Old Game Memories/Revisited: Chrono Trigger.

Chrono Trigger is a game that holds a special place in my heart. Not because it reminds me of lost childhood: I have never owned a SNES so didn't have the chance to play it when it was new. Besides, I was five when it came out, and somehow I don't think I'd have been old enough to appreciate it in the way I was enjoying, say, Sonic at the time. 

No, my first encounter with Chrono Trigger came around 7 years ago (oh god, it's really been that long) when my previous flirtation with the dark art of emulation really took a turn for the serious. In this great lull of 2004, the period that stood between getting my first good PC the previous year and building my first great gaming rig in the following one (which would lead to me falling down a rabbit hole of PC gaming that I never escaped), I became enamoured with the possibilities represented by emulation. I was able to play all the greats I remembered from my time with the Mega Drive as well as the games my SNES equipped brethren had raved about, but that I had never really had a chance to get to grips with. Soon though, I had gone far beyond the known, into the realm of games I'd never even heard of before. Alien Soldier, Wonder Boy in Monster Land, Strider, Metal Warriors, Megaman X, ActRaiser,  these titles and many more all fell into my voracious grasp. 

However, it was my love for the Final Fantasy series that really dominated the nature of the games I played. At the time, I owned every Final Fantasy that I was capable of playing, from IV-X(-2... I know, I was young and foolish). As exciting as it was to buy the newer games as they were coming out, it was the process of going backwards, of filling the earlier gaps in my collection, that really opened my eyes. Final Fantasy VI captured my imagination in a way that none of the others, even my beloved VII or XI had. A feat made all the more astonishing by the fact that I played the other two when they were pretty much new! When their visuals, at least, were fresh, shiny and exciting. The version of VI I played only had the original sprite graphics and a few added FMV sequences. Remember, this was at the time of the PS2, the game was now ostensibly two generations out of date. In spite of this, VI won me over. I loved the characters, the setting, the story, even the battle system had nuances that differentiated it from all of the other ATB based FF games. |In fact, I would still argue that Final Fantasy VI is the best of the lot.

How did this get in here?!

The most important thing Final Fantasy VI did for me though was to direct my attention to the golden age of Square and Enix' (as well as a few others) vast outpouring of titles on the SNES. Even now, I would consider the battle for best RPG console to be between the PS2 and the SNES. With this newfound knowledge my consumption of emulated games came to an all time high as I burned through 40+ hour RPGs. Some were finished, some weren't. Some (not naming any names here, Star Ocean) generated corrupt save games when I was 15 hours and totally destroyed my motivation to play any more. In this sea of Lufias and Illusion of Gaias, one name stood out, one game that rose above the rest. That game, of course, was Chrono Trigger.

Chrono Trigger held me in complete awe. Even more so than FFVI, I was enchanted by every aspect of the game. The story was great, the characters sympathetic, and the game's main idiosyncrasy: time travel, made for a fascinating way to view the world. It also gave the designers the ability to justify giving you not only very distinct scenarios to face but also vastly different environments to explore. The different time periods all very much having their own flavour that kept the game from feeling bland. It's hard to convey in words without totally deconstructing the game, but suffice to say, Chrono Trigger had such an impact on me that for the longest time I considered it to be a contender for my favourite game ever.

I don't have any screenshots, so it's going to be awesome Toriyama character designs instead)

In the intervening time I've tried to play Chrono Trigger again but it's always ended up being spoiled by something getting in the way: responsibilities; newer, shinier games; or hard drive failures that destroy my save file and instigate some sort of meta rage-quit. Recently though, the prospect of shelling out a large amount of money to have a bunch of CT merchandise imported, got me wondering just how good the game is now, if it still deserved the reverence I held for it, or if itis just a case of shit smeared goggles. So in the interests of intellectual rigour I decided that I would hold off on buying anything until I'd played through Chrono Trigger again. Both to make sure I wasn't wasting my money buying items related to a crappy old game, and because I'm a dick that gets angry at others for being scared to be critical of their loves. It'd hardly be fitting of me to hold that view without doing the same to the things I hold dear.

With this in mind, I've been playing Chrono Trigger for the last few days and have got reasonably far into it. Far enough at least that I feel that I can comment on how it has shaped up compared to my memories.  At this point, I have to admit that it's as tight as I remember it being. As an overall package, it's about as advanced as an RPG could be on the Super Nintendo. In fact, I think I appreciate it more now than I did when I first played it. Being that now I have a much larger wealth of gaming experiences to fall back on as well as a reasonably developed knowledge of the larger context of gaming, it's history, trends and the capabilities of consoles in varying eras. I keep noticing the little things as I play, like just how expressive the character sprites are. In an era where JRPGs, especially, are pushing for more and more spectacle through ever better visuals, it amazes me that I feel these characters to be more 'human' despite being silent sprites with a limited animation selection than more modern, ostensibly better looking, fully voiced characters of other games. 

