The Let's Play Archive

Chrono Trigger

by Mega64

Part 7: Day of Execution




Prison Tower



The justice system has failed us, and Crono is slated for execution.



There are two avenues to take here, and once again I'll show off the second route later on. For now, Crono is still an idealistic youth who feels the execution is just one massive misunderstanding and will happily wait his jail term and hope everything works out.





You get a number of Ethers based on how well you did in the trial. That's pretty much the extent as far as how much your choices matter for the trial.

Supposedly we get three even though it says we get one. I don't really care, Ethers are trivial to get.



We can recover our stats too by drinking prison water.



Nothing to do now but wait...



...and wait, until...







Come along.



It's fine. It'll all work out. They'll realize their mistake and let Crono go on his way.

https://mp4.mega64.net/ct/06/115.mp4

...Maybe we should've taken action.



Yeah, I'm starting to get the feeling that there's no getting out of this one. Crono's an unfortunate casualty of a cruel and uncaring justice system.



Such is life, I guess.



Ah well. Crono's still a hero in my eyes. He risked his life to save a total stranger and changed the course of history. His kind, caring nature makes him a model person, and no matter what happens, he lived his life as well as anyone could hope for.



Hah. Good one.

A Shot of Crisis



Who the heck are YOU?







Let's blow this joint!



This doesn't get said enough, but Lucca is awesome. Nothing more badass than busting into prison to get your friend out of a jam.



The Japanese version goes out of its way to say it's a disposable gun, and that the guards are simply sleeping. Lucca's not a murderer, after all.

...as far as we know.





While we're adding "escaping prison" onto the list of felonies, might as well help this poor soul. What's the worst that can happen?





I'm Fritz. My dad runs a store in Truce village. Stop by if you're in the area.

Looks like we found out where Fritz was hanging out after all.

...But if our intervention in history resulted in the creation of Guardia's justice system, where was Fritz before he changed history? Hmm.



Who cares, free Mid Tonic.





This guy's pretty unremarkable except for one thing.



You can sneak up on these guys and knock them out, sometimes getting free Mid Tonics out of the deal.



And of course I had to make this.





These guards are no match for us.



These guys are kinda interesting. They have max defenses and are immune to elemental magic. Crono and Lucca can't do anything to them...



...until they lower the shields and expose their true forms, Yodu De (Yo Dude?), where they have minimal defenses and take quadruple damage from elements. Either way, they only have 24HP. This is basically a tutorial in waiting for specific enemy phases to go on the offensive.



More prison water to lift our spirits.



Basically, there's two four-way intersections, with most paths leading to dead ends with treasure besides the linear path out of the dungeon.



Entering and leaving this part triggers this guy, which is the only time you can fight him.



He's got a good chunk of HP, but is oddly very inaccurate. Average defenses, but immune to elemental damage. Otherwise unremarkable.





I can believe that.



Another room triggers Crono's presence bringing a skeleton to life.



No magic defense, weak to lightning and fire (but absorbs darkness, appropriately enough). Fragile enough to die quickly.



I get the feeling this prison doesn't have the best conditions. At least the water's good!





There's a couple of rooms you can't get into since the prison bars are jammed and Crono refuses to crawl and get his pants dirty. But he has no problem scaling down the side of a building to reach those rooms!





The reward for going out of the way here is the Lode Sword (supposed to be Silver but whatever). This also happens to be the same weapon Melchoir was selling for a lot of money at the fair.



Otherwise the rest of the dungeon is uneventful. A few enemies here, a few generic treasures there, you know how it goes.



Finally, it looks like we reach the end.





Also, a nice treasure trove on this guy. He must have an addiciton to Tonics.



Yeah, don't mess with Lucca.

(Missed this line until writing the update and finding out it exists, replayed the trial just to capture this, the things I do for you people)





No, it's top secret for a reason, and Crono doesn't have the proper authorization to read it.

jk we were almost falsely executed hell yeah let's read it

pre:

To the Prison Supervisor

    "Dragon Tank Owner's Manual"

The Tank Head repairs body damage.
It contains a shield that prevents
damage by Lightning and Fire.

Unless the Head can be defeated, the
Tank is unbeatable.
              Guardia R & D

Hmm.





...Well, then. Good thing we read those top-secret documents just lying out in the open! Though how did they get this massive thing on this tiny bridge?



Boss Battle 1



This is the Dragon Tank, our second boss, and it can also be a challenge if you're not prepared and lack reading comprehension.





First off, the Tank Head itself is immune to Lightning and Fire, and even if it wasn't it has higher-than-average magic defense. It also heals a decent amount of damage and has a hefty 600HP. However, it has no physical defense so weapon attacks tear right through it. At any rate, it should be your first priority.



That said, the tank still has some offense. The Grinder is the wheel, and it allows the tank to run over the party.



Meanwhile, the body can shoot missiles, though they aren't too bad.



Finally, the head itself can do more than heal, having a kinda-painful fire breath attack. It is a dragon tank, after all!





The head doesn't heal enough to outpace the attacks by Crono and Lucca, so of course it's the first to go down.



As for the other two, the Grinder has slightly higher-than-average magic defense (and slightly lower-than-average physical defense) and takes some reduced damage from Lightning and Fire, though not a significant amount. The body has slightly higher defenses and takes reduced damage from Lightning. Still, both have lowish HP so once they're not getting healed every round it's not that hard to wear them down.



Since Flame Toss targets both, there's no reason not to use Cyclone instead of Flame Whirl, just in case Lucca needs to heal, and since Crono will get more turns off with his higher speed without waiting for Lucca. Slash is terrible here since it's Lightning-elemental and Crono has crap Magic.



The Grinder will be the first to go if you stick to multi-target attacks.



If the body is alone, it'll start countering attacks with lasers, which can really hurt at this stage of the fight, so it's probably worth keeping the Grinder alive until you bring the Tank Body down.



Regardless, stay healed up and eventually you'll prevail, and get treated to a rather badass victory scene.

https://mp4.mega64.net/ct/06/194.mp4

I don't care how old you are, this is freaking cool.



A Shot of Crisis



I gotta say, it's pretty nice to get one up on the Chancellor after all that.



I feel pretty comfortable about getting away with this right now, actually.



Turns out the prison is right below Guardia Castle.



Probably a wise idea just to get the hell out of here.







At this point Crono's embraced being a prison escapee and is ready to bust some heads.



We...might be a bit outnumbered here.



SILENCE





Luckily, Marle's here just in time to save our sorry hides.



B, but...
Can't you take orders?
Of course!





Courage and Pride



This is going to get awkward, I imagine.



Silence, Princess Nadia! The throne comes before your personal wishes!



You pick up strange ideas venturing outside!
I didn't "pick up" anything! It's called "common sense!"
Princess Nadia!





Princess Nadia!





Uh, yeah, I think this is a good time to bounce. Been fun!





SILENCE



A Shot of Crisis





Uh-oh.





Well, crap. If only there were a conveniently-placed exit within this dead end that only we could take advantage of...



Well, that's convenient.





But we don't know where it'll take us!









Lucca with the line of the game.



Eh, sure, why not.



But first, this line triggers when you get into promixity of the Chancellor. But he has a different reaction if you press A next to him...



I love his surprised expression.



Smell ya later!

At least things can't get any worse than this...right?