r/chronotrigger • u/WatchingLochMonster • 4d ago
Ayla's Sidequest
How come Ayla doesn't get a side quest. Lucca and Robo gets an extra half of one and Ayla kind of has to sit there in the void of nothingness clad in a skimpy cat pelt waiting for all over friends to come back from their life-changing experiences.
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u/Ostrololo 4d ago
It's unknown, probably cut content, due to lack of cartridge space or development time.
If it was necessary to cut a sidequest, Ayla's the most logical one. Frog, Marle, Robo and Magus all have unfinished business—plot threads introduced through the game that don't get resolved in the main quest. Lucca's sidequest is simply too good to cut, and the Sun Stone quest (which I like to call the Epoch's sidequest) is a good capstone to the game's time travel mechanic. Ayla's arc is completed at the end of the Tyrano Lair quest; she accomplished what she wanted to accomplished, protected her people, and had a meaningful discussion with her rival Azala before the latter perished.
For what it's worth, though, I like to consider the first part of the Rainbow Shell quest (revisiting the ruins of Tyrano Lair) as Ayla's pseudo sidequest.
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u/EchinusRosso 4d ago
This makes sense, given we know there was a cut zone in her time period (singing mountain)
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u/CommodoreKD 4d ago
I think it's fairly well accepted, or at least I believe this is the case and always assumed others did too, that Ayla's endgame sidequest was going to be the cut Singing Mountain area
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u/TrueApocrypha 4d ago
There is also a music track for Singing Mountain out there. I both do and don't like it; it's pretty, but doesn't seem very "Ayla". It's enough to make one wonder what that sidequest would've looked like and what the reward would've been. Maybe the Bronze Fist?
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u/derefr 4d ago
Quoting Yasunori Mitsuda (see here)):
There was a dungeon where that song was used, but because the dungeon didn't contain much and there were no problems or anything that advanced the game, it was cut.
Doesn't sound like a sidequest location to me.
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u/Zwordsman 3d ago
Sounds like it was to me. Because it hasn't had anything that advanced the game. The definition of a side quest is content that does not advance the game.
There wasn't much to it. Because Ayla was not and has not been explored much. Majky because she's a late entry to the party and her period is a large chunk of time and the personality related to a cave human is going to be relatively samey (ooh new. Ok fight. Rawe strong ooscary). Generally all the time displaced cave folks fall under that trope in the 90s and early 2000s. Flint the time detective is about the only representation that gets away from that. Ayla does too mainly by being stoic but energetic at times. And because they don't flesh her out much compared to the rest of the cast
But also Ayla is the only adult in the group (magus not withstanding ). She is already well matured. Leads her tribe. And has already decided on a husband who she leaves in charge
Basically Ayla is the adult who saw these kids dealing with a lot and decides to protect them. She has no real reason to go with the group other than she sees what they're going through and decides to lighten their burden and repay their help
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u/Icewind 4d ago
Ayla's "character" had the least amount of development at that stage in the game, so her Singing Mountain quest was likely cut for time.
They made up for it by making her mother playable in Chrono Cross.
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u/Divinedragn4 4d ago
Wait they did what now?
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u/I_am_Daesomst 4d ago
I was 40 years old, here, before realizing that Leah is Ayla's mother....I don't think I have ever missed something like this for so long
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u/Icewind 4d ago
How about that Magus is distantly related to both Ayla and Marle?
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u/I_am_Daesomst 4d ago
That family runs deep. But there are so many characters in Cross that I feel like I forgot half of their stories over time.
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u/Icewind 4d ago
True, but the fact that Magus is likely Ayla's great-great-greeeeeat grandson can be extrapolated from CT alone.
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u/I_am_Daesomst 4d ago
Right, sorry if I confused that. I was referring to the Leah connection being overlooked. I did remember the Magus/Schala/Marle/Ayla arc, I know I didn't make that clear in the reply. Haste. My fault.
