Chrono Trigger

Whenever I think back on this game, I always think “Why, again, was this considered one of the best RPGs in the genre?” I remember particular things, like how there’s no very powerful antagonist like say, Kefka or Sephiroth (Queen Zeal was hardly an antagonist, and Lavos can’t even talk…your first real antagonist elect can even become one of your party members). I remember things like how static the majority of the main characters are, or how liberally the game chalks things up to coincidence, particularly with where time warps lead you and where you find them. These, for whatever reason, are the things I remember when I try to sit and remember Chrono Trigger.

Then I go and relive the experience.

Recently, I’ve managed to get one of my best friends up here at university started on the game - he just made it to the End of Time. I can scarcely believe how I forget how good the game is. It’s not just that the characters, while largely static, are fun and impressive within their scope. It’s not just the simple realization that you don’t need a powerful antagonist to have a powerful conflict…a really powerful plot - moreover, that having several people in several places with several problems really enriches the experience and makes it more alive. It’s not even just the fact that sometimes, coincidence in fantasy can be a really exciting, spontaneous element when done right, which Chrono Trigger does (a BAD example would be, say, Final Fantasy 8).

None of that stuff necesarily matters. All of that stuff exists in a game I’m replaying recently called Kartia, and while Kartia is definitely scores better than most people give it credit for, to compare it to Chrono Trigger would be ridiculous. It’s the execution…the way the game, as a sum of its parts, is pulled off is simply amazing.

When we stop our sessions, I’ve recently began to look up Chrono Trigger-related stuff on the internet. When I saw this picture of the bad ending…

…I never imagined that the impact of seeing it again after several years would actually make tears stream down my face. I imagine it’d be hard for anyone who experiences sensations with any sort of vividity to not get excited about how…exciting this game can be. It truly excites my boyish spirit - I’m happy to see Crono and co. succeed, and I’m scared to see what happens if they don’t. The fact that you KNOW what happens if they don’t is perhaps one of the biggest reasons - that’s a lot of responsibility! It brings back memories of how nervous I was when I first did the final boss sequence at age…I think I was eleven? No fucking song with any electric guitar could produce the same amount of adrenaline that I had pouring through me.

When I think about that, it really bothers me to think about the absolute shit that people pass off today as good RPGs, like Kingdom Hearts 2 and Final Fantasy 12. Gimme a fuckin’ break.

Yeah. Chrono Trigger rules. It’s not nearly as indestructably perfect as people think, but it no doubt deserves to be revered as one of the best RPGs of all time. …Not that any of you don’t already know that. I just rediscovered it recently, and had to talk about it.

The good ending of Chrono Trigger (with the balloons) remains one of the most beautiful things ever to grace a TV screen.

However, I have to say that some recent games have made me feel the same way as CT in certain ways. Kingdom Hearts actually ranks up there, believe it or not, once you get past the flaws. Xenosaga 3, FF9 and FFX, too. But it’s true - CT is simply a solid game, with almost no disadvantages, and that performance hasn’t been replicated since.

Man, I spent 6 months on trying to beat Lavos, every other weekend, when I was 11 or something. When I finally beat him, I have no fucking idea how, it was the greatest feeling ever. Then I play it again a few months ago and instantly trash Lavos and I kinda cry on the inside.

I’ve got nothing else to add, so I’ll just sit here and nod my head in agreement.

Ditto on all counts.

Frankly I’m amazed S-E hasn’t made a port of this, outside of the PSX port. No GBA port? I suppose I’ll just have to hope that it gets put on the Virtual Console sometime this year…

After all these years, I still believe CT is the best Squaresoft game ever. Yeah, the game holds a lot of sentimental value for me too. It was the first game I ever played to tell a gripping (I think so anyways) story, and it was also the first game I played to feature a truly beautiful soundtrack. This was the game that made me realize that videogames can actually work as a legitimate artform.

Say, you wanna know something you can do that’s really fun? Trying to convince the Final Fantasy fanatics in your neighborhood to give up FF and play CT instead. I never win, but it sure is fun to try, if only to hear countless youngsters say, “What the fuck is Chrono Trigger?”

