Part 44: Final Words

Peaceful Days



Here's the map of 1000AD. Since this is a simple and peaceful era, we've already explored most of it. However, there is a continent in the southeast we've yet to explore.



So let's do that.





It seems this town was where Toma retired.



Welcome to Choras, a town with little of note beyond the northern ruins.



Sir, I think you've had enough sugar today.



That's one way to handle censorship.



She tells us to beat it if we have, but we don't know, so no:

A Ghost Knight roams the Northern Ruins! Isn't that a trip?

The Northern Ruins are haunted, huh.



How'd they get there anyway? There's no ferry here.



Money well spent by the Dorino mayor. Maybe that's part of why Dorino no longer exists...





This man sells generic items.



She also threatens to beat him in the Japanese version. I guess making it a Honeymooners reference is an improvement...?

This whole family's a mess.



At least the kid seems to be OK.



If there's one thing that can really dampen the adventuring spirit, it's poor building codes.



To be fair, it's only the one ghost.



Scary!



She says a lot of things. Sounds like that ghost may have unfinished business. Hmm...





NPCs will casually mention the Black Omen, since for them that thing has always been there and is just a part of ordinary life. It's a bit unsettling.



That's one way to put it.



Anyway, let's check these ruins out and see what the fuss is about.



...Hm.



Boss Battle 1



In fact, this does seem to be the ghost of Cyrus himself.



Max defenses, immune to elemental and physical attacks. The two whole non-elemental magic attacks will do damage, but not that much. Basically, you're not going to do anything to him.



He has a weak ghost attack, but otherwise you just fight a bit before the battle eventually ends...



Normally Marle should have priority here, but it got messed up so the game defaults to Ayla instead, even though she's not in the party.

Then again I can buy Ayla being so loud she can scream through time. Hey, it happened in Final Fantasy XIII-2.





That's a bit of a hint.





The rest of the area cannot be explored, so let's try again with Glenn.







Cyrus?! 'Tis me, Glenn!!







Unfortunately, even Frog's presence isn't enough to soothe Cyrus. We need to take a different approach here.



If we can't do anything in 1000AD, why not change history a bit? Maybe there's a way to stop this back in 600AD.

Silent Light



Indeed, Cyrus's ghost is no longer guarding the left area.





There are some Sentries hanging around, ghost enemies immune to physical attacks with some hefty HP totals to boot. Luckily, they're weak to fire, which helps when we have two people with Fire 2.



Of course, they have a chance of using MP Buster upon death, so keep a few Ethers around.





Their attacks can also do some pretty big damage, so burn them quickly.

But as you may have noticed, there's another hole blocking progress, and the right room has the same hole as it did in 1000AD, so other than the Sentry room there's nothing to explore.

Longing of the Wind



Our only option is to explore 600AD Choras and see if we can figure something out.



You're telling me.



If we could get the ruins repaired, we could explore further in and perhaps figure out the deal with Cyrus. But first we need tools...



Toma's at the bar, but we're not going to speak to him today. He'll be popping up in a future side quest...



There's some stuff to suggest it may have been Frog who carried Cyrus's body to the Northern Ruins and perhaps spread the rumor of Cyrus simply being missing rather than dead, since the latter would've obviously lowered morale significantly. Plus Frog's dialogue about the quest in the End of Time suggests he knows Cyrus was there to begin with.

Anyway, we have a carpenter, but no tools. If only we knew a carpenter who clearly wasn't using his tools in favor of getting a sugar rush...



Be my guest! I'm busy here, so go get them from my wife.







That was simple.





Sure thing.



Next up, we have to visit him over at his home.



I guess I'll start with the ruins!







There's a new quest line in the DS remake called the Lost Sanctum, available during this stretch of the game. It involves visiting a hidden colony of Reptites, jumping back and forth in time between 65,000,000BC and 600AD, changing history and using resources in one era to help the other. A good idea in theory, but the execution is abysmal, with much backtracking and forced encounters and ridiculously tedious fetch questing.



I bring this up because this quest line kinda already did it, but much better. Granted, at this point there's no longer any need to go back to 1000AD, but there's certainly good reason to, as you'll see soon.



We can't repair the spots where the monsters hide. Call us after you get rid of them. We'll do the rest.

The gimmick is the carpenter can only repair so much, then we have to go back to the carpenter to repair some more. The difference between this and the Lost Sanctum is this place is not nearly as big and not nearly as long, and has much more useful treasures available.





The left chamber is unchanged.



We can explore the right side now, however.



We do need to eliminate the enemies here. Both these foes have hefty HP and absorb Shadow, but take double damage from Fire attacks. Unlike the Sentries, they take normal damage from physicals.



Magus picks up another tech along the way, one I'll show off shortly.



There's nothing we can actually do besdies defeat the enemies, as the way further and both chests are still blocked by holes. However, we do see another sealed chest, so once we can reach them, it'd be wise to unseal them and then get the 1000AD versions like we did the elemental mails.



