CGA-2025-10 🕹️⏰ 🗺️ 🐸 INSERT CARTRIDGE 🟢 Chrono Trigger
Introduction
Fun Fact: I named my Cat Crono because of this game.
Welcome to Chrono Trigger.
We're playing it for this months CGA.
In my opinion, if you haven't played this game before, you're in for a treat. This game is often considered the gold-standard for JRPGs. Developed by Hironobu Sakaguchi from Final Fantasy, Yuji Horii from Dragon Quest, and Akira Toriyama of Dragon Ball.
This year is actually the 30 year anniversary since it's release.
Square Enix has launched some new CDs with the Soundtrack, and a Concert in Tokyo if anyone is interested.
The music is actually what got me into this game. If you want to know, it's this - might be a minor spoiler, but I remember when I first found that music in the game, I was hooked and just stopped to listen. That was the first time since Saria's Song in Ocarina of Time.
So what is this game: I like to think these games are best experienced going in blind, so I will be as vague as possible. (Any additions are welcome). Chrono Trigger is a RPG from 1995. It's got an amazing story, some really interesting mechanics, beautiful characters and an amaing soundtrack. I'll put even the smallest things into spoiler tags, since maybe some people like to go in completely blind.
Spoiler for the first 30 minutes
As the name suggests, there is a time travel mechanic in the game
Chrono Trigger
Versions: Original (1995), PlayStation (1999), Nintendo DS (2008), iOS/Android (2011), Steam (2018)
Platforms: Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), PlayStation, Nintendo DS, iOS, Android, Windows (Steam)
Genre(s): Japanese Role-Playing Game (JRPG), Turn-based RPG
Stores:
- Steam -- on sale until Oct 6
- Google Play
- App Store
How Long To Beat:
On a first playthrough, expect about 20-25 hours.
Without giving away too much: there is definitely some replayability.
Game Setup
The main purpose of this topic is to get people up and running with the game. As such, it's recommended that you:
- Share which version of the game you're playing
- Share what hardware you're playing it on
- Share if there are any tools/mods that you recommend
- Share anything you think is important for people to know before they start the game
- Ask questions if you need help
Another purpose of this topic is to revisit the game and its time period:
- Do you have any memories or associations with this game itself?
- What about its system or era?
- What aspects of retro gaming were common at the time?
- What other games from the same time period are you familiar with?
- What are you expecting from this game in particular?
Finally, this topic is the beginning discussion for people starting to play it:
- Post updates sharing your thoughts as you play.
- Ask for help if you get stuck.
- Offer help to others.
It is recommended that you reply to your own posts if you are making consecutive updates so that they are in the same thread.
Important
-
Any links to the game should be legal distributions of the game only. Please do NOT link to any unauthorized copies.
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Put any spoilers in a dropdown block. Copy/paste the block below if needed.
<details>
<summary>Spoilers</summary>
Spoiler text goes here.
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FAQ
What is CGA?
Colossal Game Adventure (CGA) is Tildes' retro video game club.
Each month we will play a different retro game/games, discuss our thoughts, and bask in the glorious digital experiences of yesteryear!
Colossal Game Adventure is a reference to Colossal Cave Adventure. It's one of the most influential games of all time, one of the first text-based interactive games, and one of the first games to be shared online.
What do we want to do with this group? Play influential games; interact with each other through text; and share the love for retro games online!
It also abbreviates to CGA (because we love chunky pixel art), and its name communicates the Colossal amount of fun and excitement that we have with retro video Games in our shared Adventure of playing them together.
Do I have to sign up?
No. Participation is open to all.
There is a Notification List that will get pinged each time a new topic goes up. If you would like to join that list, please PM u/kfwyre.
Are there restrictions on what/how to play?
Each month will have a focus game or games that will guide our discussions. Beyond that, there are no restrictions. The philosophy of CGA is to play in a way that works for you!
This means:
- Choose whichever version of the game you want.
- You can use cheats, save states, mods, etc.
- You can watch a streamer or longplay instead of playing it.
If you have already played a game and want a different experience:
- Try a randomizer or challenge run.
- Play a different version of it.
- Play a related game (sequel, spiritual successor, something inspired by it, etc.)
There is no wrong way to participate in CGA, and every different way someone participates will make for more interesting discussions.
What is the schedule?
Each month the Insert Cartidge topic will be posted on the 1st, while the Remove Cartridge topic will be posted on the 20th.
Nomination and voting topics will happen in March and September (every 6 months).
Schedules are also posted then.
All CGA topics are available using the colossal game adventure tag.
What do Insert and Remove Cartridge mean?
Inserting and removing cartridges are our retro metaphor for starting and stopping a given game or games.
The Insert Cartridge topic happens at the beginning of the month and is primarily about getting the game up and running.
The Remove Cartridge topic happens toward the end of the month and is primarily about people reflecting on the game now that they've played it.
There are no hard restrictions on what has to go in either topic, and each can be used to discuss the game, post updates, ask questions, etc.
Chrono Trigger is a masterpiece and easily the best JRPG of all time in my eyes. Apart from the mobile releases, there isn't really a bad version of this game to play.
If I had to give some bits of advice for new players:
When you return to 1000AD and return to Guardia Castle,
you are arrested and tried for the abduction of Marle. The courtroom trial takes into consideration your actions during the first part of the game. It ultimately doesn't matter what dialogue options you choose or what you did. You can theoretically be sentenced to as little as a single night in prison, but the Chancellor will overrule it and condemn you to a death sentence regardlessWhen your save file shows "The Fated Hour", this is the endgame where you can do the sidequests for each character and unlock their ultimate weapons (which is highly recommended for item & story progression reasons.) The Old Man at
the End of Time will give you a hint as to where you need to go to progress each story.as soon as you reach the
End of Time on your first playthrough (or far earlier on NG+), but this is not recommended.I recently got a 3DS and some top picks, and the Chrono Trigger release was among them. Here's a tip - the Japanese version is a lot cheaper than the American version, and it's one of like 4-5 DS games that auto-selects the in-game language based on the system setting. So you can pay like half price for a JP copy on ebay, but when you boot it the whole thing will be in English!
CGA Announcement: CGA Announcement: We have officially inserted the cartridge for Chrono Trigger. Use this topic to get set up for the month, help other people get set up for the month, and start playing!
If you would like to be added or removed from the Notification List, please PM u/kfwyre.
Notification List
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In my opinion the best version of this game is the enhanced Nintendo DS release of Chrono Trigger but getting your hands on it and the hardware to play it is tricky. My New 3DS XL's cartridge reader has started to fail so I picked up the Steam release of the game.
The Steam release's user interface isn't as good as the DS release. For example: on the DS version's equipment screen the increase or decrease in a stat from equipping an item is shown whereas on the Steam release only the new stat and a colour to indicate if it's an upgrade or downgrade is shown.
Here are a few tips for new players:
Playing DS games on 3DS doesn't require having the game card inserted, if you install Luma3DS, TWiLightMenu and nds-bootstrap. All you need is to place that .ds ROM file in the correct folder, and you'll be able to play it off from the SD card.
This method also works with DSi and DSi XL/LL models, albeit with a different exploit, instead of Luma3DS.
Wait mode is a feature in the original game, so I would be surprised if there are any versions without it.
A tip that really helped me:
In a lot of older JRPGs it's often necessary to conserve magic for bosses or other particularly hard enemies.
In Chrono Trigger, it's pretty easy to get more mp. The item that refills everything at save points is relatively cheap. Once you get past the first few sections, you're free to use magic/techs pretty much as often as you want.
Hell yeah! I will be playing the DS version on my DS Lite. It really is so good with the video cutscenes that expand on Akira Toriyama's iconic character designs. But also I needed something portable to have even a chance of finishing in a month.
This is my most anticipated month of the CGA (with Wind Waker in Jan being a close second ) I've started Chrono Trigger a couple of times but never finished. I love everything about the game, but a combination of factors led to me not playing the game until I was older and life was more busy.
I'm planning to play as far as possible without looking anything up. I think it has been long enough since I last played that I can mostly go in fresh. No matter what, I'm going to get an ending this time! :)
Will I ever get the ability to manipulate the positions of enemies or my party's? That's the one thing that's been annoying me so far: having to wait to get lucky with enemy movements.
Mostly no. It's about taking advantage of it as it comes, as opposed to a game where you get the ability to push and pull enemies into position.
I always jump at the chance to post this: https://youtu.be/Yn2Vu_R-KKc?si=_O3IBpZ1pWqvoLcI
It's a 5 hour musical that runs through the complete story of the whole game. Dialogue all acted out, with the songs being arrangements of the original game music. Plus the visuals are a combination of game play footage and original art.
I'm honestly just amazed it exists.
Wow, 5 hours is a time commitment but that’s pretty cool. I jumped around a bit and noticed the translation is different from the SNES version I’ve been playing. Does anyone know whether they’re using the DS text or a fan translation?
So, one of my favorite things about The Last Express topic was hearing people talk about their current progress. Those comments were SO fun to read as someone who was already familiar with the game.
I hope to return the favor here, as this is my first playthrough, and I know we have a lot of CT veterans here.
I’ve had a few canned cocktails this evening and am feeling sprightly and time-travely. I’m sharing everything below in the spirit of fun (I’m not looking for hints or anything). Everything is just scattered thoughts I’ve had as I’ve played:
Minor Spoilers (approximately 7 hours in)
I’ve been using the default names for everyone just so I can be on the same page when people talk about characters. This was fine until R-66Y came around. His recommended name is… “Robo.” BORING. I wish I’d stuck with my original thought to name him “Reggie.”
I loved that you could go to 65 billion-or-whatever BC. I was hoping the whole time to have a Tomb Raider 1 T Rex moment, but instead nothing really happened? I’m assuming I have to come back here later.
I also spent like, a good hour or so grinding in that Jurassic era because the enemies were scary and powerful. It was only towards the end of the hour that I realized I wasn’t getting any money for my grinding. 😭
(That’s honestly a great detail though. I’m not mad about it.)
I thought the desolate future setting was cool.
It’s impressive how the game re-uses assets. You can simultaneously see the limitations of the memory in the cartridge and how the devs tried their best to work around them.
When I finally got the chance to select my three-person party from four people, it was like: “do you want to take this cool new robot you found and the person who repaired it, or do you want to separate them?” Felt like a complete non-choice. 😂
Felt even easier when I learned that Robo has a healing tech, which was the main draw for having Marle in my party.
