Just finished Chrono Trigger...

[Slater]

My gf was appalled that I picked this game up in the past and decided that it wasn't worth playing, so she pretty much forced me to sit down with her and play it all the way through. So, I did.

One word: wow.

I mean... WOW...


This honestly has to have been the best console game I have ever played... ever. In my book, I say that it may have even dethroned the mighty Super Metroid.

Everything about this SNES game had me amazed; I'm not sure why I didn't play it when I had the chance years ago. The plotline depth, the graphics, the sound and music, the general atmosphere...

It saddens me that all this exists in a SNES game and yet I haven't seen such spirit in any of the newer consoles. The developers really put their hearts and souls into this game.

Apparently, I got the "second best ending" possible, so I'll be playing it again to figure out what I missed.

Great game, eleven-out-of-ten.

[Radical Dreamer]

Yeah, Chrono Trigger's basically amazing; one of my all-time favorites. XD I'm also a huge fan of its sequel, Chrono Cross *points to avatar*, and I've enjoyed what I've played of the text-based half sequel, Radical Dreamers *points to username*. XD So yeah, I love the Chrono series, and I'd suggest trying both of the later games, if you can get your hands on them. I always found it really neat, because they took a small, unanswered plot point of Trigger and played it out in Chrono Cross (my favorite of the two). So yeah, I'd definitely suggest trying them out if you get the chance.

[Zilch]

Yeah, there's a good reason why I've played through it three...maybe four times now? Izza gooood gaaaame. Glad you found it.

[crossalchemist]

Ahh...Chrono Trigger, what happy memories this returns to me. Me and a friend of mine once figured out all the endings. One of our favorites was the one where you get to 'meet' the creators. After defeating Lavos in some particular way (I can't really remember which) you can go through a time portal and you pop out in this room with the creators of the game having a party. You can sorta talk to them and its cool.

[Myoti]

I'll always remember how freakin' epic the last two battles are ("World Revolution" music for-the-win).

[Fish and Chips]

Chrono Trigger. Fantastic game. Hope you managed to round up all the characters, cause the last one is awesome.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

Of course it's a great game. I mean... you never knew that? XD Kidding.

Either way, glad you loved it.

[ShiroiHikari]

Mmmmm, Chrono Trigger. Gaming at its finest.

[ich1990]

Never played. Soon will.

I really love Earthbound for the snes and grew up playing that game alot. Hope this one will be as good.

[Scarecrow]

Chrono Trigger is my favorite game ever up there with Link to the Past Frog's theme rules XD I could hum that all day. I'm waiting for it to come on the Wii... I'm hoping it will at least.

About the sequels... I was only aware of Chrono Cross (which I heard sucked bad so I never bothered playing it). Whats the other one? And I guess I gotta try Chrono Cross since you all seem to like it.

[Radical Dreamer]

Chrono Trigger is my favorite game ever up there with Link to the Past Frog's theme rules XD I could hum that all day. I'm waiting for it to come on the Wii... I'm hoping it will at least.

About the sequels... I was only aware of Chrono Cross (which I heard sucked bad so I never bothered playing it). Whats the other one? And I guess I gotta try Chrono Cross since you all seem to like it.

Chrono Cross can be kind of a love/hate game, I've found. I personally love it, and I know people that love it, but I know others that didn't like it at all. It's absolutely worth a shot, though.

Radical Dreamers, the text-based half-sequel to Chrono Trigger (featuring a few of Cross's main characters), was only released in Japan, though it was recently translated by a group and released on ROM. So I can't really say how to go about finding it or anything, per CAA's rules, but if you do come across it, it's worth checking out. I'd suggest looking for it after playing Cross, though. It just made more sense to me that way. XD

[Slater]

hahaha, I started a new game and it ended in about 30 minutes... Yeah, secret warp to the end battle ftw...

I wish someone had warned me about that... was quite a fight to come out of, lol

[Bobtheduck]

I love Chrono Trigger, but I honestly think Chrono Cross is the better game. Of course, you should be warned... Chrono Trigger could be looked at as a light hearted hero fantasy, well... Chrono Cross gets downright depressing... CC will screw with your head, particularly if you're a CT fan... About halfway through the game they tell you something that could very well either anger you severely or give you respect for the story since it took a lot of guts to do this piece of absolute anti-fanservice... Fans just wanted the characters to return... They do, just not the way you expect... or want... And when you find out who was actually the most important character in Chrono Trigger (they hinted at it at the end of CT), you're gonna be downright shocked...

