Insane Difficulty: My Playthrough - Insane Difficulty

Never really logged a playthrough of a game before, guess this is as good a time as any to start. Obviously this will contain strategy spoilers and such, read at your risk. From what I gather this is still beta-ish, so maybe my feedback can help the dev?

Initially, having no idea what to expect, I just rushed the start as per usual, and was promptly spanked by the blue imps. Second attempt, I bought the equipment upgrades and ten tonics with my starting allowance, the defensive gear didnt seem to do much but the tonics got me through. Learned cyclone in the second battle with imps. Ignored everything, got treasure and Lucca at the castle. Fought 4 battles against the blue imps and roly to learn fire toss, sold my ethers and bought equipment upgrades for Lucca, gave her the bandanna. Fight with naga-ettes took awhile, fire whirl and tonics get you by. Got Frog, left to heal and buy more tonics. Back at the cathedral, picked up all the treasure, and killed a few enemies on the way to Yakra to learn slurp cut for Frog, gave Lucca the speed belt, Crono the bandanna and steel sword, and frog the iron sword. enemies here are pretty tough, but with a 3 man team it's entirely manageable. levels were 5/5/6. Got lucky with Yakra and he continuously hung out in the lower right corner between Crono and Frog, killing his counterattack move, which I'm guessing is crazy strong (never saw it). needle spin move is a near OHKO, but Lucca on item bitch duty kept my team healthy. X-strikes, and later physicals killed Yakra quickly. Took Lucca's speed belt before going back to the present. Also, the Poly enemy in the forced encounter back to the time portal doesn't seem to have been modified, very weak compared to even the green imp in the same battle.

Sold my mid ether and bought equipment upgrades for Marle, as well as more tonics. Have to say, I do like that the girls have higher base speed stats. Killed a few mushrooms on the way to the castle to learn Aura. Got my free ethers in the cell, and tried to escape. here's the first real problem I've found, unless you grind (I'm still lv5) you can't win (or run from) the encounter with 2 guards on the bridge, tonics don't heal enough, and to my knowledge there's no easy access to mid tonics just yet... there's two in chests near the start of the dungeons, but after getting those there's an equally unkillable Omnicrone who one shots you. Of course, you can just wait in the cell for Lucca to rescue you (which I did), but I think the Guard enemies in this area could be toned down a bit so soloing is an option for some players. With Lucca back, I backtracked to the Omnicrone area for chests. Also, there's a glitch in the omnicrone fight if you have Lucca, he'll one shot Crono and then never attack you again, I had at least 20 uninterrupted attacks with Lucca to kill it. Reached lv6 on both after killing the two guards on bridge, the 2x guard encounters are doable with two people. Picked up 15 midtonics from unconscious guards and the warden. Dragon tank killed me on the first attempt, I was overly aggressive and not wanting to use Crono's turns for healing. Second attempt I did heal with Crono when needed. The tanks laser counterattack when the parts are dead is surprisingly weak compared to the tanks other attacks, this fight's really easy once the head goes down.

Just reached the future, sold my mid ethers and bought iron gear as well as the autogun for Lucca. Gave Marle the speedbelt, Crono the bandanna and Lucca the defender, levels are 6 Crono/Marle and 7 Lucca. Lab 16 next time.

So far I'm liking this more than many other JRPG difficulty hacks I've played, there's zero forced grinding- so far just killing whichever enemies get in the way is more than sufficient. Based on what I've seen up to now, there don't seem to be any AI script changes, but I guess we'll see. Seems to me something of that caliber would be good for a game like Crono Trigger- your units have little variety (9 moves each plus item command) so the boss fights were 90% of the time based around some trick or other rather than "use best spell / heal when low on health", instead battles are normally based around preventing enemies from using their counterattacks/supermoves, finding the right sequence of attacks to damage the boss, and so on. If there's no AI changes it's basically just Crono Trigger with bigger numbers, and no matter how much attack power you give some bosses, if you already know the trick for the fight, you wont lose. Golem for example, the trick is to cycle your elemental spells every turn, he then wastes all his turns copying you and never attacks once, I don't care if he can one shot a lv99 team in one move, if I stop him from ever attacking, I win.

