It’s the 30th anniversary of Chrono Trigger, which means now is the best time to try out this acclaimed SNES JRPG. Now that more gamers have never owned an SNES, PS1, or Nintendo DS, the younger audience is probably wondering “Does Chrono Trigger live up to its hype?”
Spoilers: the answer is yes, very much so.
Hardcore fans know that the RPG was developed by a dream team of developers, with Final Fantasy’s Nobuo Uematsu, Kazuhiko Aoki, and Hironobu Sakaguchi working with Dragon Quest’s Yuji Horii and Akira Toriyama. That’s right, this RPG is what happens when you bring these two acclaimed franchises together, so it’s no surprise it was able to garner such a reputation.
You play as the particularly-named Crono, who just wanted to have fun at a festival. He meets Marle, who is secretly a princess and is soon thrust into an adventure filled with time travel and epic boss fights. Luckily, he has his best friend Lucca with him, alongside party members from different timelines, like Frog the noble warrior or Ayla the cave woman.
Playing Chrono Trigger, you can see the influence of both franchises that make this game special. Final Fantasy fans will love the epic time-traveling plot and fast-paced ATB combat system. Dragon Quest enthusiasts will adore Akira Toriyama’s timeless art style and the game’s goofy sense of humor. There are some Looney Tunes-style laughs to be had here, with plenty of exaggerated motions and facial expressions, all impressively done with the SNES’ 16-bit visuals.
That battle system is still one of the best in this genre. Aside from needing quick thinking for attacks, placement is also important. If players time their opponent’s position correctly, they can take all of them out with Crono’s Cyclone attack. You can’t wait too long though, as enemies will eventually attack players if they don't act.
Luckily, the game also introduced Tech Combinations. Sometimes, your lead character can do a team-up attack with someone from the party. Naturally, this gives way to some deadly attacks like X-Strike from Crono and Frog or Fire Whirl from Crono and Lucca. Finding out which of your teammates have combo attacks with each other is part of the fun and leads to experimentation once more party members are recruited.
Despite needing some strategy to get through fights, Chrono Trigger is a pretty accessible RPG, making it a great entry point for players. Healing items are cheap and no enemy feels too hard, aside from later boss fights. Backtracking for save points and healing items can lead to respawning enemies, but those can be avoided if players are crafty enough.
There is a lot to love about Chrono Trigger, so it’s a shame that this game isn’t more readily available. At the time of writing, fans can only purchase this game on PC and mobile devices. Granted, that’s better than nothing, but it’s pretty poor treatment from Square Enix. If Final Fantasy 7 can get a ton of re-releases and a remake trilogy, they can put Chrono Trigger on Nintendo Switch.
We’ll never know why this game doesn’t receive more love from Square Enix, but we do know that it’s worth getting. Some fans might be worried that the hype will disappoint them, but they should dive in anyway. At it’s worst, this is a breezy RPG with an excellent combat system.