Part 34: Back to the Future

There's three doors to access in Bangor, Trann, and Arris Dome, and lots of neat loot in each.



Sealed Door



As before, our pendant opens this door with ease.





The Charm Top boosts the success of Ayla's Charm tech, which would be great if she still didn't need close to 300TP to learn it. Kind of a shame I don't have it yet, but then again you won't realistically get it until the next dungeon if you're playing normally anyway. Charm is essentially CT's version of Steal, letting you obtain items from enemies.

As for why the Charm Top boosts the success rate, well, just look at it.



This isn't even the only Bra accessory in the game!

The Wallet converts all EXP gained into money. This is mainly useful for low-level games since you don't have to do convoluted set-ups to determine who gets what EXP when. Otherwise, money's never really an issue in this game, while levels increase stats and are even part of the damage formula for characters like Ayla.

Ruined World





Trann Dome has a new visitor since last time, and people are excited.



Finally got through the ruins. I brought the sapling that sprang from the seed! Amazing what you can do when you think you're goinna expire...

Even if we fail in our quest to stop Lavos, at least the future won't be completely devoid of hope.







Though it's still going to be a long road ahead.



This makes everything worth it.





Well, that and this loot. The Gold Stud reduces MP cost by 3/4, which is great considering techs are only getting more expensive from here, usually topping out at a massive 20MP cost, and the max MP amount is a mere 99.



It renders Lightning 2 from a pricey 8MP nuke to a 2MP "spam it forever" move, and makes Spincut a guaranteed critical hit for a mere 1MP.



Next stop, Arris Dome.







...You probably should tell her about her dead dad at some point.





We have that effect on people.



Everyone seems to be faring better than before.



But who cares LOOT



In addition to a Power Tab and a Lumin Robe (armor for women which boosts Magic Defense by 5 and would be a really nice upgrade if the elemental Mails we just got weren't a few points better), we get a Hit Ring, which boosts the damage from Marle and Lucca's physical attacks (meh) and boosts the accuracy of everyone else (also meh except for a couple of gimmick enemies where high accuracy is very helpful, one of which we'll meet next update).





The Gold Earring boosts HP up by a major 50%. It's overkill for my party, and of course loses its appeal once HP starts skyrocketing.



We've gotten all the loot we can get, time to advance the plot.



Well, after learning one more tech first.



Recovers a mere MAG*10 HP to the entire party. Not a lot considering Robo's low Magic stat, but it does affect the entire party and is only 3MP, so it's fine as is.



It's time to meet Belthasar and learn about the Wings of Time.

Sealed Door



The old man from before is nowhere to be seen, while the Nu is sleeping soundly.



Or was, anyway.



Soon, I, too will be able to sleep forever. But first... There is one thing I must do.





Let's flashback to the last time we were here...


The old man here was clearly Belthasar, but...what happened to him? How did he end up in this era?



It doesn't matter now, though. We've got the pendant, so all we can do is move on.



Upon entering this room, mysterious items appear. Turns out they're logs.





A great disaster in Zeal somehow threw me into this era. To my surprise, Lavos exists here, and, I suspect, in other periods as well. Aeons ago, Lavos descended from the heavens. Burrowing deep into the the [sic] world's core, he began to consume our planet's energy, and grow stronger.

This is indeed the same Belthasar we've heard about from Zeal. In the least surprising news ever, we learn a great disaster befalls Zeal, the results of which sent Belthasar through time to this era. Although our party knows better now, Belthasar didn't realize until coming here the true nature of Lavos.



In 1999, Lavos claims this area, and reigns from high atop Death Peak. Lavos continues to replicate...like a giant parasite, he is consuming our world.

Lavos drains the planet's energy to create offspring, but other than the brief instant Magus summoned it, it remained underground since its arrival until it finally struck in 1999AD.



And it's impossible to keep sane in such trying times. So before I lose it completely, I shall safeguard my data, and my ultimate creation...

Even a genius can find it hard to keep it together in such a bleak era. Hell, when we visited Belthasar before he was already losing it.



So you...YOU, who have opened the door! I leave things in your hands. Only by mastering time, itself, do you stand a chance against Lavos.

Belthasar probably didn't anticipate the ones to open the door to have already mastered time as effectively as we have, thanks to the genius of Lucca. Still, we have no way to get back to 12000BC, and this is our only chance at doing so.

The Japanese version has a great line here, about mankind from across the ages joining together to defeat Lavos. Considering our entire party spans time itself, it fits greatly here.



Open, now, the last door, and take what you find there. My last invention...





It is time.



After traveling between time gates for so long...



...we finally get ourselves a time machine.



Wow...this is amazing...



...Does it matter? I don't think "front" and "back" matters in terms of moving through time itself.



As we try to leave, the Nu from before brings in the finishing touch for this great device.





