Chrono Trigger Part #31 - Update Thirty: Emptying The Keep

Part 31: Update Thirty: Emptying The Keep

Update Thirty: Emptying The Keep

Welcome back, folks, to Chrono Trigger. Last time, we entered the Fiendlord's Keep, defeated two of his three generals and we're now ready to plunge into the depths of the castle, so let's bounce.

_{_{I'm updating again today as I have a friend who isn't feeling well, so I'm hoping this will help her feel a little bit better.}}

We entered the faux-save point last time and were transported deeper into the castle.

Remember, in Super Mario RPG, when we had the combat challenges in Bowser's Castle at the end? This hallway is kind of like that; you keep going and fighting assloads of monsters.

Underlings are nothing special, nor were they ever. And I changed up the windows again. Don't ask why, but it seemed like the thing to do. If I hadn't already done the dark windows, I'd have used that here.

After wiping them off the face of the earth, we continue down the hall.

Out of the two statues pop out a pair of new enemies, the Blue Gargoyle.

They have 120 HP and a weakness to Fire; they absorb Shadow. They attack like the Diablos from the Cathedral.

Further down, a pair of Sorcerers join the Underlings.

And here's the Sorcerer's attack, the Annihilation Zone.

Since I have the opportunity to use it, here's Heal in action. It restores HP based on Frog's Mag × 6.5.

It currently heals about a good chunk of health, about a third to everyone. Maybe I didn't need to go out and buy 50 Mid-Potions before this...

We're almost done in this hall.

And now we face our greatest challenge yet.

Lightning II costs 8 MP, and has a formula of (Lv + Mag) × 5.75 to deal damage.

Sure, Sorcerer's absorb Lightning, but they were at full HP anyway, not to mention, it killed everything else here.

Mopping them up afterward is no sweat.

Ozzie, you son of a--Ooh, treasure!

This is for the ladies.

Alright, Ozzie, let's dance.

I wouldn't count on him coming to help.

And your magician is similarly indisposed.

"Yea, verily, we hath wiped them from this mortal coil."

Don't forget sexy, Ozzie. We determined previously that Frog is sexy.

Here, there, I'll kill you anywhere, Ozzie.

Not for long; I'm going to relish slicing and dicing you.

Or he can just run away. That works too, I guess.

But first!

Lucca slaps on her new armor, giving her a nice defense boost.

In this room, there's a series of conveyor belts moving us toward the descending blades. If we get hit by one, we take a bit of damage.

They're easy as pie to avoid.

And Ozzie is operating the trap himself.

Maybe if you spun faster, Ozzie, this wouldn't be so easy to avoid.

Chrono gets a new set of armor, as he's the main character and never leaving our party.

When you get here, Ozzie takes my advice and begins spinning the crank faster, which makes the blades go much quicker than before.

Not that you should ever get hit by them, mind you, but at least he's putting in some effort here.

Give it up, Ozzie.

And the fat lizard-bastard runs off again.

Were Robo in the party, this would be a new weapon for him. In the SNES, it was called the Doom Finger.

Yeah, I don't remember many important translation update changes, if you hadn't noticed.

Following Ozzie through that door takes us outside of the castle, where we'll scale the walls to proceed.

There are Vampire Bats out hare, as well as a Roundillo, and another new enemy type.

Up there, in the right corner, is the new enemy. Well, it's kind of new; that was the same sprite used for Flea?, but that's the Juggler, which we already know the gimmick of, thanks to the blood note in the Magic Cave.

Lightning II is a great spell to have around here, due to the large encounters. Sure, there's some enemies immune to it, but for the most part, it's a solid choice.

Jugglers have 450 HP and are weak to Fire; if you hit them with a magic attack that doesn't kill them, they'll gain insane Magic Defense, while their regular Defense normalizes; if you hit them with a physical that doesn't kill them, their Defense skyrockets, but they become vulnerable to magic.

You've just gotta flip their defenses to defeat them. They can use a fire attack and can pair with another enemy to due a combo counter.

For these guys, Lucca is great to drop them in one shot with Fire. At the beginning of the battle, they have one of their defenses on at random.

Moving on, we encounter a lone Roundillo.

Or so I thought, until the Juggler showed up.

When they're in their physical defense mode, they make this pose, which is about the only indication I know of for what they're guarding against.

We reach the top of these stairs and head into the door.

Into another trap room. Can you spot the trap here?

Fuck no, you couldn't that shit doesn't exist until Ozzie turns the crank!

We only fall about ten feet, though, and Chrono makes a Jesus pose to land.

And another one to destroy the legion of undead waiting for us down here.

This room is a big square with a gimmick to it. See that save point?

It's actually a monster, playing with our notions of what's safe and what isn't, much like the save point in the Sewers of 2300 AD.

They have 10 HP, nearly max Defense, but are vulnerable to magic. They aren't able to do anything in battle, so this is just free exp and TP.

