chronoreview

When Chrono Trigger came in 1995 it was one of the most
eagerly awaited games of the year. Even before the game had
actually began to shape up the japanese press made a big fuss
about the 3 big legends working on this "dream project":
Hironbu Sakaguchi (the producer of all the Final Fantasy
games), Akira Toriyama (Designer of the Dragon Quest -series
and the creator of the in Japan hugely popular Dragonball
phenomenon) and Yuji Horii (The author of the Dragon Quest
series).
ow let's see hot this hugely hyped RPG stands up to the rock hard competition from other great RPGs
like Final Fantasy 6 (Final Fantasy 3 outside Japan), Secret of Mana and Zelda 3.

The Fights
I was pleasently surprised by Chrono Trigger when I first tried it. I really like RPGs, but the Final
Fantasy type text based fighting systems that most RPGs uses can become a tad bit too reptitive and
complex after a while and that's why Chrono Trigger appeal to me. Active Time Battle 2.0 is the fancy
name of this rather unique battling system which is a mix of the Final Fantasy type system and the Secret
of Mana fighting system.

When it's time to battle a menu appears displaying your teams HP and MP etc and the battle begins.
Just like in FF3 you have a little bar that must be filled until you can attack. Even though you own
fighters mostly stands still when fighting the enemies can move around practically the whole screen.

No more invisble enemies...
One other thing that tend to get rather annoying in some RPGs is the "invisible enemy concept". You can
stroll around in a cave when, without a warning the screen changes and you must fight some invisible
enemy that attacked you... Again when Squares constructed
Chrono Triggers somehow they must have heard my prayers
because now you actually SEE all the enemies walking
around the dungeons and you can choose approach them or
not (Many times there is no way of escaping battles). Here
Square has added some nice touches to the concept:
Enemies sometimes enters the scene in the most imaginative
ways. A example: Once when you're walking around inside
a big castle and approaches a staircase an enemy spots you
and calls for his two friends who comes comes riding down
the banisters. What an entrance!

Magic!
Chrono Trigger is a ground breaking game in many ways and the magic system hasn't been left
untouched in any way. As asual, all the persons in you party have their own set of magics or "Techs" as
they are called in this game. These techs are fine indeed but you won't come near serious destruction
power until you learn to combine different persons tech in Dual or even Tripple Techs. These attacks
are devestating but also takes magics from all two or three magicians at the same time so watch that
MP...

The Story
Okay enough of the fights, let's go over to another essential part of an RPG, the story.
Here Chrono Trigger also differs from Squares other RPGs. When the Final Fantasy games often has a
very dark, moody and grand openings/intros here the games start with Chrono, the hero of the game
wakes up in his bed at home, takes farewell of his mom and goes out to look at the festival that has been
arrenged in his village. You can now control Chrono and go around and play different games at the
festival. Soon you'll bump into Marle (who in fact is the princess of the Kingdom who has run away
from home tired of the boring life as a princess) who asks you to show her around. After a while you
will decide to go and see the latest of your best friend Lucca's invention, a teleporter. When Marle tests
the teleporter the amulet she is wearing affects the machine and she is sent back in time. Chrono doesn't
doubt a second to follow her back in time and try to rescue her.

When Marle arrives at her hometown in 600 e.kr (400 years before her time) she is mistaken for being
the Queen who had been abducted by some evil monsters earlier. Because of this, they stop searching
for the real Queen (Who in fact is a distant ancestor of Marle) because they
believe that Marle is their Queen.

Now when the real Queen isn't going to be rescued she will not be able to
give bith to any "baby-princess" either, and Marle will never be borned at all
(since she is distant child to the Queen)!
Now Marle is affected by the "back-to-the-future-syndrom" and simply
ceases to excist (see picture to the right). Now Chrono must rescue the
Queen to stop Marle from not being born...

This is the beginning of Squares best RPGs ever, which's
brilliant storyline holds many surprises for the player. The
story is also as in most of Squares RPGs very touching and
thorough and holds the playing an a firm grip not letting him
stop playing... I even missed the most parts of the Final in
the Soccer World Cup this summer because of this game!!

The game holds much resemblance to the brill Sci-Fi movies
Back to the Future. For Example you remeber when Biff,
after McFly has been in the old wild west and beat the crap
out of Biff's distant ancestor there, suddenly has changed
from being an annoying bully to a complete "neard" who
even washes McFly's car for free!... Well this same thing happen with one of the bad guys in the game
and it is hystericaly fun and MUST be experinced. The moment when you first see him do the washing
up at the Mayor's house in the village that he before had terroized is one of the best moments I have
ever experienced in a videogame ever!

The Music
The Music is also great, almost in the same league as the tunes in FF6! I especially like the intro song
and it happens that I start the game just to hear the great intro song once more. In other words, the
music is also rather neat.

Overall
Chrono Trigger is a must buy for every serious RPF fan especially for those who like me just can't stand
the boring and repetitive fights of the Final Fantasy games! The only bad thing I can come up with is that
I may be a little bit to short. It's not very short and will take many days of intense playing to complete
and with over 10 different endings it will keep you occupied for some time but if you compare it to Final
Fantasy 6 (which is HUGE) it's rather short