I LOVE CHRONO TRIGGER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
1. Music
Music is first? Why music? Isn't gameplay more important, or at least story since this is an RPG? They will come in due time. The fact is, the soundtrack to Chrono Trigger is fucking amazing.
Fun Fact: The soundtrack was mostly done by Yasunori Mitsuda, who was previously a sound engineer, and was overseen by Nobuo Uematsu of Final Fantasy fame. Uematsu took over for 10 of the game's 54 tracks after Mitsuda developed stomach ulcers because he was working so hard (damn!).
So, music. Start up the game, and we get a pendulum swinging with some atmospheric music playing. Nice set-up, but I'm not feeling wowed. But if you let it sit, the intro video comes up, with scenes from the game, credits, and, oh yeah, KICKASS THEME SONG! Seriously, this is the kind of music that gets your blood pumping. I love the very subtle opening of Final Fantasy VI as well, but once the main theme of Chrono Trigger starts going, you know this is going to be a badass adventure. It really sounds like the prelude to an epic quest to save the world. Oh, wait, did I say save the world? Sorry for the typo. I meant to say save the world, 3 freaking times! Most heroes call it quits after one time. Not Chrono's crew.
You thought you were down/Thought you were gone/Saw no heroes around/You felt all alone/But look up in the sky/See the Epoch fly/See us in everytime, everywhere/Save the world for you
But it's more than just the track, it's about the track coupled with the opening. Videogame music can be really amazing compositionally; the kind of thing you'd buy if it was on a cd completely unrelated to the game. I hate Twilight, but I like Solar Midnight, and it's so unrelated that I don't feel any sort of contradiction there. Sometimes the music just works well within the game; it fits so well that you hardly notice how much it enhances the experience. I'd probably put the soundtracks to killer7 and No More Heroes in this category. Now, rarely, you get videogame compositions that do both. But Chrono Trigger, man...It's really beautiful. The music is amazing, but it feels like it belongs, and soon the game and the music become inextricable. I hear the music, and I remember all the time periods, the characters, and the epic battles from the game, but it doesn't just feel like association. I associate Castelvania: Circle of the Moon with forests, my aunt and uncle, my grandma, and Final Fantasy bestiality pronz (you could ask, but then I'd have to show you pictures of porn and my grandma at the same time, which would probably lead to some uncomfortable associations involving boners).
Wark Wark!
The point is, association is different from being intimately connected. The music of Chrono Trigger is matched perfectly with the game world, which is what makes it so fantastic. Beautiful on it's own, perfectly crafted within the game, the music is simply a masterpiece.
I'm not gonna go on about individual songs, even if I want to; maybe some day, cause I really just wanna go off about Frog's Theme, Magus' Battle music, all the music in 12,000 B.C. it's all so amazing.
I should make a few last notes before moving on. One is that the songs are long; for game music of that time I mean. Games songs have to loops, unless it's during a cutscene. Maybe you get up to make a sandwich. Wouldn't it be weird if the music just stopped after 4 minutes? So, of course game music loops, but some people take advantage of it, especially in the old days. Make some beeps for about 20 seconds and then loop it, but not Chrono Trigger. Chrono Trigger doesn't fuck around with that weak ass shit. These songs are around two minutes before they loop.
This man is not one to fuck with that weak ass shit.
Lastly, this music is beloved by so many. There are several entire remix albums dedicated to this music, some official but many fan made. Aside from full projects there are countless remixes. OC Remix (which employs a judging system so not every entry is accepted) has 131 remixes just from Chrono Trigger, not counting their own remix album Chrono Symphonic. Okay, I've gone on about the music enough. Lets move on to gameplay.2)Gameplay
At first glance, the gameplay seems pretty straight forward for an RPG, but there is some nice variety to mix it up. For one, at the beginning of the game you can choose between turn based battles or ATB (Active Time Battles). ATB basically means that time keeps going as you choose your moves, so even if it's your turn, taking time to pick out the moves gives the enemies time to attack. Another nice feature is the tech system. So, techs are basically special moves, and you get new techs by getting tech points from battling. The cool part comes in when you get dual and triple techs. What this means is, when you have gotten certain techs for two or more characters, you will learn a move that combines them, and as long as all included characters turns are up, you can do the dual or triple techs. Aside from that, the special moves are really cool, and go beyond the basic "cast fire", "super sword strike". The more unique ones come from Frog and Robo though. Oh, yeah. One of the characters you play as is an anthropomorphic frog knight from the Middle Ages.