AND the decision was further vindicated once I unlocked Robo’s heal-all tech.
The music is great.
The animation for spells/attacks is great in an old-school kind of way. I unlocked Lightning II for Chrono, and when I used it, it was a cool full-screen WOW moment. I bet these visuals SLAPPED back in the day.
I like that if I’m a little bit lost, I can just go into a time period and talk to the townsfolk who all have not-so-subtle nudges about what to do next.
The petty brother feud between the cook and the commander was fun.
Oh my gosh, I can’t believe I forgot to mention
Beginning of Game Spoilers
Also
Sevenish-Hour Spoilers
Okay, bigtime spoilers this time.
Bigtime Spoilers
Went back to The End of Time, and noticed a sparkle in the upper right. This takes me to Lavos in 1999. Cool.
Only wait, it turns out this is like, THE moment I have to change with THE Big Bad.
The game asks me if I want to fight or flee. I’m like, hell, let’s fight and see how quickly I lose.
Chat, I didn’t quickly lose.
Instead, I fought Lavos for A WHOLE HOUR. He shuffled through I don’t know how many phases, including several bosses I haven’t seen yet.
I was able to keep my head afloat for way longer than I expected, slowly chipping away. It took a LONG time. I had to dig deep into my mid-ether stash and have Reggie/Robo heal practically every opportunity it got.
Unfortunately, I finally got overwhelmed in a phase where there were two consecutive full-party attacks against me that wiped my whole party.
It was kind of cool that I was able to hold on that long, and it’s also cool that the game is like “Hey, you want to fight the final boss? Go for it!”
I’m assuming that there is a lot more story left (I still only have four potential party members, and Frog isn’t one of them yet). I also haven’t fixed the Masamune. I genuinely wasn’t expecting to be able to waltz into the final boss so early.
That is, of course, assuming that is the final boss? If not, then damn because it sure as hell felt like one. Very cool concept too with it mimicking the bosses you’ve fought so far.
I don’t need any hints or pointers, but I wanted to share this.
Also, the “early” boss access has me thinking about how the speedruns for this game must be very interesting, but that’s not something I’m going to look into until I’m done with it.
Your second point here is something I almost completely overlooked in the game, and now I'm wondering what little tidbits I missed.
A question for anyone who played Chrono Trigger at the time it was released: did you make use of the manual that came with the game?
I was just thinking about this as I feel my introduction to the game would have been different (and I think better) had I spent some time with the official manual when I started to play. The Steam release didn't come with one but the original 80 page English manual is available at the Internet Archive. It actually seems to do a pretty good job at setting up the game and the story, and guiding the player through the first couple of hours of gameplay, as well as telling you where the story will eventually go. I think I would have benefited from reading all this information before I started to play. I also think that the weapon and tech tables will come in handy as I'm now entering the final quarter of the game.
If you are interested, the Internet Archive also has the official player guide, which seems like more of a walkthrough than a hint book. I haven't really looked at that in detail yet and probably won't until after finishing the game.
Another context that I didn't have for the game, but which at least some players back in the mid-90s would have had, is the contemporary advertising. I couldn't find much, but it's at least interesting to see the difference between the Japanese and American TV ads that I could find on YouTube. Japanese ones like this and this and this emphasise the "dream project" aspect of the game and the visuals are colourful, communicating the fantasy and adventure aspects of the game. American ads like this and this seem darker. The first one explains what the story is about while the second one... well, I'm actually not sure what is going on with the second one, as the English subtitles are just a bunch of 90s slang that has nothing to do with the Japanese voice.
I notice a somewhat similar contrast between the Japanese cover art and the American cover art. The Japanese emphasises the characters and the group. The American one is all about action. Also, what's up with Marle in that US cover? At least so far, I haven't seen her wearing a bathrobe or using fire spells in the game. Still, it's of course all marketing, and the US cover certainly is eye catching.
Personally I played it at a friend's house a bunch of times before I ever tried playing it from the beginning on my own. So I knew a lot of the basics. I think the manuals like this were pretty common. I remember the Final Fantasy 1 manual guided you through quite a bit of the first game. It also had these illustrated guides showing that you actually had to be facing someone to talk to them.
The ads are interesting. The Play Station ads look like they're showing off the anime cutscenes that they added to that release. My Japanese isn't great but that last video is mostly just a list of all star names that worked on it. "Dragon Ball's Akira Toriyama, Dragon Quest's Horii Yuji, Final Fantasy's Sakaguchi."
It's a piece of art by Akira Toriyama that was made in a concept art stage and the common assumption is that characters' spells were not set in stone at the point in development when it was drawn, as it is indeed correct that Marle does not do fire spells and does not do any fire based combo techs with Crono. I think since it was most likely drawn during development, it's probably also a safe assumption that it was never intended to be a box cover image but rather was chosen afterward by marketing and localization teams for the usual appealing to Americans reasons.
As for her outfit, we can only guess. Maybe it's just supposed to be representative of equipping stuff? There's at least one other Toriyama art piece for the game where Lucca is depicted without her yellow vest and some other outer layers, wearing only a brown shirt and black shorts, but those are elements visible under the yellow vest in all the other art of her so it comes off less as "different equipment" and more "the vest was taken off temporarily" so I don't know if it's really the same thing.
Yeah given the context of the rest of the image, it reads to me like a parka. Chrono also appears to be decked out in winter gear. Cover art was wildly inconsistent the 80's and 90's, so I suppose we should be glad that Square's US team made a habit of at least using the character designer's artwork.
There are definitely worse offenders. Just look at what they did to my boy!
That is... quite something. Actually painful to look at.
I remember as a kid buying C64 games largely based on the pictures on the box (not much more to go on), and even if I knew that the box art had nothing to do with the graphics in the game and that the gameplay pictures in the back couldn't have been from the C64 release and were most likely from the Amiga version, as I sat in the car on our way home, holding the newly acquired game in my hand, I still allowed myself to imagine the graphical brilliance of the game that I would get to play soon. And once we got home, I rushed into my room, placed the tape into the cassette deck, loaded the game and... well, I don't think any game ever graphically exceeded my young mind's expectations.
Or well, maybe The Last Ninja 3 did.
Ha, I was the kid that spent the car ride home reading the manual front to back several times over. :)
Also, that video of the The Last Ninja 3 blew me away. Pretty amazing that so much was packed into a game of that era.
I played it early but bought my copy used, and so didn't have any of the supporting materials. Wild how much of the early game you're guided through, even right in the manual.
As I wasn't a console gamer growing up, I hadn't realised how big a deal Chrono Trigger was at the time of its release. I knew that it was a major event, but reading about the game's history now, I see that it was something of a GTA6 of its time in terms of hype and anticipation. Well, maybe not quite so when it comes to wider cultural recognition, but within the contemporary gamer culture at least.
Like @ali writes in the introduction, the game brought together top talent from two major JRPG franchises, Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. What I hadn't understood until now is that those franchises belonged to two different companies: Square and Enix. It's a bit like if Bioware and Bethesda had made a game together after Mass Effect 3 and Skyrim. In other words, mind blowing.
This seems to have been reflected in the game's price. In the US, Chrono Trigger reportedly retailed for around 80 USD (see e.g. here, here and here). I found this interesting, as there is currently so much talk about $80 games. But this was back in 1995. Adjusted to inflation, the price would be around 170 USD today! I suppose there is more to relative cost and value than straightforward inflation adjustment can tell us, but still, the game certainly wasn't cheap. In contrast, regular new SNES games in the US appeared to cost around $40-60 at the time, or something like $85-130 in today's money.
It wasn't expensive just in the US, though. In Japan, the MSRP price appears to have been 11,400 JPY. Adjusted to inflation, that would be around 13,400 JPY today. In contrast, the Switch 2 release of Mario Kart World retails for around 8,000 JPY at the moment.
Despite the high price of entry, the game ended up selling 2.5 million units, making it the 17th best selling game for SNES, or the 6th best selling game that wasn't bundled with the console.
A decade after combining their forces for Chrono Trigger, Square and Enix merged to become Square Enix in 2003. In addition to continuing to work with both companies' original franchises, Square Enix has also owned IPs like Tomb Raider, Hitman and Deus Ex, as well as having worked as the Japanese publisher for western companies like Activision and Ubisoft.
Meanwhile, Chrono Trigger's lead designer Hironobu Sakaguchi, lead artist Akira Toriyama and composer Nobuo Uematsu joined forces again for the 2006 JRPG game Blue Dragon. The game was the first major JRPG exclusive for the Xbox 360 and it was marketed as a spiritual successor to Chrono Trigger. I remember when the game came out but only now understand the hype around it. Has anyone here played it? Any thoughts?
As I was researching the history of the game and leafing through old gaming magazines looking for Chrono Trigger articles, I realised that when it comes to past games that don't belong to a well known franchise, it is often easy to look at them and think of them as charming, little known gems. But when put into a historical context, most of the best known games were actually the biggest things of their time. And I guess, in the case of Chrono Trigger, of any time.
I haven't played it but I have heard it described as feeling like basically Sakaguchi's take on a Dragon Quest type of game, but I don't know how fair that is, at surface level it sounds kind of reductive.
Looking at the big name staff of both games I guess probably significant differences from Chrono Trigger going into Blue Dragon are Yuji Horii isn't present, Yoshinori Kitase isn't present, and Sakaguchi is writing on Blue Dragon while for CT he was credited as a game designer, which could account for differences in how the games turned out and were received - I know it was less well-received though I don't know much about why. Always been interested in trying it out some day.
Looking at footage of it my gut reaction is that aside from looking dated cause of when it came out, it also happens to look sort of cheap, like some kind of unity engine indie kickstarter rpg that barely got across the finish line. The hud especially gives me that vibe.
Never did play this game--or actually hear about it until much later in life--back in 1995; I was a Genesis kid at the time and also in '95, transitioning over to fully PC gaming after being introduced to Doom.
That said, I've only ever heard good things and I am a Dragon Quest fan (even if I've only ever actually finished one of them), so I'm eager to get started on this one and hoping not to fall off as I did last months game, though I also have some extenuating factors this month as well (namely that I started another big RPG a little bit ago).
I've seen it said and also according to @Venko that the DS version is the version to play. I've got my N3DS, as well as a DSi XL, so I'll have to choose between the two. However, I kind of want to play the SNES version via an emulation handheld, because I am tempted by using some CRT Shaders, so we'll see what I ultimately choose (probably the N3DS). Hopefully will have some time to play around and pick a system to play on today, as I am pretty interested in getting started with this one.