Moreover, even though I have the game's soundtrack, I never fully realised how well utilised it is in the game. It always gives areas and scenes an ambiance or emotional intensity that just feels right. Yet it does this without being obtrusive, adding to the experience without distracting from what's going on. When I wrote about Mass Effect 2 I commented that bad sound choices draw attention to themselves. That doesn't mean that good sound work is all about being forgettable, more that it should fit the tone of the action onscreen to the point where the two are so well matched that it just 'feels' right. This, obviously, has a large element of subjectivity to it, but as far as I'm concerned, CT nailed it.

There are other little touches too, like being able to equip characters within a shop's menu, not just an option to equip whatever gear you just bought, but to totally re-equip every character, even those not in your party. It's only a little thing, but even people who love JRPGs will cop to how annoying it is to come out of a shop menu only to have to go straight into the equipment menu. Switching party characters is a snap too, just hit Y and you can swap them out. No going to a specific area or save point to do it, very convenient. I also enjoy the lack of unannounced random battles in the game. Virtually all enemies in an area are visible to you and you can choose whether or not to engage them.

As well as generally being avoidable, the battles in Chrono Trigger also happen to be some of the best in any JRPG. They have the standard battle menu and share an ATB derived turn based system with the contemporary Final Fantasy games, but that's where the similarities end. For one thing, all battles take place in the game environment: when you touch an enemy, your characters draw their weapons and it's on. No loading, no switching to a battle screen, just instant fighting. This also means that there are no battles on the world map, which is a big plus as it means that you are free to explore. I always used to hate getting lost on an FF worldmap as it would invariably mean more battles that were either too easy to be engaging, or an absolute slog as my characters ran out of MP and were reduced to physical attacks. The battle system itself is also interesting in that characters learn 'Dual Techs' and 'Triple Techs' that are dependent on who's in the party in a given battle. This adds an extra element to consider when deciding who to put in the party, as characters that were seemingly less capable can be redeemed by contributing to a strong Dual or Triple tech. Beyond that, it's a slick, well executed take on turn based RPG combat. I'd call it it one of the best, if not the best examples of the breed. That being qualified by the fact that I haven't played enough RPGs recently... or ever, to make a definitive claim. Still, I like it.

In the midst of all this gushing, it seems almost a shame to talk about Chrono Trigger's issues, but it needs to be done... so it will be. For one thing, the set up for the plot is paper thin. It's a good romp once it gets going, especially the stories of individual party members, but in the beginning it all seems very consequential. The grand set up for the rest of the plot, the lynchpin action that sets story proper into motion, is one character seeing the end of the world (this is very early into the game) and deciding that they (your party) have to stop it. That's it. On the plus side, at least shows some character agency: it isn't the standard foretold prophesy nonsense, or your party being swept up into events outside of their control. I suppose it also allows the game to move along at a decent pace. Still, the almost nonchalant way that your characters decide to save the world was a little grating to me.

Best character: Robo. Hands down.

Another small problem comes from enemies respawning in areas that you've cleared. I wouldn't mind if this happened if you go more than a certain distance away, (in FFXII enemies only respawned once you were three loading 'gates' away from their area) or if an amount of time had to elapse etc etc. But it takes the piss a little that you can clear an area of enemies, enter a side room to look for treasure (thus causing a new area to load) and when you leave, the place you had cleared will be full of enemies again. Yes, it's less annoying than random battles, but it can still get a little irritating as there are some fights that you will have to do again. You may be able to see almost every fight coming, but that doesn't mean that they're all optional. 

This leads into the final real criticism that I have to level at the game: the frequency and subsequent dullness of normal battles, something that honestly, is more a problem with the genre than CT itself. In fairness I like JRPGs, I like most kinds of turn based combat, but nothing wears out a good thing more than repetition. As good as CT's battle system is, and it is good, it does become tedious when you're just cutting your way through lackeys without even having to pay attention. So long as you're the correct level for an area, most battles will be easy enough that 'hammer A to win' is a perfectly valid strategy. No magic, no awesome Dual Techs, just pound standard attack until you win. In fact, you're actively discouraged from using fancier attacks on weak enemies as that'll drain you of MP pretty quickly, and could leave you out of options if a tougher enemy does appear. This all changes when faced with a boss or miniboss as it actually becomes worth playing properly, and the combat system shines for it. The rest of the time though, the lack of challenge makes for a lack of fulfillment. Still, as I said, this is a genre rather than a game problem. Even then, CT is far from the worst offender, it only really becomes a problem if you get lost or have to double back on yourself in an area made up of several sub rooms or floors with each needing you to pass through an enemy-respawning load.

If my criticisms seem nitpicky or unnecessarily harsh, it's because I held this game to such a high standard before, so any flaw becomes magnified tenfold.  Nevertheless, my intention was to find out if CT was still as good a game as I remember, and as far as I can tell, it is. It may have more competition than it did back then, but I still hold it in very high regard. If people listened to me, I'd urge anyone even remotely interested in the genre to play it any way they can. (can't see the recent iOS version being very good though, too long a game to play on an iPad) Chrono Trigger is a classic, and not in that damning with faint praise 'good for it's time' sort of way. It's still an amazing game. So amazing that I can't even fathom how people playing it 16 years ago must have felt. 

How much was it to import that stuff again...?