After a while, Chrono Trigger begins to feel like one of those novelty clocks that have the phrase “time for (fill in the blank)” printed on their faces.
And that’s just fine.... That is, if you need to make a few changes in your life in regards to your job and your friends. Because, let’s face it, firing up Chrono Trigger may directly result in the loss of the ones you have now. Chrono Trigger is one of those games which should come with a warning label: “WARNING: Playing this game for extended periods of time may make you a hermit.”
Chrono Trigger itself is the direct result of what happens when the insanely brilliant creators of both Dragon Warrior AND Final Fantasy team up to create a world-conquering super weapon. Chrono Trigger enslaves you, isolates you, and deprives you of sleep, food, and drink. It is the best RPG this reviewer has ever had the pleasure of playing - yes, it even beats out titles like Final Fantasy IV, Lunar: Silver Star Story, and Skies of Arcadia.
Chrono Trigger is the one RPG on the planet that truly seems to have everything: The amazing, unpredictable story, the endearing characters (characters even better than those in Final Fantasy VI), the excellent and very accessible battle system; well thought-out and rewarding side quests, tricky foes, and well-written dialogue. It was one of the first RPGs to feature multiple endings. What more could a die-hard role-player ever want? My only real problems with the game are the primitive graphics and sounds (but this game was originally released in the 16-bit era, when they were highly advanced for their time; therefore this complaint doesn’t count) and the length (20 hours, if that; maybe 25 tops if you complete all the side quests).
The word “Chrono” in Chrono Trigger references three aspects of the game. The first is the main character, who is named Chrono. The second is one of the essential plot device items used in the game. The third, cleverly, is the story. It’s the turn of the millennium, and everyone is celebrating at a big fair. Our hero Chrono is an obligatory attendee, since his friend Lucca is performing a demo of her latest invention. Upon his arrival at the fair, Chrono quickly makes friends with a spunky young lady named Marle, and the two of them partake in Lucca’s demo of a teleportation device. The device works just fine on Chrono, but the mysterious pendant Marle is wearing causes her to disappear through a time vortex. Chrono (obviously thinking with the wrong head) and Lucca successfully initiate a rescue mission and, through a series of events, end up in a bleak, deep future.
Poking through some old computer files, they watch a documentary on the source of bleakness: On a peaceful day in 1999, a creature called Lavos practically destroyed the world. Deciding the bleak future they’re in isn’t fit for living things, they resolve to prevent the Day of Lavos.
What follows is an adventure through a handful of different time periods as Chrono and gang fight prehistoric reptiles, futuristic robots, and some of the meanest, nastiest villains ever brought to life on silicon. While Chrono’s leadership abilities are questionable at best since he never, EVER opens his yap, his crew of oddballs is more than willing to take on anything thrown at them. The characters in Chrono Trigger are an overdeveloped bunch taking on an overdeveloped bunch. Chrono, Marle, and Lucca are soon joined by a motley crew of oddballs from various time periods: The noble Frog, bodyguard of the queen; Ayla, the leader of a prehistoric tribe; Robo, a robot from the future; and, depending on your choice at a crucial moment, a character whose name I won’t mention (Want to know? Buy the game). The villains in Chrono Trigger are numerous and very evil, and no doubt people pick out their favorites. Your introduction to Lavos resembles the introduction to Sin in Final Fantasy X: He just appears, and you immediately know who you’re gunning for. But unlike Sin, Lavos becomes a mere pawn in the grand scheme of things because there are so many baddies out for land and power.
If you’re a character class freak, you’ll likely be disappointed by the customization in Chrono Trigger. Each character comes equipped with a list of super moves unique to that character, but even so, all the characters are pretty much equally balanced; it’s the Final Fantasy VII complaint that preceded Final Fantasy VII. The characters are all unique, but they can still be turned into unbeatable juggernauts. Their magic abilities are equally balanced, and their attack levels are all high enough to cause significant damage to your enemies. Furthermore, the levels of characters you’re not using at a particular time still stay parallel to the levels of characters you ARE using. This means if you absolutely despise Lucca and keep her stuck in The End of Time, she’ll still come up to a level 85 if you level Chrono up to 90.
The battle system really isn’t anything out of the ordinary, but it includes a unique twist which can alter your strategy. You get three characters in battle at the same time. The battles, by the way, are in Squaresoft’s (Square-Enix’s) standard active time format, so the enemies still get to attack you as you input commands. Anyway, the special techniques in Chrono Trigger are called techs, and each character comes packing a ton of them. They’re like magic spells, they require tech points to use. When it’s character’s turn, you can opt to use a regular old tech move. But if you really want to wallop the bad guy, the thing to do is wait to another character’s time gauge to fill up. Once the character you’re waiting for is ready, flip on the tech menu and you’ll see a list of moves called double-techs, which pack a bigger punch then the single techs but also waste the turns of two characters.
For those who are wondering, the parallels between the respective universes of Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger are almost nonexistent. The only parallel I can think of off the top of my head is the Masamune - the legendary sword used by Frog has the same name as Sephiroth’s extra-extra long blade in Final Fantasy VII. But other than that, don’t dive into Chrono Trigger expecting to find Cid, Chocobos, Biggs and Wedge, Cactuars, or Tombaris. And if there’s one of those super-tough hidden, optional bosses worth nothing but bragging rights (in the mold of Ozma or Emerald Weapon), I don’t know about them. Although at one point you run into an enemy who is literally impossible to defeat.
There aren’t as many mini-games as you would probably hope for, either. There’s a mini-game involving a race, and a fight against Spekkio, the master of war, but that’s it. But the side quests more than make up for what lacks in mini-games. They’re tricky, challenging, puzzling to the point of frustration, but the rewards are well worth the difficulties. But one of the great things about Chrono Trigger is the innovative New Game Plus. When you beat the game, you get to start it all over again from the beginning -with the current levels, weapons, and abilities your characters had when you beat it the first time! This means you can take your revenge on enemies who gave you fits the first time! It also means you don’t have to go through a ton of trouble to max out the endings. This is not a bad feature, and it ensures you that you will overcome your addiction to the game faster. I guess the boys at Square were worried about potential hermits.
As time goes on, Chrono Trigger’s graphics have become obsolete (if I wasn’t using the Playstation re-release, I wouldn’t be using Playstation games as a barometer). But for obsolete graphics, they’re still pretty good. The character designs are among the best
ever in an RPG, period. The scenery is bright and often quite beautiful, and some of the backgrounds have a rendered or photographic light look. When you meet Zombor on the bridge, be sure to check out the vivid lighting effect. One of the more pleasing aspects of the animation is that the characters don’t move their legs unless they’re walking or running. Of course, when characters are as detailed as they are in Chrono Trigger, the treadmill effect would just look silly.
The music doesn’t leap out and smack you at first. In fact, for a good chunk of the game, the music is merely ordinary, and often bland. Rest assured, however, it picks up nicely and becomes more pleasant to listen to. Each time period has its own unique overhead map theme. However, a lot of the more common tunes, like village or battle music, are nothing special. And the way the music is done is just a letdown: a grand adventure like Chrono Trigger requires a grand musical score. Again, the music isn’t bad, but considering everything that the game is, the music should have been a LOT more.
I played Chrono Trigger on the Playstation when it was re-released in Final Fantasy Chronicles with Final Fantasy IV. The animated cut scenes in the Playstation version are nice, but they really don’t add anything to the experience. They’re just there. Honestly, I would want the Super NES version more, since it lacks the loading time of the re-release, but it’s still the same game either way. It’s still Chrono Trigger, still the standard by which I judge every other RPG I play, and still, in my own humble opinion, on the top of the hill.
