History VideoGame / CrimsonEchoes

* BonusBoss: In ''Flames of Eternity''. you can fight at certain points in time through hidden portals against foes from the original and its updated rerelease for the DS. And yes, [[spoiler:you can actually fight Lavos as the Dream Devourer after the final fight. He is found at [[ContinuityNod the Leene Square]] just like in the NewGamePlus of the original game, but not as strong from the DS rerelease]]

* TookALevelInBadass: The Mystic Knights. After a game of having their butts kicked by the heroes, Ozzie, Slash, and Flea pull themselves together and kick a lot of butt in their reappearance, [[JustifiedTrope Justifying]] their BonusBoss status in ''Cross''.

* VillainForgotToLevelGrind: But he was so strong he didn't really need to. King Zeal is fought three times through the game: a HopelessBossFight at the beginning, a BonusBoss [[TheBattleDidntCount that doesn't count plotwise]] later, and [[spoiler:phase one of the final battle]] with the same stats each time. [[spoiler:Of course, he gets a OneWingedAngel form, too.]]

** And there are loads more references to ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'', ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' and ''[[Manga/TengenToppaGurrenLagann Gurren Lagann]]'' in the game as well, as these three inspired some pieces of [=ZeaLitY=]s own beliefs, like Might Guy's "Springtime of Youth" catch phrase, quoted by the Mistress Of Kitchens in the Present.

* YourDaysAreNumbered: King Zeal knows he will eventually be unable to resist the call to merge with Lavos, so he decides to restore Zeal in Antiquity, kill Lavos in Prehistory so it can't destroy Zeal, and kill the party to avenge his wife's death. Even in the final battle, he tries to spin his fate to his advantage, creating his OneWingedAngel form, the Dream Lord.
** Even further, he knows this is true of all existence, as the Dream Devourer will eventually evolve into the ''Time'' Devourer and consume every timeline. Restoring Zeal, in his mind, will let humanity live in [[IgnoranceIsBliss blissful ignorance]], too busy with fulfilling their ambitions to notice their inevitable CessationOfExistence. Cue Belthasar's... [[VideoGame/ChronoCross "plan"]]... to counter that fate.
** Yaluk knows her species is doomed to extinction in [[GlacialApocalypse the coming ice age]] shown in Antiquity, and knowing the world she was born in is gone, chooses to ease the pain of the Reptites' inevitable deaths as best she can. In the ending, Ayla stands at her side, as an extension of her promise to Azala not to forget them.

** [[spoiler:Marle's Flame Trial shows her future as a terrible monarch obsessed with blaming Porre for her father's death [[note]](The real murderer was King Zeal. Plus, Belthasar mentions that His Grace was gonna be dead soon anyway, and in her grief that version of Marle could have convinced herself that Porre somehow killed him.)[[/note]] and letting Guardia slip into ruin in the meanwhile. The game is deliberately vague as to whether this is an accurate prediction of Marle's future, or just a MindScrew by the Frozen Flame. But, in any case, it probably drove [[spoiler:Marle to relinquish Guardia's throne without protesting much. She may have thought that, if it was really her future, she was still in time to change it and avoid even worse suffering to her people]].

%%[[caption-width-right:350:some caption text]]

* ActuallyADoombot: Kasmir has survived his many years as Fiendlord by using illusions of his image instead of showing up himself. It's not until [[spoiler:the penultimate battle of the game]] that he's FINALLY fought in person and put down once and for all.
* AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent

* AuthorTract: '''KING ALPHARD ZEAL, [[ThisIsForEmphasisBitch BITCHES]]!!!'''

* BadassBoast: "Death is nothing to the Reaper!"
* BadassNormal: Sometimes it seems like Agent 12 is getting more done than the player's party.

* BigBad: Unlike ''Trigger'' and ''Cross'', it's not Lavos, but rather King Zeal. Unlike the rest of his family, [[spoiler:he's even able to control Lavos]].
* BlatantLies: The members of Project Xamoltan claim to observe historical events and never interfere, contrasting them with our heroes. However, the very first time we see a Xamoltan, he's directly participating in and interfering with a historical event, [[spoiler: wiping out humanity and sentencing Marle to death]]. Of course nobody from the current timeline is aware of this, and since it's never brought up again it may just be a PlotHole.

* ButtMonkey: Dalton

* CharacterFocus: Each playable character gets at least one chapter in the spotlight, during which they are the [[CantDropTheHero Hero You Can't Drop]]. Developer notes indicate that they didn't want anyone to be specifically considered the main character. (In pursuit of that, they even went so far as to avert Crono's SilentProtagonist habits.)
* ContinuityPorn: To the original game, its sequel, and as of ''Flames of Eternity'', the DS version.

