The title says it all. While I was not able to play Chrono Trigger when it was first released (being 7 meant my attention span and my funds were too limited) this classic RPG has seen ports to the PS and DS, and now has an emulation on Nintendo's VC and is rumored to be having a PSone classic release on the PSN. If you count the original SNES cart, that's a lot of acronyms, and a lot of ways to play.
So you know you have many format options, but if you are like me and were 7 at the original release, you may not even realize what you're missing when you pass by this game. That's why I'm here. (Minor spoilers ahead) Chrono Trigger is the only game I can think of where your party includes a mage, a princess, a frog, a robot, a mechanic and a cave woman. Since the game is based around time travel, as you may have gleaned from the title, it's like the developers took all of the greatest speculative fiction settings and crammed them into one fine story. You can travel to a medieval Europe-esque setting, a post-apocalyptic future, prehistoric times (complete with lizard men), a dystopian society of magic users, or just kick it in the nexus of time Bishop style (reference for X-Men readers). Diverse cast and setting isn't all this game has to offer. I'm going to stay away from any major story spoilers, as everyone will now play this game immediately after reading this, but I can tell you this is a game where your choices count. I'm not even talking about obvious choices either, but ones you don't even think about during regular gaming. For instance, while running around in the first area and selecting everything selectable, I happened to eat a basket of food sitting on a table. I thought nothing of it. A couple of hours later, I'm on trail and a witness arrives to testify against my character's...character, accusing me of having eaten his lunch, and the game flashes back to me happily stealing the food. Moments like that are pure awesome. Furthermore, there are over a dozen endings for this game, and I'm not talking about epilogue text, but rather the fact that you can literally finish the game at different points, usually dependent on how much you want to grind, or if you're playing a new game plus or not.
The battle system in the game is intuitive, and you'll learn a number of unique moves and combos that can be used by each character, with combos dependent on who you have in your party to combine powers. One of the great features in this game is that they are VERY generous with MP. I've been in many a JRPG (*cough*final fantasy *cough*) where casting one or two powerful spells wipes out your meter. Not so here, as you can happily cast your strongest techniques and spells through entire boss battles without worrying about running out of MP. There are no random battles or battle screens in this game either, so while you are selecting your attacks from a menu, and you do have a charge meter before you can attack, the whole process feels more fluid that most turn-based RPGs. There are no complex XP trees or allotting of points to worry about either, which makes this a great introductory RPG to anyone new to the genre.
This is an SNES game, so for those of you who are in love with graphics (I am too) it may take some getting used to, but the PS and DS ports have a slightly upgraded look, though don't say I didn't warn you about loading times on the PS version, because I just did. My personal recommendation is to play it on the VC if you have a Wii. It's the most affordable experience, and it's a direct copy of the original game, so you can enjoy all the soaring songs they squeezed out of that sound chip.
So try it, let me know what you think. If you've already played, let me know if you agree.
Until next time.
