Chrono Trigger

Genre: RPG
Year: 1995
Developed by: Square
Published by: Square
Platforms: SNES, many others
#1
Feeling Like: Going back in time

I don’t even know how to begin.

In case the giant banner on the home page wasn’t a dead giveaway, Chrono Trigger has been my favorite since I first played it 28 years ago. I’d partook in a few role playing games previously, before Kasim’s friend Jeremy mentioned something that made my ears perk while we were being chauffeured around in their blue BMW.

“There’s time travel. You make friends with a robot and a talking frog. And you don’t even find out who the villain is until five hours in. It’s incredible.”

I have Jeremy to thank, because that led to a few minutes of research, and a few months of begging for it for my birthday. I still remember the ad I saw in a magazine. To date, it’s still the best present I’ve received.

There are two Henrys that love Chrono Trigger, and it’s important to differentiate between them. The first Henry was blindsided by the experience. Learning how to level up, select the proper moves in menus, equip incrementally more powerful weapons, gathering information from NPCs, what to stock up on at the merchant’s hut, having multiple save files, what to do when I was stuck and when to heal in combat are all crucial to the RPG experience. These are as fundamental to getting through the game as turning the system on, or reading the text. I stumbled my way through at first, not knowing the optimal routes or which party members to select. But the mastery of Chrono Trigger lies in every aspect to the point where it’s exceedingly rare for the player to get confused, or frustrated, or bored. There is no fat on this steak, it is as lean an experience as Super Mario RPG while being as epic as Final Fantasy 6.

The pacing is brilliant, peerless. You’re lulled into a false sense of security by waking up to your mother mentioning the Millennial Fair is about to begin and you should get going! The graphics are as good as the Super Nintendo gets, with everything being clearly drawn and brimming with color. Legendary artist Akira Toriyama was at the helm and responsible for the character designs. Yes, they look like they belong in a Dragon Ball Z spinoff. Yes, they look phenomenal.

It helped that Crono, the main character, had red hair and green eyes like I did. He went on time traveling adventures to stop a world ending parasite, I wanted to help him time travel and stop a world ending parasite. He had a robot buddy. I wanted a robot buddy! He had spiky hair – I tried for years to emulate it with endless hair products, but always ended up like I just got out of the shower instead of a katana-wielding badass. Less is more, young Henry!

You meet a girl who is more than she appears and an accident triggers untold peril. With the scientist Lucca at my side, it was off to the past. Off to history.

I loved every minute of it. No random battles meant I knew exactly when to prep for combat. Fights were fast, enemies were unpredictable. Positioning actually mattered, since moves had directional or area effects, so paying attention was a must. You could just spam the Attack command, but why? Techniques were so much more interesting to use and while it’s quite an easy game overall, you still can’t sleepwalk through it. Sometimes I’d step into a new area and be hypnotized by the music so much, I’d just stand there and listen.

Many games on the 500 warrant a listing of individual tracks. Either the melodies are inventive, or the choice of instruments is inspired, or they’re tightly associated with a big set-piece. This soundtrack has all of that, and more. Chrono Trigger’s music hangs with the best of them. It would not be #1 on the 500 without it.

The Main Theme still gives me absolute chills. How can you not get amped up hearing this?

“Peaceful Days“. An apt name.

“Memories of Green” is so strong a tune, it’s been remixed a thousand times.

These three songs, by the way, can be heard WITHIN THE FIRST FIVE MINUTES OF STARTING A NEW GAME.

I don’t know how Yasunori Mitsuda did it (sometimes I don’t think he does either, his hard drive crashed mid-production and he lost progress on about 40 songs), but he did it alongside the equally legendary Nobuo Uematsu. The variety, the strong sense of ennui, the magical feel is all here in the first few minutes of the game.

I cannot get over that fact.

There’s more.

“Wind Scene” plays when you escape the Mountain and find yourself in the year 600 AD for the first time. There are misty clouds and medieval architecture all over. Doesn’t it sound like it?

“Guardia Castle“. I’m going to run out of ways to describe how amazing the music is. I feel like a triumphant warrior being serenaded by rows of trumpets and adoring crowds. Just listen to it pick up at 0:52!

“Frog’s Theme” oh look, it’s another all-time classic banger that has countless renditions online because of how amazing it is. Hearing this while seeing Frog/Glenn slice a mountain in twain to gain access to Magus’ lair was a seminal moment for me.

I didn’t care much for the PlayStation version as the load times to access the menu were intolerable. However, they did add several anime-style cutscenes for the big moments. And…well, this was a big moment.

The “Battle with Magus” starts out with wind howling, and the premonition of a vicious conflict. 24 seconds in, the beat kicks up and you’re knee deep in a fight for your life against a vampiric-looking wizard.

“Undersea Palace” beautifully conveys the danger you’re in, and the stakes you’re fighting for. The OCRemix “Xenosphere” by Oceanfire takes this, and a song from Xenogears and meshes it into a mesmerizing beat. I found a remix called the “Undersea Palace (Cyberdesign Remix)” and it’s my favorite rendition of the tune.

“To Far Away Times” hit so hard for me, I have it as my ringtone. No, I don’t get sick of it. It’s the only nice part of getting spam calls.

If you can believe it, there’s one song that stands above the rest. It’s the one everybody remembers; it’s a bizarre tune, one that sounds as if it escaped from another game entirely. There’s a hint of Middle Eastern influence alongside one of the best beautiful melodies I can think of. It’s hopeful, but also sad and mysterious – much like Chrono Trigger itself.

“Corridors of Time” is that song.

