A new breed of species....the Chronosexual......is born.
Written: Sep 25 '08 (Updated Oct 17 '08)
Product Rating:
Pros:
Great storyline, characters. There's cats! Funny clowns too! Time travel!
Cons: Few, if any------but the game is fairly open-ended.
The Bottom Line: Do you know what it means to be a chronosexual? If you're in love with time and time travel, then come on in! Party's just gettin' started....
imprimis2's Full Review: Chrono Trigger for PlayStation 1
Namesake sometimes means the difference between someone or some other entity that's entirely noteworthy and honorable, or a being that's entirely crushed by infamous remarks.
I used to have a cat named "Cat." I know that doesn't sound like the most creative name in the world, but to me, he always was and always will be my beloved "Cat." That name by itself conjures up memories of the times he would come running to the back door when my sister, mom or I would holler "Chicken! Chicken! Cat! (there's) Chicken (waiting for you)!"
He always would come running back. I miss the poor guy.
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What does this have to do with Chrono Trigger, you ask? Well, the namesake of the game alone is enough to conjure up great memories for all the people that have enjoyed this venerable game, but also for this die-hard RPG enthusiast.
Some of the fondest moments I enjoyed in Chrono Trigger revolved around a cat, and around the splendorous showing of namesake. With characters that sound what they look like, the onomatopoeia-esque world of Chrono Trigger continues to inspire and amaze me--and remind me of my beloved "Cat."
At the start of the game, you, Crono, wake up in your mother's house as she's telling you to prepare for the Millennial Fair that's taking place just northeast of Leene Square.
Once you get control of the red-haired guy, you eventually are able to make your groggy way out of the bed and downstairs to the living room and kitchen---and guess what greets you once you get there? Your best friend, your cat---who follows you around and meows behind you, making sure you have good company. Not only that, the whole house emanated that "cozy" feel.
I couldn't help not to smile.
In addition to that, while the game's producers might not have been so creative as to make obscure character names, the ones that stick out in my mind are also the ones that are easiest to roll off the tongue. Frog, the noble human transformed into a FROG that eventually comes to fight with you and your band of friends (who also does a fantastic job of slashing through entire mountains with the Masamune sword,) Robo the ROBOT from the future, that, with the help of Lucca, your scientific and do-it-yourself homegrown engineer, come to assist you in your galactic quest, and Magus, the all-powerful MAGICIAN, completely decked out in his glorious cape, help to round out the sense of the "band of brothers and sisters." It's truly a party for the ages you'll not soon forget.
CHRONO TRIGGER---STORYLINE
Well--knowing what we do about "chronology," we should be able to unearth the fact that time plays a big part of the storyline here. In fact, not only will you learn about time, but you'll actually be able to go back and forward in time, as well as visiting the present, to help mold, shape, and change consequential events in history to help achieve a positive affect on the planet.
"What's my ultimate goal," you ask?
Well, Lavos, a powerful entity, has somehow transcended from the heavens and has entered the Earth and embedded himself within said planet's crust in the year 1999 A.D., emanating a powerful magical and physical field that affects everything around him--and not just in 1999-----No. Prince would be utterly disgusted. Instead, he inhabits and transcends ALL time, going back millions of years and also millions of years into the future.
He causes dragons, imps, and humans to fight against one another; he causes nobility to develop complex and grandiose schemes and corruption in order to further its own cause, and he overall generally causes the entire planet to run amok with deviance. It's your ultimate goal to give him a good tail-kicking and restore peace and civilized order to the planet. Otherwise.....well, we just won't go there.
So, like any other RPG, you set out on your journey to kill Lavos, but before you get there, you'll be fighting all types of hordes of monsters, demons, and sometimes apparitions that haunt the landscape. Whatever needs to be done, you'll get done--for the sake of humanity.
CHRONO TRIGGER----MUSIC
Chrono Trigger is the only game to this day that I've actually listened to the music for BEFORE I actually played the game. The musical composition was mastered by the famous artists Yasunori Mitsuda and Nobuo Oematsu. Thanks to Khendra for the contribution! The music is very well done, and meets right up there in quality with music from Final Fantasy 7---one of the best RPGs in history in my book.
Just listen to the fanfare music, and you'll be hooked. Or perhaps it's Ayla's theme, from 6,500,000 BC that will make your ears perk up. Either way, there's always something that fits the mood and atmosphere, and you'll remember the tune for weeks and months to come. In fact, I still go to various websites and listen to a few melodies from the game now and then to remember how much fun I had.
Go to any castle, forest, fort, or dungeon and take a listen for yourself. See? Doesn't that sound good? I thought so! Does pretty good for the limitations of its time, dont ya think?
Each musical selection generally fits the area you're exploring. One of my favorite areas is the church you'll visit at the start of the game. In order to get a secret door to open, you'll have to play an organ which then plays a Dracula-esque tune (it reminds me of old horror fare) that will lead the way to your next destination.
The battle theme music is fairly repetitive, but most RPGs fall into this trap, so prepare for fast-paced simplistic "ditties" that help fill in the expanses while you're beating a Roly or a Poly, or...a Roly Poly...oh, what the heck---or even a Roly Rider... to death.
The music in the castle takes on what I guess I would call a "knightly" tone. You know that you're set out on a big quest, so the makers of Chrono Trigger didn't put in a rolling rock tune here---it sounds like the same kind of stuff you'd hear in a medieval knighting movie. Maybe something along the lines of Marines or Army--you know, that good "fighting and getting stuff done" music. No, you won't hear Battle Hymn of the Republic being played, but you can't blame yourself if the general nature of the music isn't that far down the road from it.
