Iconian

I feel that “Forever” should have been played upon defeating Lavos in Chrono Trigger. I found the piece months ago, and somehow I knew there was something different about it. For some reason it just spoke to me more than others. “Forever” is based on the melody of “The Day the World Revived.” On the soundtrack that’s CD 2, track 6 (the .rsn for CT can be found here, and the SnesAmp plugin for Winamp is here). I found “The Day the World Revived” back in April last year as a midi and couldn’t remember it from the game. I ended up looking on www.ocremix.org and downloaded “Forever” and others. “The Day the World Revived” is a song of defeat, coming onto the soundtrack just after you’ve discovered Lavos, but it also plays every time you are defeated in battle. Isn’t it incredible that the same melody can be used in “Forever?” It is the sound of victory after pain and struggle. In recent months I’d come to enjoy “Forever” and “Last Battle,” though I didn’t see a connection between the two. Now I do. First play the “Last Battle.” Lavos roars at the party for having destroyed his armor and revealed the final source of all their difficulties. He makes his last ditch attempt at defense, bringing out the bio-engineered bits he has prepared through the ages for this moment, in hopes of keeping his grip on the world and procreating to the continuation of his race’s “life cycle.” Everyone surveys the scene from Right Bit to Left Bit. Then the battle begins, with a little haste, a little confuse, a wondershot or two, and then Antipode and Luminaire to finish up. The music goes hand in hand with the action on screen, and soon Lavos, once ruler of the world, falls. Now, “Forever” begins. The Lavos shell explodes, collapsing onto the party and pinning them under debris, as the piano plays harsh tones. There are more explosions, each getting worse and worse, bringing greater uncertainty. Then they find each other in the dust and darkness, and as the music picks up there’s a round of spells and tonics, ethers and elixirs, to get back up to strength as they wind their way out through the tunnels to reach the surface and get transported back to the End of Time. Soon they are with their friends, dusting themselves off and glowing at their victory. Everyone pats each other on the back for a job well done. Then they take a look all around while the guitar see-saws, and they find that they're surrounded. On every side, from every time period, are all enemies who still remain under the influence of Lavos, gathered into one from the eight time warps right at the end. Hundreds of them are there, waiting to greet the heroes for their destruction of Lavos. The army closes in and they survey from right to left, the guitar comes up, and all any of the seven (or six) can do is smile warmer than ever, knowing that the victory achieved over Lavos outweighs whatever these creatures can throw at them. The real last battle begins when the melody begins. Everyone gets geared up for the final confrontation, and then the fighting starts, and everywhere the characters work together and use double techs, triple techs, and tech rocks, all fighting simultaneously--no party limits for the Last Battle. The drums slip up several times and tonics and everyone slows down a bit to catch their breath, cast some healing, take some ethers. At 2:23 they all retreat back and everyone heals up, and they use barrier, shield, and haste on everyone. Shortly they head back out to finish fighting. There are a few more battles for our powered up characters, and then the beats of "Forever" start to break up, until at the end all remaining enemies are gone. A lot of people have criticized the ending of “Forever.” Square probably had a good reason for making Chrono Trigger the way they did, but if “Forever” is worthy any criticism then so also is Square. Their ending to the game never gave you the feel that there was any slam-bang finish, but perhaps with a battle sequence like this after Lavos, playing “Forever” in the background, the ending would have had all the slam-bang you'd want. The music breaks up right at the end once all the work is done, and then the party splits to their respective times. “To Far Away Times” becomes all the more powerful for it. In my view, the last battle in Chrono Trigger just wasn’t epic enough end to such an epic game. You bring in “Forever” and a huge battle right at the end, with all things gathered into one from good and evil, and the feeling of definitive victory really sets in. Square fell a little short, and the battle with Lavos didn’t quite pack the punch it should have. Suzumebachi picked up the slack by making the song that should have been played after the party has won the “Last Battle.” Haven’t you ever wondered what happens after the screen goes white? Can one honestly believe that after the defeat of Lavos all evil had gone from the world? Lavos was the core, but there would surely be remnants of his power left after he’s destroyed. “Forever” represents the hard work and the victory of the party to not only show that Lavos is no more, but that the world truly is a different place now that the party has cleaned up all those remaining enemies everywhere Lavos asserted his influence.

I've always liked "The Last Battle" and "Determination"/Chrono's Theme. "World Revolution" and "Lavos's Theme" of course fit in with the idea of The Final Battle, so I really like this piece quite a bit. I particularly enjoyed from 3:08 to 4:33 with the drums--percussions, I think they're called. It reminded me a lot of the middle instrumental of Supertramp's "School." I thought it could have been a little louder though.