Chrono Trigger, a retrospective Review

1995, 2008 Squaresoft, SquareEnix.

 

Reviewed by Tim. S

Chrono Trigger.... The name itself invokes grand visages of transcending aeons in a single bound; leaping boldly through time and space in an attempt to right the many wrongs of history, and perhaps learning a little something about life’s greater meaning along the way. This is not only one of the Super Nintendo’s greatest titles ever, it’s also one of the greatest games ever made. That fact simply cannot be overstated, as complete top condition copies of Chrono Trigger command insanely high prices on online auction sites with even plain, average condition cartridges still demanding a respectable sum.

Now, living in a PAL territory has meant that I was denied the privilege of this 16-bit masterpiece as a child, so if it wasn’t for the miracle of emulation, I’d have never experienced the phenomenon that is Chrono Trigger as a teenager. I played this game completely, from beginning to end. I laughed, I cried, and by the end of it I’d walked away feeling a little richer as a human being.

Even though that was only eleven years ago, it feels like aeons have passed since then; much like the characters in the game itself, I’d gone through time, learning much about life, about people, growing stronger, wiser and smarter. I had figured out much about life, relationships and the world. I too had laughed and cried, experienced joy, pain, suffering and loss. I’d all but forgotten about the magic that was the Chrono Trigger experience, and the thought of ever doing a complete playthrough was a distant thought at best, until…

One day, on a whim I plugged ‘Chrono Trigger’ into an online auction site, and after flicking through a couple of listings, I laid eyes on the unthinkable…

Not pictured: Common sense by Nintendo standards

Yes, it’s exactly what it looks like. Somewhere, the gods of Nerdism have smiled upon me and blessed us with a PAL reproduction cartridge of Chrono Trigger (this package also included a reprinted Chrono Trigger box, while the print was high quality the cardboard itself felt a little soft). The cartridge itself is painted black with what feels like high quality paint, while a lovingly recreated PAL version sticker adorns the frontage of the cartridge. But the all important question is, does it work? You bet it does! This bad boy fired on the first pop, and it works just as well as any NTSC original I’ve laid hands on.

The signs were all there, the time was right, as if The Entity itself beckoned me from beyond the 16-bit visage, because it knew as well as I did that somewhere in that binary storm, somewhere in the cycles of that 65c816 processor lied a part of me, a piece of my soul crystalised within its grey plastic exterior. Yes, I had returned, the prodigal son to his rightful lineage. I had returned to finish something I’d begun before time itself.

From the heavenly melodies played through the SPC700’s modulation matrices, I’d known I’d stepped back into a time long gone; a time when life made sense, a time before HDMI, before enormous flat-screen LCD and Plasma televisions dominated living rooms, a time before ADSL, a time when Windows 95 brought us into the realm of consumer-level accessibility for computing, and the flame that was DOOM burned harder and brighter in the hearts of gamers worldwide than any computer game before it.

Yes friends, this was a turbulent time indeed. The 80’s were gone and the 90’s had ushered in a strange, scary new world of gaming. There was however, a sense of optimism. After the video game crash of ’83, questions were raised as to whether this fledgling industry could ever succeed, but by 1985 just as the prophecy foretold, a savior would rise from the ashes and bring justice to the world. That savior was Nintendo with its revolutionary home console, the Nintendo Entertainment System, which ushered in a new golden age of videogaming glory. Nintendo’s impact was unparalleled, as it spanned the globe from East to West touching lives, hearts and wallets on its way through with its memorable library of what would become timeless classic videogaming series such as Super Mario Bros, Metroid, The Legend of Zelda and Contra.

With the advent of rival Sega’s 16-bit console, the Genesis (or Mega Drive here in PAL-land) questions were raised if Nintendo could recapture its magic and deliver another stellar console gaming experience. A few months before Christmas 1991, buoyed by the success of its predecessor, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System hit stores across the USA, and would go on to sell over 20 million units there. Despite a relatively small library of launch titles, these titles (including Super Mario World, F-Zero and Pilotwings) would go on to receive high critical and commercial acclaim, and continue to hold legacies of their own. Shockwaves from the impact of Nintendo’s ashen juggernaut would be felt for years well beyond its life span; its legacy no better illustrated than through the prolific emulation culture that spawned shortly after the release of the successor to the SNES – the Nintendo 64, which officially ushered in the first era of three-dimensional console gaming.

However, the world of gaming never forgot the Super Nintendo, and its iconic association with the decade known as the 90s. This console was synonymous with so many elements of childhood; the school holidays, going to rent out a game from the video shop, having a friend come over to play through the game with you while you gorged yourselves on popcorn and chocolate. You’d occasionally take a break to watch Star Wars on VHS, then maybe go ride bikes somewhere together because your mum would hassle you about how “it’s so nice outside”. I think a little of our simpler times of life are captured somewhere within this console’s pallid exterior. Even now, I find myself engaging in lengthy conversations with others who also reminisce over their Super Nintendo collections they held in their youth about our favourite games, memories and other bits of retrospective banter.