Very excited to read your write-up afterward.
I'm always curious how people who never played it back then feel about how it compares to both modern, and memories of comparable experiences they've had.
I'll join you on that, going with ds version on android.
A suggestion to anyone who starts the game and a few hours later comes to the conclusion that it is not for them: perhaps try to persist a little longer.
I have attempted to play Chrono Trigger multiple times, most recently in 2022 when I bought the Steam version. But as charming as many aspects of the game are, I have always dropped it after 4 or 5 hours. I just don't like playing it. The story is only so-so, the characters childish, and I don't like JRPG mechanics. Or so I thought.
Last weekend, I installed the game again and instead of restarting, I just continued from where I had left it three years ago. I wasn't enjoying it much at first, but then something slowly clicked and I began to see what the hype is about. Maybe I'm just a bit slow, or maybe the game mechanics get better as the story progresses, but it took me about 7-8 hours to get there.
And now I'm definitely there. So much so that I just bought Final Fantasy VII, a game that I have always wanted to check out, but haven't because I had never played a JRPG that I enjoy. Well, now I think I have. And now I'm also thinking about titles like Earthbound, Persona 5, Metaphor: ReFantazio, Clair Obscur and Eternal Sonata, all of which I remember very fondly for various reasons, but just haven't enjoyed playing. Maybe my experience with Chrono Trigger will make me revisit them.
More thoughts to follow when we remove the cartridge (which, by the way, I agree with @sotix's suggestion could be earlier in the month). Thanks to everyone who voted for Chrono Trigger!
I'm about to drop a massive essay on Persona in a Chrono Trigger thread aren't I...? God damn it sorry about this, but anyway here I go:
Don't be afraid to consider the option of playing some version of P3 or P4 (or indeed 5) first instead.
Broadly speaking I'd recommend both Persona 3 Reload and Persona 5 Royal to anybody (and P4 Golden I guess but I'm negative on P4 if I'm being candid), but the Persona fandom has a bit of a habit of just rawdogging P5R recommendations as anyone's first Persona game.
I feel that how players will react to each will depend heavily on their personality and tastes so players should consider being open to starting with any of the three, whichever one appeals most!
The simple way to go about it that I would recommend a newcomer to the franchise do is watch the animated opening intro for 3 Reload, 4 Golden, and 5 Royal (these intros basically tell you nothing concrete about anything plot-wise but are really good at communicating the "vibes" of the game through musical language, aesthetics, and visual language), and read the most very basic like introductory premise of each, the same kind of information you'd see on the back of the box. I'll take a stab at it:
"Back of the box" style descriptions and links to the intro animations, no spoilers unless anyone reading this literally wanted to be completely blind to the basic themes or something:
Persona 3: (Reload intro) All three games strike their own mix of serious moments and levity, but this one tilts towards seriousness the most of the three. Every night at midnight there's a "hidden hour" called the Dark Hour that the general public does not perceive but our protagonist and friends do, so the player explores the Dark Hour and a giant tower that appears during it where dangerous shadows roam. Main themes are like life and death, finding meaning in life, depression and stuff like that.
Persona 4: (Golden intro) This one has its dark serious moments but tilts towards levity the most of the three. The story is basically a murder-mystery in a small town involving a parallel reality that exists by literally crawling through the TV screen. It's popular in the fandom to joke that this is the "scooby-doo" of Persona, which carries a nugget of truth while being probably unfairly reductive overall. Themes include pursuit of truth, some elements of family, and some minor exploration of the ways the media and TV (at the time) affects us.
Persona 5: (Royal intro) This one strikes a balance between serious and levity that is between the other two games. It doesn't try as hard to be as deep as P3 but takes itself more seriously more often than P4 does. The protagonist gets in some legal trouble and has to move cities/schools. Accidentally discovers a cognitive alternate reality through a phone app and discovers they can change the evil ways of key bad guys in reality through this parallel world. Being set in Tokyo did this game a lot of favours. Themes include vigilantism, defining your own concept of justice, rebellion. Main characters stylize themselves as honorable "phantom thieves" but are functionally more like slightly edgy secret superheroes.
All three are also quite long games that have pretty big differences in pacing to one another that might matter if finishing games tests your endurance. Broad strokes about narrative pacing with no specific details:
P3: Middle length of the three if including the DLC. Aside from a breezy introduction, slows down for the first half of the game, building upon its mysteries slowly. Rest assured this time is not wasted, the game is showing you important groundwork for bigger payoffs in the second half. My favourite Atlus game full stop and like one of my top 5 JRPGs.
P4: Shortest of these three games. I don't know lol this whole game feels like a drag to me apart from just the really pivotal cutscenes. It doesn't help that I don't like the characters, setting, or subject matter (I even like the soundtrack least, though it's still full of bangers) so I spend the entire game waiting for something interesting to happen. I think I just honestly hate this game too much to understand what the pacing would feel like to a player who actually likes it, I'm basically just writing a segment about it here in a futile attempt for "completeness" yet my lack of anything valuable to say leaves this "incomplete" as a consequence anyway.
P5: The longest one for sure. The very intro is really exposition and tutorial heavy but once it finally lets go of your hand, the opening third of the game is actually pretty explosive. The game has two valleys with a peak in the middle in the midgame, and then picks up again in the lategame through to the end.
Of course, Persona 1 and the Persona 2 duology exist, and are considerably more retro. Appeals more broadly to retro JRPG fans or Shin Megami Tensei (persona's original parent franchise) fans more than P3/P4/P5 fans these days.
I also of course love Metaphor ReFantazio which shares a lot of Persona 3-5 DNA (and development staff) and think it got weirdly kinda disregarded and disrespected by both the Persona fandom and JRPG fans in general. I like it more than P4 or P5 to be honest!
Thank you, I think you just sold Persona 3 to me. Would you recommend the original, the Portable or the Reload? Graphics don't matter to me that much, gameplay and story are more important.
I picked up Persona 5 for PS3 back when it came out solely because of the 2011 game Catherine, which Katsura Hashino also directed and which was and still is one of my favourite games. I played about 40 hours of Persona 5, loved the overall style, the overworld was interesting and the story ok, but the combat gameplay started to feel very repetitive so my game sessions became shorter and shorter and eventually I just stopped playing. I later tried out Persona 4 but that didn't do much for me at all, not that I got too far in it. When Metaphor: ReFantazio came out last year, I played the demo and it's in my "maybe one day" pile, just the medieval fantasy setting is not something that I am very interested in. Still, there is something about Hashino and his team's output that feels very unique to me, whatever the game or setting, so I might give it another try.
My power went out and I had to type this on my phone, I can't tell how big and rambly the paragraphs are. I'm about to hop back on the PC and edit the heck out of this, please hold...OK I think I'm done editing... is this post longer than the last one? I'm so sorry... anyway:
I would recommend Persona 3 Reload to most people interested in P3 in general, but also specifically according to some of the details you've given, like that you have tried out P5, are more new to JRPGs finally getting their hooks into you, etc. But I'll still go over the versions so you can be informed.
First on the PS2 there was the vanilla release, simply called Persona 3. It's universally considered replaced by it's successor FES, so you can pretty much forget it exists like everyone else has.
Second is Persona 3 FES which was a re-release on the PS2 that has some tweaks to the original storyline and gameplay, but the added content of serious substance here comes from a separately added episode.
So the original game story gets renamed in FES to "The Journey" and the new campaign gets named "The Answer." They're not integrated together, rather they're separately selectable from the main menu like having 2 different "campaigns" so to speak.
The Answer is a lengthy epilogue scenario picking up after the end of the original story which I'm going to hereafter call The Journey. The Answer doesn't carry over levels or anything, starts you off at level 1 again but with a different main character, doesn't have Social Links (Confidants in P5 language) and in FES it doesn't have a difficulty selection, playing out like The Journey on Hard mode. It is lighter on story scenes though it does have plenty, and heavier on combat for most of its runtime.
Some of the fans like The Answer a lot while some others to wave it off as unnecessary. While I agree that The Journey is a complete enough experience to call it a stopping point, I think if the player really liked the game and wants more, I encourage playing it as well. It is canon and interesting both on it's own merit as well as introduces an idea for a side plotline that is continued in the Persona 4 Arena fighting games and which I would really like to see continued even further some day. Meta-narrative stuff between Persona games is rare but there is an implied continuity in the P345 era to which The Answer has some importance. The Answer also puts my favourite Persona character in the protagonist role so I love it for that.
There are some quirks to the PS2 editions of the game: first, you control only the protagonist, and your allies are controlled by the CPU. It can be pretty brutal sometimes with them doing things that just aren't useful or contextually appropriate. They can even remark that they're getting tired and leave the dungeon to go back to the dorm for the night, becoming unavailable for the rest of that Dark Hour. Some might argue there was some artistic intention for this but I honestly find that take questionable. In summary, there are some real weird mechanics in vanilla P3 and FES.
Third release was Persona 3 Portable on PSP, and a PC port of this on steam is the one always included in relatively frequent Persona triple pack sales.
I should be able to get this right off memory but I haven't played this version myself yet but I know it's cut back in a lot of ways.
It contains only The Journey, and in it's version of The Journey, there are some writing and dialogue differences which FES fans tend to dislike but would go unnoticed by any newcomers.
Portable does not include The Answer in any form.
Some animated cutscenes are cut down to in engine dialogue scenes and the 3D free roaming around the dorm, school, and places in town are cut down to a visual novel-like presentation.
Portable is the first version of P3 that includes control of party members who are not the protagonist.
The big new feature here was the introduction of an alternative playthrough as a female version of the protagonist instead of the male one all other versions have. She has different dialogue options in the same scenes and the options imply a moderately different personality. She has some completely different social links as well.
Overall though I would only recommend this version to players who became a fan of the game through FES or Reload and have appetite enough for another playthrough to play the female main character's route. Too many cutbacks for a first-time experience.
Lastly Persona 3 Reload on PC and modern consoles. It's a post-P5 remake and it shows but in largely good ways. The whole UI across the board is overhauled and looks fantastic, very in line with what people expect from Atlus after P5 and with Metaphor Re:Fantazio that released the same year as Reload. It's not all just aesthetics either, some of the UI adjustments include QoL like minimap and objective displays, and plenty of smaller detail adjustments throughout various menus.
Reload's dialogue for The Journey is based on Portable so the very same critiques that fans from FES have once again apply here, but are also once again the kinds of things newcomers will not be aware of whatsoever.