Went through lab 16, fought the one forced battle for the chest with Lode sword. Healing on the plant enemies here was buffed pretty crazy, had to use a firewhirl on it instead of a round of attacks from the party. Crono reach lv7. Bastard rats stole my now mostly worthless tonics. Tried the sewer and... obviously you're not meant to go here until getting the time machine later on. I'm a little intrigued as to what might be in the chests in there, now. Back to arris dome, Guardian fight is the same as always, barely killed him before he revived the bits a second time "0" message came up right before my final attack. Finished the dome, ignoring minor enemies.

Got Robo, benched Lucca. Gave robo's titan vest to Marle and gave Robo the berserker. Robo's speed is also buffed- nice. To the factory, berserk robo usually one shots acids/alkalines, which don't seem to be any different from what I remember. Skipped the right side of the dungeon. lv9/9 for the R series, wasn't sure how many HP they had so used cyclone on alternating rows ensuring I'd kill them one attack apart, thus negating their techs. took 10 cyclones to end the fight. team reached lv10, so no frog spekkio for me. Learned magic, and killed Spekkio, gave magic tab to Marle and the power tabs I forgot about to Crono. Benched Robo, possibly forever, depending on how tough Nizbel is later on, and if I bother to do Geno dome or not.

To 1000 AD! Free mid ether in the forest! Saved and tried selling my inventory, only 20k G's, so no Demon Blade for me. Instead sold all my mid ethers and bought the standard crap from Melchior. Enemies in the cave actually pose a threat now, but are still basically fodder. gave Lucca the magicscarf. Lv 11 party killed heckran with lots of antipode, and crono tossing mid tonics at whoever got hit by his potent attacks. Am assuming anyone foolish enough to trigger his counterattack gets instant game over. Got my mid ethers in truce, bought more mid tonics, and got taban's vest, which still has a speed boost, sweet.

until next time.

Game Over count: 6 (blue imps, guards on bridge twice, omnicrone twice, dragon tank)

Back to the middle ages, did fetchy questy stuff, free golden helm, hit ozzie a couple times, kill zombor. Antipode/crono's physicals took the head out in three rounds and the legs do pitiful damage, this is the first boss fight where I never had to heal once. Zombor could probably benefit from being beefed up further, that fight was way too easy for a hardtype mod.

Traded for a magic tab, bought gold gear at Porre, and off to the mountain. Game is getting much tougher now, freelancer enemies are pretty nasty, strong counterattack move and no way for me to one-shot them (at least until I get spincut... which based on the TP I need will happen maybe right before the boss), fire whirl works well at least. Nearly lost to a group of two of them, as I stupidly triggered both their counters with a fire whirl attack- won't be doing that again, using that tech on singles only now. the gauntlet of fights halfway through the area was pretty tough also, I needed 3 revive items to scrape through the fourth battle. First speedtab, givin it to Marle. Learned napalm, spincut, and cure in the last two battles before the boss. Party reached lv14 somewhere in the mountain. First fight, only attack Mune (Masa counters), killed in two ice swords and a napalm... maybe this fight is a bit too easy also. Their combined form didn't seem too bad initially, his physicals only hitting around 70. ice sword and napalm still my best offense here. Crono's slash tech stops his charge attack which is probably a OHKO to the party. Suddenly, his attack power randomly _tripled_ after I cancelled his first charge attack, his physicals are now one shotting Marle/Lucca at full health and clearing 200 on Crono. First genuine shit got real moment of this mod. Bugger's quick too, keeping up with two 13 speed units. Probably should've worn that silver earring... ran out of revives, but managed to end the fight before he did any lasting damage. Party reached lv15. Got the broken sword, and now it's time to go kill dinosaurs. Actually, I better buy more revives first...

