Chrono Cross This! (Third Time's Talking!)
By FateOfNever 2 Comments
Welcome to -
Chrono Cross This! 3!
You can find Chrono Cross This! 1! and Chrono Cross This! 2! at their links here, and down below at the bottom.
The Story So Far!
This will get increasingly long if I keep giving full recaps of what happened last time, so, I'm going to start giving very brief summaries here and if you want to know more detailed info on what happened last time, check out the other blogs.
So far in the game let's see what's happened!
I woke up like Crono in Chrono Trigger, I met Leena down at the docks, I listened to a bunch of people tell me about all of the major events in the game including a demon cat, parallel worlds, FATE, a dragon temple, and probably other stuff I forgot about. I listened to a bunch of terrible accents. I met Toma the 14th. I learned how to do battle. I killed an entire generation of a species for their scales and their murdered their mom to make sure no one else from the village can collect scales to give to the girl that they like. I was sent to a parallel world (told you.) I DIDN'T pick up an annoying dog. I DID pick up an annoying blonde Australian girl (ok, she's not that bad, it's just her accent and its somewhat inconsistency.) I met a talking skull. I fought off some idiot knights named Solt and Peppor, twice. Oh, and I met a voodoo doll that-om likes to raaaaandomly add -om to-om his woooords and stretch out other words for nooo reason.
I think that catches us up to the city (really it's a town, there's like maybe fifty people living here, come on) of Termina!
The Story Now!
Last I left off I was just outside Termina, this time, I went into Termina. It's another sea side town. I imagine there are a lot of those, being that this is kind of all island-y down in this part of the world. Which as far as I can tell this game will only ever take place in this sectioned off area from the rest of the world. They keep talking about Porre (the southern most town in CT, that in the DS version Dalton turns into a military state and...something. It's not explained how he succeeded, why he succeeded, why I didn't just go stop him instead of worrying about the Dream Devourer that I couldn't ever beat, but whatevs) and its military from up above "coming down." I don't know, honestly this whole thing is really poorly explained. Maybe it gets explained later, but, I'm going to try not to worry about it.
Now that a small side tangent about the mystery of Porre is over, back to Termina. As I first enter town I see a man named Glenn (who looks a lot like what I imagine Frog in human form did.. so.. another CT reference. They really like getting those in here, don't they? "Hey, hey, remember that other game, CT? That really good game on the SNES? Ok. Just wanted to see if you remembered it." Maybe it's sort of in service of the fans or whatever, but I'm not sure it helps to remind people of a classic game that is so well loved in your sequel game. It kind of just makes me want to go play CT instead.)
Glenn is there talking to a flower shop owner about wanting a specific kind of flower (go figure, a kind I happened to pick up on my way here.) The owner doesn't have the flower, something about Dario being dead, Dario loving the flower and they want the flower for their formal praying at his grave. Long story short here, I ended up giving the flower to Glenn and some woman at the grave site. Maybe I should have held onto it so I could give it to the other world Dario at some point to recruit him (because I imagine he's still alive in Serge's version of the world) but oh well. They thank me, talk about the sword, about how Dario is Glenn's brother, how the sword at the grave has been passed down generationally (but Glenn doesn't use it, probably because of an inferiority complex) and then they're on their way.
I spent a lot of time in Termina, by the way. A good hour or so just talking to people. The element shop keeper has a special portrait, so I bet I can recruit her or something later. I also met a kid with a mohawk who's name I can't remember, but adds CHA to his words randomly in no discernible pattern, that scared off customers to a guy showing off a fake mermaid. The kid likes mermaids, apparently, which brings me to -
Apparently Termina, or this entire continent is kind of shitty. There are "demi-humans", humans that are part animal part human, and apparently there's this great big racist thing going on with them. Maybe it'll get touched on more later, but, so far some guy was using them as slaves, people seemed to have no problem with the concept of shoving one into a tank (not that it was a real mermaid anyway, but still) and they use the term somewhat derogatorily "Go back to your demi-human friends you kid that I hate!" This kid also tells me that he has a boat and that he can take me around on a tour in the boat, but for some reason I don't have time for that.
