Chrono Trigger/The Fated Hour

Introduction
Now that Crono's back in your party, welcome to the final portion of the game. You have unlimited access to space and time over all the periods you've visited, and if you haven't done so already you can clear out the first set of Sealed Chests easily enough. Saving Crono at Death Peak was more or less "his" sidequest, but you'll find out that every other character has one as well. If you talk to any character with Crono in your party they'll say some words of congratulations, and if you talk to any character whose sidequest hasn't been completed they'll inform you of it. And as always, if you say yes when asked to take a character into your party, it will play their theme music.

There are a few other sidequests/secrets you might consider doing however: as you know, you can compete for a poyozo doll, a clone, and a cat for 10, 40, and 80 points respectively. However, if you win a prize twice you can win some cat food to place in your cat's bin, giving you up to 15 cats which will show up in one of the endings. The other interesting thing is that you can win a Clone and a Poyozo doll of each character if you put them at the front of the party and play the games in Norstein Bekkler's lab. Each Clone will show several poses of that character and each Poyozo doll will play the main theme of that character, although Crono's, Marle's, and Lucca's seem to just be Marle's theme. The clone and Poyozo doll will show up at that character's "home." For each character:


 * Crono's clone and Poyozo doll will show up in his room at his house
 * Lucca's clone and Poyozo doll will show up in her room at Taban's house
 * Marle's clone and Poyozo doll will show up in her room at the castle.
 * Frog's clone and Poyozo doll will show up in his house at the cursed woods.
 * Robo's clone and Poyozo doll will show up in the Proto Dome where he joined your party in 2300 A.D.
 * Ayla's clone and Poyozo doll will show up in her hut in 65M B.C.
 * Magus's clone and Poyozo doll will show up at North Cape in 12,000 B.C.

In addition to completing all the sidequests, eventually you'll want to challenge the Black Omen for the most "complete" way to finish the game, and to activate the New Game +. The Black Omen shows up in 2300 A.D., 1000 A.D., 600 A.D., and 12,000 B.C. If you visit it in the future Zeal will show up and laugh at you since Lavos already drained the world's energy, and in any other year she'll tell you how long you have to go until Lavos destroys the world. You can actually fight your way through the Black Omen three times if you go through it in 1000 A.D., 600 A.D., and 12,000 B.C. in that order, although none of the bosses except for Zeal will reappear and you won't be able to get the chests or items more than once.

The first part of this chapter describes all the sidequests which you will want to complete, and the latter part describes how you should fight through the Black Omen.

Sidequests
The sidequests are arranged roughly in order of difficulty. The last three require some major boss fights and dungeons to get through, the first three are comparatively short and painless. If you were to arrange them in order of usefulness, Marle's quest, Lucca's quest, and Fiona's give you the best equipment at the end of them. Gaspar will stop mentioning each sidequest when you complete it, and the party members they apply to will stop mentioning it as well, with the exception of Ayla.

Ayla's Sidequest
Included solely for the sake of completeness, Ayla mentions that her village has a strong defensive item. First, head to the ruins of Laruba Village and talk to the Nu. He'll rename your characters if you want, and give you a Silver Rock which unlocks Frog, Robo, and Ayla's Spin Strike Triple Tech. The armor Ayla was bragging about was the Ruby Armor, which cuts fire hits by 80%, and offers better defense than any armor you'll have found so far. You'll need to trade 10 of each trading item to get it, which can be done if you hang around the Hunting Range long enough and fight a few Nus when it rains.

Lucca's Sidequest
This quest is particularly interesting because it crosses all time periods you'll have reached so far. You'll start out in 2300 A.D., and go to the sun palace. If you check your map by hitting select, the sun palace is the island at the bottom left of the map. Head inside and prepare to fight a boss, the Son of Sun. This will be a fairly gimmicky fight, you'll only want to attack the flames surrounding the Son of Sun and hope you hit the right one, since it will counter-attack with Flare if you try to hit the center. The individual flames will also counter-attack with fire if you hit the "wrong" one. It's advised that you equip the Red Mail to absorb fire, as many Ruby Armors as you bought, the Red Vest, and the Taban suit if you have Lucca and picked it up from Taban. If you hit the right flame, it will do damage to the center sphere, and keep attacking it until it shuffles, then try for another one. After you hit the correct flame enough times, the Son of Sun will lose its fire and turn into a moon stone. If you have fire resistant equipment this battle should be easy enough.