Game Over count: 8 (blue imps, guards on bridge twice, omnicrone twice, dragon tank, sewers twice)

Bought 20 revives. antipoded some reptites. some cavemen got drunk and ayla joins. Lucca to the bench, probably forever. The berserker from the chest in the canyon is now stapled on Ayla for the forseeable future. Her regular attacks (non critical) are as strong as crono's spincut tech- nice. Off to the hunting range, enemies here aren't made of paper anymore, killed everything, traded for equipment upgrades. Ice sword and berserk Ayla attacks made short work of anything stupid enough to attack me in the forest maze. Fell down some holes in the reptite cave, megasaur enemies are pretty damn durable gotta say. Stronger mix of enemies in here than in the Maze but still nothing overly threatening. First Nizbel attempt was a disaster, tried the ol' double berserker routine with Robo, and Crono's mid tonics aren't enough to outheal his lightning move. Sensibly brought Marle back and tried again, team is level 18 (Ayla lv19). Outside of a couple ice swords at the start of the fight (after lightning obv) berserk Ayla did all the work, as all my turns were spent using lightning to restun him, and aurawhirl twice before he casts his lightning spell again. Took 6 rounds of him being stunned for Ayla to end the fight. Learned both cat attack (more importantly, volt bite) and haste after this battle. Don't ever remember learning techs so fast, some enemies' TP must have been increased? Not that I mind having haste, mind you.

Next time, I'll storm Magus' Lair.

Game Over count: 9 (blue imps, guards on bridge twice, omnicrone twice, dragon tank, sewers twice, Nizbel once)

I fix a sword, give it to a frog, and take him to see spekkio, who is still a kilwala. I elect not to kick his ass again. Frog cuts a mountain in half, and we're on our way. Boo, icewater has been nerfed, not oneshotting randoms in the cave anymore. I mean, it still one shots the bats but not the gremlins. meh, a twoshot win is acceptable. Nearly wiped on the 5 gremlin battle, 5 counterattacks is a lot to tank for 3 units. Ozzie summoned some goons- they looked thirsty, and I was happy to oblige. I elect to fight Flea first. I gave Frog the berserker for this fight. He eats an MP Buster, but eh, he wasnt gonna use them TP anyway. Party level is 19 (Frog 17). Fight time, Marle hastes the party (starting with Frog, my offense in this fight) while Crono gets a few spincuts in. Frog unleashes his fury. after my team's hasted, Crono and Marle are on standby to toss heals if anyone gets poisoned/chaos'd, or use Aura whirl after The Stare. Frog, being berserk, shrugs off most status attacks (not blind, but he wasn't missing so I didnt bother)and ends the fight pretty quickly. The whole team gains a level, I feed marle the magic tab, and take a quick pitstop outside to eat a shelter. Slash time, Frog is still berserk. Regular attacks and haste (with the odd aura) make short work of the first fight. More of the same in the second fight, except I am now using aurawhirl as his slash attack hits multiple units. Yikes, he has a move dealing 400 damage (OHKO to one member- Crono in my case). And now he's countering Frog's physicals... luckily I still have all those revives from earlier. The last few rounds of this fight were ugly, and item filled, but I won. I'll take that slasher and it's highly desirable +2 speed. bandanna to Frog, Power scarf to Crono. Another shelter eaten and it's time to explore the dungeon proper.

Hah, not a proper update, but I've just noticed Frog is still wearing Bronze gear. I better change that!

Alright, now this feels like a difficulty hack. Monsters in Magus' castle do not fuck around. Can't icewater your way through everything anymore, I mean, I use it constantly but it's not the random oneshot it used to be. Sorcerors are especially huge dicks healing the whole enemy party for 300 every other round, luckily a spincut and attacks from Frog and Marle take one out (one round of attacks). There's a mistrobe in a chest, and dark mail to help Frog's abysmal mdef stat (this is where I noticed I hadnt upgraded Frog's armours). Save point enemies are still hilarious sources of free exp, killed a few encounters of these as I got lost in the room with Ozzie's pitfalls. Never knew outlaw had a dualtech counter with jugglers until now, hurts bad too. They're absolute pussies by themselves though. Frog learned Heal in this area. Holy hell, roly bombers are awful, thankfully I had my team at full health when I attacked one (260+ to whole party). Another speed belt? yes please, equipped on Frog. Healed fully before fighting Ozzie in case something nasty was done here (nope! still a joke).