In combat it plays a bit more like P5 as well. Of course it has a fully controllable party. There's basically a version of P5's Baton Pass but without the overpowered buffs BP had, called "Shift."
A new mechanic called Theurgy is added too but I won't be specific about it, just that I like it. Some of these mechanics contribute to lowering the difficulty if you compare normal-to-normal modes between Reload and past releases, but Reload has 5 difficulty modes with normal in the middle so it's pretty flexible. Normal in Reload is similar to normal mode in Persona 5 Royal.
Reload also does replace some cutscenes that are animated in FES with in-engine scenes but the rendering and overall look of the 3D models is so good at this point that unlike Portable, it really isn't a cut-back any more. In most cases, I'm more of a fan of what Reload did with these scenes. The animation quality of anime cutscenes in FES looks very cheap, including shots where there isn't even any background scenery, but should be. FES fans sometimes say that was artistic intent. Still, there are anime cutscenes throughout Reload and about as often as a player coming from P5 would expect. Such a player would not think there was anything unusually low about the amount of anime cutscenes in Reload so I think it's really nothing to worry about.
Reload introduces quite a few more tracks to the OST and reworks just about all of them. Instrumental tracks get some slight mixing and mastering adjustments at most while vocal tracks are significantly redone including new vocal performances. The original singer Yumi Kawamura's role in these songs was taken over by Azumi Takahashi, which has been controversial among fans, but if I'm being brutally honest, I think Yumi was kind of pitchy at times and not my favourite vocalist. Azumi sounds more polished and contemporary, which I think I can understand not liking but for my tastes I'd rather listen to her performances. Lotus Juice, the rapper involved, is still involved on all the tracks he did before plus several new ones. One of the new songs, Color Your Night is a contender to be my favourite song on any version of the P3 OST.
Finally, and once again controversially, The Answer does return for Reload as a sold-separately, paid DLC called "Episode Aigis" (a more direct translation of the Japanese name for The Answer - if you're wondering, The Journey was "Episode Yourself" or something along those lines in the JP FES release.)
Atlus states they didn't originally plan to release The Answer for Reload but decided to after how much demand there was and how well the game was received. Fans were disappointed it was sold separately because of how it was included in FES. It increases the total cost of buying Reload and the DLC to be like the price of 1.5 games. It is by far the best way to play The Answer, however because of all the QoL Reload introduces to it. Remember that The Answer previously only existed in FES so this is the first time The Answer has had fully controllable party members. Unlike FES it also comes with difficulty options this time. Lastly, a new intro movie and a new battle track were added to its OST both of which are also very good tracks.
Anyway in your case I would like to express some concern about what you said with battles feeling repetitive. In some ways, Persona 3 is actually worse for someone who felt that way about P5, I think.
The battle system in Reload works in pretty much the same way as P5, but you will experience longer uninterrupted stretches of dungeon crawling exploration in less curated, and less stylistically varied environments than P5.
Persona 3 comes from a time when many of Atlus' games were kind of dungeon crawler RPGs, don't forget Shin Megami Tensei started out as these like first-person perspective tile-based dungeon crawling JRPGs, the kind of thing you might pencil out on graph paper as you play (indeed Etrian Odyssey by Atlus on the DS basically gave you the equivalent of in-game graph paper to do this very thing on the touch screen!) and while P3 has never felt that old school, without spoiling much, I have to tell you to expect a style of randomized dungeon floors more like P4's dungeons and not at all like P5's palaces, and that might rub you the wrong way.
Also worth mentioning Persona 3 Reload is on what I think is its all time lowest sale price on Steam right now, for 60% off both the base game and Episode Aigis ("The Answer")
Thank you very much for both replies! I learnt a lot and I'm definitely interested in trying out both Persona 3 and Metaphor, although like you pointed out, both may have aspects that will be a little suboptimal for me.
Length is an additional challenge. A game of this size will take me 3-4 months to play through, so it's definitely a commitment. I often wish they made "shorter cut" versions for games like these!
Hope it's not too annoying but I'm gonna give you a secondary reply for this chunk just cause it's off the topic of P3 a bit:
I actually think in some ways it's kind of unfortunate that you said you care most about gameplay and story but feel disinterested in Metaphor's setting. It's understandable, quite like how I dislike P4's small-town setting.
That said, I believe Metaphor absolutely does go toe-to-toe with Persona games narratively (though I find P3 more emotionally charged/touching, but Metaphor is pretty heartfelt when it needs to be), and I think it might straight up have a better combat system than P3/4/5. As such I think there's a world where if a different mood strikes you some day and you can stomach the medieval fantasy, it's quite possible it could fit you better gameplay-wise than any Persona game. Especially because you said P5 combat felt repetitive. I think to some extent turn-based JRPG combat in games as long as Atlus titles might always feel repetitive to you but Metaphor has a few advantages in how its combat and progression works to keep things fresher throughout the lengthy runtime than Persona.
In my opinion the press-turn system Metaphor inherits from Shin Megami Tensei is a lot more engaging than Persona's "1-more" stuff. Both systems reward you for hitting weaknesses, but Metaphor's doesn't go infinite, which gives you way less advantage for going first in battle. The game also allowing you to pass a turn at cost of .5 of an action at any time compared to P3's shift/P5's baton pass being only after hitting a weakness is way more flexible and an option I took much more than I thought I would when I started the game. Press-turn also makes enemies vastly more threatening, cause they're way more likely to survive your opening salvo since you don't knock them down by hitting weaknesses and there's no all-out-attack, so they're far more likely to get turns of their own and start getting their own press-turn system gains from hitting your weaknesses, landing crits, or whatever else.
I had a lot of fun with Metaphor combat, especially in the lategame. I've definitely thought carefully in Persona, but In Persona I've never thought as carefully as many steps ahead as I was doing in Metaphor and that's kind of awesome. Like counting how many actions I would have to see if I could get another action with my character that could hit a weakness by passing the turn of a character who couldn't, etc. That's a very different feeling than just swapping the Persona you have out to always have every element on hand, on demand.
Another difference is that in Persona you have that imbalance of the main character's multiple personas and the fusion system making them the flexible and dynamic character while the rest of the party can be sort of one-note with their builds. On the other hand, Metaphor gives every party member the ability to change their archetypes (classes, basically) and learn abilities from all different ones. Admittedly, your build freedom does get railroaded into pretty clearly intended roles/paths for each character, but personally I'm okay with it. I think it's because I accept this in contrast to a game like vanilla Final Fantasy XII where every character loses their identity as the license board progression system turns them into ultimate jack-of-all-trades clones of each other.
Anyway sorry for talking your ear off but I hope you (or onlookers) found all this info helpful in some way.
A thousand times yes.
For those having second thoughts early on, please keep plugging away at it. This is retro gaming's seminal works - an Allegory of the Cave, a One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, a 1984.
It's a classic that, I feel, all people who take their hobby seriously should have a reference point for.
Something I hadn't really thought about before is the degree to which Chrono Trigger keeps things moving and respects the player's time. There are times when you can wander around and talk to people, and those conversations are pretty much all directly in service of setting the scene and hinting about future plot developments. It doesn't have anyone standing around who just complains about their back unless you can do something about it. You don't have to grind to beat bosses; as long as you don't know where the fight triggers are you'll be plenty levelled to beat bosses.
All in all, it rewards trying to be a completionist with both extra stuff and worldbuiling, but never requires it of you. With an average time to beat of 24 hours, it keeps that story moving.
I was also thinking about this the other day. So far (I'm about 20 hours into the Steam version of the game), there has been absolutely no grind or micro managing things, and I love that. Experimentation has never been punished. Exploration has often been rewarded with some little wink and nudge. Combat has never been tedious, and I must confess that I am usually very easily bored with JRPG mechanics. The game is also very generous with its autosaves. And just when you think the game is settling into some groove, it throws a bit of a curve ball at you. All in all, it's been a very pleasant and engaging game to play.
That said, narratively I've been a little bit more lost. I usually know roughly what I should probably do next, but I don't always know where (or when) to do it. And I have often also been confused about why I should do something. So, there has been quite a bit of aimless wandering around for a while, and then opening a walkthrough to check where to go next. But maybe it's just me and I'm poor at understanding the game's narrative guidance. It would be interesting to hear from others who are playing the game for the first time.
In any case, I feel that I'm more invested in the characters, the world and the game mechanics than I am in the story, if that makes sense? Which I don't really mind. I'm very much enjoying my time with the game.
One thing that surprised me on my last play through is how little optional side content there was. As I recall you basically just do the main story and it's not till almost the end of the game that they dump 5 or 6 side quests on you all at once.
It's kind of nice in a way to put all of that out of my mind. Maybe it's just my FOMO brain, but knowing there are things I'm missing adds to the temptation to look things up. I sort of ruined the fun of FF7 my last playthrough because I relied so heavily on guides. I'm trying to look as little as possible up for this run of CT, and so far the temptation has been pretty manageable.
I’m in a similar boat. FFVII was actually the first JRPG I ever played, and I played it with a guide my first time. There are so many missable things in it that it kind of gave me a complex. It set deep within me the feeling that an ideal playthrough of anything is a complete one, and I need to scour and study everything so that I don’t miss out.
This, of course, isn’t very fun, and I’ve been on a decades-long journey to undo that part of myself and just enjoy part of a game rather than killing my enjoyment to see the whole of it.
With Chrono Trigger I’ve just tried to go with the flow and not consult a guide. It’s been nice. The pacing of the game is good, and I haven’t yet felt that I don’t know what to do, nor have I felt entirely railroaded either.
I’m only six or so hours in, so those feelings might change with time, but I’m going to try to stick to a deliberately suboptimal playthrough in hopes that I’ll enjoy it more than a technically perfect one.
Yeah I'm *checks notes* ~10hrs in, and I've only had to look up one thing (where I just missed a line of dialog) to progress. I also had to redo a single boss fight, but mainly because of my own hubris. No grinding required the second time around. It's been really nice.
Ugh, I'm a few more hours in and a couple of boss fights have changed my mind a bit. I'll likely have more to say about it in the remove cartridge thread. 🫤
The midgame definitely takes a turn towards more puzzle-focused fights. In the early game, you can just hit anything, and then things are vulnerable to magic but not physical attacks, and then they require a specific element, or an order in which to kill them, and in the late game there's layers upon layers. Because of their elements and combos, not every team is well designed for every area.
