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So I do a thing on my stream called RPG Night. I hang out with my friends and play RPGs and we all do silly voices as I play. We usually try to 100% the games, and get a mastery (though some games make that very hard, lookin’ at you FF7). I’ve done lots of games already for this. But this one is special. This GAME is special. Chrono Trigger has the distinction of being probably the best RPG ever made. I do not say that lightly, and I’ve played a lot of games trying in vain to find any others that could topple it. Some come close. But none succeed. I feel like a sheep saying this, but yes, Chrono Trigger is essentially infallible. I’ve played it several times in my life, and each time, I’m kind of blown away.

So if you come into my reviews with NO knowledge, somehow, of Chrono Trigger, sit down and buckle up. I’ll give a brief review.

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Chrono Trigger was an RPG made by Squaresoft in 1995, at the end of the SNES’ library, and it’s basically a sendoff of the console. All the biggest minds at Square at the time basically converged to make this one game. A lot of Final Fantasy people especially, which makes sense, because at one point this was slated to be a Final Fantasy game. FF5, I think? The SNES era of FF is nuts with stuff like that. There were like, 4 RPGs that were at one point going to be a Final Fantasy game that did not end up being a Final Fantasy game, or got cancelled. Anyways, it had a lot of people working on it. Three directors, most namely Sakagushi, the lead FF guy. Four different writers, most namely Yuji Horii, the creator of Dragon Quest. Four artists, most namely Akira Toriyama. And two composers including Yasunori Mitsuda, most famously, in his first actual composition role, instead of just sound effects. This game would rightfully launch him. Oh, I’ll get into the music later.

So yeah, this team was internally known as “The Dream Team”, which is very funny. It was the super group of JRPG teams. But could they live up to their hype? Uh, yes. Fuck yes, they could.

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In Chrono Trigger, you play as a young man named Crono. All of the characters are like, 17-19, which sets it apart from a lot of other RPGs where the characters are 13 year olds fighting God. Anyway, Crono lives in a pleasant Fantasy Kingdom in the year 1000AD, near his childhood friend Lucca, a brilliant inventor. It’s the Millenial fair, and you decide to go visit! While there, you bump into a young woman who calls herself Marle, and she asks you to show her around the fair. The two of you have a good time, then visit Lucca’s show, where she’s showing off a teleporter she made. However, the teleporter goes wrong, reacting to Marle’s necklace, and she’s sent into the portal, disappearing to somewhere. You pick up the necklace she dropped and hop right in after her to rescue her, sending yourself back 400 years, into your kingdom’s past, to the middle ages.

This is a time travel story that sends you aaaalll over the place. This game can kinda be described as a bunch of smaller stories and plot points that converge on one singular main point and plot. Like, you go back in time and find out that Marle, your time’s princess, was mistaken for this time’s princess. Unfortunately this causes a paradox, because they stopped looking for THEIR time’s princess, and Marle ceases to exist. You have to go rescue the REAL princess before something bad happens to her! Or later on, where you’re going back in time to prehistory to find a valuable rock that doesn’t exist anymore. After partying with the local people, your time travel device is stolen by local reptile people, and you need to get it back. Stuff like that, that’s all connected by one singular thing, and that’s Lavos. Most of you probably already know what Lavos is but I don’t want to spoil it for those who don’t.

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Chrono Trigger to me, is characterized by its utterly fantastic writing, story, and characters, and the vibrant and beautiful world that it takes part in, which you feel you NEED to save. There are 7 major characters, and one of the game’s major flaws is you can only use 3 of them, because ALL of them are good and you’ll like all of them by the end. You’ll use all of them by the story’s end, as some are required for different points in the story, but by the end my main party was Crono, Marle, and Ayla for this playthrough. I usually use Lucca or Robo, but I wanted to give Ayla some love this time. Anyways, I seriously can’t overstate how well crafted this game is.

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But how’s the GAMEPLAY? Chrono Trigger uses a typical ATB battle system, which was very common place at the time, where everyone in a battle has gauges that fill up based on a speed stat, and then once it fills up, they can move. It’s semi-turn based, in that way. On top of that, Chrono Trigger has a system for proximity. Enemies and characters are on the field, and enemies will wander around. Their attacks, and your’s, will vary based on how close the target of their attacks are. You also have special tech attacks that care about things like proximity, or even attacking in a straight line. While it’s still, at its heart, a traditional JRPG combat system, it’s one of the more engaging ones from its time period. I tend to find combat systems from this era to be a bit dull, and often mash through them without thinking, and that can happen a bit in Chrono Trigger, but it’s okay, not everything can be Panzer Dragoon Saga. I’ve often said if there was a game with PDS’s combat system and Chrono Trigger’s story and characters, it would be the best game ever made.

Oh, and of course, I’d be remiss if I didn’t talk about the soundtrack. This was Mitsuda’s first actual soundtrack he worked on, and it is fucking fantastic. In my opinion he’ll outdo himself soon with Chrono Cross, the best video game soundtrack of all time, but seriously, this one is so good. It’s so good it coined a term called “The Mitsuda Lick” which I hear people talk about legitimately during musical discussion. Here, have a cover of some really damn good music to close out this review.

All together, Chrono Trigger is the real deal. I know public consensus says its one of the best games ever made, and so people go “pff, public consensus is always wrong, it can’t be that good”. I get it. I can be a bit of a hipster too. I JUST mentioned Panzer Dragoon Saga in the last paragraph for fuck’s sake, I LOVE my obscure shit no one cares about. But no, Chrono Trigger is actually really that good. Public consensus got it right. If you’ve never checked out Chrono Trigger, I highly advise you to. It’s worth at LEAST a try.