This time it costs money to repair them, but we get more in one battle in the ruins than the cost, so it's no big deal at all.





Same deal as before, except this time the right side is ignored and it's the left side that's repaired.



And ultimately, we come across what is likely the grave of Cyrus.



Magus being in the party changes nothing, but still, it's a bit awkward to bring your friend's murderer along when paying your respects.





Cyrus. I hath returned. I shall honor my promise to thee!





At the Bottom of Night



Glenn... Thank you...for making the journey here.
Dear Cyrus...



On the contrary! You have come far, my friend. When Magus defeated me, I thought of all those whom I had left behind.



Cyrus...
Your skill and dedication is superior! I can rest now, knowing that everyone is in good hands.



Cyrus, wait! I... I...!



The Queen... Look after Queen Leene.







I'm so sorry, Cyrus.

A bittersweet reunion, but one that has brought peace not only to Cyrus, but also to Frog.

SILENCE





Frog's Theme







Quite. I guess it means that a Hero's power comes from within.
Mucho metaphysical, man.
Like, MIND over matter, Mune!



The idea here is that, now that Frog is freed from his guilt involving Cyrus, he's shown his true strength.





Which means Masa and Mune, likewise, will reveal theirs.





Ahh! 'Tis the true identity of the Masamune!!







Frog's business has now been resolved.



This results in the Masamune receiving an upgrade, becoming Frog's strongest weapon by far (200 Attack when his second-best weapon, the Brave Sword, only gives 135). The Hero Medal still boosts its crit rate like it did the original form. The only issue is this doesn't carry over in New Game+, so if you want to do that you'll still want to keep the Brave Sword.

Longing of the Wind





There's nothing left to do in the ruins for now, so back to town to hire the carpenters again. But first, there's some new dialogue now that Cyrus's spirit is no longer terrorizing the ruins.





This is the final build, giving us full access to the ruins.



First off, we get this chest and a regular Elixir chest, which doesn't upgrade but should be left alone so you can get the 1000AD one first.



The next and final room is also available, with some enemies to go through to reach the end.

Magic Wall is a buff that reduces magic damage by 1/3, so pretty much the Shell buff from Final Fantasy. Kind of a waste of a tech for Magus, honestly, it'd been better off on another character since Magus usually ends encounters too quickly to really need defensive options



Base has near-max Magic Defense and is immune to physical attacks. Dual Techs get around this, though, and Base has low HP anyway so it doesn't matter.

Apparently a Defunct can fuse with a Base to form a stronger monster, but I couldn't get it to trigger. It basically gets higher defenses and maybe more brutal attacks.



At the end are two more sealed chests, so we unseal them.

Peaceful Days



Back at 1000AD...







Now that the haunted ruins are no longer haunted, Choras really is nothing more than a boring podunk town separated from the rest of the world.





Instead, the town embraces being near the resting spot of the great Cyrus, and his friend Glenn is seen in a more positive light as well.





Tell me.

Cyrus's best friend, Glenn, used a legendary sword to beat the Magus's troops.



All in all, a happy ending. Everyone's at peace.



And even better, more loot.

This is the one instance where we'd probably have been better off getting two of the weaker chest. The Moon Armor has a mere three defense points more than the Nova Armor, both of which are the best available armor for Crono, Frog, and Robo (the women can't wear it, and Magus has his own special armor between the two defense-wise), but while the Moon Armor gives +10 Magic Defense, the Nova Armor prevents all status effects, which is probably the more useful of the two benefits.



Both weapons for Crono. The Kali Blade is a bit stronger than the Swallow, but it also has a lower crit rate (20% to the Swallow's 30%, though still higher than the base 10% for Crono's other blades) and lacks the Speed boost the Swallow has.

But even still, it pales to the Shiva Edge, Crono's second-best sword. It actually has a slightly lower-than-average crit rate of 7%, but when it does crit, the damage is quadrupled rather than doubled.



These are Marle's two strongest bows. Both have a nice 40% crit rate, with the Valkerye (uh...) having the higher attack power. The Siren isn't completely outclassed, though, since that bow can inflict Stop on enemies.



We are done with the Northern Ruins and Choras in general. However, there is one last thing we can do, and it's one of the most obscure things in this game. I can't think of anything in-game that actually hints to this.



Basically, to do this, you have to climb back up Denadoro Mountain, which you have absolutely no reason to do, with Frog as the lead after upgrading the Masamune, then let this rock-throwing Freelancer hit you.

Frog's Theme



This results in Frog catching the rock.









This results in our third Triple Tech rock.



Only Frog can wear it, and it unlocks Grand Dream, a tech with Marle and Robo that I can't show off yet since it requires Frog's final tech.

Next time, I haven't decided the next quest yet, so something.