Chrono Trigger:
Yesterday's Future

Review by Chi Phan

Chrono Trigger was release back in the late days of the SNES days. Nintendo fans hail this as one of the system best rpgs. Like with many new rpg gamers out there who have never tried this rpg game and have heard good things about it from those that have, I was very eager to get my hands on this game when Squaresoft decide to re-release it for the Playstation as a package called FF Chronicles. Does the game live up to the hype by it's loyal fan base?? Sort of. Read on my loyal readers.

The story of Chrono Trigger starts off with the main character, Crono waking up and setting off to a festival where his friend Lucca is demonstrating one of her new inventions. While at the festival, Crono bumps to a young hyper girl name Marle. Crono and Marle then befriended one another and proceeded to attend Lucca's demonstration of her new invention together. During the demonstration, Marle volunteer to help Lucca demonstrate a machine that can teleport an individual from one pod to another pod. But instead of having a success, Lucca's new invention teleported Marle to a different timeline. The past to be exact. Crono then decided to follow Marle to help her out. Lucca shortly followed after the two once she figured out that she had created a time gateway. Like with any good Back To The Future movie, once you're in the past, things can happened that effects the future. This is the beginning of an adventure where the 3 friends travel through different timeline on an adventure. Like with any rpg game, the big bad that will eventually threaten to destroy the world is revealed during the time traveling adventures of Crono, Marle, and Lucca. The big bad of course is called Lavos. The 3 heroes soon learned that their world would soon be destroyed by a powerful being called Lavos in the distance future. Vowing to not let this happened, the 3 heroes decided to time travel to different periods to find a way to prevent the destruction of their world. Thus, you have the story and quest of Chrono Trigger. Now the story of Chrono Trigger is somewhat very short and can be slow at times but as you play along in the game, the story becomes very interesting. Now unlike the story of Chrono Cross, Trigger is a story that easier to follow and a more clear objective with better history of it's characters. Some of the small plot twists of Trigger is very interesting as they are revealed. You know about your characters and what they are set out to do. It's a story that is more clean and compact for gamers to understand. The only downside is that the story is a little too short and not in-depth enough compare to other rpgs out there.

The biggest difference between Trigger and Cross are the characters and presentation of characters. While Cross gives gamers an abundance of characters, Trigger gives us a small but strong cast of characters. Each of the characters are excellently develop with a good background to back them up. They all have a purpose in the game with an interesting story of their own. Cross on the other hands simply tries to overwhelm us with so many characters and characters that have no purpose in the game at all. Cross is a good example of why bigger doesn't mean better. I'm sure everyone has a favorite character in Trigger.

Well the game came out on the SNES system so you're not going to get any cutting edge graphics here. What you get is an excellent rendition of 16 graphics at it's best. The colors of this game are great as are the rendition of the characters and towns. Not bad for 16 bit graphics here. The game also includes anime sequences throughout the game. Now the anime sequences are drawn nicely by the guy that did Dragonball Z but the colors of the anime are kinda dull sometimes. The anime are kinda of choppy too but nothing that really effects the enjoyment of the anime. I only wish they could've gotten someone else to do the anime cause I feel like I'm watching an episode of Dragonball Z in Chrono Trigger. As 16 bit graphics goes, a big thumbs up.

Okay, another strong point about this game is the musical score. There are plenty of good tunes coming out of Chrono Trigger. While there isn't one tune that define this game, all of the game tunes are nicely done and perfect for the mood of the event that the game is currently at. Nothing more to say here except another thumbs up. One thing about the Chrono Series is that both games have excellent music.