Okay, Magus fight time, my party is lv23 (frog is 21).

...I didn't win the first time. darkmatter is crazy strong (600 dmg all, total party kill). I could be ten levels higher and it will one shot my whole party. So, the only solution is to kill him before he can cast that spell:

http://youtu.be/2jNK50js-Js

In fact, I died another two times in practicing the fight, and getting this strategy to work (for the record, the barrier items are worthless). The ice spell I cast in the video that healed him was not an accident, I needed to keep him in his weakness shifting phase until I could reapply haste to my whole team, to have enough time to finish him before darkmatter- also, I needed to set his weakness to water for obvious reasons. Also, first video of the thread, hurray!

Now, I'm off to kill more dinosaurs.

Game Over count: 12 (blue imps, guards on bridge twice, omnicrone twice, dragon tank, sewers twice, Nizbel once, Magus thrice)

EDIT: Goddamnit, I have no idea how to put a video in a post on this forum.

EDIT2: At least there's a link now.

Wake up in prehistory, traded for weapon upgrades. Frog now using the berserker, Crono using speed belt. Enemies in the dactyl nest are pretty high defensive. Physicals and spincuts are best offense for me right now, ice sword can one shot the avian rexes though. Crono learned Lightning 2 on the way up. Ayla joins for good, Frog's off to the bench for awhile. Ayla is still using the berserker from before. Having lightning 2 is nice, there are a lot of reptites with high physical defense in here, when shocked a barrage of physicals beats them handily. Man, those volcano enemies are funny, killing their own team like that. Learned ice2 on the way to Nizbel. Switched Ayla's berserker for the bandanna before fighting Nizbel. My party was lv25 (Ayla 24) for this fight. I get in 2 volt bites while Marle hastes the party. Next I use 3 ice swords while Ayla heals up damage with her kiss. Lastly, another healing tech from marle and ayla to ensure full health and then a lightning spell from crono to trigger his counterattack, then the fight starts over, with marle healing instead of using haste during the volt bites. On the third repeat of this pattern, he dies during the ice sword barrage. Nizbel's attacks aren't especially strong, and the lightning spell he uses is surprisingly underwhelming. Consume a shelter, and pressing on towards Azala. Party level 26 (Ayla 25).

First attempt, hasted whole party, 8 ice swords killed Azala while Ayla tossed mid tonics/ethers as needed. Tyrano lowered his defence, started using ice sword and cat attack to deal damage. countdown ended, game is over. nobody was wearing ruby vests, bad idea. Second attempt, same thing, except the ruby vests nerfed the hell out of his firebreath, making it survivable. I actually killed the boss while his defense was up afterwards with regular physicals, meaning I was pretty close to having killed him before the firebreath attack on my first attempt. Ah well. Ayla reached lv26 and learned rock throw upon winning, giving me a new selection of crazy good dual techs (falcon hit and cube toss). Off to the best era in the game now.

Game Over count: 13 (blue imps, guards on bridge twice, omnicrone twice, dragon tank, sewers twice, Nizbel once, Magus thrice, Azala once)

In 12,000BC. Frog's subbing for Ayla for one fight, the 6 Nus. Lots of Lit2, ice2, and heal win the day. Gave both tabs to Marle, my whole team is now speed 14. Another magic tab from scratching the nu's back, and told that npc to plant the seed. Powered up the pendant, and now I'm going to piss Dalton off by killing his Golem.

http://youtu.be/P5n98-pc_KE

Another video! You're welcome. With all my speed, I can cycle my best damage per round, in this case cube toss and spincut, instead of weaker single techs to keep the golem's attacking neutered. The damage on his death retaliation move is a little concerning though, when I fight the golem twins later I'm going to have to be careful that I don't kill them at the same time.

