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.

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.

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


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.

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

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.

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…?

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.


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

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.

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.

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

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?

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.

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.

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)!

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.

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

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.

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 fartherĀ into to the game. Frankly, I don’t think the path covered here spannedĀ more than anĀ hour, if that. Ā But the game makes it feel like you’re putting more time into yourĀ questsĀ than the counter says, and it makes them feel very necessary. No busy work; always doing, doing, doing.Ā 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. š
There’s some great weapons and armor to be earned around here…unfortunately it requires some grinding in order to obtain…
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Hmm, good to know. I’m not against finding out a few levels at this point, but we’ll see. I actually haven’t been keeping close track of everyone’s levels. I should probably start doing that, especially since the enemies have been getting more difficult!
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It works out then! Yeah the whole point of the grind is to acquire enough “money” to buy the stuff from the village shopkeeper. though, when I say “money” in this case, I mean items to trade for the equipment.
On the plus side, the stuff does last you awhile once you get it. Also, in the future there will be a sidequest involving Frog, the past (600 AD), and a haunted castle. Whatever you do, DO NOT open the chests in the past before you have the chance to open them in the present. You’ll lock yourself out of some good loot otherwise.
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Thanks! Magic chests, hmm? Yes, I think I remember seeing one of those in Guardia Forest. I’ll have to keep that tip in mind. š
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Such a classic. I feel like everyone inevitably loves Frog (what a creative name). Starting to get to the critical parts of the game!
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Frog is just such a character, with a personality distinct from everyone else’s. It’s nice that no one in the game falls into your typical, cookie-cutter “adventurer” sterotypes. Not really, anyway.
It seems like things are ramping up in the story, so I’m excited to see what comes next.
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Yes, and there are individual side quests that further flesh out Frog’s back story if I remember correctly, or they might be added on the DS version
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Hmmm….I’ve not seen any instances of side quests so far. Then again, I haven’t really been looking. I bet a whole book could be written about Frog and his wild adventures!
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Fantastic stuff! It’s a lot of fun reliving the game this way, and I’m very impressed by how consistent your updates have been. You’re already well past the point where I got into the game properly (the trial sequence was what grabbed me), but I found CT got even better and more compelling towards the end.
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Thanks! I’ve found that doing monthly updates like this are a good way to help me more consistently stick with a game, even when life gets busy.
What I really like about this game so far is that there’s always a reason to move forward with the story. Like, there’s nothing to distract from Crono’s story. It’s nice to play a game that’s contained but feels open. And the more time periods that open up and the more people we meet, the better things get.
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I like Marle’s victory celebration.
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She has the best animations. Crono’s adorable too, but Marle’s pretty awesome all around.
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Reliving my childhood memories. It still seems to be as good as I remember it to be.
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I can’t imagine what it would have been like to play this game as a kid. It’s beautiful, simple, and complex all at once.
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