Portfolio Class - Re-Experiencing Chrono Trigger

In class right now and our instructor (Jacob Tran) is leading us through some of the ways to market ourselves and our new/polished skills. He wants us to write about a recent game we played, and while I haven't had much time to play anything recently, I did indulge in some retro gaming since coming to the Vancouver area. My game of choice? Square's ground-breaking and trail-blazing 1995 RPG Chrono Trigger (originally on the SNES).

Chrono Trigger follows a spiky-haired redhead named Crono through his adventures through time that start out fairly small in scope (with a princess requiring some rescue), but the story (and stakes) quickly escalate to include the fate of the entire world as the heroes hop through time to discover that the year 1999 is the date of an apocalypse engineered by a creature called Lavos. The willing heroes commit to travel through time to unravel the secrets of Lavos' dire machinations and end the threat.

Chrono Trigger's graphics, at the time, were pretty great, with large, detailed, expressive characters designed by Akira Toriyama (of DBZ fame). The characters and critters are a mix of realistic and cartoony, and they do the trick. The storyline is a good deal easier to "get," unlike some of the other stuff Square has done, with some nice twists and suitably epic battles supported by an excellent score from master Square composers. The combat system is simple, based on a timed system between character "turns," and when multiple characters are ready to attack you can activate multi-member techniques that typically deal a lot more damage to more enemies.

I found the story arcs were a lot shallower than I used to believe they were, and while this could just be the nostalgia talking, I'm pretty sure they weren't even as fully realized as those from FFIII (which Square released a year earlier in North America). Still, they're on par or better than most of the games ever released in terms of storytelling. Some of the moments (like Lucca's travel back in time to the site and date of an accident where her mother lost the use of her legs), are poignant and raise some ethical issues that leave an impression.

Anyway, Chrono Trigger (and its unheard-of-before 12 endings) stands up pretty well overall to the 17 years since it was released. Now I have a craving for FFIII...

Thanks for reading.