* DeaderThanDead: Anyone sent to [[TheNothingAfterDeath the Darkness Beyond Time]]. [[spoiler:Like Schala and King Guardia XXXIII.]]

** Happens twice in the Cedric sections in 1 A.D. When Marle meets Cedric for the first time, he's just a weak, scrappy leader, compared to the powerful founder of Guardia that she learned about in history class. [[spoiler: Subverted in that the timeline she finds him in has been corrupted by the reinsertion of the Reptites, so he's trying to defend a dying human race opposed to conquering the known world.]] After the [[spoiler: Reptite timeline is destroyed, and the original timeline restored]], her second time meeting him, she isn't too pleased to learn [[spoiler: he's actually a bloodthirsty conqueror, instead of the hero history claimed he was, or that his feud with Porre was because Porre's clan thought he was taking things too far.]]

* [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen God Save Us from the King!]]
** For fuck's sake, Alphard![[note]]For those who don't get it, that's King Zeal's name.[[/note]]
** [[spoiler:Marle's Flame Trial shows her future as a terrible monarch obsessed with blaming Porre for her father's death. [[note]]The real murderer was King Zeal. Plus, Belthasar mentions that His Grace was gonna be dead soon anyway, and in her grief that version of Marle could have convinced herself that Porre somehow killed him.]] and letting Guardia slip into ruin in the meanwhile. The game is deliberately vague as to whether this is an accurate prediction of Marle's future, or just a MindScrew by the Frozen Flame.[[/note]] But, in any case, it probably drove [[spoiler:Marle to relinquish Guardia's throne without protesting much. She may have thought that, if it was really her future, she was still in time to change it and avoid even worse suffering to her people]].
* GoodMorningCrono: What's a ''Chrono'' game without this Trope?
* GrayAndGrayMorality: The second half of the game is ''drowning'' in it. There is a distinct vibe of "nobody is right here, even if we think we're trying to do the right thing". King Zeal [[WhatTheHellHero calls out the party on it]] in a long-winded AuthorTract shortly before the final battles, and even the creators admit some of them [[SympatheticPOV would have sided with Zeal over Crono and the gang]]. [[BlackAndGrayMorality Aaaaand then there's DALTON...]]
* HeroicMime: Averted, as (unlike in ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'') the hero Crono does speak in this game. Quite a lot.
* INeedAFreakingDrink: Once [[spoiler:Toma]] comes to Chronopolis and goes all WhatDoesThisButtonDo on everything, most of the staff becomes nowhere to be seen, citing "sudden headaches".

** [[spoiler: This scene is changed in ''Flames of Eternity'' to Crono managing to hold himself back and roar at the innocent Reptites to GetOut]]
* MacGuffin: The Dragon Tooth. The [=PCs=] are sent to track it down and steal it to power Chronopolis in place of the weaker Dreamstone [[spoiler:and before that, the stolen Frozen Flame]], but other than being a power source and "Reptite artifact" it never really does anything. [[spoiler:It's even destroyed for a time, due to a temporal mishap, though this gets [[RetCon retconned]] off-screen shortly after; the developers admit when they wrote the script for its destruction they had forgotten the reason the [=PCs=] went after it in the first place was to find a new power source for Chronopolis, and [[HandWave Hand Waved]] Agent 12 tracking it down and saving it from destruction off-panel.]]
** [[spoiler: In ''Flames of Eternity'', the issue is given a better resolution by showing Agent 86 handing over the Dragon Tooth to Belthasar in the party's presence.]]
* MasterOfIllusion: Kasmir. Glenn has trouble taking him down because most of the times he's fought him [[ActuallyADoombot it's been a fake]].

* MrExposition: Belthasar and Mother Brain/[[VideoGame/ChronoCross [=FATE=]]].

* PeopleJars: Magus, when captured by Dalton.

* [[RippleEffectProofMemory Ripple Effect-Proof Existence]]: [[http://www.chronocompendium.com/Term/Time_Traveler%27s_Immunity.html Time Traveler's Immunity]] states that anyone who time travels is fated to arrive even if their departure is overwritten, and the more you time travel, the more [=TTI=] you have. In ''Trigger'' this was why Crono and Lucca are still able to both remember that Queen Leene was supposed to be rescued and that Marle existed, as well as act to restore history. In ''Crimson Echoes'' this is why Sorin shows up in the Reptite Timeline despite the timeline being rewritten.

