Chrono Trigger

The Good
The role-playing game (RPG) genre is not quite the most accessible genre in video games. Some older games like the early entries in the Final Fantasy series feel dated and are incredibly hard by today's standards. Random battles every few steps and constantly leveling up your characters keep the pace out of these old RPG's. There are a few exceptions to this rule though, and Chrono Trigger is probably the finest example of an older RPG that is still accessible and fun to play to this very day. And it does an amazing job at storytelling, too.

Released in 1995 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Chrono Trigger was a big breath of fresh air for RPG fans and newcomers alike. While still being a traditional RPG at its core, it reinvented the genre in several ways and made it much more accessible and playable to those unfamiliar with it.

That is, for those living in Japan and North America. Players in places such as Europe or Australia never got to play this game, resulting in it being one of the most sought-after SNES games. Even if you could find a copy of the game on Ebay, you had to cough up some serious dough for it. The PlayStation version released a few years later suffered the same fate and also had some technical issues as it was a rather badly ported edition of the game. It was not until 2009 that Square-Enix released it in these territories via the new DS port. And this time it was ported correctly.

So what makes this game hold up so much even to a European like me who plays it for the first time ever? Well, One of the things Chrono Trigger does different is that it eliminates the random battles other RPG's constantly throw at you. Instead, you see your foes walking around the various areas of the game and you can just approach them whenever you want to fight them directly on the map. In other words: There is no battle screen. Sometimes you can even avoid them by simply walking past them, without the fear of enemies popping up out of nowhere all the time. Another massive RPG-annoyance that Chrono Trigger doesn't have is that you don't have to do too much additional leveling of your characters. Usually you can figure out the correct strategy to defeat a boss after a few tries. In many other RPG's, like Final Fantasy or Pokémon, you often end up under-leveled forcing you to grind up your experience level, which usually takes hours of boring and repetitive gameplay. In Chrono Trigger however, this only happens scarcely, keeping the pace in the game intact.

Instead, Chrono Trigger takes the time to tell a compelling story about time-travel and the quest to save mankind from certain doom. You take control of Crono, a young boy living in the year 1000 A.D. In the case of this game that means 1000 years after the establishment of the kingdom of Guardia where Chrono lives. While visiting the Millennial Fair in commemoration of the 1000th anniversary of the kingdom, Crono stumbles upon Marle, a cute yet mysterious girl who keeps him company while he checks out his inventress friend Lucca's teleporting device. After Crono is successfully teleported, Marle wants to try it out as well. However, things go horribly awry when Marle's blue pendant reacts to the teleporter and creates a rift in time and space, sending Marle back in time. Crono is determined to save Marle and goes after her. This is only the beginning of one of the most engaging video gaming quests ever made. Little does Crono know that he eventually doesn't have to save only a girl but the very future of mankind.

After a few hours of gameplay you will strand in the year 2300 A.D. where you will find a grim and devastated, post-apocalyptic future. Computers rule supreme and the few humans who still live hide in the ruins of what were once their cities. You will find out that this is the fault of a mysterious being called Lavos who destroyed civilization in the year 1999 A.D. However, since you have the ability to travel through time, you can prevent this from happening.

The story spans across several different time periods:
- Prehistory (65.000.000 B.C.): This is an age when humans and the dinosaur-like Reptites fight for supremacy over the planet.
- Antiquity/Ice Age (12.000 B.C.): Here you will find a frozen age when an evil sorcerer queen rules on floating islands above the heavens. This is an advanced age where magic and technology go hand in hand. Those who do not possess magic powers however, live under oppression and are forced to live on the cold tundras on the ground.
- Middle Ages (600 A.D.): After following Marle you get sent to a dark age where noble knights fight a war against the hordes of Magus, the evil Fiendlord.
- Present (1000 A.D.): This is an age where everything is happy and peaceful. This is where the game starts.
- The Cataclysm (1999 A.D.): An ancient evil ascents from the bowels of the earth and destroys civilization in a giant holocaust. This is what you must prevent from happening.
- Future (2300 A.D.): This is a gloomy age after the great destruction in 1999 A.D. Computers and robots now rule the earth while the last remnants of humanity are losing all hope.
- End of Time: This acts like a hub where all of time's flows come together. From here you can travel back in time to all ages previously visited.

Each world has its own unique look and feel and sometimes you can trigger an event that alters history. This can have an effect on the course of history and when you travel into the future, something might be changed in a later age. While this aspect doesn't affect the game in a huge, game-changing way, it does play an important role in the plot of the game and which out of more than a dozen different endings you get.