You'll need to leave it in direct sunlight for 65.0023 million years (Robo's estimated fraction is a bit off), so head to the sun keep in 65 Million B.C. You'll soon notice that one exists in each era at the northeast portion of the map, and it's a mysterious spot where the sun never sets. Head back to the future and it will be missing, and Magus will intuitively guess it's been missing for 1300 years. Head back to 600 A.D. while you're at it to find a Power Tab in the sun keep, and go back to the present. Head over to Porre at the southwest corner of the map, to find that the mayor's house is suspiciously glowing and he denies knowing anything about the moonstone. What'll you need to do is play with space and time to deal with his greed.

Buy some jerky from the nearby Snail Stop for 9900G and head back in time to 600 A.D. and go to the elder's house. You can sell it to her for 10000G and make a whopping 100G profit, or you can just give it to her to change the way she feels about generosity and sharing. Head back to the present after giving it to her, and the mayor will give you the moon stone for free. Put it back in the sun keep, and head to the future. Have Lucca examine it and you'll be able to harness its energy. You'll get the WonderShot, the ultimate weapon for Lucca although it's a wee bit unpredictable, and the Sun Shades, which raise your attack power although they'll later be replaced by the PrismSpecs. Also note that this quest is necessary to get all the equipment at the end of Marle's quest involving the Rainbow Shell.

Frog's Sidequest
This one involves visiting a continent you haven't been able to reach yet, and finishing off the last of the Sealed Chests. If you haven't already gotten the chests you can get outside of the northern ruins, you should do so right away. The continent you want to visit is in the southeast corner of the map. For starters, try going there in the present with Frog in your party, to meet a surly ghost who seems to recognize him. Supposedly the ghost can be damaged by non-elemental attacks such as Tail Spin or Poyozo Dance. Talk to the villagers to learn that the place has been in ruins for years, and head back into the past.

Now, head into the northern ruins, go down the left path, and you should clear out a few sets of monsters. Talk to everyone in town, and you'll find that the workers there can't repair the ruins since someone stole their tools. Head back to the present, talk to the worker at the bar to get permission to take his tools, then speak to his wife, and head back to the past with them and give them to the worker at the bar to start cleaning up the ruins.

A few general tips for cleaning up the ruins (don't pick up the chests just yet, wait until the very end) are that most of the monsters are only affected by magic, although non-elemental techniques such as Ayla's Tail Spin work, and sometimes they cast MP buster, so rest at the nearby inn in between attempts to clear it out. Anyway, after you give the tools to the worker go to his house and he'll begin cleaning up the ruins, but he'll stop each time when he can't repair the spots where the monsters still are. Use some of your best magic attackers and head down the right path to clear out another set of monsters. Talk to the workers at their house to pay 2000g to clear out another portion of the ruins. Have Frog examine the grave that you can now reach down the left side to view a scene between him and Cyrus, and the Masamune will power up into its ultimate form.

Pay the workers once more, and they'll repair the last section of the ruins so you can reach the rest of the items, although you'll have to fight off a few more monsters. What you want to do here, as explained in the Sealed Chests section, is to go to the ruins in 600 A.D. and select each sealed chest but decline to open it so the items will power up. Then you can go to the present to receive the powered up item, and you can also head back to the past to get the low-power item. In addition, you can get all the regular chests twice by opening them first in the present, then in the past. The Nova Armor will power up to become the Moon Armor, which raises magic defense by 10. The Siren will power up to become the Valkyrie, a more powerful weapon for Marle, and the Kali Blade will power up to become the Shiva Edge, a weapon for Crono which does 4x damage on critical attacks. Make sure you get the sealed and unsealed chests twice, and pick up a Magic Tab by Cyrus's grave in the present.

One last thing you can do with Frog now is to head to the Denadaro mountains with him, put him at the front of the party, and have him catch one of the rocks which the Free Lancers throw. It will turn out to be a Gold Rock, which invokes the Grand Dream triple tech when equipped on Frog.

