Chrono Trigger Part #52 - Update Forty Nine: The Rainbow Shell Part One

Part 52: Update Forty Nine: The Rainbow Shell Part One

Update Forty Nine: The Rainbow Shell Part One

Howdy, folks, and welcome back! Last time, on Chrono Trigger, we got ourselves a fully powered Sun Stone, some sweet shades, and Lucca's ultimate weapon. Today, we're going to start a sidequest with some incredibly nice rewards, so let's bounce.

We left off in front of Lucca's pad the last time, which is good. Chrono should probably see his mom.

Apparently nobody around finds it odd that we're cruising around in a winged time machine. Thankfully.

Chrono's Mom thinks Marle is hot.

And she probably should recognize the princess, but she doesn't.

Chrono's Mom has a reaction to each new party member. I should probably show all of these off.

I can't quite tell if this is a bold-faced lie or not.

Interestingly enough, we never hear anything about Chrono's dad. As far as I know, there's literally zero information about the man.

The Black Omen is pretty popular amongst the people, but you'd think they'd have a bit more of a non-spooky name.

Then again, I guess if you've lived your entire life with something having been named like that, maybe it loses some of its impact.

Speaking of the Black Omen, we'll cruise by it getting to our next destination. We've gotta hit Choras real quick-like.

To this grave. We've something to do here now.

If you'll recall, Toma gave us some booze to pour over his grave. I don't know if he intended it to be three hundred and sixty-six years after he died, but there's only so much we can do, travel-wise.

Chrono pours the spirits over the grave...

...And Toma's dead ass pops up.

Also, Toma apparently has this idea that we're all great friends, despite us seeing him less than a half-dozen times and loaning him money for booze. Well, that last part is probably why he likes us so much, come to think of it.

Must be that there object of legend Gaspar was babbling about.

Not in this time, though. He located it in 600 AD, and apparently knows we can bend time to our will.

Droves is a bit of an overstatement, Toma. Besides, with some of the shit I scored from the Arena trying to get Speed Tabs, I'm not worried in the least. Today, I picked up some Zodiac Capes (armor for the ladies that boosts Magic Defense), another couple sets of Moonbeam Armor, a Wrath Band (the upgrade to the Frenzy Band, offering an 80% counter rate), another Gold Stud, three Golden Earrings, a Magic Crest (five to Magic and Magic Defense), a Haste Helm, another Power Ring, and some other stuff I'm forgetting.

Chrono currently has the Wrath Band and the Haste Helm, and he's pretty well lapping the girls for turns (Marle has the Speed Ring, to give her 11 Speed, while Lucca has 12 Speed); Lucca and Marle both have Zodiac Capes, and Lucca has the Guardian Helm, which has Auto-Protect.

In short, I could probably go and beat the game fairly easily, but we've still got shit to do.

Yeah, thanks, Toma. You're getting me one of the best weapons in the game; we can be super-duper BFFs after this.

This area doesn't exist in 1,000 AD. Which I find slightly odd.

As far as the sidequests go, the Rainbow Shell one is one of the best, in terms of stuff that happens, location, and the rewards you get.

Spoiler: we won't encounter those holes in this update. But if we had, they just take you back to the start.

Which I'm not interested in doing.

Oh, yeah, by the way, we're in the Tyranno Lair. Who saw this one coming?

You can have any character sit on Azala's old throne and they'll laugh their asses off about it.

I've shots of everyone doing it, even if I'm not posting them here.

If you really want the shot/.gif of it, let me know and I'll work it up for you.

And here's a candid shot of me moving too far forward with Frog in the party and triggering the next bit of dialog.

Don't forget, the last time we saw this place, it wasn't being buried underground.

It was being blown the fuck up.

But, hey, RPG logic; if Lucca says it was buried by Lavos, it was buried by Lavos. She's a scientist and shit.

Ooh, treasure! There's a lot of it here and most of it's pretty good.

There's also a lot of new enemies to fight.

The fat dinosaur is the Aecytosaur, and he's got 2,250 HP. The smaller guys, the Aecytonyx, only have 800.

Like most dinosaurs, they have good defense until they get their tits shocked off.

By the way, Chrono is countering fucking everything around him. 80% is a hell of a rate, and this adds a ton of extra attacks to fights.

However, these guys have apparently learned how to get electrocuted.

By throwing that shit straight back at you.

Man, that stings.

Marle's new bow has a pretty cool animation with it, too.

And these little guys can throw bolts of lightning at people. Sticking their crotch in your face is probably just the dino equivalent of the finger.

The Wondershot blows things the hell up with its shots.

This damage can vary wildly; sometimes it'll do as low as 60, but I saw a couple of hits for around 1600 when recording.

