Before Final Fantasy VII came out and completely shifted Squaresoft’s paradigm, they were already a rising powerhouse in the JRPG genre. In the West, they dominated with critical darlings like Secret of Mana and the enduring Final Fantasy VI, while Japan got incredible exclusives like Live A Live and Front Mission. SquareSoft’s next game would dare to be one of their most ambitious yet.
Squaresoft’s main dude, Hironobu Sakaguchi wanted to work on a project with Yuji Horii and Akira Toriyama, to form the “Dream Team”. They would make a JRPG so epic that it transcended time and combined the best aspects of Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy. The unbelievable raw talent behind this project would pay off, leading to what many consider a perfect game.
It is often regaled as “the best JPRG of all time”. Why did gamers decide that? What is it about it that has made it so enjoyable decades later? Is this old game still fun and why has the story resonated with players for so long? Find out in our Chrono Trigger review!
Chrono Trigger
Developer: Squaresoft
Publisher: Square, Square Enix
Platforms: Windows PC, Android, iOS, Mobile, PlayStation (as Final Fantasy Chronicles), PlayStation 3 (via PSN Classics), Nintendo DS, Super Nintendo Entertainment System (reviewed)
Release Date: March 11, 1995 (original release) / February 27, 2018 (Steam release)
Price: $14.99 (Steam listing)
Chrono Trigger begins humbly, with Crono being awakened by his mother to go outside and enjoy the Millennial Fair. Little does he know, the entire world’s fate hinges on this pleasant outing. It was supposed to be a carefree day with Lucca and the unveiling of her teleportation device, but when he meets Marle, his life is turned upside down.
Little does the player know, that upon meeting Marle, Crono’s actions are being judged. The game presents many organic choices without any fanfare. Tiny innocuous actions the player can partake in ultimately cause ripples later in the game. It’s a beautiful and flawlessly executed thesis about Chrono Trigger.
After a mishap with Lucca’s teleporter reacting to Marle’s mysterious pendant, a portal in time opens, sending her 400 years into the past, this is where Chrono Trigger truly begins, as the player finds themselves trekking through the ages to solve time conundrums and prevent disasters from happening.
Chrono Trigger‘s story goes headlong when it introduces Lavos, a calamitous space parasite that emerges from the planet almost 1,000 years after Crono’s time. The pace is punchy and the shenanigans in the past and present climax with an epic chase into another time portal where the gang finds themselves in the far future where Lavos destroyed the world.
The future is where players realize what is at stake and how humanity is on the verge of extinction. This is also when players recruit one of the most beloved robot companions in gaming, who’s got a suspiciously catchy theme song.
The entire cast is incredibly well-characterized and everyone gets infectious theme songs courtesy of Yasunori Mitsuda. To this day, the music in Chrono Trigger ranks as some of the finest compositions ever designed for a video game. Every piece inspires an epic rousing adventure that sweeps you off your feet.
Frog’s theme sounds like a heroic medieval march with flute accompaniments. It has a hint of relenting sadness simmering beneath a rousing melody that sounds like a righteous trudge forward, never giving up and never surrendering. It perfectly fits the honor-bound, Frog and his panache for Elizabethan dialect.
Lucca’s theme is a triumphant victory fare that captures her fiery spirit. Her inquisitive and eager personality and thirst for knowledge make her more than a typical girl genius; she gets her hands dirty and risks her life for her friends. Lucca is one of the earliest and best tomboys around and she has a cool helmet.
Mitsuda hit it out of the park with his music. Every piece is highly recognizable and iconic while flawlessly enhancing the mood and emotions of every scene and location. Some wistful pieces can make players feel nostalgic and remember simpler times when they were kids, like coming home from school and lying in bed as the sun begins to set.
The music and story are a large reason why Chrono Trigger has resonated strongly with players ever since it came out. Most of the melodies are catchy and memorable. They’re very easy to play if you know how to play an instrument which makes them great teaching aids for musicians while sounding great.
Thanks to Akira Toriyama’s indelible style, Chrono Trigger’s memorable cast of characters is brought to life. The story weaves elements of fantasy, science fiction, and history, creating a rich, immersive world that captures the imagination and draws players deeper, making them care.
