tommy_lop's Full Review: Chrono Trigger for PlayStation 1
Around 7 years ago Square made a game for the SNES that was so big that it was featured in Nintendo power magazine several times. It got so popular that 5 years later that it would cost around 100 dollars on ebay, not bad. Well after I bought Chrono Cross I decided to get this, and after tracking down a copy of Final Fantasy Chronicles I got it.
Well FFC contains both Chrono Trigger and FF4, rather then write one huge review on both games and get paid less then peanuts, I decided to write two shorter reviews, and still get paid less then peanuts.
Story.
The time is 1000 ad and Guradia is having it's millennium festival. During the festival a young scientist is trying out her latest transportation machine, when Crono's friend Marle steps into the machine something goes wrong and a time portal open's up. Crono and Lucca go after her in order to rescue her. After rescuing her and having a few other misadventures they find out that in the future a giant monster called Lavos will destroy the world and they start on there adventure through time to change history.
Now I like this story, Chrono Cross and most modern day FF games take themselves a bit too seriously. Chrono Trigger now when it's OK to relax and be a bit goofy, while it's no mystical ninja there are some pretty funny plot elements going on here.
Graphic's
The graphics didn’t push the SNES graphics and there certainly not pushing the Playstation's graphic's anywhere. They’re in 2-d over head view. The colors are bright and the animation's good, it has a bit of animesh flare to them. The graphics in this game also remind me of another SNES game called the Illusion of Gaia made by Enix.
One thing they have added over the SNES version is the new animated scenes, these scenes are done by the same company that did Dragon ball, and it shows to. Crono looks like red air Goku and Marle looks like a blond hair Bulma. The scenes help tell the story a bit better, and a few help to tie it to it's sequel Chrono Cross (for example in one Lucca find's a baby).
Sound.
The music in this game rocks, it's a good thing that squares put in a sound test. From the beginning theme to the victory tunes, to the dungeon's themes the music in this game rocks.
Gameplay
Battle system
The battles system in the game aren't quite has unique has it's sequel Chrono Cross. It's mostly bare bones Final Fantasy battle system. It has the time bars for the characters to move, to the magic spells that can be learn. There of course are weapons and armor that can be bought. Of course I shouldn’t forget the fact that leveling up is done by the typical EXP points when killing an enemy
Of course that's not saying that Chrono Trigger doesn’t have any thing unique going for it. It has the duel and triple techs. Most characters have a special move that can be done with another character, these moves are more powerful and take less magic then single tech moves.
Charecters.
While Chrono Cross had up to 40 characters to play has, Chrono Trigger only has 7, but then these are more developed then those in CC. Here they are.
Crono.
Silent Main character of the story, Crono is a boy from Tory who he meets Marle and Lucca at the millennium fair and thorough an accident sets off on a travel through all of time. Chrono is a skill user of the Katana and has some strong lighting magic.
Marle.
Unknown to Crono and Lucca at the beginning of the game Marle is actually Princess Nadia. This causes some trouble down the road when Crono gets put on trail for kidnapping her. She wears a mysterious pendent that gets the whole thing started. Marle uses Ice magic, and her Aura, and duel tech Arua whirl come in handy at the beginning of the game to heal your characters.
Lucca.
A brilliant young scientist living in Chrono village she and her father invent the transportation device that gets the whole adventure started. Lucca uses strong fire magic, and she can pull of some of the strongest duel and triple techs in the game.
Robo.
When Crono and the gang fall into a future that has been wrecked by Lavos they find Robo is a state of disrepair. Lucca quickly fixes and reprograms him. While Robo doesn’t learn any magic he does learn a few good heal spells and his physical techniques like Robo Tackle can do some serious damage to enemies.
Ayla.
Crono find this cave women in the prehistoric age. Ayla is a chief of her village and appears that they are in a middle of war with the reptites when Lavos comes out of the sky. Like Robo, Ayla doesn’t learn any real magic spells. However she can pack a punch without using any weapons. She and Frog also can do the duel tech slurp kiss that is far more effective then Aura Whirl.
Frog.
Once known has Glen a skilled if slightly cowardly knight. That is till the day when he and his friend Cyrus met the evil wizard Magus. Magus killed Cyrus and turn Glen into a half-human, half frog creature. Now Frog protects the queen of Guardia in 600 ad, while making plans to stop Magus. If power up Frog Masamune sword can do some damage, he like Maley has some impressive healing moves to. His Frog Squash tech can pull the party out of some pretty tight corners towards the end of the game.
Magus.
Evil wizard who created Lavos and seeks the destruction of humans, or misunderstood man out looking to save his sister. Crono and the gang find out that there is more to this villain then meets the eye. Now Magus is an optional but easily attain character. He's either the worse or the best character in the game. By himself he knows powerful dark magical moves that can put the hurt on enemies and use less magic then the other characters. Problem is that he doesn’t learn any duel techs, which sometimes makes him dead weight in the party.
Anything you have to say against the game.
Two things first off it's a bit easy and it only took me 20 hours to beat it the first time thorough. 2nd is the load times, while not really longer then any of the final fantasy load times, there is no special effects to cover going into battle. So what happens is your characters just stand there like idiots for the 30 seconds it takes the battle to load, and just sit there posing for a few seconds after words. It's a bit annoying but I got used to it.
Final recommendation.
FFC has both this and FF4 for around 40 dollars, and since the SNES game is about that much used now days it's a pretty good pick up.
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