As another example, go to the prehistoric village some 10 million years into the past, and you'll note the chants and tribal "ooohs" and "aaahs" that the villagers have incorporated into their music, along with the hollow drums that help round out the melody.
Nearly all of the music in Chrono Trigger fits the bill, and fits it quite nicely.
If you're interested, you can go to http://bluelaguna.net/music/ct/mp3s.php to listen to some of the most remembered hits from the game. All files should be able to be launched from your internet browser internally.
CHRONO TRIGGER----MECHANICS
Character action in Chrono Trigger is similar to other RPGs in the mid to late 90's. Most character parties consist of three players who have an arsenal of attack sequences and magical spells to help their players take out a brutal assault on the enemy, and/or heal themeselves and their allies.
The one difference with Chrono Trigger is that certain attacks have areal effects. For instance, if you have two enemies that are lined up in a straight line next to each other, you can choose to coordinate a two-player attack that effectively hits two enemies at a time. These attacks are also known as "Techs" that your players can learn as they progress through the story. Each character comes with several Tech 1 (solo) attacks, as well as a handful of Tech 2 (two player attacks) and Tech 3 (entire party) physical attack techniques. These can come in handy when you're in a pinch, or if you have enough free Magic Points, when you just feel like blowing everything to smithereens. Yes, at the time, this was actually a "new" thing--and it's revolutionary enough for its time that it still comes off clean and fresh, even in 2008.
As you progress through the game, your character will not only increase levels, but also earn Tech Points which help unlock new tech skills for that character to use. Pretty nifty, eh?
I also especially like how more than one character has the ability to heal other characters, as Frog, Lucca, Ayla and Robo (I believe) have the ability to use healing spells if they're in your active party. Wonderful!
Characters also have the ever-present grab bag of items like Elixirs, Heals (items that recover you from status ailments,) Lapises (entire party gets healed for 200 HP each character,) and Ethers (which restore magic points used for magic attacks.) All of these can be purchased from your friendly (or sometimes not-so-friendly...buttheads from 600 A.D.) merchants in town.
CHRONO TRIGGER---GAMEPLAY
Well, when it comes right down to it, there's a lot of "schtuff" I really, really like about Chrono Trigger. While the game feels a bit haphazard at points (this is due to the fact that the game is somewhat open ended, with numerous ending scenes after you defeat Lavos at the end,) the overall tying bond is the namesake and charming nature of the whole thing.
I have yet to play a video game, except Final Fantasy 7, where I felt like I had real consequence on the world. How many times have I, or YOU, for that matter, been able to go both back in time AND transport to the future AND change people's minds, AND save the queen, AND repair a robot, AND help save a town from invading soldiers AND visit a city in the sky AND realize the power of dreams AND be the captain of your own airship, the Epoch, AND consequentially rescue the entire planet from the brink of destruction? Yeah, that's what I thought. You OWE it to yourself to play this masterpiece.
CHRONO TRIGGER---GRAPHICS If you can imagine for a moment, going back to a fantasy world, particularly that of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, you would be fondly reminded of the graphics that encompassed most of the video games on that system. While I did not play the original version of this game housed on said console, from what I read on the back of the Final Fantasy Chronicles CD that I DID play the game on (from PlayStation,) it looks like most of the game's graphical elements remained intact.
The game is played on an entirely 2-D world, which means you won't encounter any special shadowing effects or sophisticated lighting techniques. Don't let that fool you, however. There are certain areas that you'll play in and explore (for instance, the Snow Planet from A.D. 2300) that feel realistic enough to suck you into the game. As a benchmark for the previous statement, when you enter the snow planet in the future, you'll be greeted with a realistic enough portrayal of what Earth might look like 300 years in advance, with lightning flashing and thunder rumbling, while snow blows past you at a frantic pace. The music takes on a rather ominous tone as well, giving you a sense of desolation and fear of the still yet further out future that is unknown.
Level designs are fairly simple to explain. In any dungeon, city, or other enclosed area, there will be monsters to fight, and you'll have to make your way through various caves, mountains and valleys in order to get your party from one city to the next. You can easily tell which areas are valleys (obviously by the green shading and the boulders on screen---some even attack you), and which areas are mountainous (by the wind blowing and snow rushing past your active character---or perhaps even by all the white stuff weighing down on the barren trees,) like on Death Peak.
Other special effects are added when Crono or any other of your party members (or enemies even) make a magical attack on the battlefield. Sit back and watch as stars or vivid lightning bolts light up your screen as Crono unleashes his Lightning or Luminaire attacks. Again, this is nothing as graphically sophisticated as a game like Final Fantasy X in terms of radiating beams of light in millions of colors across a small space on your TV screen, but it gets the job done.
CHRONO TRIGGER---FINAL THOUGHTS
There's lots of other information that I haven't included here that points to the overall storyline and schematic of the gameplay, but that's up for you to figure out, because I'm not spoiling all the fun for you. The discoveries you'll make in the game just may have you screaming "EUREKA!" at the top of your lungs, but if not, you will definitely have a big smile on your face, just like I did, when everything wraps up and you marvel in your own glory for saving the planet.
CHRONO Trigger is a top-of the notch game that cannot be ignored. Pick it up on the Final Fantasy Chronicles CD like I did, and prepare yourself for the ride of a lifetime.
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