This forces you to travel through the various ages finding allies and level them up and eventually travel to 1999 A.D. to destroy Lavos before he can destroy human civilization. There are seven different playable characters in total:
- Crono: This is the silent protagonist of the game. He has spiky hair and carries a huge katana sword around.
- Marle: A mysterious girl whom Crono meets at the Millennial Fair in his hometown.
- Lucca: Crono's best friend and a brilliant inventress. Everything technological is her area of expertise.
- Frog: A knight from the middle ages who is turned into a frog by his nemesis, the evil Fiendlord Magus.
- Robo: A robot from the year 2300 A.D. Lucca, Marle and Crono find him completely broken. After repairing him, Lucca reprograms him. This results in Robo being much more human than one would think from his appearance.
- Ayla: A prehistoric chieftain. She has to struggle against the evil Azala and his reptites for supremacy over the planet.
- Magus: The evil Fiendlord that wages war against the king of Guardia in 600 A.D. This is an important enemy in the game, but it is possible to use him as a playable character as well.

Each character can use a basic physical attack using a weapon such as a sword. But there are also the so-called techs. These are more powerful moves but some may consume magic points. Magical techs can be learned by Crono (lighting), Marle (ice), Frog (water), Lucca (fire) and Magus (shadow) The latter can use some of the other characters' magical techs as well. Ayla and Robo can't use magical techs but will still learn rather powerful physical techs instead.

You can never have more than three characters with you, but you can freely swap them outside battles. It's important to think about what combinations to use as they influence what techs will be available. There are special techs called double techs and triple techs. Double techs have two characters join their forces to create more powerful attacks. Triple techs even combine the powers of three characters for truly devastating moves. Naturally, these double and triple techs consume much more magic power. This adds lots of depth and fun to the game without making it overly complicated.

The battle system is a variation of the Active Time Battle system from Final Fantasy where you have to wait until your time bar fills up before you can use another attack. Fast characters like Crono will be quicker to attack than slower ones like Lucca. The way you fight enemies on the map directly, instead of a battle screen like in most RPG's, gives this game an added touch. Many enemies keep on walking around during battles. You might want to wait before you attack until all your enemies are close together, then attack them all at once using a wide-range tech. This gives a new layer of depth to the game that many other RPG's don't have.

Purists can still use the old controls but using the new DS touch-control scheme works like a dream. You can find attacks much quicker since all the menus have their own screen and simply tapping them gives you a much quicker and much more intuitive way to attack. This is very useful in a battle system like this, which is not completely turn-based like in games such as Pokémon.

Other than that Chrono Trigger leaves most RPG-conventions intact. There are still numerous equipment items to find and you will still crawl through dungeons, visit towns and defeat the occasional boss. However, it is just much less complicated and much more fun than in many other RPG's from the 90's.

Visually, it's mostly the character designs that stand out. Particularly the bosses show some truly impressive sprite work. Even now they are very nice to look at. The reason for this may be the fact that they were designed by Akira Toriyama, who is best known for his famous Dragon Ball comics. Many characters in Chrono Trigger resemble characters from those comics. Take Crono for example, he looks a lot like Goku, Dragon Ball's protagonist. Marle and Lucca show some similarities to Bulma while many of the bosses reminded me of Dragon Ball villains. It's nice to see Akira Toriyama's unique style shine through and fans of his comic books will appreciate that.

It's not just their appearance though. Chrono Trigger is one of those few games that actually make you fall in love with the characters. When something sad happens, you feel sorry for them. When the cute and cheerful Marle gets all excited about something you get excited as well. When Robo turns out to be much more human than many flesh-and-blood characters in the game, you feel touched at an emotional level. While the story itself is nice, it is the characters that really make it come alive. Like many of SquareSoft's (now Square-Enix) RPG's they are all likable, believable characters with different character traits, likes and dislikes.

The quest is long, fun to play and engaging. There are several side-quests, colourful worlds, and many different endings (including all-new DS-exclusive ones) to unlock to keep you occupied, even after completing the game once. Several new areas en features have been added to the original game as well to make this version longer and better than ever. Notable is the Dimensional Vortex, a new, extra long, extra hard dungeon unlocked by beating the main quest once. Furthermore, there is a little monster battling game called the Arena of the Ages, that you can play against friends. Pokémon this ain't, but it is nice to see the developers taking time to add something to an already great package. What fans of the original may or may not like is the new transation. For newcomers at least, it is much more accurate than in the console versions, but purists may be slightly dissapointed with this. There are new endings and you can find a media gallery featuring official art for the game and a theatre function that includes those pretty cut-scenes from the PlayStation version to watch whenever you want. You can also listen to the amazing sound track of this game anytime you want.

