This was the first game created by the "Dream Team", the collaboration between the two RPG giants of the world, Enix and Squaresoft, who have now merged to form Square Enix.
The story starts with a young boy by the name of Crono eager to go the Millennial Fair where he meets a mysterious young girl. A catastrophic string of events lead to her being sent back in time. From here on, Crono and his friends go on a whirlwind adventure in the hope of saving all of humanity from a monster known as Lavos.
The first thing you'll notice is the lush graphics. The characters are excellently designed by Akira Toriyama giving you a sense of wonder about the game. Add to that the luscious surroundings and backgrounds, not to mention the awesome soundtrack by Yasunori Mitsuda with some help by the prestigious Nobuo Uematsu on a few tracks and one track by Noriko Matsueda give a magical impression to the game world.
Many people have accused this game of being far too happy but who wants gloom and misery from their computer games when we get enough of it in our real lives? Another oft-mentioned problem is that the game is far too easy. The game in itself wasn't created to be taxing, it was a demonstration in game-making by the masters of the genre; they tried to make the best game they could and not work so much on the lesser details, such as the difficulty or working through all of the plot-holes.
Some of the dialogue is stilted but then again, I've only played the US version, somewhat belatedly translated by Ted Woolsey due to time constraints.
The real highlight of this game is the New Game + facility which enables you to play through the game again with the stats held over from your previous time. This allows you to get to a sufficient level where you can get all the extra endings, some of which are truly amazing and hilarious. It's well worth putting in the time and the effort just to get these.
The battle system is the standard Snes FF one, an ATB bar with attacks and magic, where each character has their own special type of magic. They can also combine to do double and triple techs to maximise damage against the enemy in truly spectacular fashion and of course, with seven playable characters to choose from in a party of three, there is a large number of special techniques to be unlocked to help you in your quest to save the future.
Yes, there are a few niggles in the game, but overall, it's a truly class act by the "Dream Team", absolutely worthy of their name. However, only being released on the Snes and then rereleased on the PSX in Japan and America, this is another excellent RPG that the Europeans have missed out on again.
What makes this game for me though is the fact that it's just so fun to play. There are few games I've ever clocked up as many hours on as I have for Chrono Trigger.
Score: 10/10
-- Spatvark
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