Chrono Trigger (1995)

Preliminary: This is a game I've always heard so much about. Like FF3 (FF6) or Link to the Past, when I had attempted it in the past, it didn't click at the time. But I was like 12 or 13 and using dubious ways to play them, so who knows what was really happening. And it was often the beginnings that turned me off. My friend tried to get me into Chrono Cross, but having not played the first one, I never really gave it a proper shot. I am hoping to do so now! We shall see though. More active JRPGs tend not to be my preference, but with the team I'm reading about, and reading about a great soundtrack and Look, I am bound to like it. I may have just accidentally read a huge spoiler, so pro-tip: don't click on spoiler'd blurred out text! Wild idea, I know :-p

I'm getting conflicting info on what extent the game was censored for the NA release. I think I will still go with the official release though, and just be cognizant of the censorship I read about.

Early Game

Yesss to the FF click noises. And good soudn effects/care to attention so far in the intro, good colors too. I have quite high expectations and so far the music and dialog is holding up. The walking is a bit slower than I expected, but hopefully the Look and Sound will make that okay. OMG YESSSS, there's a dash/run! Huge points for that. Yes, a lot of remakes of its contemporaries added that, and some of its contemporaries had upgrades/equipment that let you dash, but that def wasn't the norm.

Wow interesting, the house exits right out to te world map, hwich is colorful and pleasant, and the music didn't transition at all. Makes it feel like this is a safe area. Neat with the year in the corner too. And for some reason the fair element is giving me FF9 beginning Feel.

I don't necessarily love the quirky circus-y fair thing going on as per usual but I appreciate that this is happening early in the game before the plot thickens. That's when a fun playful part should be. I have the urge to get all the special optional features from this skull tent tho, even if not super motivated by the other minigames. Oh me and completionism.

Hmmm I don't really get the Wait Battle Mode, since this robot still attacked me any way while selecting a command... Overall, very customizable tho which I always respect.

As silly as it is, the Tribal Dance is kinda nice and I was bumping to it and having my characters dance. Btu I'm ready for teh game to really begin. I hope it doesn't stay so silly throughout the game. Also, this scene kinda reminded me of the Prehistoric Live A Live part :-p

Loving it so far. Love that I can just hold action button through a battle as needed (to alleviate my stress about active battles :-p). Love the sound effects. Love the menu. Onyl complaint so far is, I've gotten used to equipping in the shop screens, but I can live :-p Oh and weid that you can't seem to sell items at shops that don't sell them? Or something? Maybe it's a time thing, not a shop thing. We shall see.

It's neat that you can walk away while an NPC is talking lol. But I am finding myself actually reading the dialog and exploring, a nice feeling a la the great RPGs and my childhood ones.

The Guardia Forest tune is super familiar (and great and Aquatic Ambiance esque). I'm positive I've listened to this before. I think it was in a compiklation of SNES music I used to play in background during my streams.

I like how quickly the team is forming. Got through my first boss and quite liked how the battle gauges impact the dual techs, and I actrually used my own strategy rather than having to turn to a guide.

The plot is fine so far tho I wish it gave a better taste of what, I hope, is more epic to come. This trial part just seems an unneceessary diversion to show off their "what you did earlier decides things later" feature and to use annoying circus music that I never like in RPGs.

Ah, Domes in the future giving Phantasy Star Feel.

Sheesh okay I thought I had read there's really no need to grind at all, but this Guardian boss rocking me. But I was ablet o learn my lesson: don't use Fire skills on the main Guardian, and destroy both Bits instead of doing what I read online to keep one alive

This rat-catching is a bit annoying,I'm pressing A literally up against it? Maybe it's cuz I changed what buttons do what in the menu? Yep interesting it had something to do with A being set to Warp.

It's nice that I haven't felt the urge to grind and instead been kind of enjoying the challenge of approaching bosses quite underleveled. It has frequent enough save points (plus, I can always use a savestate if it gets to that point) and makes me want to actually try to find the strategy/weaknesses/RNG rolls/try again. Nice.