You don’t just explore a world, you explore it across different eras. Crono and the gang witness an Empire’s rise and fall. They become instrumental in the evolution of entire races and get to fly around in a modified flying time machine like in Back to the Future II.
All eras converge at the end of time, a hub area that resembles an old-world bus stop floating in a void. Crono and the gang will pass through here often and swap out party members. Most importantly, the end of time is when players can choose to fight Lavos in 1999.
During new game+, players can experience different endings depending on when they decide to defeat Lavos. Chrono Trigger has twelve endings, one for every hour on a clock (thirteen endings in the Nintendo DS port) which is an insane value, even by modern standards. Some endings are jokes and some show alternate happy possibilities for the cast.
Chrono Trigger‘s pacing is pitch-perfect, and earning them all is a joy. Nearly 30 years since its release, I am still drawn into the world and characters. A lot of it has to do with the effectiveness of the music and how the game constantly mixes things up.
Players won’t be doing the same thing for long. There is some backtracking to areas and eras, but Chrono Trigger is not tedious to explore. Areas are compact and easy to navigate and the game throws in the odd gimmick to keep things interesting.
The various kinds of minigames, puzzles, and points of interest to interact with make the world feel tangible and add variety. Whether Crono operates cranes in factories to move objects, enter passcodes, race Johnny the motorcycle cyborg guy, soup-eating competition, or beating up Gato for 15 silver points; Chrono Trigger has no shortage of activities.
One day Square Enix will remake Chrono Trigger. They will likely give it the bog-standard HD-2D treatment, but the truth is that the original game achieved a perfect balance with its graphics and pixel art. Toriyama’s designs are faithfully translated and have more personality than any 2D Dragon Quest ever had.
Each character and even some enemies, have a wide range of gestures, poses, and facial expressions. When Ayla runs, her walking sprite isn’t sped up – she goes into a full sprint running on all fours. Bosses are drawn from multiple angles. Marle’s animation when she hugs Crono is very weighty and you can feel the emotion when she clings to him.
The level of detail and effort in Chrono Trigger‘s pixel art and backgrounds is the absolute pinnacle of what the Super Nintendo Entertainment System could offer. These characters were not stubby like in Final Fantasy VI, which were made to fit a specific template. Each one looks dramatically unique and players can instantly tell what era they are from.
Chrono Trigger‘s visuals were not the only feature that made it stand out in the 90s. Most SNES RPGs at the time still abided by tile-based movement. Chrono Trigger has very fluent and smooth movement for the party. Exploring isn’t tile-based at all and players can also move diagonally which was very rare for the genre.
Sometimes the perspective is played with and strays away from the typical overhead RPG point-of-view. There are several instances of scenic and striking shots where the background shifts to a side view. Moments like this give the world scale, making it feel bigger than it actually is.
Chrono Trigger‘s combat is admittedly streamlined for its genre to keep the pace flowing. Character’s growth is linear and players won’t be able to customize them apart from their equipment. All abilities are learned when characters hit certain levels and there is never a moment when players have to weigh which gear to equip because everything improves on a linear path.
A distinct aspect about the battle system is that the encounters are not random which was a huge deal at the time and makes the game accessible for JRPG neophytes. Seeing foes wander around and do their own thing on the overworld was cutting edge at the time and battles took place on the same screen. There are no transitions to a separate backdrop; everything is seamless and smooth.
Combat is the classic Active Time Battle system from Final Fantasy IV, though players can opt for the wait system. Every party member has an innate element except for Robo who is a machine and Ayla, the prehistoric woman from before magic. The elements signify the character’s magical element alignment and their weaknesses.
An important when deciding on the party is what combo techniques players may want. Many techs can combine with others which can expand their effectiveness. The combos are entertaining to watch and usually are pretty useful. When combining three techs at once, you can always expect it to be the biggest spectacle the game has to offer.
The only preparation gamers need to consider is who’s in the party. The choices are limited since there is a total of six characters, one of which can’t be removed for a majority of the game and the other is an optional character with subpar stats and abilities and has weak combo techniques.
