//podcastplus.net/feed/the-zeal-archives~1f97dfc1 Have you ever wondered how long King Guardia has reigned for? Or wanted to know more about Lucca's (and her family's) crazy inventions? The Zeal Archives explores the world of Chrono Trigger one bit at a time covering the characters, items, mechanics, locales and lore with a dose of your hosts', T and G, personal experiences with the game mixed in.Each episode contains a healthy potion of the above and is bookended by short vignettes of two characters, T and G, who are trapped in the world of Chrono Trigger (specifically, the "End of Time") and their escapades discovering the world and trying to make their way back home! Put another way, the podcast is part storytelling, part discussion, and 100% love letter to an amazing classic JRPG.Episodes release in 'books' (9-12 episodes) ... whenever they're ready. Each episode is somewhere between 15 and 30 minutes. Have a topic you'd like to see or an idea for the future of the series? Contact us on [Twitter](http://twitter.com/thenickscast) or [Facebook](https://facebook.com/thenickscast), both @thenickscast Tue, 13 Oct 2026 03:08:21 +0000 https://episodes.castos.com/60d5657ae06977-39952902/28733/31c9fff4-6a5a-4d04-ba8f-5843b7107eb4/s03e09a-full.mp3 No Chrono Trigger? No, we’re back in the past, before the initial experiment! T has been putting in some late nights, but to what end? (a portal machine, we covered that) And do we know who has been stealing parts from the office? It’s all coming together, as is their lovely Final Fantasy 6 audio drama! T and G discuss… well, honestly, a lot of our favourite moments big and (mostly) small from the game, including dredging up past unsolved mysteries (and alluding to future ones)! Also, they talk a little bit about what a more direct Chrono Trigger sequel might have looked like, and what it means for a game to be a spiritual successor of Chrono Trigger (if that means anything at all)! Editing, scripting, and podcast visual design by Nick Terwoord . Special thanks to Square Enix for making that game that we love, Chrono Trigger ...and for not suing us. Episode Cast Alphabetically, by actor: Ari in the role of Terra, and her fictional self Artimage ... Fri, 24 Dec 2021 23:15:00 +0000 https://episodes.castos.com/60d5657ae06977-39952902/28733/31c9fff4-6a5a-4d04-ba8f-5843b7107eb4/s03e09a-full.mp3 https://episodes.castos.com/60d5657ae06977-39952902/28733/43340b53-1874-45f6-83e0-bcf3941cc953/s03e09-full.mp3 After restoring most of the Chrono Trigger timeline, our intrepid heroes unfortunately stumble into the path of … Dalton? And Azala?? Thrown into a prison cell on the Blackbird with neither tools nor weapons, how will the party escape and stop whatever nefarious scheme is afoot? Will T and G ever get to go home? There’s only one way out of this sticky situation: a stealth mission. In our world, T and G dig into the enigma that is the “seat” of power himself (in that he’s a big ass), Dalton! What is the deal with Dalton? How is it that a man with such distaste for authority have managed to rise so high in society, especially with such an eclectic fashion sense? Villains in Chrono Trigger! All are time-locked, and arguably there’s no main big bad (Lavos doesn’t count, really) Again, Chrono Trigger as a game of great moments and set pieces, and how it tried to do different things (like the Blackbird) to different effects ... Wed, 15 Dec 2021 01:19:00 +0000 https://episodes.castos.com/60d5657ae06977-39952902/28733/43340b53-1874-45f6-83e0-bcf3941cc953/s03e09-full.mp3 https://episodes.castos.com/60d5657ae06977-39952902/28733/dfb05e90-09b5-4f3f-b092-6a54461453e0/s03e08-full.mp3 Our heroes-to-be reach a pivotal moment in the world of Chrono Trigger as familiar face and friend Marle has a chance encounter with Nick G just before the Millennial Fair. But could that moment cause a ripple in space time that causes the Robo and Lucca we know to cease to be? There’s only one day of fairground fun to try to turn things around!   In our world, T and G dig into the key characters of this episode: the tomboy princess, Marle, and the genius inventor, Lucca! What do they talk about? Glad you asked! ...Marle and Lucca (no surprises here Sun, 31 Oct 2021 19:32:00 +0000 https://episodes.castos.com/60d5657ae06977-39952902/28733/dfb05e90-09b5-4f3f-b092-6a54461453e0/s03e08-full.mp3 https://episodes.castos.com/60d5657ae06977-39952902/28733%2Fdfb05e90-09b5-4f3f-b092-6a54461453e0%2Fs03e08-full.mp3 Our heroes-to-be reach a pivotal moment in the world of Chrono Trigger as familiar face and friend Marle has a chance encounter with Nick G just before the Millennial Fair. But could that moment cause a ripple in space time that causes the Robo and Lucca we know to cease to be? There’s only one day of fairground fun to try to turn things around!   In our world, T and G dig into the key characters of this episode: the tomboy princess, Marle, and the genius inventor, Lucca! What do they talk about? Glad you asked! ...Marle and Lucca (no surprises here Sun, 31 Oct 2021 19:32:00 +0000 https://episodes.castos.com/60d5657ae06977-39952902/28733%2Fdfb05e90-09b5-4f3f-b092-6a54461453e0%2Fs03e08-full.mp3 https://episodes.castos.com/60d5657ae06977-39952902/s03e07-full.mp3 The mystery of the rapidly expanding anomalies will have to wait because the party finds itself face-to-face with… the end of time? Well known to our Chrono Trigger companions, the presence of old friends is a bit unusual to say the least. Perhaps, like a certain egg, it presents a certain opportunity? In our world, T and G try to talk about a key component of the world of Chrono Trigger: magic! Unfortunately, they get a bit distracted talking about… The origin and nature of magic in the world of Chrono Trigger? How on earth is everything made up of just four elements? And how did it start?? A lot of mechanics of Chrono Trigger! Specifically, how techs work and how they play out in the game