%%---> Though it'd be nice if someone actually quoted the line...

** And there are loads more references to ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'', ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' and ''[[Manga/TengenToppaGurrenLagann Gurren Lagann]]'' in the game as well, as these three inspired some pieces of [=ZeaLitY=]'s own beliefs, like Might Guy's "Springtime of Youth" catch phrase, quoted by the Mistress Of Kitchens in the Present.

* SparedByTheAdaptation: [[spoiler: In ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'', Crono and Marle were [[SuddenSequelDeathSyndrome implied to have been killed when Guardia fell]]. In this game, Guardia still falls but Marle doesn't try to fight back for the throne, instead going with Crono into the Dreamtime to help deal with the aftermath of King Zeal's meddling. Lucca, though, stays behind, as her fate was sealed in ''Cross''.]]

** In a twist, Glenn is this by founding the Vanguard, which becomes corrupted by its mission to preserve order. Even worse, it [[{{Foreshadowing}} foreshadows]] some pretty nasty revelations about [[spoiler: Belthasar]] in the process.

** Belthasar. [[spoiler:From the point at which the party (plus Schala, minus Ayla) is finally fully collected to Chronopolis, you see the building of the insane GambitPileup that is ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'' with his relentless desire to "fix" everything that goes wrong in the timeline, regardless of the consequences. This is [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] both by Melchior in his everyday conversation -- "''Keep an eye on him, he's under a lot of stress lately''" -- and later when the group meets Gaspar.]] A case could also be made for King Zeal.

* YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe: Averted. Glenn no longer speaks in old-esque English, and his dialogue is closer to his style in the original Japanese ''Trigger''. Completely played straight in ''Flames of Eternity'', however, in the spirit of Ted Woolsey's translation.

* TrickedOutTime: How King Zeal is still alive even though his one(!) mention in ''Chrono Trigger'' stated he was dead. [[spoiler:Belthasar went back and recreated his death with the obvious exception of King Zeal '''ACTUALLY''' being dead.]] Considering King Zeal's FaceHeelTurn afterward, [[GoneHorriblyRight one can't help but think]] this was [[WhatAnIdiot a TERRIBLE idea]].

* FutureImperfect: Toma is not happy to find out his own museum got its information so cringingly wrong.

A different team started an alternate project consisting in modifying ''Crimson Echoes'', with a slightly different story and events. The project is named ''[[http://metronomeproject.blogspot.com/ Chrono Trigger: Flames of Eternity]]'' and has the tagline "''The Rage of the Ages burns for Eternity...''"

* LeftForDead: [[spoiler:Marle, when she is captured by the Reptites. [[DisneyDeath Her final moment is never shown.]] When Crono finds her skeletal remains over 1,000 years later he goes berserk, killing two (innocent!) Reptites in his grieving rage. He and his friends then go back and prevent it all from happening.]]
** [[spoiler: The same occurs in ''Flames of Eternity'', but Crono manages not to kill, but to just scare the two Reptites away.]]

** And there are loads more references to ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'', ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' and ''[[Manga/TengenToppaGurrenLagann Gurren Lagann]]'' in the game as well, as these three inspired some pieces of ZeaLitY's own beliefs, like Might Guy's "Springtime of Youth" catch phrase, quoted by the Mistress Of Kitchens in the Present.

* RippleEffectProofExistence: [[http://www.chronocompendium.com/Term/Time_Traveler%27s_Immunity.html Time Traveler's Immunity]] states that anyone who time travels is fated to arrive even if their departure is overwritten, and the more you time travel, the more [=TTI=] you have. In ''Trigger'' this was why Crono and Lucca are still able to both remember that Queen Leene was supposed to be rescued and that Marle existed, as well as act to restore history. In ''Crimson Echoes'' this is why Sorin shows up in the Reptite Timeline despite the timeline being rewritten.

** [[spoiler: In ''Flames of Eternity'', the issue is better resolved by showing Agent 86 handing over the Dragon Tooth to Belthasar in the party's presence.]]

* RippleEffectProofMemory: A consequence of Time Traveller Immunity.

* GrayAndGrayMorality: The second half of the game is ''drowning'' in it. There is a distinct vibe of "nobody is right here, even if we think we're trying to do the right thing". King Zeal [[WhatTheHellHero calls out the party on it]] in a long-winded AuthorTract shortly before the final battles, and even the creators admit some of them [[SympatheticPOV would have sided with Zeal over Crono and the gang]]. [[BlackAndGrayMorality Aaaaand then there's ''Dalton''...]]