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When most American gamers think of console RPG games, they think of Final Fantasy. In contrast, when most Japanese gamers think of console RPGs, they think of Dragon Quest.
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So what happens when the people responsible for the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest games join forces to create one game? Some might say the result is one of the best RPG games ever created.
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Chrono Trigger was originally released in 1995 and created by Square's "Dream Team" division, which was led by Hironobu Sakaguchi (who created the Final Fantasy series). The game was written by scenario writers, Yuji Hori (creator of the Dragon Quest games) and Masato Kato (later directing both Radical Dreamers and Chrono Cross; wrote much of Xenogears and XenoSaga I & II), and character designer Akira Toriyama (of Dr. Slump, Dragon Ball and Dragon Quest fame). All of the game's music was composed primarily by Yasunori Mitsuda (later known for his breathtaking music in Xenogears, Crono Cross, and XenoSaga) under the watchful eye of Nobuo Uematsu (the best known Final Fantasy music composer).
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As a result of this combination of legendary talent, Chrono Trigger is often regarded as one of the best games EVER created, and for good reason.
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This re-release really was intended for just one audience, and that is the fans who first played it. An anime opening sequence has been added and, I swear, when it began to play I literally had tears in my eyes at how SWEET it was. If there was ever a game created by Square which needed to be turned into an anime, it is Chrono Trigger. Sadly, this is probably the closest we will ever get to seeing "what if..?". Although there are not as many anime sequences as I would have liked, some of the more memorable sequences have had an anime sequence added, and it's worth playing through the game just to see them all.
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As for the actual game graphics, believe it or not, Chrono Trigger was one of the best looking games ever made on the SNES, and in its day, its graphics were top-notch. Although the special effects seem dated today, Chrono Trigger was one of the few games on the SNES that fully utilized the Nintendo "FX chip" to allow "vector graphics". These vector graphics were used heavily for spell attacks to great effect, and really did change the way special attacks were designed in all future console RPG games.
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The game starts out with the teenage protagonist of the story, Chrono, waking up in the morning, scaring his cat and then running off to a town festival. From there, he meets a pretty tomboy of a girl named Marle, and then meets up with his nerdy childhood friend Lucca. After an experiment gone awry involving a prototype teleporter device, Marle is thrust back into the past and Chrono sets out to save his new girlfriend. A quest that first sets out to avoid changing history and simply return to your own timeline quickly transforms into an epic crusade to defeat a Lovecraftian super-alien god of destruction who will eventually rise up and destroy the world. Your job is to make sure he never wakes up to start the Apocalypse, and to do this you must travel into the future and the past to change the entire flow of Time itself. Think of Zelda: The Oricana of Time on an acid trip.
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An above average story with very memorable characters, Chrono Trigger deals with hard issues like morality, authority, etc. without patronizing the players. Many of the quests simply revolve around trying to help one of your party members deal with their deeply rooted problems, or in the case of Magus, save their soul from being consumed by darkness.
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Throughout the course of the game, you'll travel to the prehistoric era to fight alongside cavemen, take part in a way against an evil wizard, free an enslaved people from their utopian masters, and journey into the future to bring light to a dark era that might not even occur if you succeed in your ultimate quest of defeating Lavos.
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An interesting aspect of the story is that what you choose to do in the game really does come into play later on, as what you do in the past directly impacts what happens in the future. This is most evident with the alternate endings, as at what stage of the game you choose to confront the end game boss will determine the future of your world. This said, in order to advance in the story you generally need to do some time traveling to influence the past or future by either speaking to someone, defeating someone or bringing some event item which only exists in one era into another era in order to complete a quest. Also worthy of note is that Chrono Trigger is the only game I know of where the main character will die and yet the game can be completed without the revival of the central protagonist. The player is left with the decision whether or not to go on the side-quest of reviving the fallen hero or not, and this is just one example of how non-linear the story really is.
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Chrono Trigger's battle engine relies heavily on the ATB system developed for use in FF4, but really takes advantage of it in a way no other game produced by Square ever has. The battle system in the game's sequel, Chrono Cross, was more similar to Xenogears than Trigger, and that is probably what disappointed fans the most. Characters in the party are capable of delivering "double" and "triple" technique combo attacks, and these party attacks are a highlight of the game, preventing battles from becoming too repetitive.
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The battle engine is actually a psuedo-realtime turn-based system. Having no random battles, battles are usually initiated when the party confronts enemies onscreen. The party members then quickly separate and surround the enemy right there on the screen, no need for loading a special "battle screen" as seen in so many other RPG games. Since battles are normally initiated only when you confront enemies, the player can avoid many of the "unnecessary" battles by merely sneaking past enemies, which is useful to the player who does not want to focus on leveling up characters, instead preferring to dig right into the story. Other than Parasite Eve, a battle engine like this has yet to be reproduced in any other console RPG I know of.
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A largely story-driven game, there are few mini-games to keep players engaged, but there is no incentive for a player to return to these mini-games for repeat play. The game only requires about 20 hours to complete, but since the game has multiple-endings, and by making a "New Game+", you are able to start the game with all the levels, items and techniques your party had gained in your previous game, this helps you unlock the alternative endings and bonus features that were packed into the PlayStation re-release.
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While normally I would easily give the gameplay of the original SNES an A+ score, I cannot do so in this PS1 port of the game. There is an unfortunate glitch with loading times concerning battles. Apparently, when Square ported the English version of the game from the SNES to the PS1, they didn’t completely bug-test the emulator. There have been a few times when the game stops loading and freezes up, usually right when a battle should start, but most players might only encounter this bug once out of every few hundred battles they encounter. Since there are save areas scattered around every dungeon and you can save anywhere on the world map, this isn't too large of a problem. You can quickly return to the game as long as you remember to save often. It can be very annoying though, and might frustrate some players. However, it is the only negative aspect the game even possesses, and cannot be blamed on the original game development team, since the team who ported the game to the PS1 was a different staff.
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I am not kidding when I say that despite being ten years old, Square still makes a ton of money off the soundtrack to this game. The music is some of the most memorable you'll ever find in any video game, EVER. One of the primary reasons the game is so beloved is because of the music that was composed for it. Every situation has appropriate music for setting the proper mood, and it really helps to pull you into the story on an emotional level.
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The music in Chrono Trigger is the first original work Yasunori Mitsuda ever composed for a Square game, and because of the excellent job he did, he was attached to the teams of other memorable Square games such as Xenogears and ,i>Chrono Cross.
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Those who play Chrono Cross before having played Chrono Trigger will not be able to fully enjoy the story of Cross, because the events which take place in Trigger create the events which take place in Cross. For that reason alone, it really should be required playing. That said, Chrono Trigger stands alone on its own two feet for several reasons—one of them being it is far better than Chrono Cross was and the second is that even though it is a decade-old game, Chrono Trigger still ranks higher above most console RPGs being released today. There was a lot of love put into this game, and it really shows.
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