Chrono Trigger Review

The majority of the gaming world and certainly RPG enthusiasts consider Final Fantasy to be the best game ever created. I was once as part of this overwhelming flood of gamers, both casual and serious, but now I realize the truth that has been hidden for so long. I have uncovered it from its hiding place on the dusty retro shelf, and let me announce to the world: Final Fantasy 7 can not surpass Chrono Trigger!

Chrono Trigger was made long before the concept of Final Fantasy 7 was even thought up, before the basic artwork was designed, even before there were even plans on continuing the legendary series up to such a high number. Still though, it arguably reigns supreme in the RPG genre.

All great games have a great storyline, and this is one of the numerous aspects where Chrono Trigger excels. The plot and scripting is amazing, with the constant twists and various unexpected happenings making the game even more suspenseful and far more enjoyable. Every time I thought I'd seen it all, something new happened changing the course of events significantly. The writers must have spent months just brainstorming and trying to work out the best possible story. It was well worth it too. The addition of time travelling just completed what I considered to already be as close to perfect as humanly possible.

You are Crono, a young man in his golden years, long red hair, and a lethal sword to boot. Think Goku crossed with Tapion and Trunks and you've got the right idea. After going to the millennium fair to celebrate the victory of humans over mages, you run into a young lady whom you offer to help out. After walking around with her for a while you meet up with a lady friend, and agree to test out her latest invention - A matter transporter. Inevitably the experiment goes wrong, ripping open an inter-dimensional portal that a friend of yours is sucked into. It's all up to you to save her…

This is where the real adventure starts, with an insanely easy first quest to make it easy to get used to the controls. Throughout the game new elements are added, introduced slowly so that you can adapt to them seamlessly. Magic and Techniques are examples of this, entering the game in the early stages and seemingly unimportant, but becoming essential to victory as you continue onwards, progressing through the epic game. Basically the learning curve is very simple, and even the most casual of gamers will quickly adjust to it.

During the course of the game, you'll have many paths and choices lying ahead of you, with each decision you make having some sort of effect on your future. You may decide to fight the final boss before you venture throughout the game, and will undoubtedly meet an early demise if it's your first time playing through. This is one of the great concepts of Chrono Trigger though, as you have the option to fight the final boss at almost any point in the game, with a portal to it becoming accessible about half way through. Depending on when you fight it you will get a different ending scene, which is well worth seeing.

It will probably take the average gamer around 30 hours to complete this game, and everyone knows that if you spend that long playing anything you expect an awesome ending sequence. Obviously there's no beautifully rendered FMV, it just wouldn't be practical as the chances of it fitting on a cartridge is slim. I seriously doubt that this technology had even been invented when the game was created actually, giving it an excuse for not including it. It doesn't matter though, because the ending that most are likely to get first time is average, nothing too special but enough to satisfy you. Apparently though, you once again can go through the game with your characters starting on the ridiculously high levels that they finished on, in order to beat Lavos, the last boss, earlier and gain a different ending. These get a lot better, and make it worthwhile playing the game again, increasing its life span.

I am immensely surprised that they fit all of this on one cartridge come to think of it, considering how the game is an epic, huge even by today's standards. There are so many different choices for you to make, and it is exciting all the way through. Square should be commended for such an incredible feat. The fact that practically the whole game in non-linear too, with the exception of occasional buildings where there is only one way to get to the end, makes it even better. The fact that you can roam around on the world map and go to places in any order that you desire makes it addictive, showing that you don't have to go to a certain place before you go elsewhere. When exploring buildings the same applies, as you can venture throughout them going in different directions to the usual straight-forward-following-the-main-path-one. Of course you could stick to going through in a linear way, but that'd be boring, and you'd miss out on some of the excitement that has been hidden away off the 'main road'.

Before I go on, I just want to talk about the cut scenes a bit more, whilst I've mentioned the ending one, I neglected to say that various other ones are dotted about the game. They are all well done, and invoke emotion as you feel sorry for the characters, or gain great rushes of happiness as certain things happen. Every time one of these sequences came on, I was on the edge of my seat. An example of this was when an ally of yours - Robo - was getting beaten up by some of his old friends who considered him a traitor due to the fact that he'd been reprogrammed for good. You get semi-control during this scene, able to try to go in to break it up, only to get thumped backwards straight away. It feels agonizingly painful to watch your friend get destroyed by these fiends, as you desperately want to jump in and break it up. I actually felt anger during this, such is the extent of the scenes brilliance.

None of this would be possible without the memorable characters. They are all developed excellently, but not only that, they are designed amazingly. Akira Toriyama, known for his artwork on DB/Z, Kajika, and Sandland designed them, and did a fantastic job. They all look top notch, and the addition of changing emotions depending on spoken dialogue is amazing. Many times I found myself laughing out loud as Crono's, or, in fact, any of the other character's faces became surprised and their bodies jumped into the air in a shocked state.

Each character has something that sets themselves apart from the rest, and I'm not just talking about their appearance. They all have distinctive personalities, and a trademark walk. Frog does his hop, Robo does his odd exaggerated arm shaking trot, and Crono just looks immensely cool as he strides along. These aren't the only things specific to each character though, as they all have their own attacks, with different sword thrusts and magic, but that'll be explained in a bit more detail later on.

The bad guys are similar, all having their own special attacks, and a different appearance to them. There are a vast number of minions who tend to attack throughout the buildings or maps when you're on a quest, with variations of different species frequently popping up. Not only this, but they're also extremely loathsome. Every time you see a boss you are led to really hate them, especially Magus and Lavos, two of the main bad guys. This adds to the atmosphere of the game, and makes it all the more enjoyable.

To combat these terrible villains, you are allowed three characters in your party at any one time, with the ability to frequently switch members outside of battles, using a system almost exactly the same as Final Fantasy 7's. This is a nice little touch, as you can adapt your strategy depending on people in your team.

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