Chrono Cross is much more complex than CT... A bit more philisophical... I just love it a lot. Probably my favorite game on the PS1...

[Mr. SmartyPants]

Of course, you should be warned... Chrono Trigger could be looked at as a light hearted hero fantasy, well... Chrono Cross gets downright depressing... CC will screw with your head, particularly if you're a CT fan... About halfway through the game they tell you something that could very well either anger you severely or give you respect for the story since it took a lot of guts to do this piece of absolute anti-fanservice.

Sounds good! I may enjoy CC then. I think I'll pick it up one day.

[Tommy]

Chrono Cross is not for people who want a deep plot.
It's not a direct sequel either.

I personally think Trigger and Cross are too different to accurately compare.

[uc pseudonym]

Ah, Chrono Trigger. I rather enjoyed playing this game. Enough so that I got all the endings by methodically going through my Save Game +, anyway.

I have never played CC and I suspect I never will for technological/time issues. However, I'm rather curious about the things that Bobtheduck mentioned. Can I get an explanatory PM from anyone who finished the game?

It occurs to me that it might be more efficient to just ask here than to make a thread of my own: can anyone recommend good SNES games to me? I'd prefer RPGs, but if the game is high quality I'd be willing to give it a try. I've already played FF4-6, Earthbound, CT (obviously), and Super Mario RPG, so I need to find some more obscure titles for something new.

[Fish and Chips]

I have never played CC and I suspect I never will for technological/time issues. However, I'm rather curious about the things that Bobtheduck mentioned. Can I get an explanatory PM from anyone who finished the game?

Same deal here, please.

[Slater]

I already know, my GF told me what happens in CC. She also says that it's one of the worst RPGs she has ever played.

It's very confusing to me how so many people can love the game while so many people hate it... oh well, I don't have a PSX so I can't play it anyhow.

[Bobtheduck]

I already know, my GF told me what happens in CC. She also says that it's one of the worst RPGs she has ever played.

It's very confusing to me how so many people can love the game while so many people hate it... oh well, I don't have a PSX so I can't play it anyhow.

I know EXACTLY why people hate it... The very reason many hate it is one of the reasons I love it. I sent the spoiler PM to UC and Fish, so now they know why people hate it...

1. When people don't play far enough, they think it doesn't connect to CT.

2. People expect the battle system to be identical to CT's battle system... It's not. It's a good battle system, though, with it's own strategies, and the double and triple techs aren't completely gone, just harder to get.

3. There are too many characters. I will give them that, but the crux of the plot revolves around Serge, Kid, Lynx, Harle, and to a lesser extent, Nikki, as well as some spoiler characters... The other 35 playable characters are just fluff... Really. Guile isn't Magus, Glenn isn't frog, they're just minor characters who don't really mean anything... The fluff is ok as long as the main characters get developed, and boy do they get developed...

4. People who play through the whole get get upset by what they start to discover about halfway through the game... They wanted this game to be another romp with Crono, Marle, and Lucca... That's why I said it was anti-fanservice. Something like Advent Children was one giant work of fanservice, even though it served as a better ending for FF7 than the game had. Chrono Cross, on the other hand, was a good sequel, and spit in the face of that kind of fanservice.

[MasterDias]

Well it all depends on what you look for in an RPG. Chrono Cross has a rather convoluted plot and backstory to it that can often be rather vague and confusing, whereas CT was pretty striaightforward for the most part.

Also, I would say Chrono Trigger was much more character-focused. Chrono Cross has 40+ something characters that can join your party, which amounts to nearly every secondary character. They have flashy special-attacks and such but they don't have any real character development. Although, most RPGs don't have voodoo dolls, space aliens, mermaids, and turnips as party members...

I found the battle system pretty fun. Although summoning was too complicated and luck-relient to set up that it's virtually useless, and there was very few double and triple techs compared to CT.
So, overall, I did enjoy the game but I understand how others dislike it.

[Bobtheduck]

Also, I would say Chrono Trigger was much more character-focused. Chrono Cross has 40+ something characters that can join your party, which amounts to nearly every secondary character. They have flashy special-attacks and such but they don't have any real character development. Although, most RPGs don't have voodoo dolls, space aliens, mermaids, and turnips as party members...

