Final Fantasy VI would have served as a perfect swan song for Squaresoft’s support of the sixteen bit generation, but they had other plans. Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of Final Fantasy, along with Yuji Horii (the director of the Dragon Quest series) and the mastermind of Dragon Ball Akira Toriyama joined together to form what fans would dub ‘the dream team.’ While original planned for release on the Super Nintendo Disc System the cancellation of the hardware led to this title being re-purposed as a plain old SNES title. The end result was Chrono Trigger; a game that is often heralded as one of the greatest if not the best overall role playing title of all time. I was a little late to the party because I had no idea that this game even existed. I was finally able to track it down a few years after release, and while everyone was busy playing their next generation consoles I was experiencing Chrono Trigger for the first time. While the franchise is largely forgotten this release is still often referenced, and for good reason. It’s incredible.
In typical fashion you play as a silent protagonist; in this case the unlikely hero is a red headed youth named Crono. He lives a peaceful existence at home with his mother in a fantasy based world full of monsters and medieval level technology. It’s the perfect fantasy backdrop. The story begins on the fateful day of a celebration called the Millenial Fair. Crono sets out to meet up with his inventor pal Lucca, and on the way encounters a runaway princess (which is a fact that is kept secret) named Marle and they spend the day together enjoying the festivities. When the two finally do meet up with Crono’s gal pal she’s showcasing her new invention. It’s a crude teleportation device, and Marle is first to volunteer for the demonstration. Unfortunately something goes wrong and the machine reacts to the pendant our undercover princess is wearing. This opens a time portal which transports her four hundred years to the past. Crono and Lucca follow her through it, but her presence has caused an issue in the continuum causing her to disappear when the royal knights mistake her for the present day queen. The two protagonists set out to rescue the real queen to bring Marle back to reality which sets into motion the wheels of destiny. Eventually they encounter another time portal, but this one instead brings them to the future where the world has long been destroyed and left in ruins. Archived video footage shows an alien life form rising from the ground and wiping out civilization leaving only a few humans on the brink of extinction. The group decides to use their new found time travel ability to stop this being, named Lavos, from laying waste to their world.
Chrono Trigger is a traditional turn based RPG, but it has a few mechanics that set it apart from the pack. You view the game’s world from an overhead view as you guide Crono (and his companions that follow along) through various environments. What’s immediately interesting is the fact that battles don’t occur randomly, and instead are triggered when touched by an enemy. Rather than being whisked away to a separate screen characters simply move into place at the onset, and the fight starts immediately. The seamless transition between exploration and battle is a really cool novelty and few other games use this method. Enemy encounters play out in the same fashion as they do in the Final Fantasy titles of this era. Chrono Trigger makes use of the active time battle system wherein each character has a gauge that fills gradually, and when it’s full you input a command for them via a menu at the bottom of the screen. What’s also unusual is that each character has only three options during battle; attack, tech, and item. This might sound limiting, but it’s perfectly functional and there’s surprising depth hidden just beneath the surface.
Where this game thrives is in the techs that each character can learn. Few to none are shared among the cast, and they all have a variety of effects. In addition, in a specific part of the game, your characters (save for one of them) gains the ability to use magic. While these spells are still listed under the tech option these are elemental based with each of the characters falling under a separate classification. For example, Chrono is electricity, Marle uses ice, Lucca is given fire, Frog manipulates water, etc. The other characters function a little differently. Robo for example cannot learn magic, but his standard techs fall under the shadow and electricity classifications. Ayla has no element whatsoever and instead deals out pure unadulterated regular damage to opponents with her techs. The most interesting part of the game is that characters can combine their techs/spells into double and even triple techs. Two of your party members must each know specific techs to combine them, and in some cases three can combine for an all out triple tech. The latter of these is rare and not all combinations are compatible for it, but double techs are pretty common between members of the cast. This adds new strategies and dynamics to selecting who to use in your party, and it is by far my favorite aspect of this game. Unfortunately you can only use three active characters at once, but the mechanics are so varied that this is ultimately forgivable.
Another area in which Chrono Trigger excels is in exploration. The world map is generally a safe zone with no monsters present. Normally I would consider this a bad thing but it works in the case of Chrono Trigger. While the world itself is quite basic with your generic towns and landmarks you can explore it in every time period. There are five separate eras to visit ranging from the reptile ruled 65,000,000 B.C. to the dark future in 2300 A.D. While the surface of the planet has similar geography it’s a real treat to see the differences in time periods. One might feature a thriving village, and the other simple ruins remaining in its place. The story does an amazing job at making you feel like this is a real world with actual history that, in many cases, makes sense. The scenario writers did an incredible job at making each time period full of back story and overarching plot lines. In the beginning you must seek out specific portals to take you where you need to go, but by the end you acquire an airship that can move throughout the eras with ease giving you total freedom to explore the world. In addition there are some well planned side quests that make use of this dynamic. Leaving a stone in a volcano will result in it becoming a sun stone in the future. There are several more of these moments, and they’re all extremely interesting and well planned.
Chrono Trigger looks amazing, and has aged remarkably well. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that this is the best looking role playing game of its time (that award goes to Final Fantasy VI) it’s very impressive by Super Nintendo standards. Environments are highly detailed with intricate pixel art and varied landscapes. There’s even some use of mode 7 here in the form of a hovercraft race that occurs in the future. Characters feature a ton of animations, and their designs are extremely charming thanks to Toriyama’s artwork. At one point in time I wasn’t really a fan of his signature style, but Chrono Cross made a believer out of me. The only thing I’m a little disappointed by is the enemy designs. They’re generally very small and lack significant detail, but this is an understandable sacrifice to make them visible outside of battle. Some of the boss characters are huge and make up for this however. The spell effects are really well done despite the limited screen size, and while many of them are small several of the double and triple techs are quite a sight to behold. The soundtrack is even more impressive than the graphics. It’s simply beautiful with well done melodies ranging from peaceful to menacing. The theme of the epoch in particular is one of my favorite pieces of music ever. It’s hard to believe that the music is so engaging on such limited hardware.
It’s hard to believe that this game was released twenty years ago because no other RPG has yet been able to match the pure ambition of this project. Chrono Trigger is such an incredible game. The battle system in particular is very fluid and dynamic thanks to the combination attacks. The world is by far one of the most interesting to explore, and you can tell the developers really put their hearts into it. Chrono Trigger is a game that every fan of the genre needs to play at least once. It’s unfortunate that the sequel was such a disappointment, but that doesn’t steal anything away from this historical release.
