piddly damage.



As shown.



It's nice having Robo back, since he's got an all enemy attack, which our other characters lack.



It may not do a ton of damage, but it's a good amount for all enemies.



Fangtooth enemies have 210 HP and a counter that doesn't affect you.



Well, it does, but not in that it hurts you or inflicts a status ailment.



What they do is devour one of these frogs and steal their HP. It can be annoying, but at the same time, it'll usually ice the frog, so I'm cool with it.



Other than that, there isn't much worth mentioning about them.





When I can get a clear .gif of it, I'll show Robo's crit animation, but for now, take a look at it. He crits by crushing your spine into the ground.



Since these two haven't been together for a while, they finally learn another Double Tech, and it does exactly what you think it does.



And here's a group of poor schmucks to test it out on.







Here's an attack from the Edible Frog that isn't their counter.







Nothing in these woods is particularly threatening.





Which is why I skipped this last encounter.



And we come down into this humble abode. Let's rob whoever lives here.



I might eventually put this on Marle, if I remember.



Now to get that other chest...



Uh-oh. The resident is home.







Oh God, yes, Frog, please hang out with me again.



Yeah, but he'll be okay. Leene is keeping an eye on him.





Hey, bud, don't take it so hard. It wasn't your fault.



But, Frog...







Let's leave him alone. There's nothing we can do for him.



To brighten us back up, we meet this rare enemy. If you'll recall, the old man in the Keeper's Dome had one of these guys hanging out.





That's a Nu, and they're pretty famous among Chrono Trigger fans.



When in a fight with one, I recommend taking out all other enemies first. It'll make it far easier on you.





This is a big part of why you want to get him alone before wailing on him.



They have two attacks; this one reduces your HP to 1 from wherever it is. The other deals just a single point of damage.







I got lucky in that he tried taking Robo's HP to one, dealing 0 damage to him. Sure, it's trivial to revive someone, but I still want to do it as little as possible.



A Nu has 1,234 HP, so it'll take a little bit to take them out.



But Fire Punch helps out a lot, dealing nearly 350 damage a pop.



We get a fair chunk of exp for the fight, but that's not why you should fight them as soon as you can.



A single Nu will drop 30 TP, which is a huuuuge amount.



Chrono and Lucca also gained levels from the fight.



Alright, let's get out of here. We've got a mountain to climb.





There's quite a few new enemies here and one gimmick that makes it a very, very good idea to take Lucca along.



Which you assholes tried to keep me from doing. I'm watching all of you motherfuckers from now on.



It is the music from the sewers; I didn't post the wrong link.





In this first section, if you run into one of the birds, they fly back, ringing their bells.



Which awakens the two sleeping Ogans.



Ogans, while they look tough and scary, are far from it.





They have literally zero defense in both regards, and 146 HP.



As for the Bellbird, they have 94 HP, and can potentially confuse a character.



No reason for this shot, other than it's a robot punching a bird.





Alright, let's scoot on up. I'd like to be done here before lunch.







Dunno who the hell that is, but they're booking ass out of here.



From an Ogan, of all things. Hey, kid, you could probably just poke it with a pillow and kill it.





How the hell did you get up there?



Yeah, sure, whatever, kid.





Here's the gimmick enemy of the mountain.







When an Ogan has that hammer, they become bad motherfuckers, with 240 Defense and 75 Magic Defense. We can't do much to them in this form.



However, a liberal application of fire solves this problem, much like any other problems.



As it burns their hammer and they throw it away.



Making them regular Ogans again.

This is why I wanted Lucca. Without her, these guys are a pain in the ass to fight, and you won't be doing much more than 30 damage to them, and they have 146. No other attacks will take care of their hammers, either, and they have a ton of power behind their hammer attacks, plus a full-party strike.









We can swing to the left there to snag that treasure chest we spied in the last screen.



It's something else to throw in the pile.



We can walk up and poke this Ogan, but he's not getting up.



He flinches, though, so I think we're poking him in the eye.



Hey, who's this jerk?



Oh, you fuckin' dick.



Meet the Freelancer, an enemy who exists pretty much to be irritating. They're not particularly tough, with 110 HP, but they're kind of quick. They also tend to join a lot of enemies in battle, as well as start a few encounters.





Chrono or Robo can one-shot them, and I recommend taking them out first. They also have a knockoff version of Chrono's Cyclone, but I rarely see it.





And there's a shot of the Ogan throwing the flaming hammer away.



Which leads to Robo breaking his skull from behind.



There's a lot of treasure on this mountain, and most of it are consumables. But there are some pretty damned good accessories around, too.







There's a lot of climbing here.



And a lot of Ogans, hammer-wielding and otherwise.





Just for completion's sake, I decided to show off how ineffective Chrono's spells are against it.



When fighting hammer guys, light them on fire, then beat them to death. It's a gigantic, unfun pain in the ass otherwise.



This area is also scenic and pretty.



I see you hiding over there, hammer guy.



If you're speeding through, you may not notice that guy and he'll catch you.





Also, as long as it makes fire, it'll destroy their hammer. Flamethrower is used a lot in this update.



Their hammer strikes hurt; prolonged battles with them can be dangerous.









I see you hiding there, too.



Freelancers are big on ambush tactics, which doesn't mean much in a turn based RPG where they can't get the drop on you.