Sure, maybe I’m living in the past a little here, but compared with the predictable cookie-cutter triple –A Call of Duty titles we have today, I find stepping back in time to be so refreshing- being able to step back to an era when games stimulated our imagination without the use of super-poly count modelling, anti-aliasing and antistropic filtering. A time where imagination was everything, when we didn’t need HDMI graphics or 5.1 surround sound to have fun. A time when developers took risks and we loved them for it.

In lieu of that major digression, we enter Chrono Trigger. Returning to this title after so long effectively opened a timewarp in my living room; I was sucked back in time to simpler days; indeed, the chunky font adorning the game’s dialogue, and its unique style of letterboxing was definitely something designed to suit the optimal screen displays of the time- CRT televisions that sat on the opposite end of the room to you.

I also dropped my keys in there

 

Speaking of displays, let’s talk about the graphics of Chrono Trigger. By 16-bit standards, the visuals of this game are nothing short of masterfully crafted beauty.  Each era has its own unique visual style and colour scheme, so revisiting the same locations even in different eras always feels fresh and appropriate. Going back to prehistoric times yields rugged mountain ranges, lush primitive forests and fiery volcanic terrain. The dark ages presents a dialectic clash between a ‘washed-out’-looking, perpetually stormy and hostile ‘earth world’ against a serene, halcyon ‘sky world’ occupied by the Enlightened. The middle ages shares similarities with the present, though replacing much of the brickwork and textiles with earthy wood tones. The post-apocalyptic future is appropriately bleak and hostile, featuring a dead, desolate grey landscape populated with the decaying ruins of former metropolitan superstructures, rusted and filthy survivor hideouts and hostile factory grounds.

Each era has its own unique art style

  

Aside from the brilliantly constructed ambience, the sprite art and character designs are delightfully detailed; Freelance artist Akira Toriyama, best known for his work designing the characters of Dragonball Z is responsible for the character art and design; the animations look superb for the 16-bit machine, even showing off detailed shadow rendering coupled with each character’s animation frames. The enemies are also equally detailed and the boss fights are truly a spectacular sight. Chrono Trigger also sports some amazingly rendered cutscenes; notably a scene showing Frog unveiling the power of the Masamune sword, another scene showing the arrival of Lavos on the planet, and a truly spectacular scene showing (should the player choose to) flying (and crashing) the time machine right through the outer shell of the final boss. However, my guiltiest visual pleasure with Chrono Trigger comes from the amazing spellcasting animations. The real magnitude of power you wield within the sorceries you command is perfectly captured, as you get a full sense of the destructive forces held at your fingertips. Overall, Chrono Trigger absolutely pushes the envelope of the humble 16-bit hardware to new levels, and it looks absolutely beautiful for it. Speaking of beautiful…

Chrono Trigger features one of the most breathtaking soundtracks not just of any Super Nintendo game, but of any game ever made. Primarily penned by Yasanouri Mitsuda with contributions from veteran Final Fantasy composer Nobou Uematsu, Chrono Trigger features music, and indeed a soundscape of utmost dynamism, emotion and texture. From the opening scene’s depiction of grand, sweeping landscapes, dramatic battle sequences and transcendence of time and space, you are accompanied by a grand, sweeping orchestral piece that feels as if it’s warping the very fabric of time and space around you. From the outset of the game, as Chrono awakes to the call of his mother, we’re accompanied by a warming major scale composition. Venturing through the Guardia Forest brings a calming, low-tempo melodic piece that you’d probably want on your iPod next time you go bush walking. When exploring the stygian ruins of the post-apocalyptic future, you’re accompanied by a slow, unsettling choir piece with a low, menacing bass line. And with a mournful recollection, or the heart-rending scene of Chrono’s team returning to his mother (who can’t find the heart to tell her the truth of his demise), a tragic minor melody lead plays over gentle strings while we struggle to figure out just WHY he had to die like that. There’s something truly special in the soundtrack to Chrono Trigger, and to anyone who hasn’t played the game, or hasn’t the time to play the game then I strongly urge you to pick up the music; it’s as timeless as the emotions they conjur. There’s also the legendary retrospective easter egg in Robo’s theme… Well, just have a listen and see if you can figure it out.

One of the revolutionary aspects of Chrono Trigger’s gameplay came from its combat engine; unlike the majority of previous Squaresoft RPGs (the Final Fantasy series), battles are not random occurances that take place in a combat subscreen, but the enemies appear as visible, moving sprites on the screen; upon contact with an enemy sprite the party will be engaged in a turn-based battle that take place upon the ground you currently occupy (similar to the live action battles of Squaresoft's recent hit, Secret of Mana). This feature opens up the opportunity for creative attack patterns; certain ‘Tech’ attacks will hit all enemies on a straight line, others will strike all enemies within a certain radius of the character, and others will hit absolutely everything irrelevant of other factors.

Also known as the 'Every-freakin-thing Dies' button

  
The skills division between the playable characters is precisely fine tuned; Chrono (who leads your party for most of the game) is essentially an all-rounder with powerful physical attacks, average-strength Lightning-based magical attacks and decent speed and defenses. 

