Chrono Trigger: Years ahead of its time

I just finished Chrono Trigger and wow did it blow me away. I mean there was the incredible trial sequence and the epic battle with Lavos at the end. Almost everything about that game was absolutely incredible. My one minor gripe is that the combat can get a bit hectic and there is no save anywhere (yes I know this would probably break the game because of the shelter item but I think they could've come up with a solution). This has to be the best game I have played in quite a long time. This got me thinking about how much modern games could learn from Chrono Trigger. I mean there were real consequences for your actions and I really felt emotionally involved in the game's story. There's a lot of replay value thanks to the multiple endings and side quests. These are things that games today have trouble doing. I think that Square was able to pull this off so well because they had such basic tools that they really had to do different things to keep the player engrossed. The DS actually seems like the place to go for RPGs this console generation. This just goes to show that you don't need incredible processing power to make a great game. I'm interested to know what others thought of such an incredible game

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Brian Shirk

July 07, 2009

There's no doubt that Chrono was years ahead of its time. As a young kid, most of my friends weren't gamers (especially not RPGs) and some of them were mesmerized by Chrono. I loved the characters, time-traveling to a variety of eras felt fresh, and I loved how you could alter certain events. I also liked how CT ditched random battles and made them fast-paced, with combo attacks. The art and sprite animations were incredible as well. CT finally did away with tiny characters and limited animation. The music also really made you feel the experience. Some of those sad events in the game really got to you. I also thought it was an interesting scenario, because I was uncertain of what would happen in the year 2000. I didn't actually believe the game's prediction, but it made me curious if anything would happen. And last but not least, CT had so much replay value. Even without the extra endings, I could probably play it each year and never get bored of it. Only a few other games have had that kind of impact on me. I recommend trying Xenogears (also made by much of the Chrono team).

Raymond Fernandes

I wasn't into RPGs at all until I played Chrono Trigger in Jr. High. It opened me up to an entire genre that I wasn't really aware of at the time, and even though it was the high water mark for me in many ways, I still ended up playing a lot of great games that I might not have played.

The "save anywhere" gripe you have may be legitimate on a handheld game, but keep in mind that it wasn't designed to be such and came from an era when "save anywhere" was a foreign concept.

Speaking of save anywhere, I wish more modern RPGs would do that. It was done several years ago with Lunar, and it'd make RPGs much more accessible to people that don't have much time to play.

Alex Mekos

July 08, 2009

I'm nearing the end of my first play through of it and I can absolutely agree. The game is still surprising me. I personally think the way the game handles saving is great. You can save anywhere on the over world map, but in locations the save points are just about always where I would like them. It never takes me more than about 20 or 30 minutes to get to the save point in a dungeon. I'm really excited to continue playing it. Even typing this is making me want to grab it out of my bag and try and sneak in a few minutes here at work. It's even distracting me from continuing my play through of Half-Life 2. :P