I can definitely relate to that. I approached Chrono Trigger the same way you are, and I don't regret it at all. It was so much more fun than worrying about getting/doing every little thing. My first playthrough managed to be pretty weird because of that, but still amazing.
I used to be like you but then made an observation that changed how I approach story driven games.
I love narrative experiences, but for me it is very rare that games come in quality anywhere close to the heights that other forms of storytelling often reach. Literature, theatre, film, television and others just tend to do stories much better. Not because of any sort of limitation that is holding games back, but just because stories in games simply aren't usually that well written or narratively presented.
But the quality of a game story doesn't actually need to be terribly high to gain my interest because game stories have something that books and films and such don't: they can be interactive. Rather than me being a passive recipient of a story, I am, at least on some level, an active participant in that story. I am not only experiencing, reacting and interpreting a story, but I am, with some level of agency, creating it.
This can give me the power of not only choosing what direction a story goes, but also which parts of the story I engage with and which I leave unexplored.
However, if I systematically try to make sure that I'm not missing something, I am depriving myself of that agency. The interactivity gets diminished and what I am left with narratively is, usually, just a substandard story that I'm now trying to consume from A to Z much in the same way I would any passive form of storytelling.
When I realised this, I stopped caring about the need to try to experience everything or find out every secret, and instead embraced the act of just going where the story and my unguided actions take me. Missing things, doing most things sub-optimally, and ignoring a lot of content has become empowering. My playthroughs are uniquely mine. And games feel more alive for me this way, more infinite, since it becomes less obvious to me what the boundaries are, what the alternatives would have been, what is possible and what not. It makes games feel less like systems and more like experiences.
That said, if a game interests me a lot, I will often return to it later for a new playthrough or post-ending gaming where I no longer approach the game as a narrative experience but more like an investigation to take a look behind the curtain. But that is a very different experience.
This has also influenced how I approach other types of narrative media. I no longer feel so bound by structures and predetermined formats. I can read a book by jumping around in the narrative if I want to. I can skip episodes or stop watching season 1 of something and jump into season 3 that others say is better. I don't feel bad about never finishing things. I am better now at experiencing things the way that best works for me.
It's definitely not just you.
Mild spoilers for a few hours into the game
I got stuck in this play-through around Medina Village. It was super unclear to me that I needed to go through the cave to get back to the starting area in the same era.I experienced the same thing, and I think in hindsight it may have been why I bounced off the game a couple of times previously. This isn't anything really unique to Chrono Trigger, though. If I think hard enough I can think of similar spots in most of the JRPG's I've played. I think the original Dragon Warrior took me something like 5 years to beat. There was a progression item I couldn't find, and only was able to move forward when I happened across a guide in a bookstore (5 years later) that gave me a hint.
I think in the case of Chrono Trigger I bounced off because of life circumstances at the time. I was switching a lot between games, and switching away from an RPG for a month can be a death sentence to the run (my history with Dragon Warrior notwithstanding).
In general I think RPGs have to walk a fine line between discovery and guidance, and none of them get it right 100% of the time.
The (few) flags that point you onward from that spot.
Aside from all the Mystics talking about how great Magus is, there's a single suggestion that you go talk to the old man in the house to the west. When you're there, there's a single line talking to the old man that tells you to go through the cave for a "shortcut" back to your town. But you're right that it's not well signposted.Call the CGA Police because I am breaking CGA Law and committing CGA Crimes!
And by that I mean I already started the game prior to October 1st. XD
As is the case with some lawbreaking, I had good reason: I’ve got double duty this month of trying to finish this quite long JRPG and also completing my Timasomo project. I figured a head start wouldn’t be the worst thing for me, time-wise.
I never had an SNES and have never really dove in to any of its games, so I’m excited to play something so beloved on a system that’s so beloved. I’m two or so hours in and am liking it so far. It feels very ahead of its time, though admittedly I can’t adequately compare it to its peers because, as previously mentioned, I never had an SNES (I jumped from the NES to the PlayStation).
I am one of those people that thinks that Final Fantasy VII is like, the be-all and end-all of games in general, much less RPGs, so it’s interesting to compare this to it. I can see some similar DNA (ATB gauges, for example), and there are even things that I think Chrono Trigger does better. I like that enemies are in the world, rather than getting random battles every few steps. Also, I like the position-based tech options.
I’m playing the Steam version. Normally I’d emulate it, but I don’t have a good cross-device setup for emulation like I do with Steam, and I’ve already played this on three different devices in my mere two hours of play, so the Steam version was definitely the right choice for me.
It also has a nice QoL addition where I can toggle on auto-battling. As much as I like turn-based menu crawlers, they can get tedious. Popping on the auto-battle for simple fights lets me speed through them, and then I turn it off for “meaningful” fights where I want to make more complicated decisions than just repeatedly attacking.
I’m excited for the game for myself, and I’m excited for another round of CGA in general. I loved reading people’s updates for the first month, and look forward to hearing what people have to say about this. Tildes has my favorite game discussions that I’ve found on the internet (unfortunately a low bar to meet) because I love how thoughtful and non-toxic people are here about what they play.
(Also, I love the emoji choices, ali!)
I'm a bit avoidant of auto-battling systems personally. My personal experience is that when I've used them, I begin to just tune out what's happening at all in combat, because not engaging directly will cause me to tune out or get distracted, and what tends to happen is new abilities and stuff go untested and get overlooked, and when I do try to take over for bosses and stuff, I've become unprepared and unfamiliar with my options.
A friend of mine thought I was a maniac for playing through the entirety of Dragon Quest 11 my first time (and first DQ game somehow) without ever increasing the combat speed or using auto-battling, he was insistent that those features were specifically intended and expected to be used, and I just didn't hahaha...
None of that means "don't use it" if it works for anyone reading this, purely just sharing an experience.
I've already made a post and I'm not sure what protocol is here, but I figured I'd just make a new one rather than edit my previous one, as I figured my edits would get buried.
At any rate, I wanted to post some initial impressions:
I started playing on my N3DS, but ended-up finding the text way too small to read comfortably. Doable, but I felt like I was putting in more eyestrain than I needed to in order to do so, so I switched over to my DSi XL, which looks fabulous and is much easier to read, though I still feel has similar issues with it being an old game formatted for a newer, smaller screen. I played about 25-minutes here, getting to the castle before having an idea.
I own an old SNES which I refurbed years ago (Side note: How has it been 4-years already?!), as well as an FXPak Pro for it and I kind of thought it might be fun to give the original game a go, even though it's not regarded as the definitive way to play. I'm usually a big fan of handhelds, as I can play them wherever I am in my house, but something about the prospect of playing more deliberately and using real hardware, as well as a CRT really caught my attention.
So at this point, I've played an hour and twenty minutes on this save and I'm having a great time. Yesterday while I was playing after dinner, my kids came in and watched me play, so I started reading the text to them so they could hopefully understand what was happening in the game. But I think, for now, I'll continue in this way and see if I can keep making time to hide myself away in my office and play here and there. I figure, worst case scenario, I can actually pull the SD Card out of the FXPak and throw my save on one of my Android handhelds and continue enjoying the game wherever I want around the house. I am a little worried about missing any "content" from the DS version that's supposed to extend the game a bit (the map was nice), but I suppose ultimately if people fell in love with this game 31-years ago as it was, there's no reason I cannot now.
And now, to mention some initial thoughts on the game itself, solicited by @kingofsnake
So far, I think it's pretty fun and interesting and I think it holds-up wonderfully. JRPG's generally aren't my jam, though I've played quite a few of them, including Dragon Quest 3/4/5/8, having completed 4 and put about 100-hours into the others between them, as well as played about 50-hours of Persona 3 Portable, Completed Final Fantasy 6 (which I hated) and played a good amount of Shining Force and I think that's about it? What I am enjoying about this one is pretty basic in so far as the enemies are on screen, so I can try to avoid them if I want, no random battles here. I appreciate that my entire party levels-up at the same rate, no trying to save last hits for anyone (though I guess that's more of a tactics thing), as well as the battles being on this active system rather than strictly turn based. I normally love turn based games, but in JRPGs I never find it terribly interesting, so I appreciate that this one is doing something different.
I guess I don't have a lot more specifics to go into at the moment other than the fact that Chrono Trigger feels very modern, if that makes sense. Playing something like the Dragon Quests or Final Fantasy just tends to feel very dated, where crossing the overworld, forests and things don't particularly matter and are just another style of tile to add some variety to an otherwise bland map. I like that there's no battle transitions and everything just happens at the snap of a finger on whatever map you're on, it makes the world feel properly cohesive and the story and characters so far are pretty cute, which is fun look at and watch play out.
I may still put some time into the DS version of the game, just to see if I enjoy it more as a form factor and for the little extras and QoLs, but we'll see.
There's a lot of mention about the quality of the music, but no one actually named the person responsible for it: it was mainly Yasunori Mitsuda.
Interestingly, this was a bid for him to get into composing at Squaresoft (he was sound designer before). Basically "let me compose some music or I quit". He worked hard, so much so that he developed stomach ulcer and Nobuo Uematsu (legendary resident Squaresoft composer at the time) had to help while he was ill (Noriko Matsueda also helped for one track).
As with many other Squaresoft IP of the time, there's an arrangement album existing; and for this one Mitsuda and his collaborator chose to make it not orchestral/symphonic, but acid jazz.
I love that in his bid to get in, they basically have him the megaproject. Apparently it wasn't uncommon to put new people on games in Japan at the time - I love that. It's a real respect for the dynamics of new energy (and probably a healthy under-desk sleeping Ramen-only work ethic).
A timeless classic. I have first played this game in 2013 on the PS Vita. Last year I bought a physical copy in Japan, but I don't have a Japanese SNES. Since I move around a lot, my platform of choice for this current replay is the iPad/iPhone version.
There are some mods, but I just play it in a default state. Check out nexusmods if you care for it. From what I know the newer versions have some cutscenes that the SNES version did not have. I'll post a comment where we can keep discussions about chosen platforms, since
I think the game is quite self-explanatory at the start. I remember at some point I was getting lost though, but don't hesitate to leave a comment. I gotta keep up, if I want to help with tips though, since it's been so long.
So, don't hesitate to ask. Also, since you can play this game on so many different platforms, I would love to know where everyone is playing it.
This game is from 1995, and I think it will feel way ahead of it's time for anyone who hasn't tried it. It aged really well. The artstyle, the music is very timeless. I especially loved the turn based mechanic, that wasn't just "you attack, they attack" but with a timer per character - so faster characters might attack more quickly.
