In 1995, Christmas came twice, with the first one falling on March 11 when Chrono Trigger came out on the SNES. After that, it was sort of hard to get as excited about the one in December. After all, was regular Christmas developed by Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of Final Fantasy, Yuji Horii, the creator of Dragon Quest, and THE Akira Toriyama?
True, Akira Toriyama’s designs—very reminiscent of Dragon Ball—only really came through in the official art and were kind of lost in the pixel art-style. But through the eyes of an excited kid, they were still there if you just believed. Although, this raises an important question: was Chrono Trigger really as good as everyone remembers, or was it all just nostalgia? How does the game hold up when seen through the eyes of an adult 30 years later? Let’s take a look.
Lots of Bells and Whistles Obscuring Hidden Depths
Chrono Trigger is an RPG about the silent protagonist Crono (not a typo) and other colorful characters from different points in history traveling through time to stop the end of the world at the hands of the game’s Big Bad, the alien eldritch monster known as Lavos. So far, so very JRPG, which are mandated by law to end with you trying to kill god or the next best thing.
The game mechanics were quite innovative, though. Encounters with enemies happened on the regular map instead of the gameplay transitioning to a separate battle arena, and characters could combine some of their attacks into new and exciting combos. Even the seamless blend of sci-fi and fantasy and a heavy emphasis on time travel were breaking new ground. But underneath it all, the game was deep in ways many of us may not have fully understood at the time.
Take Frog for example, an anthropomorphic amphibian knight on a quest to avenge his best friend, Cyrus. During the first playthrough, it was so easy to not look past that, file Frog under “animal character with sword” and let him have his revenge. But that didn’t result in any closure, which can only be found in an optional sidequest. In a game about time travel, you’d think that would involve saving Cyrus but, no, the quest ends with Frog giving Cyrus’ ghost closure, since he died worrying about the people he left behind. But once he sees that his friend has grown stronger and can now protect others, he can finally rest in peace. The dead stay dead but their loved ones keep them alive by following their example. Three decades later and this still feels downright revolutionary.
When Choices (and Death) Matter
Chrono Trigger didn’t invent the idea of multiple endings but, to this day, it remains one of the finest executions of the concept. The game can end in 12 unique ways depending entirely on your choices. The time you get to Lavos, saving or killing an enemy, the way you fight the final boss – all of that matters. There’s beauty, meaning, and lots of fun to be found in games that effectively put you on rails and only give you the illusion of choice. But the player-fueled interactive nature of Chrono Trigger gets to the very heart of games as an art form.
And the thing players are still thankful for is the game’s invention of New Game Plus: the ability to restart the game with the same levels and gear, and get all the alternative endings without having to beat the entire thing from scratch each time. This was great for all of us who wondered… What if we let Crono stay dead this time?
At one point during the game, Crono, the main character, is killed. And when that happened the first time, gamers everywhere thought: “What did I do wrong? When was the last time I saved? Wait, why is the game continuing?” The realization that Crono’s death was an unavoidable part of the plot absolutely blew our minds. It felt… against the rules. The game later gave us the option to bring Crono back and of course many gamers took it because it felt like that was what we were supposed to do. But it wasn’t necessary. It’s possible to complete the game without Crono because when Chrono Trigger says that choices matter, it means it.
Giving the Players Just Enough but Not Too Much (Plus Great Music)
Chrono Trigger’s soundtrack has been praised for nearly a third of a century and is now considered some of the best video game music ever. Nobody’s disputing that. Everyone’s too busy debating the nature of free will, destiny, and the real force behind the events of Chrono Trigger.
In the game, the players travel through history using time gates, which can be triggered by magic or tech but which we assume were originally the creation of Lavos. In one sidequest, though, a different idea is put forward. What if the gates were created by a different god-like entity to guide the heroes for its own purposes? A lot of the character development in Chrono Trigger deals with asking just how much we can truly fight destiny, like how Marle is trying to be more than a princess or how Robo the robot is going against his programming. Pushing against the forces of time/the universe is common in time-travel stories, but with so much choice given to the players in Chrono Trigger, the answer surely must be that, yes, you can go against destiny.
However, a popular theory based on hints in the dialogue says that the time gates were actually the creation of Earth, which was protecting itself from Lavos like a living organism. If true, it completely recontextualizes the plot of the game. It makes our choices and “free will” meaningless details in some Grand Plan that we have no control over. On an individual level, the details are all that matter to us, but from the point of view of an entire planet, they couldn’t matter less. So… are we really free or just tools in the hands of a being that we’ll never fully comprehend? This debate is still going on 30 years later and it’s based entirely on just a few lines of text. That is a true mark of greatness that Chrono Trigger wears proudly and will continue to do so for years to come.