I disagree about CT being "more character focused" The 40 something characters in the game weren't the focus of the story. The focus was on Serge, kid, Lynx, Harle, sort of on Nikki and that little girl Deva (I forgot her name, and Nikki is sort of integral to the ending) There also was a decent story to the second tier characters, like Korcha, captain whatever his name was, the Devas, Luccia, the mermaid girl, and master viper. The rest of the characters don't need a lot of development... They're just there to be collected.

As for weird characters, Super Mario RPG had Geno, who was a Marionette. FF7 had Cait Sith, who was a remote controlled robot. FF6 had a moogle and a sasquatch as playable characters. I think weird characters are perfectly normal for RPGs.

I also hate the word "convoluted." I usually hear that as an insult, particularly in game and anime reviews... A live action movie can be "intelligent" and a game or anime "convoluted." Bah... Games don't have to have straightforward plots... A plot need not be straightforward to be enjoyable... Not straightforward doesn't mean "makes no sense" it just means you have to think more about it.

Of course, there is no accounting for taste, but many reasons people cite for not liking the game aren't really fair... Having a different battle system and not having all the characters from the previous game seems like kind of bad reasoning for hating a game...

[Scarecrow]

Now I really, really wanna try Chrono Cross... weird, depressing, convoluted... sounds interesting...

[MasterDias]

I disagree about CT being "more character focused" The 40 something characters in the game weren't the focus of the story. The focus was on Serge, kid, Lynx, Harle, sort of on Nikki and that little girl Deva (I forgot her name, and Nikki is sort of integral to the ending) There also was a decent story to the second tier characters, like Korcha, captain whatever his name was, the Devas, Luccia, the mermaid girl, and master viper. The rest of the characters don't need a lot of development... They're just there to be collected.

See, here's the thing. CT had 7 playable characters and managed to give all of them at least some time in the spotlight to various degrees. CC did have a core group, but I only ever remember the first four you mentioned as having significant character-focus during the main game. Viper's group were interesting characters but I don't recall them being fleshed out that much outside of the "enemies-who-become-your-allies" bit and the Dario sidequest thing. I don't remember much regarding Nikki(the rockstar, right?) but I don't think I recruited him in the first place.

As for weird characters, Super Mario RPG had Geno, who was a Marionette. FF7 had Cait Sith, who was a remote controlled robot. FF6 had a moogle and a sasquatch as playable characters. I think weird characters are perfectly normal for RPGs.

Well, there have been other "unique" characters before certainly. But, I haven't ever seen an RPG before or since with quite so many bizarre characters as Chrono Cross.

I also hate the word "convoluted." I usually hear that as an insult, particularly in game and anime reviews... A live action movie can be "intelligent" and a game or anime "convoluted." Bah... Games don't have to have straightforward plots... A plot need not be straightforward to be enjoyable... Not straightforward doesn't mean "makes no sense" it just means you have to think more about it.

Well, whatever you want to call it then. Now don't get me wrong. I like Chrono Cross' plot as well, but I do suspect the nature of the plot was why some didn't like it. I managed to follow it for the most part but not everything was always completely clear.

[Radical Dreamer]

See, here's the thing. CT had 7 playable characters and managed to give all of them at least some time in the spotlight to various degrees. CC did have a core group, but I only ever remember the first four you mentioned as having significant character-focus during the main game. Viper's group were interesting characters but I don't recall them being fleshed out that much outside of the "enemies-who-become-your-allies" bit and the Dario sidequest thing. I don't remember much regarding Nikki(the rockstar, right?) but I don't think I recruited him in the first place.

I dunno, the whole 40-some party member thing didn't bother me too much. I've always been one to pick a favorite party and stick with that for the whole game. For instance, Kid, Fargo, Karsh, Glenn, Guile, and one or two others made up the whole of my party throughout the game, mostly. XD I usually try to collect as many of the characters as I can and use them in their respective storylines or whenever I'm doing sidequests, but other than that, I don't pay much attention to them. I do wish that they could have fleshed out Guile more (a LOT more, since they decided not to take that route, due to the number of characters), but as a whole, it doesn't bother me that much. XD

[Yeshua-Knight]

ah, but the eternal questions are...

did you:

a) defeat lavos using the chrono cross in cc?

b) gather together all the characters but the one or two that you can't have throughout the whole game?

[Bobtheduck]

ah, but the eternal questions are...

did you:

a) defeat lavos using the chrono cross in cc?

b) gather together all the characters but the one or two that you can't have throughout the whole game?

Which one of us are you referring to?

