Part 51: Update Forty Eight: The Sun Stone
Update Forty Eight: The Sun StoneHowdy folks, and welcome back to Chrono Trigger! Last time, we put Ozzie and Janus' other generals to their final rest. Today, we're going to do perhaps the most boring sidequest, but it leads to some great rewards down the line, so let's bounce.
But before we do anything drastic, we've got a stop to make.
Our party for this sidequest is Lucca, Ayla and Robo. I'm not sure why Lucca is in the lead, but I'm sure I had some arbitrary reason for doing so.
Hey, guys. Just got some--
Oh, right, we're still terrorists wanted for helping kidnap the princess or corrupt her or something.
Fleeeeeeee
Marle, you're up. For a minute.
This upcoming conversation will make more sense later on, with a different sidequest, but it'll pay off soon.
Yes, yes, the King likes people to be responsible. Very kingly of him.
Well, that's a sudden shift.
"Never mind I mentioned your dead mother out of nowhere. If you'll excuse me, I have a puppy to go kick."
"It is to be a Pomeranian."
Seeing the name similarity, now I wish there was a plot point where Azala had traveled forward in time and was Marle's mother.
Kheldarn, if you make sprite art of that, I'm closing the thread and not looking back.
You'd think he'd have some sort of people in place for an occasion like that.
Where are the adults in this situation!?
Where were you, Chancy!?
For fuck's sake, it might have been a good idea (just this one time, mind you) to have you around!
"I'll settle for a Dachshund at this point!"
Unfortunately, Marle, your time can wait. You got to hug Chrono and all.
Yeah, despite being terrorists two minutes ago, we're now good to run around the castle.
Step one in cheesing the next boss fight has been obtained.
These restore all MP to a character, if I hadn't mentioned it before. I think I have, but I'm not sure off-hand.
And these are a full HP and MP restore to the entire party. Fairly rare and something I'll probably never use, because what if I need it in that next boss fight, never mind that it's the final boss fight
And a quick trip to the past rounds out our pepperjack method.
Ayla has the Plate and Robo is wearing the Vest, while Lucca remains in Taban's Suit. Now we're going to the Future.
This island is in the southwest portion of the map; you can see it in the previous screenshot.
We've heard plenty about the Sun Stone and about how to revive it. But no mention of how to recover it.
To see this fight in motion, click on one of the ducks!
This is a gimmick fight, and the gimmick is a pain in the ass.
Well, usually it is. I got pretty damned lucky, though.
Alright, you might have noticed the many pillars of fire surrounding the giant eyeball.
This is a multi-part boss like some of the others we've encountered, but those parts are...Special.
As is the Son himself. See, we can't damage him directly.
For if we try and hit him, he counters with goddamned Flare. As in, Lucca's ultimate Tech.
I made sure I had that Plate and Vest, as I have the two characters with the most abysmal Magic Defense.
And that problem is solved; Lucca is only halving the damage, but her Magic Defense is good enough to where I probably didn't have to worry about halving Fire.
So, the gimmick of this fight is to attack the flames.
But not just any ol' flame.
No, we have to hit the right one, or eat a fiery counterattack.
Roulette Spin will switch this flame around and it's trial and error to finding which flame is the right one to attack.
But when you find the right one, you get a satisfying ding!
And the Son takes some damage.
That pretty much sums up this fight. He can also throw Flare out at will, but it doesn't happen often. More or less, he'll just sit there with his thumb in his ass.
Except for this attack. The Red Vest and Plate only go so far for Swissing this fight.
Assume I made a pun about colby jack here and move on to the end of the fight.
As that's what we're doing now. Seeing that message means you're just about done here.
Now, I'm not 100% sure on the mechanics of this fight, so if someone wants to chime in and be included in the update, knock yourself out.
We also get a buttload of TP and some cash.
He runs off, deeper into the Palace.
Stopping here, where he shines with glorious red light.
And he becomes a round, black stone. This is not the Sun Stone.
Lucca, dammit, read the commentary. This is not the Sun Stone!
Since the opposite of the Sun is the Moon, the stone has become that. I guess. Or maybe it's just a handy name. I don't know, I'm not a doctor.
We saw a few mentions of the Stone in Zeal, which kind of explains the architecture here. Not really important in the long run, but interesting to consider.