I copied my memory into this thing. What do you think?

Belthasar's body may be dead, but his mind lives on within this Nu robot.

Science can do amazing things.



Namely, how to transcend time! Press the Y button for the time gauge. Then use the L&R Buttons to select an era.





uh







As a nice touch, we can name our new time machine. The default name, Epoch, is a term for a significant period of time, quite befitting for a time machine. We'll stick with that for this playthrough.



We will, but first...



Might as well!





There are six spokes, one for each era we can visit as well as The End of Time.





Also we get official names for the various eras.

65mBC - Prehistoric
12000BC - Dark Ages
600AD - Middle Ages
1000AD - Present
1999AD - Apocalypse
2300AD - Future
End of Time

For now, let's visit the End of Time.

https://mp4.mega64.net/ct/24/090.mp4

Belthasar truly was a genius.

The Brink of Time



2300AD and The End of Time are a bit special since you're given prompts to disembark rather than ending up on the world map (which makes since for the End of Time since there is no world map).



Crono and friends have incredible leaping powers.



In fact, gave his life for it! Why not put that device to good use? Take it to the ancient Land of Magic!

Honestly, we've already done all the other side stuff, though there's one new thing we can get now.



Here's the spot the Epoch ends up in at 1000AD.



Reduces fire damage like the vest, but gives a beefy 79 Defense (more than even the Mails!) and a fantastic +3 Speed to Lucca. Definitely solid armor to have.





Here's where the Epoch ends up in the other eras. For obvious reasons, we won't be visiting 1999AD anytime soon, though I will show that off eventually.



At any rate, we're back in 12000BC with minimal fuss.



Unfortunately, we can't go back to Zeal, but that's fine, because our current task is to rescue Melchior from the Mountain of Woe.



Silent Light



We can now explore this cave.





Turns out this is where all the magic-less Earthbound Ones live.



So while those with magic live it up in the sky, those without are forced to survive with what little they can get.



Of course, the citizens at Zeal viewed this as the Earthbound Ones getting the privilege of helping with the Ocean Palace, when the reality is they're being used as slave labor.



Some new weaponry available for everyone. Demon Edge does 50% more damage to magical creatures, while the rest are straight damage upgrades (including the Flash Blade for Frog, which has higher attack power than the Masamune, didn't expect the blade we spent all that time getting would be rendered obsolete so soon, huh?).

Flash Mail is a straight armor upgrade except it's not because the Mails exist, and the Glow Helms are a minor upgrade for the men but they're also dirt cheap.



She locked the Guru of Life up on the Mountain of Woe for opposing her. The situation's hopeless.

Seems Queen Zeal has moved the Mammom Machine to be even closer to Lavos, in order to obtain energy from the beast more directly.

That's probably not going to end well.



Janus must be using her and the Queen to get to Lavos...

Bad translation, sort of. Janus has great magical powers, he just detests using them due to the pain those powers cause to his sister and how they corrupted his mother.





Schala and the Gurus are the only ones to treat the Earthbound Ones with any respect.



Makes you wonder when exactly that happened. Probably when they invented the technology of floating islands.



That's why we're here.





To get to the Mountain of Woe, we'll have to fight our way through those beasts.



Swimming in tabs now.



Beasts have a large 830HP and a decently high physical defense.





Every attack you deal to them also raises their attack power.



A base attack did ~25 damage to Crono, so you want to stick to hard-hitting magic attacks if possible.

You can also charm a R'bow Helm, a nice helmet upgrade that reduces Lightning damage by half. That'd be nice if we had Charm!



At the end, we get ourselves a neat little boss battle.

Boss Battle 1



The Blue Beast has a one-of-a-kind Charm, the MermaidCap, which has the same defense as the R'bow Helm but halves Water damage instead. Since I don't have Charm yet, we'll have to skip this one, as well an Elixir and Speed Tab from the others.

Both beasts have 5000HP and slightly higher-than-average physical defense. Each also is immune to their respective elements and take double damage from the opposite color. Meanwhile, the Mud Imp has 1200HP but sky-high physical and magical defenses.





Dual Techs help a lot, as you may expect.



But these guys will counter the majority of attacks directed against them, so be prepared for that.



The Mud Imp also heals all enemies for 150HP each. It's enough to nullify damage against him, but doesn't really help the beasts too much.



Otherwise, these guys mainly do single-target physical attacks, with the occasional party-wide earthquake. Their damage output is not scary in the least.





The Mud Imp can inflict Sleep though, but that's why you have two other characters!





Otherwise, this fight is pretty simple stuff.



A bit after both beasts are gone, the Mud Imp's defense drops, at which point you should be able to take it out quickly. Or just let it run away, whatever.





So next time, we climb the floating mountain to rescue the Guru of Life.