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freshfeelingThis third session of the Chrono Trigger Holiday Challenge was played on December 5th, 2023.
We began at the Factory. I had Lucca and Robo in PC slots 2 and 3, respectively, very purposefully so that the palettes would be less screwy in battle. Consequently, I couldn't equip Marle with her new Robin Bow when we got it, but that's probably okay. Probably the majority of battles here were against Acid and Alkaline where our attack power doesn't really matter, so things felt normal and balanced here. Robo learned Robo Tackle partway through.
I eventually got to the R-series robots, and as usual they kicked the crap out of Robo.
I hadn't really thought about how this battle was going to go; for a moment, I was truly worried about how to do this battle effectively with just Marle and Lucca, before realizing Robo was going to be in the party despite being thrown in the garbage. So, in fact, this battle was probably easier than usual, even without Crono's very effective Cyclone tech.
I am still figuring out how the third character is actually being treated in battles that don't have an assigned position for them. I didn't analyze the situation in any detail but I've got no idea why Robo appears where he is. Anyway, Flame Toss was able to hit 3 robots at a time and Laser Spin was fairly effective here, so this battle was easy.
After this, we were able to access the End of Time, and thus Spekkio! Finally, Marle and Lucca could learn their powerful magic spells. To ensure it would happen all at once, my field party was set to Crono, Lucca and Marle. I was surprised to find that Spekkio was a frog.
Lucca and Marle hit the froggy with spells while Robo used Laser Spin. I don't know whether I've ever naturally reached the Spekkio in frog form... but what's happening here, I realized, is that the level used to determine Spekkio's form must be factoring in Crono's level, and Crono has been gaining experience at a reduced rate as if he is an out-of-party character, so he's still below 10.
Not only does learning Marle and Lucca's spells offer them a much better offensive option and open up their future techniques, but it also grants us more combos. We've had very few of those so far!
We went to Medina. I had so many swords and other Crono-centric treasures that I sold a bunch of things to see if I could afford some of those terribly-priced goods in Medina, but it wasn't even close. We shopped a bit with Melchior and entered the Heckran Cave. This area was about the same difficulty as usual, or maybe a tiny bit easier since Laser Spin is actually fairly effective here (even though in normal play, I'd never bring Robo to this particular area).
Heckran was probably a bit slower than usual on account of not having Crono's Lightning spells - or his speed stat! But it was a pretty straightforward fight.
We got the Taban Vest and proceeded to 600 A.D. via the fair. We saved everyone with jerky power and faced Zombor. Once again, I didn't recall the specifics of this fight's mechanics and had to do a little trial and error at the start of the fight. His attacks are actually pretty damaging, but it wasn't especially hard.
I seem to recall this part of the game feels pretty directionless; I was kind of walking around talking to NPCs to see if anyone was going to urge me to talk to Frog or go to Denadoro Mountains, but they really don't. I rested the party and started the Denadoro Mountains anyway.
Fights here are fine; as long as you remember to use Flame Toss or Fire on the hammer-wielding Ogans the enemies all go down quickly. Laser Spin was useful in some battles, too. We picked up the fairly well-hidden MirageHand and SilverStud here and equipped both.
We saved at a save point most of the way through the mountain, before the fight with Masa and Mune. It's one that I've been thinking about; I don't have any means to cancel their stored tornado energy, so hopefully I'll be able to take the hits and heal up afterward effectively enough. We'll see about that next time.
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We began at the Factory. I had Lucca and Robo in PC slots 2 and 3, respectively, very purposefully so that the palettes would be less screwy in battle. Consequently, I couldn't equip Marle with her new Robin Bow when we got it, but that's probably okay. Probably the majority of battles here were against Acid and Alkaline where our attack power doesn't really matter, so things felt normal and balanced here. Robo learned Robo Tackle partway through.
I eventually got to the R-series robots, and as usual they kicked the crap out of Robo.
I hadn't really thought about how this battle was going to go; for a moment, I was truly worried about how to do this battle effectively with just Marle and Lucca, before realizing Robo was going to be in the party despite being thrown in the garbage. So, in fact, this battle was probably easier than usual, even without Crono's very effective Cyclone tech.
I am still figuring out how the third character is actually being treated in battles that don't have an assigned position for them. I didn't analyze the situation in any detail but I've got no idea why Robo appears where he is. Anyway, Flame Toss was able to hit 3 robots at a time and Laser Spin was fairly effective here, so this battle was easy.
After this, we were able to access the End of Time, and thus Spekkio! Finally, Marle and Lucca could learn their powerful magic spells. To ensure it would happen all at once, my field party was set to Crono, Lucca and Marle. I was surprised to find that Spekkio was a frog.
Lucca and Marle hit the froggy with spells while Robo used Laser Spin. I don't know whether I've ever naturally reached the Spekkio in frog form... but what's happening here, I realized, is that the level used to determine Spekkio's form must be factoring in Crono's level, and Crono has been gaining experience at a reduced rate as if he is an out-of-party character, so he's still below 10.
Not only does learning Marle and Lucca's spells offer them a much better offensive option and open up their future techniques, but it also grants us more combos. We've had very few of those so far!
We went to Medina. I had so many swords and other Crono-centric treasures that I sold a bunch of things to see if I could afford some of those terribly-priced goods in Medina, but it wasn't even close. We shopped a bit with Melchior and entered the Heckran Cave. This area was about the same difficulty as usual, or maybe a tiny bit easier since Laser Spin is actually fairly effective here (even though in normal play, I'd never bring Robo to this particular area).
Heckran was probably a bit slower than usual on account of not having Crono's Lightning spells - or his speed stat! But it was a pretty straightforward fight.
We got the Taban Vest and proceeded to 600 A.D. via the fair. We saved everyone with jerky power and faced Zombor. Once again, I didn't recall the specifics of this fight's mechanics and had to do a little trial and error at the start of the fight. His attacks are actually pretty damaging, but it wasn't especially hard.
I seem to recall this part of the game feels pretty directionless; I was kind of walking around talking to NPCs to see if anyone was going to urge me to talk to Frog or go to Denadoro Mountains, but they really don't. I rested the party and started the Denadoro Mountains anyway.
Fights here are fine; as long as you remember to use Flame Toss or Fire on the hammer-wielding Ogans the enemies all go down quickly. Laser Spin was useful in some battles, too. We picked up the fairly well-hidden MirageHand and SilverStud here and equipped both.
We saved at a save point most of the way through the mountain, before the fight with Masa and Mune. It's one that I've been thinking about; I don't have any means to cancel their stored tornado energy, so hopefully I'll be able to take the hits and heal up afterward effectively enough. We'll see about that next time.
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