Chrono Trigger: A Game Out Of Time and Out Of This World

Chrono Trigger.

The name itself carries with it legacy, reverence, and prestige. In gaming circles, it’s sometimes proclaimed as “The Best Retro Game of All Time.” It was decorated with Best Role Playing Game, Best Music on A Cartridge Based Game, and Best Super NES Game by Electronic Gaming Monthly in 1995. This absolute masterpiece of a game not only earned its throne but keeps it, beating out even modern contenders with its scale, story, and heart.

Published by Square (later Square Enix) in March of 1995 for the SNES (Super Nintendo Entertainment System), Chrono Trigger was the dream project of some of the industry’s most prolific minds: Hironobu Sakaguchi, Yuji Horii, and Akira Toriyama, the creators of Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Dragon Ball, respectively. They set out to make a game that “no one had done before” according to V Jump Festival (1994). They collaborated for one year together to lock in the story before beginning the process of developing the game. One of the elements that led to Chrono Trigger‘s unique edge was its multiple endings; there are a total of 12 unique endings that are influenced by sometimes minute decisions made on the player’s part. By February 2018, over 3.5 million copies were shipped worldwide.

It’s a squandering of opportunity and conservation that Nintendo won’t keep its own library of games up to date with its new consoles. As of today, physical copies of Chrono Trigger are only available on the SNES and the Nintendo DS systems. It’s not on the eShop for the Nintendo Switch, nor was it available on the Wii U or 3DS eShop before both shops closed in March 2023. The price for physical copies have skyrocketed due to its avoidable limited availability. At time of writing, there’s a pre-owned DS cartridge for sale on the GameStop website for $58.99, and $168.52 on Amazon. On eBay, a SNES copy is going for $26, but the majority of available copies can range from $200 – $300, with a DS version going for $165.

This is for a used copy. Of a 28 year old game.

The DS and PC versions also have animated story beats, adding to the charm and artistry of the pixelated graphics.

The story begins in the present era, 1000 A.D. in a Pre-Victorian time where crossbows and swords are still the weapons of choice. Our main protagonist, Crono, is set to visit the Millennium Fair where his childhood best friend Lucca, a tech savvy inventor, is showcasing a teleportation device with her father. Crono bumps into Marle, a bubbly and confident girl with an odd pendant, who joins him to the exhibit. There, Marle volunteers for the teleportation device, but something goes awry and a hole in time and space is ripped open, sucking Marle through. Crono and Lucca jump in and unknowingly set off on an adventure that will eventually come face to face with the apocalypse itself (and yes, it does have a face). The journey will see the Prehistoric Age where dinosaurs and lizard folk fight to enforce their dominance over humanity, the Middle Ages where the princess of the land has disappeared, and the desolate future of 2300 A.D., where humanity holds on by a strand as mutants ravage the melted scrap heaps of once vibrant cities. You can even see the End of Time, a strange place that might have been a street at one time, but now floats along in the lonely void of darkness. The creativity expressed in the design, story, and implementation cannot be overlooked: it is lightning in a bottle.

Chrono Trigger‘s time travel feature is all well and good, but its theme of choices are where it shines brightly. Minute and often easily missed choices made by the player will shape the destiny of this world. One choice made in the Age of Antiquity has ripple effects in the year 2300, a forest may or may not be destroyed, and the desire to continue humanity’s very existence rides upon that singular moment. Everyone and everything is connected; every choice, every character, every offhand remark matters. It’s the need to pay attention, to care about the little things that set this game apart. In battle, you have to be an active participant: if you make the foolish mistake to walk away from a battle (like I did), you will return to a Game Over screen because the world will move on around you and the battles happen in real time. The battles don’t patiently wait and swing the camera wildly around the stage to make it seem more dynamic and less of a chore; you have to make a strategy and time out your moves correctly or risk losing the battle, even if you’re stronger than your enemy, they have a chance to win if you’re not paying attention. This game is so heavy on choice, you can actually stop the apocalypse in the middle of the game. It’s unlikely you will however, unless you’re in New Game Plus.

Characters are the second driving force behind what makes Chrono Trigger so memorable. It’s a game where you can fight a 50ft T-Rex with a robot, a frog knight, and a cave woman and have it make sense. You can only have 3 members in a party and you can swap them out at any time; they all react to different situations and all of the endings are influenced by whether or not you follow their own storylines. After beating the game, you can enter New Game Plus where you get to keep your inventory and go back and replay the game from the beginning to try and see which endings you can get. As you progress, your team can also learn special moves that’ll utilize one other character or the whole team for a devastating attack. Each character has an element they’re associated with: Fire, Ice, Water, Light, Melee, and Shadow. This game has an impressive array of variety, not only with its magic and battle systems, but also with its inventory items and characters.

It’s currently available on Steam, the Apple App Store, and the Google Play Store, of all places. Disappointingly, there seems to be no remaster in sight for new consoles going forward.

I gladly rate this game at 9.5 / 10. I only wish the over world had a bit more substance to it, and we had more time to spend in villages and cities. I enjoyed every other aspect of this game, it’s truly a masterpiece. Please don’t pass up the opportunity to play this triumph of the gaming medium, you will be rewarded with a fun, endearing, and thoughtful experience.