Part 49: Update Forty Six: The Northern Ruins

Update Forty Six: The Northern Ruins

Welcome back, folks! Last time, on Chrono Trigger, we kept Chrono's ass from being turned to a fine powder through time fuckery, and found out about an assload of endgame sidequests. Today, we're going to do the first one the goons voted on, which is to help the restless spirit of a proud knight. Let's bounce.



To kick things off, we're going to start in the Present.



We're cruising over somewhere we haven't been yet, and can't get to without the Epoch.



We're going to Choras, and the only reason I know that name is because of the inn.





Before we go too far, there's a town to visit.





Well, we have a frogman, a guy who should be dead, and the Fiendlord. I'm pretty sure a ghost ain't got shit on us.





So, uh, yeah, we're going to the northern ruins.





Keep in mind, I think this is the only such spirit we're going to meet.





Don't forget about the Black Omen!



This guy hasn't. He's practically stroking it to the thing.



Oh, my God, we'll go there soon enough!





And the first guy we meet in here enjoys his booze.





Well, sir, other than the fact that it's ten in the morning...



We've heard a lot about him, but I'll let you have your moment.



...I wish I'd never talked to you.





Damn those kids, wanting to have fun and not dig wells or whatever it is you did for fun as a wee lass.



No, not Toma! He was--Oh, wait, we last saw him four hundred years ago. Of course he's dead.



All this guy sells is items. I buy nothing from him, but sell him 23,000G worth of stuff.





I suppose the intervention hasn't been invented yet. Lucca, you're the best inventor around; get to work on that.





I suppose I can't fart around anymore.





...Yep. This place looks like shit.



And the ghost that's so scary to everyone turns out to be kind of tubby. Let's see what Spooky McChunky has going on elsewhere.





Nothing over here.



Alright, Fatty Scaresalot, let's see what you got.



...Cyrus?



In hindsight, Janus should have used Fire II.



Janus, you have failed me. Chrono, handle this.



Chrono is wearing a Golden Stud for this sidequest. There'll be a lot of nuclear lightning explosions around here.









I'd talk about this, but I'm still too freaked from Luminaire being ineffective.



However, this is one of those scripted, unwinnable fights. Cyrus, however, does have 2,000 HP, but is immune to all elements, has 255 Defense, a buttload of magic defense, and can't be hit by normal attacks. A non-elemental attack could damage him, but I don't have the proper party for that.



...Len? As in Lenny?



Son of a bitch, I knew that guy was up to no good!





I don't think he recognizes you.



Or maybe he does. But he's a pretty pissed off ghost.





For now, we have to clear out. There's nothing we can do right now.





Once again, time travel is the answer.





Really, did you expect anything else?



That building to the west is a Market, selling nothing but consumables.



Either this man survives to the Present, or he passed his love of flying horror palaces down through the generations.





The Inn has nothing interesting in it this time around.



See? But, it's only 10G to stay here, which isn't bad. Unless you visit Chrono's House or the End of Time, where it's free.





Naturally, the tavern is the place to go.



Where we find a robbed carpenter.



A woman who has the hots for Toma.



Toma himself.



This isn't part of this sidequest, but since he's here, I may as well chat with him.



Where, presumably, he gives us the mug of liquor he's currently drinking.



Must be a hell of a drink.



So, is this just in case of you being horribly killed while on an adventure, or if you die of natural causes? Either way, we'll get to using this later.



Hmm...The ghost of Cyrus is up there, a beast was dragging something in there...I wonder if we'll ever figure out this mystery!





Too late, bartender! I've already covered the interesting dialog, so I'm outta here!





One last place before the ruins in this era.





I'm trying to think of a Carpenter's joke, but I think their career is enough on its own.







Still nothing to do to the right.



But we can hit the left side of this place.



Where we meet some more fat ghosts.



But, nothing to fear!



1,280 HP and a weakness to Fire, but Luminaire is enough to ruin them.



For an idea of how strong Janus is magically, his Fire II will do more damage than this Luminaire.



These guys are dicks when they're re-killed; one has a counter to steal all of your MP.



While the other has Grudge, which hurts like a son of a bitch.



