Chrono Trigger

December 8,2008 - Though it was released late in the life of the Super Nintendo and a little early in the life of the Sony PlayStation, Chrono Trigger is regarded by many as the greatest role-playing game of all time. Not surprisingly, some people people even regard it as the great game of all-time, period. Now the game is being released once again on the Nintendo DS, and while there have not been any actual improvements to the title’s overall gameplay, it’s safe to say that this game has truly stood the test of time.

The game puts you in the role of Crono, a youth with spiky red hair who sleeps in on the eve of a celebration of the world that only takes place every thousand years called the Millenial Fair. Forced to get out of bed, Crono goes over to Leene Square and attempts to enjoy the festivities until he runs into a tomboyish blonde named Marle, who then drops a pendant screaming of important significance. After helping her retrieve the pendant, Crono and Marle continue to enjoy the faire’s festivities before running into Lucca, a good friend of Crono’s who is also an extremely talented technician and engineer. Lucca then encourages Crono to test her transportation device that was unveiled at the Faire for the first time, and to her delight, it works perfectly. An excited Marle then tries it for herself, and disappears into thin air, while her pendant stays onto the Transporter. Concerned, Crono hops onto the machine and is zapped as well... into the past.

If you’re an RPG enthusiast playing Chrono Trigger for the first time, the beginning of the game may seem a bit laughable, but as the story goes on, each character will present admirable qualities that are simply unforgettable. Aside from Marle and Lucca, you’ll come across a frog warrior nursing a wounded pride, a ridiculously strong woman who lived in the dinosaur age named Ayla, and Robo, a robot from the horrid future that Leene will fall to. Chrono Trigger was the first RPG to ever push character development to extraordinary heights, and to this day, it still retains that undeniable charm that makes everything about the game so great.

The game’s battle system is very similar to that of the Final Fantasy games, because it takes advantage of the easy-to-understand Active Battle system. Combat is completely menu-based, and you can only have your character perform an action when their action gauge is filled. This allows for battles to go by much smoother. Of course, if you prefer to have everything turn-based, you can change the options at anytime via the main menu.

In battle, each character has a specific technique, or tech, that they’ll be able to use. Techs are earned when you reach certain experience levels. While many of them simply inflict more damage than your standard attacks, quite a few of them also raise or lower certain categories. The most interesting feature about these techniques is that once you’ve had a few fights with your party of characters, you’ll be able to teach your characters how to use certain elements, such as lighting and fire. With that, you can combine techniques to perform devastating combos against your enemies (as long as you have more than one character ready to attack). This gives the strategic element in Chrono Trigger a great sense of balance, and it makes the challenging boss fights that much more satisfying.

One of the main features that made Chrono Trigger so unique in its time was the fact that almost every action you make Crono do would ultimately affect the story. For example, at the beginning of the game when you first meet Marle, you’re given the opportunity to just enjoy the festivities. There’ll be a few sidequests such as finding a lost cat, buying Marle candy, deciding whether or not to eat the lunch of a nearby guest, and all sorts of different situations. The actions you make here will determine your final verdict on a court case you’ll encounter later in the game, and it really makes you think about the steps you make.

Again, this is only one such example. In the bigger picture, there are sixteen separate endings in the game. The spine of the story is to kill Lavos, but with all the different paths to take, a lot of times it is just interesting to see what might happen—just another thing that adds to the game’s charm.

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