Retro Wednesday - Chrono Trigger

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Tags | Chrono Trigger, retro, review, snes, squaresoft, super nintendo

Retro Wednesday - Chrono Trigger

Posted on 07 May 2008 by Andrew Farrar

Chrono Trigger is often hailed as one of the best RPGs of all time. For many, this game set the standard for what RPGs should be. It is hard to be critical of a game that I have been playing for 13 years, so don’t expect any negativity after the break. This is as close to perfect as I’ve seen in my lifetime.

I’m pretty wary of putting on a pair of rose-tinted glasses and engaging in a nostalgia-fest. Not everything was better in the past. The golden days of gaming are certainly not past and I’m really tired of hearing people whine to that effect. Despite this, it’s hard to argue with a game that got everything right.

Chrono Trigger - Lucca’s Teleportation Device

Story

Chrono Trigger stars Crono, a young man who lives with his mother. The story begins in the year 1000 when our hero bumps into a rebellious, crossbow-wielding tomboy princess-in-disguise at the Millienial Fair and ends up following her through a time portal created by her royal pendant and an experimental teleportation device on display.

It’s even cooler than it sounds.

The game’s story is centered around time travel. The bad guy is some manner of giant space-faring spiked turtle named Lavos who feeds off of a planet’s energy. After laying dormant underneath the crust for millions of years, Lavos strikes in 1999 and unleashes the apocalypse. Your party stumbles across this information through a video recording found in the year 2300. The recording, combined with the bleak and hopeless future they found, inspired the crew to do what all perky young JRPG characters are called to do: save the world.

Chrono Trigger - Lavos
Lavos is a pretty mean dude.

Your party is expanded by a cast of characters from several time periods, including the prehistoric era, the middle ages, and the distant future. Each have their own story and a meaningful motivation to bring to the table. Except for Robo. The remaining humans in 2300 could barely muster the will to live, let alone to successfully aid a time-traveling adventure aiming to make everything right, so we got stuck with a silly robot.

The story is very well presented and is a lot of fun. If the game took itself too seriously, it would be much more difficult to maintain suspension of disbelief. Some of the more amusing points include a side quest boss that is killed by a cat flipping a switch. One of the main characters in your party was turned into a frog by an evil sorcerer from the past and is sworn to protect the queen in the middle ages. Yeah.

At the end of this video, a cat saves the day. Yes.

Despite intermittent silliness, the story holds up quite well. It strikes the right balance between silliness and, well, saving the world.

Gameplay

Movement through the world is a fairly standard yet strikingly fluid process. You can see the quality of the animations and level design in the above video. There are several world maps — one for each time period. The layout of the continents is shifted appropriately as the ages pass. Ice ages come and go. Continents are sundered during the ice age by a brief visit from Lavos.

Time travel is accomplished through static time gates. Late in the game the crew will pick up a vessel that allows them to travel time freely and eventually fly. The requisite Squaresoft airship with a twist.

Chrono Trigger’s combat system feels refreshing even today. All combat takes place in the world that you’re exploring. If you encounter an enemy, the interface appears on the screen instantly. There’s no load time or transition to a generic combat environment. This was a welcome change even in the SNES era and it’s disappointing to see that many RPG developers still prefer the alternative.

Chrono Trigger - Combat
Combat takes place in the normal exploration environment.

Chrono Trigger introduced the double- and triple-tech system. Two characters could use certain abilities in tandem to perform a more powerful attack. Some party combinations allow for a triple-tech involving all three party members. Sadly, this feature didn’t seem to catch on with many RPGs since. Not that it should be in every game, mind you, but game developers should definitely take note of the things that Chrono Trigger’s relatively simple combat system did right.

This fight with Magus showcases the game’s combat and some of its best music. Some of the sound effects are awful on emulators, unfortunately.

Final Thoughts

It wouldn’t be fair to talk about Chrono Trigger without talking about the music. Oh, man, the music. It’s incredible. Yasunori Mitsuda and Nobuo Uematsu created what may well be the finest game soundtrack ever. There are a number of solid interpretations of the game’s music on OCRemix, including the Chrono Symphonic project. There was also The Brink of Time, featuring jazzy arrangements of the game’s music. Enough cannot be said about the quality of work here.

The art in Chrono Trigger is incredible, too. I’m usually not a fan of Akira Toriyama’s work, but his characrter designs fit very well for this game. The environments are beautiful and evocative in a way that somehow transcends the graphical limitations.

Chrono Trigger is a true classic. The only complaint is that it is fairly easy with the occasional ass kicker of a boss (see: Golem Twins). Its relative ease and simple combat system allow the player to enjoy the gorgeous environments and beautiful music that that game offers throughout. What the game may lack in challenge it makes up for in spades with everything it did right.

Reviewer’s Notes

I started a fresh new game for this playthrough and completed all of the sidequests up through the Black Omen. This Sunday, I turned the system on to finish the deal and was greeted by a cartridge with zero save files on it. Great. Either the battery in it finally died or someone out there has it out for me. Either way, I did not finish this game for review. I had TerraMutant, a Lavos spawn, Queen Zeal, and Lavos himself left. This isn’t a big deal given how many times I’ve beaten this game, but it’s the principle of the thing. Screw you, cartridges.

Chrono Trigger was developed and published by Squaresoft. Reviewer played on an actual Super Nintendo and actually sort of regretted it. The price one pays for authenticity is sadness, apparently.