Notes on Chrono Trigger (1995)
It’s been a week since I’ve finished Chrono Trigger. I just wanted to make a quick Facebook post at first, but here I am, a week later, still listening to the game’s soundtrack and thinking it deserves more. This “review” will have spoilers.
(November 14, 2021: This text was written when I was 19 years old and comparatively worse at writing. I’m keeping it for sentimental value, probably.)
Gameplay, Character Development, Art
Chrono Trigger is a 1995 Super Nintendo Entertainment System Japanese role-playing game (JRPG). It’s become a classic and is considered to be one of the best SNES games.
The gameplay is good. Story progression occurs at a reasonable pace and there is little need for grinding, which is tremendously important. The difficulty is also fine, you really only need to start over a handful of times. I want to point out that I usually dislike RPG gameplay, and nonetheless enjoyed CT’s.
Character development wasn’t a major element in Chrono Trigger. Chrono (or Crono) doesn’t speak a lot, though, notably, every other character has at least somewhat of an “arc” dedicated to them. The characters always comment on events and you choose whom you want to get more familiar with by having them on your team.
The art is decent for its age, and some scenes, such as the one when looking at Magus’ Castle, or when climbing the Corridors of Time, were beautiful.
The Music
The music? The music in Chrono Trigger is fantastic! In fact, the only reason I decided to play the game is because I first found out about the music. Technical limits were absolutely pushed for what SNES could do. Much of the OST contains so-called nonfunctional harmony. This, in turn, ends up forming a unique atmosphere, one without a definitive structure and predictability. It plays with your expectations.
Therefore, every scene’s atmosphere is excellently reinforced with appropriate music. How about Confusing Melody in the creepy castle of Magus? The Mysterious Forest you go through to reach the Guardia Castle? The epic Undersea Palace theme, signifying the moment when all the timelines start making sense and the climax begins building up? Or my favorite, the music in Manoria Cathedral — so holy, yet desperate?
How about Corridors of Time, one of the legendary Chrono Trigger tracks?
Or, lest I forget, an oasis of peace during the otherwise hectic storyline: At the Bottom of the Night?
The Story is Great
This game definitely has a strong story, as do many other RPGs. It’s very difficult for a game to keep (me) interested for more than 20 hours, and yet, I was invested in the game the whole time.
Chrono Trigger has a great hook. You are sort of thrown into the story and then bombarded with awesome music, mysterious events, time travel, and weird forests and cathedrals.
2,300 AD in the storyline was something different. I can’t emphasize enough how great the atmosphere was for a dystopian nightmare. The future had been stolen from everyone and their hopes and dreams were utterly shattered. The mutants in the ruins, the rats, the unbearable wind. A disgusting place to be in. And I hated it, but for what it was, it was perfect.
The next thing I remember is loving the aspect of traveling 65 million years into the past. The idea that I could travel so far back and see a clear line connecting the present and the past resonated with all the things that currently inspire my imagination. The story of Chrono Trigger’s prehistory is also very well thought out as analog to real prehistory: the lizards (the dinosaurs) died after Lavos (the asteroid) crashed down. The lizards’ leader predicts the ice age after you defeat him.
Finally, we eventually get to 12,000 BC. 12,000 BC in our time would be the end of the last glacial maximum, the ice age we think of when we say “ice age”. In Chrono Trigger, it is also the time of a fall of an advanced civilization that developed after absorbing the power of the sunstone. This civilization was much grander than anything that came before and long after it (interesting that it is then called “antiquity” in the game, resembling our own past with Rome and ancient Greece — and the architecture also reflects this). You are there to witness its downfall as its noble family suffers the consequences of trying to acquire power from Lavos.
Most of the traveling in Chrono Trigger is to the past. I appreciated how the game linked characters’ “prehistory”, “antiquity”, and “the middle ages” into a continuous line (ie. the people they are interacting with are their direct ancestors). The underlying motivation of CT’s characters was to save their descendants’ future from a horrible fate in which no one lives but the parasite who destroyed it.
The climax of the game is glorious. You are fighting a creature that has absorbed the DNA of all life on Earth. The dreadful monster has intimidated you throughout the entire game. It seemed unapproachable, it even killed you! And then, somehow, against all odds, you defeat it. Doesn’t make a lot of sense, but certainly feels fantastic.
The game hints at an ambiguous spiritual dimension, too. Two characters during different parts of the storyline note that it’s as if “something greater” opened the portals of time so that they could see the future. When the task is completed, the portals are weakened, and it appears that “that thing” is at peace.
Conclusion
Chrono Trigger is a cool game and deserves its legendary status. It has a fanciful mythical story that captivates the imagination, an inspiring message (a story of a people descended from 65 million years ago saving their future from a malicious invader), a phenomenal soundtrack, and great art. It has interesting albeit not too developed characters but has one of the better gameplay mechanics in the RPG genre.
I will quote one of the villains to conclude,
“We robots will create a new order… A nation of steel, and pure logic. A true paradise! Our “Species” will replace you… so stop your foolish struggle, and succumb to the sleep of eternity…”
And isn’t it too bad that they failed? Ha-ha.
Some Covers I’d Recommend
Since I liked the music of this game so much, I’ve got a few recommendations. These covers/orchestral arrangements genuinely brought the music to an entirely new level.
Fin.
