Chrono Trigger was originally for the SNES. This was later ported over to the Nintendo DS containing all the features of the PlayStation version, as well as bonus features of its own. This DS version has UI changes / enhancements, bonus dungeons, a new ending and an additional control scheme that uses the touch screen. Everything about the game screams high quality, from the graphics to the story. The plot heavily centers around time travel and it doesn’t even take that long before you’re thrown deeply into it. While you can name your character to anything you want, the protagonist’s default name is Crono. He visits the local festival before he is sucked into various events that has him, along with the friends that he has made, time travelling all over the place. There are two control schemes which you can use simultaneously. The first is the normal button layout and the second is using the touch screen. A neat part is that the touch screen includes shortcuts to the various sub-menus like equipment and saving. Unfortunately, like many games for the SNES era, you can only save at save points.
The game has a turn based combat system with an Active Time Battle (ATB) bar similar to Final Fantasy. While it is turn based, the order of turns is determined by the bar below each character’s stats, thus you may sneak in more turns before your opponent’s if the character is fast enough. The bar continues to get charged even when you’re selecting your move to add to the faster pacing, although you can opt to make it pause instead. The combat options aren’t anything too special these days. You can attack, flee, use items or using special attacks that consume MP. There are combo special attacks where two or three characters are needed to have their ATB bar full in order to execute. One of the neat things about the game is that it eschews the random encounters that are so common in JRPGs of those days. Instead, you can see the enemies on the screen. Getting into contact with them will trigger the battle screen, which takes place on the same screen, there is no transition. It’s quite innovative for the time, although this means it cannot hide the loading screen, instead you have a short awkward noticeable pause as it loads and unloads the battle.
The graphics are distinctly SNES and a remnant from that era. The issue is that it hasn’t aged particular well on a small screen, as it tries to shove in too much detail to the point that it is hard to tell apart some things. The map on the lower screen helps but sometimes you don’t realize that there is a chest there or where the path forward is since the 2D overhead nature covers them up. Stacking onto this is how it is easy to get lost and not be sure on where you are supposed to go next. It can be hard to see on the world map which parts are the dungeons you need to go to in order to progress the story. One thing to note is that you have to make sure you save often because if you lose a battle, you’ll have to reload a save. This isn’t normally a big issue except when you encounter an unwinnable fight as part of the story and then when you have control of your characters again, they are all at 1 HP. You probably won’t realize this until you get into battle... It’s also quite frustrating when you’re blindsided by cheap enemies (no matter how leveled up you are) and then lose a ton of progress as you haven’t saved for twenty minutes or so (and you can do a lot in twenty minutes).
Due to the story structure, you will end up trekking back and forth a lot, which can feel tedious. This is a problem that’s further compounded due to the travel system requiring you to run through the same dungeons with unavoidable trash mob fights. This makes it a chore and it’s only until you get to a certain later point in the story where this issue is resolved. While the difficulty is finely balanced for most of the game without a need to grind levels, the final boss can be tough as it requires you to be higher levels. This is thanks to the final boss doing party wide attacks that do immense amounts of damage. You’re expected to have done the optional sidequests to get amazing armor and a decent level, so that’s a little bit unfair. It’s actually really cheap this way when you end up being severely underlevelled if you didn’t do any of the “optional” things when the boss has multiple phases, two to three turns for every one of yours, and does massive party wide damage. With that said, the optional sidequests are where the game shines. It uses the time travel aspect really well, although it is similar to the main story where it doesn’t give you clear directions.
The game also seems to throw in the towel towards the end by having a lot of the later bosses and enemies have access to the dreaded attacks that reduce to your party member’s HP to 1. Bonus points when they use a party wide version of that attack. This is just a cheap and lazy way to add “difficulty”. The story is solid although not amazing, despite the huge potential for being a time travel story. Maybe it’s because it was told so quickly that you don’t get to get even more emotionally attached to the characters. The brisk pacing means that it’s one thing after another. When this is combined with that face that multiple story arcs are being told, sometimes concurrently, its impact is lost until the ending where you can get a bigger picture over it. The ending is great though, after you’ve slogged through the various forms of the final boss, which may be a bit too much even for a final boss.
The game doesn’t take too long to finish at only around 20 hours or so, even longer if you get lost, which is easy to do. There are multiple endings, but the main one you get is satisfying enough. Several of the other endings are joke endings or bad endings, and it is a lot of effort to get them as you’ll need to play a decent portion of the story again. As the endings are influenced by at what point of the story you decide to fight the final boss, it’s quite clever and unique. The optional dungeon is disappointing in that it reuses the dungeons from the game, and then after pushing past those, the new stuff comes. It’s padding to make the post-game stuff last longer. Overall, Chrono Trigger is an impressive game for its time. However, while its mechanics are still sound, newer players might wonder what all the hype was about. Everything is polished but kind of lacks that addictive feel at times. The pacing is quick, which is a double edged sword since it doesn’t waste the player’s time, yet you don’t get to spend enough time with those awesome characters. Nevertheless, it’s still very much worth playing at least once since it’s a great adventure.
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