I was 2 when this game came out, so I can't say too much about the period when the game released, but I have since played some other SNES games, and found this to be the most captivating RPG I have tried.
The reason I recommended this, is because it's such a timeless classic game. It's artstyle, the mechanics and especially the Music are setting an amazing mood.
With that being said, I really hope you enjoy the game as much as I did. I am sure a lot of us have played it before, but the ones that haven't, I genuinely think this is one of the best Retro games to try. Especially since it has since been released on nearly every device.
Spoilery yap about getting lost.
Having watched a few playthroughs, it seems the prehistoric era, especially the first visit, is the most likely time for players to get lost. Primarily I've seen players forget the cliff thing they came down to the world map from on their first visit to this time period and not visually identify the trail tile as a zone entrance on the mountain tiles on the world map that represents the entrance back, and I've also seen players get lost in the prehistoric forest/jungle area you go to after waking up from the party, if I remember correctly there's a couple paths obscured by the canopy layering in that area that sometimes get missed.
The first mentioned is exactly what happened to me. Also, I was there way too early, with nothing (I believe) to do to progress the story. The combination of thinking that there is no exit before I do something, yet not finding any way to actually do anything meaningful, was a bit frustrating. In the end, I sought help online, found an answer, and managed to get back on track.
Even though I am not well versed on today’s games. I was very well versed up until the original Xbox. Chrono Trigger is one of the GOATS. Made by a dream team at the time! It is a shame, it never got a modern remake!
It released very late in the SNES lifespan. Right around the time PlayStation was arriving on the scene.
For a time it was considered the greatest game of all time. Back prior to Zelda OoT.
Chrono Trigger, Earthbound, and Final Fantasy VI are, to me, the best JRPGs of the SNES era. Now I can't claim that I've played them all -- I was just a kid in the 90s -- but out of the many I tried from Blockbuster or older cousins, those were the ones that I eventually owned and replayed.
I still rate Chrono Trigger as one of the best JRPGs that I've ever played, period.
I agree with your picks. I would tell you also to add Phantasy Star IV.
As an enormous fan of this series, I'd second that. An unheralded beauty of a series and frankly, I kind of like that it's stayed that way.
I really need to try some of the Genesis JRPGs. I know there are good ones, but I only knew like one person, my rich cousin, who had a Genesis (and seemingly every console in existence). So I missed out completely on the Sega side of things. The only Sega system I had was everyone's favorite battery-eater: the Game Gear.
Any other recommendations for Genesis JRPGs?
I’m not @Whitewatermoose but my go-to for that console has always been Shining Force.
I couldn’t afford a SNES as a kid and had a Sega. I always wanted to play Shining Force and never did. I always heard great things!
I’m kind of torn on how to play this one. On one hand I can play it on my MiSTer and have a very period-appropriate experience, especially because I can play it on an original SNES controller. But I doubt that I will have time for it without a fast forward feature. Or even with it, to be honest.
I think I beat it before on the SNES Mini console, so maybe I’ll dig it up and play a new game plus.
Other people have already talked about the broader context of the game so I'll turn to a more personal angle as Chrono Trigger was one of my formative games in a few ways. I wasn't able to get the SNES cartridge, but was one of the first games I emulated around the turn of the millennium. I remember having fun toggling the different graphics layers in ZSNES with that giving me an idea of how it worked as a piece of software.
This game is the first piece of media I can remember that drew me into loving its characters and music so much that I wanted more and turned to fan works as a result; Lucca was one of my first fictional crushes and remains a favorite to this day, typifying a few of my favorite character tropes. Amazingly Icy Brian's RPG Page still exists and I was able to recall a specific fanfic that I loved reading nearly 25 years ago, Chrono Continuum. Stumbling upon a cover of Corridors of Time was what got me into OC ReMix and broadened my horizons for music as a whole while spending a few years hanging out in the forum there. I also burned the soundtrack to a CD and have a distinct memory of dozing in a car while it was playing during a family road trip.
At one point I downloaded a fan translation patch for Radical Dreamers since it was supposed to connect Chrono Trigger to Chrono Cross (a fun era of not having exhaustive authoritative information on games) but didn't get very far into that one and I never got to Chrono Cross as I stuck to Nintendo consoles.
If I had played the game more recently I might have turned to the Jets of Time Randomizer but for now I want to just go through it for the story again. I happened to have my DS Lite case nearby so I went looking through the games to see if it's there... nope, apparently I left it somewhere else. I do own the Steam version but I think I might emulate the SNES original for the nostalgia.
I'm also a big fan of the music from Chrono Trigger. My absolute favorite track is one of the simplest: Schala's Theme. Back in the day, I used an SPC player to put this song on loop while I did my homework. I would listen for hours without getting tired of it, and I think I could still do the same today. It's just such a calming track.
This OCRemix by Star Salzman is another favorite. It has lyrics that match with Robo's story! (might be spoilers, so be careful)
Edit: Also, the rest of Star Salzman's work is worth a listen if you are into video game music. Their Mega Man 2 Wily Theme remix is one of my favorite songs of all time, and what I think should play in the opening/closing credits if a Mega Man movie ever gets made.
I used to trawl OCRemix for Chrono Trigger music back in the day. I still have most of those MP3s on my server.
This is probably the best rendition of Secret of the Forest that I've heard. So relaxing. Also partial to straight piano covers. Such as this Corridors of Time.
All in all, Chrono Trigger has one of the best soundtracks, period.
Me too! I’ve still got the Chrono Symphonic album MP3s. They haven’t aged well (compared to the original SNES score which I’m geeking out to again this month, and has aged very well)… but I love the community that came together there.
So many good tracks including that one, I don't know if I can pick a favorite because I like a lot of them for different reasons.
I knew exactly what remix that was and could hear it in my mind before I opened the link after listening to it regularly over the years, the MM2 one is great as well. I also like one of the goofier ones (by other folks), Team Gato.
I had never heard the Team Gato one. The Gato theme was always one of my least favorite tracks in the game, but I loved every second of that remix. I was especially nodding my head to that hip hop section near the end. OC ReMix is such a gift.
Same. A lot of my CT history differs from yours as I played it quite a bit later and all, but I 100% have the exact experience of dipping my toes into a translation of Radical Dreamers but failing to commit myself to it fully, and never playing Chrono Cross. I even own a PS1 disc copy of Chrono Cross like, today, and still have yet to play it. Oops!
Already started it and put three hours in, I've been through the intro more times than I can count so I tried poking around more and doing some things differently this time.
Chapter title I just got to:
The End of Time
A few arbitrary thoughts up to that point:
I like how the stress of the soldiers in 600 AD is conveyed in the dining hall with the captain and chef sniping at each other, it's unnecessary but a nice added scene.
I tried to go as guilty as possible in the trial but eating the old man's food was the only thing called in for evidence along with the initial run-in with Marle, guess I answered the other questions in the trial inappropriately for getting other events cited (trying to run away while waiting for her to get a snack and trying to sell the pendant to Melchior). Still 6 to 1 guilty, but I can't remember if it's even possible to get a unanimous vote one way or the other. Side note: I have no idea if the music for the trial was inspired by the trial in Pink Floyd's The Wall, but I have that mental association because they hit my life around the same time.
This time I actually sat in the jail cell and waited until the day of the execution rather than knocking out the guard and escaping myself; it was fun to see Lucca burst in at the last second after being lead to the guillotine.
But you're still hungry. It's an oppressive mood as you go through the ruins of the future before meeting Robo (then you get rolled), and soon after he's repaired and has a positive outlook his sibling units claim he's malfunctioning. Johnny's race is a moment of levity to break it up overall, but I love the rallying call and the main theme playing on your way out after you first learn about Lavos.
Combat strength feels lacking up until Robo joins, but I don't know if that's just my perception because of low numbers in the early game.
Spoilers:
Right before you get Robo is definitely the point where you feel weakest in the whole game. It's very much a thematic choice in alignment with the environment. Things will change.
Chrono Trigger/Cross are my two favourite games of all time and I've played both extensively over the years - easily double digits of playthroughs on both and countless hundreds of hours well spent.
For those are emulating on x86/ARM and get hooked - maybe afterwards give some of the custom ROM hacks a shot? There are some fantastic ones out there - Crimson Echoes and Flames of Eternity are full-fledged fan sequels and there a variety of difficulty/QOL/de-specialized ROM hacks out there as well.
I had initially turned away from them because I didn't want to taint my memory of CT, but then I picked up Crimson Echoes one day and quite thoroughly enjoyed it.
Oh, nice. I'll have to look those up. I bounced off of Chrono Cross pretty hard; is knowing anything about it necessary for Crimson Echoes or Flames of Eternity to make sense?
Both are sort of tie-ins to Chrono Cross, though if you want to play more Chrono Trigger, it's a decent stand alone. All of Chrono Cross is well entrenched in my mind though, so I don't have a good objective opinion on if it's enjoyable without playing/liking/knowing anything about Chrono Cross :/
It's definitely fun, though I personally wouldn't play it right after playing Chrono Trigger just because the whiplash in quality is too jarring for me. I need some buffer space lol
Some things I've always really like about this game:
It's one of the few RPG style stories that just hits right. The escalation of WHY the heroes and party are involved feels so natural, and it really captures the "are we out of our league" moments that are so often glossed over, but make perfect sense given where all this started.
It was VERY well balanced in that if you have a decent understanding of the mechanics and just use your skills/upgrade your equipment a player shouldn't need to grind at all. It's there if you want it, but every fight can be beaten, reasonably, by just taking them as they come. Obviously some people will "click" with it better than others.
Holy hell the settings and the music. A huge part of what makes this game is the phenomenal art direction from top to bottom. Not just Toriyama's characters (which, i'd argue are the weakest part), but the actual worlds you visit and how they're presented. The music is top notch and drives everything home.
It drives me bonkers that this game did sooooo much right, and yet very few games seem to have even learned from it, let alone tried to iterate.
To that point, chained echos is a totally different game, released in 2022 on steam, that I strongly recommend for those of you who, like myself, can blaze through CT in an afternoon, or finish CT and maybe want something similar. It does have flaws (i haven't even finished it because the writing is ehhh, and so it's sitting on my backlog), but the combat and gameplay is the first thing in forever that feels like it's trying something fresh, but also learning from what CT did.
So rambling done i'll mostly stay out of the topic. I've got the game damn near memorized as it was on my list of SNES games i'd get bored and just beat again in an afternoon on the weekend (shared with MMX and Super Punchout). Don't want to spoil anything and already had to go over this post a few time to be extra careful on that.
