I've always been conflicted about Chrono Trigger. I've always felt like I was the only person who just thought Chrono Trigger was just an alright game and that there are much better out there. People always raved to me that Chrono Trigger was the best RPG ever made and that nothing else compares to it. I always asked why? Seriously, why?
Chrono Trigger is Overrated. You will not hear me say that phrase often; that something is overrated. But I think if one game would take the cake, it would be this. I've beaten the game about 6 times now, so yeah... I can kind of see the fun in the game. I think the gameplay is ahead of its time* and that the theme it has is very unique for what it is. But to me it just misses on just about everything. And I want to go on step-by-step for everything about this game that bothers me. Starting with the very beginning.
I think the reason I took so long to ever try this game ( it was about after playing Final Fantasy 9 ) was two things: It was on SNES and it was kind of inaccessable and the title of it just looks stupid. And by that I mean the "Trigger" in Chrono Trigger. I don't understand why they chose to stretch the "Trigger" part out like that. It honestly looks like it was made by some amateur programmer for a fanfiction or a amateur game he was working on. The "Chrono" part of it already illustrates the Time aspect of the game, the other part.... you got me. It's just a very ugly title.
The game starts off with Crono waking up for the Millennial Fair, it's the year 1,000 and a fair starts off. You wake up from bed and you're welcome to Earth, or a caricature of Earth. You rush over to the fair as you had plans to meet your friend there and test her Invention. Yes, we all know the intro to our favorite game... While at the fair, we bump into this blonde girl who we later find out is Princess Nadia of Guardia. The Kingdom you happen to reside in. She introduces herself as Marle and you do this whole little sidequest where you gotta entertain her... You come up to Lucca's machine and she ends up causing a Time Rift throwing you back to the year 600. Where you find out that she's the Princess. So you end up rescuing the real princess, which causes her to reappear. You go back to your own time and they assume you kidnapped her, a trial happens where the sidequest you did earlier comes into play, though it's kind of pointless in the long-run. And you escape into the future from the castle. Now where am I going with all this?This is the last portion of the game where Marle has any significance.
After this, she has absolutely no purpose to the game whatsoever other than being a so-so party member. And taking into considersation she's an escaped Princess of a Kingdom you'd think she'd be somewhat important. You'd think maybe some questions would be asked, maybe SOMETHING but no, she's pretty much a blank slate for the entire game. And what gets me is.... she's the love interest. How you make a Silent Protagonist and a cardboard cutout to be love interests in a game is beyond me. The only interaction I can remember between these two are a brief dream sequence of Marle waking up Crono from bed in a reenactment of the opening of the game, which wasn't even real.
But what am I saying, hardly anyone in this game is fleshed out. I imagine when they made this game all they did was give small one sentence explanations for each character and never go beyond this:
Crono: Swordsman boy...
Marle: Tomboy Princess who wants adventure
Lucca: Tomboy science geek.
Though to be fair, I think Lucca has probably the most personality in the game and the most backstory ever explained. Probably explains why she's my favorite character in the game....
Ayla: Cave-girl. Leader of Tribe. And apparently the Ancestor of Marle... **
Frog: A chivalrous anthropomorphic swordsman who seeks revenge for his fallen comrade by the hands of Magus. He also has a good amount of backstory explained but I think he's a rather boring character. Though the English NA Translators have a HUGE hand in this by pretty much changing every honorable quote he had into something silly... For example:
"Ah it's you. Sir Slush!"
"That's Slash you nitwit!"
In original Translation it was:
Frog: It's been a while.
Dark Arts Swordsman Soysaw......!
Soysaw: I never even thought that you
would come this far, Glenn.
If Cyrus hadn't been there back then, you
would have had the same fate as well.
Soysaw: Same as the corpses earlier!
Soysaw: Pretty good.
Guess I'll get serious for the first time in a while.
Soysaw: But without Cyrus, will you......
Soysaw: Be able to take me!?
Soysaw: Well done......!
But being beaten fighting for Magus-sama......
So he wasn't always a cookie-cutter white knight.
Magus: The only original character in the game. Except he joins 5 minutes before you beat it and he STILL has piss-poor backstory. So pretty much he's just a brooding little boy who hates everyone and only likes his cat and Schala. Queen Zeal accidentally sends him to 580 AD after she summons Lavos and he spends the entire game secretly trying to get revenge on Lavos.
