Chrono Trigger - Frog’s Past

I can not get over how gorgeous these maps are!

After wrapping up adventures in pre-history, Crono and friends hurry to the Medina village. When I visited the village this time, I realized this does not exist in alternate timeline. It is a different continent in our time, where the fiends rule. The humans and fiends exist in the same time, only at different places. The war probably resulted in a stalemate with fiends taking over one continent while the humans living on the other. When the party jumped into the pool of water, then travelled through space, not time.

Chrono Trigger is masterful at creating emotional narrative without using words!

Crono, Lucca, and Marle make their way to the house of lone human on this continent. Melchior is surprised to see Dreamstone but he does not waste time asking us where we got it from. Instead, he starts preparing to mend the Masamune. Lucca helps him, while Crono and Marle wait. With the sword complete, Crono decides to bring it back to the past in hopes of persuading Frog to join the party.

I have to stop here and just gush about how good this game is at creating emotional narrative without using too many words. When we see Lucca and Melchior mend Masamune, the whole world fades away into white and only the sword, stone, and the two creators are left. It is a powerful scene that conveys the strength of the sword without dialogue. The player is left in awe of the blade and what it signifies. The choice of white is also interesting. Masamune is to bring light to the world. We later see Magus trying to summon Lavos and everything is dark. Ultimately his decision brings about destruction and darkness. This scene fills the player with hope, while that one fills us with dread.

With the sword remade, Crono decides to bring to its rightful wielder. Through the Cursed Woods we go and find Frog at his usual abode. He starts off telling Crono he is not coming, but his voice trails off when he sees Masamune. He asks his friends to stay with him for the night while he sorts out his feelings. Cutscenes follow, shedding light on how Frog came to be in his current form.

First glimpse of Magus!

Cyrus was one of the knights in Queen Leene’s court. He was a fearsome fighter and defender of the crown. In an effort to win the war against the fiends he went out looking for Magus. He wanted to put an end to the man responsible for bringing so much pain and suffering on the humans. Cyrus left with the blessing of his King and Queen. The Knight took no soldiers with him save one who was his dear friend. Glen was no soldier, but he had known Cyrus all his life. The Knight trusted no one else the way he trusted Glen. When the duo finally faced up to Magus, his generals were there with him. Cyrus was no match for the might of these fiends. He realized this was the end, but his friendship and duty were still on his mind. He asked Glen to make a run for it while he tried to stop Magus here. Cyrus wanted Glen to go back and protect the Queen. Glen was as loyal a friend as Cyrus and there was no way he would leave his companion to die here alone. Magus, in all his cruelty did not kill Glen but turned him into a Frog as joke.

Frog’s reluctance in taking the mantle of the Hero was due to the fact he was never the Hero with the medal in the first place. That was Cyrus. It did not help seeing Cyrus die before his eyes while he was unable to protect him. The trauma of the day still haunted him. Even though he rescued the Queen from her captors, Frog saw himself as a failure. He felt he could be of no help to anyone, which forced him to come hide in the Cursed Woods. Seeing Crono do the impossible task of finding and fixing Masamune made Frog realize he was running away from the duty bestowed on him by his dying friend. He resolves to not run away anymore. When the rest of the party wakes up in the morning, Frog is ready to go take on Magus.

A new chapter in Crono’s adventures is beginning and our heroes are out to save humanity again.

12-03-2020

Glen is ready to pick up the mantle

With Masmune in hand, Frog leads the party to the Magic Cave. Here we find more about Glen and Cyrus. Glen was always a small kid. He was often bullied by other kids. Cyrus would step in to save him whenever he witnessed the bullying. He told Glen to toughen up and hit back, but Glen could never bring himself to raise his hands against his tormentors. He had been cursed with empathy. Glen knew how much it hurt when he was hit. He could not inflict that kind of pain to another, even if that person was his bully.

The game does a good job building up this relationship.

Cyrus was presdestined to be a knight

As they grew older, Cyrus announced he was going to join the King’s military so he could one day become a knight. Glen always knew that was Cyrus’ destiny. Honor and duty mattered to him, and there was no other path where he could be more honorable than one where he was dutybound to his King and Queen. Cyrus suggested joining the military together, but Glen also knew he could never do it. At the time he made an excuse of being too cowardly to be in a battlefield. But both knew that was not true. Glen was brave and he showed courage many times over. But he could not follow a career where he would be asked to inflict pain on others. His empathy for others had only grown stronger as he grew older.

Once Cyrus chose to go after Magus, Glen could not let his friend go into danger alone. Even though he did not condone doing violence to others, Cyrus was his childhood friend. If Glen did not take care of him then who would? And He never left his friend’s side. Even as Cyrus lay dying Glen was by his side. And for his empathy he was rewarded with a curse of being transformed into a giant amphibian. When Frog woke up, he made his way back to the court to fulfill his friend’s dying wish. He swore to protect Queen Leene. But her abduction was a blow to his confidence. Seeing Masamune in all its glory finally reminded him of the promise he made to his friend. Frog is now ready to finish the job Cyrus died for.

That is one spooky looking keep! Top notch atmosphere building!

Frog uses Masamune to cut open the cliff that guards the entrance to the Magic Cave. Once inside a bat joins the party. Since it is just hanging out around them, no one pays much attention to it. On the other side of the cave is the Fiendlord’s Keep. It does not seem like anyone is home. There are shades of people who resemble our friends and family, but they are not real. There is no way to interact with then. In fact, Crono goes right through them.

After exploring the whole keep and not finding a soul, Crono returns to the main hall. A nasty surprise is waiting for our friends here. Ozzy is back and he lets Crono know Magus us too busy to worry about this riffraff so he will be taking care of us. And he will be helped by the other two generals. It means there are going to be three boss fights followed by a longer boss fight. Maybe I should have been grinding up a bit.

12-05-2020

Ozzy is so deliciously hateable as a boss.