Chrono Trigger

 

I'm gonna cheat since I've already wrote about this game back when I got the DS game back in 2009, but look at it... it was horrible written giving no explanation to why it was a good game. Really, 6 years later changes a person... and that I picked it up again and played it for the first time on a 3DS which I got in 2011. So, the best JRPG of all, was it true? It still holds up for me. The story is that Crono on the day of the Millennial Fair run in to the girl Marle who you take on a tour that ends at your best friends Lucca's recent invention, a teleporter. Well, Marle gets sucked in and it's up to you to follow her so you ends up in the year 600 AD where she is misstoken for the queen that gone missing that creates a paradox and she disapears. Together with Lucca and a frog knight named Frog saves the real queen ad restore Marle, who, if you didn't guess it is princess Nadia, decendant of the queen. Back in your own time you gets sentenced to death for kidnapping the princess so you break out, but are forced into another time gate, this time in the future were you meet Robo and discovers that in the year 1999 the monster Lavos emerges from the Earth and destroy the future of humankind. So you set up to stop it. All this sets up the game and are hardly spoilers. AWESOME!!!

Really, the story is fantastic. The characters grows on you, you feel for them and you want them to succeed. Also, the story is optimistic. The music also empathize this with a real can do attitude and hope. And that is what drives the motivation of the party, they can change the future and bring hope to a dying world. Also, Lavos is a great enemy. The theme is foreboding every time it shows up and then we have the battle themes. The final struggle with glimmers of hope in them. I love it. The music overall is fantastic as it portrays every age fittingly, the desolute world of 2300 and 12 000 BC, the magical sky world of 12 000 BC, the peaceful 1000 AD, the other battle themes, the main characters themes. I love it. And the graphics are... well, they look good and for many of them quite expressive, sadly one of the negatives is that besides the main characters there is hardly any unique sprite... and that includes important story characters like the kings, chancellors, Cygnus and so on. Would have been nice with character portraits or unique sprites for these characters. Granted, it makes it easy to see who is related to who between certain ages, but take Cygnus. This important knight that everyone talks about, that fights Magus and have a huge impact on Frog... and he looks like every other knight, you couldn't have spruced him up? The commander in gold armor had at least a gold armor.

Mechanics then. One of the first JRPGS without random encounters... instead they had scripted battles at certain points. Don't get me wrong, you could get away from some of them, but many you must fight if you want to pass a certain area... but at least you see them... most of them that is, sometimes they just shows up. Another thing I guess is the New Game + feature (although Zelda II might have introduced it) that enables you to play with full inventory and level from the start (which incidentally is how I played it this time, shortening the play time to 10-15 hours... what, it's not cheating if it's part of the game). At the moment all characters are level 99 and maxed out on strength and magic for the most of them. Of course, tech are mostly worthless at this point (when there isn't some puzzle enemies and you can bypass that with Ayla and Robo 9999 critical hit weapons), but it allows for experimentation so go wild I guess. The DS version also allows you to play the game with the touch screen. Works fine for the most part, but at least you got a choice, isn't that right Magical Starsign? Another good thing with the DS version is the animated cut-scenes that I guess was made for the PS1 version which are really good. Mostly for introducing certain characters and pivotal moments in the story. 

Still, after playing it again it feels so heart warming following the story overcoming the odds and so on, even though I probably overdosed on it the last time since it took me 4 years to play again. It has it's really dark moments (the Frog and Cygnus back story or Magus motivation), but still, finishing it saving everyone and made the world better feels so satisfying watching the first ending as Marle, Lucca and Cronos travels with the Epoch to search for Crono's mom that got caught in the final time warp. Sadly there is no continuation of the story. They made a sequal, but that split the fan base since it apparently took away the good ending for the characters. Since I haven't played it, mostly seen other play it, it just feels like a betrayal for the idea that you can change the future and that there is always hope. Sadly, we will probably never see such a bright story with these characters. Best hope is the game only released in Japan on some sort of satellite service.