In the end, the resolution of the story of Serge, Lynx, and the Frozen Flame is a bit of a letdown. Lynx reveals that he has been the supercomputer FATE all along, and they have arranged this elaborate plan all so Serge could… open a door. And, while it has been pointed out multiple times on the stream that this plan could have been revised to be more effective (Lynx is secretly Serge’s father mutated into the thing that Serge most fears… but wouldn’t Serge be more cooperative if he was just asked to open a door by his beloved and lost father?), it is a plausible excuse for FATE making some of their more implausible moves across the plot. Need to bodyswap a teenage boy because you can’t find a decent locksmith? Sure! At least it gives the game an excuse to shuffle the supporting characters for six hours…
But while FATE’s whole stupid plan is the stupidest of the stupid, the origin of FATE? Now that is some good stuff.
FATE is a tragedy wholly caused by the events of Chrono Trigger. In one timeline, the enterprising teens of Guardia fired up a computer terminal in some ruins, and discovered the whole of the planet had been destroyed in 1999 by a gigantic space bug. As a result of seeing this catastrophe, they then traveled through thousands of years of history, and, ultimately, destroyed the Lavos creature before it could literally rain destruction from the heavens. This created a new future where, apparently, some spikey thing popped out of the planet, three teenagers crashed a UFO into it, and then everything involved just disappeared. And that would raise some questions, right? First and foremost: what the hell happened? What was that thing? Who were those people? Nobody would be walking around 2000 AD thinking, “Wow, so glad we are not living in an apocalypse right now.” They would all be thinking, “Wait, I’m sorry? Was there a kaiju causing earthquakes for the last thousand years? Could we look into that?”
Centuries pass, and technology progresses. By 2300 AD, mankind has gained the scientific knowledge to look back to the past in all new ways. They find a shard of Lavos, the Frozen Flame, and grow more fascinated by the now-absent Lavos. Aided by Balthasar, a genius transported from an ancient society that was much more intimately familiar with Lavos, they create Chronopolis, a massive facility meant to study what the heck happened three centuries (and 65 million years) earlier.
Chronopolis made a number of mistakes that would never have occurred if Crono and crew were consulted more directly. Researching Lavos? You know that is going to end poorly. Transforming Mother Brain into the FATE supercomputer? Not the route you would take if you knew that another timeline saw Mother Brain literally eating people. And, while apparently Lucca was on hand in some capacity to offer installing Robo as a conscience circuit… well… Nobody ever thought Lucca was the most moral of the Crono kids. She was a heroine, yes, but one with an instant proclivity toward evil laughs. Poor decisions were made in the management of Chronopolis, and, by 2400 AD, the inevitable “Time Crash” screwed up all of history but good.
And it never would have happened if Crono just went ahead and kept his left-handed ass back in 1000 AD. The death of Lucca by Lynx, the dragon-FATE war, and even possibly the militarization of Porre all would have never occurred if our “heroes” never fought to save the world. If Crono had not saved the future, he would have saved his present.
So kudos to Chrono Cross for weaving such a poignant tragedy. The actual machinations of FATE may have been laborious and convoluted, but how we got FATE back in 1020 AD is a catastrophe worth noting.
(Even if the fun parts of the tragedy get rewritten two dungeons later by Balthasar claiming everything was “according to plan” to free Schala from the Time Devourer. But I read comics! I know a hasty retcon meant to justify a final boss when I see one!)
Even Worse Streams presents Chrono Cross
Night 8
Original Stream Night: June 7, 2022
Recruited this week:
- Steena
- Draggy
- (Everyone that previously left the party, except Kid)
- Turnip
- Miki
- Orlha
- Kid (for the final time)
- Mel
Random Notes on the Stream:
- Fanboymaster doesn’t think we can finish the game this week. He’s right!
BEAT was afraid my tweet-based mentions of FATE meant we were going to do “The cooking game again”. He might have enjoyed that more…- Ample Vigour arrives as we beat the last dragon, perhaps with the power of the Glow.
- “Everybody loves Lou Bega!” “Nobody loves Lou Bega, that’s why I’m doing this!”
- There is always time to discuss cut Kingdom Hearts Jungle Stages while we fight evil Serge/Lynx.
- There is debate on the nature of “evolution” in the Chrono Cross universe as Serge is reborn as an extremely smug baby (with no nipples).
- Caliscrub stops by after we recruit random nonsense like Turnip and Miki
- Toma fucked a mermaid. But that is okay. Oh, and we are at the Dead Sea/Sea of Eden now.
- Let’s discuss Segagaga as we get to FATE HQ.
- Oh! The El Nido Map. I love that thing! Is Gaia’s Navel the Giant’s Claw from Chrono Trigger?
- Radical Dreamers is hiding on a terminal in another universe. Magil is confirmed separate from Guile in an actual game where Magil appears. Yay for translation mysteries finally being solved.
- Lynx is FATE! Gasp! May as well discuss Cammy wearing pants.
- Consider this foreshadowing for a Portal 2 stream as we talk about the reason FATE killed Robo.
- Sonic Generations features the Time Devourer… meaning it is the sequel to Chrono Cross.
Enjoy going back to the past to save Kid and confirm Gato and Lucca are dead! Which death is more upsetting?- “So did they make this game to shit on Chrono Trigger?” – Pooch
- Talkin’ bout Dragon Quest 7 tragedies in the middle of a burning building. This is likely how I will die.
- Okay! Kid is back! And we got a letter from Lucca meant to make us feel worse.
- And we create the Chrono Cross! While talking about JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure!
- And we conclude with the tragedy of Banjo-Tooie while we secure Starky’s ship and fly to the final dungeon.
Next time on Chrono Cross: The end! Update nine of ten!
BEAT arrives just as we finish an important conversation about the legend of the few people that can draw duck bills. We still haven’t finished Dario. And now for more about Disco Elysium.
Chrono Cross’s Dead Sea is maybe the single best set piece on the Playstation.
Even beyond all of this, the Dead Sea culminates with one of the most memorable boss fights in the game. After the “training wheels” of fighting a giant, angry ghost back on the Isle of the Damned, Miguel makes the scene to cap off the whole Dead Sea sequence. He is a white elemental opponent at a time when most of your party (or at least Serge) is vulnerable, and he utilizes some of the most powerful attacks available at this point. So he is likely to trash your party while wearing a fishing hat. Miguel has the significant plot importance of being your father’s pal and your girlfriend’s dad, and he has been augmented by a malevolent supercomputer from another dimension… but he is still absolutely just a dude. A dude that is going to kick your ass while sad music plays. It makes an impression.
We will always wonder who is not at Funguy’s level, and was cut from the final roster of Chrono Cross. Also marvel as BEAT accidentally invents Turnip, “the radish dude”.
Hell Chef inspires Hell Costanza here. If it is ever used again, you heard it here first.
Chrono Cross does one thing wonderfully… and the remake mucked it all up.
And while we’re deep in the angry well, the “shiny” effects that have been added to Chrono Cross HD seem to exist only to repel fans. Absolutely no one played Chrono Cross back at the turn of the century and said, “Well this Starky alien is neat and all, but he should be so much shinier!” Chrome doesn’t work on grays, and making an obviously biological entity appear to be robotic is unmistakably an unfortunate choice.
Racism makes zero sense in this lazy plot. I mean… racism never makes sense, but this specific racism is never fully explored.
We enter the monster fight arena to earn Janice. Enjoy that taking forever…