Chrono Trigger

Chrono Trigger System: SNES/PSX Developer: Square Players: 1 American Release Date: 9-27-95

Sometimes I wonder about her...

Overview: If looked at from a distance, it would seem like any other typical clichéd Japanese RPG; The silent spiky haired hero, Rebellious princess with a magic pendant, Hero's geeky genius friend, The cursed character with a vendetta (Turned into a frog, How original is THAT? Couldn't they have had him turn into a talking jello mold or floating cucumber? A pink zebra would've been more original.) , The cave woman with the vocabulary of a toddler and The brooding long white haired bishonen villain with a tragic past that changes sides later in the game.

The game starts out innocently enough, hero goes out to a fair to see his geeky little friend's new super science gizmo. On the way he bumps into a princess...she's in disguise of course. She goes with him to see said hero's geeky friend's super science gizmo with him, things go wrong and princess becomes endangered. Hero, being the hero that he is, Goes off to save her. Geeky friend joins up later after she's used her super brain powers to make another science gizmo that will help them. The two of them meet up with the cursed character with vendetta and save the princess. They go home and then bad things happen. Soon its reveled that there's an omnipotent alien being who will soon destroy the world and an evil wizard trying to use it for his own gain, both with powers that far outweigh their own. The only logical thing to do would be to try and stop them, right? So they all go on a big adventure, some stuff happens in between, and the group of video game clichés save the day. Some religious symbolism is thrown in for the heck of it.

If you haven't played this game then you must have heard about it from someone. After reading my little summary you're probably wondering what all the hype about this generic game is? Hey, sometimes generic can be fun. From a distance the game is a typical clichéd Japanese RPG, but up close it's a work of genius. Even if you're not ordinarily a gamer or don't like RPG's, after about 10 minutes of gameplay you'll more than likely become fully engrossed.

The characters are likable, you get attached to them easily. Crono never says a word through out the game, but he's endearing because of the way the other characters interact with him. He also has the big spiky anime hair you youngin's seem to like today. Frog is probably the most likable character in the game, I've never heard anyone badmouth froggy. He's kind of like a frog version of Cyan from Final Fantasy 6; Noble, talks like an English lord, has a cool theme song. Ayla pretty much scares the shit out of everyone she comes in contact with. When you first meet her she chases off a horde of snarling reptites and then corners Crono into a wall, poor Lucca and Marle don't know what to think of her. She beats her boyfriend. Everyone loves Ayla..

Then there's the villains. Everyone loves the villains, they make the game; what would a game be without them? This game has lots of them. Magus is the first villain mentioned in the game. He's cold, cynical, disdainful and hates everyone. Even you. But he loves his big sister. Then you have Ozzie. Ozzie is a coward, I mention him because he makes me giggle. Azala has her hatred for humans and is pretty noble to a point. Queen Zeal is a bit like Magus, albeit not quite as cynical. She's greedy, power hungry and insane. She also has blue hair and a personal man servant. Queen Zeal is cool. Finally you have Lavos. Lavos sucks. There's some other villans(Flea, Slash, Dalton, Fake Chancellors, The Mytics) But I'm too lazy to mention them............
.....now on with the rest of the review.

Sacrificial goat not pictured.

Gameplay: 8 The game play in Chrono Trigger is pretty good. The battle system is easy to get a hang of for beginners and fun for everyone else, too. The battles take place on the field map, which means no random encounters. I hate random encounters. You should too. The menu is one of the bad things about CT, it's laid out strangely. It takes a bit of getting used to. The level up and ability system is similar to Final Fantasy's. You beat enemies and get EXP and Ability points from them. To learn a Tech you need a certain number of points. After learning the Tech you move on to the next one until you've learned them all.

The Tech system in this game is pretty neat. Every character has an assigned element, they learn their techs based on them. (ex. Crono is lightning so his attacks are lightning based.) Characters can combine their powers to make duel and triple techs, that use the elements of all the charters casting the spell. The best thing about this game would have to be the Game+ feature. After you finish the game you can start over from the beginning in a Game+ with all of your old items(besides story items) and at the same level you were when you beat the game. With Game+ you can find all of the game's 10+ endings, giving Chrono Trigger endless replay value.



Sound: 9
Yasunori Mitsuda did the music for this game. Nobuo Uematsu might have done a few of the tracks, but I'm sure. The music in every part of the game fits perfectly, as well as character themes. I'm sure you'll get the point better by listening to some of the music for yourself.


¤ 600 A.D.
¤ Chrono Trigger Ending
¤ Frog's Theme
¤ Spekkio's Theme
¤ Guardia Forest
¤ Magus's Theme
¤ The Trial
¤ Ocean Palace
¤ Guardia Castle


Graphics: 7
The character designs in this game were drawn by Akira Toriyama, the creator of Dragonball Z and other animes/mangas. If you thought Crono looked like Goku or the game was "DBZ-ish"....well.....Thats why. Aside from character designs, the graphics in this game are very good for SNES. I think the place that stands out the most would be Zeal kingdom in 1200 B.C. Even though the graphics were good for it's time and feature Akira Toriyama's design, it doesn't compare to the graphics in newer games.
Instead of going on about it anymore, I'll just show you a few screencaps.








Satisfaction: 10
You'll definitely be glad you played Chrono trigger when you're done with it. It's fairly easy to make your way through the game and beat it without getting bored. With all the alternate endings, you'll be addicted to this game for a long time.




Over-all Score: 9

Other Stuff:Here are a few chrono trigger related links. Have fun.


¤ Chrono Trigger Temple: A good basic Chrono Trigger site. Music, Game help, Pictures, stuff like that.
¤ Chrono Trigger Testament: An interesting link by someone with far too much time on their hands.
¤ Princess Schala of Zeal: Besides being a Schala shrine, it has some information about the japanese version of CT and other things.

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