Why don't I have time for that? Because I need to get into Lord Viper's Manor. Why? Hell if I know. No, really, at this point, I have no idea why. It's not until I meet a guy cleaning a statue of Lord Viper that Kid decides to pipe up with "we should go there because you need to find out why he was maybe after you and so that I can do..something... that I'm going to be very vague about..." For telling me all of the major enemies in the game, just about, and some of the big plot twists (by the way, there was a kid in bed being read stories by his mother that was friendly enough to tell me ALL about this thing called the Frozen Flame. I'm sure it's nothing important, though, right?) they seem very unwilling to ever tell me any specifics about what's going on in the now. So, whether I like it or not (I told Kid I didn't want to go, she's still making me) I need to find a way into Lord Viper's Manor.
Which is where I meet Guile. Not that Guile, another Guile. A Guile that was going to be Magus, but then they added so many characters to the game that they scrapped that idea. I'm not kidding either. They felt it was a better idea to have 40 characters in the game, most of whom are useless, instead of have a potentially interesting story involving Magus and this alternate world and his search for Schala. So, Guile is a magician that looks an awful lot like Magus, but he isn't, that has a bet with a fortune teller. Guile needs to sneak inside of Viper Manor and obtain something from some room. Again, they're REALLY vague about this stuff. However, Guile tells me that even though Lord Viper's Manor is impenetrable, all he needs to get in is a boat. So looks like this fortress is impenetrable every place except for..nowhere at all because a mushroom man told me that you can also get into the manor from a "secret" underground passage in some forests. Do these people know the meaning of the word impenetrable? Because so far it's sounding like this place is anything but.
I know where to get a boat, I just don't want to go get it though. Because it requires I go spend some more time talking toCHA! that weird kid. So, in my reluctance, I spent some more time in town, helped a man sell his Lord Viper food by lowering the price from 100 to 50. I found the talking skull's (who's name is Skelly.. of course it is) mom, or grandma, or something, lamenting their son or grandson or whatever having gone off and disappeared. By the way, I looked up where ALL of his body parts are, and I kind of want to say fuck it. This isn't like "Go collect three things and we'll be good" this is along the lines of collect six or so things, all over the world, at different locations, some of which sound like they won't be available for a pretty long time. I also talked to a blacksmith and his wife. Zappa, and Zippa, Zappa's Wife. Seriously, that was her name every time she talked. How must she feel knowing that the only way anyone will ever identify her is as "Zappa's Wife." She even has a portrait and everything, but she's relegated to being Zappa's Wife every time she opens her mouth. The black smith was cranky, told me about putting a soul into the weapons he makes. I'm sure I can get one or both of them in my party later if I find out the magic way to make it happen.
Mojo is apparently looking for his brother, as I found a straw doll that he called brother, but then said no, that's not him, and he wondered where he might be. I also met a kid named Van, who's an artist and son of a wealthy merchant trader guy that doesn't really love his son and loves his work more because he came in and broke a promise to Van while I was just casually standing beside him and told him that he wouldn't get to go to the festival because he had to go work. I bet I get Van in my party later too if I really try for it.
And I think that's about where I stopped. So, I found out what my objective is, though.. not really WHY it's my objective other than "come on, you have to find out the truth of what happened to the other you, why some people were after you even though they only seemed to try once and I kicked their asses pretty easily, and because I need to be a tool for two of the other party members. Really, there's more reason for me to go to Lord Viper's Manor right now for Guile and for Kid than it seems like for myself. But hey, I'm sure I'll met a cat demon named Lynx there who can fill me in on everything that's going on.
Impressions & Closing Out!
So, not a lot happened this time, despite me having a lot more to write about. It seems they're finally starting to get to at least some story stuff; though more of it seems to be about everyone but Serge. That's fine though. Serge will get his time to shine when he switches bodies with... eh, I'll cover that when I get there. I know it happens, it's one of the few things I remember from the game when I played it the first time.
The game's not bad. The dialogue in the game still seems pretty annoying. It also still looks pretty good. Well, good for its time.
I also spent some amount of time doing research on the Dream/Time Devourer, and, that shit is fucking convoluted as all hell. Apparently it's a combination of Lavos, Schala, some air ships that FATE the super computer made, and the dragons and it needs Serge for some reason to come to maturity. What the fuck? I'll cross that bridge more when I get there, but, what the fuck?! The Lavos-Schala thing I got. That kind of made sense. The fact that it's supposedly actually like five entities in one is absurd.
I definitely want to keep playing the game though, but I won't be back until Monday or Tuesday due to going on a trip for New Year's Eve. So I'll see you all then when I get back and hopefully things will pick up a bit more in game.
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