Welp I had my first area I muted/turned down the TV: delving into Arris Dungeon took me a while, and tho it's not a bad tune, I don't need to hear it this many times and it has taht dungeon-y vibe I never like. But luckily a really nice serene/pensive tune came in when I returned to Doan so I forgive it :-p (And each time I got annoy4ed with a tune, interestingly specifically that one is what got to me again, it is followed up with a new, or less familiar, sentimental tune. Well-done. But it's also a bit of a trap cuz I don't want to miss a good tune, but also don't wanna keep relistening to a meh tune)

I'm liking a lot about this. Something about the music and characters/npcs is Tomba-esque like this Frog segment. I am satisfied with the gameplay and it is of very high quality for the RPG hook. However, it hasn't quite fully sunk in for me. And the plot/colors/Look/Sound don't ahve this spectacular draw wehre I can't put it down, can't wait to get to it each night, etc. It's too playful I think? And/or something about the dungeon designs? But it's very fast-paced, well-made, lots of QoL features, and I think it will grow on me. No matter what I doubt I will see this go below a 4 star.

The music adn Look for this guy is very Earthbound-y

Another negative is, their attempts at action-y parts like getting across this conveyor belt without touchingt he robots, or controlling this crane, or catching the rat are all a bit clunky, bad collision masks, and unnecessary. Oh and the racing too. But I guess that's an RPG trope, like some of the features in FFIX and FFX heh cough chocobo racing and the jump rope in FFIX. And again, there is so much to like about it: it is sooo fast-paced compared to its contemporary wtih plot gameplay and even dialog, plus so many QoL features that make it feel so nice and advanced. Maybe I just had too hgih of expectations.

The rationale for dwindling the group to 3 instead of 4 is a bit silly lol. And every one of these unnecessary "action" segments are so poorly implemented. Really tired of them... walking aroudn the room in a clockwise direction first of all, is not fun or clever or plot-relevant. And secondly, it's always glitching on me. Well not glitching but just clunkily and poorly implemented, just like all the other things like this in the game. Good thing I do really like the combay and RPG hook and the tunes mostly are good enough to keep me wanting to properly play and not just fast forward my way through to appease my RPG hook and see if the plot gets better.

And again, the Qol features just keep showing up. I love that you can equip team members who aren't currently in your team. Oh wow and you can switch on the fly. And the norm is to be teleported back/implied journey back to a place rather than havingt o always walk the way back. And everything is so smooth and fast in the menus/UI.

For the most part the combat is fast-paced and fun and well-done. But the animations do seem to bog it down. I will try again to find a setting for that.

It's all so fast-paced tho heh like we are in this whole different area of our home time, find out who made Lavos who we already know is the guy who destroys time (no huge plot twist ahead?!), and just jump into a whirlpool to get near the gate so we can go to that time to try to stop the creation of Lavos. Relatedly, as neat as it is that there are so many endings, and I assume things will complicate and get more epic, it's a bit silly you can just go to the final boss, already knowing when he destroys the world etc., right there in the End of Time place. It's a neat idea as part of the New Game Plus+ and multiple endings element but adds a certain meh-ness abuot working toward who the final boss is etc. I'm hoping for a surprise/alternative final bosses. Kk.

Hmmm I thought I was only supposed to end up at End of Time if I have 4 party members hmmm. But it's a nice way to centralize teleporting etc.

Absolutely beautiful background tho, reviving my drive now that I see a goal in mind and allegedly I'm already in mid game? (I assume/read the sidequests are bulky)

Mid Game

I was finally getting the momentum back, but it corresponded with my husband's birthday/a couple days of celebration etc. Hopefully I can get that back. Cuz otherwise this is seeming it may be a 4 star/leave it to the numbers and move on.

The forest tune continues to be a jam. But I have been fast forwarding through battles more and more and other tedious parts.

Not only do I like Ayla's way of running and talking, and the music of Prehistoric (we way back!), but also my Yia Yia named her dog Ayla after the prehistoric character in the book series Cave of the Clan Bear. Ayla has since passed away, but the name always stands out for me. Neat connection that I assume was intentional. And interesting that the Prehistoric area has a crafting mechanic like the Prehistoric area of Live A Live.

Yeah, as high of quality as this is, I am at the point where I am just tryingt og et through it. Because I'm apparently already halfway or more through, I will push through But I will be abusing Fast Forward and whatnot, except when there are new tunes. Or of course boss battles etc. Hopefully it'll properly hook me but as it is, it's just a good, well-made JRPG to me, but not spectacular or intensely hooking me a la Live A Live/FFV.