I will be a first-time player! I bought Chrono Trigger on Steam a while back due to its legendary reputation, so it's been on my backlog for a long while now. I look forward to seeing if it lives up to the hype! Which, based on some comments expressing similar fears in the past, seems like it very well might.
One question for returning players: how much grinding is involved? Because I actually don't mind grinding too much since I can do it while watching/listening to videos. It's not critical, I'm just curious.
It’s a little grindy. Enemies can be seen before battles so you won’t randomly be sprung into combat. However they do respawn in many cases so you can expect to fight the same mobs repeatedly if you return to areas you’ve previously cleared.
Apparently the Steam version you have includes an auto-battle feature that alleviates some of that tedium. I haven’t played that version so I can’t vouch for it, but you might want to give it a look.
You can grind if you want to, but it's not needed. Some fights can be profitable to grind for rare items, but the game is beatable without going out of your way to level up.
So, after much consideration, I've come to a sad conclusion: I'm going to have to skip this month.
Reasons include:
Yeah, I've decided that I've missed the window to start Chrono Trigger this month because... Well, Pokémon is on schedule to derail my life/free time. I'd rather not try to cram as much time into Chrono Trigger and just focus on other things.
A bit bummed since I'd been looking forward to it, and playing at the same time as so many others makes for a unique experience. I do intend to play it someday, but just not right now.
Happy gaming to everyone else!
Can't wait to play this one again, I was rather preoccupied during The Last Express, work, dad duties and other life admin, and couldn't get into it (not out of dislike, I love the game, I've completed it twice in the past).
I'm actually due to get married on 01 November and during the signing of the marriage certificate one of the songs that will play is "Wind Scene" from Chrono Trigger and as we leave the ceremony the "Chrono Cross theme" will play, these games mean a lot to me so I'll definitely find time to dive it this one more thoroughly this month.
I'm definitely in for this one. I'm going to be playing the SNES version emulated with my old copy of ZSNES from the mid 2000s like I did in college.
Chrono Trigger was a game I played when it first came out, and I played it to death, as one did it the era of comparative game scarcity that was the 90s. I've probably reached the credits a few dozen times over the years, and it's still a satisfying experience. It's akin to a comfort read at this point. The novelty is gone, but it's more than just the nostalgia that makes me enjoy playing it again. I'm definitely interested in hearing about the experiences of people who've never played it before.
A weird thing thats been bugging me.
Slight spoilers for a pretty early moment.
Spoilers
So back in the early days of the internet, I'd often seen it said that the trial scene is a direct reference to or inspired by Franz Kafka's "The Trial". Like before I knew who Kafka was, or that things could be "kafkaesque" I knew he was somehow related to this trial in Chrono Trigger. I swear this comparison was all over the place whenever you saw people talking about this game.
But now it's like this whole idea is forgotten. Even if it's not true, does anyone else remember seeing this as a wide spread "fact about this game?"
Since I've never properly played Chrono Trigger before, I figured I'd share my personal history with it and how I plan to finally make up for that missed opportunity.
Back in the 90s, I briefly tried the SNES version through a local video game rental service. My strongest memory is loading an existing save file, wandering around an area...
Spoiler I guess?
...that looked like a dark, flooded city alley,...
...with no idea how to progress. Between my limited English skills, little RPG experience, and starting a new file that only got me wiped out by weak enemies soon after (since I didn't understand the real-time battle system), I quickly gave up.
Still, I vividly remember parts of the background music from that gloomy spot, it gave me the eerie feeling that the game itself didn't want me to play it. Not the best first impression, especially knowing how much praise Chrono Trigger has earned over the decades for its adventure, pacing, and design.
Although I bought the game on the Wii Shop Channel before it closed, I never actually dove in, mainly because I've long avoided turn-based RPGs outside the Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi series. I worried that once I saw the credits, replaying wouldn't feel meaningful if I already knew all the "right" moves. On top of that, the heavy time investment, often reduced to repetitive grinding, felt more like a chore than a challenge.
For most of my gaming life, I've preferred action and adventure titles where reflexes, timing, and navigation matter more than stats or turn orders. Graphics, sound, and story never mattered much to me compared to gameplay itself. But over time I've come to appreciate how those other elements can really enhance the experience. Based on what I've read from fans, Chrono Trigger seems to balance brisk pacing, clever real time position-based combat, and presentation so well that I might finally get hooked.
So for this month's Colossal Game Adventure, I'm giving the SNES version a serious shot. I'll be playing it on a 1CHIP Super Famicom with an RGB-bypass mod. Its video signal splits through Lotharek's W-Hydra2 automatic switch, one going into my Morph 4K's Analog Bridge (with a preset I tweaked myself) and the other into an Axunworks' RGB-2YC for converting it into a composite signal on my grandmother's hand-me-down CRT. The TV sits awkwardly on top of a rolling shelf in my apartment bedroom, which forces me to tilt my head up when sitting on the couch, but it feels fitting for a game about time travel to be played on period-appropriate hardware.
Even through composite, the visuals look great, especially when zoomed out at 10% or lower. The way CRTs blend pixels sells the sprite art in a way modern pixel-style games can't fully replicate. Of course, going this route isn't cheap, a loose cart alone runs over $200 USD, nearly as much as the FXPAK Pro flash cart I'll be using. Retro gaming hasn't been a budget hobby for a long time, but for me, experiencing the game "as it was in 1995" is worth it.
One technical recommendation: set the pixel aspect ratio (PAR) to 8:7 if possible, since the developers designed for that specific dot clock rate. You'll notice a perfect round moon in-game at 8:7, whereas with square pixels (1:1 PAR) the moon looks skinny, and at 4:3 PAR it looks a bit stretched wide. Also, when scaling, enable interpolation on noninteger values to avoid shimmering effects during screen movement.
This time, I'm determined to see what so many people love about this timeless classic, and hopefully make it all the way to the credits, if not uncovering all the endings.
Some hints for anyone playing this for the first time:
in the very beginning
There is a robot that you fight in a park and a fountain to regenerate hp. Repeat this fight until you are level 10 before continuing with the game and you’ll be able to spend a lot more time enjoying things since you won’t have to drop into leveling catch up mode.if you are stuck because you can’t catch the ***
Use your keyboard instead of a USB/Bluetooth controller.Chrono Cross, the sequel to Chrono Trigger, is also currently on sale on Steam. Those who have played both, would you recommend Chrono Cross to those of us who are now for the first time playing through Chrono Trigger and finding ourselves enchanted by it?
My understand is that Chrono Cross is not a direct sequel but a little more of a thematic one, wasn't made by the same team, is generally not quite as highly ranked as its predecessor but is still loved by many, the Steam release also contains the illustrated text adventure Radical Dreamers that bridges the two games, and that the release had major issues at the time of release but they have more or less been patched since.
All this leaves me quite undecided whether to invest time in Chrono Cross or if I should rather explore other JRPGs like Earthbound, Final Fantasy VII or Persona 3, now that Chrono Trigger has shown me that I can actually enjoy JRPG mechanics. Any help is appreciated!
I'm a huge fan of Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross never hooked me. I played it for ~8-10 hrs quite a few years ago and it just didn't have the same feel.
Earthbound on the other hand... is one of my favorites. I'm a real sucker for SNES RPGs. I'd suggest that or FF VII over Chrono Cross.
Oh this sounds fun, I'm in! I've started Chrono Trigger so many times but never finished (due to life getting in the way, definitely not due to the game), finally gives me a reason to make sure I finish it!
I'll be playing the DS cartridge on my New 3DS XL. I'd love to play it on my SNES, but I lost the cartridge during our last move.
I started this game without progressing several times in my childhood, but didn't properly commit and finish it until a playthrough in 2013.
Love it and am fully in agreement with its universal acclaim.
For CGA of course I will be replaying the game with y'all. I will be playing it on Analogue Pocket using the agg23 OpenFPGA SNES core.
There's a couple reasons for this, biggest one is I want to play handheld. It matters quite a bit that I can play comfortably in bed for this one because a decent chunk of playtime will come from playing before bed and first thing in the morning if I want to get through this game without making it my sole purpose for the month.
First, I feel no need to experience the PS1-or-newer versons' animated cutscenes, I've seen them enough times from watching others play the Steam version that I just don't really need them to be there on a future playthrough, and besides they weren't present in the OG anyway.
I do quite like the DS version but I don't like playing DS games on a 3DS (the stretch looks awful and the holding Start on launch for pixel perfect looks better but feels awkward) or Steam Deck (no good 2 screen layouts in that form factor IMO) which are my only handhelds technically capable of playing a DS game.
I could play the Steam version on my Steam Deck, but Analogue Pocket wins here on ergonomics. I don't think the Steam Deck is uncomfortable to use in a sitting position, especially on like a chair or a couch, but it's not as good for playing in bed. I still do it, but I feel like I have to be propped up to use it, or can only use it on my back, but not on my side, which feels limiting. The Analogue Pocket's "vertical" form factor is just that much more usable cause it's comfy lying on either side.
These considerations will definitely come up for some future CGA games as well.
EDIT: Didn't talk about the game much. Don't really know what to say that isn't being said elsewhere in the thread I guess.
I could share that my favourite character is:
AylaI never played Chrono Trigger back in the SNES days because somehow I just missed it. I did rent some RPGs from Blockbuster, but my love for RPGs hadn't really unlocked yet. Much later, when I found I could emulate SNES games on my PC, this was the first one I tried, since by then I'd heard about its stellar reputation. Often something very hyped can disappoint, but I can't say enough about how much I loved this game. The music, the story, the characters - I was in love!
I'm going to be playing the SNES version emulated on Android, as I want to experience the same game I did before. That's also how I usually play SNES games, and I know this one is long so I want to be able to play on lunch breaks or wherever I find time.
I was so hyped about this one that I got it set up days ago and last night was telling myself "It's October 1st somewhere, right?". Going to start on my lunch break! Really jealous of those who have never played before, but also curious how it will hold up to those who don't have the passionate nostalgia about it.
I'm pumped for the spoiler-laden discussion that comes out of this one a month from now.
Most of all, I'm eager to talk about what people feel influenced this game, both majorly and subtly. The concepts introduced were so novel at the time that its forebearers must have been an esoteric bunch.
For anyone wanting to play on iOS but discouraged by the comments about the port, look into the Delta app. That, alongside some internet searching, should make your experience mirror the DS version.