Composed by Yasunori Mitsuda with assistance of Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu, the sound track is seriously impressive. While it may sound a bit dated from a technical viewpoint, the compositions still hold up so incredibly well, you won't mind at all. From the epic main theme to the rustic theme in 1000 A.D. and from the cheerful theme of the Millennial Fair to the foreboding theme of Lavos, every song fits its scene seamlessly and creates the perfect atmosphere for every situation you come across in the game. Most impressive!

The sound effects are OK. Perhaps they are a bit dated by today's standards, but for something coming from the SNES they are surprisingly good.

The Bad
While the characters still look nice, the environments are not nearly as impressive today as they were back in the SNES age and the map screen looks downright dated. While by no means an ugly game, it is unfortunate to see nothing has been done to give the game a graphical upgrade. When you look at the impressive 3D remakes of Final Fantasy games on DS, it's kind of a letdown to see that Chrono Trigger looks exactly the same as in 1995, regardless of how visually impressive the game was back then. While I personally would not have liked the chibi style used in the Final Fantasy remakes, they could have at least polished up the edges that have become rough over the years. Don't get me wrong, it holds up well, but it could have been even better, especially if you're a European, like me, and the game is still all-new to you.

While I love how they retained the anime cut-scenes from the PlayStation version in the DS version, there's only so much of them. This is a shame as the game is so full of memorable moments, you just wish you could see more of them rendered in those pretty anime clips as well.

The Bottom Line
Chrono Trigger is amazing! Whether you are a veteran looking for the definitive edition of the game, or if you've never played it before and are just curious why all the yanks go all crazy about this game, you owe it to yourself to pick it up. It is truly one of the most impressive, if not THE most impressive RPG quest ever.

With a colourful world, lovable characters, excellent storyline, long and engaging quest, fantastic sound track and a battle system that is better and more accessible than ever before, there is no reason not to pick up this timeless classic!

The Good
Chrono Trigger was one of Squaresoft's first independent titles ("Independent" meaning separate from an on-going series, such as Final Fantasy), and most definately their best. The game has solid gameplay, excellent well-rounded characters (Including Magus, one of the coolest villians-turned-good I've ever seen), beautiful music, and a great story line. I'm assuming you've read the synopsis by MobyGames, so I won't go into detail. The game also features a "New Game +" feature, which is, as far as I know, exclusive to the Chrono series. This allows you to restart the game with everything you had before you beat it. This, along with the 13 endings, adds excellent replay value, besides the game itself. This game, I say again, is the best of the best. If you EVER have the chance to buy it, BUY IT.

The Bad
There was NOTHING I disliked about the game.

The Bottom Line
This is an extremely good game.

Play it. You'll like it, and you'll thank me for it later.

The Good
Ah what can I say? I enjoy RPGs, and while I've always been a PC guy, there's always been a spot in my heart for them good ol' console RPGs. Chrono Trigger was a game that had been thoroughly recommended to me via friends and relatives, and I'd seen such praise about it here on Mobygames and on various message boards, I thought it was finally time that I tried it out for myself.

Right from the very beginning, this game glowed with that "SNES classic RPG" feel that I'd gotten so many times, from so many games, and for most of them I have Squaresoft to thank. Nostalgia instantly hit me as I saw the ticking of that thing in those grandfather clocks (you know what I mean - that bar with the circle on it? It goes tick-tock? Erm...anyway...) even though I'd never played this game before. I knew I was going to enjoy this romp.

So I began my game and...well, I'll finish this paragraph in "The Bad". For now, let me reflect on the good parts of the game.

It's a console RPG. If that ain't a "good" thing, I don't know what is. None of these new-fangeled game engines with wacky rules that are too confusing to understand. Nope, instead, this is a very simple game that takes absolutely no time to figure out. Once you begin playing, you understand the game. Anything "new" that the game might bestow upon you (such as spellcasting) is introduced with a warm in-game tutorial, so you're never lost. Good ol' console RPGs.

