Douglas's game of the week: Chrono Trigger

Aaaaaah Chrono Trigger. Probably one of the best 16 bit RPGs besides Phantasy Star IV, Seiken Dentsu 3, and Tactics Ogre: Let us Cling Together. Hell, it's one of the best RPGs period, and probably the only Square-Enix game (Except Seiken Dentsu 3) that desperatley deserves a GBA port or a decent sequel. (Have you even seen Legend of Mana? Crap in Disc form)


The graphics are some of the most colourful I've ever seen on the SNES. I really like the character designs (Done by the same guy who drew Dragonball/DBZ/Dragonbarf GT who's name I forgot and don't know how to spell) and backgrounds. Credit goes to whoever designed Lucca. The backgrounds are also very well-The forest isn't just a few colours, it's like 10 or 20 different colours, and the houses look very great. And even more credit goes to whoever designed the Ocean Palace.


Chrono Trigger probably has the best soundtrack before Final Fantasy 6 and Chrono Cross came along. The sounds sound almost completley realistic, the swords make slashing noises, the monsters roaring sounds realistic, and even when something falls it sounds like they actually recorded a heavy ball falling on the floor and used it in the game. Credit goes to the Megaboss theme, Chrono Trigger, and World Revolution to being the SNES equivilants to One Winged Angel and The Dark Messenger.


The Storyline of Chrono Trigger moves at a very steady pace-It starts out with Marle disappearing in a time gate created by her pendant at the Guardia fair and Crono Following her and then lots of time-traveling follows, and then it all leads to Lavos, a strange monster who lives inside the planet, stealing away all its available resources and then destroys everything to give birth to baby versions of itself using the DNA it found there and then they go off to destroy more planets. Heck, the storyline moves faster than some PS1 RPGs.


Unlike most RPGs, where monsters jump out randomly, you can see the monsters moving aroun and can choose to approach them or not. And when you approach them, sometimes they'll call their buddies who might make some interesting entrances-like sliding down a banister for example. That's a HUGE improvement from the other RPGs which the enemies strike at random and it can get INCREDIBLY annoying, believe me. And instead of going into a battle screen, the characters simply pull out their weapons and duke it out right there. Convienent? Yes, and it is one of the best things to ever happen in an RPG since Party Members and customizable character classes.


As fun as Chrono Trigger is, it does have a few drawbacks, such as before you get the Epoch, you have to backtrack over and over again, which can get a bit annoying, especially if you have to go through an entire area just to get to the time gate. Thank god for the Epoch, and there you can easily warp time easily, but by the time you get the Epoch, you don't really need to backtrack much unless you plan on doing all the sidequests.


Overall, Chrono Trigger is probably the best choice to pick if you want a really great SNES RPG among Super Mario RPG and Final Fantasy II/IV. (Tactics Ogre and Seiken Dentsu 3 were never released out here and Phantasy Star IV is for Genesis) Chrono Trigger is probably one of Squaresoft's best creations, and probably one of the games that desperatley needs a remake for the future generations-You can in fact pick up a remake of Final Fantasy Chronicles for Playstation, which is no longer a pain in the ass to find because they made it Greatest Hits edition. 9.75/10

Pros:
-=Lucca=-
-=Great graphics=-
-=Excellent storyline=-
-=Megaboss theme=-
-=World Revolution=-
-=Can see monsters walking around=-

Cons:
-=Backtracking alot in the first half of the game=-