User Reviews

In 1995 this game made history in the SNES World. You are Chrono a mute boy teaming up with your friends to fight the boss Lavos several times, and it literary eats up your time. From a market to the future, a dreamy palace, End of Time and more. To beef up you and your friends you have to slash your way through reptiles, dinos, robotsasnd on. Now get this game on the net or market after this review if you still have your SNES or the many DS formats.

(www.plasticpals.com) Chrono Trigger was the last great RPG for the Super Nintendo from Squaresoft, and remains a favourite of RPG enthusiasts more than 10 years after its release. The development team was nicknamed the Dream Team, because they were composed of Final Fantasy veterans Hironobu Sakaguchi and composer Nobuo Uematsu, as well as Dragon Quest veterans Yuji Hori and Akira Toriyama. This sort of partnership was unprecedented at the time, especially among rival companies like Squaresoft and Enix (which have since merged) and resulted in a highly original and successful game.

Chrono Trigger's scenario is what sets it apart from other RPGs and games in general, since it deals with time travel. Over the course of the game, the protagonist Crono will skip between 7 vastly different time periods, where he makes allies and enemies. When an event is completed in the past, it subtly affects the future. You might be able to prevent the tragic death of a character's mother, for example, by revisiting the fateful day when she died and preventing an accident.

Each era makes the most of its setting with inventive plot threads; from 65,000,000 B.C. to 2300 A.D., though the game isn't concerned with realistically rendering them. Filling out the cast is a remarkable set of characters designed by Akira Toriyama of Dragon Ball fame. Each character has a set of personal side quests (some of which are optional), which helps to flesh them out.

Chrono Trigger was one of the first RPGs to do away with random battle encounters. Taking a cue from the Mother series, touching a monster in the field initiates a battle. The menu simply appears and you begin planning your strategy. This was quite a welcome break from the usual tedium of past RPGs, and features animated enemies and an endless assortment of team formations.

The battle system itself is quite unique in that characters have a wide array of skills, including 2 and 3 character combo attacks. When two or more characters have a turn, they can combine their skills to perform powerful new moves. And with up to 7 different party members, there are plenty of ways to keep things fresh. Characters who sit out of combat continue to accrue experience points, allowing you to enjoy the game without much level grinding.

The graphics represent the best of 16-bit hand drawn art. Bright and colourful backgrounds brimming with detail serve as the stage for the wonderfully designed and animated characters and monsters. Some of the spell effects aren't quite up to par with Final Fantasy VI, but the various character combo maneuvers are more exciting.

The music, composed in part by Nobuo Uematsu but mostly by Yasunori Mitsuda, is beautiful and diverse. It was this game that launched Yasunori Mitsuda into the upper echelon of game composers. The score can be light-hearted and funny but also incredibly moving or atmospheric when it needs to be. The SNES sound chip was ahead of its time, and Chrono Trigger is one of the best examples of what it was really capable of.

Another first in the RPG genre was the New Game + option. On a second play through characters retain their experience levels and most of their equipment. This allows the game to be finished more quickly than before, which allows the player to finish the game at specific points to trigger new endings. With 12 endings in total, Chrono Trigger offers a great deal of replay value, all on top of a main quest which can be completed comfortably in about 30 action-packed hours.

Chrono Trigger was the Super Nintendo's swan song, a near-perfectly designed and executed RPG from a talented team of industry legends. The story and characters remain engaging, and the fun battle system is a joy to play, so despite the ageing presentation it remains a classic that stands the test of time.

It has been re-released on the PlayStation as part of Final Fantasy Chronicles, packaged with Final Fantasy 4. The main addition to this version are the animated cinematic movies for certain plot moments. However, due to the CD format the game has 2~3 seconds of loading before every battle which is frustrating enough that I wouldn't recommend it over the original release.

It has also been re-released on the Nintendo DS, which included the extra content from the PlayStation version. Besides featuring a new translation, it also makes use of the dual screens and touch screen.

I didn't play the Playstation version, but the SNES version of Chrono Trigger has, at my opinion, one of the most successful history of adventures ever build. If for somehow does exist an opportunity of partnership between the best know Japanese actors, mix with the occidental actors, on a scenery of medieval times, crossing all the others scenarios (dinossaur age, frozen future age, vacuum station) , I would bet on a very successful final result on the big screen. Imagine all a team trying to defeat Cronos (a very giant monster that control time) under earth of in some place of the universe which is access by the girl machine.