If you didn't know already, the game's plot revolves around time travel. (I'm not giving too much away here - you figure this out two minutes into the game) This is one of the few RPGs, or games in general I've played for consoles that involved time travel, and being an ol' kiddy sci-fi whacko, I loved the idea, and I felt the game did it very well. I also liked traveling back in time to see what the land was like, say, one thousand years ago...or foward in time, to see what it's like several thousand years in the future. Familiar landscapes and cities are a welcome treat. Some of your events in the past are even retold by people in the far future! This added a great thrill to the game.

You can fight the "big bad boss" at almost any point in the game, and possibly kill him (though I wasn't able to until I'd completed all the other parts of the game). I love this sort of open-ended gameplay.

The Bad
Now, where was I? Oh, right. So I began my game and was instantly disappointed. Why? Because there is absolutely no atmosphere in this game at all. Almost nothing to entrance me, nothing to bring me into this game. RPGs have a way of making you feel something about the characters in it, they have a way of making you become the character you play. I've never seen an RPG fail at this so horribly as this game. Now, don't get me wrong, the game was fun...but it completely lacked the atmosphere RPGs tend to have. Every NPC you talk to spits forth the most boring and unrealistic series of dialogue I've ever read. You never have any sense that what you're doing really matters because the people that your actions affect never seem to care about anything. Walk up to someone and they might say, "Did you hear about the weather? Yeah, it might rain. Oh, and I hear there's a secret entrance underneath a bush near the cave to the East."

I've played plenty of console RPGs, so I know that dialogue (particularly in Squaresoft games) is never really "realistic", but this is way below par. Never in the game do YOU ever acomplish anything on your own, except perhaps defeat a boss. Everyone directs you wherever you need to go, everyone tells you all the secrets, and if they're not doing that, they're dropping little "hints" that are so obvious that if you didn't get them perhaps you shouldn't be playing video games anymore.

Even worse than the NPCs in the game are the ones you get in your party, which include two annoying girls, a frog and a robot, none of which I gave a damn about. One girl is some sort of scientist, the other's some psycho hyperactive princess whom I got rid of as soon as I got more than three party members (as per the norm, you can only have three fighting at a time), and the other is some sort of robot that has feelings. Every time a part in the game comes along that requires one of my party members participates in a dialogue exchange, I want to just turn the television off so I don't have to endure their childish, boring, unrealistic and unimaginitive stories and obvious questions.

The characters are also all about five to eight years old, I would suspect. That, or they all escaped from the short bus. It's a personal pet peeve of mine in games when the "hero" is some eight year old kid with a sword. And by the way, why do you start with a sword? What happened to the whole "I wielded this sword to defend myself!" acquiring of your weapon that happens in so many classics? Link grabbed a sword to fight those ball-spitting things. That Secret of Mana kid pulled one out of the thing to defend himself. In Final Fantasy 2 you were a knight, fighting for justice or something. In this dumb game, you're just an eight year old kid who happens to have a sword with him and gets himself into a whole lot of trouble. I wonder what his mother thinks of him wielding that thing around? And another eight year old kid is armed with a pistol!

One of the "key scenes" to this game was one in which you race someone in a post-apocalyptic ruined highway. This has got to be the most overrated worthless "scene" I've ever bothered to watch. First of all, it's not a damn race. It's a two minute animation of two guys on bikes (which, to their credit, did look pretty cool for SNES games) who are constantly getting ahead of each other. There's no strategy involved here. You just try and be the one "in front" when you reach the finish line. Here's a funny story - I set the controller down and just won the race.

The game is also painfully easy. You get tons of cash for killing easy monsters, and aside from boss battles, I've never lost a fight, and typically, I just hit the "A" button until the battle is over. Strategy? Tactics? Who needs'em? Well, actually, they come in handy in boss battles...

This game has the setup for a really great story, and it almost comes together at times, but it's completely ruined by the fact that your actions seem to have no affect on anyone but your damn annoying party members. And while it's typical for console RPGs, the entire setup at times just seems way too unrealistic.

"Let's save the world!"
"Okay!"
"Do you know how to use a weapon?"
"Nope, but let's save the world!"

Save the world? I say let'em burn. Maybe they'll give a damn then.

The Bottom Line
It's obvious that this game was targeted at a younger audience, but old farts like me still love to play these games, so guys over the age of eight still make up at least half the market. I just can't see this game appealing to anyone over eight years old, unless they REALLY enjoy console RPGs and don't mind stupid kiddy dialogue, ininteresting (and uninterested) NPCs and annoying party members.

The time travel thing is a great idea, and it comes together in some places, but not enough for me to care.