Chrono Trigger is one of the best Role-playing games (RPGs) of all time and was developed originally by Squaresoft. This was before Squaresoft merged with Enix to form the company Square Enix that people know and love today. In North America, Chrono Trigger was originally released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) in 1994 and then later released on various other electronic platforms such as the PlayStation One, Nintendo DS, iOS, and Android. Chrono Trigger is one of best video games of all time. Here are several reasons why:

1. Game-play
2. Story
3. Multiple Endings
4. New Game+
5. It Stands The Test Of Time
6. An Exceptional Development Team

This Youtube video is the opening anime cutscene cinematic for the Nintendo DS version of Chrono Trigger:

Join me as I delve into the six reasons why Chrono Trigger is one of the best games of all time!

1. Game-play

First of all, it’s game-play is impeccable and not tedious. There are plenty RPGs that have random encounters and difficulty spikes that require relatively long grinding sessions. Chrono Trigger has none of that and these shortcomings are prevented due to Chrono Trigger having a different battle system than many RPGs at the time. The enemies are on the overworld as you are traversing through the many areas and terrains in the game. The enemy encounters can be cleverly avoided by navigating around or away from the vicinity of the enemy. Also, grinding is not tedious because the characters on the team level up simultaneously, so the more times one actually does try and engage in battle the more overall experience all the characters on the team obtain.

When the player actually chooses to engage enemies on the field, it then goes from freely traversing the world to a real-time turn-based battle with the enemies on the field. Once the battle starts, the real game-play magic happens! The player’s party consisting of a cast of three characters would each go to different ends of the same side of the screen while the enemy is on the opposite side of the screen. The player-controlled cast of characters and the enemies or boss on the opposing sides of the screen would engage in real-time turn-based combat.

The main thing here is that the player-controlled cast of characters can attack simultaneously! One, two, or all three characters can attack at the same time. There are standard attacks which are completely physically based and do solely physical damage and there are special attacks called Techs, which do a lot of damage and use up Magic Power (MP). Each character has Hit Points (HP) that is the life and health of each character. The HP of each character gets depleted as they take a hit from the enemy or boss. Once the HP reaches 0, the character is dead until he or she is revived either by an Athenian Water or by a Healing Tech. A Tech used by only one character for a strong special attack is called a Single Tech. A Tech used by two characters simultaneously for a stronger special attack is called a Double Tech. A Tech used by all characters for an all-powerful attack is called a Triple Tech. Each character also has an action bar and once the action bar is full the character can perform a move against the enemy or boss. But once the character does the move, he or she cannot attack again until the action bar become full once again, which doesn’t take very long. These action bars are for all moves, including for when a character uses items for anyone in the party as well as any simultaneous Techs the characters do against an enemy or boss.

Between battles, the player can equip his or her characters with weapons, armor, helmets, and accessories that provide special effects, and various consumable items can be used both in and out of battles. Items and equipment can be purchased in shops or found on field maps, often in treasure chests. By exploring new areas and fighting enemies, players progress through the story.

Chrono Trigger has one of the most revolutionary game-play and game mechanics of any RPGs at the time or even of all time. The game-play is always one of the primary reasons why Chrono Trigger is one of the best games of all time.

This Youtube video is an example of Chrono Trigger game-play:

2. Story

The story of Chrono Trigger is one of the best stories of any RPGs at the time of its release as well of all time. The story begins in 1000 A.D. when the main character Crono wakes up from his slumber in a small house within The Kingdom of Guardia. In celebration of the 1000^th anniversary of The Kingdom of Guardia’s founding, the Millennial Fair is taking place. Crono goes to the fair to meet up with his best friend Lucca in order to see her new invention. At the fair, Crono and meets a girl named Marle and the both of them go and watch Lucca and her father demonstrate Lucca’s new teleporter. When Marle volunteers to be teleported, her pendant interferes with the device and creates a time portal into which she is drawn. The pendant is left behind and this inspires Crono to use the pendant and the machine to recreate the time portal so he can go and rescue Marle. When Crono enters the portal and it closes, he finds himself back in time in the year 600A.D. The adventure has now begun and a series of events will soon begin to take place!