I have played this game as I was growing up this was the best game on Super Nintendo. This was a game that allowed your characters to roam the worlds in different time periods including 65,000,000 BC, 12,000 BC, 600 AD, 1000 AD, 1999 AD, 2300 AD. You get to travel in time first in portal doors, later on in a time machine which later on becomes a flying car. You get to fight enemies in fixed encounters in dungeons instead of those annoying random encounters you would find in Final Fantasy games. I like 6 of the characters you get to play as but 1 character I leave out playing.

This game is about Chrono who wakes up and goes to a Millennial fair at 1000 AD. (We just passed the year 2000 already) to witness Luccas teleportation machine, as Marle is the test subject the machine goes haywire and creates a portal door which sucks Marle in and she is sent 400 years back in time in 600 AD. Chrono volunteers to go back to rescue Marle and meets with Marle at the castle but disappears and Lucca runs over to Chrono and reveals that she's the princess, they head over to the cathedral and runs into monsters and the human Frog meets up with them and they fight the monsters and the boss who was the fake chancellor. They rescue Queen Leene and Marle reappears again, then the 3 go back to the present and Chrono escorts Marle home.

Unfortunately Chrono is arrested and falsely accused of kidnapping Marle and is sent to death row to be executed on the guillotine, but makes his escape the player can either choose to break out of jail or wait until Lucca comes to Chronos rescue, they fight the dragon tank boss and it falls apart and the Chancellor and the 2 guards form a bridge which Chrono and Lucca makes their escape, they run out of the castle and Marle rebels against her father the king and runs away from home, they are pursed in a forest at a dead end screen and Chrono and the 2 girls escape in a time portal from the Chancellor.

They go 1300 years into the future in 2300 AD and discover that Lavos caused the nuclear holocaust in 1999 AD which rained fire bombs and destroy most of the life on planet earth, the humans are now homeless survivors who are hiding out in the domed buildings. The robots and mutant monsters have taken over the city in ruins and sewers. Chrono and the 2 girls fights them, they later meet a robot named Robo who joins them in their party, they sneak into the factory and turns on the power generator to open the door. There's a boss battle and Robo gets repaired by Lucca. All four of them go into the time portal and they end up at the end of time where a man the Guru of time helps them out. They go back to the year 1000 AD and they resolve to fight Lavos.

Chrono and his friends run errands in 600 AD, they also go to 65,000,000 BC and meets with Ayla the barbarian fighter, they also meets with Magus that Chrono and Frog fight at the castle, they also go to the year 12,000 BC in the Ice Age where Queen Zeal has people living on the floating islands Chrono powers Marles pendant and they are kicked out of the kingdom. Chrono gets the time machine Epoch from Belthasar and rescues Melchior, Chrono goes to the Ocean Palace to try to stop Lavos but ends up sacrificing himself to Lavos energy, Chronos allies gets kidnapped by Dalton who files the airplane. They make their escape and Dalton attacks them and the party jumps on Epoch and fights for their time machine defeats Dalton who gets sent to the year 1000 AD and they end up firing lasers and destroys the airplane Blackbird which falls into the ocean.

At this point in the game the player can choose to rescue Chrono or not and they can choose to have Magus join their party or kill him. I don't like to kill him as he has the best Magic spells that other party members don't have, and I usually save Chrono, he can't use dual techniques so it has to be triple techniques or his own spells. You can also do many side quest errands like get the moon stone, rainbow shell.

Also in the Playstation 1, Nintendo DS, Android, iOS, and PC versions of this game you get additional side quests like Arena of the Ages, Lost Sanctum, and Dimensional Vortex. I personally never liked Arena of the Ages so I end up skipping that side quest. Lost Sanctum involves doing fetch quest errands with the Reptites. Dimensional Vortex has the player going though time zones to fight monsters. It can take a while to play though but it's worth it and you get to meet with Dalton who was sucked to the year 1000 AD who will start a war in Chrono Cross and you get to learn what happened to Schala.

Now on to the Characters that I like and don't like.

1. Ayla- I like using her, she's a strong woman who never quits she's also sexy with her bikini outfit. I use a lot, she has high strength and fast speed, I like her Charm spell which steals useful items, like Weapons, Armor, Accessories, Power tabs, speed tabs and magic tabs. She can't use magic but her techniques are always the best to use. Her Dino Tail does more damage when she's low on HPs. She is the best character to use on the Blackbird mission when the allies equipment gets stolen. As you level her up she will get an Iron fist at level 72 and bronze fist at level 96 which does 9999 for every critical hits she lands and you get Spekkio Pink Nu who is the hardest boss to fight next to Dream Devourer.

