A little over nineteen years ago, the epic known as Chrono Trigger released in Japan for the Super Famicom. The project was a consolidation of talent between people like Hironobu Sakaguchi, Yuri Hoiji, Akira Toriyama, and Nobuo Uematsu. The game borrowed ideas from the likes of Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Secret of Mana, and even things like Ridley Scott's Alien series. Today, Chrono Trigger is revered as one of the greatest games of all time. It has been ported to PlayStation, Nintendo DS, mobile platforms, and is available on the Wii Virtual Console and on the PlayStation Network as a classic download. I do not consider Chrono Trigger to be my favorite game of all time, but it does hold a special place in my heart. When I first tried it out in its Nintendo DS form several years ago, I was awed by how great the game held up over a decade after its original release. After playing countless games over the years, my mind still goes back to Chrono Trigger every once in awhile, and for good reason; in my mind, Chrono Trigger is the closest thing to perfect the video game industry has ever achieved.
Time-travel is my favorite science-fiction element, and it's used in full force throughout Chrono Trigger. After an incident involving a teleportation device built by his friend Lucca, the protagonist Crono goes through a strange portal after a girl named Marle who had been pulled inside. Crono discovers that he has traveled from his native 1000 A.D. to 600 A.D.-four-hundred years into the past, during the period known as the Middle Ages. As the game goes on, Crono, Marle, and Lucca travel to various times and lands through more portals, meeting a brevity of characters from different backgrounds. After discovering that humanity is essentially wiped out in 1999 A.D. thanks to a giant creature known as "Lavos", the party resolves to prevent the disaster and the bleak future they witness.
The story takes many twists and turns, all of them greatly enjoyable. There is enough humor in place (mainly in the fiend Ozzie) to not make the journey entirely gritty, but there are also very dark, real moments that make the fantasy world believable. Crono and his friends fight in a war, infiltrate derelict facilities, and fight a zealous, corrupt queen. Each era of time feels distinct in its own right, but you're able to see how the world has evolved over time, and where humanity ended up settling. This creates a feeling of having one grand story being separated into various parts, all perfectly linking up to each other. Most stories involving time-travel end up confusing players in some form, but Chrono Trigger doesn't suffer the same fate; parallels are drawn, and connections are clearly shown. This means that really anyone, young or old, can get a good grasp on Chrono Trigger's story.
Chrono Trigger's great plot is advanced by its fantastic cast of characters. The silent Crono, who appears similar to characters like Goku of Dragon Ball (the art for the game was done by Akira Toriyama, Dragon Ball's creator), is sort of left up to player interpretation in how nice he is, but it can't be denied that he cares for those around them, and is dedicated to protecting his friends. Marle, Crono's mysterious friend, acts as a potential love interest for Crono, but the idea is left out of the plot enough that it isn't a distraction, and she's made headstrong in her own right. Crono's childhood friend, Lucca, is a whiz at technology, and helps explain the time-gate portals early on in the story. Frog, an anthro-morphic frog from the Middle Ages, is a fierce swordsman who seeks to avenge his fallen brethren. Robo, a humanoid robot from the future, is a really fun character who must come to terms with some of his original functions. And Ayla, a prehistoric cavewoman, speaks with her brute strength and fights for survival against the Reptiles.
Besides just the party characters, there are also people like Magus, the fiendlord responsible to trying to defeat humanity in 600 A.D., Tome the explorer, and the Guru of Time, Gaspar, who watches from the End of Time. None of the named, fleshed out characters feel trivial, and some of the non-named ones even feel memorable at times, such as one town's mayor who's so greedy he gives you money to spin around and cluck like a chicken. To me, there is no real flaw in Chrono Trigger's story, or characters. They all flow together perfectly, and make for a very enjoyable experience.
Of course, the story and characters are only half of the experience, since Chrono Trigger is a Japanese role-playing game. The game's combat system allows for either turn-based battles, or for an active-time based system where characters can perform actions after a set duration of time. The default is the active-time system, which is what I always used, but the old turn-based system is there for people who prefer that instead. The game is paced very well, so that if you grind just a bit, you're really set for most battles. Some bosses will be harder than others, but it comes down to knowing how to take them down above all else.
There aren't set types of enemies in Chrono Trigger, so much so as there are specific enemies with specific weaknesses and strengths. For example, the Cave Ape from the Middle Ages is very weak to Crono's Lightning attack. Some enemies will be healed by magic, and others can only be damaged by it. Talking with NPCs sometimes reveals these weaknesses, which encourages you to talk to everyone, as well as to just experiment. Most boss battles come down to figuring out the strategy you need to use. I can recall off the top of my head what to do in several different boss fights, solely because each was crafted to require different strategies. These strategies are hinted at, but aren't always laid out for you. You do have to be risky at times, and this makes Chrono Trigger have the perfect amount of balance and difficulty.
While the characters have their own attacks, like Crono's Cleave and Robo's Laser Spin, there are also Dual and Triple Techs (techs being the name given for moves required MP consumption). These are really, really fun to perform, and reflect the characters' cooperation with each other. One such move has Crono and Frog cross swords on an enemy, and another has Crono strike Ayla with a bolt of lighting, and she proceeds to viciously attack the intended target. Executing these moves was always great, and finding the gems for the Triple Techs requires a keen eye and an explorer's determination...but they're so worth it.
As it originally released on the Super Famicom/SNES, Chrono Trigger employs sprite-based visuals in the 16-bit form...and it's absolutely gorgeous. Characters are able to display a wide range of emotions while speaking, and all of them are designed very well. Each important character is distinguishable from the others; if you look at Chrono Trigger and think it looks bad, I honestly think you should take a second look. The environments are fully fleshed out, with a sense of depth existing where it's needed. The world is just...amazing. They used the color palette of the SNES so well...the style still looks great today, better even than most games, I'd argue.
The final thing I have to mention is, of course, the soundtrack. Composed mainly by Yasuonri Mitsuda and with contributions from Nobuo Uematsu...it's beautiful. Themes likes Chrono Trigger, Corridors of Time, and Zeal Palace all come to mind, and ones like Frog's Theme just...make me so nostalgic. It definitely has my favorite soundtrack of the SNES era...maybe even of the 1990s. Chrono Trigger's music is just that good. If you've never listened to it...you're missing out, and you should be changing that now. I mean, now, this moment.
Alright, that's all I've got for today. In case you didn't see my announcement on my profile, I'm having trouble posting blogs that have YouTube videos inserted, and that just have any images. Hopefully this issue will be resolved soon...until then, hopefully you all can deal with the walls of text!
Peace.