As I continue on with my playthrough of Chrono Trigger the game keeps getting a bit better each time. Since the game has been out for over twenty years i'm going to talk about some plot spoilers so if you are planning on playing this fresh, you might want to avoid reading more.

Firstly as someone that didn't play much of Chrono Trigger when it was originally launched on the Super Nintendo I don't have any particular nostalgia for this title. That said, the game does borrow some graphical and sound elements from past Square games, such as the wind sound effect from Final Fantasy VI. That said, I do have some pretty minor nits about the game and the biggest one is that it throws a lot of new plot level characters at you pretty quickly to the point that I was confused a few times. That said the game does stop adding new plot characters at one point which allowed me to catch up. I imagine if you've played this game a lot it's easy to make sense of all of it but Chrono Trigger is so quickly paced that it's hard to keep your finger on what's going on.

SPOILERS AHEAD. FOR REAL PEOPLE YOU CAN'T UNREAD THIS ONE BELOW

So I just got to the part in the game where Crono sacrifices himself to save the group when they are fighting Lavos. It's a surprising turn, which I didn't see coming and I am now working on bringing him back. It's an interesting choice to kill of the main character and for a bit I wondering if he would just be out of the game entirely? That said, since it's sci-fi the group already has a plan on how to bring him back of sorts which involves a Chrono Trigger, time egg and a replica doll of Crono himself. It's cool that the game is totally going all Search for Spock to bring him back and these kinds of moments are why Chrono Trigger is widely considered to be one of the best games of all time.

I'm not sure how much more I have of the game yet to play before "the end" but it feels like i'm at least half way or more through it. Playing the DS version has been great because I can play it anywhere and if you have the chance to play that version I highly recommend it. In the future if I want to play Chrono Trigger again I'll play the original Super Nintendo version but you can't beat playing it on the go so if you want to give Chrono Trigger a shot you can pick it up on your smartphone or DS.

If you want to read more about this playthrough of Chrono Trigger check out my other post below:

https://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/3594/chrono-trigger-it-s-about-time

Azurephile   Super Member wrote on 02/18/2018 at 08:06pm

Awesome! I'm glad you're enjoying it. There is actually another Chrono game, called Chrono Cross. I have it for the PS1 and I'm sure Travis remembers me playing it while we were roommates. I wish that game would get an HD makeover and come to Steam. Oh and speaking of which, Secret of Mana is available on Steam now, I think.

jdodson   Admin   Post Author wrote on 02/18/2018 at 11:11pm

Yeah, the HD remake of Mana is on steam and it seems to be getting mixed reviews. I disliked the Mana version they brought to iOS and I do plan on playing the new HD PC version at some point even though it’s getting savaged with reviews.

Azurephile   Super Member wrote on 02/18/2018 at 11:30pm

It's on my wish list. There was a classic Final Fantasy I didn't buy on Steam. It was the DS version or something, I wasn't too fond of the portable remake, so I understand what you mean.

Travis   Admin wrote on 02/19/2018 at 02:20am

I not only remember you playing it, Greg. If you remember, I played it too! It’s a really good game. Very different from Trigger (though I admittedly haven’t played much of Trigger). I don’t think either of us enjoyed it as much as Ed though, that dude loved it.

It took me a long time to convince him that JRPGs weren’t demonic but once he was there, man, he was all in.

Travis   Admin wrote on 02/19/2018 at 02:24am

And it looks like the Secret of Mana mixed reviews are due to bugs so hopefully those get hammered out.

Azurephile   Super Member wrote on 02/19/2018 at 02:38am

Ah, great memories, Travis. Thanks for the reminders. I tried to play it again years ago, but I couldn't get over how bad it looks now.

And of course I remember you got me into JRPGs, too!

Travis   Admin wrote on 02/19/2018 at 04:07am

There are certain games from that generation (especially on PSX, but also things like Goldeneye on N64) that looked incredible at the time but definitely haven't aged well. It was kind of a transitional generation. Most everything before that holds up graphically, most everything after does as well. I guess it makes sense-- it was when they were first trying for more realism.

jdodson   Admin   Post Author wrote on 02/20/2018 at 03:04am

Yeah, I don't find most of the early gen Playstation to hold up well at all compared to 8 or 16 bit. PERSONALLY I think the 64 games hold up better but it's because of the limitations of the system and they had less textures to work with making the plain color polygons hold up better when blown up. At least to me eye they look a bit better.

Travis   Admin wrote on 02/20/2018 at 03:20am

Especially Nintendo-made games on the N64. They've always made games that use the generation's capabilities while never striving for that kind of realism, so they stand the test of time.

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