I actually went back and played it end to end again last year. It’s just as much fun as it always was.

k, I gotta replay me this game.

What he said. :moonwalk:

This got me nostalgic, so I went and listened to the soundtrack again. Now, it’s a glorious masterpiece and all that and Frog and Magus’ themes are awesome, but there is one thing I want to ask…

Does anyone else start giggling like a moron every time they hear Gato’s theme? I’m serious, I just can’t help it.

Did you ever see the CT OAV? Maybe that has something to do with it. 8p I personally thought it was the weirdest and most un-funny thing I’d ever seen. At least until I saw Pani Poni Dash.

Yeah, it wasn’t very good. I’m still sorry for sending you that.

CT to me is one of those games that’s kind of hard to describe. I kind of forget about it until I go back and play again, where I’m sucked into it’s world again.

Good SG, good.

You are not the only one.

I’ve never liked Chrono Trigger very much, for all the things you said against it in the first part of the post. I didn’t feel the solidity that most people describe. The only character I had any sort of care about or for was Frog, which was probably just because I really liked amphibians and reptiles when I was a kid and first played this, and the nostalgia of that applies to this day (how Blanca is still my favourite Street Fighter character, for example). I don’t know what it is, I’ve just never been able to bring myself to like it, no-matter how hard I tried. It’s not a bad game, it’s just not anywhere among my favourites.

Yeah…when I THINK about it, it sounds like a mediocre game on paper…but I mean, for example…

  • Coincidence as a catalyst can be fine…not everything has to fall in an amazing logical progression. Falling into random spots in time - which, if you think about it, is purely coincidental - actually made the game feel spontaneous, rather than haphazard. The reason is because they threw you in places with a purpose, rather than to just give you some kind of chore to do that would extend the game’s length.

  • Static characters is not something usually GOOD in a game; however, it doesn’t necesarily make a game bad at ALL. I’ve played RPGs with completely static characters that were interesting, or otherwise didn’t detract from the story at all (Okage: Shadow King, most characters in Grandia games, etc.).

  • Lastly, one that I’ve recently come to terms with: The lack of a strong protagonist actually ADDS to the game. If ONE person were pulling ALL of the strings in Chrono Trigger, it would seem pointless to have all those different time eras to visit (and, actually, they tried to do this in a way at the very end, but it was kind of weird). Instead, having several antagonists (Magus, Azala, Zeal, Lavos, and to a minor extent, Mother Brain) is effective; though your party is simply trying to find a way to stop Lavos, the end result is Crono and co. witnessing - no, experiencing and effecting the chronicle of their world history. If that’s not excitement, I don’t know WHAT the fuck is.

Anyways, I’m totally homo about CT right now.

To this day it’s the only game with a ‘New Game +’ feature that I’ve actually wanted to go back and play for any serious amount of time. It’s like a bunch of games now a days have this, but there’s no real reason to go back and play though any of them, or it seems too much of a daunting task because the games are so fucking long due to boring crap that isn’t related to the story and full of cutscenes you can’t skip. Chrono Trigger is amazing because the entire game, side quests included, are important and don’t feel like garbage filler that was thrown in to make you play longer.

It’s actually a yearly tradition for me to play Chrono Trigger once a year. I just noticed it just happens once a year. “Man, I feel like playing CT,” and in a week, I’ve had a blast playing it. Since it was never released in Europe, it only ranks somewhere around 5+ in my list of biggest VG influences in my life. I did see too much hype about it though >:(

I see this one as much as an RPG and an Action adventure as I see a Zelda game. And I like action adventures too.

It’s still an alarmingly shitty game - made even more alarming by how many people jack off to how great they think it is.

Although, to be as absolutely fair as possible, I’ve never REALLY played Kingdom Hearts 2, but my friend who has told me that if I didn’t like the first one, there’s pretty much no chance I would like the second one…And, to say that I disliked the first one wouldn’t accurately describe how much I…disliked the game.