Chrono- I like using him, he is the main character who cannot leave until the Lavo's Ocean Palace incident. He has high strength and Lighting attack cure and life magic powers and sword powers and the Luminaire spell, he can learn Dual and Triple techniques with his allies except for Magus. You'll lose him at some point in the game but you can save him and get him back at Death Peak with a clone doll. I like using him a lot his sword attacks can damage enemies, you can choose not to bring him back but that gets the player the sad ending which ends on a cliffhanger. I usually bring him back. I also highly recommend using him in the game.

Robo- I usually like using him in this game, he does have high strength but can't use magic but does use shadow Laser and electric attacks and cure beam and strength attacks. I don't like the Area Bomb zone attack very much as it's mostly useless, he also has slow speed so start focusing getting speed tabs to speed him up. At the Geno Dome you're required to have him lead the party to level grind on the conveyor belt. He's useful to have but that slow speed makes it hard for him to be useful early in the game. In the DS remake his Apocalypse Arm does 9999 damage which makes him very useful. Also recommend to use him in the game.

Frog- I somewhat like using Frog in this game, He has decent amount of strength and can use water spells, cure spells that targets all 3 members, His Frog Squash does more damage when he's low on HPs. He is needed in Magus Castle and his Masamune sword can lower enemies magic defense. His Demon Hit is useful against magical enemies. But don't sell Demon Hit or Brave Sword for your new game+ or you'll be forced to use the weak Masamune sword. I would use him in this game. He is good to use in the game.

Magus- He starts off as a enemy but can join your party late in the game. He has a decent amount of strength and can use all 4 spells fire, ice, lightning and shadow attacks including Darkmatter, he also uses magic protect spell. He can use the black hole attack which I find useless unless it on the Son of suns boss minions otherwise I never use it. He won't learn Dual techniques but will learn some triple techniques like Omega Flare and Eternal Darkness. He is good to use but his Doomsickle attack only will get stronger if one or 2 party members are knocked out. He is also good to use in the game. I strongly advise killing Magus in the game unless you want to see the ending with Frog changing back to a human who's Glenn.

Lucca- Lucca is somewhat good in this game, however her gun attacks are weak which are based on hit rate so Power tabs are useless. I like her fire spells and she can be a good balance for lightning and water units and can get delta attack with Marle or Delta Storm with Frog and is good for fighting Magus. I like her protect spell and Flare attack but I'm always running out of MPs for her. In the DS remake she can get a weapon called Spellslinger which damage is determined by MPs so you can't cast spells or it will lose it's power. I don't usually use her too much except at Magus castle.

Marle- First of all I do not like using Marle she is horrible, her bow and arrow attacks are weak which are based on hit rate so Power tabs are useless and she has a few ice spells, single cure spells, Life 2 spell, her haste spell is useful until it becomes obsolete by Haste Helm. The twin charm spell with Ayla is useless she already can use charm without any problems. In the DS remake her Venus Bow actually makes her useful with 777 damage in the early New Game+ stages of the game, after that she's useless. I would leave Marle out of the game for the most part, in my opinion she's the worst fighter in Chrono Trigger.

This was the best time traveling game for SNES which make RPGs more fun to play I liked the music, The 15 multiple endings, I liked the anime cutscenes, I liked the bike race, I didn't like climbing Death peak though especially on Android or iOS which was a pain, I didn't like the soup contest, I usually have to level grind on the Geno Dome conveyor belt to get to level 99. I liked fixed encounter battles though there are some you can't run from.

I wished that this game was on the SNES mini console or Playstation Classic console, it was a mistake to not include this game which I was disappointed in, this game is hard to find on SNES and the Wii Virtual Console is shutdown. It's available on the Playstation 3 Network, I hope there will be a remake soon. Meantime get this on PS1, DS, Android, iOS it's worth your time and money.

And in a way, I have to agree. There are many video games that get published each year, especially now that gaming has become mainstream. In my opinion, it is difficult to find a game these days that proves to be fun to play, as well as compelling and enjoyable. Metal Gear Solid, FFVII, and a few others have come out in the past 8 years to fill that gap. However, a decade ago, a game came out that had all of the essential ingredients to make a truly good game.

That game was ChronoTrigger.