Magus' Lair is giving a mix of PC graphic adventure and Castlevania. And yesss

Ugh the Magus fight is a neat idea but would've been neater if there were better rways to discern what element he's weak to. The game continues to be not quite up to where I want it to be, and part of me keeps saying just rate it and see what it gets and move on. The other part of me says, it's not much longer and it's worth seeing if the plot gets deeper.

I lovvvve the colors and animations of the fire here

Also the top of Dactyl Rock is a great sunset/sunrise/horizon/reflection on water. At least they knew to include that aesthetc :-p And makes me want to at least watch all teh different endings via YouTube even if I don't finish the game (and lord knows I'll probly just finish it regardless)

Ok the plot got a bit more interesting after this Tyrano boss fight. Cycles perhaps?. And ooo pretty and good tune

In general this 12,000 BC era is reinvigorating me. The plotline is getting me more curious, the music is fresh feeling, and the Look is great. Oh no! And yet that's the time period that gets sealed shut? :(

In general I am rejuvenated with the game. It's getting me more curious and the plot's clearly more than what I first thought. I am excited to explore (read about) the different endings possible to get even more in-depth info after I get my own ending.

Yep the plot is definitely getting spicier (this is 2 days later than above). Very interesting how I assume dialog is different depending on who was currently in your party in these certain parts? Neat. And very nice how team members seem to get some/a good chunk? of exp from battles even when not in the team. Wheee. P.S. I love everything about Ayla

Very touching part to return home after all this. well... without him. Good music when return there. Really this is endgame but I plan to do all? most? at least my main 3 characters' sidequests. The party I've mostly used is Lucca, Ayla (love her), and Chrono of course. Nice little cutscene when we revive Chrono too.. And wow this game stays fast-paced! Just cut the cameras, back to the action and able to control your characters again haha. I've never seen a JRPG with such brief cutscenes/dialog and to-the-point mentality, definitely a huge plus for it but also a bit unsettling/different haha.

End Game

I love the way the sidequests are discussed/hinted at and presented truly and fundamentally as optional. I love the pervasive QoL features from walking around NPCs to the way grinding/leveling works (at no points did I have to grind, and it's VERY rare that I choose to learn strategies over just grinding to cheese bosses in RPGs, perhaps that's part of what made me unsure about the game, that I wasn't approaching it the usual way I approach RPGs).

So I know I could just finish the game now, but I want to do the sidequests. But I'm also not sure if I'm committed to all the sidequests, kinda like getting all the ultimate weapons in FFX. What I'm thinking is, I get the ultimate weapons for my favorite characters I plan to finish the game with (Ayla, Chrono, and Lucca... for the record I really like Frog too but never quite fit him into my team enough) and then do the Black Omen sidequest. Well, an old print strategy guide I have a copy of said the proper way is to get to Lavos from Black Omen, but now I'm reading it makes no difference for the ending. So I will treat Black Omen as optional. And oh wait duh, Ayla wouldn't have an ultimate weapon haha tho I read about how she does upgrade her weapon in a sense. So, seems plan is Sun Stone and Rainbow Shell sidequests for sure, Black Omen most likely, and all sidequests optional if still really into it/not taking weeks.

The Charm tech as a sort of Steal is a neat change to the usual trope. Still effectively the same idea heh. I sadly didn't have much drive to Charm the best items in the game and whatnot, which I only really do when reallllly into a game, and indeed even with FFV etc, I didn't get 100% of items etc. Still, a nice additional feature to explore for replayers and if this had been one of the few games I owned as a kid.