Now the gameplay is very simple and easy. This is basically a beginner's rpg game here. Now the quest of the game for the most part is straightforward where you go from one destination to another fighting bosses and leveling up. Now there are times during the game where you have no clue as to where to go next or in need of stronger clues. Like with any good time traveling game, you're going to need to do some time traveling from one era to another in search of key items or to move onto the storyline. Fights with enemies are very easy and simple. Most bosses are also simple as well with a few bosses but those bosses can be easy as well if you know the right strategy to use to fight them. Overall an easy rpg game. Now the battle system is pretty much like other rpg games. You have 3 main party members for fights with 3 or 4 back up fighters. You can switch party members anytime except during battles. All battles are turn base in either active time battle mode or wait time battle mode. In active battle mode, the enemies can attack you even if you haven't selecting an action for your fighter to do while wait time battles, the enemy will wait until you make a selection. Like with any traditional rpg game, you gain level from experience points. In Trigger, the game uses tech points as well as experience points. Tech points are just like experience points but they go towards your fighters special tech & magic attacks. Each character comes with his/her own elemental magic. Your magic will level up as you gain the required tech experiences points. The same can be said for special tech attacks. Each character has his/her own special individual tech attack. As you gain more tech skills attack, each fighter can learn duel to triple tech attacks that involve their teammates. What duel or triple tech attacks that a fighter can learn is base on what techs each characters have and what characters are their teammates during battles. Other than the tech skills, this game is pretty basic old school rpg game. Back when this game first came out, this game can be called cutting edge but in today's rpg world, Chrono Trigger gameplay is outdated, simple, and too easy. Something that only old school rpger can truly enjoy. The bad thing about the gameplay is the loading time for this game. I can't really fault the loading time too much as this game was never made for the playstation to begin with. The loading time maybe annoying at first but after spending some major time on the game, you tend to forget about it or adapt yourself to the loading time.

In terms of extras and replay value, this game got it to the max. First there are over 10 different endings with 2 new endings for the Playstation version. With the game being so short, this is an added plus feature. Once you finish a game you can start a new game+ mode where all of your weapons, items and characters stats will be carried over making the game even more easier. But the objective here is to try and beat the final boss as early as possible to get the various different endings. Second, there are side quests in the game that you can do as well as finding small little secret items/weapons for your characters in the game. The side quests alone can add an extra 4 hours to the game. Another thing that this game gives you is an extra option mode at the START screen. In the extra option mode, you can load up and view all the anime sequences once you beat the game. You can listen to all the musical tunes in the game as well. This game definitely gives you your worth of extras and replay. Score: 10/10 My closing statement. When you hear all the faithful loyal followers of Chrono Trigger saying that Chrono Trigger is the best rpg game out there, you tend to expect the game to be just that but the fact is this game isn't the best rpg game out there. Oh it's a good rpg game all right and can be rank among one of the good rpg game but with so many good rpgs out there, Chrono Trigger gets lost in the shuffle. That's the problem when you have so many good rpgs. The problem with most fans is that they get confused between personal favorite with best rpg game. I personally think Star Ocean 2 is the best rpg out there but it's not really my personal favorite. That's not to say that I don't like Star Ocean 2 cause I have to like it alot inorder to think it's the best rpg out there. But when I think about personal favorites, I think about Suikoden series and the Shining Force series. Both of these series have a warm place in my heart that Star Ocean 2 doesn't. So when you hear someone says that Chrono Trigger is the best rpg of all time then keep in mind that it's their personal favorite rpg and that they confuse it with best rpg game of all time. Is there really an rpg that is the best rpg game of all time? Maybe. But it's not Chrono Trigger. That's for sure. Final Score: 9/10 Time to complete: about over 20 hours Difficulty: Easy to medium. Favorite character: Anya Least favorite character: Lucca Character that need more spotlight: Cyrus Most useful skill: Heal Beam Favorite tech: Dino Tail Long end boss fight: Hell yeah! Also try: Chrono Cross

STORY A good story with some interesting plot revelations. Could be longer and more in-depth. Didn't explain too much about the role that Cyrus played or why Magus wanted to kill humans.	8
CHARACTERS Excellent characters and presentation of characters. All are developed nicelys.	9
GRAPHICS One of the best use of 16 bit graphics around. Should be considering it's one of the last games for the SNES.	9
MUSIC Excellent music throughout the game. A very strong part of this game. Could be the best part of the game.	10
GAMEPLAY Simple but fun. Lots of great tech skills to be learn. Downside is that it can be a little too easy for the rpg pros out there. The loading time can be very annoying at times.	8
EXTRAS/REPLAY Awesome selection of extras feature on this game. From sidequests to the extra special modes for fans to view and select. Replay value is just as good with so many different endings.	10