Spekkio's a goblin now, so I'd better kill him again. Frog subs for Ayla again. Easy fight with all the healing at my disposal. To the future, I collect the race log I forgot about earlier, and then it's on to the sewers of doom. And, theyre not nearly as bad as initially appeared when I entered at level 7 ages ago. Falcon Hit and ice2 handle the minor enemies pretty solidly. Rage band in a chest, neat, but I like my speed too much. Cute, Krawlie pretended to be a boss monster, he's just a Nu with a more menacing appearance (and a lot of health). And, the bolt sword in the chest isn't even worth considering at this point. I'm a little disappointed with the sewers now after seeing it while weak. Two more tabs, and I get my time machine, and now have a bunch of free crap to collect... which I'll do next time!

I can assure you there are AI script changes, but only toward the end of the game. Black Omen is where shit truly gets real. Only 3 deaths to Magus, not bad. Barrier can be used to survive Dark Matter, but you probably have to grind for a bit as well. But since it's possible to zerg him down instead, the grind isn't necessary. No love for frog Spekkio Mayhaps I will have to upgrade some of the bosses you dubbed underwhelming.

Thanks for your reply, oh Glorious creator. Looking forward to the endgame stuff now, want to see what some of those monsters can do.

---

Anyway, time to collect some treasure. after hopping around time, I have a set of elemental mails and vests - which I had better put back when the adventure's over so I don't destroy existence, a set of stat rings, some other accessories I likely will never use (gold earring possibly excluded), a few more tabs, high end ethers and a couple elixirs, the rest of Lucca's taban gear, and lastly, the one item I likely will regret choosing at some point, the Swallow (+3 speed is really good, you guys. Also holy hell the atk power on the weapon is a stupid huge increase right now). After some shuffling of gear around, Crono is now using the Swallow and Bandanna (** spd), Marle is using the Dash ring and ate a speedtab (** spd), and Ayla is using a speed belt (15 spd).

With my new toys I feel nice and suicidal, so it's time to go to the sunken desert. And, holy asschrist, do the enemies hit hard in here... sometimes. The sand cyclone move by the Mohavors hits OVER 4000 damage. Their physicals are a much more manageable 350. And, thankfully, they piss a lot of their turns away with status attacks. Hexapod's physical is also manageable at around 250, their tech attack is a one hit kill though- and they are FAST. Falcon Hit and Ice 2 do nice damage, 3 rounds of this (with some revives tossed around as needed) kills the enemies here. After winning my first battle here, my whole team gained a level and Crono learned Life. Based on the exp gained, and strength of the enemies, this section is likely meant for later, but I'm pressing on! ...or so I thought, until I wiped on a battle with 3 hexapods. Since they all use their OHKO (for now) move on the second turn, that's a game over for me. I'll come back later....

So, that means it's onto the Mt Woe. Bought equipment upgrades from the earthbound village, sold my lone Megalixir (description says outside battle only. I'm drowning in ether, so I'll take the cool, 25k). The beast enemies hit hard and have tons of defense, but aren't fast enough to be a real threat. Onto the Mud imp fight! Whole team is lv28. Had a very bad start to the fight by triggering a nasty counterattack I forgot about by using falcon hit while Marle was hasting the party. Once I got back in the fight (revived, healed & haste), 3 ice swords took out the red beast while Ayla was tossing tonics as needed. Next, lots of spincut and rockthrow against the blue beast while Marle heals. When the imp is alone, 3 rounds of ice sword/rock throw killed him. Crono and Marle leveled up after this fight.

Tune in next update, wherein I presumably kill lots of boulders and, maybe, a giant too.

