Chrono Trigger

The Good
Released in 1995, Chrono Trigger was one of the SNES’ last good games. From long time RPG designer Squaresoft, it easily stands as the best game they ever produced. It often even exceeds their flagship series Final Fantasy. And seems to have been the model for all of there games since. With the three member party. And punk hairdo swordsmen. As well as many other features.

In Chrono Trigger, you play the aptly named Crono. Whom awakens late of the day of the Millennial Fair. He heads out with his allowance to have fun and meet his friend Lucca. (How old is Crono supposed to be?) At the fair he bumps into (literally) a young woman who says her name is Marle. You can play mini-games, and how you treat young Marle will be key later in the game, and I will mention later.

Once you meet Lucca, Marle agrees to use her teleport machine, and is inadvertently sent to the past! Crono being either brave or stupid, silently agrees to go after her. And thus begins his romp through time that will change the future, and the past.

You will travel to the past, the stone age, the future, and even to another land. Along the way you will meet many new friends and villains. You will put right the mistakes of the past to make a better future.

One of the most interesting features of the game has to be when Crono is on trial. Here is were how you Marle comes into play. Unfortunately, even if you are found innocent your fate is the same. Multiple paths would have made this truly innovative alas there are none.

You can form three character parties, really just two others besides Crono. Exploring the world map there are no enemies. In dungeons and forests and the like, you see the monsters before they attack. Therefore, battle can often be avoided but, it is best not to avoid to many fights. The game uses ATB from Final Fantasy, kind of a lame system but it does the job. In battle you can attack, use techs, items, and flee. Techs are like magic but not exactly. You will gain access to magic later in the game however. Both techs and magic use up MP. You can also combine techs to make combos. Not 100% original as Phantasy Star IV featured combos as well. At least they are used differently in CT. When a combo is available the ‘tech’ will become ‘comb’. This makes finding combos easier than in PSIV. Instead of having to experiment to find them, they are given to you. This can be a good and bad thing. Bad for those that don’t mind a little extra work. Good for those to lazy to look at a FAQ. The more powerful “triple techs” need be unlocked first.

There are not many side quests to speak of. Only about ten or so. And most of which can not be completed until the end of the game. It’s kind of funny that people always complain about PSIV’S lack of side quests, but not Chrono Trigger’s.

The Graphics in Crono Trigger are very good. Some of the best of the 16-bit era. Even better than those of FFVI.(FFIII for those in the USA.) The sprites while still “super deformed” tend to show more detail, and are more well proportioned. Areas look even better. The magic/tech effects are nice too. The game is colorful without being too colorful. It is also dark when necessary.

The Music well done. The tunes are memorable, and generally fit the situations. This is likely the best score produced for a Square game. The sound effects may not win any awards but they get the job done.

The Bad
All is not well in CT however. The game at times feels a little childish. Look at the box art, is Crono 12? He couldn’t be any older than 15. And there seems to be a developing love interest with Crono and Marle. But it never goes anywhere beyond a middle school crush.

There are also some plot holes here. The motivations of some characters is either non-existent. Or just does not make since. For instance, the villain Magus’ motivation for being evil is quite lame. I won’t divulge it here as I don’t want to confuse you.

The ATB system has got to be one of the lamest battle systems ever conceived. It is really cool when the enemies get to take ten turns before you get one…not.

This game is short. With all the side quests completed, and the best ending achieved it only clocks in about 20-25 hours. Less if you know the game well. There are multiple endings but the first time you play only about two are available. At least they add somewhat to replay value. It’s ironic that Square’s best game was made almost entirely by the Dragon Quest staff.

The Bottom Line
I would not say that this is the best RPG ever. Frankly a phrase like that should not exist. I will tell you however, that it is in my top 5 favorite 16-bit RPGS list. Probably about #3. Avoid the PS version if possible. The scattered FMVS are not worth the horrible load times you must endure. Plus the opening of the SNES version is way cooler.

The Good
Chrono Trigger is by far one the best RPGs I've had a chance to play. With a cool cast of characters and an interesting storyline, you can't go wrong with this one. Now, I admit, it's a little dated, being originally released in 1995, but there are some subtle changes with bring new life into this seemingly worn out title. The most notable ones a huge variety of extras, including the game's entire amazing soundtrack, and all of the animated cutscenes which you can access at your own free will. I found the DS interface a lot more comfortable than the original because you can finally attack an enemy simply by tapping the touch screen rather than having to find them using the pointer, which often didn't move in it's intended direction. The added side missions were also quite fun, and offered a new ending which finally made some solid connection to Chrono Cross.

The Bad
Something... Maybe not...

The Bottom Line
This game is a "must play" for any RPG fan. Now it doesn't really matter what version of the game you play, but the DS version is my favorite, and is the most accessible version at the time. The characters, storyline, gameplay, and perhaps graphics (though they are rather old and unchanged from the original) are just great, and the music quality will blow you away (they had Yasunori Mitsuda AND Nobuo Uematsu working on the soundtrack!). This game is a masterpiece and has stood the test of time (and travelled it!). If you're looking for a fun, entertaining RPG, this is a top choice.

The Good
Innovation and interactivity have long been what I find most valuable in games, and Chrono Trigger is almost completely deficient in both. Why put this in the "good" section?

Because narrative-driven RPGs rely almost solely on passive content. Attempts to bloat up the interactivity or innovate on the tried-and-true "plucky heroes against the foozle" formula are not necessarily good or bad on their merits, but rather live or die by how they fit with the old standby of the genre--passive content. What I mean by "passive content" is the scripted plot and its supporting graphics, music, and atmosphere--stuff I like to rail against as having usurped resources from gaming's most valuable and unique quality, interaction. Taking time to think about what games I actually -enjoy- the most, however, I find that in certain genres interactivity is the last thing I care about, and an inappropriate focus in that direction can actually spoil the game.