Magus's Sidequest
Time to finish off Ozzie and make Medina Village a happier place to live in. If you go to Medina now the prices will be still be sky high and the natives unfriendly, and the villagers are worshipping a statue of Ozzie in the square since you defeated Magus. Head back in time and check out the spot where Medina sits to find Ozzie's fort. I'd recommend bringing along Magus just for Ozzie's reactions, and Ayla so you can steal some of the best equipment in the game from him and his henchmen.

You'll take on Slash and Flea for starters, you should be able to finish them off with your regular attacks at this stage of the game. Just keep moving forward, and in the room with the treasure chest just run past it to have an Imp spring the trap. Also, check out the bottom right corner of the room to find Magus's best equipment and a Magic Tab. In the next room, prepare for what's actually a tricky boss fight with Ozzie, Slash, and Flea ganging up on you. They'll do some nasty triple techs, but if you use your best magic spells which you should have at this point, they'll start to fall pretty fast. The best thing you can do in this battle is have Ayla charm the OzziePants away from Ozzie, the Slasher 2 away from Slash, and the Flea Vest away from Flea for some very useful equipment, the OzziePants is practically the best helmet in the game (yes, you wear his pants on your head), the Slasher 2 is an excellent sword for Crono, and the Flea vest raises your magic defense by 12. I personally keep healing until Ayla's stolen all the equipment I want, then just unload the best magic spells I have. Your spells should do a lot of damage but keep someone healing and reviving if need be if you want to outlast the trio AND grab the equipment you want. Grab the contents of the chests for a dash ring and sight cap after you beat them.

After a joke fight with Ozzie in which you can actually steal another pair of OzziePants, you'll have cleared the place out. Head back to the present and you'll find the Medina is the most peaceful place on earth, one of the imps is bossing around Ozzie VIII, and the market will now offer the cheapest prices in the game, so stock up on whatever you want. Also, keep in mind that you don't take your money back with you for a New Game + so this is the best way to "invest" your capital and get the most of it back. One final note on the equipment you just got is that the OzziePants offer great defense but start you off in the battle with chaos status, so make sure you have some status protection if you equip it, and the Doom Sickle doubles and triples in power when one or two allies are dead, respectively.

Fiona's Sidequest
This is the one quest Gaspar mentions that isn't tied to a particular character, although special guest stars Lucca and Robo play a major role in this one. This is also the one quest which may be able to be performed without getting the Epoch, the only requirement is that you have visited Zeal Palace already in 12,000 B.C. and told the girl there to secretly plant the sapling. If you tell her to secretly plant it, she'll keep the sapling after Zeal is destroyed, and Fiona will have it in 600 A.D. Talk to her and she'll tell you she needs you to clear out the monsters nearby to be able to plant it, so head into the whirlpool in the desert.

The monsters here are particularly weak against water, so you may want to take at least one of Marle, Frog, or Magus. If this is your first time through the game Magus will probably have more techs to learn than the rest of the party, so keep that in mind as well, equip a gold stud on whoever you want your main magic user to be. You'll fight a few enemies and pick up a few chests in the first room, although the Aeon Suit is the only thing of real value. In the next room the boss will constantly disappear and reappear, pick up the chests for an Aeon Helm, Memory Cap, and Muscle Ring, and run into it whenever you're ready to fight.

The boss is named Retinite, and it takes after Zombor from earlier in the game. It begins by absorbing energy from its core periodically, try to finish that off yourself first. It's undamaged by magic, but water/ice magic will lower its defenses significantly and is essential to beating it. It raises its power when attacked, so try to start out with a water attack on all its parts and follow up with your best physical attacks. Having Frog or Robo constantly heal the party, having one person constantly cast ice/water spells, and having Ayla or someone else use the best single/double techs you know that do physical damage is the best strategy I found. Make sure to pick up all the chests before you leave and grab a power tab in the left side of the first room after you beat the boss.

Unfortunately, if you check out the future just beating the monsters won't be enough to save the forest, there is centuries worth of work to be done. Luckily, you have a party member who wouldn't mind chilling out with humanity for 400 years. Talk to Fiona with Robo in your party and he'll agree to stay behind to help her heal the forest. Head back to the present and go to the back of Fiona's Shrine to talk to Robo, who will suggest that the gates may not have been created by Lavos at all. The gates didn't seem to be randomly distributed, but at times and places very important to the existence of some entity, which may be reliving its past much like a creature flashing back over its life and thinking about what it could have changed. The most plausible theory out there is that the entity is the planet.

