(This is part of my journey going playing through 1995’s Chrono Trigger. You can follow the entire series on the Retro Gaming page.)
Pouty as ever, Frog isn’t going to step up and help defeat the Fiendlord until he has his super-awesome-spectacular-magical sword. Which is broken. And, apparently, can only be repaired by taking its pieces to the future, where a certain Melchior lives. Did he make the sword and then send it back in time? Or has he lived for a really, really long time? So many mysteries. Don’t question them.
So the Crono Crew travels to 1000 A.D. to talk to Melchior. He seems willing and able to reforge the sword, but says that it needs some “dreamstone” to finish the process. And since that’s been gone for a long, long time, there’s no way that any non-time traveling people could ever hope to get some. For us? That means a trip back to the prehistoric era of the world!
Finally, a new era to explore! Welcome to 65,000,000 B.C., because apparently Jesus Christ visited Crono’s world too. Right from the get-go, it’s a pretty weird place, with reptile humanoids roaming about and some fierce cat-lady named Ayla kicking butt and taking names. I love how intrigued she is by Robo. Past… meet the far future. As an aside, it amuses me to no end to have a robot slice up dinosaurs with laser beams. Thank you, Chrono Trigger, for crossing that off my bucket list. As another aside, until I watched the cutscene anime, I never realized that Ayla’s “tail” isn’t actually her tail but some fur that she has wrapped around her. THE MORE YOU KNOW.
The prehistoric era isn’t quite as lush as later years, but there’s a certain charm in the percussion-dominated soundtrack and the rocky world. Fun fact: Unlike the later eras, 65,000,000 B.C.’s world map is mostly one giant continent. I guess this was to signify continental drift that happened later on. That’s another nice touch.
Ayla seems quite taken with Crono and company, and so she and the village throw them a full-on rager. It’s actually a pretty fun little scene, where Crono goes about talking, dancing, and (of course) drinking. Lots and lots of drinking.
Hungover, the party wakes up in the morning to Reptite tracks everywhere and the time gate key missing. That’s going to be slightly problematic to getting back to other eras, so a hunt is necessary!
After a long chase, the prehistoric Crono Crew track down the chief Reptite who took the gate key. It seems that the Reptites are more advanced and intellectual than the humans, although Ayla wouldn’t worry about that. Nothing worries her if she can head-butt it into submission.
One dino boss fight later, and the gate key is safely back in the hands of the good guys. Ayla says goodbye, but I have a feeling that we’ll be seeing her again before too long.
Bio Break 