The end of magic? Sat, 04 Sep 2021 01:16:00 +0000 https://episodes.castos.com/60d5657ae06977-39952902/s03e07-full.mp3 https://episodes.castos.com/60d5657ae06977-39952902/s03e06-full.mp3 With their time travel device damaged and losing power, the party must try to find a way to keep it working long enough to fix the anomalies and get the Nicks home. But where in the world of Chrono Trigger would there be enough power for something like time travel? Perhaps a visit to a certain AI would do the trick? In our world, T and G try to understand more about this understated section of the game, and maybe what could have been improved on. In particular... What is going on in this sidequest: How do you get to it, and what might you expect to find? Atropos and Mother Brain! Their origins, and the role they play in Robo’s story (and the story of the game) Missed potential: How could they have tied this sidequest better into the plot of the game, and into Robo’s character development in particular (and briefly why the developers might not have been able to do this) Editing, scripting, and podcast visual design by Nick Terwoord . Special thanks to Squa... Sun, 01 Aug 2021 05:37:00 +0000 https://episodes.castos.com/60d5657ae06977-39952902/s03e06-full.mp3 https://episodes.castos.com/60d5657ae06977-39952902/s03e05-full.mp3 This is it, the end of our intrepid crew… just kidding! Trapped in a cage of worlds new and old, our heroes must devise a cunning escape plan that will require everything that they know about the world of Chrono Trigger… probably! At the very least they might need to call in help from some unexpected friends… In our world, T and G attempt to unveil the storied past of the trio of misfits Ozzie, Flea, and Slash… if they had one?! In particular: What we actually know about these characters (surprise! It’s… not a lot). More interestingly, how differences in localization can dramatically alter how the characters are perceived (with a bunch of examples) A tiny bit about localization in the 90s, and in particular, Nintendo’s localization policy A lot of speculation around what we don’t know about them, and why such ‘small’ characters (relative to how long they are in the game) have such a... Wed, 07 Jul 2021 11:26:00 +0000 https://episodes.castos.com/60d5657ae06977-39952902/s03e05-full.mp3 https://zealarchives.podiant.co/e/39a2d490f18418/primary.mp3 You’d think in a world of time travel, monsters, and magic, there’d be cause for excitement, but the grind of going from anomaly to anomaly has taken its toll on Nick T… that is until the party’s next destination is Magus’ castle! What dangerous horrors await within, and is its powerful master home? Hopefully not…In our world, T and G delve into the real-life Chrono Trigger trigger archives, the Chrono Compendium, to try to understand more about the Mystics in the lore of Chrono Trigger. They discover…- Who the Mystics are… probably? As it turns out, there are some interesting differences in the English translations and the original Japanese. Plus, there’s a lot that’s never explicitly spelled out in the game- The history of the Mystics! We know they hate humans… why is that? Is that true? When do they show up, and why are there not more of them in the present (or any in the future)?- Personal opinions! Not so much a discovery as revealing some of the development that would have been nic... Tue, 01 Jun 2021 17:37:42 +0000 https://zealarchives.podiant.co/e/39a2d490f18418/primary.mp3 https://episodes.castos.com/60d5657ae06977-39952902/BxU9tQv76D6hqMtdY9v83j0yX1HbO7Upu2y9pAtX.mp3 You’d think in a world of time travel, monsters, and magic, there’d be cause for excitement, but the grind of going from anomaly to anomaly has taken its toll on Nick T… that is until the party’s next destination is Magus’ castle! What dangerous horrors await within, and is its powerful master home? Hopefully not…In our world, T and G delve into the real-life Chrono Trigger trigger archives, [the Chrono Compendium](https://www.chronocompendium.com/), to try to understand more about the Mystics in the lore of Chrono Trigger. They discover…* Who the Mystics are… probably? As it turns out, there are some interesting differences in the English translations and the original Japanese. Plus, there’s a lot that’s never explicitly spelled out in the game* The history of the Mystics! We know they hate humans… why is that? Is that true? When do they show up, and why are there not more of them in the present (or any in the future)?* Personal opinions! Not so much a discovery as revealing some of the... Tue, 01 Jun 2021 17:37:42 +0000 https://episodes.castos.com/60d5657ae06977-39952902/BxU9tQv76D6hqMtdY9v83j0yX1HbO7Upu2y9pAtX.mp3 https://episodes.castos.com/60d5657ae06977-39952902/s8LBJEyHRO3xm1fzkPwxCt59C05vdfNAyfpMDCAP.mp3 The party has tracked down the latest anomaly, but what happens when they are pinned down in a sandstorm in the middle of the middle ages? And can a small act of kindness bloom in the desert of a multi-millennial feud? T, G, Robo, and Lucca will have to depend on new allies to face off against old foes… or will they?In our world, T and G revisit one of the most eclectic, inspiring, challenging, and surprising sections of the game: the Sunken Desert / Fiona’s sidequest. There’s certainly a lot to cover, but we ‘dig’ into…* Its difficulty! After beating the game probably more than a hundred times collectively, why is it that this section is so much harder than any of the others?* What they remember about this influential moment in the game… and if they managed to save HER* The strangeness of this point in the game! Why is the iconic fireside chat optional, and why is it so easy to miss this sidequest entirely? Whose sidequest is it, anyway?!Editing, scripting, and podcast visual design by [Nick Te... Sat, 01 May 2021 17:37:42 +0000 https://episodes.castos.com/60d5657ae06977-39952902/s8LBJEyHRO3xm1fzkPwxCt59C05vdfNAyfpMDCAP.mp3