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.
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<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.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:
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.
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.
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! :)
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!
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.
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")
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 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.
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’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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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. 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.
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.
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'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!
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 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.