Game Over count: 14 (blue imps, guards on bridge twice, omnicrone twice, dragon tank, sewers twice, Nizbel once, Magus thrice, Azala once, 3 hexapods once)

Climbing the mountain. Rubble enemies have less hp it seems, which is good, because I like getting 100tp in a battle. The flying imp enemies take forever to kill, but arent especially threatening. Gargoyles have an annoying down to 1HP attack, but are weak, one falcon hit kills them, they also like to show up in formations where you can OHKO the entire group with the move. Those plant enemies also die in one falcon hit (great move). One my way up, I learn confuse (Ice sword 2! yeah), Cure 2 (worthless, cure is already a full heal), Charm and Tailspin. The party reaches level 32.

Since I know giga gaia starts the fight with strong magic, I give Crono Black mail, Marle Red mail, and Ayla the Red Vest. To make a long story short, I annihilated the poor bastard.

http://youtu.be/Y29Dq8kWwRg

Well, that was... way easier than expected, but I guess remembering his elemental attacks was key?

next time, I piss off Dalton some more, and one of my guys just, maybe, might die.

Interesting. I actually didn't balance Giga Gaia with the sealed chests in mind. He's fairly difficult without them, but that certainly changes things... at least he's not an endgame boss or anything.

The only real issue I can see with giga gaia is that he's completely neutered without the hands, it's too easy to blitz him once those are down. I can see how this would have been a rough time without the elemental mails, that fire spell does lots of damage, and even with max speed you might need luck to get a heal off before the shadow spell right after. If you give him some means of attack without his hands in a future release the fight will be tougher, but also I guess it's not entirely endgame yet.

---


Some plot happens. the long and short of it, is I am going to kill Dalton. Many iron balls fall on my guys' heads. 3 ice sword 2's with ayla tossing lapis, as I wasn't sure when he'd die, and know he has a counterattack, and he is dead.

Ocean palace now, weapon upgrades for everyone! Except Crono. Falcon hit dominates minor enemies here, except the scouters, a lv 1 or 2 spell kills one/all of them. Except red, since I'm not using Lucca. Those guys take awhile to whittle down with falcon hit / physicals depending on my TP. And also, except the genies because of how they work, so an Ice sword 2 kills them individually. Backtracking on the elevator for a magic tab, kill some more stuff. Eventually, reaching the Golem Twins. My party reached lv36 on the way, and learned Luminaire, Life 2 and Dino Tail. Opted to play it safe vs the golem twins, gave Crono blue vest, Marle Blue mail. Opened the fight with ice 2 before hasting marle and crono. 3 ice sword 2's killed a golem, while ayla attempted charming. Awesomely, I got both magic tabs. Life 2 on Ayla undid the death counterattack, and after healing, the usual elemental cycle killed the other golem. I've clearly played this game (vanilla) before, so at this point Crono gets hide gear and a power glove... poor bastard. Alright, time to fight Lavos, I have a crazy strategy that will... who am I kidding, he one shots the party before I can enter a command. Crono dies. Frog hops off the bench, and I'm off to mess with Dalton some more.

Spreading out the speed, Marle gets a speedbelt (15), Frog gets the dash ring (14). I am taken hostage aboard the blackbird. I wander around getting my stuff back for awhile, the enemies are pretty weak, cube toss wins most encounters. Magic tab in the air vents, I'll take that. The turret enemies hit hard, but their TP are so awesome. On my way to the boss, Frog learns Leap slash and Water 2, and Ayla learns triple kick. Haste, Dropkick and Cube toss make very short work of the hilarious Golem Boss. 3 dropkicks kill Dalton. Obviously, the joke dungeon is still just that. Some plot happens and Magus joins. Frog can go cheer for the team on the bench for a bit. And, Magus is taking his dash ring, also.

Actually, it looks like I have to kill Spekkio again, he is an omnicrone now, so I'll swap Frog for Ayla for a minute. Give him a speedbelt, and toss random elemental mails around. His lightning 2 spell is downright Nasty. instant kill to anyone not absorbing lightning. This was a revive item filled fight, but I eventually managed to win with Magus doing most of the work (I haphazardly gave him White mail). Get the Chrono Trigger, and now I have to do the damn clone minigame. I ruckus Gato a few times for some points, lose the challenge costing me 2,000G's, and am off to Death peak.