In the lower right corner, there's this Magic Capsule. I give it to Frog, to help his healing abilities.

A treasure chest! But this is the save point that sends you back up to the trap room.

Alright, we avoid that trap hole and--

These things are scattered about this room, and unless you've played before, you don't know their location until you hit them.

Frog's falling pose isn't an interesting as Chrono's.

But we can snag the treasure down here. The other chest is a Barrier Sphere, which I might use, if I remember I have them.

The Lapis is an item that restores 200 HP to all party members, making it handy for a bit of panic healing if you need it. The other chest is a Mid-Ether.

Back up we go!

There's another hole here.

And two more on either side of Frog.

The last one is directly in front of Ozzie.

And since I showed the other two, here's Lucca falling.

Upon reaching Ozzie, he's out of breath again.

If there had been some spikes or a longer drop, maybe one leading outside of the castle, this would have stopped us.

We're back outside again, and there's new enemies out here now.

Meet the Outlaw. Immune to Lightning and Fire, they have 182 HP and pair with Jugglers quite well.

If there's a Juggler around and you strike them without killing them, you have to eat a counter.

Of Flame Whirl. Son of a bitch, it burns!

Jugglers can throw regular fire at people, too, which does meh amounts of damage.

These guys aren't bad; weak to every element with no Magic Defense, they only have 99 HP.

Hit them and they'll explode before dying; if they're with other enemies, this will damage them, too.

Armed with 50 Mid-Potions and Heal, I'm not worried about taking damage.

A lone Outlaw awaits us up here.

We've gotta be nearing 100 enemies in here. We were at 41 from the last update alone.

And Lucca scores a kill that doesn't involve magic. Huzzah!

I'm sure you know what's going to happen here. It's another battle gauntlet room.

The Servants down there are new, and they wield swords and can use Windslash. They absorb Shadow, but are weak to everything else, with poor Magic Defense.

Just how poor, you ask?

About that poor. They have 390 HP, by the way.

And Outlaws suck it down, like they always do.

A bit of a pain, but nothing special.

Frog is usually good to hit with a critical, and he doesn't let me down here. I swear, 80% of his attacks here are critical hits. The Hero's Badge is fantastic.

On to the next!

Jesus, now this is a pain in the ass. Jugglers aren't tough, but they do have enough HP that you'll not be dropping them like flies. If Lucca had her full party attack spell, this would be easier.

But it'll be a little while before I get that.

But a Lightning II and a little bit of physical clean-up does the job nicely.

Ozzie panics and begins spinning that crank like a madman, hoping for more enemies.

But none are left in his trap.

And he runs off again.

It kind of amuses me that we came here to defeat Magus and prevent Lavos from being summoned, but we've spent most of our time here chasing one of his generals through the castle.

Battle hallway!

Insert your ass-kicking anthem of choice here.

And assume so much ass is being stomped that whoever gets this property after we kick Magus out is able to seed their new lawn with it.

Red Servants carry crossbows and can inflict Poison on a character. Other than that, they're pretty much the exact same as the Blue Servants, weaknesses and all.

Oh, Napalm, you wonderful spell.

That Silver Stud is a fantastic accessory for Lucca. If you don't remember, it cuts MP costs by 50%, so combined with her high Magic stat and hefty MP pool, as well as all the MP-restorative items the game throws at us, Lucca is a fire-spewing goddess of death.

That was the last fight, and in this chest here, we get a fucking Athenian Water. Goddammit, game. You could at least give me some new armor for Frog, or a new gun for Lucca, or something!

Ozzie, you hideous bas--Treasure!

Well, Marle can join the new armor club now.

This adds two points to Magic, and I was tempted to give it to Lucca, but half-cost spells are a better deal, in my mind.

Alright, Ozzie, get your bullshit out of the way. Let's get this done, so we can kick your ass.

Oh, shit, we're about to fight him!

Dammit! Ozzie was just distracting us (by trying to save his own skin, granted, but still distracting us)!

Clearly, you missed what Frog did to the Magic Cave.

Pfft! He makes a giant ice block and we've got Lucca. Lucca, dear, would you drop that so we can gut him like a fish?

Bwahahaha. Moron, making an ice shield when we've a pyromancer with us.

Bwahaha.

What else would we aim at?

Oh, okay, so we can't do anything about that barrier.

But Ozzie provides the clue needed to defeat him. See the four cranks around the room?

If we strike one, it begins to turn.

And opens a trap door in the room.

We just have to go around the room, hitting the cranks; we can't skip ahead on cranks, either.

Good thing Lucca wasn't a few feet to the right there.

Oh, that one was close! If only our battle formation wasn't so perfectly spaced!

The last crank opens the last trap, which Ozzie was kind (or stupid) enough to make his shield over.

By the way, when Ozzie falls into that trap, you hear a Looney Tunes-esque whistling as he falls and eventually you hear the sound of his barrier shattering.