Guile (Chrono Cross)

"I shall guide you"

- Guile

Guile is a main-character in the J.R.P.G. Chrono Cross. Guile is a high-ranking member of the Magic Guild, on the Zenan main-land who has traveled to the El-Nido archipelago is search of mystery and adventure. Has has some of the most powerful magic use in the game, though it can be challenging to use him at-first.

Viper Manor Buffs
Serge, the player character, accidentally is transferred between realities, winding up in a version of his world, which is not his own. While attempting to come to grips with th situation he is ambushed by the Dragoon Diva, Karsh. Karsh says he was instructed to find and deal with Serge, knowing he would be there and he was out of place in that world. Serge is joined by the wanderer, Kid, and defeats Karsh and his minor Dragoons, Solt and Peppor. Karsh, Solt and Peppor retreat to their benefactor but tell Serge and Kid they will return for him. Serge with no other leads decides to head to Viper Manor, the base of the Dragoons and headquarters of the ruler of mainland El-Nido, General Viper.

Viper Manor is firmly locked and upon arriving in the city of Termina, just outside the Manor, Serge needs to search for a guide to get in. Serge can seek out Nikki - the celebrity bard, Pierre - the aspiring hero, or Guile - a mystery hunting magician. Unlike Nikki and Pierre, Guile has no special conditions for joining, simply walking into the Termina pub and speaking to him will prompt Guile to join. Guile has had a bet with the local Termina Fortune Teller to recover a Revive, spell from Viper Manor. Not only does Guile wish to win the bet, he also enjoys adventure and mystery. Guile's method for infiltration is via boat. Guile points out there is a buff behind the Manor and they go along the back, where there is only patrol guard.

The buff proves treacherous as the guard, upon catching them starts tossing down boulders. Serge and Guile must climb up the Buffs while avoiding the boulders and geysers. The boulder do 10 points of damage to the entire party, whereas the geysers push the party back down to the bottom. When reaching the top, the lone guard should be easily dealt with, however a local monster appears, the King Moaman. The King Moaman attacks along with it's helpers, Red Moaman and Blue Moaman, the two supports using fire and ice moves, with King Moaman having the two combine to give it a dual magic attack. Once the Moamans are defeated, Serge and Guile will wait for nightfall then sneak into the Mannor.

Viper Manor
Inside Viper Manor, Guile and Serge discovers another Dragoon Diva in the library, Marcy. In an effort to stop the intruders, Marcy attacks the party. After being defeated Marcy runs off leaving Serge and Guile to speak with the librarian Belthasar. Belthasar knows much of the dimensional cross-occurrence and proceeds to explain multiversal theory to Serge. Upon exiting the library the team is cut-off by Harle - magical jester visiting the Manor with her boss, Lynx.

Confronting Harle will lead the team further in, to meet with Viper and Lynx, who turns out to be the one who sent Karsh, with Viper's permission, to capture Serge. Indeed Lynx turns out to know much about Serge's current predicament but only drops vague hints while trying to restrain him. Kid, there to fight Lynx, breaks into the room to do battle with him but is poisoned by Lynx and the teams need to flee in order to get Kid some help. The Revive can be found in the dungeons of the Manor, if the party retrieved it Guile will win his bet, if not he loses. As there is no-way back into the Manor for a while, if Guile does not recover it the first time, he must concede defeat. Returning to the Fortune Teller with the Revive will prompt the Fortune Teller to give Guile a Brass Rod, a free and decent upgrade to his starter wand. If the party misses the Revive, Guile must reveal his true face to the Fortune Teller by removing his mask. Though the camera blanks when Guile reveals his face, the Fortune Teller states it is quite shocking.

Skills and Abilities
Guile is the strongest black-elemental user in the game outside of Lynx. He also has a unique magical set-up. The Elemental Grid (spell slots) in the game usually starts with many smaller spells and progressively less slots as the gain access to higher and higher level magic, most not holding more than one ninth level spell, if that. Guile's Elemental Grid is reversed, he fewer elemental slots at early levels and a massive amount of level nine spells, with spell slots going up in-between the two. Guile's inverted Elemental slots make him a magical power-house at later levels but see him as limited at the start of the game. Guile has very high magical attack, so any spells assigned, weak or high, will be used to much greater effect than they are with other characters. Guile's innate element is black and in manifests in gravity magic, he can compress his staff into a tiny ball, throw in, additionally use gravity magic to have his staff used as a make-shift javelin and he turn in staff into a lightning rod by magnetically charging it. All of Guile's innate skills are single hit, though strong magic. His only innate multi-hit spell is through use of a combo-technique with the show-magician Sneff. Guile casually glides rather than running and has his staff follow beside him without ever actually touching it.

Personality
Guile is an invert - preferring a peaceful time thinking to himself. When he does engage with others it is fellow magicians. He has a casual friendship with the Termina Fortune Teller. When he is not taking bets with the Fortune Teller, he is having a drink or meal at the Termina pub. Upon meeting the stage performer, Sneff, it turns out Guile and Sneff know each-other, both are from the mainland Magic Guild; Guile going off on adventure and mystery, while Sneff works as a stage performer. Unlike Sneff, who seeks to use his magic to dazzle and earn money, Guile instead wishes to explore El-Nido's many mysteries.

Dummied Out Content
Guile was originally planned to be Magus from Chrono Trigger. Due to changing development concerns the reveal was dropped. Guile was to be Magus - his memory lost from his fight with Lavos, at the end of Chrono Trigger. However as a similar reveal was made in with Gil in Radical Dreamers, (never released outside of Japan) the story was not written into Chrono Cross. Game Designers have not denied Guile is still Magus, but simply decided to leave it to the player's imagination with no confirmation if he is to be considered Magus any-longer without the story conclusion.