Considering that's a quarter of the max health in this game, that kind of number concerns me quite a bit.



Moving along, we find another pair of ghosts.



They're promptly blown away.



Hmm. Nothing to do here.





There's a fair chunk of exp and TP to be had here. I didn't catch a shot of it, but Janus did learn another Tech here, Dark Mist. It's a multi-target Shadow attack. You'll see a .gif of it in another update.







Once again, we've gotta time travel. Someone needs to repair those ruins, but the carpenter in this time has no tools, and the carpenter of the future is too drunk to do it. And in the wrong time period.





Sure!



Not a problem, buddy.





Why the hell are you keeping your tools on top of the fridge? Jesus, I'm an amateur carpenter, and I still have more tools than will fit on top of my fridge.



Thank you, ma'am.







Well, there's a square, a hammer, two sticks of Juicy Fruit and half an avocado; if you can repair the stone ruins with that, then sure, I have carpentry tools.



Hell, you can keep them. I don't care.





Alright, now we have someone to repair the ruins!





However, he won't take his workers and go repair them automatically. We've gotta talk to him first.



I don't know who hired you for that.



In the SNES version, he calls them lazy blokes.



I'm sure my boss would like to yell at us like that and see results.





But, even if we did snap to action, I'm pretty sure we'd all stop when we saw the flying ship.



And here's the kicker to the repair of this place; they can only go so far before we have to go clear out monsters.



Which isn't a difficult task.





However, we can probe deeper into the ruins. And it's entirely worthwhile to do so.





All the monsters here are either ghosts, skeletons, or gooey ghouls of some sort.



All of them are nearly weak to Fire, too. These two types absorb Shadow.



Both of these types have 1,450 HP, and I'm sure they can do some kind of damage. They never get the chance, though. Remember those two dozen Speed Capsules I mentioned last update? Frog, Chrono and Janus here all have maxed out Speed, and I still have a dozen tabs left.



Don't judge me; you'd do the same in my position.



With maxed out Speed, all three of the characters start the battle with full gauges.



Being undead, I thought they were weak to Light, as are most undead things in this game. Had I realized it was Fire sooner, there'd be more shots of Janus blowing shit up.



Also, Christ, I can't tell you how many times I've typed "Magus" instead of Janus. If I make any of those typos in an update, please point them out to me.



Usually when I replay the game, I don't change his name. Or I change it to something different, like Wiggles (shortened to "Wiggls") as that sort of thing amuses me.





Nothing to kill here, as we already did our killing 'round these parts.



And yes, I'm flying the eighth of a mile to and fro in the Epoch. It's mostly catharsis for how sore my legs are today.



Here's the other bit of repairing the ruins; the first time is free, but from here on out, it's 2,000g a pop.



Which isn't a lot of cash, but I started this update with 9,000g and had to sell the stuff I did to make sure I could cover what I needed.



The Arena of the Ages can really drain money from you. The items used in battle are fairly cheap, but the tier costs can be pricy. It's 10,000g for the Tier Six fights, where a lot of great stuff is.



When we get back to the ruins, they've repaired some more, and have found more monster infestations.



Down the left-hand hall.



Skipping that treasure chest for now, as we can grab it in the Present, then come back to get it here. It's a Turbo Ether, by the way, which restores 99 MP (the max).





But, this is what we've wanted to find.





This is why Frog was mandatory for this mission; it's also why Janus being along is just so delicious.



Despite his death on Denadoro Mountain, he wasn't entombed there.



With your killer in tow, even.



Didn't you swear to avenge him? This might get awkward in a minute.



The Masamune is drawn, aimed toward the sky as energy gathers in the room.



From the grave, Cyrus rises.







It wasn't much trouble. He's been a great help, Cyrus.





How could he? Sure, he passed on, but you've taken up his sword, the Hero's Badge, prevented Magus' enslavement of humanity; all things Cyrus wished to be done, are done.



And Cyrus just kind of blows that off, like, "Whatever, dog. You're badass now!"



Janus, you feeling anything about this over here?



True to Cyrus, his final thoughts were with the Royal Family.



But also with that of his best friend and closest companion.