I have never beaten CC properly (with the chrono cross) but I've seen it done and I've seen the "good" ending... I have only killed Lavos, never used the Chrono Cross...

I never gathered the characters... I started to, but it got boring and takes way too long.

I've seen the programmer's ending, the "Serge at the element shop" ending, the dragon ending (most sad ending ever), the normal ending, and the "Used the chrono cross" ending... The "good" normal ending was still pretty sad, but also made way for a third game that never happened... I'd buy whatever system Chrono Break ended up on... I would love so much for Squ'eenix to make it... There is more to that story, like Magus... What happened to him (and, sorry RD, but the Radical Dreamers explanation doesn't count in the canon, as awesome as that would have been... I tried to tell myself that was true, but it's not)?

As for Nikki, I believe he plays into the Chrono Cross ending... He's also one of the side characters who has the most intricate stories... His father, mother, and sister's stories, namely... [spoiler]I'm pretty sure, though I may be wrong (it's been a while since I played it) but isn't the Chrono Cross based on his song? I thought there was SOME sort of connection, at least... [/spoiler] I personally think Nikki was just as fleshed out as Marle or Lucca.

[Sammy Boy]

I tried to play CT once, I stopped when my characters were at level 45 because I wanted to grind them to level 100. It got too repetitive. I know, my fault.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

I also hate the word "convoluted." I usually hear that as an insult, particularly in game and anime reviews... A live action movie can be "intelligent" and a game or anime "convoluted." Bah... Games don't have to have straightforward plots... A plot need not be straightforward to be enjoyable... Not straightforward doesn't mean "makes no sense" it just means you have to think more about it.

Unless reviewers are mentioning convoluted in a negative way, I wouldn't worry too much about it. Film Noir, one of the greatest genres in film, strive off of convoluted plots. For me, Convoluted plots are a good thing.

[uc pseudonym]

Thanks for the PM; I appreciate the time you put into that. Thoughts on CC:
[spoiler]Whether or not I liked the game would be about if I found the battle system enjoyable, of course. And how I felt about the plot, but I'll address that later in this post. But if I disliked it, it would probably be for reason #4.

However, I would formally argue that this is an acceptable reason ("would" because I'd need to play the game to have a more informed opinion). The word "anti-fanservice" strikes me as apt - it is still fanservice in the sense I believe it is unnecessary, just fanservice of the negative kind. If Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross were one game, that would be an acceptable plot twist. As a sequel? That strikes me as really bad fanfiction more than anything else. That's about as blunt as I can state it (no offense to those who liked the twist and the game in general).[/spoiler]

On plot: to me, words like "intelligent" or "intricate" imply a plot that is simply complex or told in a complex way, but "convoluted" implies that the plot is confusing because it is told poorly. I realize that isn't technically the definition of the word, but we have enough synonyms in the field already. While I like thinking about my plots, sometimes I focus in order to understand the plot of a story only to in the end feel cheated because once I did understand it felt stupid. I can't speak more specifically, having not played CC, so I'll stop typing.

[Bobtheduck]

As for the twist at hand, I think it all comes down to things they were setting up in the first game, though... Particularly toward the end, the scene where

[spoiler=Chrono Trigger and Cross]Lucca is given the opportunity to save Lara, they reason at first that Lavos must be the one responsible for the time gates, but one of them (Lucca, I think) says that she thinks someone else was responsible for it... From Schala's introduction to the end of the game, her place is hinted at. It's not as if they just decided to do it when they made the sequal, and I'm not sure they decided on killing off Crono, Marle, and Lucca just for the sequal, either... I think this was all part of Schala's struggle and was planned at least in a skeleton form when they made the first game.

I think it's perfectly OK for characters, even main Characters, to die between stories, though it is rare. That's because, as a (potential) trilogy, the stories are about Lavos and Schala, not about the characters you get to know the best in the games. In all actuality, Crono just stumbled on Marle and the whole gate thing was accidental on their part, but they were guided by Schala to discover Lavos. Serge's place in the world was essentially based on luck, that out of all the dying people on earth, Schala would pay attention to him. The main characters of the games were just in the right circumstances, but it was all about Schala.

If it makes anyone feel better, I've heard it suggested that when you free schala, it restores the timeline, and Crono and gang don't have to die... We'll never know unless they make a third game, because the game ended following Schala and not Serge... It doesn't give those sort of details, it's only for fans to guess.[/spoiler]