Mission Chrono Trigger: Is Ayla…a cat…?

Because that’s pretty much what I thought for the first few minutes of our interaction. I thought she had ears and a tail, plus she ran around on all fours. But she’s not. (It didn’t immediately stick that she’s all Clan of the Cave Bear.) And I’m getting ahead of myself.

Also, I’ve gotten much better about taking screenshots. Maybe too much better. Lots follow.

Last time on Mission Chrono Trigger, I was shivering in anticipation of Frog’s return. How cool it was to think that he might be back on the team! And I was all like YAY! and stuff. But before finding the illustrious aquatic wonder, I had to make my way through the Denadoro Mountains in order to find the Masamune…hopefully. I mean, people had mentioned it and the mountains, so what else could be assumed? And sure enough, after going up and down and all around those mountains, and encountering more than a few oddball enemies, I finally hit the jackpot.

No, I’m here for the lovely view. OF COURSE I’M HERE FOR THE DAMN MASAMUNE!

Not that getting the Masamune was going to be easy, of course. I mean, this is still a video game.

So after fighting and defeating the strange little twins Masa and Mune, it was onto facing their combined selves in a perfectly horrendous beast-form.

Really? But you two were so cute before this!

It wasn’t a terribly challenging fight (and I think I love Marle the healer more and more each time I play).

Woohoo! Now gimme that sword!

 

GTFO…seriously?

Huh. A broken sword. The fabled Masamune, nonetheless. It was quite the let down, but again, as video game logic would presume, there must be steps to getting a fabled thing. Since all I had was the blade, finding the hilt had to be the next thing to do. With nothing left in the mountains, I headed back down. I spent a little more time visiting the villages of Truce Canyon, where I ended up getting a Hero’s Medal (sparkly!) from one of the residents. Eventually, I ambled over to a new location: The Cursed Woods, at the end of which I found a secret, underground dwelling.

An underground bunker? House? Cool either way.

And what to my wondering eyes should appear…but FROG! 😀 😀 😀

Um…no. But thanks.

It was a happy but somber reunion as Frog remained perpetually sad about not being able to save everyone all the time. He perked up a little when I showed him the Hero’s Medal, and in return, he told Crono all about the Masamune.

We kind already knew that. Anything else?

But the useless conversation wasn’t completely useless as Frog revealed that he had stashed away the Masamune’s hilt. Score! Now we just needed to fix the sword. Wonder who could help us with that…?

Okay, but what about the…ooooooh. I see what you did there.

Next stop: Melchior. Our visit with Frog turned out to be brief as he refused to join the team because he just wasn’t good enough for anything, ever. I was disappointed, but I also didn’t need a self-pitying amphibian tagging along. (Sorry, Frog. You are still awesome, and someday you will realize that). It came time for Crono and pals to hightail it back to the lovely Medina Village of 1000 A.D., where people-hate was all the rage! And how nice it was to be back, if only to once again locate Melchior.

Quit with the yapping, you know why we’re here.

 

I love how Lucca gets straight to the point. No messing around!

After a brief, Captain Obvious chat about the sword, Melchior finally got to the part that would further direct Crono’s quest.

Thanks for the vote of confidence…and the still-broken sword. Jerk.

Melchior spoke of finding Dreamstone, a long extinct (rocks can go extinct? Okay, whatever.) red stone that was somehow special way back in the day. Keeping true to its namesake, it was time to trigger some chronos…er…do some time travel. We all ventured back to the End of Time where a new portal had opened up to a place called Mystic Mountain in 65,000,000 B. C. Wow. Like, the Cretaceous Era? No, that’s maybe too early. Whatever followed that. Still…what the hell was going to help me find Dreamstone? A giant fern? A dinosaur? A dinosaur would be cool. Casting my sarcasm aside, I traveled through space and time with Marle and Robo to Mystic Mountain. And that’s where we met Ayla.

At least she’s not a giant fern.

Upon being greeted by a bunch of reptilian enemies, along came Ayla, the not-cat woman, to save the day. She got in a little inappropriate Crono love and dismissed Robo in broken English (caveman-esque seems to be the point in this time) before inviting us all back to her village for some partying like it was 1999.

Both cute and offensive. I remain somewhat befuddled.

We traipsed back to Ayla’s village and proceeded to have a good time with her and the other villagers.

There was much dancing in circular formations.

And of course, with any “good time” comes the chance for it to get even better…right? *wink wink* Oh yeeaahh…it was time for some…

…soup?

Yep. Soup.

Okay fine, soup. And a soup-eating contest, nonetheless. As silly as it sounded, Ayla promised Crono some Dreamstone if he won the contest. With that wager in mind, it was time to slurp.

This better be the best goddamn soup in the whole goddamn world.

Now, going waaaay back to the start of the game, apparently there was a similar challenge at the Millennial Fair that involved soda. I completely missed that and was therefore summarily surprised that I actually had to try to win a mini-game by slurping soup the fastest. Just like with the race in the Proto Dome (or whatever dome it was), utilizing the game’s “buttons” on my tablet (remember: emulator) proved immensely frustrating. I tried several times, but I just couldn’t press fast enough. Good thing that the game built in a fail-safe for all the losers, because eventually Ayla felt so sorry for my complete lack of soup-slurping finesse that she handed over Dreamstone anyway. After that, it was time for a nap.

Uh oh. Whaddya mean by that…?

And apparently a very serious nap. One that put everyone into such a deep sleep that no noticed that a mysterious something had stolen Crono’s gate key (i.e. the thing that opens a time travel portal)!

Huh?

Thankfully, the mysterious something left a bunch of tracks, which clearly pointed to Crono’s next mission: find the three-toed culprit and retrieve the gate key.

Oh, a’questing we shall go!

I went back to inform Ayla of the situation, who once again proved conflictingly adorable and crude.

What a gal.

After regaining consciousness and in her own special way, Ayla vowed to help Crono, and she joined the party. It was therefore time to traverse the lands of Mystic Mountains.

So begins a new journey.

And so I currently reside, ready to take on the enemies that await in the jungles of prehistoric times. Whatever is out there is sure to prove interesting, as all the game’s previous spots have been fun to explore. And there’s sure to be a few boss battles, because that’s just how these things go. My only regret is that I didn’t have the time to get farther into to the game. Frankly, I don’t think the path covered here spanned more than an hour, if that.  But the game makes it feel like you’re putting more time into your quests than the counter says, and it makes them feel very necessary. No busy work; always doing, doing, doing. That’s certainly part of the game’s charm.

Well, damn. This was a super-long post, so gold stars to those of you who made it to the end! And that’ll do it for this month’s Mission Chrono Trigger update. Does it ever feel like November is just around the corner even though October only just started. With that in mind, I’ll be back before you know it with the next post in this series. 🙂