Time travel is probably the most misused narrative device of all time. When used improperly, all time travel does is confuse the viewer and needlessly complicates your storyline. See the fifth season of Lost for a truly horrendous example of the time travel trope gone horribly wrong. Chrono Trigger is not one of these awful time travel stories. In fact, it’s pretty amazing time travel story. The game was first released on the Super Nintendo in 1995 and is one of the most unique JRPGs to date. This is mostly due to the dream team of Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of the Final Fantasy series, as lead designer; Yuji Horii, the creator of the Dragon Quest series, as one of the main writers; Akira Toriyama, the famed manga artist behind Dragon Ball, on character, monster, and world design; and famed Japanese composers Nobuo Uematsu and Yasunori Mitsuda on lead guitar and drums. Chrono Trigger managed to shake-up the usual JRPG formula with some unique bits and turned the whole genre on its head. It’s unfortunate that the genre then just flipped back over without any lasting effect, but it was a good try nonetheless.
Chrono Trigger starts out simply enough: you are Crono, or since I was given the option to name him whatever I wanted and I hold myself as a paragon of maturity: Boner, a young lad in the year 1000 A.D. on his way to partake in the Millennium Fair. The Millennium Fair is a celebration held every one thousand years to celebrate the founding of the great kingdom of Gaurdia. So this is the first one, in case you can’t put two and two together. But before you can truly get down with your silent protagonist self, you run into another young whippersnapper: the in-disguise tomboy Princess Marle. After some friendly games of stealing an old man’s lunch and extreme robot fighting, you are invited to participate in the grand unveiling of your tech lady-friend’s new experiment: a teleporter. However, the experiment goes awry and the princess is sent back in time, leaving everyone around you to assume you want to save this girl whom you had just met literally ten minutes ago. So, you are sent screaming into the past and subsequently set forth on your quest across time.
After time-hopping a few more times, you discover that in the year 1999 the world is destroyed by Lavos, an ancient evil monster. So, being the good-natured mute that you are, Boner and company set forth on a quest across time in order to (say it with me) save the world! Joining you on your quest is the previously mentioned techie princess, but along with them are a robot named Robo, a frog knight named Frog, Ayla the cave woman, and a mystery companion whom I won’t spoil for you. This motley crew of heroes each has their strengths and weaknesses and, unlike other RPGs. For most of the game you can call upon any of them at a moment’s notice and switch out whomever you want for any situation that may come your way. And you’ll need to because you’ll be facing monsters, mutants, dinosaurs, corrupt warriors, and the occasional all-powerful sorcerer.
The gameplay is actually fairly unique for a JRPG, even after eighteen years of games following it. Instead of the usual RPG mechanic of teleporting the player to a wide-open field that looks similar to the overworld or dungeon once you engage combat with an enemy, Chrono Trigger has you fight the monster right where you encountered it. And there are no random encounters in the overworld or in any of the dungeons. All the enemies are usually onscreen or they rudely jump onto the screen without asking. So it is kind of like a random encounter system, but you don’t want to break your controller in half out of frustration. It’s a brilliant system and it is unfortunate that it never caught on. I like to think that, if it had, JRPGs would still be around. And do not kid yourselves; JRPGs have all but fallen off the grid in recent years, which is a shame. And especially since Chrono Trigger does so many things right within the genre that set it apart. There’s practically no stupid teenage angst, the plot is very straightforward and shockingly easy to follow for a time travel story, and everyone’s hair conforms to the laws of gravity for the most part.
Something else I really like about this game is how it invokes nostalgia for me, even though I hadn’t played until a few years ago. That can be credited to Mr. Akira Toriyama and my childlike love of the world of Dragon Ball and all its spin-offs. Sure it is a very silly show and everyone spends most of their time yelling really loud and standing around, but there are some truly good elements within all that testosterone that makes it all worthwhile. And it all transfers over to Chrono Trigger, making that world feel like an extension of Dragon Ball and it really sucks me in. If anyone else out there still holds a flickering candle in their heart for the Z-Warriors and their allies, then you are honor-bound to check out Chrono Trigger for that loyalty alone.
Chrono Trigger had been released on a multitude of consoles over the years and should be available to purchase on the Nintendo eShop, PlayStation Store, iOS, and on the Nintendo DS. If there’s a lull in your personal game calendar anywhere in the near future, be sure to fill it with Chrono Trigger. If you haven’t played it before, it’s by far one of the best RPGs out there. And if you have played it before, don’t you think it’s about time you played it again? I know you want to. The Wings of Time awaits, friend. Don’t keep it waiting for too long.
