Overview
Chrono Trigger, a Squaresoft game for the Super Nintendo system,
is one of those rare fantasy RPGs written for replayability and
non-linearity. Combined with the fast-paced, interesting plot, variety,
and fast action, these features make it a game well worth buying.
Like most Japanese RPGs, Chrono
Trigger drops the player into a
colorful world of anime super-deformed characters and anime plots. The
player gets an angled, top-down view of the character and can control
where the character moves.
The character design is the handiwork of
Akira Toriyama (the mangaka
responsible for the popular series Dr. Slump and Dragon
Ball). The plot, meanwhile, seems like an interesting mix of
Quantum Leap, Back to the Future and Miyazaki's
Laputa.
Introduction
The main character, Chrono, is a young man living in the auspicious
Year 1000. In celebration of the year, his hometown is throwing a
Millennial Fair, and our hero drops by to win some money and meet his
friend Lucca's electronic inventions. At the fair, he literally runs
into a mysterious young woman named Marle, who insists on following
him around. Together, they go to Lucca's unveiling of her newest
invention. Lucca has outdone herself; she has created a transporter
system (a la The Fly). But though Chrono survives the
transportation experience whole and intact, his new friend Marle
mysteriously vanishes in transit, leaving only her necklace behind.
Grabbing Marle's necklace, which seems
to be the key to the accident,
Chrono is sent through after her (with reassurances from Lucca that
she's going to follow as soon as possible). Chrono then finds himself
in a town that looks strangely familiar yet oddly alien. This is, he
discovers, his world -- as it was 400 years ago. Though he finds
Marle, he quickly becomes embroiled in a time-paradox that he must
solve: something is about to happen in this past world that threatens
the status of the future. And gradually, as he and his friends start
jumping from one time to the next, they discover an ancient, vast
menace that threatens their world's far future.
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Cool Features
In Chrono Trigger, changing a circumstance in the past can
affect the future in various subtle ways. Even better, many changes
are not vital to the main plot, leaving plenty of room for
experimentation and the resulting different endings (ranging from
comic to tragic). As an incentive to discover the plethora of
endings, Chrono Trigger allows players to start over at the
beginning with the super stats earned by the end of the first game.
Another feature of the game is its internal variety. The plot has a
mixture of arcade action, puzzles, and unusual situations that help
keep the player's attention.
Final Notes:
Interface: Good, intuitive.
Players: Single player, operating up to three characters at once.
Combats: Combats are a tad artificial (though not nearly as artificial
as the ones in Final Fantasy III), but are thankfully pretty
fast and fairly elegant.
Play time: The game took me about 30 hours to finish the first time
through, or about two-thirds the time it took to complete the epic
Final Fantasy III. Part of this is due to the lack of
gratuitous combat.
Hints: Experimentation helps make this game as entertaining as it is.
Play around. Rotate characters frequently to allow them to develop
their devastating combination spells.
Other comments: The non-linearity is in stark contrast to one-track
games like The Legend of Gaia. Chrono frequently has a
light-hearted feel to it, and is missing the tragic, epic feel of
Final Fantasy III. On the other hand, there is something
intriguing about navigating a decrepit dungeon and suddenly realizing
that it was once the proud and dangerous fortress that you'd conquered
in the distant past.
Rating: 7 (1 is worst, 10 is best). Recommended!
-- Eri Izawa
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