We can't find this place in any other time period. Just a little factoid to contemplate.
Since we need aeons to recharge the Sun Stone, we'll go back as far as we can.
To this area, the northeast portion of the map, where we'll find a common area in each time period.
Not sure how that works, but you're the scientist.
Is it weird that I assume scientists know everything?
Because I totally do. Ask one of the scientists I know; I'll ask them anything about everything.
I hope you like time travel; there's a lot of it in this sidequest.
Not that there isn't a lot in the game already, but this sidequest just has fuckin' tons of it.
Well, 1999 is out; if it's there, it can stay. But that leaves 1,000 and 600 AD, as well as 12,000 BC. It's not in Prehistory, since we just left there.
Let's work backward and go from there.
Or assume that I know exactly how this sidequest goes and that I'm just doing the steps.
I could sass Lucca some more, but I'll refrain.
I WONDER
So now, we'll cruise around until we find it.
All looks normal in Medina; I could have stopped there to visit the Square, but I forgot. I'm probably not very good at this LP thing.
Melchior, you might want to watch out for the Black Omen. I've a hunch that someone up there might have a grudge.
Well, there's the (former) Magic Cave, but it's sealed up now.
Well, now, if that's not a "Check Me!" sign, I don't know what is.
The Mayor of Porre, as we'll soon learn, is an asshole.
We could have visited here in the beginning of the game, but we didn't. I had interesting things to show off.
Jesus, this house is depressing. I think the place from House of 1000 Corpses had more love in it.
The Mayor here is a lying shithead.
Calm yourself, Lucca; Flaring this man and his family to oblivion won't solve anything. We'd definitely be terrorists then.
And now we'll see a line that makes me hurt on the inside.
Maybe robbing her family will shift her thoughts somewhere else.
Now, I don't remember exactly how you find out this information, and I find myself not particularly caring right now.
But we're going back in time to make sure the Mayor's ancestors know what an asshole their descendant turns out to be.
If worst comes to worst, we'll make sure there's a new Mayor down the line.
Remember when I bought this before? For 9,900g? There was a purpose to that.
Now, I could sell it to this lady and make 100g and show her that people are shitheels, or I could just plain ol' give it to her, showing that there is still some human decency and kindness. And that sharing is great.
Which we do, and now she thinks generosity is the greatest thing since the Fiendlord and his army fucked right off.
Still shining around here, and now there's a better reason to visit.
Not just finding out that we improved these kids' lives.
It's mostly so that we can get the Moon Stone back. And we never find out who just left it here, or why. I'm sure there's a valid theory out there, but nothing definitive.
Are you ready for the best line of the update? Because it's just ahead. Next screenshot, actually.
Now let's drop this rock off and get it powered up.
Back to the future. Goddamn, I'm tired of time traveling this update.
But not tired of sweet-ass Epoch shots.
In the Sun Shrine, the Stone is fully powered up and glowing like a reactor.
We're automatically taken to Lucca's House for our rewards.
I'm not sure how she's doing this, or why Robo isn't helping. You'd think he'd want to be involved for something like that.
This only raises further questions for me.
We get a little light show of the Sun Stone being fitted into a vacuum cartridge. I hope nobody is upstairs. Or at least that Lara got moved out of that room. She's already paralyzed; I'm sure she doesn't need to be blasted by a laser.
And now we have Lucca's ultimate weapon!
However, Lucca isn't the only one having Sun Stone fun!
As Taban went and made some sweet-ass shades for us.
This is another thing I'm not exactly sure of the mechanics on. However, it is fitting that one of the game's ultimate weapons depends on time for damage.
The Sunglasses, in addition to giving you sweet mental images of the character they're equipped on, give a straight +25% damage boost. I love these things, since more damage is never a bad thing.
And that does it for this update! Stay tuned for next time, where we do another sidequest! BOLD a vote for where we go, and who we take! You have until Thursday, 7:00 PM, EST, to make your vote!
SIdequests
There's an object of legend in the Middle Ages, and lingering even in the present...
"A task to be done in the future" requires Robo.
For the "forest being brought back to life" Robo and Lucca are part of it, but don't need to be part of the party to go through the dungeon.
Finished Sidequests