Now it should be noted that, once again, English Translation has another part in this. In the original story, it was noted that Magus started the war with Guardia so he could gain more power to use against Lavos. In NA story... he's just a huge douche waffle.
I hardly consider Magus to be a real "party member" considering he joins so late making his inclusion very useless by now as all my members are equipped, have skills, and have grown on me.
In the end though, the characters are just... boring. Once you get past their arc, they don't say another word. For example, one thing that would have REALLY made the game a lot more interesting was just little comments about the time periods. For instance when Ayla joins you and you head back to 1000 AD, it's FAR FAR FAAAAAR more advanced than anything she knows about. Hell, Crono's Mom says to her "Honey, girls shouldnt dress like that" and Ayla pretty much laughs it off. There is NEVER a single line of dialogue about noting period differences***.
In my opinion, I think one of the biggest downfalls to the game is Crono. For two reasons: He's a silent protagonist and on top of this, he's given absolutely zero story. So therefore the enjoyment of the story is kind of toned down since you can't really grow on him. There's just nothing to attach yourself to...
As you go in in the story, you start to learn that there's a magical background to the game where once the Ice Age began, people ascended into the skies and began fiddling with Magic in a kingdom called Zeal. You meet Schala and Janus whom are the children of the Queen, Schala is a very soft-hearted woman that only means the best and Janus is a cold-hearted little boy whose only friend is his chat. Also, among these magical people are the Three Sages: Gaspar, Balthasar, and Melchoir. And I'd like to say that once you hit this timeline of 12,000 BC, you're about 85% done with the game, and this probably the first time you ever meet any form of conflict and plot in this game aside from Lavos in general and each timelines specific troubles ( Azala, Magus ). Anyways you begin to learn that these people you've met in these different timelines all came from this era and were sages along with Janus who is actually Magus. So we finally get some form of plot, except ONCE you learn all this, the game just stops giving a shit.
Gaspar doesn't ever explain to you how he managed to set everything up. In fact, if I reember correctly, the most he ever says is just "Yeah, I'm Gaspar.". I don't think Melchoir ever says anything different aside from "Wow, Black Omen!" and Balthasar is dead.
Now Janus is where it really bugs me.... as I said he's the Magus we know. It shows us a cutscene of him being attacked by Ozzie and.... that's it. He went from good kid with a kitty, loving his sister to dominating countries with an evil army without even delving into any reason of: How, why***, or anything. And I honestly wanted to know the details on all of this, like why Janus had changed so much and how exactly he did that. It's like the writers just didn't care and wanted to get through the game as quickly as they could:
What happened to Schala?
Why was the Black Omen not present previous to when Crono got there; before Crono and Magus intruded, whatever happened there, happened. This might actually be something that I missed but before Crono intruded on this, the Queen's plans were successful. And last I recall, her plan was the Black Omen. Or better yet, what exactly DID happen previous to Crono? Like... if I hadn't interrupted, what would have been the result?
The same argument could also be said with 600 BC. Guardia was losing that fight against Magus, they'd destroyed Zenan Bridge and taken over the lower continent. The only reason in current Guardia the statue of him doesn't exist is because you beat him as he was trying to summon Lavos. Or better yet, when you interrupted him summoning Lavos, what happened when you didn't interrupt? Did it just not work? So what happened to his army? Did they just give up? I mean, Ozzie's ancestor is the Mayor of the country over there so clearly they lived on. Did Frog end up beating them? What happened to Frog?
Honestly, in those cases, unless I competely missed something, which please... go ahead and tell me what I missed... These seem like plotholes rather than just details that weren't explained
The one thing that I was genuinely curious about was how exactly Zeal was formed... How was magic found? How was Zeal created? Like, you'd imagine after the entire extinction of the dinosaurs from Lavos, something you were clearly there for... Especially in a timeline where they were SUPPOSE to be primitive... Why exactly were people in the sky, making: machines, airships, and other robots. It's NEVER addressed!
I could go on and find even more to complain about but the point will pretty much remain the same: Chrono Trigger is the most glossed over game I've EVER played. It just doesn't care about itself past "Lavos bad, you beat."
*Get it. Ahead of its time?
** Shes the ANCESTOR of Marle? With a 65 million year difference, is this really worth noting?