To run it by with few spoilers, the game begins in a typical fantasy/RPG setting - boy lives in machine-less environment, has friends in small town, and wields sword. However, after a few early turns of events, he is whisked away to an environment similar, yet very different to his own (400 years in the past). What starts out as a "boy meets girl. boy goes back in time. boy saves girl." story soon evolves into much more, as they realize that their fantastical romp was merely the beginning. Now, instead of saving the cutie, the boy is forced to save the world. He isn't doing it on his own, however - he has friends to help him from all over the time-stream. A cave-woman, a malfunctioning robot, and even an old nemesis aid our hero as they fight the greatest battle of all times.

The graphics, with character design by manga/anime favorite Akira Toriyama (think Dr. Slump,SandLand, or the over-marketed DragonBall), are nice in this era, and were on the higher end of 2-D in 1995. From the evil Magus to the almost-too-cute-to-kill Imps that run rampant, the graphics echo the game's varied personality. Perhaps my favorite part of the game was its music. Composed by Yasunori Mitsuda, it is perhaps one of the most memorable game soundtracks ever. I often find myself singing themes from the game in my head (or out loud), although I haven't played it or listened to the soundtrack for at least two years. The sound effects are appropriate, nothing too great, but nothing too disgusting either.

The game has more replay value than a Free-Play DDR machine. Unlike all RPGs before it, where once you beat the game, the only option was to start over. Not so here. Instead, the "New Game+" option was invented. You start the game over, but every character's stats are as you had them at the end of the game. Instead of having difficulty destroying two Imps, you slaughter much of the enemies with the single goal of seeing more of the story. There is a new portal that lets you face the final boss at any point in the game, and at different points will get you different endings, from the plot-heavy to the hilarious. I have personally gotten all but two, and have loved all of them. There are also a plethora of side-quests once you are halfway through the game. After a certain point, you can go straight after the final boss, or you can do a side-quest involving each character. These can be simple tasks or heated battles. The option for all of them makes the game very appealing.

That was a lot of review, and most mindless rambling. I hope you can see that, if you can find a copy, this game is truly great. It is a title that you actually enjoy playing, and enjoy becoming a part of (my personal opinion - the reason Crono has no personality is because the designers want you - yes, you the gamer - to put yourself in his shoes, truly live the adventure). Greatest game ever? Maybe, maybe not. However, it is a darn good candidate.

100/100 A+ Game!

Afterthought - if you are getting this game, I would recommend the SNES version. The PSX edition's load times are tiring (before every battle, a 5-6 second load), and you can get the extra FMV's off the 'Net. Besides, why own a copy when you can get the original?

Chrono Trigger is the best video game ever created. In 1995, confined by a 16-bit video game system with only 128KB of RAM (the Super Nintendo), the game brought an amazing time-travelling story to life that somehow was enhanced by the limitations of the pixel graphics that allowed our imagination to fill in the full picture of the story.

Chrono Trigger deals with the inherent difficulty of making the trade- off between game-play and story. Basically, that open-world exploration of game play can sap the momentum of the main thrust of the story:

Chrono Trigger deals with this by having a pretty linear storyline for the first two acts. The key turning points of the story in these two acts are directly entwined with the game-play. And what an amazing two acts: the heroes travel back and forward in time as the true enemy is gradually revealed. The second act ends with the world being destroyed and the hero dead.

The open-world nature of the game only opens up at that point, where free form explorations fill in back stories and complete the key love and redemption subplots: the hero is brought back to life and frog finds redemption. Then the party powers up through these side quests before the final confrontation.

The story is tight, the 16-bit graphics allow our imagination to fill in where the 16-bit graphics can only provide outlines of the crazy epochs we visit (including an amazing world in the sky in 12,000 B.C.), and the musical score is absolutely out of this world (Frog's redemption theme is especially moving). Throw in a few flash forwards and crazy dream sequences that tug at the themes of the story and you have a truly unique cathartic experience.

My Story Chart of Chrono Trigger is at storycharts.ca

Although Chrono Trigger is, from a video game perspective, ancient, it still retains its charm for a modern RPG-gamer. Why? The list is long, for one thing, it has rid itself of many common problems in other RPGs, for example are the characters original, not suffering from the classical Mary Sue-complex many other RPGs struggle with. Also the combat system is nice, again different in a good way. The game is in addition amazingly non-linear, considering when it was made. The thirteen different endings gives the game a certain extra replay value. Speaking of which, the game also gains some replay value by the interesting character gallery alone, from the primitive Ayla to via the chivalrous Frog to the futuristic Robo, these characters interact in a manner that pulls you into the game with them, and the standard ending, which probably is the first ending you will see, will make you sad, or sad-ish.