Chrono Trigger Happy (SNES and PS1)

Back in the days of early humanity and when the lizard people nearly ruled the world (these events ACTUALLY happened and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise), a big ol’ alien crashed into the planet and brought in the pain train for our fair planet. Lucky for us a spiky-haired redhead and his friends embark on an epic quest through time to stop the impending destruction of all. This is the plot of Chrono Trigger. I would like to start this review by saying this game holds a warm place in my heart. It brings wonderful reminiscent memories from my childhood when this game was one of the most original things I had ever seen. I tell this to you because my rating of this game may be slightly higher than what some people might give it now (especially if they are older), due to my slanted view, but I still think it deserves a spot in one of the best games of our time.
So why do I love this game? The most important thing for me when I am playing any game is storyline. This story is not too weird or hard to understand (*cough* Final Fantasy 7 *cough*) and it eventually allows for time travel to key points in history. What you do at one time can bring about a change in another, which is the fuel for many a fulfilling side quest later in the game and I am a sucker for good side quests. It starts off in a fairly normal SNES RPG fashion as your character wakes up in his bedroom and starts off the day completely unaware of the imminent adventure. You end up going to the local fair, complete with several “good deeds” you can do that slightly affect the later storyline, and visit your genius friend’s invention show. Unfortunately the machine reacts with a special pendant and results in you setting out to save a girl sent through a portal to another time. The plot unfolds to be something much larger than a simple rescue mission and allies are found throughout the time stream to unite against world destruction. Considering the game originally came out for SNES its graphics are quite good for its time. It is refreshing to have an older RPG where the characters have full arms and legs complete with different running styles instead of the square with a face on it that jiggle-walks about the screen. The Ps1 version also has short animated movie sequences added into the game that let you see the characters a bit more up close, which is pretty neat but I don’t think it adds that much.
There is nothing more annoying to me than a game that doesn’t reward gamers for exploring all corners of an area. In Chrono Trigger talking to townspeople is actually fun, since many times what they say actually matters, could hint to a side quest, or is somewhat funny. Items are also hidden everywhere in the game from a barrel in the middle of town to something on the bedside table of a house. Little interactive elements like that help keep the game from getting stale. Another reason the game fails to become stale is that there are NO RANDOM ENCOUNTERS! Enemies do not attack you on the world map and when in enemy territory you can see the monsters/robots/villains waiting and can try to avoid them. If confronted by enemies there is no annoying flashing load screen that you have to watch before every battle. The enemies simply jump out, roll in, or drop down from wherever they are waiting. They might even dance or slide down a stair banister to get to you (The game does pause for a few seconds before this happens in the PS1 version which is quite annoying if you have played the original, but eventually you get used to it).
Music in this game is wonderful. Period.
A super cast of characters also helps push this game to the next level. Now I did find the main character Chrono slightly boring at times, but he is definitely the coolest silent protagonist I have ever played with. The characters are from different times and each one has an element (fire, water, lighting, ect) that they can control. The characters change and grow throughout the story and certain extra quests can be done to find further information on a few.
The battle system is pretty standard. Each person has a little bar that must fill up before an attack can be chosen. When you start a file you can choose to have the enemies pause while you choose your next attack or have all bars continue to move. This will change the speed and difficulty of the game. Characters level up with experience points, but the special attacks of each character levels up with tech points. Characters not used still receive some experience and will stay about the same level, but they will not gain new moves. Combo techniques eventually can be used between 2 or 3 characters at the same time for some massive amounts of damage.
In conclusion this game is amazing. It refuses to be stale and even has a “new game plus” feature that lets you play through the game again at your high level and has many different unlockable endings to find. Chrono Trigger is everything a true traditional RPG should strive to be and it makes some current games look like mush. It is, without a doubt, a classic.


As of Monday May 18th 2008:
Half.com- the SNES version can be bought as low as $8.50 with a few more offers around $10 and up to around $26.
-The PS1 version had several offers ranging in the $10-$15 range.

Switchplanet- the SNES version is not up for sale at the moment.
-The PS1 version is owned by 5 people although none have been put up for sale yet. This is where I got my copy of the game and it works great. Be patient!

So i would say that the chance of me running into a burning building to save the last copy of this game is about 97%.