I own the DS and steam versions and can't decide which one to play. I also have the SNES with a Sony PCM, but that's in a different state right now. Decisions, decisions.
I main end up passing on playing it this month because I want to focus on a good horror game or two from my backlog for October. But I'll try to get around to it if I have time. Or perhaps I'll play it later in November or December when I have some more free time with the holidays.
I've owned this game on basically every platform, so at least this is an easy one for me. I haven't played it for a few years, so I think I'm ready for a new one.
Spoilers
Maybe I'll go after some of the wackier endings this run.Absolutely, but perhaps note that you're spoiling an aspect of the game in your comment. Some people might like to discover that for themselves.
I was aware that was maybe a slight spoiler, but I wasn't able to find a spoiler tag in the formatting help. Do we have a spoiler tag on tildes?
We do, but it's documented as expandable sections rather than spoiler tags.
That produces this:
Spoiler
This is the actual spoiler content, which will be hidden inside a collapsed box.
Thanks!
I'm looking forward to this one, felt like I failed a bit last month due to not getting far at all in The Last Express.
I have an N3DS that already has Chrono Trigger on it that I will be using. I didn't play this game back in the day, but have some experience with similar things (FF, Breath of Fire, etc), and feel that this type of gameplay is going to appeal to me a lot more than clicking around trying to figure out if I'm allowed to look up / down.
Side note, we have to do Final Fantasy Tactics eventually!
Started! I'm enthusiastic about this.
The Last Express did not go so well for me, for a variety of reasons, one of them including the simple fact that it's not a genre I'm particularly used to or that usually appeals to me. I did not end up finishing, though I'd still like to in the very near future (the massive flare up of intestinal pain I've been experiencing for the past 8 or 9 days now did not help).
This is different, though! I've never played Chrono Trigger, but I do love me some JRPG, and it happens I get to play it on my 3DS, my favourite console! I'm playing the DS version with the TWPatch widescreen patch on my New 3DS XL, which admittedly must move away from the original experience, but I like it like this. So far, I've reached the trial scene. I'm a fan of how easy it is to get into, both in story and gameplay. I feel like the pacing is good, too, save for how long battle entry animations can be.
Enjoy, everyone; I think I will!
For the people who did not play Chrono Trigger in their youth: how highly do you rank this in terms of being one of the greatest games of all time, or the best ever RPG, etc?
I ask because I only played it as an adult, and I like it quite fine - I think I got 2 or 3 of the endings - but I wasn't blown away or anything, and I wonder how much of the game's cherished status is due to playing it at an impressionable age. I actually never heard of it when it was released; no one I knew had a SNES... I've used one maybe twice in my life. Among my friends and I, the systems we had were the NES, Genesis, PS, N64, and Dreamcast, so I essentially missed half the 16-bit generation. I think I only vaguely heard about Chrono Trigger as the prequel to Chrono Cross somewhere in my late teens or my young adulthood.
By contrast, FF7 was the first RPG I ever played, and though it's still one of my favorites, I can recognize in hindsight where the flaws in the game lie and how its status as a classic is partially due to where it falls on the timeline of gaming history.
@Bullmaestro and others who feel strongly about it can chime in as well.
There is a saying that "your favourite Final Fantasy will be the first one you played." That one for me was FF9. I could never get into the previous PS1 ones.
It’s been a few years since I last played, and a lot longer than that since I completed it. I started a fresh save today! Haven’t gotten very far yet, I’m about to get to the trial if memory serves. I’m playing the SNES version through OpenEmu on a Mac.
One thing I couldn’t remember (and it’s not immediately apparent in-game) is the difference between the two battle modes, so I looked it up. This page explains it well. Sharing in case it’s helpful for anyone else.
I've always seen Active as a punishment for taking your time to navigate menus and select abilities. But the argument about dual-techs is certainly valid.
I played a little bit of The Last Express but Silksong and a Path of Exile league launch proved to be the priority. Games like TLE are a bit foreign to me which I think was a contributing factor though I might still play it in my own time. Since I didn't say anything in the TLE threads let me introduce myself. My video game background mostly consists of the PS2, Nintendo consoles since the GameCube, and PC gaming starting in the later half of the 2000s.
I discovered emulation when I started PC gaming and that helped me connect with earlier Nintendo games but my experience outside that space is somewhat sparse. These days I have a relatively period accurate retrogaming setup with an old CRT courtesy of my university's surplus store(only $5 because they wanted it gone) and an old Raspberry Pi setup to output composite video via its 3.5mm jack. I know its not enough for hardcore purists but it was dirt cheap and good enough for me.
I like to think of myself as someone who is a fan of retro games, though I spend more time getting game metadata and cover art to show up correctly in the game selection menu and collecting fan translations than I do actually playing games. Sometimes I think museum curator for some kind of video game history museum would be a dream job.
I don't have a ton of experience with JRPGs other than through adjacent media such as RPGMaker games and isekai manga so this will also be a bit foreign to me but I have already put an hour into Chrono Trigger and am enjoying it so far, though it took me awhile to figure out how saving the game works.
While we're on the Chrono Trigger bandwagon, let me share one of my most listened adaptations: Kara Comparetto covering the complete soundtrack in piano, pipe organ, and harpsichord. Between the three instruments she does a fantastic job of evoking the feeling of the game's world. Her other stuff is also very good, and I recommend poking around her channel, but this is one of the standouts.
I bought the DS version years ago because I love jrpgs and it has such a legendary status. Life got busy and it went forgotten though. I've spoiled myself on some of the story from watching Game Grumps, but I'm excited to finally have an excuse to play it myself. Dragon Quest is one of my favorite series so it'll be cool to see another game with Toriyamas art style.
Trying again to commit to playing during CGA.
Couldn’t make it work with the previous month, maybe if my schedule allows it, might retry playing the Last Express.
Will play Chrono Trigger on DS, which will make it a bit easier to squeeze in.
Have tried to play several JRPGs when I got into emulation for the first time, probably 15-20 years ago now. Although I never remember finishing any. The longest commitment -and latest game I tried- was probably with Persona 5, which I played probably halfway through.
I think the difficulty for me is in pausing too long, not remembering what I was supposed to do at that point in the game, and it being too much of a hassle to get back into it. So maybe playing the game more like a book, everyday a short session or something, will help me keep on track.
Edit: added some thoughts on ltopic starter questions, made my initial post a bit clearer.
I was going to save this for the remove cartridge thread, but thought it might help someone, and kind of need to vent. 😡
Rant about the golem twins. Do not expand unless you want to know spoilers about this part of the game!
The golem twins fight was such horseshit. On my first 2 attempts I just got completely demolished before my party could really do anything. I had gone in with my strongest group (Crono, Ayla, Frog). I didn't even last long enough to figure out that the twins copy magic attacks. After getting nowhere I looked up a guide. It suggested a few strategies, all involving Lucca. I had pretty much ignored Lucca the entire game, because as soon as Robo is available there always seems to be a better choice. But the guide suggested using hypnowave and then pummeling the golems one at a time with strongest attacks. I did that and the single golem still managed to whittle me down (albeit slower this time). Next I searched up reddit, and there was a suggestion to use water attacks since the counter is weak. I equipped my blue plate and gave it another shot, but still ended up overwhelmed. So I went to gamefaqs this time since the guides there have never steered me wrong. I should have done this in the first place TBH. I found a much better guide that had 3 strategies. I had tried 2 of them already, but the final suggestion was to equip all of the fire resist/absorb armors (Red plate/vest, ruby vest) and then use a combo of hypnowave and and single target fire from Lucca to take the golems down one at a time. It was at this point that I realized that I had neglected to speak with Spekkio whilst having Lucca in my party! So in order to enable her fire spells I had to dig myself out of the ocean palace to get back to the end of time, then make my way back through the whole dungeon again. It wasn't so bad, but the boss fight after was just so dumb.
It started the same as usual with the golems nearly decimating my party in the first round before Lucca gets her turn. I got a hypnowave to connect with one golem, and the other continued to pummel the rest of the party. Lucca died in the following turn even though she had the golden earring to double her HP. I managed to revive her and just barely managed to land a single fire attack on the awake golem before she died again (she was at 30 health at this point). Now begins the stupid part. Now that the first golem was asleep and the second golem was doing fire attacks, this was the easiest damn fight in the game. Seriously, all I needed to do was use fire every time Lucca's turn came around. The awake golem mostly healed the party, with one member (with the ruby vest) just having damage reduction. I would occasionally use Frog to heal, or Crono to apply an ether to keep Lucca ready to cast another fire spell. The fight became tedium, and I eventually won.
This battle felt different from the others in game for a few reasons. In all the other battles up until this point, there is some hint given about the strategy and/or weakness. The party is given enough of a preview to reason out what works. In the best case, the player's default party might be able to roll with things and still win, and in the worst case they have to do the fight over, but with tweaks to the party load-out to maximize the player advantage. Also, even with the tricks figured out, there are usually some curve balls thrown by the boss to keep the player engaged. Maybe it's a bigger attack that requires a break to heal, or a resurrection of a part that needs to be re-addressed. Even the Giga Gaia fight (which was kind of a PITA) was at least solvable in a couple of tries, and felt satisfying to take down in the end.
The golem twins abandoned all of these patterns, and the result was a stupidly hard fight, followed by a super easy fight, followed by an unsatisfying ending. ugh. I'm pretty sure this is where I bounced off the game in previous years, because I can recall bits of the game up until this point, but losing Crono from the party still came as a pretty big surprise.
I agree, that fight is one of the weaker parts of the game. I might even go as far as to say that it is a rare example of poor game design in an otherwise highly polished game.
The core mechanics of the fight are actually quite interesting and clever, so the problem is more that the game fails to communicate the rule set clearly enough, or at least in my case failed to do so. I think I see how the game is meant to tell you all the relevant information but I too failed to pick up on what was going on and came out of the fight feeling frustrated, and slightly bored, rather than feeling clever or accomplished.
It would help if an average party had a little more time in the fight before being completely wiped out.
I agree with all of your points, but I think this is especially the reason why my reaction has been so... visceral. The game up to this point is so good with respect to pacing, and every area seems meticulously crafted to subtly guide the player in just the right way. Poorly executed/paced bosses aren't anything new for JRPGs, and there are lots of examples from other games around Chrono Trigger's release era. It's just jarring in this case because it feels so out of place.
I'm cautiously optimistic that the rest of the game regains some balance so this can just be a minor speed bump. :)