"Seriously, you learned magic. I ain't got shit on that!"



You've put your faith into the right man, Cyrus. I'd rather have no one else at my side.









Cyrus begins to fade away, his soul being lain to eternal rest.



Maybe it's just me, but I feel like there was more to the relationship between Cyrus and Queen Leene than we were told.



"We knownst thou was tapping thine asseth on the sideth!"



"I'll never do the olde English again!"



However, we're not done here.



For bringing the Masamune to Cyrus' grave has had an incredible effect on the sword!



A burst of power fills the room as the blade takes to the air.



Chrono is shocked at this turn of events; Janus, however, doesn't not seem to be digging this shit.







The sword begins to rotate in the air, glowing and gaining power as it does so.







You didn't think we were done with these two, did you? This is like a who's who of Masamune plot points from before; Melchior is the only one missing.





Remember, these two told us, back when we first picked up the broken blade that the strength of the sword isn't important. It's how you use it.



And now, Frog is no longer wanting to use the sword merely for revenge; he's out to save the planet and everyone who lives on it and everything that will live on it.



Dear God, yes, we're strong.









Wonder Twin powers, activate!



And they reform the Masamune, better than before.



How much better?





We'll see that in a second.





Cyrus can't be disappointed in you now, Glenn. You've become everything he wanted you to, and then some. You're the warrior he wishes he could have been. You're his true potential.



Look at that Attack Power! 200! That's the most, by far, of anything we have. Plus, he can equip the Hero's Badge again, raising his critical rate. He's one of our leading shit-wreckers at the moment.



But that doesn't mean we're done up there.



There's still a little more exploration and items to be found. And those items are fuckin' great.



Back at the Ruins (I omitted the travel shot, I hope it's okay), we learn they're done here.



And all for 4000g. You guys worked pretty hard on this.

I've learned from work that a lot of our costs come not from materials or anything like that, but from the man hours put it to finish a job.





To the left here, there's another treasure chest. Not that I'll be opening it. I'll shoot forward, pick it up, then come back to get it again.



However, sealed chests are abound in this place. We'll turn this one down, then come back in 1,000 AD to get the better prize.





Fairly normal looking room, right?



NOT ANYMORE, BITCHES





The gooey guys are our last new enemies of the update.



They're called Souls, and have 88 HP, no weaknesses or immunities, and physicals, as per the type of enemy they are, do jack and shit to them.



For a comparison on how strong Janus is with magic, let's see his Fire hitting a weakness.



He's pretty damned badass.



'course, in the future, after Chrono has overdosed on Magic Tabs, ain't nobody going to be able to touch his Luminaire power.



FIERY DOOM TO ALL WHO TRY AND DENY ME TREASURE



We decline both these chests, to give them time to sit and ferment.



And this is a wicked-sweet shot of the Epoch about to travel.



You'll see, since we freed Cyrus from his burdens and awaken Frog from the funk he'd put himself into since the man's death, we are no longer robbing the Northern Ruins. Now we're robbing a Hero's Grave!



The Moonbeam Armor is pretty goddamned sweet.



+10 to Magic Defense, as well as another bigass Defense Boost, plus the name is metal as hell.



This is a new sword for Chrono.



Not only is it stronger than the Swallow, but it has one special caveat about it that's incredible on its own. When this weapon deals a critical strike, instead of doubling the damage, it quadruples it! 500 damage becomes 2000!



And this is for Marle.





However, we have done what we set out to do; the proud knight's restless spirit has been lain to rest.

Goodbye, Cyrus; you'll be loved and missed until the end of time. Your contributions to this journey have been many and your love and admiration for your friend Glenn are is continually inspirational. Rest well, Cyrus. Know that Queen Leene is in good hands now.

Next time, on Chrono Trigger, we have another sidequest to take on! But which one? BOLD your votes and BOLD our next destination! Sunday, 8:00 PM, EST, is the cutoff for voting!



SIdequests

A prehistoric stone that will shine with the light of all the ages in the world...
There's an object of legend in the Middle Ages, and lingering even in the present...
The "fortress of one of Janus' generals" requires Janus.
"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
The "restless spirit of a proud knight" requires Frog.