I apologize for this long hiatus. Finals and real life issues kind of prevented me from updating this thing. Still, for those still with me, here's the next entry.

#9


As finals have finally come to an end, I can resume my list. Not sure if it’ll pay off for me I mean, this game is revered like no other, and this is only my number 9. Theoretically, there are more games I like more than this. So, I wonder how much lynching will be going on when I announce that my number 9 is…

CHRONO TRIGGER




I don’t think there’s a single thing I don’t love about Chrono Trigger. It had beautiful visuals for its time, letting you get completely immersed into it from the very beginning. I really can’t stress this enough. The way you enter the game and are greeted with this swooping panorama of the meticulously drawn world-map is enough to sweep you off your feet from the first second of the game. The characters sprites are also very detailed, same with the monsters, though the end effect is as good as it is thanks to Akira Toriyama’s colorful designs, even if Crono looks like a red-headed Son Goku.


We also get Launch and, like, two Bulmas.

A big departure from most JRPGs, there are no random encounters and no fight woosh. I was really wary of this at first, but after seeing my characters scatter about the battle field and take out their weapons once, I decided that it’s perfect. I really wish more games did that, Chrono Cross especially, considering it’s a sequel to this game. Still, I guess this makes Chrono Trigger all the more special. Same with Dual and Triple techs. Many games try to utilize combination attacks, but few manage to pull it off with such balance and panache as this one. There’s really just enough techs for you to not get lost in, but you get to use practically any party combination without losing much. It really strikes a perfect balance. After my initial disappointment with the skill acquisition system – as in, each character only learns 8 basic techs, simply by gaining points, which is kind of boring compared to the robust skill trees some games today have to offer – seeing the group techs in action really made up for it. Really, this would have been overwhelming with more characters or more techs. This is what I call good game design and, again, good balance.


So you can beat up green balls of goop and goblins more efficiently.

The plot may not be mind-blowing nowadays, but this time travel story is really well-written, remains consistent throughout most of the game, is a lot of lighthearted fun… Until you get to Zeal, that is. I still think this game has one of the best wham episodes in video game history. It’s basically the only reason I’ve played this game like six times already and always went for the same ending, even though Chrono Trigger offers you as many as fifteen or so.


This place looks so nice. It must be really peaceful. I'm sure nothing bad can happen here, ever.

I also love how the game becomes open-ended near the end. I think it’s just perfect how the quests to get all the individual characters’ ultimate weapons all involve story closure for all of them. Games can rarely pull off story openness like this nowadays, which is a shame.


Have I mentioned how pretty this game is? Wrong paragraph? What?

Yasunori Mitsuda (with some help from Nobuo Uematsu) gives us a truly stellar soundtrack that I can listen to all the time, even with the old-school SNES midi quality being the way it is. In a way, this soundtrack transcends synth and stands out as simply a bundle of well-written music that speaks for itself, despite not being performed live or with better synth.


I think I’ve really drained the topic here, as far as avoiding spoilers goes. Chrono Trigger is truly a magnificent game that, while short, does everything so perfect, that making it even a second longer could probably ruin it. I know that such people are hard to find, but I’ll address them right now – if you still haven’t played Chrono Trigger, you owe it to yourself. Go out and play it now. I personally recommend the DS version, but you can always go for the original SNES version or the PSX port. You really can’t go wrong with it. Just play Chrono Trigger, as it’s probably the most important JRPG in history.