Onward to the Castle!

Well, so much for keeping to decent schedule eh? I'm not sure I have appreciated the effort some people must go to when blogging - so kudos guys! With that, here's another chunk of my gameplay as I plug away at Chrono Trigger.
Having done my initial exploring around the clearing, I was left with the only obvious route - through the forest to the castle! There were a few skirmishes, but so far only the same imps and roly poly things to fight; so nothing really of note until I found this:

oooooohhh.. magic box!

If I remember rightly, there is another one of these in the inn as well - but they are sealed for now (by magic no less) and I can only assume that I can only open them when I have become 'worthy' - aka coming back later in the game... but this could mean I'm going to be flipping back and forth between time periods - and that can only lead to some time travel 'hijinks'

Knock knock!

Right then, we're finally here. Lets see if we can meet this queen and find out what's going on...

Don't I know you?

Hang on a second... you look very familiar, don't you?
I'm then told I have the freedom to wander around the castle (as you do) and go and speak to the queen privately. First things first - time to go off and explore. I now have a feeling about how the meeting with the queen is going to play, so I'm going to go for a mooch around the castle first. There's a couple of areas to visit: the barracks, a tower (with obligatory chest at the top) and the food hall! Which was good for a free meal, except I did run into this guy:

Rude much?

Who seems to be a bit of a tool for treating the staff like that (and funnily enough I can't tell him what I think right now!). Right, belly is full and exploring is covered - I suppose I should get down to business. I also seem to have found my way into the throne room... shouldn't that be a little more... you know... guarded? Oh well, time to greet the king and move on!

Well, hello there Mr King!

Now to find her majesty and find a way out of here!

Ta very muchly!

Well that was easy enough, let's see what she has to say, because I have a fairly good idea where this is heading, after her gigglyness appeared before.

Err... no.

Oh lass... no, you didn't fool me. But that confirms it, I've found Leona again - but now what? I assume I've got to get her out of the castle without anyone noticing and find a way home, you know something nice and easy. Right?

Steady on love!

Well maybe not - she doesn't seem in any rush to leave, and naturally decides that this is the time for a heartfelt conversation. She's a sweet lass, but her timing isn't great is it? At this point I'm still on familiar ground - follow the girl, find the girl, rescue the girl etc. and right about the time I'm expecting to have to drag her away from her sudden rise to royalty the game throws me a curveball...

Uh-oh.

Something is obviously not right here - and this time there's no faulty machinery or magic pendant to blame! Understandably she starts to panic... and with good reason! Suddenly there is an eerie light, some magic sparkles and all of a sudden she is gone. Again.

This may be difficult to explain away...

Uh-oh. So now I find myself in the 'queens' private room, after the kingdom has only just found her and after 5 minutes alone with me she has vanished... I may have a tough time talking my way out of this one! I'm kinda glad I didn't insult the guard captain now - I have a feeling I'm going to see him again reeaaallll soon!

Well then, next time we get to see if I can actually get out of this one, as I continue My Gaming Catch Up!