Lucca will hint at a scene from her past she regretted, and after the party goes to sleep head to the right and you'll find a time gate which will take you back 10 years to when Lucca's mother got into an accident which ruined her legs. Read the diary entry in Lucca's room, and the one in the back room of the house to learn that the password to the machine is Lucca's mother's name, or Lara. After Lara gets her skirt stuck in the machine, head southeast to the blinking dot and press, then press +++ to spell out Lara. If you pull it off, congratulations, there will be a new diary entry, and Lara will be in good health from now on, including the ending scenes. If not, there will be a different diary entry and nothing will have changed in the present.

Robo will give you the Green Dream accessory, which will reanimate its wearer once per battle, kind of like the Life3 spell in Final Fantasy VI or Link's fairies. You can also buy some of the best helmets in the game at Fiona's shrine for a very stiff price, and check the pedestal to find the sapling you had the girl save thousands of years ago.

Robo's Sidequest
Robo's sidequest takes place in the future, in 2300 A.D. at the Geno Dome, which is to the southeast of the world map. You'll actually do some dungeon crawling and puzzle solving in this one, which is why I put it late in the list. Head to the Geno Dome with Robo at the front of your party and he'll open up a path for you. He'll be a permanent fixture of your team throughout this next quest. You'll head down a conveyer belt and fight five or so waves of monsters, equip the gold stud on someone and use the most powerful magic techs you have available, they shouldn't be too difficult by now.

There's a blinking blue dot directly east of where you enter in the new room; don't interact with it unless you want to return to the beginning (to leave or redo the conveyer belt fights). Clear the room out of monsters, go in the door to the northeast, and watch a robot open a door near where you entered by charging himself up and stepping into an alcove to open it. Head in that room for a quick fight and some more chests. Use the computer to get more info about the robots, dolls, conveyer belt, and sealed doors. What you'll want to do is charge up with energy from the room by the computer and step into an alcove to open its door. At the northwest, turn the center switch on and the others off to open the alcove and go in it with a charge to reach the doll, picking up a speed tab where it used to sit as well. That's the easy part.

Head into the elevator in the southeast corner, fight a few groups of guards, and go through a door to the southwest to witness a bunch of people being processed by the plant. Go back a ways and have Robo run at the switch he can't reach and he'll leap at it to let you get a MegaElixir and a magic tab. Go back further and head through the ordinary door just near the elevator, picking up a power tab at the beginning of the long hallway, and fight another group of monsters to find another elevator going back to the previous area. Flip the switch to the bottom left to remove a laser so you can reach the conveyer belt, and go up and to the left to reverse the direction of the conveyer belt. There's also a magic tab in the secret passage you walk through to get to the switch, so pick it up as well.

Head back and around to where you get Robo charged up with electrical energy, and have him race down to the conveyer belt, which is helping him move faster this time, and go in the alcove to open up the passage to the security robot. Have it follow you slowly back to the security robot in the southwest corner, keeping in mind that it can get stuck going around corners. The two robots will short each other out, and you'll grab a vigil hat and the last Poyozo doll. Head back up the elevator to reach a sealed door where you can place both the Poyozo dolls to clear a passage.

On your way up there, you'll run into Robo's old friend, Atropos. Robo will have to fight her alone since she's been reprogrammed and gone a bit bonkers. She'll use all the same techs as Robo (except for Shock), but is slightly weaker. Use your most powerful attacks, and if Robo has the rage band equipped, it will help keep him attacking while he has time to heal. After the fight, Atropos will give Robo her ribbon, which raises his Speed by 3 and his Magic Defense by 10. Head to the east if you want to save and use a shelter, then head to the northwest to place the two dolls and visit the mastermind behind all of this.

If you want to have some fun with this battle you could equip one of the rocks on Robo to use one of his triple techs, or just play it straight. Start off with a powerful multi-enemy attack to kill the displays and stop them from healing the mother brain, then just go all out with the best attacks you have available. It might just be because I did this after all the above quests, but I didn't find it necessary to heal at all before it fell. Robo will get the Terra Arm and Crisis Arm, one of which is his best weapon, and one of which is a bit more unpredictable depending upon his HP. All the machines in the factory will shut down, and you'll be done with the sidequest.

