Chrono Trigger

Squaresoft - 1995 - SNES/PS1/DS/Mobile

(On my Top 10 Game Soundtracks list)

I wonder why Japanese style role playing games aren't made much anymore. At least they're not released as frequently as they used to be. Especially when you compare what's been released in the last generation of gaming systems to what was released on the SNES or the PS1. It seems like SNES/PS1 JRPGs usually sold well, were usually well received and games like Final Fantasy VII (PS1) and Chrono Trigger (SNES) are now often referred to as some of the best games ever made. A video I watched recently suggests that JRPGs like Chrono Trigger are on the rise again. I sure hope so. By the way, you should totally watch all of PBS Game/Show's videos. Good stuff.

Referring to themselves as "the dream team", Chrono Trigger was the brainchild of Hironobu Sakaguchi (creator of the Final Fantasy series), Yuji Horii (creator of the Dragon Quest series) and Akira Toriyama (creator of Dragonball Z). Sakaguchi designed the battle system, so everything will feel familiar to anyone who has played a Final Fantasy game before. There's the active time battle system, potions and ethers and all that stuff. Horii wrote most of the story and scenarios with input from Toriyama. Both Horii and Toriyama were big fans of time travel fiction and wrote the game around the theme of time travel. Toriyama did a lot of the artwork for the game including the character designs and the visual styles for each time period. When I think about it, Chrono Trigger shares quite a few stylistic similarities with Dragonball Z. It's especially evident in the future and prehistoric time periods, whereas the present and middle ages feel more like they're out of Dragon Quest. So it's pretty much like playing a Dragon Quest game set in a world out of Dragonball Z with the battle system of an old school Final Fantasy.

Squaresoft also commissioned a then unknown and unproved composer, Yasunori Mitsuda to do the soundtrack for the game. Chrono Trigger has become one of my all time favorite video game soundtracks and it's some of Mitsuda's best work. Tracks like Time Circuits, Silvard, Secret of the Forest, Chrono Trigger and Frog's Theme blow my mind. Keep in mind when you listen to these they were made in 1995 on a SNES. Also keep in mind this was Mitsuda's very first soundtrack. Crazy. No one should be this good on their first try. The tracks perfectly complement the time period and scenery and art style to create mood. Exactly what a good soundtrack should do. There's even little musical motifs he repeats throughout the soundtrack, altering them slightly to fit the mood of each track. Amazing stuff. Also Robo's Theme sounds suspiciously like Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give you Up". Just sayin'.

The main character of Chrono Trigger is a boy named Crono. Yeah, Chrono and Crono. It gets confusing. I'm guessing in Japanese, Crono's name is written as some clever play on the word for "time" rather than just dropping the "h" from "chrono", but whatever. In the beginning of the game, Crono's scientist friend accidentally transports them 400 years into the past while testing a new invention. When trying to get back to the present, the party way overshoots their destination and winds up in the year 2300. When they arrive in the future, they find the world is in ruins. Few humans are left, there is no food and the Earth is a barren wasteland. The find out that the Earth was practically destroyed in 1999 by a giant monster called Lavos who emerged from deep in the Earth's core, where he had been resting for millions of years, slowly absorbing the Earth's energy. Yes, the Earth is destroyed in 1999. Keep in mind this game was made 20 years ago, but they probably should have picked a date farther in the future to avoid dating themselves. Most of the game's plot then deals with the party trying to find a way to defeat Lavos and spare the Earth from being destroyed in 1999. You'll need to time travel to different eras to learn how to defeat Lavos, enlisting help from a robot from the future, a cave woman from the prehistoric era, and even a talking frog from medieval times. The story's tone covers everything from adventurous & light-hearted to mysterious & thrilling and even sometimes bleak & depressing. It's well paced, and there are memorable characters and events that held my interest throughout the game

Gameplay wise, Chrono Trigger feels like a pretty standard old school Final Fantasy style RPG. You wait for your action meter to fill up, perform an action and repeat. There's really nothing too special about the battle system in Chrono Trigger, which is kind of disappointing. But even with a bland combat system, there's still fun to be had in battles though. The fights will feel challenging, but also not unfair. I never feel like I need to sit and grind in Chrono Trigger, and I do feel like that's necessity in some of the older Final Fantasy games and other older JRPGs. Which is fine if you like grinding, but I don't. If you get stuck on a boss in Chrono Trigger, you're probably not using the correct strategy. Some bosses are susceptible to physical attacks, while others are magic weak. Some bosses are susceptible to physical attacks, but only after using magic. Some have attack patterns you can exploit. You kind of have to experiment to find which strategies work best on which bosses. And I like having to figure out that these strategy puzzles rather than having to grind to get past bosses.

Chrono Trigger is notably one of the first RPGs to have a seamless transition between exploring and fighting. When you encounter an enemy while exploring, a menu just pops up and you start fighting, no transition or screen wipe to another battle scene or anything like that. It's also one of the first games I can think of to have multiple different endings depending on what actions you choose and which sidequests you do. There's also a good amount of optional sidequesting you can do to see more of a certain character's background story while also obtaining more powerful weapons and equipment for that character. There's even a secret party member you can unlock if you make the proper dialogue choices and do the appropriate sidequests.

Summary:
In short, Chrono Trigger is a fun and memorable adventure if you like old school JRPGs. The battle system is a bit unimaginative, but the game is carried by its well paced story, inspired art design and its incredible soundtrack. I played through its sequel Chrono Cross and... kinda didn't like it much. I'd love to see another game in the Chrono series and it seems now is a perfect time for it what with Square Enix's recent financial struggles. Another Chrono game seems like money in the bank to me. That and a FF7 HD remake.