Robo (Chrono Trigger)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Robo
Official artwork from PlayStation re-release
Game series	Chrono series
First game	Chrono Trigger
Designed by	Akira Toriyama
In-Universe Information
Given name	Prometheus, R66-Y (serial number)
Native time period	2300 A.D.
Weapon	Arm
Magic element	None; Laser mimics shadow

Robo is a playable character in Squaresoft's Chrono Trigger.

Robo is a humanoid robot created before the apocalypse in 1999 A.D. when Lavos rose to the surface of the planet. His purpose was to serve humans, but he was disabled in the Proto Dome when Lavos returned. He remained inactive until 2300 A.D. when Lucca repaired him. Robo joins Crono, Marle and Lucca on their quest to return to 1000 A.D.. Soon he meets up with six other robot friends in the factory, but they quickly turn on Robo and tell him he is malfunctioning, and his real purpose is to destroy the humans. Robo disagrees, and is soon assaulted and critically injured. After being scrapped as junk, Chrono and the gang step into the fight and quickly deal with the robots. They drag Robo back, and once again Lucca repairs him. It is then Robo realizes a new purpose in his creation.

However, this purpose is the source of Robo's inner conflict as he is repeatedly called useless and trash by fellow robots. While exploring a robot factory in 2300 A.D., Robo is confronted by the deranged Mother Brain and former robot friend, Atropos XR. They attempt to persuade to Robo that his original purpose was the destruction of humans. Robo realizes that genocide is not his true purpose and both fights Atropos XR and destroys Mother Brain.

Later in the game, when visiting 600 A.D., the party encounter a woman named Fiona, who is trying to replant a forest that has been destroyed by monsters and turned into a desert. Even after destroying the monsters, however, the forest is still missing in future time-periods. This changes when Robo volunteers to restore Fiona's forest and spends four hundred years constantly working on the land. During this time, Robo ponders the existence of an Entity, a mysterious force guiding Crono and his friends through time for some unknown purpose. He explains his theory to the party when they are reunited outside the Forest Shrine in 1000 A.D. After the defeat of Lavos, Robo returned to his time and is last seen watching a sunset with a repaired and reactivated Atropos. But Lucca used what she learned from Robo's design to fashioned a smaller version of Robo as seen in the PS FMV aftermath.

As a character, Robo is both a strong fighter and decent healer, and is required for some of the more destructive Double and Triple techs. Despite the fact that his left arm appears to be a gun of some sort, he never gains an attack that utilizes this - punches of various sorts, a tackle, and various attacks that require him to open his armor in some way, but never a gun attack.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

In Chrono Cross, Robo exists as the "Prometheus Circuit", which is designed to deny access to the Frozen Flame to anyone but the Arbiter (Serge) inside Chronopolis. However, it was also designed to stay concealed to avoid any detection from FATE. It was the very reason why FATE was bent on obtaining Serge, or rather his body to regain access to the Frozen Flame. Unfortunately, Prometheus was eventually detected by FATE once Lynx, FATE's primary agent switched bodies with Serge. He was then finally terminated by FATE in front of Serge after meeting him for the first and final time. Masato Kato (Chrono series scenario planner) has officially gone on record as stating the circuit is Robo. "Anyway, if you have played Trigger, then Prometheus should be very familiar to you. I'm sure a lot of players would make a similar 'big fuss' over the death of such a much-loved friend..."

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Trivia

In the Japanese version, Robo has a unique speech; because he is not fully functional he speaks with bits of katakana in his sayings and has trouble with pronunciations. Most of the robots talk in all katakana, with the exception of Johnny.
In the End of Time, Spekkio claims that he can't give Robo access to magic because he can't get a "feel" for him. However, in the Japanese version this is because he was not descended from the magic people, and therefore is not capable of using magic. Nevertheless, it should be noted that his laser attacks mimic the Shadow element and some Double Techs he performs with others are of the remaining three elements (Fire, Ice, Lightning).
By all accounts, Robo should be over 700 years old or more. Robo is at least 301 years old when Lucca finds him due to being created before the Apocalypse(1999 AD). After Robo saves Fiona's Forest from destruction("The Sunken Desert" Scenario), another 400 years is added to that(600 AD to 1000 AD). Thus, by the end of Chrono Trigger, he is over 700 years old.