OCRemix.org has 26 versions of this tune alone, that’s how popular it is. Everybody remembers the first time they’re whisked away from the brutal, snowy landscape populated by the poor and the desperate. You’re phased into the sky, and met with an impossible sight – the above screenshot. A civilization floating in the sky. High tech cities, citizens that are overly infatuated with themselves, gossiping about the power they’re sucking from Lavos and an even deeper mystery. It’s very likely the best section of the game and boy, is that saying something.

I’m once again lost as to what to mention next. There are no shortage of memories that are coming to me; grinding my heroes to Level 99 (or ** in the SNES version) just because I could. The Trial, which remembers your actions during your first meetup with Marle and punishes you accordingly. Finding out if Toma ever hit the motherlode of treasures. Allowing Robo to grow a forest. The discovery of the End of Time. The first moment when you, Lucca and Marle discover what Lavos is. The buildup and confrontation with Magus. Getting thrown back to the Stone Age, and failing over and over to change the future. Discussing with your companions about the meaning of the time gates, and what if there’s an unseen entity controlling it all?

Possibly my favorite moment (and again, that is really saying something) is when you confront Queen Zeal and the rest of the Kingdom’s elite at the bottom of the Undersea Palace. Lavos is there. You lose.

Crono rises with his last ounce of strength and is subsequently disintegrated by Lavos’ eye beam.

It’s a powerful scene. The main character, your strongest fighter, is gone. You’re teleported to safety, but you’re not safe in the least. Zeal is destroyed and now you’re captured. And they’ve taken away your weapons, armor and accessories. This is the first time where Crono isn’t the leader of the party, and that visual image of Marle, or Ayla at the head is a visual shock.

You get to revive him through many trials and tribulations, leading to ANOTHER amazing moment. I have to apologize, this entry was meant to be far shorter but that’s me and Chrono Trigger. If you get me going on it, I will never shut the hell up. If you’ve been following along with me as I update the 500, you’ll know brevity is not my strong suit.

SO, you get to Death Peak. You travel back in time, swap Crono out for a Crono-doll and he’s back. You better have Marle in the party for this section, because the part where she goes to hug him as he silently stares at her while she tearfully tells him what happened is a wonderful moment. I like it so much that I found a piece by the artist Orioto and hung it above my desk. It’s there right now, keeping me company.

I mentioned two Henrys earlier. The first Henry was enamored with Chrono Trigger from the very moment he started playing it. The second Henry is older, more introspective. He doesn’t play it as much. He’s had experience with hundreds of other games since, ones with better graphics, or have improved audio software, or games where you don’t have to use your imagination as much. Games that use motion capture to convey emotions better than previous games ever could. It’s not as if the evolving industry was going to negatively impact my own cherished memories, but I think we’re all a little sensitive to our favorite thing. We don’t really want to hear criticisms. It’s also really hard to tell, at the time, what will age well and what won’t.

Second Henry is immensely relieved to find out Chrono Trigger has actually gotten better with age.

Books like Reverse Design by Patrick Holleman takes Chrono Trigger down to its studs to examine why the game’s legacy has lasted so long. It turns out, it’s not an accident. Each phase of the journey was meticulously drawn up to challenge the player, but not overly so. The team at Square wanted to teach players the basics without actually holding their hand. Articles today are written about why the game still deserves a spot among the very best. It continues to delight gamers, old and new. Second Henry feels his heart growing three sizes when the brilliance of the game is continuously re-discovered by a new generation. Many games, like I Am Setsuna or Sea of Stars try to emulate the look and feel, but they always fall short.

How could they not? It was the dream team of game development. I mentioned Toriyama and Uematsu already, but they also had Hironobu Sakaguchi onboard. If you don’t know him, he created a little series called Final Fantasy. This really was a once in a lifetime kind of project, when the best of the best are at their best and want to make something new, fresh and exciting. The stars aligned, simple as that.

Look, I’ve wanted a direct sequel nearly my entirely life (Chrono Cross sort of counts, but not really), but I think I’ve recognized that sometimes it’s best to end things. Let it be. I’m not going to play a sequel that made me feel like I did when I was eleven years old in my room on Oliver St, on my tiny little CRT playing the game over and over again to see the multiple endings. Or feel like a hero again as I vanquish the space spawn of death with as many Doublevbombs (best dual tech!) and Luminaires as I can throw at it.

Anybody who really knows me knew this would be my number 1 choice. My slack icon at work has Crono as my avatar. Friends gift me little Chrono Trigger figures they’ve painted (thanks Sean!), or memorabilia they scored at a convention.

I would often power on the Super Nintendo just to hear the clock tick, and the intro music fade in. I tried to get changed for school before it was over. I’d leap from the chair to mimic Crono hitting the Zombor with the Ice Sword dual tech. When India walked out in the opening ceremonies of the Tokyo Olympics and they played “Frog’s Theme“, I had at least seven friends message me about it. When Hiro mentioned a Chrono Trigger reference in the TV show Heroes, I almost spat out my drink.

The point is, I’m not obsessed with video games. I’m obsessed with Chrono Trigger. I will randomly type in Chrono Trigger + [random noun] to see what pops up in YouTube, resulting in some diamonds in the rough like this. It’s the only thing I’ve written fanfiction for. The dramatic alternate endings, the elaborate locations, the magnificent soundtrack, the endearing designs of the protagonists, the devastating threat that looms, the freedom to cross space and time to save the world, but also teach a family to share. MacGuffins, time machines, katanas, dark magic, sacrifices, paradoxes, war and peace are all here, in a perfect little gray cartridge. It never wastes your time. There isn’t a useless character on your roster. Every plot point is a self contained story, but also moves the over-arching story along. It is a miracle of game design, one that I’ll replay for the rest of my life. I may not be a young man discovering it for the first time, but I am a grown-ass man who, after decades of indulging in this hobby, recognizes a masterpiece when he sees one.