I haven't been completely thrilled with these sidequests, so I likely wont do the one I determined optional. But I do like the framing and colors and POV of this screen

Welp I'm at 45/46/47 for my main team. I got Rainbow, Prism Specs, and Prism Dress among some other real nice items. Hopefully I'm ready for Lavos then? Here goes nothing

Oh.. Ehhh a boss rush?. Not in love with any of the final boss sprites etc, but I did like my characters' sprites when they get rejuvenated at "the reveal" and I like that there is a special tune for the final boss. And lol at Marle being surprised about these characters being ancestors/descendants :-p

Good new playful music then the sentimental tune for the goodbyes.And cute cat/mom part . Hmmm I thought we agreed to go save them and destroy the Epoch, now it's over here flying around And they reused my favorite of their horizons :-p

Look: 8.5/10 Very beautiful pixel art, great colors, great world maps. I was never particularly in love with the enemy sprites but many of the settings were excellent. If there had been more sunset/sunrise aesthetic, it would've easily been 9+

Sound: 8.5/10 Love the music when riding the Epoch, love a lot of the tunes and overall it's all very high quality. Even if I didn't fall in love with the music as much as I expected with its reputation and composer, I have had several songs stuck in my head the last week haha.

Play: 8.5/10 Started with a lot of excitement, then the buildup from Zeal to Fated Hour, but burned out before Zeal and burned out during the miniquests. That being said, absolutely excellent mechanics, perfect QoL and fast-paced gameplay in terms of plot but also mechanics and menus and everything. Something very impressive about it. It is that impressiveness that boosted this from the 8 I would have likely given it considering my burnout and the bad action segments (that luckily became much less frequent in late game).

Feel: 8.5/10 This seems to epitomize the 8.5 rating apparently lol. Excellent game, couldn't help but expect to love it more but that is likely unfair for it due to a lifetime of hype and knowing its connections to favorite games of mine.

Attachment: 8.5/10 Part of me wouldn't want to deal with all the battles again, as much as I did like the battle system. But the other part of me recognizes the sheer briliance in its replayability, the fact I am watching through the other endings, the ability to do more miniquests or Charm more items etc.

Overall: 8.5/10

I picked up this game mostly because of the hype, with little prior knowledge about it. I didn’t really have high hopes, especially about the plot, because I’ve played some legendary games which weren’t all that great.

Nevertheless, Chrono Trigger managed to hit the spot for me because of its story which is lighthearted but also quite complex, despite revolving around time travel, which is a trope I usually don’t like. Luckily, the writers didn’t go for the laziest way of utilising it for the sake of building a mystery that intrigues at first and then disappoints because it’s explained by someone travelling through time. Instead, they allowed us to use it to alter course of events or to wait for things to happen, which makes the story ritcher by allowing the player to visit the world in different times, learn its history and meet characters from different ages. Time travel is not a solution to every problem in the game’s world but a way to add depth to it, while keeping it relatively small.

Throughout the travels in time and space, different characters join Chrono’s party. Each character has their own story and personality so they’re not just sidekicks and they also have unique skillsets. New skills are unlocked by gathering TP gained after fights, which are probably the least interesting aspect of the game. Chrono Trigger uses turn based combat system and employs ATB mechanics, with the twist that allows multiple party members work together if they have their ATB gauges full. In theory it is an interesting approach that could encourage careful party building but most of the time it is completely irrelevant. The game tries to make it a thing by rewarding side quests with new joint techniques but to be honest, I haven’t used a triple tech a single time in my playthrough.

Perhaps the best thing about the combat system in Chrono Trigger are boss fights. Each boss has its own gimmick that is not obvious but easy to learn on you own which is quite satisfying. Some of the regular enemies have their own things too but the regular fights are usually quite boring and even using the actual levels as battlefields cannot change it. (It’s not as groundbreaking anymore as it seems to have been in 1995.) I’m just glad there are no fights in the overworld.

The boredom brought by the combat comes to the light especially while revisiting previously visited stages. It is especially painful while completing The Lost Sanctum, which makes us go through the same stages over and over again. Despite being added in the DS release, that came out in 2008, The Lost Sanctum managed to bring back the worst features of 90s level design, as it offers a series of fetch quests with little story, that seem too tedious to be beaten without a walkthrough. Vague quest cues are an issue for most of the side quests, but in case of the Lost Sanctum and in combination with constant repetition of the same stages, they’re just unbearable. This location made me put the game aside for months, only to feel liberation when I finally decided to skip its remaining part and go for the other side quests before completing the game. Even though I needed a walkthrough for most of them, they were quite fun and learning the new bits of story was rewarding enough for me to want to complete them.

All in all, the fun story, great music and amazing pixel art make it worth to play Chrono Trigger. It’s a good game with great vibes, and a world you can feel a part of, and these features make up for the basic combat system. And it’s also not terribly long.