The battle system and streamlined character-building mechanics likely won’t impress gamers who desire in-depth tinkering like in Final Fantasy V or the wealth of characters and Espers in Final Fantasy VI. It is a step up from Mystic Quest and Super Mario RPG and is ideal for kids who can read at a third-grade reading level or anybody who wants a fun adventure.
The limitations of the character growth and battle system are felt most in the late game when most battles are solved with powerful magic and attacks without much strategy. There won’t be much challenge in the new game+ unless you are fighting the final boss with Crono alone.
The surprisingly low HP and MP caps are reached pretty early and leveling up yields diminished returns. During new game+, players may be compelled to try to max out everyone’s stats and HP, but the max HP is only 999. This is rather low especially since Crono maxes out at around level 40.
Other stats also will max out at low caps and get represented as a star icon. Some stats max out at lower capacities and when the party is at very high levels, it won’t matter due to the low caps. For the most part, this won’t matter to players but will come into play when attempting to solo Lavos as Crono.
If you are playing the DS port, then the limits on the stats become more noticeable because of the extra late-game content. There are more powerful foes to fight and extra bosses and you won’t be able to brute force your way through them since the party physically can’t become any stronger unless players equip the exclusive unlockable gear earned from these additional quests.
It would have been nice if there were more thought put into the post-game challenge for gamers who put in the time and effort to earn the best gear and max out their stats. If there were no harsh restrictions on the growth, bosses might have been able to scale with the player’s power levels.
At the very least, having these limits keeps the items collected throughout the journey to maintain their utility. The trade-off is that most restoratives will stay useful when HP maxes out at 999 and MP maxes at 99 for every character.
Magus hardly seems worth the effort to recruit as an optional party member considering how he is outclassed by every other character in the game. He does not hit as hard as Frog or Robo. His magic isn’t as effective as Lucca or Marle’s. The only redeeming quality he has is his innate dark element which gives him defenses against it… which rarely is an issue because so few foes rely on it.
Magus may be a formidable threat when fighting him as a boss, but when he joins the party, all the enthusiasm he has is gone. Defeating him and ending his story arc is more fitting and gives Frog closure for his story. When he joins, it doesn’t reflect in dialogue with other characters later and he kinda just hangs out, muttering a unique line of dialogue now and then.
Anyone who is interested in experiencing this classic for the first time or has the itch to relive the adventure is in luck. There are several ways to go about it and the most common and accessible way is the Steam version. It pretty much has everything, including unsightly screen filters for you freaks out there. It’s affordable and will run on pretty much any desktop.
Playing Chrono Trigger on consoles as God meant is a little trickier. If you want to play it on original hardware, good luck. The Super NES version is insanely overpriced and rare due to degenerate scalpers. However, if you have a Mini SNES, it’s very easy to add it to the lineup. This is a convenient way to play thanks to the emulation features like rewind and save states.
The version of Chrono Trigger included in the Final Fantasy Chronicles compilation is notorious for its slowdown and excessive load times that will smack you even when going into your menus. This version is notable for including a few anime cutscenes peppered throughout the game; a feature that would be included in every release.
The DS version is widely considered the definitive Chrono Trigger experience due to the wealth of additional content. All prior content is included, plus the Lost Sanctum and Dimensional Vortices which expand the endgame. There is a monster arena and a retranslation which is mostly better, but the highlight is the dual-screen UI which declutters the image.
If you want Chrono Trigger on DS, then you are outta luck because it’s just as rare and expensive in the second-hand market as the Super NES version. If you still have a PlayStation 3, you can still purchase the shoddy PlayStation port for cheap, but at that point you may as well just get the PC version or go diving into Davy Jones’ locker.
Most people consider Chrono Trigger one of the best JRPGs for a good reason. It’s an exciting story to play through with unforgettable visuals and music. The gameplay is a perfect balance of challenging yet it remains streamlined to keep it accessible. It may be too basic for hardcore RPG maniacs, but it’s hard to ever feel disappointed when getting swept up in such a wonderful and feel-good adventure.
Chrono Trigger was reviewed on a Super NT / Super Nintendo Entertainment System using a copy purchased by Niche Gamer. Additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy is here. Chrono Trigger is now available for PC (via Steam), iOS, PlayStation, PlayStation 3 (via PSN Classics), Nintendo DS, and Super Nintendo Entertainment System.
