On the back of the game box it says Chrono Trigger is known for being one of the best games ever made. So, there’s an incentive to play and review a game if ever there was one. Never released before in Europe, this is yet another RPG from Square’s archive that they’ve brought onto the DS complete with touch screen support for navigating through the menus, actions and spells in combat. There’s also a very useful map on the touch screen to help you navigate round the game world.
You begin the game as a young man names Crono. Of course you can change his name to your own or whatever and soon you’re wandering about, exploring what looks like the usual RPG village complete with markets, stalls and people to talk to. Soon, you happen upon an experiment put together by your friend Lucca akin to movie The Fly where a teleportation device moves people from one end of the room to another. Unfortunately, when your princess friend decides to have a go, she gets sucked into a wormhole and ends up somewhere else in time. Of course, you go after her and end up going on an adventure through time to put things right and stop the end of the world. Think of it as a bit like the current series of Lost as you pop around throughout your land’s history.
When travelling about you can have three people in your party including yourself. Your main attack is with a sword, there’s a frog that’s also handy with a sharp weapon, a robot you meet along the way and Lucca and your princess friend who both have long range attacks. There’s also a number of spells they can cast and they can link up together and perform powerful combo attacks on enemies once their gauges are all filled up. You can even hit more than one enemy at a time depending on how close they’re standing to each other. The great thing about the combat is how quick it is. There’s no lengthy Final Fantasy style announcement of it and there are no random encounters. You can see enemies on the screen and sometimes only have to fight them if you bump into them.
If you’re someone that isn’t a great fan of JRPGs, this one is definitely worth a look as it does break the convention of what you’d typically expect from one. There’s no complicated upgrade system and no lengthy dialogues scenes where you have to flick through pages and pages of exposition. In its place you can equip items and armour to make your team more powerful and simple conversations push the story along and explain what’s going on and what needs to be done. There’s also a great soundtrack and some neat anime cut-scenes to really polish off what is a great role-playing experience.
The game’s also got replay value as there are 14 endings to get depending on the choices you make as you travel through time. Cause and effect is shown well here as you directly see how your actions in the past effect what the future is like.
If you’re looking for a new game to keep you amused for hours and hours on end on your DS before Pokémon Platinum takes up all your time, here it is. Chrono Trigger gets a classic 9 out of 10.
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