Let me just start off by saying this is the best game of all time, in my opinion, and it lives forever in my heart as the experience I wished the most I could forget, so I can experience this for the first time all over again, multiple times. I'm glad I never played this back in the day, because I would never enjoy the experience of not understanding the story because of the language barrier. So I ended up emulating the SNES version a few years ago, though I recommend getting the more recent versions instead, they are some good QOL improvements that are very worth having.

Chrono Trigger is, without a doubt, one of the greatest video games ever made, arguably the best of all time. From the moment you begin, the game’s masterful storytelling immediately captivates you, weaving an intricate time-traveling narrative that spans prehistoric eras, futuristic cities, and apocalyptic futures. Every character feels alive, with distinct personalities, motivations, and arcs that make you genuinely care about their journey. In my opinion, the characters are the actual standout, even though the story is the best aspect, the main cast is really the ones that carry the plot, on an insane level of charisma.

Not to mention their music themes, and the OST is simple one of the best, if not the best, out of all games that I've played, it is one of those that you save the songs to listen as a playlist, similar to Undertale or Deltarune ones too. The multiple endings give the story incredible depth and replay value, allowing each choice to leave a meaningful impact on the world. Its battle system, a revolutionary take on the active-time combat mechanic, is both strategic and fluid, with the innovative combination attacks between party members adding layers of tactical brilliance.

At first the combat may seem very simplistic, and even though it is not a very challenging game, it still manages to make the combat a very pleasant experience, with insane levels of damage combos, though don't expect a complex system such as traditional JRPG classes and equipment combinations, this is more of an adventure title dressed as a JRPG. If you think that a complex battle system is a must, such as ones seen in Chrono Cross for example, than this title won't appeal to you at all.

The visuals, crafted with charming 16-bit sprites by Akira Toriyama, remain timeless, giving each location a unique and unforgettable personality. Meanwhile, Yasunori Mitsuda’s and Nobuo Uematsu’s score is nothing short of iconic, perfectly conveying the game’s sense of adventure, wonder, and emotional weight. Even decades after its release, Chrono Trigger stands as a flawless example of what a video game can achieve, blending narrative, gameplay, music, and design into a singular, transcendent experience.

And while I admit that Final Fantasy VII was the one that made videogame become real art, outside the videogame bubble at the time, in my opinion, Chrono Trigger is the most advanced game on this regard. It's charm alone carries a heavy weight, not just from the nostalgic point of view (not to mention I've never played this back in the day anyway). For anyone who appreciates the art of gaming, it is not just a classic, it is perfection.

I have played this game multiple times but had never beaten it before until now. What a fantastic game, although I got a bit bored when there were too many consecutive battles. The last part of the game was spectacular; the number of bosses I had to fight was impressive, and that doesn't even count how amazing Lavos was, that thing was intimidating and godlike; a really good final boss, he truly instilled fear with his mere presence and had more transformations than Frieza.

How do you beat this? A 30-year-old game that no one has ever been able to replicate properly. Playing recent games that are trying to be Chrono Trigger is such an incredibly stark reminder that they don't even come close to what this is.

The Toriyama designs are perfect and translate so incredibly well to the pixel art. Even down to the expressions, they just nailed it. I really enjoyed the combat and it's a surprising amount of fun to see how much it changes depending on what your party composition is. The use of dual-techs and triple-techs often had me wondering why every other RPG after this didn't completely steal it. It makes your party feel like more of deliberate choice when you're thinking about synergies and elements, although there are large parts of the element system that feel like a bit of an after-thought.

The story is genuinely great with absolutely fantastic character writing (except for Ayla) and it consistently surprised me so much more than I expected. It's so creative and was putting me in scenarios I really couldn't believe for a game this old. The use of time travel is fantastic, the area design has an unbelievable amount of effort and love in it and with there being no random encounters and only set encounters, it makes the areas just feel so completely handcrafted and designed.

