Chrono Trigger

"Perfect"

Chrono Trigger


Gameplay: 10/10

Visuals: 10/10

Sound: 10/10

Ingenuity: 10/10

Replay Value: 10/10

Perfect is a word that gets thrown around all too often these days, especially in reviews. Flawed games are called “Perfect” or given a 10 out of 10. It’s times like these when every game seems to be overrated by all the gaming sites or magazines when a gamer should sit back and play a game that can truthfully be called perfect. These titles are few and far between. Chrono Trigger is one of these titles. Everything in the game is as good as it can possibly be. It’s truly RPG perfection. Story, gameplay, sound, visuals, ingenuity, replay value, and everything else are absolutely wonderful. Chrono Trigger is video game bliss. It’s not often that a game comes out and sets a new standard for the entire industry.

Chrono Trigger was developed by Square Soft (Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Secret of Mana), and is considered by many to be their best game (Yes, even better than that FFVII you kids seem to love so much). The talent behind the game is overwhelming. Character designs were done by manga legend Akira Toriyama (Dragon Quest, Dragonball, Dragonball Z, Dr. Slump), and the team Square Soft put together for the game may never be matched again.

As with any good RPG, Chrono Trigger’s plot is rich, deep, and involving. It has many twists and turns, and you will be faced with many unexpected things. The game begins with the main character, Crono (he’s a mute in the game, much like Link in the Legend of Zelda series) waking up in his bed on the morning of the Millennial Fair. He heads to the fair to meet up with his inventor friend, Lucca. On the way there, he bumps into a young girl named Marle. They talk, and decide to walk around the fair together. After exploring, you meet up with Lucca and decide to try out her teleportation pads. Marle gets excited after seeing them work and wants to try them too. When she runs up to the pads, a pendant she’s wearing causes a large black hole to rip open in space and suck her in! In typical RPG hero fashion, Crono follows her to come to the rescue. From that point on, the plot gets much deeper and takes many twists. Eventually, your heroes will discover that the end of the world is approaching, and the only way to end the oncoming doom is to defeat an apocalyptic beast living in the earth named Lavos. The main party of characters will grow as you travel across many time periods, and even alternate time lines in an attempt to save the future from the past. The plot becomes very rich and epic, which makes it very easy to get into and create a truly immense world for the gamer to delve in to. There are theories that Chrono Trigger’s story is a parallel to the Bible. If you’ve completed the game and completely understand the plot, it is something very interesting to look into, and shows how deep this game truly is.

An excellent story is all fine and dandy, but who’s going to pay attention if they’re bored to tears by the gameplay? This is something that in my opinion has been plaguing RPGs as of late. These new additions to the genre could learn a lesson from CT. No only does its plot put these new games to shame, but so does the gameplay. In fact, the gameplay in Chrono Trigger is some of the best in any RPG. Ever. Being an RPG, it has the same basic formula of other games in the genre. There are two parties, and you take turns attacking each other. That’s pretty much where the similarities end. Like some other RPGs, the battles are not random. Instead, you see the enemies on your screen before battle, and you can avoid them if you please (Grandia, Secret of Mana, and others use similar systems). When you begin a battle in Chrono Trigger, the first thing you will notice is that the parties aren’t lined up in straight lines across the field like in so many other RPGs. During the fight, your characters will move all around the field, which makes for a more realistic experience (Honestly, this isn’t the Civil War. Who lines up and faces each other when they fight?), and even adds to the strategy. The next thing you will notice is the bar below each of your character’s names. This is what is referred to as an ACT bar. When a character’s ACT bar is fully filled, they can perform an action. In Chrono Trigger, the three actions are Attack, Tech, and Item. Choosing attack will have your character unleash a standard attack on an enemy of your choice. Item will have them use an item (surprise, surprise!). Now that the obvious is out of the way, let’s move our focus to the Tech option, and the real innovation of Chrono Trigger. This is one feature that really sets this game apart from anything else out there. The Tech option opens a list of special attacks (all character specific) that can be used by your character. Big deal, right? Well this is there it gets tricky. You can wait until your other characters have filled their ACT bars and unleash a bigger Tech attack. Combinations of different characters have different Tech attacks, and each attack has its advantages and disadvantages. For example, Crono and Frog can perform the X Slash attack together after they have both learned certain Techs, while Marle and Crono can perform Aura Whirl together. As each character learns new Techs and the game progresses, new Dual Techs and even Triple Techs will be added to the list. This adds a lot of strategy to the game and makes the battles very intense. In the heat of a tough battle you must make snap decisions thanks to the enemies having ACT bars of their own (not visible to you though!). So if you take too long making an attack, an enemy might be able to attack twice in a row. Another feature of Chrono Trigger that adds strategy to the gameplay is the use of an interchangeable party of main characters. Unlike most other RPGs, you have a team of three characters in your party, but at some points in the game have six characters overall. In Chrono Trigger, you are free to select which characters are in your party, and which aren’t. You can also switch characters at any save point. You must think wisely before going into battle about which characters will benefit you the most, and what Techs will be available to you. The immense replay value is something usually not seen in RPGs. Chrono Trigger has overcome this problem by having thirteen or so different endings, and a New Game + option. New Game + is an option that is unlocked after you have completed the game for the first time. You begin the game all over again, but your characters are as strong as they were when you beat the game. This is very useful if you want to see all the endings since you will be able to fly through the game quickly. Also, the amount of side quests is almost overwhelming. Chrono Trigger has more things to do than you can shake a stick at. The side quests range from raising a forest, to defeating Mother Brain.

The graphics in CT are absolutely wonderful, perhaps only being passed by those found in Seiken Densetsu 3 for the title of best looking SNES game. Everything is gorgeous. The character designs done by Akira Toriyama give the characters an anime look and feel to them. The environments in the game look very detailed, colorful, and extremely fitting to the atmosphere. On more than one occasion, I’ve found myself gazing at the rich 2D world in awe. This is what 2D games should look like. Chrono Trigger sets a benchmark for all SNES games, and all 2D games in general. Also, for the first time in RPG history we get to see our characters actually run up to the enemy and smack them with their sword instead of just waving it in the air. Every single person, house, enemy, and blade of grass has it’s own touch to it. It brings the story to life in a way that can’t be matched.

The sound and music could very well be the best to ever be featured in any game, new or old. The wonderful music not only accompanies the game perfectly, but it’s so great that you may very well find yourself compelled to listen to it outside of the game as well. Chrono Trigger remains one of the most listened to game sound tracks of all time. You don’t have to be a gamer to appreciate this kind of music. It’s so stupendous that you will be hard pressed to find someone who does not love the music featured in Chrono Trigger. It adds to the atmosphere of the game, and just gives the story and game a truly epic feel to it. This is how music should be in a game. In all my time playing video games, I have never heard music as good as the songs in Chrono Trigger. It is by far the best work Square Soft has ever done with music, and that’s saying quite a bit.

If you have yet to play Chrono Trigger, you need to do so immediately. It doesn’t matter if you’re a fan of RPGs or not. Drop any game you’re playing, and pick up this game right away. It’s just that damn good. If you’ve already played it and beaten it, play it again. It’s a gaming sin to not have played this title, and it should be on every gamer’s “to do” list to complete Chrono Trigger at least one time.


Pros

+ Possibly the best game of all time
+ Wonderful, breath taking graphics
+ Revolutionary battle system
+ What could be the best in game music ever
+ Rich, involving plot
+ Tons of replay value with many endings
+ Redefines the RPG genre

Cons

- Not a single one I can think of

Final Score (Not an Average): 101%

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 04/12/04