His present-era female cohorts Marle and Lucca aren’t as physically tough, fast or defensive as he is, but still hold their own in combat with powerful magic skills in Water and Fire magic respectively, as well as other powerful offensive and defensive Techs/magic. 

Hailing from the post-apocalyptic future is Robo, featuring powerful physical attacks, strong defense and though not very fast, he wields a wide variety of techs, with some sufficing as Shadow magic, while others rely on brute force. 

From all the way back in Prehistoric times comes the Ioka village chief Ayla; she is, hands-down the toughest character in the game with her strength, speed and endurance stats maxing out before anyone else’s. However, as the classic ‘brawler’ character, she has no magical capacity and all her Techs rely on brute force. 

Finally from the Middle Ages, hail the medieval hero Frog, and his arch-nemesis Magus. Whether Magus joins your party or not is something you will get to decide later in the game (though there’s no reason not to, unless you’re after a specific ending, but we’ll get into that later). Frog fares closely to Chrono in terms of combat stats- he’s strong with good physical attacks, decent magical defense and offense, relatively quick, and in possession of Water-based magic. 

Finally, Magus offers genuine Shadow magic to the party, and is an immensely powerful asset in battle with powerful spellcasting abilities, strong physical attacks, powerful defense and good protection from magic, though his major drawback is in not having any naturally occurring double or triple-Techs to utilize with the other party members.

The combination of characters you choose in your adventuring line-up will lead to unlocking new abilities known as “double techs” or “triple techs”- these are Tech-moves that require two or more members of your combative line-up to be ready to attack. They’re immensely powerful attacks that combine the attributes of both for either devastating damage to the enemy, or powerful healing assets on your team.  In the interest of unlocking all tech combinations it’s generally good practice to mix things up with your active line-up; fortunately this is made super-easy by having a single-button push to take you to a line-up screen where, at any point in the game you can swap out your line-up for any of the other heroes who sit idly by at the End of Time, waiting for you to summon them. 

While idle players still receive experience points won from battles, they will not receive any ‘Tech points’, which contribute towards the learning of new skills and magic spells. Additionally, certain events will only occur when a particular character is present in your party, and some NPCs are more responsive to some characters than others. The constant growth your characters experience and the new skills they gain really helps keep the experience fresh throughout (even if you "Tech-level-crunch" like I did at points, you’ll still need to be creative in your application of said Techs, and in figuring out effective double and triple-Techs).

In terms of the worlds you explore, and dungeons you crawl, it all feels very nicely paced- Presuming you level up at a steady rate, and don’t level-grind or avoid combat, you’re likely to have a challenge that grows stronger as you do; the enemies become more powerful and the bosses more threatening. 

There are points where the game’s direction feels a little cryptic, and you’re sometimes unsure of what to do next or where to go. Even with the Guru of Time acting as a guide, he’s not always as clear on things as to what modern gaming has accustomed us to come to expect. However, I personally find this somewhat refreshing- Video games today seem to really hold your hand from beginning to end, pointing out exactly the path you’re expected to take, showing you every pick-up and power-up along the way, and leaving you with a false sense of achievement. And if you slip? Don’t worry, there are check-points every five seconds. 

So you can safely suffer obliteration

  
There’s none of that here; the directions are minimal and sometimes cryptic, so when you figure it all out, you actually feel like you’ve earned that kick-ass sword. The game also feels accommodating to these moments, as most dungeons aren’t more than three or four screens long, so getting lost is next to impossible, and even with larger and more complex areas (like Mt. Woe) you’ll usually be supplemented with a Save space, so you’re never too far from a chance to put it down and pick it up again later.

In terms of replayability, Chrono Trigger is indeed a rare case in the history of Role Playing Games, in offering players several reasons to replay the game, thirteen reasons in-fact! Chrono Trigger offers players thirteen possible endings, depending on at which point you choose to fight the final boss. 

Naturally, on your first playthrough your characters will be too weak to make any real difference in a premature boss fight, but after your first successful completion of the game, you’ll be offered a “New Game+” mode where you can begin a new game while all your stats and equipment from a designated save file are rolled over. 

Who'd have thought the end of all existence could be so placid?

 The only real reason to do this is to see all the possible endings, as most of the game will be an absolute push-over with your overly leveled-up characters and equipment (for instance, on your first playthrough, one particular boss fight plays out as a scripted loss; if you’re able to defeat him in “Newgame+” mode, a new ending will resound). 

In saying that, the first playthrough feels very nicely paced in terms of difficulty; if you’ve been paying attention to your equipment load-out and what the shops are offering, you ought to be pretty well equipped to deal with whatever threats come your way. But don’t expect Chrono Trigger to hold your hand throughout- You’ll occasionally be tossed hints and tips on what to do, but at the end of it all it’s up to you to put all the pieces together.

In a larger sense, Chrono Trigger’s true replay value is something that transcends beyond the plethora of endings it offers; this is a game worth coming back to every few years, so you may re-envisage life in a simpler time, re-live those timeless memories, and those valuable lessons you learned. Because in the world of Chrono Trigger, much like life itself, time is fleeting, and at the end of the day all you have are those wonderful memories.