Unfortunately, that ties directly into the weakest part of it, and that's how much the game loves backtracking through these exact same areas. It's a really short JRPG with it only taking 20 hours to do the main story and every side-quest within. Of those 20 hours though, at least 5 hours of that really is just filler; nearly every side-quest is just running from screen to screen, doing the exact same set encounters over and over again. Often across multiple time periods and in many cases without any faster way to travel. It's a pervasive issue that extends to the dungeons as well. It makes exploring pretty tedious because you know if you go back to the previous screen or go off to the side, the second you come back to this screen you have to go through every single set encounter again and again. At a certain point I thought if I have to fight the slimeball and the little namekians from the opening area again I might just throw up.
It's obviously not a deal-breaker and the game is still absolutely incredible and whip-sharp, but it's a big enough pain point to knock it down from being completely timeless for me.

Still, there's not many JRPGs I've played that are as cool as Chrono Trigger is. This game smokes cigarettes and wears sick jackets, it's just cool.

This game lived up to the hype. This has been on my backlog for a longgggg time, and I feel so lucky to have finally gotten to experience this wonderful work of art.

Allow me to begin this review with a preface. I had a trip in March of this year to the UK, and had planned on starting this game during my long flight. Unfortunately (and weirdly coindicdiently) the day before I left for the UK, the news of Akira Toriyama's passing occurred. I was heartbroken. Dragon Ball is one of my favorite franchises of all time, and is the first anime I watched. I only got into anime about 4 years ago when I entered college. Dragon Ball played a vital role in my inspiration to start working out. I've worked out now for the better part of 4 years, and I owe much of my success to Dragon Ball. Anyways, since I had already planned on playing Chrono Trigger, knowing Toriyama had worked on the character designs/art for the game, it seemed like the perfect time to dive into this masterpiece. May Akira Toriyama forever live on through his art.

I'm not super familiar with JRPGs. I grew up with Pokémon and got into Fromsoft's library a few years ago, but don't have experience with traditional JRPGs like Chrono Trigger. I think this was a great one to start with. The battle system was very beginner friendly, and the systems/mechanics within the game weren't complex at all. I really enjoyed the gameplay here, but as much as I liked it, it wasn't what stuck out most to me during my time with the game.

The art here is simply phenomenal. I loved all the different worlds (time periods) and their sprite based art. The Kingdom of Zeal is what sticks out most for me when I reflect on the game (as I'm sure it does with many others). I could stare at the map of Zeal for hours. I also loved the other maps in the game, although the prehistoric map was my least favorite as it didn't seem to offer as much as the other maps (which makes sense from a narrative perspective). The end of time was a unique hub area that I really enjoyed resting at.

Enemies are designed well, and the main cast of characters are each distinct from one another. I found myself most often using Chrono and Marle, with a third rotating spot. I felt like Marle was a secondary main character in this story. I don't know why, but it felt odd not having her around in the party for the majority of the playthrough. Maybe it's the way she interacted and cared about Chrono, but I had a hard time leaving her behind on some quests. I mainly structured my party from a narrative perspective rather than who I enjoyed using the most. "Who makes the most canonical sense to bring along here?"

When we lost Chrono, the first thing I did was grab Magus (who I really enjoyed using), and then took Marle, Lucca, and Magus to Death Peak to get Chrono back. I thought it was bold to kill the main character of the story roughly 2/3rds of the way through. The reuniting scene between Marle and Chrono at the top of the mountain was touching, and a moment that sticks out during my playthrough.

The story here was pretty straight forward, but I was very engaged from beginning to end. I've heard this game be called simple for it's narrative, but I think there's more here for people than meets the eye. I'll allow others to digest and pick apart some important themes here, but one that sticks out to me is the theme of fate. Fate isn't something set in stone here in this game. That's a very simple analysis, but I'm not trying to deep dive into themes here.

One thing I must rave about here is the OST. This is one of the best OSTs I've ever heard. Yasunori Mitsuda is a genius, and to think this was some of his earliest work. Every track here evokes emotion. The overworld themes for maps like 1000 ad, 600 ad, and Zeal are amazing. Guardia Forest is tranquil. I will definitely be adding a ton of these tracks to my regularly listened to playlists.

