Chrono Trigger

"The one and only game I will grant a perfect score."

Move back to roughly nine years ago. I'd just finished Final Fantasy 3/6 for the third time. I read in the latest Nintendo Power that Square has an RPG coming out. Enticed, I dip into my meager gaming fund and give it a purchase. Six months later, I am a changed gamer. No longer will I tolerate mediocre, throwaway titles just because they are plentiful and cheap, no! I have seen the light. I have played the game, and it was good.

Chrono Trigger. One of the legends. It surpassed the title of "classic" long ago when it became the poster game for every RPG nut longing for the nostalgia of the "good ol' days." It's become a legend because it is spoken with reverence among the chosen few while the majority of people today don't realize just how good it is, or even what it is. They take one look at its SNES graphics, the sprites and low-res environments and think, "It can't be that good, can it?"

Yes, little Timmy, it r0xx0rz j00r s0xx0rz, and all that nonsense.

But why? Why is this game a legend? Is it the stellar soundtrack? Is it the unique and memorable characters? Is it the game itself, an adventure the likes of which will stay with you throughout the rest of your comparatively miserable life? Yes. Yes, it is.

We open our grand epic on humble Crono's house. The year is 1000 A.D., and the Millennial Fair is in full swing over at ol' Leene's Square. The kingdom of Guardia is celebrating its 1000 years of sheer existence, and Crono, our spiky-haired, katana-wielding Goku-look-alike is off to enjoy a bit of the fair.

Right off the bat you're treated to a lovely overworld tune played out in the best MIDI the SNES can produce. It only gets better from there. The whole soundtrack is something special, even in its ancient and archaic form. There's a wide range of tunes to hear, and you can really tell Square abused the SNES' sound capabilities to crank out these songs. Yes, today's games may have fully-orchestrated soundtracks backed up by fancy composers and real instruments, but this game is a testament to how much you can get out of MIDI sound. After several years, I can still hum the tune for the Millennial Fair with a fondness not felt for many games...

Just like the music, the look of the game is decidedly old-school, to coin a phrase. Sprites abound among lush jungles, desolate tech wastelands, caverns of all shapes and sizes, and the occasional Mode 7 sequence that proves the SNES can at least fake a good 3D environment. Do I care? No, and neither should you. While Chrono Trigger isn't the prettiest 2D game, it has its moments with the more impressive techs and magic, and even sprites can tell a worthy story. After all, it's not the look that counts, it's the overall experience. So, let's visit that Millennial Fair!

Yes, the fair. While you may think it's just a bunch of eye candy, when Square sends you to the fair, they give you a fair! Right away you can bet on foot races, guzzle soda, fight a robot, or do a little dance. There's so much to do, you might start to think, "Wow, what else is there?" A whole new world, my friend. Very quickly you're sent traveling through time, where the real adventure begins. You must use magic, techs and every trick in your adventurer's handbook to survive and defeat the forces of evil.

All the above are part of the simple, yet effective battle system tied into the game. There are no random encounters. Chrono Trigger was one of the titles that pioneered the style of encounters where you see the monster before it comes out swinging...except when the little bastards are hiding in the trees, but that's another story. You can just as easily rush up and engage a battle as run away from combat, which leaves me with a warm and squishy feeling inside. I won't delve into the lack of any encounters on the overworld, leaving you free to explore, or I might get all hot and bothered.

So let's say you've touched a monster in the field. You're seamlessly moved into combat mode, where you're treated to Square's trademark Active Time Battle system. Like in Final Fantasy 3/6, you'll have to watch that time bar fill up till you can take your turn, and all the while the program is watching its little invisible time bar, making it a rather chaotic mess. The best way to turn it all orderly again is much like every other RPG: drench the land with the blood of your enemies. Juicy.

Ah, but what is the most efficient way to soak your boots in blood? Well, you have a wide range of options available to you. Techs are Chrono Trigger's version of special attacks, and they're widely varied from character to character. They each have their own style, their own method of disemboweling the little beasties that like to go bump in the night. So what happens when you combine those methods? Pure, unadulterated mayhem. Yes, you can combine techs between any two of your three-man (or woman) party, or if you're especially experienced, all three of you can unite to perform a powerful triple tech with all the flash and graphical "wow" factor of the more modern titles...but in 2D, you see.

All these techs, but who's unleashing them on the not-so-cute wildlife? Well, how about a princess, a lady scientist, a frog, a cave girl, and a robot? Chrono Trigger's cast is especially diverse, each character having their own personality, history, and their own reason for you to love them. The cute and precocious Marle, or the stoic and proper Frog, or my personal favorite, the hot and scantily clad Ayla! I can't help but love a woman in a fur bikini.

Unlike many other RPGs with large casts and small party sizes, Chrono Trigger gives you a reason to use each member. They each have their own weapons and tech combinations, their own magic and abilities. While some characters are innately better at some things than others, each has their own techs and magic that can join with other members of your party, encouraging you to give them all a try, just to see what kind of bloodshed you can cause with all the different combinations.

However, it is the adventure that truly drives you. It is the adventure that spurs you on, from the moment you step through your first time portal to the various realizations throughout the game that everything is not quite what it seems. Many games, I could care less about the story. Oftentimes an ancient evil long-since sealed away has risen again to threaten the world, yada yada yada. Chrono Trigger's villain is more sinister, more insidious. This is a villain that operates throughout time and space, and unlike other games, you will be given a glimpse of what will happen should you fail to prevent the world's destruction. That's actually an understatement. You will experience firsthand the horror of what the future holds for the world, encouraged with all fervor to help the poor souls that must live in the aftermath of the apocalypse. If you are at all a stout-hearted adventurer, you will take that terrible glimpse to heart and give it your all to save your world, for all time!

You kinda have to, this game is fairly linear. That doesn't mean you have to stick to the straight and narrow path, though. There's a lot to do outside the game's main quest, and because this is an adventure through time, you can see the results of your good deeds. A tiny sapling planted thousands of years ago becomes a forest in a later era. An idle present teaches a family line that through giving, comes happiness. Throughout the game your actions will have visible consequences, something rarely seen in games today.

Those consequences aren't always shown through the main game. Let's say you beat Chrono Trigger, play it from start to finish, putting in a few dozen hours and finally saving the world from disaster. Are you truly done? Of course not! Go and start that New Game+! Chrono Trigger coined the term, after all. This game was one of the first to introduce multiple endings, where the real influences of time travel are evident. You begin your New Game+ with all your past equipment and levels, and as an added bonus, you can end the game whenever you want. Thus, you can fight the final boss within the first five minutes, or at any given point you choose. This introduces a complex, yet simple way of drawing you back into the game, again and again, in order to see what fate portends for you and your band of heroes.

Quite frankly, I love Chrono Trigger. I loved it so much, I've played it as many times as there are endings. That's a lot, by the way. While some of that love is nostalgia, most of it recognizes this game for what it is. It's something special and timeless...no pun intended. As I said, Chrono Trigger is a legendary game, one of the few to attain that status. You owe it to yourself as a gamer, nay, a human being, to live that legend and save all of time!

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 06/28/04