Marle's Sidequest
Before you proceed with this sidequest, you may want to visit Guardia Castle for a few extra scenes that are available as soon as you defeat Magus. You'll be allowed back inside the castle if Marle is in your party when you try to enter, and you'll find out that your sentence has been suspended. The Chancellor will talk to you about how King Guardia was heartless towards Marle's mother when she was dying. The King and Marle will exchange some harsh words, and the King will snap at her and tell her to do whatever she likes. Talk to the Chancellor again and he'll suggest giving the king some jerky to cheer him up. You can buy some in the Snail Stop at Porre and give it to him for a hefty fee, but he'll get even madder because he'll think you're trying to give him a heart attack. The Chancellor also gives three different responses depending on whether you talk to him with Marle, without her and with Crono, or without either.

Anyway, this particular quest begins on the island with the northern ruins to the southeast. Talk to Toma in the bar to pick up his pop, which he asks you to pour on his grave if he doesn't find the Rainbow Shell. Head forward 400 years, and he'll point you to where he found that the shell was located, at the Giant's Claw to the northwest. Check behind the grave for a Speed Tab as well. Head back to the Middle Ages to find the Giant's Claw, you'll learn that Toma is already exploring it.

Head inside and read Toma's first diary, and you'll walk through Azala's throne room. I'd recommend bringing Crono or Magus along for this part so you have access to Lightning magic. You can grab a time hat down the left path, but don't follow it all the way since it's just a dead end you use to return to this area. Head down the right path and it should look familiar. The center switch activates a save point, the left one opens up the floor, and the right one summons some monsters. You'll need to fall in the pit, so you'll fight the monsters for sure if you hit the right switch. Fall in the pit in any case and step on the right switch to summon some monsters, and the left one to open the skull to find a Power Tab. Head south and out.

Head down the ladder and to the right for another power tab, and a full ether to the left. Head up and around the room for a few more fights, you may want a healer on full time duty. Check out the northeast area by the door for a blue rock which activates still another triple-tech. Head north in the next area to exit the Giant's Claw, and head down the ladder and to the left to find a Zodiac Cape. Head out through the cave to the southwest. You can sneak up behind the enemies here to scare them away or fight them. Head through the left skull, to find a familiar area with a couple switches you can step on to get rid of the monsters. Head through the left exit to find a Frenzy Band, which offers an 80% counter-attack rate, eclipsing the feeble 50% of the Rage Band. A must have from now on.

Head back and through the right passage to fight some rubbles for easy tech and experience points, to help everyone finish learning all their single techs. Head into another area and open the right egg to fall into the jail cell. Head through the left exit to open up the skull and grab a power tab you probably saw earlier. Save and heal up if you need it, because you are about to rumble with... the Rust Tyrano.

Wasn't too long ago you were fighting this guy for real, huh? Go on an all out attack as usual while it's counting down with whatever doubles or triples you feel like using. After counting down to five it'll do an attack that should just take off damage in the 200 range, then it will attack normally for a while. Heal up in the interval while it's counting down, and hopefully it won't count down for more than one round. You'll find the rainbow shell, and you'll show up at Guardia Castle where they'll agree to store it as a national treasure.

However, that's just the first part of this particular quest. Head back to the present, and go in Guardia Castle to learn the trial of the century is about to take place, with King Guardia made to answer for selling off the royal treasures. You'll need Marle in your party for this whole section. Go to the right and up the stairs to have her barge her way into the courtroom. You'll learn you need proof of the rainbow shell to save the king. Head back down and go down the right stairway (odd, that wasn't there before) and fight through a bunch of monsters, picking up chests if you'd like. Apparently the forces of evil haven't found any new goons in the last 400 years; they'll be the same ones you fought in the Cathedral. You'll find the rainbow shell at the end of the hallway, then head back to the courtroom with Marle to make a stunning entrance.

Prepare to do battle with a fake chancellor again, Yakra XIII. Who knew the guy had kids? He'll hit you with some chaos attacks occasionally so make sure you have status/chaos protection. He'll use some Lavos needle type attacks and finish up with an attack which may do in the 200-300 range of damage if you have the best equipment so far. Just hit him with your best techniques and have Marle heal. You'll be treated to a mushy scene where Marle and the King make up.

