Chrono Trigger was before my time. Squaresoft’s iconic JRPG first released for the SNES in 1995 before eventually making its way to the PlayStation. It was instantly hailed as a classic in the genre thanks to its lovable cast, imaginative storyline, and an aesthetic helmed by Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama. To my shame, it’s a game that I’ve never played.
Don’t be mistaken, I have tried multiple times over the years, but I didn’t fancy jumping into a half-assed port or emulating a game I didn’t own legitimately. Recently though, a friend told me the Steam version was in pretty good shape, so I decided to throw it on my Steam Deck and hop on a flight to Japan. I was getting that flight anyway, but having the chance to play Chrono Trigger on it was just a happy coincidence.
30 Years Later, Chrono Trigger Remains A Hallmark Of The Genre
My first JRPG experience, like millions of others I imagine, came in the form of Final Fantasy 7. It was the first time I experienced the coming together of an ensemble cast and the stories abundant with melodrama that have long defined the genre. Having played it during the most formative years of my upbringing, I spent the next several years seeking out similar greats, like Vagrant Story, Star Ocean, Rogue Galaxy, Xenogears, and many others. But Chrono Trigger, due to never being able to track down a copy, didn’t make the list. It wasn’t until the DS port that the game made its way to Europe. Before then, I’d have had to resort to emulation.
While it plays nicely on Steam Deck, I would not say no to a new console version.
Despite playing it for the first time three decades after its original release, I’m still floored by how current and innovative Chrono Trigger manages to feel. I’ll admit that I was bored at first thanks to its milquetoast fantasy setting and having to walk the predictable glacial steps of meeting all the characters, talking to everyone in the starting town, and fighting low-level monsters before the real game starts. What I didn’t expect was for my expectations to be so thoroughly subverted when I least expected.
An early scene has Lucca introducing Crono and Marle to a teleportation machine she has invented, without realising that it also has the power to transport people both backward and forward in time. When this was first introduced, I thought nothing of it, and nodded along as we travelled into the past to save Marle’s ancestor from a pesky dungeon full of bandits.
It’s a compelling central narrative device that I expected to work within the framework of a fairly archaic JRPG. Well, that’s what I thought until we had to flee into a portal and ended up in the far-flung future. All of a sudden, the atmosphere was oppressive, mysterious, and oddly terrifying. The world I had spent the past two hours getting to know was now in ruin.
And It’s Unlike Any Other JRPG I’ve Ever Played
Stepping out of the portal and into a post-apocalyptic world filled with destroyed cities and incomprehensible machinery imbued a curiosity within me, I haven’t felt in so long. Much of the early game takes place in a historic world filled with primitive technology and generic monsters, and here I was sneaking into broken-down high-tech facilities where slaves are struggling with feeding themselves. What on earth is going on, and how does it tie in with the themes Chrono Trigger has put forward? I don’t know yet, but I can’t wait to find out.
Your party also has a frog who, by default, is just called Frog. 10/10.
From what I’ve read, a lot of the game will be spent jumping back and forth in time to meet new allies and get to the bottom of a central mystery, but how that will unfold is something that right now feels impossible to guess. That’s so exciting. I felt like I had seen all this genre had to offer, exhausting all games, old and new to their fullest, then along comes Chrono Trigger. It feels like I’ve absorbed a lot of its character designs and music through osmosis over the years. There is even an artist I like who samples the chapel sound effect within one of his songs, causing me to do the Leo pointing meme the second I heard it.
I haven’t even mentioned the battle system, which immediately reminded me of Sea of Stars and how it innovates upon everything seen here while paying homage to it at every turn. I’ve still moved beyond the desire to have unavoidable random battles with low-level monsters all the time, but that doesn’t stop the combat here from being snappy and responsive. I’m eager to see how much depth it truly has and how additional party members will spice up battles as I progress. There is so much potential for evolution here, and it’s obvious I’m only scratching the surface.
Chrono Trigger is beloved for many good reasons, and it feels nice to join the cabal of fans I’ve been ignoring for my entire life to admit that I now understand the hype. Happy birthday to one of the most iconic JRPGs of all time.
- Released
-
March 11, 1995
- ESRB
-
T for Teen: Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood