Chrono Trigger

"Blitz through time and space, leaving behind tons of paradoxes in your wake!"

Along with Final Fantasy 6 (which I hated, by the way), Chrono Trigger is regarded by many as the pinnacle of SNES RPGs. Many people call it the best RPG, or even best game, ever. However, it has also been criticized as having shallow characters, too-easy gameplay, and short length. I agree with those points partially, but I don't think that they lower the overally quality of the game. So why is this game held so highly among gamers? Read on.

The first thing you'll notice when you first play this game is that this game has a more domestic, intimate feel compared to most RPGs. Instead of a huge introduction with wonderful graphics and epic music, this game begins in a decidingly comfortable and familiar manner: You'll hear seagulls calling, the sound of fireworks, and a warm, sentimental piece of music playing in the background. The camera will then go into Crono's house. (Crono is the typical silent hero in this game.) You will see Crono's mother calling him, and Crono getting up and stretching. You will learn of the Millenial Fair, held to celebrate the 1,000th anniversary of the establishment of Guardia Kingdom, where Crono lives. At the fair, Crono bumps into a girl named Marle, who asks Crono to show her around the place.

From such humble beginnings comes an amazing story packed with twists and memorable characters. At the fair, Marle decides to try out a teleport machine invented by Crono's friend, Lucca. However, by some sort of odd reaction Marle's pendant had with the machine, Marle is sucked into an odd cyclone and dissappears. Crono, being the brave lad he is, decides to follow her, to... A.D. 600, 400 years before Crono's time! A headache-inducing romp through time and space thus begins. During their travels, Crono and co. find out about Lavos, a porcupine-like creature who destroys the world in A.D. 1999. Needless to say, Crono et al. must prevent this from happening, especially after seeing the misery of the people after the world is destroyed.

The gameplay is ever bit as top-notch. The first thing I should mention is the ease in moving around on overworld screens. First of all, you can run at will. No more fussing with useless accessories: by holding down the B button as you walk, you can run like the wind. Also, you can move in all eight directions, as opposed to just four. These may seem like minor things, but they really make the game less tedious and slow.

Like in most other RPGs, one of the most important parts of this game is the battles. And Chrono Trigger does not dissappoint in this category at all. Rejoice: there are no more random battles in this game. All enemy encounters are pre-set; walk on a predetermined ''trigger point'' and you'll enter battle with a predetermined set of enemies. You can also see most enemies before you enter battles, enabling you to prepare for them far more adequately. You can't altogether avoid most battles like you can in Super Mario RPG (in fact, most battles later on in the game are more or less forced), but it's still a very nice feature to add in.

When you actually enter a battle, you'll also notice that you don't change screens. All action in this game takes place in the overhead screen, which I like because that way the battles seem a lot less intrusive. The actual battles are a load of fun: it takes the active time battle system seen in Final Fantasies IV through IX and gives it quite a few twists. Like in the FFs, each fighter has an ''active time bar'' that fills up at a pace determined by that character's Speed stat. When a fighter's active time bar completely fills up, you will be able to imput commands for that fighter. However, each character has just three commands: Attack, Tech, and Item. Attack will make a character do an attack with his or her weapon; Tech will be covered in the next paragraph; Item will simply let your character use an item.

So what is so special about that Tech command? Well, it wraps the Magic and Skill (such as steal and swordtechs) commands from other RPGs all into one. Devastating magic attacks? You've got Crono's Luminaire. Blistering sword techniques? There's always Crono's confuse. Prefer to use your bare hands? Robo's Uzzi Punch and Ayla's Triple Kick are devastating. Stealing? Ayla's Charm is at your disposal. Each character learns a completely different set of techs. And to top it all off, you even have double and triple techs, where two or three of your team members combine their powers for a devastating attack! The sheer amount of techs for all characters mean that no character is truly useless; even a relatively bad character like Marle can be great if you use her with specific party members.

