Throwback Thursday: Chrono Trigger

Chrono Trigger is commonly referred to by those who have played it as "possibly the greatest game of all time" I've never been a big RPG gamer. Still not. But I read this game had 10+ endings. Most of the games I like barely had stories, let alone endings for them to pay off in! Add in time travel and I couldn't turn this down, I had to play it! Crono is a boy who sets out to the fair one day to meet his friend Lucca, who is going to be showing off a new invention: a teleporter. Along the way he makes a new friend named Marle, who's pendant makes that teleporter go haywire and they all end up about 400 years in the past. While there, they meet a outcast knight thats been turned into a frog, and save the royal family of the day. Thats more than enough story for a lot of games, but this is only the first couple hours of CT. The trio will see the distant future of their world after its been destroyed, travel to the age of dinosaurs, and learn the shocking secrets of the mystic wizard Magus and his connection the world's magic past and doomed future. This is the 16-bit masterwork that offered innovations over a lot of current RPGs by letting battles take place on the main screen and took out random battles. Graphics were colorful and some of the best available on the SNES, with character design by Dragonball creator Akira Toriyama. Music and sound were also just fantastic. Its one of the most popular game on Overclocked Remix. I also found an orchestral version of the main theme years ago you can download here. Even though its a pretty old game and not nearly as popular as Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest, Chrono Trigger retains a large fan following. One group even tried to remake the game. This ambitious 3D update was going to be released on the gamecube, xbox, and PC, until the Squaresoft legal team stepped in. Even though it'll never finish development, the site has amazing pictures and a trailer. Chrono Trigger did have a semi-sequel called Chrono Cross but it hardly does the original justice. Its a well received RPG in its own right, but Chrono Cross does parallel dimensions instead of time travel, and the links to the orginal game are ambiguous at best. Chrono Trigger was re-released on the PS1 in 2001, and that version is much easier to find than the SNES original cart and includes new anime cut scenes. The inspiration for this week's throwback comes from Blue Dragon a new game from Mistwalker on xbox 360. Blue Dragon will reteam the original CT team for the first time of creator Hironobu Sakahuchi, musician Nobuo Uematsu, and character designer Akira Toriyama.