Afterwards, the king will give you permission to leave the castle, and you can explore the castle to talk to people if you want. Head into the kitchen if you'd like a "Crono special", and head up to the courtroom to pick up a key where the glowing blue dot is, use it to unlock the treasure chest just a level or two down to free the real Chancellor who will show up in the ending. Head down to the treasury to find Melchior, who's willing to make some armor from the rainbow shell. You can have a prism dress which blocks 1/3rd of all magic and is extremely effective or three prism helms which are slightly less useful but they do protect status. I'd go for the prism helms if this is your first time through the game, the prism dress only works on one of the girls anyway. If you have the Sun Stone from Lucca's quest, he'll also make a rainbow sword, the ultimate sword for Crono, and make some prism specs which greatly raises your attack power.

The Black Omen
The final quest you have to complete is going through the Black Omen to defeat Zeal and confront Lavos. You can ram the epoch into Lavos or just use the bucket at the end of time naturally, but you'll only activate the New Game + if you beat the Black Omen the regular way. You can visit it in 2300 A.D. to see an eerie message from Zeal, and you can also fight through the fortress three times if you go in 1000 A.D., 600 A.D., and 12,000 B.C. in that order, but none of the bosses will reappear except Zeal, so you might as well finish it off in 12,000 B.C. A few people on the northern continent and elsewhere will also comment on the Black Omen as they're chatting about the weather, until you get rid of it that is. Hopefully you'll have completed all the other sidequests and challenged Spekkio for the last set of items you'll get until you hit level 99/**, so take your party to the Black Omen by flying the Epoch into it.

After you destroy the lasers on the outside and have Zeal inform you how long the planet has left to live, head inside for a boss fight with Mega Mutant. It doesn't seem to have any particular resistances or weaknesses, so just hit it with everything you have, and make sure you put the best equipment on your party before heading in. Be careful with the goons since they absorb magic, and in general just use your best multi-enemy techs, you should have learned about all of them by now. Be aware that there are a lot of useful equipment and tabs which can be charmed from the enemies here, such as speed tabs from the panels, gold stubs from the flyclops, etc. Eventually you'll come to an elevator where you may have a few random fights while you're riding it.

Pick up a couple chests in the next room, and head into the next room for a few more fights and a chest with a magic seal. Be careful of the Ruminators, since they can kill you in one hit if they get the chance. The next area will have a save point and two Nus, the left one of which will sell you items, the right one will offer you a chance to escape the Black Omen if you ask him to "wake [you] up." Use a shelter if you like, then head into the next room to face a Tubster. These guys counter-attack aggressively and are immune to shadow magic, but they're not too tough. Pick up a Zodiac Cape near the Ruminators running through the hall, and head through another room with a bunch of monsters looking out for fights.

Grab a Power Seal in the next room, and fight a Tubster with a couple flyclops and a few more monsters, grabbing a speed tab in a chest in the bottom right corner at the end. There will also be another speed tab in the next room, and then a transport. You'll fight a few sets of aliens with some nasty instant death counters, and pick up a speed tab and a MegaElixir at the end of the room. You'll come to a save point, heal up and prepare to fight Giga Mutant, whose worst danger seems to be continuously draining your MP.

Head through another transport and up another elevator, preparing for fights along the way. Fight through another room of generic enemies, and you'll come to a room with four panels you'll have to fight to reveal a save point. A speed tab will also be waiting in the chest nearby. I'd save and heal again, because you're about to face the next version of the "mutant" monster, the Terra Mutant. This one has a top which absorbs energy from the bottom half, and the bottom half is immune to magic and lifeshavers you if you try a physical attack. Just concentrate your techniques on the top and the bottom will fall eventually. Pick up a white rock and a MegaElixir, to enable a triple tech, Poyozo Dance, with the three girls. Hopefully by now you have each of the five rocks.

