Wednesday 20 February, 2008

GAMEPLAY

Played through my third hour now and it's still as good as I remember it. The real story of this game doesn't really come out until you're about 3 or 4 hours into it, maybe more if you're into level grinding your characters. As you meet more party members in different time lines, more and more of the story is revealed. The music is great as well even though they were made for a 10 year old system. Every song fits the mood and atmosphere of your surroundings perfectly.

DESIGN

As I said before, the battle system in Chrono Trigger was really innovative. It adds an amount of strategy in the way you fight because of the different areas of effects each technique has. Some techniques strike in a line, while others affect a small area. Enemies are always moving around during battle so you have to decide on the appropriate technique to use. It also brings your party members into play. Since everyone has different combo attacks, you'll start deciding on which party members to bring in order to use certain abilities. The overworld backgrounds and settings fit in very well with the various time periods. The future, 2300 AD, looks exactly like it should after the destruction of the world with the coming of Lavos: ruined, stormy, and bleak. This is enhanced by all the dark colors used for the settings. Another good example is in 600 AD, where the country is in a state of war against monsters. There's a very nice fog effect that envelops the world during that era which really sets the mood.

This is also one of the first RPGs that had any amount of replay value. There are 13 different endings for the game, each one depending on the actions you take in each time era. The sidequests that you can partake in add even more to the story by giving the background stories of all your characters. There aren't too many RPG games out there that really flesh out their characters. Unfortunately, the same can't be said about your main character, Crono. He's one of your typical silent protagonists like Link from the Zelda games. For me, it sort of detracts from the game experience because your hero doesn't really have a voice or personality. Silent protagonists are supposed to make you feel like you're in the game because you become the character's voice, but I was never really a fan of them.

And since I'm talking about the bad side of things here, I think I should list a couple other issues that I had. One problem is the difficulty. The game is a bit on the easy side, especially once you get the more powerful equipment and spells. It's also a little shorter than the usual 100 hour Final Fantasy game which is more a nitpick for me, but it should be a decent length for other players. All in all, Chrono Trigger is one the best RPGs ever made by Square Enix. It's a bit of a shame that the series was never continued past Chrono Cross. Hopefully, another sequel will be released, or maybe even a remake. Either way, this is a game that all RPG players should definitely check out.

This is great, keep it up.

Amy Leek (grader)

PS. I kinda feel that if CT was any longer, it would be a pain to play through again and again. It's exactly the length it needs to be. More RPGs need to learn that.