Case in point.





There's Charlie in the trees!







These are pretty good MP restoratives right now, giving back 30 MP, which is pretty close to the max for any of our party members.





If you'd missed the one from the Commander (since I think you can just run off down the bridge without talking to him), there's a Golden Helm here.



Robo joins Chrono in pimp helmetdom.



Seriously, these guys are goddamned everywhere.





And these dicks!





After clearing those two out, you can run down here for another chest.



A 200 HP restore is nice, since it's most of anyone's HP.





Look at the pretty rainbow.





There's a Freelancer across the way who is an asshole.



As he's now throwing stuff at you.



And he always aims for the crotch.



Run, Chrono, before you can't reproduce! Run!







As soon as you get up this ladder, a Freelancer appears in front of you.



Sacre bleu, his buddy sneaks up from behind!



They have a counter for attacks that don't kill them. Lucca is the only one currently around that will trigger it.



The Freelancer finally uses that sword that they carry around.



The damage dealt isn't too bad, either, but nothing to be scared of.





From that fight, Chrono and Lucca learn their next Techs, both of which are pretty good stuff.



We also pick up another Double Tech for Chrono and Robo.



And Chrono and Lucca get another one between them.



And we find $600!



That was a good screen to go through.



Can you see the Ogan in this shot?



They'll wish they hadn't come out. Well, one of them, at least; we're about to demo Cleave.



Cleave's damage formula is just straight up double damage of Chrono's regular attack.







This area here is a series of battles, which I don't mind at all. It's practically effortless experience!



Fire Sword is pretty fucking awesome.







That guide, by the way, is where I"m getting all the numbers for these formulae I've been posting. I can't thank those two enough for doing the guide, since it makes me look like a more competent LP'er. I doubt they're reading this, but I wanted to be sure I was giving credit where credit is due.



The next battle is against two Ogan.



I feel this shot of Lucca throwing fire into that Ogan's crotch sums up all my encounters with them fairly well.



But before we can go, we've another fight.





Oh, yeah, it's time for Cyclone Sweep.



There are some Techs in this game that have weird targeting, in that they target an area around the character. The character using one of these Techs (or characters, if it's a Double Tech), won't move to affect the range, so if the enemies aren't in the right place, you won't be able to use the Tech.



The formula for Cyclone Sweep is Crono's Atk × 8. However, it's not badass purely because of that; a good chunk of the badassery comes from the fact the robot is swinging the guy around to kill everything around them.



Gasp! Another Freelancer attack!



This seems like it'd be really effective, since it's a fucking shuriken to the face.



But, eh...



Chrono doesn't appreciate minor annoyances.



Let's move on, shall we? Also, I have no idea where the hell Lucca got off to.



There's a lot of money on this mountain.







A lot of fights go pretty much the same around here. As always, take out Freelancers first, since they can be a pain.





You can skip going over here, but you also miss some damned good treasure.



You throw yourself off of the waterfall, much like Kratos would.



But Kratos never had to wonder if a robot was going to land and crush him upon landing.



We find a bit of jewelry in this chest, and it is great stuff.



That's right; Lucca's magic now costs half what it usually does. This thing is friggin' awesome. It's a bit of a hit to her Magic power, but I think it equals out since I can throw around more spells.



And then down here, there's another treasure.



Everyone busts a pose when they land. Robo has to cool off after such antics.



And Lucca looks like she's about to fall the hell over.





Robo is going through a rebellious phase and decides to get an earring. Not only does it make him look cooler, but it also makes him tougher. Awwwwww yeah.



Over here, I didn't find anything, but that doesn't mean there isn't anything. I'm pretty sure there was a new weapon for Robo around here somewhere...





Despite it looking like we jumped down the entire mountain, we're only back about fifteen feet.



And we have to fight these guys again.



But that's okay; it gives me a chance to make someone's morning.





Napalm deals damage based on (Lv + Mag) × 5 and can hit multiple enemies. That Bellbird was going to be dust in the wind, but it flew out of range.





Over here, we see a Freelancer practicing with his sword.



Oh, uh, my bad. Sorry.



I don't know if he realizes we're the ones he wants to ambush.





Oh, man, he still got us! Those clever Freelancers!











There's still a bunch of Techs to learn, but we're moving along nicely. Chrono will get a Tech that hits all enemies, which I can definitely get behind.



This Tech is fucking fantastic and I love it to no end, as it makes Robo a damn competent healer for the team, in addition to tank and deathpuncher.



...Goddammit, Lucca...





Bellbirds!?



Robo Tackle deals a bunch of damage, with the formula of: (Lv + Pwr) × 9.5. It also opens up a Double Tech we'll see next update.



You may think that's Spekkio, but it isn't. The thing about Spekkio to remember is that he looks as strong as you are (i.e., his appearance changes based on your level), so we'll see him in a few different guises throughout the game. This is just a regular, but friendly, enemy.



Yeah, they are.



It is pretty great.



A lot of fresh air up here, man.



Remember, people at home; if you want free stuff, just bug a stranger until they give you something.



Lucca gets this, as her fire isn't strong enough.

Her fire will never be strong enough for me.



Heading to the next screen, we come to this save point.



Since this update is pretty long, I think we'll stop here for now.



But, stay tuned, as we'll finish off the Denadoro Mountains next update!