Chrono Trigger

BEST GAME EVER MADE

Yes, it's a bold statement. This is the game that I compare all other games to. Sure, the graphics are outdated, but who cares! A game doesn't need lifelike graphics to be good. It needs a story and great gameplay, and this game achieves both with flying colors. It also has very high replay value. Something you don't really see in new games these days.

This game is about Chrono and his friend Lucca who end up travelling through time with a girl Marle whom they meet at the Millennium Fair, a fair celebrating the new millennium (the year is 1000 AD). During their travels through time, they meet several new friends and try to stop evil from taking over at several points in time.

With each friend you pick up, you can adjust your party of three to different configurations depending on what's required for your current objective. Each character has their own strengths and weaknesses, and when combined with certain characters, they can combine attacks for more powerful attacks. For instance, if you combine Marle and Lucca, you have several magic attacks. Marle and Chrono have attacks where she will imbue his sword with magical power, same with Lucca and Chrono.

There are a few times where your actions in the past influence actions in the future. Each time you get something new for doing these, and they help the story along nicely. For example, one quest requires an item to be in direct sunlight for many years. To achieve this, you would drop this item in the past, then pick it up in the future.

Another nice feature of the game is that you get a different ending depending on when you beat the game. Even losing to the last boss gives you a different ending! I believe there are a total of 13 different endings, although I'm sure I've counted more. Either way, I've gotten every one of them.

To achieve these multiple endings, the game has a feature called New Game+. What it does is starts out a new game, with your levels, stats, and items from a previous save game. this feature is opened up the first time you beat the game. From here, you can start over and begin beating the game during different time periods.

This game does everything right, and nothing wrong. I mean, the only bad thing anyone can say about it is that you play as a silent protagonist. Anyone who looks at that as a bad thing, is an idiot. The game is more about the actions of everyone, how they interact with each other, not about the dialogue of the main character.

There is nothing bad I can say about this game. Like I've said previously, this is the game I base my opinion of other games on. If I had to use an arbitrary 1-10 rating for this game, I would take a hint from Spinal Tap, and this is an 11. Nintendo Power is full of shit to rate this as #5 in a top 20 list of SNES games. This is far ahead of Zelda.

If you can find a copy of this, PLAY IT. Whether it be the original SNES, the PSX version, or even the new DS version, play it. You will not regret it.