There are no spoilers in this article, so people will have to play the game in order to find out the whole story! Chrono Trigger’s story revolves primarily around time travel. To complete the story as well as sidequests, the player must travel through various periods in time throughout history within the fictional world of Chrono Trigger. In addition to this, the game has implemented points of decision-making that affects which ending you get once you complete the main storyline. Which brings me to the next reason why Chrono Trigger is one of the best games of all time, which is multiple endings!!

3. Multiple Endings

Chrono Trigger is well-known for its multiple endings. In fact, including the “Game Over” ending, there are exactly fourteen different endings that can occur based on the player's decisions made playing through the game. The game involves time travel and seeing how changing the past affects the present and future. This creates different realities in which the outcomes and events of history within the fictional world of Chrono Trigger has been altered based on the player's decisions and time travel. Also, decisions and side-quests the player decides to or decides not to engage in can affect the ending the player receives upon completion of the game.

The surprises and possibilities regarding different endings help in making Chrono Trigger one of the best games of all time. In order for a person to see all the endings within Chrono Trigger, the player must utilize a feature known as New Game+ in order to see all the endings of the game.

4. New Game+

Chrono Trigger was one of the first games to introduce New Game+. New Game+ is a feature that allows a player to replay the game from the start to finish again after completing it, but they keep all their levels, weapons, armors, accessories, items, and stats that they had when completing the game for the first time. New Game+ was a very useful and revolutionary feature at the time because it allowed the player to re-explore certain decision-making aspects of the game as well as side-quests and hidden storylines in order for the player to experience the different endings the game has to offer. This is also useful in maintaining freshness and adventure once the player completes the game. New Game+ was a huge asset to Chrono Trigger because it enticed the player into wanting to see the different endings. New Game+ allowed the player to experience a different adventure and a fresh story every time they played the game again and again.

5. It Stands The Test Of Time

Chrono Trigger stands the test of time in real-life due to its game graphics and appearance still holding up in value by today’s standard in games. Ironically, Chrono Trigger is a game with story-mechanics revolving around time-travel. Chrono Trigger was originally released in 1994 and re-released on many other platforms. Its graphics and visuals were so stunning and beautiful on the SNES that even as a 1994 game, it has seen many successful re-releases and sales on more modern platforms like the Playstation One and Nintendo DS. The graphics and visuals are not obsolete and they do not feel outdated. The reason is because the graphics were made using a unique art-style surrounding the game as well as the clear sound quality of the game being superb.

6. An Exceptional Development Team

The development team behind Chrono Trigger consisted of a highly exceptional dream team of exceptional veterans in the video-game industry and top professional video game designers and programmers. Some important notable members include Hironobu Sakaguchi (the producer and creator of Final Fantasy franchise), Yuji Horii (the director and creator of the Dragon Quest series), Masato Kato (story writer and planner for Chrono Trigger), Kazhuhiko Aoki (executive producer of Chrono Trigger), Nobuo Uematsu (veteran Final Fantasy composer), and Akira Toriyama (the creator of the Dragonball manga series). There were many other important developers on the team that worked on this project, but the list would be rather long and extensive. Chrono Trigger was a masterpiece because of the great minds and talent behind it. Chrono Trigger is literally pure greatness translated into a tangible form. In order to make a masterpiece, there must be exceptional and talented people ready to work and make dreams a reality.

Conclusion

Chrono Trigger remains as one of the best video games of all time. It deserves the recognition and respect that it has had for over two decades. Chrono Trigger will always be remembered for all of the qualities listed above and how it made everything work together in a cohesive and exceptional way. Chrono Trigger is a product of true mastery of game development, storytelling, art, and design.

So if you are reading this article and have not played Chrono Trigger, now is the time to play it!! You can get it on various electronic platforms such as the SNES, PlayStation One, Nintendo DS, iOS, and Android.