You can save and use a shelter again if you really want, but I doubt it'll be necessary. Go forward through another room and prepare to face a particularly nasty Lavos Spawn. As before, avoid all multiple target techs and anything that might attack the shell, and use your best single techs on the head instead. Eventually it'll crumble and the shell with it. Head into the next room for another set of panels, keep in mind you can charm these guys for tabs. A save point will appear, and I'd definitely recommend healing up and saving because you're about to DEAL... with ZEAL. This is also a good time to use those tabs if you haven't already, they each raise a particular stat by one. Keep in mind that speed never goes up as you gain levels and it maxes out at 15 anyway, Lucca and Magus will max out magic on their own eventually, and everyone but Lucca and Marle will max out power, although it doesn't affect their weapon hits anyway.

Zeal
The fight with Zeal will go through three main phases. Having someone who can heal the whole party is important since you'll be having your whole party's HP drained to one by Zeal's attacks in the first phase, and it just makes sense for a long boss fight like this, so Frog or Robo would be helpful. As far as attackers go, Crono is an obvious choice for both magical and physical attacks, and Magus makes the fight interesting by adding some extra dialogue to the fight with Zeal, and his theme will play during the battle with her second form, so I usually pick him in any case.

In Zeal's first form, she'll periodically deplete your whole party's HP to one and laugh at you, make sure you have a technique that will restore your party's health so you don't get schooled, this would also be a convenient time to use something like Frog Squash or even Frog Flare. She'll drain your MP as well, but I usually find this first fight more annoying than dangerous. She will then try to toss you into the Mammon Machine. The Mammon Machine increases its defense with every physical attack, and converts all magical attacks into raised attack power. Just make sure your health is full and keep using your strongest techniques, it will occasionally release its stored energy, but you should be able to survive it with the best equipment. Finally, you will have to fight Zeal again, this time transformed into a monster composed of three separate parts- a face and two hands. If you have Magus along for the ride he'll comment and it will play his theme music for the battle. The left hand will use life shaver on you if you attack it and the right hand will use MP buster, so you're best off just attacking the face with single target physical attacks like Confuse, Triple Kick, or Uzzi Punch. It will pull some nasty techniques that do in the vicinity of 300 damage, as well as the Hallation attack which sends everyone's HP to 1.

Lavos
Eventually you'll wear Zeal down, and she'll decide to have Lavos destroy you directly. The Black Omen will sink into the sea and Lavos will erupt ahead of schedule. Lavos of course deserves his own section in the bosses section, but here's the basic rundown. He'll start by going through the attack modes of each major boss you've fought so far, with extra "bits" to imitate their various parts. He'll start with the Dragon Tank, then the Guardian, then Heckran, Zombor, Masa & Mune's fused form, Nizbel, Magus, Black Tyrano, and finally Giga Gaia, before uttering his trademark scream and using the attack mode he used against you at the Ocean Palace, although thankfully he's not as ridiculously overpowered and you're better equipped. You can heal up between each fight and make SURE you have status protection so he doesn't cast chaos on you and ruin everything. The various forms will have the some elemental resistances and absorptions, as well as counter-attacks, so think back and be careful. Magus's form is particularly tricky since you don't have as many helpful messages telling you what barrier is active, but the barrier will always match the type of spell that Lavos will cast. For example, if he casts fire spells, you can only use fire spells. Having Magus along for these fights makes them simpler since he has all elemental magic types at his disposal. Most of the fights will be easy in comparison to your current levels, but heal and restore mana when you need it.

When you reach Lavos's real form, he'll usually start out with some chaos attacks or a Lavos needle which does massive damage to your party. He can do 300-400 damage at a time even with the best equipment and levels so far, so heal up and hit him with the best magic spells, dual techs, or triple techs you have available. Luminaire, Dark Matter, and Flare seem to be the best damage dealers, although Shock can be good too if you raise Robo's magic high enough. Eventually you'll destroy him, and you'll be able to enter his outer shell. There will be a savepoint, and a time portal, which will lead you back to the end of time. You'll end up outside the bucket that led to the day of Lavos and be able to return to fighting Lavos any time you want, but the outer shell will already be defeated. One more chapter to go, if that.

Challenging Lavos
If you challenge Lavos during this chapter, you'll get The Main Ending. There are several variations depending on whether or not you crashed the Epoch into Lavos, spared Magus, and a few minor ones depending on how you completed Fiona's sidequest and how many cats you have. The basic theme of the ending is that Crono and company get honored for their work in saving the past, and have a farewell party. Keep in mind however that you won't activate the New Game+ unless you battle all the way through the Black Omen and move on to the next chapter.