The area effects are another great idea in the game's battle system. Your characters stay stationary in battle, but enemies move around freely. Some techs will affect only enemies in a certain range, or on a certain straight line, so occasionally you might want to wait until the enemies move a bit. To top it all off, the active time bar fills up very fast, so there is little waiting for a character's turn to come up--in fact, most of the time between turns will be spent deciding what to do in the next turn. Very nice indeed.

I love how this game actually attempts to give you a nice, fun battle system. In most SNES RPGs, almost 70% of a game is spent in battles, but how many RPGs make battles fun? In Chrono Trigger, the battles do not seem like an unfortunate neccesity, but as an integral part of the game. Battles are no longer something to keep you busy between advances in the storyline, but as a part of this game's experience. In most RPGs, the game is still pretty much the same minus the battles. In Chrono Trigger, ripping out the battles will be ripping out a very, very important part of the game, and the game will cease to become Chrono Trigger.

This game's atmosphere is extremely well-done, thanks to the incredible graphics and haunting music. The graphics can be melancholy or upbeat, colorful or drab, happy or sad. Each of the five game worlds have very different graphical styles: A.D. 2300 has very little variety in colors, mirroring the gloominess and hopelessness of the time period very much; 65 million B.C. makes heavy use of earthy colors, reflecting its untamed nature. Those are but two of the five different worlds ready for you to explore.

Also, everything in this game is very well animated. When Crono runs, you see his legs moving. Each character has a slightly different running animation. Enemies' attacks can actually be seen this time around. You actually see your characters running up to an enemy and brandishing his or her weapon at it. Each tech has a different animation, and some techs are worth using just for the sheer eye candy. The animations make the graphics seem even better than they already are, and makes the game seem a lot more lifelike.

Music is also a crucial factor in this game's atmosphere. And, like the graphics, they go through the entire spectrum of emotions. The music when you step out of Crono's house for the very first time has a warm familiarity to it, for instance. The forest music is quiet and vaguely mysterious. But it is the battle music that I must give the most props to: though it barely even has a tune, it suits the action of the battle perfectly, and it doesn't ruin the mood of dank dungeons like so many RPG battle music does. The character themes are also well composed--Magus's theme, in particular, still sends shivers down my spine.

RPGs rarely have replayability. This game's New Game+ Mode was created to combat that. New Game+ is exactly like an ordinary new game, except for one major difference: in New Game+, you can start with ALL the weapons, items, and levels of a game file of your choice. With it, you can beat the final boss practically any time you like--defeating it at different times will yield different endings. Some endings are beautiful, some pointless, some downright confusing. It's a great idea, but it works depending on how much you really want to see other endings--battles in New Game+ are so one-sided that most bosses will go down in a matter of seconds.

I think that this game succeeds most in giving us an incredible, well-defined world to roam. Being able to see Guardia Kingdom in its present, past, and future definitely makes it a lot more memorable. The little side-stories that you see en route to Lavos are also made even better by the time-travel aspect--you thought you've seen all there is to see over Frog vs. Magus in A.D. 600, yet once you get to 12000 B.C. you'll learn even more about Magus's past. I love this game for all the worlds it gives me--and their interesting inhabitants.

But there is a rather serious flaw to this game: it is far too easy and short. The quest takes barely 25 hours even on your first time through, and bosses offer little challenge. This game lacks puzzles that really stretch your mind, too. That means that it is mainly rather mindless fun, and you won't find yourself using too much of your brain--which can be a good or bad thing. This may actually be a compliment, but I really want this game's world to be expanded on--how I would dearly love for the quest to go on for another 25 hours!

The price of the Chrono Trigger cart is rather steep now, so if you don't mind loading times I suggest getting it along with Final Fantasy IV on FF Chronicles for the Playstation. No matter how, though, you MUST play this game--it is a classic through and through, and its battle system has no peer. Enjoy it--for good old plain fun, not for shiny bells and whistles.

OVERALL SCORE: 9.3
FINAL SCORE (after rounding to fit GameFAQs system): 9

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/10/01, Updated 11/10/01