RPG Diary

Chrono Trigger

Chrono Trigger is a pretty legendary game. It was created by a "dream team" of people who worked on both Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, the two most famous RPG series of the time. (Ironically, the companies behind these two franchises would end up merging 8 years later.) I've finished Chrono Trigger multiple times already, but playing both Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest recently made me want to play this one again.

Title	Chrono Trigger
Year	1995
System	SNES
Developer	Square
Publisher	Square

Despite all the hype about the dream team, in my opinion the game feels overwhelmingly more like a Final Fantasy than a Dragon Quest. (I guess this makes sense, since it is a Square game.)

Chrono Trigger is a very story-driven RPG with fast pacing and minimal side quests to distract you. The time travel plot device is well written, and there are some good surprises along the way. There is also a good balance of humor between the more serious moments. The game can be beaten in about 20 hours, which I found very refreshing compared to more recent games which can easily take 80+ hours to finish.

Combat uses the famous ATB system first introduced in Final Fantasy IV. However, Chrono Trigger adds a few improvements to this. First, positioning is important because techs may have AoE. The player cannot move the party characters, but many enemies are frequently moving around during battle. Second, when 2 or 3 party members have full ATB bars, they can act simultaneously to use double or triple techs. These techs can be much stronger or use different elements than regular single techs. Both of these features make battle much more engaging because they add timing elements. This is my favorite combat system from every turn-based RPG that I've played so far.

Chrono Trigger is ahead of its time (pun?) because it does not have random encounters. Enemies are in fixed locations in dungeons, and there are no encounters on the world map. Getting too close to an enemy will trigger a battle, but the player can attempt to skip combat by aviding the enemy. However, not all encounters can be avoided, and some enemies are completely hidden before combat. There is some backtracking in this game due to the time travel, so I was very happy to skip weak encounters later in the game.

Despite being nearly 30 years old, Chrono Trigger is still very aesthetically pleasing. The artwork has the same charm as Dragon Quest (thanks to Akira Toriyama's designs), and the soundtrack is extremely memorable. The sprites in particular are very expressive, similar to Final Fantasy V and Final Fantasy VI. Being a SNES game, there is neither FMV cutscenes nor voice acting, but I never felt the game needed it.

In my opinion, Chrono Trigger sets the bar for RPGs, or at least story-driven RPGs. It's a complete package: great story, great pacing, great gameplay, great music, and great artwork. There's very little I would change about this game. My only real critique is that while the party characters have distinct personalities, they don't have much background or character growth (except for Frog, Robo, and Magus). In fact, Ayla is kind of just along for the ride without much explanation or motivation. Crono being a silent protagonist (in classic Dragon Quest style) doesn't help with this either.

After completing a game, I add it to my overall enjoyment ranking which orders the games I've completed from those I most enjoyed to those I least enjoyed. Chrono Trigger is my favorite RPG of all-time, and nothing in this playthrough changed my mind about that.