I’ve mentioned before that Chrono Trigger is one of my favorite video games of all time, and that still holds true to this day. I discovered the game through a friend and our local rental joint, and since the day I first rented it I’ve sunk countless hours into it over the years.
Chrono Trigger is a classic RPG-style video game published by Square (known as SquareSoft at the time) for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It was initially released for the SNES on March 11, 1995 in Japan, followed shortly after by a North American release of August 22 of the same year. A few years later the game was re-released for the Playstation One, and then in 2008 it was re-designed and re-released with brand new content for the Nintendo DS handheld console. These days you can also download the full game onto your iOS or Android devices.
The story of the game begins with a young name named Crono meeting a young woman named Marle at the local fair. Crono’s inventor friend, Lucca, is demonstrating her new amazing teleportation machine when something goes wrong and Marle is dragged into a portal that sends her back in time. Crono follows to rescue her, and thus the adventure begins. Through the series of events that follow, our heroes discover that the world is going to be destroyed by an evil creature named Lavos in the future, so they set off on a journey through time to stop that future from happening.
The first time I rented Chrono Trigger I had no idea what the game was about. At the risk of making myself sound foolish, I actually spent close to two hours just playing the little mini-games at the fair before I realized there was more game to the game. And then my world flipped upside-down, because the story that unfolded was one of the greatest that I’d ever encountered. I fell in love with all of the playable characters, and I was entranced by all the different eras that they traveled to, from 65,000,000 BC, all the way up to 2300 AD.
But one of the aspects of the game that truly amazed me was that it was the first game I’d ever played that had multiple endings. Depending on when and where in the game you chose to challenge Lavos, there were a dozen unique endings that you could receive, and some of those would change slightly depending on different choices you could make during the game. There was also a thirteenth possible ending added to the Nintendo DS version.
Some of my favorite memories of Chrono Trigger? Well, back in the SNES days, somewhere along the line I got this idea to use Chrono Trigger as a way to ease my Christmas Eve torment. See, instead of staring at the clock all night and trying to will myself to sleep so present time would come faster, I’d start up a new game of Chrono Trigger and see how fast i could get through the game without skipping any of the events. The game would distract my mind and eventually I’d get sleepy enough to be able to doze off.
Even with hundreds of other games at my disposal, I still regularly get the urge to play this old favorite, and I’ve even played my hand at writing the game’s story in novel form; that’s how much I love this RPG classic from the SNES era.
Any other Chrono Trigger fans out there? Which system did you first play it on? Do you have a favorite character? Era? Ending? Please share!
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I’m afraid I’ve never played this one, but I’m all for going back to old games you love :). Sounds like it was a lot of fun.
Tasha
Tasha’s Thinkings | Wittegen Press | FB3X (AC)
Oh it’s just as awesome to this day. ^_^ If I didn’t have so many other games that I bought and never got around to playing, I’d totally be playing it right now. lol
I like Final Fantasy II (4) better for sentimental reasons, but I freely admit Chrono Trigger is a better game, probably the best JRPG on SNES. I still haven’t finished it, though, I’m going to have to find an emulator or something for it. Is it available on iOS?
Yup! You can download it for iOS and Android, for $15, I believe. Personally I balk at the idea of paying that much for any smartphone app, but Chrono Trigger is probably worth it. lol
I’ve never played this one, but heard good things about it. I don’t have time to game these days, aside from a little X-Box golf with my grandson. I was into the Fantasy and RPGs when I did, though.
I added you to some Twitter lists just now, and followed. I thought I’d followed you already, but apparently, no.
Happy A to Z!
Doesn’t it suck not having time for things? I definitely feel you on that one. I barely make it through the day sometimes without pulling my hair out because I never had any time to myself. @_@
Thanks for the follow! ^_^
If you loved the Final Fantasy games, you’ll love Chrono Trigger. I’m amazed that they didn’t work more of the features of these games into the Final Fantasy games (same company…) For instance, there are attacks which function on groups, based on where they are in the battle – so like different lines of attack. That’s a lot of fun.
And then multiple endings! And great characters! Okay, Final Fantasy has that last one too… 🙂
To be honest, I’ve never even heard of this game before. I do remember playing all the original Nintendo games as a child at friends houses, and to be honest, I miss the old days of simple video games. Who didn’t love Duck Hunt, Super Mario Brothers, and the original Oregon Trail?
*hurk* Oh, my heart…I think I’m dying. lol
I agree with you that some of the oldest games were the best. I’ve been dying to play Oregon Trial for ages. XD But really, it kills me a little inside that you’ve never heard of Chrono Trigger. It was kind of a big deal! lol
I still feel that Chrono Trigger did better as a game where your decisions mattered than a big name modern game like, say, Mass Effect 3. The idea that you could face the final boss anytime from really early, to once you’ve done every little thing in the game… Mass Effect 3 has a series of main events you MUST complete to face the final showdown. How much cooler might it have been if you could have said “the heck with good ideas!” and just charged in early, for the ridiculous challenge of it? And then the multiple endings could have come from that. Ah well…
You’ve definitely made me want to play Chrono Trigger again 😀
Every time I THINK about Chrono Trigger I want to play it again. lol I remember the first time I realized that you could face Lavos right at the beginning of a New Game +…the “Developers” ending cracked me up!
Oh I could check out that ending really easily… I’ve actually only finished it once so I’ve only seen one ending! Seems like a good reason to play again 😀