An Introduction to Chrono Trigger
Chrono Trigger is one of the first instances of Square/Enix crossover work on the SNES. Developed by legendary Dragon Quest creators Yuji Horii and Akira Toriyama, this game has more of the feel of a Final Fantasy or Secret of Mana than that other illustrious series.
Keep in mind while reading that this review was written about the SNES release of Chrono Trigger. If anything I’ve said here is different from the DS release, well, now you know why.
My experience
As late as it is (1995, though I probably played it in 1998), this is one of the first RPGs I ever played. I know I beat FFVI before this, and for a while Chrono Trigger was second only to it. I was playing on an SNES, and did not know about the existence of GameFaqs if even it were a thing. I didn’t do everything there is, and got what I consider to be a bad ending (see below under the spoiler warning) now. I borrowed this from a friend who didn’t tell me (probably because he also didn’t know) that it had multiple endings, and it was still one of my favorite games as soon as I played it. How’s that for a first impression?
Gameplay
Worldmaps
The gameplay is rather simple in Chrono Trigger. Each worldmap is free of random encounters. Instead, the designers place obstacles (a broken bridge, or a long stretch of highway) that act as event locations that may or may not have scripted or “random” encounters. Once the overworld is opened up (as usual, you obtain a method of flying) the obstacles become meaningless.
Field Maps
Field maps have you running freely through mazes, and many encounters can be avoided by carefully navigating through dangerous spots. You can find items lying on the ground or in some kind of container. Frequently, the designers have placed a number of puzzles to block your progress. Overall this is where the story and most of the action takes place.
Battle
Battle is nearly standard jRPG fare, but includes a notion of positioning for a subset of the attacks. Some attacks have a circular area of effect, some attacks hit all enemies on a line, you get the idea. There are also combination attacks that require that the participating party members can all act. Some of these are simple combinations of spells (the first characters that can cast Ice and Fire have a combined attack, Antipode, that deals water and fire damage at the same time, that sort of thing). There are others that require all three party members for a devastating attack (see more on this below). As you can see, even if it is “nearly standard jRPG fare”, this battle system has a lot to offer.
All of this together seems to me designed to put the focus on the story, and that’s where this game really takes off.
Narrative Structure
***THERE WILL PROBABLY BE SPOILERS BELOW***
Time Travel
Chrono Trigger’s story is all about time travel. Very early in the game, you’re thrown through a portal 400 years into the past. You slowly begin to notice that events you participate in in the past affect the future, and eventually (by going to the far future, 2300 AD) that there {was|is|will be} an apocalypse. From there, you set out on an adventure through time to prevent The Day of Lavos.
Each era has its own aesthetic. The settings are varied, and the feel of each era really makes those settings pop. I absolutely love 12,000 B.C. It’s got great music, some deep mysteries about a few characters, and the story really begins to move here. This is where Crono dies, and where Magus gets thrown through time to search endlessly for his sister Schala. This is the era where magic dies in humans, and the social balance is remade.
And that’s just one.
Multiple Endings
Because of the time travel aspect of the game, you actually have multiple chances to prevent Lavos’ return. Since you also may or may not have completed all of the side quests, there are many different configurations for a final battle, and therefore an ending.
There are 12 major “good” endings (the first has multiple mini-variations as well), and a “bad” ending. In some of these, certain characters are not present or appear in different situations. One has the characters as avatars of the game’s development team (the so-called “Dream Team”). One shows Frog restored to his human form after the party defeats Magus once and for all (I actually got this ending on the play that prompted this review – my viewers voted for the death of Magus). This obviously leads to a high level of replay value, but also serves to customize a player’s first experience with the game.
What They Did Right
As usual with these reviews (I loaded my stream queue with things I really love near the front) it was hard to come up with just three things to list here. As nearly everything about this game is a feature of it, I avoided talking about the narrative and gameplay below. Those should probably be considered exempt from this section in the future.
Philosophy
Chrono Trigger has a message, and while some aspects of that message do fit well in the “Love will save the day” or “Friendship is magic” stereotype, there is a deeper, more fundamental one: be a skeptic.
The first hints of Crono’s demise and the subsequent quest to save him show up in 12,000 B.C. when Doreen tells the party “Never assume that what you see and feel is real!” and Janus tells you “The black wind howls… One among you will shortly perish…”
Doreen’s admonition is a hint. Sure, everyone saw Crono die. That doesn’t mean it was real. That doesn’t mean you can’t change it, if you are determined to do so. This is repeated in a few other quests: Lucca saves her mother from mutilation; you teach the mayor of Porre’s ancestors the value of charity and generosity; Robo spends 400 years restoring a desert wasteland to its former, verdant glory. Just because a thing is doesn’t mean it should be.
Characterization
Like the various eras, the party members are unique and vibrant (if appropriate for their character). Hell, you spend basically all the time up through the death of Crono thinking that Magus is the ultimate villain. And then you get the opportunity to have him join you.
I can’t think of many games that can blend this level of drama and humor into a coherent whole, let alone into such a classic whole. It’s tongue-in-cheek and heartbreaking in the same style as The Princess Bride, and that’s probably the core of why I love it so much.
Music
This game has ridiculously amazing music for almost every situation.
What They Did Wrong
“As nearly everything about this game is a feature of it” is right. Two of the “complaints” below are more properly understood as praise, but such is the difficulty of trying to say something bad about Chrono Trigger.
Worldmap?
It’s weird, and there is VERY little exploring to do. And then it just opens wide up when you get the Epoch. The thing is, I think they sacrificed complexity in this aspect in favor of the story and other, much more important aspects of the game. I can hardly fault them for that, but the worldmap is not very inspired when taken by itself.
Length?
The classic “the only thing I would want to change about this game is for there to be more of it”. Here, though, they compensate by giving the game almost unparalleled replay value. It also happens to be short enough that even someone like me can beat it reliably without setting it aside. Probably better that it’s short, as much as I would love for there to be more of this game.
Triple Techs
Even the one true complaint is a minor one, see what I mean? But it is a true, unqualified complaint. Triple Techs are lame. It is almost never worth (or actually never, I don’t know for sure) casting one due to the damage output of your party as a whole. That doesn’t take into account the fact that you also have to equip one of the characters with an accessory that unlocks the Tech. And that using a Triple Tech will also remove whoever’s healing from the equation, because their turn is needed for the Tech. This could be different.
The accessories should maybe be a consumable item that confers on the character the ability to use the appropriate tech. They could also have made the damage output worth sacrificing three turns and gods only know how much mana.
***SPOILERS ARE NO LONGER A DANGER***
In Conclusion
Much like Dragon Quest V this is a must-play game for any fan of the classic-style jRPG. Unfortunately for me, everyone who is that has by this point already played Chrono Trigger, but that’s not my fault. Well, one of them is.
But if you never played this and it sounds like it might be your kind of thing, by all damned means, go play it and tell me what you thought!
Some Stats
- Rating: 9.5/10
- Rank (All-Time, All-Genre): #6
- Rank (jRPG): #5