Some of the quests were hard to figure out sometimes, as I had no idea who I needed to talk to or where to go. This only happened a handful of times, and it wasn't as bad as I make it seem. I gave up too early and had to google next steps in certain quests (mainly side quests). One part in the main story where I got stuck was when I first visited 2300 AD. I went through the entire sewers, fought the boss, and got to the Keeper's Dome. I exhausted the dialogue, but didn't get anywhere. I then tried over and over again to find a way through Death Peak. I finally gave up after hours and googled where I was supposed to go. Turns out, I'm supposed to use a ladder in Arris Dome, go down and find a seed, and then trade the key for the jetbike key to progress the story. The reason I realize this earlier was because for some reason the ladder I was supposed to use was not laid out very well for my eyes. I had no idea there was a ladder in literally the middle of the room. This was the biggest occurrence in my playthrough, but it happened a few other times (though not to this degree). I'm not sure why, or if this is a common complaint, but my eyes had trouble picking up pathways I was supposed to take. I don't think they're meant to be hidden, but I had a hard time actually seeing them sometimes. However, this game is so good, that I can overlook this and only blame myself for not looking thoroughly enough.

Play this game. It just feels like it's begging to be played by gamers every where. It's not grindy, and the pace of the story is good. I didn't get into the extra dlc events added into the DS version, but I will revisit this game on Steam one day and do the dimensional vortex event for a new ending. I'm skipping the Lost Sanctum part of the game, as I've heard too many negatives about it from others online who adore the game. I'm grateful to have finally played this game, and it coincided with a fantastic trip I took to the UK. I will always have the memories of playing through the early parts of this game while on vacation. This game was amazing, and I understand why it's often regarded as one of the greats.

• JRPG with all the standard mechanics of the genre
• Attaching characters and very compelling story, despite surprisingly little time spent in cut scenes
• Best-in-class soundtrack
• Pixel-art of uneven quality but good overall, impressive amount of details and animations
• Bosses can feel a bit unfair if you didn't bring the right party members

PC version specifically:

• The combat UI is horrible
• Even with post-launch updates, a few sprites are still suffering from ugly resampling artifacts
• Anime cut-scenes are a nice addition for key story moments (but not indispensable)

Squaresoft's passion project is as much a classic as it is a well designed jrpg, featuring just deep enough combat to be somewhat enjoyable, and a well written albeit simplistic story.

The aesthetics and soundscape are the real highlight, with an onslaught of wonderful locales and great tracks, ranging from the great intro to Corridors of Time. Areas have good background and sprite art to draw you in, and other than maybe a couple setpieces it never really gets old.

Combat is alright, better than most jrpgs but the depth ceiling is rather capped. You have to use attacks in ways that line up with where the enemy moves to, and there's some decent strategy around when to use tech points for tech attacks, but around 2/3 through the game that all falls apart. It ends up being replaced by triple techs and AoE magic (thanks Magus) that wipe the screen, and most enemies do not use weakness/resistance strategy well, so it ends up rather dull by the end.

The writing in contrast is rather well put together, with great cinematic story moments laid throughout. Even at the weaker points of Chrono Trigger's narrative did I find myself engaged, and each of the characters get some form of characterization of their own. It's not a particularly amazing story, in fact it's a rather simple time travel story, but it rounds out the cohesive experience Chrono Trigger has on offer. There are still times where the writing shines, but overall it's a thematically bare story that just generally entertains with its signature aesthetic.

While it's not what I'd call one of the best rpgs, Chrono Trigger is a delight to play and one I very well recommend. (8/10)

I'm a casual fan of RPGs and especially JRPGs. I've never made it past the first disc of Final Fantasy VII, but I love Pokémon and Persona and The Legend of Zelda. This game appealed to me because I'd heard it was unique, innovative and featured the character designs of Akira Toriyama.

I had a few false starts getting past the first hour of the game. The environment at first is very muddy, full of Earth-tones that appear a little desaturated and lifeless compared to the expressive character animations. The initial scenario of oversleeping and wandering through a fair felt a bit slow and uninteresting to me. In the beginning, the time-based battle system involved a lot more waiting around than I would have liked.

Thankfully, this time I pushed through that hour and found a game that more than deserves its legacy.

That battle system eventually grows into something that really evolves with your party and strategy. The time travel mechanic is employed in many interesting and surprising ways. And I grew attached to several of my party members and their stories, some of which were surprisingly deep for a 16-era game.

I played the Nintendo DS version (on a 3DS XL), and while I never played the original version, I enjoyed the control options and layout very much. The pace of the game and its approachable difficulty level makes it particularly well-suited for a portable console.