How does it happen? The crucial factor here in narrative-based games is that the player's motivation is not at one with the avatar's. The avatar might care about a random girl's slow vaporization via temporal dissonance, but the player doesn't, not to anywhere near the same degree. The player is invested in advancing the plot, and experiencing the passive content. This is why the player will reload to play out unexplored branches of a scripted plot, to try all the significant available paths, without much regard for the avatar's established motivations. Who cares about my supposed squeamish "goodness" when there's more delicious content to experience?

Which brings us to Chrono Trigger's interactivity--there's not much, and that's fine. You don't have to schmooze with some King Guardia simulacrum for hours, carefully massaging his "personality" stat-bundle while mowing mindlessly through a vast plain of mostly barren dialogue menus--you get all the content written for His Guardia-ness just by waltzing up and hitting a button. This is less interactive than an exhaustively subtle dialogue system complete with procedural NPC personality stat matrices, sure, but let's be honest--for some genres, it's better not to have all that crap.

Why? Because NPCs have no agency in a narrative RPG. They have no life outside the player. They simply stand around and wait for you to throw logic switches, then provide you with the requisite quest/bauble/info to throw more logic switches. They're boolean vending machines for the game script. They're never going to break free, form goals, and alter the gameworld in any significant way. They have no agency or life in the world outside of the player, and thus asking the player to relate to them emotionally via subtle mechanics is ridiculous. They are soulless robots in terms of mechanics--to ask the player to navigate a comprehensive conversation system with them would be akin to having blowup dolls require thoughtful gifts, stimulating nights out and long foot rubs from their sad misfit owners. Some reasonable facsimile of life is necessary to justify any game's demand for a player to relate to its NPCs on a more human level. Complex mechanics should not be a shameful disguise for playing tea-party with empty mannequins.

So why not give them more agency, more life? Because that kills any well-structured RPG narrative dead. The player need only waltz into the world and kill vermin for six hours before killing the foozle--if NPCs are equal agents to the player, then -anyone- could have killed such a pushover foozle at any time. Why not allow the player more freedom then? Because the amount of plot-branches would quickly become staggering, precluding the highest levels of quality in the passive content, or making all paths drably alike. If Crono could decide "nuts to Frog; screw that guy, I'm not taking him along," then all the work on the 600AD Magus sequence goes up in smoke, all Frog's passive content characterization is for naught, and alternate paths must be scripted and fleshed out with passive content to an agreeable standard. Now imagine this necessity repeated for every major plot point in the game--if there are only ten major yes/no decisions, that's 1024 discrete paths. You could lower the standard of content, make it more abstract and modular, merge the paths into only a few fleshed-out endpoints, etc.--but then many of Chrono Trigger's NPCs and much of its drama would be as faceless as some of their counterparts in Wasteland, and something valuable, for me at least, would be lost.

As great as Wasteland is, if the passive content is good enough to justify a heavily scripted narrative I don't mind at -all- if I'm led by the nose through an exclusively linear plot. If the signpost NPCs are charming, well-written and relatable even in the most non-interactive sense, then I don't care if I can't micromanage the inflection of my greeting. I don't care if the conversation always goes the way the script demands. I don't care if my avatar is mute! If the content's good enough, exhaustive interactivity isn't the be-all end-all.

Chrono Trigger's content is definitely up to that standard. This is the absolute pinnacle of 16-bit art--sprites are well-designed via Akira Toriyama, environments are lush and evocative, the music is jaw-droppingly gorgeous, and the time-travel plot, complete with varied and lovable characters, reaches mind-boggling levels of fun and JRPG charm. The battle system is remarkably versatile and deeply strategic in design, even though (as usual for JRPGs) its full subtleties are never required of the player by the actual encounters. All these isolated components are derivative, but who cares? If you can do derivative to the highest standard, then count me in. I won't praise you as innovative, but I -will- praise you as good!

The game's few innovations (and there are some) serve mainly to streamline delivery of that wonderful content. Gone are many of the random dungeon fights--a surprising number of monster encounters are realistically visible and may be avoided, drawing down the tedium of sidling up to those logic switches, keeping the focus on the content. Side quests are kept to a bare minimum prior to having an easy means of locomotion, and the main motivation for completing those that exist after the Black Omen rises is--you guessed it--a better ending! The large number of endings and constant accessibility of the final battle go hand in hand in emphasizing the value of passive content--who wouldn't want to see Nobuo Uematsu in sprite form? :-P Even the "New Game +" option's primary value is in providing the player an easy way to march merrily down those almost wholly non-interactive alternate paths, and I would wager most people who enjoy this game have done exactly that. I have!

This game was designed and fleshed out with love and awe-inspiring talent. To experience it is worthwhile even if you're dead-set against kiddy, derivative, linear RPGs. You can't stab Frog to death and take his stuff, sure, but he's a lot more memorable than Mayor Pedros, and that may well encapsulate the trade-off heavily narrative-based games are forced to make.

The Bad
There's very little I didn't like. A few sequences are tedious, such as the aftermath of the "soup-eating" contest where you must follow little footprints through a jungle of slow, unavoidable monster encounters. The Reptite palace is similarly slow in pacing, with (again) too many unavoidable encounters, complete with some backtracking. Catching the rat and the bike race in the future are reminiscent of action sequences in Sierra adventures--not exactly thrilling and incredibly frustrating if you can't hack them. The bike race is pretty, though!

The Bottom Line
Chrono Trigger epitomizes the best qualities of the 16-bit era JRPG. Sometimes, a lack of interactivity and a "childish" theme are exactly what allows for passive content of the highest quality. When the non-interactive art is at such a high level, even the most utterly linear gameplay feels somehow justified.