Which I will play tomorrow, I am le tired.

Alright, death mountain time. After some time lost since I forgot to get the poyoza things from Belthasar, and did a poor job hiding behind trees, it's time to get to work. A cube toss and a fire2 is enough to kill the minor enemies here. Before long, I come to my first Lavos Spawn. Magus and Frog tag out, Frog borrows magus's dash ring. The Lavos spawn is powerful, but with Haste, strong dual techs (Glacier and dropkick), as well as Frog's heal spell and some lapis, I pull through. Seems like exp points have been buffed up a lot here, I'm gaining levels very quickly now. Here's a link to my fight against the second Lavos spawn, I wasn't recording during the first one I fought.

http://youtu.be/UQ6vuA6d_2c

Against the third one, since I now know how quickly I can beat these, I opt not to heal on the second turn and have him down before he can do anything other than the initial attack. Crono is back to life, and it's sidequest time!

SOON.

http://images4.wikia...Mega_Mutant.gif

Oh my, what could you possibly have done to the mutants?

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED.

---

First things, first, I'm now noticing I missed a speed tab in Ozzie the 8th's house. Giving that to Crono, who now has max speed with an empty accessory slot! Nice. I want to make use of that, so I'm going after the sunstone first. Also, giving Marle the dash ring to max her speed again also. Crono and Marle get the red mail and vest. Ayla's probably gonna die... fight time! And my prediction holds true, Ayla is oneshotted by a flame counterattack. Hasted Crono and Marle hunt for the real fire. His flare spell heals them both for over 6000 HPs, good thing I'm wearing those red armours. His laser move hits nearly 2000, that's a one shot also. Good thing both my characters know a Life spell. I find the real flame quick enough, and get a ton of hasted hits in before he can shuffle again. In the second round after a couple hits, and eating another laser, I see the message that he's losing his fire and quickly revive Ayla so she gets some of that delicious boss exp. I'm rewarded with a Black Mail for my efforts, and the whole party gains two levels. Lucca tags in to complete the quest, and I now have the powertab from 600 AD's sunkeep, Wondershot and Sunglasses, which Crono wears immediately.

Next, I think I'll do the ruins. While I'm gathering the tools, I also visit Toma's grave for a Speed tab which Ayla eats, maxing her speed now also, and opening up the Giant's Claw. My first battle in the ruins against the sentries doesn't go especially well, before long I realised the enemies aren't going to go down quick and start using Final Kick continuously. it takes me 3 kicks to kill each one. In the next battle, I tried Ice sword 2, which is doing comparable damage and hits them both, while Ayla heals. Much smoother. In my third battle, against four of them, more Ice Sword 2, except Ayla is stealing this time as I noticed their attacks are all percentage based (until their death counterattack). I nab a sweet 4 full ethers before winning the fight. The carpenters fix the basement, and Frog tags in to powerup the Masamune. head outside to eat a shelter, and now time to clear out the top floor. The skeleton enemies absorb Final Kick, I guess it's considered a shadow move? They don't absorb Ice Sword 2 though. I stick to that, while Ayla steals Elixirs and tosses healing items as needed. 3 dual techs per is enough damage to kill the skeletons. Fight three battles like this, and the carpenters go to work again. Couple more skeletons to start the last floor. Now they're showing up with slime enemies, who die in one shot of ice sword 2. I also steal more elixirs in this hallway. Chests are all powered up, and it's back to 1000 AD. Get the upgraded loot, and back to 600AD to claim the inferior items too. And, the Shiva Edge is somehow _weaker_ than the Swallow I'm using, and has no speed boost. Pass. Valkyrie bow seems to have been buffed considerably, and has a defense boost too! Nice. Moon/Nova Armours make an interesting choice between autosafe and status immunity. I'm running with autosafe for now, since status attacks don't come up too often, but I will remember I have that option.

I think I've done enough for one day, tomorrow I'll tackle the giants claw. My sunshades aren't quite snazzy enough for my liking...

zombero, on 26 January 2013 - 09:20 PM, said: