Part 74: Update Seventy: Dream's Epilogue
Update Seventy: Dream's EpilogueHowdy, folks, and welcome back to Chrono Trigger! Last time, we completed the last Dimensional Vortex. Today, we're going to fight the bonus boss and see the bonus ending, so let's bounce.
To get this ending rolling, we activate it from the End of Time.
As soon as we enter, Gaspar is yelling at us. Relax, bro, we're coming.
Funny that you mention that...
When I first read this line, I thought Janus was straight up lying to Gaspar. But then I realized they were counting the Lost Sanctum portals as a couple of vortices, but we still don't know if there's one in 1999 AD. I'd totally go and check, but the game won't let me.
Gaspar's magic bucket has changed, and it is just freaking him out.
This is still tying into Chrono Cross, by trying to justify some really silly shit.
As is most of the tie-in shit it tried, I guess. Dalton stands out as the most egregious of silliness in my mind.
Pfft, fuck that. We're diving straight into that bastard and not looking back. Before we go, though, let's look at who I'm taking for this fight.
Chrono is pimped out to deal tons of damage and counter basically everything that comes his way.
You'll notice the description for the arm Robo has equipped mentions he "may deal 9999 damage." It happens when he hits a critical, which is why he's wearing the Dragon Tear. Robo is going to serve as King Shitwrecker for the fight.
Janus' weapon came from the Present Vortex, hidden in a chest found by going through a secret passage. 4x damage on critical hits is pretty damned cool, and Janus seems to have a fairly high crit rate by himself. He's here because, as you'll see, it's fitting for him to come along for the ride.
So let's get this party started.
Been a while since we've seen one of these, huh?
It drops off in the little pocket dimension (or whatever) that Lavos hung out in, but this appears to be empty.
Robo, stop your Decadus impression. It's fucking creepy.
The camera pans up to reveal...
Another Janus, but in his Prophet garb.
Hey, dawg, what's goin' on? We don't usually see two of the same person when engaging in travel shenanigans.
Alright, cool. Way to go, team. High fives all around!
He can't help but do a dramatic reveal of who he is.
Janus, you shouldn't be surprised here. You dressed like that to begin with! Or maybe he did. Or you did at the same time. Or--Forget it, I give up trying to figure that out, but the point still stands. Janus shouldn't be surprised at who was under that hood.
Probably not this party, but they have defeated Lavos two times before, so this could be one of those futures.
Oh, yeah, I hope you like the infinite number of realities and universes stuff. Because that's what is going down here.
He could have arisen in Detroit for all I care; I'll kick his ass no matter where he is.
Doesn't Drowzee do the same thing? Ain't nobody respects him.
You done handing out pepperjack, Janus? We've got a boss to fight.
Oh, look, some Parmesan.
We're given one last chance to puss out.
Alright,
this video covers pretty much the rest of the update, if you'd rather see it like that.
So, Lavos is alive and well over here, as well as having gained Schala as a hood ornament.
He's also blasting Janus in the crotch with lightning. I like his style.
Is it just me, or does it look like Janus is holding a spear there, instead of his scythe? That shadow coming off from where the blade should be is just part of the floor, so that's not it. Maybe I'm just not seeing it.
Or, a wizard did it, and his scythe is all magic and shit and the blade appears when he needs it to.
In either case, Lavos doesn't take shit from that sickle smack, and zaps Janus for his impudence.
But, we're here to save the day.
"You appear to be failing miserably! May we assist you?"
Oh, no, yeah, we'll just go. Clearly, you have this handled.
Well, maybe he does. He did just cast off that electricity by himself.
And he proceeds to slap Lavos again, so maybe I didn't cut you enough slack.
Having been fused with Lavos, Schala is pretty unhappy with her lot in life.
Janus came here to rescue her, and he's going to do his damnedest to make sure that happens.
It doesn't go as well as he hoped.
Since Lavos just blasts him away like he ain't shit.
Something about how our party just turns to look at him amuses the shit out of me.
So, it's up to us.
Let's rumble, Dream Devourer.
By all means, this fight should be really difficult; the boss has 32,000 HP, which is the highest of a single enemy, as well as enough defenses, especially physical, that we won't be doing a ton of damage to him (at least, nothing like the numbers we're used to seeing), in addition to powerful attacks.
Everyone here has maxed out Magic Defense, and Janus has inherent Barrier from his armor. The Dream Devourer has a lot of power behind his magic.
When I said his defenses were high, I wasn't joking. Remember, Chrono is dishing out 25% extra damage, on top of having a maxed out Attack stat. Naturally, I forgot this little tidbit before I did the fight, but it's okay.
I brought a secret weapon.
Bam! Third of his health, gone in the blink of an eye!
I should have gone with Luminaire, but you know what they say about hindsight.
His main counter is Chaos Zone, which doesn't sound particularly intimidating. He can also remove status ailment immunity, but he didn't do that this fight.
By the way, just because every other use of Chaos Zone is laughable, doesn't mean this guy's is. Ol' Double D is really damned powerful.
When Janus uses his strongest spell and barely breaks 1,000, you know you're dealing with a heavy hitter.
There are a couple of different phases to this fight, too.
This signifies the beginning of the second phase, where Chaos Zone will activate after any attack made against him.
Not that Robo gives a flying fuck about things like phases.
I've only fought DD once before, when I first did the bonus content, so I'm not as familiar with him as I am with most of the other bosses. All that little animation did back there was signal he's starting a different phase; his stats don't change up.
As shown.
However, you need to be careful when fighting him, since his counters will wear you down quickly, and he still has regular attacks to pull out.
This scenario could have gone to shit very quickly.
However, I have the supplies to make sure that doesn't happen.
He's gearing up for one hell of a powerful attack here, but you get some time to just pour damage on him.
On a side note, I had no idea that Frenzy could miss during any of the attacks.
However, the last two connect. I'm still surprised, though.
...That does not sound good.
And so, destruction rained from the heavens.
KILL IT OH GOD KILL IT
SMASH HIS SKULL IN
...Oh, so we did. Cool.
I cheesed the shit out of that fight, yeah.
However, that boss has some real power to him, and that seemed like as good a time as any to showcase how fucking broken some of the stuff you get from the bonus content is. I'm not sure the numbers on the Dragon Tear for raising the critical rate, but it seems to be in the 40% to 50% range.
But, I'll cut that chat for the moment. We're into ending territory.
Janus returns, still trying to save his sister.
But Lavos isn't letting that happen.
But, suddenly, the assault stops.
She's still part of Lavos; Schala has some measure of control here.
She's still in there, still fighting, even if she's slowly breaking down.
In the depths of her despair, she hoped for the destruction of everything.
Despite our best shot, we're still not enough to free Schala.
She seems resigned to her fate.
And she won't allow us to even try to save her again.
She uses what control over herself she has left to get our party out of danger.
Janus, however, doesn't give up.
She creates a portal beneath Janus, despite his protests.
He disappears.
And we fade to black.
Coming to the alternate Janus, who is musing upon what happened.
He wants nothing more than to save Schala from Lavos' grasp.
However, her pleas for him to live and continue his life seem to have affected him.
He's going to erase his memories, but if something of his mission remains, perhaps then, he can find the way to save Schala.
And then he disappears.
Coming to Guardia Forest, memories gone.
Janus has no memories of who or what he was before.
But some part of him remembers what he was trying to do before.
And so, he sets off to remember what he has forgotten.
And that finishes off this ending.
For that, we get a new weapon for Chrono.
It has enough Attack to where Chrono will have maxed out Attack when he's wielding it, with his level being of little concern, and that 90% crit rate is fucking insane. I don't know the math on it, exactly, but of the 80% he's countering, he's going to crit those even more than he did before.
All that's left for me to show off are the various endings and how to get them. They're obtained by fighting Lavos at certain points in the game, and one comes at a very special point and leads to a very special ending.
Stay tuned!