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| Chrono Trigger owned by Square-Enix. Images used for educational purposes only. |
You’ve come a long way. You’ve travelled all of the ages, you’ve defeated Lavos at least once, you’ve probably watched one or two different endings, and you’ve seen all there is to see of the DS exclusive content… save one final battle. Upon defeating all three Dimensional Vortices in Chrono Trigger DS, you’ll receive notification from the Old Man at the End of Time that something about the bucket leading to Lavos has… changed.
He’s not wrong. Using the bucket to reach 1999 AD will now give you to options: either move to the normal fight with Lavos… or go to Time’s Eclipse, a new area. This jump will take you to meet the Time Devourer, a foul deviation from Lavos, which acts as a bridge between Chrono Trigger and its sequel, Chrono Cross. This is also the strongest enemy in the game, so be prepared for one hell of a fight.
Dream Devourer
Unlike plain ‘ol Lavos, the Dream Devourer only has one form, and it looks quite familiar. Nevertheless, the Dream Devourer is very different from the Lavos you know and love. Though it employs some of the same attacks, the Dream Devourer is a fair bit stronger - and it’s got some annoying tricks up its capacious sleeves.
The Dream Devourer starts off with a high resistance to… well, everything. It will primarily attack your team with elemental strikes, most of them affecting your entire team and doing considerable amounts of damage. You’ll want one character healing constantly during this phase of the fight while the other two smash the Dream Devourer with their strongest magical attacks. You can use physical if you want, but the Devourer will immediately counter with an attack that drains the attacker’s MP. Ouch. This applies to Dual and Triple Techs as readily as it does to normal attacks. Your magic won’t do a ton of damage, but it’s the best you’ve got.
Eventually the Dream Devourer will ‘remove its defence’ and begin charging up. This second phase is deceptive, as it implies that you can go to town on the beast. You can, but don’t try it with elemental magic. The Dream Devourer will absorb any attack that’s not strictly neutral. The Devourer will counter every attack with Chaos Zone, so make sure your characters are protected against confusion and capable of dishing out a lot of damage with each hit, typically via strong Dual or Triple Techs. The Devourer will also start using even stronger all-hitting attacks, and if anyone’s confused they’ll do ridiculous amounts of damage. Keep raining down physical strikes to win the day.
Looking for a fun way to win this fight? As Chronopedia points out, the Dream Devourer has so much HP that it’s possible to overflow its health to achieve victory. Use Dual Techs with strong elemental leanings (I found combining Ayla and Lucca to be particularly effective in this) and you can make the Dream Devourer so damned healthy that you’ll win the fight. This method, though perhaps less satisfying, is probably easier overall, as the Devourer won’t counter with Chaos Zone when it’s healed.
Beating the Dream Devourer will earn you a fancy new ending with strong ties to Chrono Cross. You’ll also earn the Dreamseeker, a sword for Crono’s so strong that, well, basically, you win. Enjoy!