Slice those fiends/Protect Cyrus' dream/Slice those fiends/Use the froggy slip-stream/Slice those fiends/My techs'll make 'em scream/Slice those fiends/My song's an old world theme, drums and flute sing
Now, this is where it gets tricky because, like all great games, Chrono Trigger's gameplay is very much interwoven with it's story. My favorite part of the gameplay is definitely the time travel elements. Oh, right. SPOILERS: They travel through time if you didn't get that from, you know, Chrono being in the game's title, or read any basic description of the game. But, returning to the point at hand, I love the time travel mechanics for one reason; THEY FUCKING MAKE SENSE. You know how time travel plots always seem so stupid, because the mechanics don't make sense? Well, play Chrono Trigger, because the shit makes sense. When you go into the past and change things, things actually change in believable ways. And sometimes, you have to go back to the past to fix the shit you changed in the first place so the timeline doesn't go bonkers. I'd put up a picture of Bonkers the cat/police officer here and make a comment about how as a kid I liked the bonkers game, but will any of you get it? No, no you won't.
Anyway, the point is the gameplay is fantastic, and honestly you need to play it to fully understand how well it works. That's about all I can say about it.
III. Characters
So, you have time travel. How can you make the best use of it? How about having characters from all across time. You want robots? Done! Fucking robots! Robots with lasers! Shadow lasers! "But Justin, shadow lasers? That makes no sense." Fuck you; fuck you with shadow lasers.
Pictured: Not shadow lasers, but the closest approximation of their awesomeness.
(note: Some physicists theorize the existence of dark matter and dark energy, so Chrono Trigger's shadow lasers may have been decades ahead of scientific progress, which makes sense because the robot comes from the future. That should have blown your mind.)
What else do you want? Knights? Forget that shit! Frog knights! Frog knights with magic swords and magic...magic, I guess. He can use water elemental magic...to the extreme!
What else is cool? How about scythes. You know who uses scythes as weapons? Death, from Castelvania. Yeah, the dude who was always the coolest boss next to Dracula. Now, give him a badass, dark, intense theme song. That's a start. Okay, now give him magic. No, you're doing it all wrong! You're sprinkling it on there like a timid chef who is afraid of making the potatoes too salty. No, you take that bag of magic and just empty that whole thing. Okay, we're getting closer. Finally, add a cape. Now take all that, put it in a bowl, mix the FUCK out of it, and what do you get?
PENIS! I mean, MAGUS!
Is this cool enough for you? How about a Caveman? Well, this was turning into a sausage fest, so they made it a cavewoman.
What's the problem with a sausage fest?
Now, granted, she is the strongest character in the game, and has a very sexy dom feel to her, but one thing always bothered me about the prehistoric people in this game. They speak English/Japanese depending on where you bought the game, but they speak it like a 6 year old who doesn't understand basic grammar. So, these people came up with a complex language which has lasted at least 65,002,300 years, but are too stupid to speak it correctly? What?
Why can't all cavemen be this studious?
Rounding off our cast are three heroes from the present. We have Lucca, the resident girl genius with giant glasses who uses guns and, eventually, laser guns. Also, when I say she has giant glasses, I mean these things can see the dark side of the moon. They are bigger than her head. She also has fire magic and bombs. Personally, she is my favorite of the female characters, even though I admit that Ayla would probably fuck like a tiger, quite literally in fact. But I really like that nerdy, smart girl archetype, so yeah. We also have Marle, the most useless character in the game, and by useless, I mean she is the healer, which is stupid because basically everyone in the game has one healing tech. The only reason for ever putting her in your party is because her dual techs with Lucca are cool. But really, she's stupid and a ditz and What Is Wrong With You Chrono! Lucca Is The True Love Of Your Life! Lucca/Chrono Foreverz! Clearly The Writers Didn't Understand Their Own Characters! Waaaaaaaaah!
So, rounding out our cast is, of course, the main hero Chrono, who continues the grand tradition of main characters who use swords. His was a simple life, living in the village of Truce.
I'm from a city in the northwest/best city in the whole wide wide world, hey/city in the whole wide world, hey/city in the whole wide world/ I got that go go go go go go go go go go Chrono flow
At the end of the day, the characters are imaginative, fun, and memorable. Everything any good fictional characters should be.
Honestly, I have nothing to say here. Everything you need to know about the story without spoilers has already been said by the gameplay, characters, and music, and that is what makes this game so fantastic. Everything just fits together perfectly and builds upon each other to make something that is much greater than the sum of it's parts, and it's parts were already pretty bitchin'.
Chrono Trigger. One of the best games ever. Fin.
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