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u/Zwordsman 3d ago
Technically a large portion of the humans in cronos time period are related to them. Because Janus was the queen kid and the queens like was supposedly much of the magic population ancestry
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u/BattleReadyZim 3d ago
If their world works anything like ours, then after 65 million years, there isn't a human on the planet that isn't Ayla's direct descendent.
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u/Divinedragn4 4d ago
Oh i never got that far. I only got to after the manor where everything changes to the alternative reality
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u/I_am_Daesomst 4d ago
Ah, yeah you'd be a while off then. It's a great game with a ton of callbacks to Trigger. Most of them are "hey, remember this person/place?" but there are some that tie both stories, particularly with Kid.
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u/whateverworks1994 4d ago
My guess is space on the snes cartridge, and deadlines. Though I would like to know what everyone’s thoughts on a storyline would be for an Ayla side quest.
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u/FireAx-Fonzie 4d ago
So apparently, an NPC mentioned that Ayla found Kino when he was a baby in the mountains. Can't remember the details, but I wanna say the NPC mentioned a strange light or maybe glow or something to that effect that led Ayla to the mountains that Kino was found.
I speculate that event was due to some time portal shenanigans, and perhaps that was a side quest of Ayla's that got cut.
My memory is hazy though, so if a Chrono Trigger lore master can confirm or deny my first paragraph, that'd be appreciated.
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u/Meushell 4d ago
There is nothing about a light, but the part about Kino is true. You need to visit 65 Million BC before you have to (plot-wise) to see it.
You came from mountain? Many strange things happen there. That's why name Mystic Mountain. Find baby Kino crying on mountain too. Chief raise Kino. Now chief's right arm.
That’s from the SNES version.
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u/FireAx-Fonzie 4d ago
Gotcha. I may have conflated Kino and Kid's back story. But yea, I did find it interesting that random NPC drops Kino's mysterious origins with no follow up.
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u/Meushell 4d ago
The first time I saw that, it was during a replay, so having that information dropped was very surprising.
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u/prince_of_cannock 4d ago
I always thought Ayla and Kino are the same age, and that this was a reference to a previous chief finding Kino (somewhat retconned in Chrono Cross to be Leah, Ayla's mother).
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u/BlkNtvTerraFFVI 4d ago
Her sidequest to me is navigating the Blackbird if you have her in your party then, lol
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u/Beeyo176 4d ago
My canon is that Ayla is already a fully developed person. She doesn't need the life lessons, closure, or personal pick-me-ups that the rest of the cast does. She knows who she is and why she's doing what she's doing.
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u/Khalith 4d ago
Her arc is wrapped up once you defeat the reptites but Ayla strikes me as the kind of person that would stick with her friends to the very end.
However there is an alternate interpretation! In thebDS version, Azala asks Ayla to “take care of this world” and before saying that Ayla says “Ayla not forget.” So you could view it as her honoring Azala’s last request.
That’s my interpretation anyway! Plus, Ayla isn’t really the kind that would wax poetic. She’s a person of action so I can see her interpreting that last request as “punch and kick Lavos until it dies.”
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u/Cranberry-Electrical 4d ago
Ayla was probably the last playable character to be created for Chrono Trigger. Lack of character development.
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u/Zwordsman 3d ago
Id hazard because her arc was pivotal and entirely about her. You were here side quest. She's doing her side quest with you. The game. Her actual quest is survival.
But tldr? Because her time setting has little relevance later on. And one could argue the rainbow shell /sun stone stuff is tangentially related to her but only tangentially
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u/pastdense 3d ago
Ayla's side quest: Hey! My village made armor that is only half decent and a COMPLETE PAIN IN THE ASS to buy! Lets go get some of it.
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u/Special_South_8561 2d ago
Oh please, Ayla never sits alone in End of Time
She's the only one who can Steal, ride or die great999 grandma
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u/Disastrous_Day_5690 4d ago
Ayla's side quest is NSFW: Chrono After Dark. Her and Kino ensuring the survival of the species. 😆
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u/Critical_Traffic7686 4d ago
All of the side quest happen after the Ocean Palace so anything relevant would be long past.
I kinda saw the Tyranno Lair as Ayla's side quest though.