That chest is another Clarity Cap. I don't think I equip it on anyone.

There's other spots to explore. Let's do that instead.

Moving along, we encounter these peckerheads.

However, Lightning is not the answer you're looking for with these guys.

Just to fuck with you, these guys absorb that shit. Rotten sons of bitches.

And they counter attacks with a weak attack that can inflict Confuse.

But the damage is pretty well negligible, and Confuse is more annoying than threatening.

A good way to deal with these guys is to blow them back to hell.

You might recall some similar rooms from the Tyranno Lair of Prehistory.

You might also recall that we could open this skull by directly interacting with it.

But the button in here does nothing this time around. Y'know, every time I play this game, I remember this area and wonder if the chests will remain closed if you don't open them in Prehistory. I always forget by the time I get there. Can anyone reading share some insight on that?

To keep moving forward, we've gotta mess with the switches.

One of them drops these guys, who are huge pains in the ass.

With 1800 HP, it'll take you a minute to drop them.

But if you attack them from far enough away, they can't counterattack, which is cool.

Their counter is this throw attack, and it's far better now than when we saw it before.

Seriously. 200 damage is nothing to sneeze at, since max health is 999.

This is a bit of a rarity for the Suzaku; it only has a 7% critical rate. For contrast, the Swallow had 30%.

However, four times damage on a critical instead of double is fucking sweeeeeet.

Alright, third time's the charm.

This kitty is falling from the ceiling.

Don't hate me, kitty! I know not what I do!

Kitty! No!

The kitty is nowhere to be found, but there are more switches.

The right switch summons three of these jerks into the room. A quick Luminaire sends them back to the Stone Age.

This button does nothing, either, but there is a reason to come in here.

I'll never turn down a Strength Capsule.

There's a few of these things scattered about here. I'm sure I didn't get them all.

Like I said, most of the treasure is great. Not all of it, but this is still good.

The thing about the Giant's Claw is that it looks like a massive, sprawling area, but it really isn't. It's fairly linear, and there aren't a ton of sidepaths to explore. It's big, but not in a way that turns it into an unfun slog.

These two pop up when you round this corner. They manage to kill Marle by throwing Lucca into her three times in a row.

This is another accessory that unlocks a Triple Tech. I'll get around to showing those off sooner or later, I promise.

Y'know, thinking about it now, I don't think I climbed that ladder.

Oh, well. I got the important shit out of here.

I now have more Zodiac Capes than people who can wear them. The Arena of the Ages can hilariously break the game if you're willing to put the time and cash into it.

One of the enemies down here drops these. And there's some who drop Barrier and Shield Spheres, too.

So now we're in what was the main entrance of the Tyranno Lair.

Outta my way, fuckasses. I've got an update to finish.

We can't open this skull from this side.

But we will be getting over there soon enough.

The button there, functioning as it did sixty-five million years ago, would have dropped that ape into the inky blackness.

Moving on, we find a pair of Rubbles in this room.

Just as they were on Mt. Woe, they still give out 1000 EXP and 100 TP.

There's two chests in this room; this right room drops you through the floor, while the left has a Hi-Potion.

We do need to come through here to finish up this place, but there's one treasure left to snag.

I think I have five or six of these sitting in my inventory. I should really give them to somebody soon.

Going back there, I head the wrong way to begin with, but I get to show off Antipode III. (M¬Lv + M¬Mag + L¬Lv + L¬Mag) × 14.7 for damage, and it's Shadow element. As you can see in that .gif, it deals a fuckload of damage.

I drop that ape like he's hot, as I don't feel like dealing with his shit.

Usually this is where you get this bitchin' accessory, but now I have two of them. I think Ayla will get the second one, as she's our next best physical attacker.

Now, back to this room, as we're about to finish up here.

We need to head down to where Kino was being kept prisoner.

However, Kino's cell has a new path in it, and there's a save point here.

I wonder what that means!

Hmm, this is suspiciously empty...

If you'll excuse me, just gonna squeeze by you, not bother you a bit--

Oh, you fuckin' dink.

To see the fight in motion, click me!

Meet the Rust Tyranno, the Black Tyranno's badass older brother.

He doesn't fuck around in this fight, starting immediately with the countdown to Tyranno Fire, which will hurt like a mad bastard if we're hit by it.

The roar is counterable, so the dino screams at us, and Chrono does the equivalent of hitting your dog in the nose with a rolled up newspaper.

This son of a bitch has 25,000 HP, and no easily exploitable weaknesses.

However, we've got super powerful attacks to fight with.

Keep in mind, Lucca's Magic isn't being boosted at all. This is just natural Lucca. Too bad I didn't give her the Sunglasses, but if I had done that, she wouldn't be casting Flare for 5 MP.