Chrono Trigger Review

Chrono Trigger is consider one of the greatest RPGs ever made and it pretty much is

This pic is inaccurate. Marle didn't cast fire nor Heckran was in the ice ages.

The game is about time travel. It starts with a princess falling into a blue portal and the main hero follows her into the portal and lands in the middle ages.

After rescuing her and having a few more adventures, the real plot of the game is revealed. The heroes travel into the future of 2300 AD. There they out the world is a wasteland because in the year 1999 AD, a monster called Lavos bust out of the planet's crust and rain down fire on the entire planet. Our heroes made it their main goal to travel through time and to learn about and defeat the mysterious being know as Lavos.

This is the cast of Chrono Trigger. A very colorful group of people from different time periods. You got the silent protagonist, Chrono. The rebellious princess dressed as a commoner, Marle. The inventor Lucca. The medieval knight turned Frog... well Frog.(You learn his real name later on). The cave woman Ayla, and the metal powerhouse Robo.

Another character to point out is this mysterious dark character named Magus who may or may not have a connection to Lavos. 

If you haven't notice, they resemble Dragonball characters. That's because the designer for the characters was the guy behind Dragonball. Most people were unaware back in the Super Nintendo days because they were 16-bit sprites and it was hard to tell. When the game got re-released in PS1 and Nintendo DS, they did have animated cartoon cutscenes where you see a red-hair samurai Goku attacking monsters. It became more obvious then.

Gee, it be funny to see that some bias anime hater or bias Dragonball hater who was a big fan of this game find out about the character designs. Also to point out, the Dragon Warrior games who had the same designer. However  the earliest games had their covers and manuals heavily redrawn to be "Americanize". This was years before Pokemon/Sailor Moon/Gundam made anime popular in America. No, I never played Dragon Warrior but knew some people who did.

There are multiple time periods to explore the world of Chrono Trigger. You explore the battle of the fittest between humans and reptites in 65 million BC. Explore the icy surface world and a magical kingdom floating in the sky in 12,000 BC(This was sort of like Atlantis), the medieval war between humans and mystics in 600 AD, the peaceful present of 1000 AD, or the post apocalyptic world of 2300 AD.

The BC/AD calendar doesn't make sense in the world of Chrono Trigger. Christianity does't seem to be established in this world. It seems the calendar change it's date from the founding of Guardia Kingdom, meaning it should be BG/AG instead.

One thing that's unique to the gameplay of Chrono Trigger is you got the ability to combine attacks called double techs and triple techs. You can have characters perform powerful attacks on your foes and have fun experimenting on which combo abilities your character has.

The graphics is good for it's time and the music of this game is very very memorable. Speaking about the music, Robo's theme sounds alot like Rick Astley's Never Give You Up.

I'm not joking, listen to the music.

At a certain point 3/4 in the game, you have access to several sidequests. They are there to help resolved left over storylines and wrap up your characters story arcs. They also help give your characters the best weapons and armor.

Chrono, your main leader your stuck with is the best character to play. He's great with strength and magic. 

Frog is sort of a "Red Mage". He has a descent fighter, healer, and magic caster. 

Lucca is your "Black Mage", she has powerful magic, especially late game.

Robo is good with his attacks and techs. Sadly, he and Lucca are the slowest in the game, so give them your speed tabs if you want to use these guys.

Marle is..well not the best. She has a few descent spells and healing but others surpass her.

Ayla is a powerhouse. She has the best strenght in the game. She uses her fist, means she doesn't have a weapon to equip. If your characters are captue in the Blackbird, having her will prevent you from going all playing stealth on the plane.

And the rest of the article with have spoilers. You been warned.

At one point, Chrono dies in the game. You can revive him by going through a sidequest. It's still optional and you can beat the game without him.

You do encounter Magus after Chrono's death and you have the option to either fight Magus to the death or recruit him.

Magus is a great magic caster in the game. Sadly, he gets recruited at late game and you have to level up his character to get his more powerful spells. He also can't do duel and triple techs unless you find these rare colored rocks hidden in the game.

The game has multiple endings. You have different endings depending if you revive Chrono or not. Also if you recruited Magus or not. If you do kill him, Frog be back to human form in the end.

There are multiple ways to get to Lavos. You can use the bucket at the End of Time to time travel and go straight to Lavos. Use the Epoch(your flying time machine), to ram through Lavos' armor and fight his core. The last one is going on the Black Omen, a floating fortress controlled by Magus; power hungry mother who awakens Lavos after defeating her. The different way you get to Lavos will effect the ending of the game.

After beating the game, you get access to New Game+. This will make you replay the game but with the same levels, items, and stats you had at the end of the game. You have the option to attack Lavos from 1000 AD. Depending where you are at in New Game+, after defeating Lavos you have access to a exclusive ending. Some are funny, some are boring, some show cool events. There's one ending where Chrono talks for once. If you beat the game with only Chrono and Marle at the very beginning, you get access to the developer's ending where you can talk to the makers of the game.

The PS1 version did come with an animated ending. It sort of sets up Chrono Cross. I would not recommend that version because it seems famous Squaresoft SNES games end up with terrible loading times.

The DS version has a bonus dungeon and a different ending that ties in more the Chrono Cross.

Well I hope you guys enjoy this game. I recommend it if your into RPGs.