This can be a generalized review thread or something.
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The Lost Sanctum bothered me. I was really tantalized at first, because I thought that it might illuminate th Reptite Dimension referenced in Chrono Cross or shed light on Reptite and Dragonian subjects. Receiving a Dragon's Tear reward and finding two pedestals added to my expectations, and I laughed a lot at the Reptite reactions ("oh, you beautiful hairless apes!"). But the Lost Sanctum really turned out to be a letdown. You stop no less than two evil groups of baddies from wiping out the Reptites, and neither one has any backstory whatsoever. The two pedestals and Prismastones create nothing but a one-shot "Key Item" that lights a dark cavern. The Sanctum doesn't even have a tangible resolution; the green Gates simply sit there on the overworld after you complete the quests. All this is underscored by the total absence of background information. We don't know if it's a glimpse into another dimension; a secluded, real place accessible akin to the Gate to Nadia's Bell in the Dead Sea; or even a temporal aberration caused by the wild energies of the Dream Devourer. These would all be fascinating additions to Chrono canon, but we're left with a functional creation. It's hard to guess if Masato Kato supervised this part outside of the dialogue, as it feels like an artificial extension of playtime. The nadir has to be Emerald Mountain, requiring at least five round trips per era across two never-ending, convoluted screens of ladders and bridges.
The Dimensional Distortion dungeons were done well, and conveyed an eerie sense of broken, mangled space-time. Lucca's was probably the best for this. You're thrust into a sterile, harsh factory with bare walls and threatening sentries. One wrong move, and shrill alarms blast as a downright hateful AI orders termination and locks doors. It's a nightmarish mechanical hell, and the Iron Maidens are things to be feared for those who didn't obsessively level before beginning these quests. The others don't have such a pronounced effect as Lucca's, but they still seem like rips in the fabric of time full of hidden dangers. The shadow crimson forms of Crono, Marle, and Lucca are no pushovers, and they're raw, almost feral antagonism towards the party (expressed through instantaneous attacks) do well to seal the creepy, threatening atmosphere of the distortion areas. Dalton's a light touch, and he's not very difficult to defeat. His oath of revenge by using Porre to raise an army and wipe out Guardia is a little overt, but understandable since Masato Kato may have been trying to pack in all he could without stepping on ideas for a future game if it ever gets made. Even though I did Crono's second, after the third I was still imagining how different it'd feel to play Chrono Cross and wonder if Dalton's calling the shots on the mainland, handing Norris his orders and sending out the Porre military to find the Frozen Flame so he can revive his dream of immortality. The Rise of Porre article just got invalidated, too
Time's Eclipse was nothing short of profound. "Future Magus" as he's coming to be known displays the intensity and seriousness that makes Magus popular, and his absolute willful conviction makes his defeat disconcerting. How did you feel when you first saw the Dream Devourer? If you look closely, Lavos's eye twitches very quickly, evoking well a mind completely consumed by a suffering desire to destroy all creation. It's terrifying to see Schala as she appears in Chrono Trigger before her hair and robes are apparently bleached by the Time Devourer evolution process. The red glow and crimson highlights of the crazed Lavos below her instantly brought to mind the burning color of the Frozen flame, the Red Star of antiquity, and the deep, bleeding hue of Dreamstone. Dreams are a significant theme in the Chrono series; the Planet dreams of stopping Lavos; Melchior and an Acacia Dragoon create dream creatures; Radical Dreamers lurk in the night; and the Chrono Trigger idealizes unleashing one's beautiful dream upon the world. And here, we have the Dream Devourer, which even
sounds more threatening than the Time Devourer.
What really got me about the secret ending is the resolution of Future Magus and the completion of Magus's long arc of vengeance and painful searching. It was unthinkable to imagine how Magus must have felt to be told by Schala that she's simply not the same person any longer, and that no power beneath the heavens would ever be capable of freeing her or stopping the Dream Devourer. To have the object of all his dreams and the memory that allowed him to survive years of darkness—the one he wished to avenge for so long—tell him outright to abandon his search out of pure futility...it's poignantly, agonizingly tragic. Magus was always a tragic figure, falling from the comfort of Zeal to live a harsh life—but in the end, he seemingly found his dream, or we could at least believe that after Chrono Cross, he'd be aware of Schala's freedom. But here, in a moment of emotional weakness and sorrow, Magus decides that life isn't worth living as it is, and withdraws into the night. There will be spirited discussions about the canon, but age issues aside, this is potentially how Guile (or a Magil-type character, though not Magil himself since RD has different circumstances) was born. I'll never be able to look at Guile the same way in Chrono Cross again. His Frozen Flame statement is a denial that he was ever such a dark figure, and seems to answer the question of what he's been searching for:
Guile:
Is this what I have
been searching for
all this time...
No...
Stop it!
I am no such thing.
What good is it...
to possess such
dark power...?
This makes a strong argument that Guile is truly what happens to a version of Magus after Chrono Trigger, the issue of his age, extradimensional origin, and the general conundrum of when the Dream Devourer encounter takes place aside. (Alternatively, what he's been searching for in that context could be the Frozen Flame, and not Schala.) It's just so incredibly sad to see Magus erase his memories and allow himself to fall after a moment of weakness, forgetting his dark arts and lineage and vowing to search for "new enigma" while toasting Serge after Chrono Cross. Is this the end of Janus Zeal? I grew closer to Magus while working on Prophet's Guile, and it's so completely tragic to me that I couldn't stop from admittedly crying about it twice after. He was a beautiful character with admirable will, and to see him cordially rebuked by Schala and resigned to commit mental suicide is hard to bear. Whether Guile is our Magus or Future Magus remains to be seen, but it still counts that some version of the character met his sorrow-filled conclusion. I hope he can rest. And I hope we get a new Chrono game.
