Chrono Trigger

"Who needs Final Fantasy when you have this amazing time-traveling RPG?"

I must admit, I am of the N64/PS1 generation of gamers. My first console RPG was Final Fantasy VII(though I've gone back and played many RPGs, including most of the older Square games, mostly for SNES and Sega Genesis), and, for the greater portion of my childhood, I've quested in mostly 3-D realms, with lots of fancy CGI sequences, Limit Breaks, Sphere Grids, other companies' imitations of what Square has done with their 3-D FF installments, and whatnot. Maybe that's why Chrono Trigger holds such a place in my heart. What CT has is brilliant simplicity, and it's amazingly refreshing, in my opinion, to play this after being jaded from more modern RPGs. Anyways, enough with that lengthy diatribe. The point is, Chrono Trigger does virtually everything right, in my opinion.

Graphically, Chrono Trigger is amazing, by 2-D standards. The detailed and colorful sprites are delightful to view, and the game is easy on the eyes. Along with the brilliant effects in the game, and the pretty realistic backgrounds (much more impressive than it sounds, considering that this is an SNES game), technically, CT is superb. I am especially intrigued by the distinct, Akira Toriyama-directed artwork. The art especially seems to strike a balance between the gritty, dark style that would later be used for FF7, and the more colorful, cheery graphics of more old-school RPGs. So overall, CT is no slouch graphically.

In the area of sound and music, however, is among the game's strongest points. This is the game that made me a fan of Yasunori Mitsuda's composing(though Nobuo Uematsu also helped out, and Chrono Trigger has arguably one of the greatest soundtracks to a video ever. Nearly all of the music perfectly suits the theme of the game, and it certainly lends Chrono Trigger an appropriately epic feel to it. Words cannot do the soundtrack justice. You need to hear it to believe it, and hopefully Square-Enix will let this man compose the scores for more of their games in the future.

The story and characters are also well-done, but not particularly earth-shattering. The game centers around the silent yet heroic main character Crono, who goes to a fair, and meets the heroine Marle. A slow beginning, but the game picks up when Marle is accidentally zapped 400 years into the past, and Crono must enter the time vortex after her. A few new heroes join, including a walking, talking frog(who wields a mean blade), a robot, and Crono's mechanically gifted friend Lucca. The protagonists, all from the same world but different eras, must join forces and adventure through the different periods of time, from the prehistoric land, overrun by dinosaurs, to the distant, post-apocalyptic future(already ravaged by the main antagonist) to battle a malevolent creature that will otherwise destroy their planet. As I said, not really groundbreaking, but still competent and enjoyable. Thankfully, the story is lighter and more palatable(and far less preachy-I'm sick of being told that I and rest of the human race are responsible for the worldwide disasters after the fact) than what one would expect from Square, who, for as long as I have been playing their games, has churned out stories in the same vein(a bunch of heroes from different settings must band together to stop a creature or enemy who will otherwise cause worldwide chaos), only with over-the-top soap opera theatrics(especially in two of their best known 3-D FF installments, Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy X).

Gameplay basically involves running around to various locations on an overworld, fighting monsters, and solving problems in the time period that the heroes are currently in. The battle system is basically a faster paced version of the combat in the Final Fantasy series, though that is certainly effective, as it provides a more engaging experience. Interestingly, the battle system is anything but random, as the player can clearly see(and avoid) monsters and other enemies running about the level, and no encounters take place on the overworld. Anyway, in battle, your party members must wait for their Active Time Bar to fill up, and then they are welcome to attack, use an item, or a special skill such as magic or a special weapon technique. A cool aspect of the battle system are Dual and Triple Tech skills, which allow two or three characters to attack simultaneously in a special manner (and usually with an awesome attacking animation), allowing more damage to be done in that attack. The Dual and Triple Techs add some strategy to the battles, as the player must usually consider whether to unleash a huge blow on an enemy and leave themselves unable to heal, or play it safe and stay healthy, but prolong the battle. The game also seems to have a very well-balanced difficulty, and, while Chrono Trigger is not terribly easy, it is by no means extremely difficult, and no grinding is needed for this game.

Time travel, of course, also plays a part in the game, and the heroes must journey through multiple eras, from the prehistoric days to the future. The game boasts a different overworld map for each world, and appropriately different locations, denizens, and enemies (i.e. more robots and creations of technology in the future, while you'll fight dinosaurs and other ancient fiends in the past). As you play through Chrono Trigger, more of the areas in each time period will become accessible to the player, as well as more sidequests. However, one concept that the awesome time travel system does not entirely succeed with would be continuity. While technically, it is possible to collect a treasure in a chest in the present, and then warp back to the Middle Ages to collect the same treasure in the same chest, it can potentially be abused to get multiple pieces of a rare item, in particular certain pieces of armor in the later stages of the game that can make some boss battles insanely easy. However, aside from this small error, traveling through time is inventive and a clever way to introduce new challenges and locations, and is one of my favorite parts of the game. As Chrono and friends get further through their quest, they gain more freedom in time travel, which is a relief, as the Time Gates that the player must ordinarily pass through to enter a certain time period make getting to remote locations slightly inconvenient. Overall, the time travelling portion of the game is successful and easy to use.

Another concept in Chrono Trigger that I love is the vast multitude of different possible endings to the game with a feature called ‘New Game +', which allows the player to transfer weapons, levels, skills, and stats to a new file, and play the game from the beginning again, but depending on the choices the player makes at certain points in the game, can allow more than 10 alternate endings, giving CT almost more replay value than any other role-playing game I have played. It would be nice if Chrono Trigger toughened up the monsters and enemies in each consecutive game, as this allows vast amounts of game time to be shaved off. (In one of my new games, for example, after transferring data, I was able to complete what would ordinarily take six hours in a normal game in just over two hours of uber-powered game time.) I'd also like new equipment and other secret items and abilities to be added, especially if the player completes the game with the best gear in the game and all Tech skills learned, as it takes some of the fun out of searching areas for treasure. Still, it's a great feature that gives Chrono Trigger legs beyond one complete playthrough, and should be implemented into more RPGs.

Overall, Chrono Trigger is as close to gaming perfection as a video game can get. Unfortunately, it's a pity that Square-Enix has not really continued the Chrono series beyond Chrono Cross for PS1(though there have been whispers of a third part called Chrono Break, there is little evidence that that is even in development or whether it is a true sequel to Chrono Trigger). That is indeed a shame, as this game puts most other venerated RPGs to shame, including Earthbound, most of the Dragon Warrior series, Paper Mario, and yes, even Square's own Final Fantasy VI and their baby with Nintendo, Super Mario RPG. This is one of the games that Square should be rereleasing(they did do so as part of the PS1 collection Final Fantasy Chronicles, but the inexplicably long load times make it and that version of FFIV fairly unplayable, as it rapidly grows frustrating - stick with the SNES version) and adding more content to, similar to their Game Boy Advance ports of the Super Nintendo FFs, yet they seem to have neglected it. Hopefully that will change in the future, and Chrono will grace another platform, maybe the Nintendo DS or Nintendo Wii as a download on the Virtual Console, as this game is arguably one of the best of all time, and should not be missed by anyone who enjoys RPGs.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 01/18/07