Chrono Trigger SNES Review: Why It's Still the RPG Everyone Talks About
Ask a room full of retro gamers to name the best RPG on the Super Nintendo and you will start a friendly argument. Ask them to name their top three and Chrono Trigger will be on almost every list. Released by Square in 1995, it is a time travel adventure that somehow fits seven eras, seven heroes, and more than a dozen endings onto one cartridge.
If you are wondering whether Chrono Trigger is still worth playing today, the short answer is yes. Here is the longer one.
The Dream Team Behind It
Chrono Trigger was built by a lineup that sounds made up. Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of Final Fantasy. Yuji Horii, the creator of Dragon Quest. Akira Toriyama, the artist behind Dragon Ball, drawing the characters and monsters. The soundtrack was written mostly by Yasunori Mitsuda, with Nobuo Uematsu helping finish it.
That kind of team could have produced a mess of big egos. Instead it produced a game where every piece fits.
What Is Chrono Trigger About
It starts small. Crono wakes up late for the Millennial Fair in the year 1000 AD, bumps into a girl named Marle, and wanders over to see his friend Lucca demo her new teleporter. The teleporter misfires, Marle vanishes through a rip in time, and Crono jumps in after her.
From there the trip gets bigger fast. You visit the age of dinosaurs in 65,000,000 BC, a floating magic kingdom in 12,000 BC, a medieval war in 600 AD, and a ruined future in 2300 AD where you learn the world is going to end. Your job is to find out why, and stop it.
Along the way you pick up one of the best parties on the system: Lucca the inventor, Frog the knight, Robo the robot, Ayla the cavewoman who punches dinosaurs, and a few surprises we will not spoil.
Gameplay and Combat
Chrono Trigger uses Square's Active Time Battle system, so turns come on a timer and hesitating costs you. What made it feel new in 1995 is that enemies show up right on the map. There is no screen swirl into a separate battle arena. You see the fight coming, and the battle happens where you are standing.
The real star is the Tech system. Each hero has their own moves, but two or three party members can combine them into Dual Techs and Triple Techs. Crono's sword plus Lucca's fire becomes a flaming spin attack. Where enemies stand matters too, since some attacks hit in a line or a circle. Picking your party becomes a puzzle you actually want to solve.
Time Travel That Actually Matters
Lots of games use time travel as a backdrop. Chrono Trigger makes you use it. Plant something in the past and it grows in the future. Help someone in one era and their descendants remember it centuries later. The side quests near the end are some of the best on the SNES, because almost every one of them ties a character's story to a specific moment in time.
New Game Plus and All Those Endings
Beat the game and you can start over with your levels and gear through New Game Plus, one of the games that made the idea popular. Since you can challenge the final boss at different points in the story, there are more than a dozen endings to find. Some are touching, some are just silly. It is a big reason people replay Chrono Trigger every few years.
Music and Graphics
The soundtrack is the part people bring up first. "Corridors of Time", "Frog's Theme", "Wind Scene", and "To Far Away Times" still get covered by orchestras and bands today. Mitsuda squeezed sounds out of the SNES that most games never came close to.
Visually it is classic mid 90s Square at its best. Toriyama's characters are full of personality, and every era has its own look and color palette, so you always know when you are.
Is Chrono Trigger Worth Playing Today
Absolutely. It is not a 100 hour grind. Most players finish a first run in around 20 to 25 hours, the pacing barely drags, and there is very little busywork. If you have never played a classic RPG, it is one of the friendliest places to start. If you have, it is the one you will want to come back to.
SillyJoystick Score: 9.6 out of 10. We take off a little only because once you finish, everything else feels slow.
Already Beaten It? Try the Fan Versions
Chrono Trigger fans love this game so much they built new adventures inside it. These are fan made projects, not official Square releases, and they are best played after you finish the original.
- Chrono Trigger: Crimson Echoes. A fan made sequel from the Chrono Compendium community that brings back the original cast for a brand new story after the events of the first game.
- Chrono Trigger: Flames of Eternity. A reworked take on Crimson Echoes by a different fan, with its own changes to the story and more to explore.
- Chrono Trigger: Prophet's Guile. A shorter fan made prequel that follows Magus as the mysterious Prophet in the Kingdom of Zeal. A great pick if he was your favorite.
Press Start on Chrono Trigger
Ready to jump through the time gate? We carry Chrono Trigger for SNES in NTSC and PAL versions, and every cartridge is tested before it ships. Blowing on the cartridge optional.