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Nintendo: DS Reviews

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Review

Chrono Trigger

93%

Format Nintendo DS

Developer Square-Enix

Publisher Square-Enix

Genre Role Playing

4-Feb-2009 Going back in time, in more ways than one

21 Comments

You thought the wait for Super Smash Bros. Brawl was bad? Spare a thought for the RPG nuts who've been gaming since the NES and SNES days. When American games magazines started making a big deal of Chrono Trigger and proclaiming that Square's SNES RPG was one of the greatest games they'd ever played, we started getting excited and eagerly waited for a UK release. It never came. As a result, we've had to hang on for a grand total of just under 13 years for this, the DS remake, since it marks the first time the game has ever been available in Britain. Was it worth the ridiculous wait? Yes.

hrono Trigger tells the story of Crono, a young lad in the year 1000 AD who meets a girl called Merle at his town's Millennial Fair. Also at the fair is Lucca, a whiz-kid lass who's created a teleportation machine. When Merle tries the machine out, her pendant causes a portal to appear and she's transported back in time to the year 600. Chrono and Lucca travel back to rescue her and so begins a huge adventure which goes through seven different time zones, from 65 million BC to 2300 AD.
This isn't necessarily what makes the game special, though. What does is the way its many aspects combine to create something much greater than the sum of its parts. Every individual feature of the game is so well-designed and works so well that when you put it all together it makes for a fantastic experience.
Take the script, for example. So many RPGs are let down by writing that's either too basic or clichéd to be enjoyable, or too pretentious because the writer decided this would be their chance to write flowing, lengthy speeches for characters that will make an impact on the world. The only impact this makes is our thumb on the A button many times over as we try to frantically skip the rubbish being spouted. Not so with Chrono Trigger. The dialogue here is genuinely likeable since it simply does what's required - it tells the story and develops the characters' relationships without reeling off a load of rubbish about the destiny of mankind and the futility of hope.
Then there's the music. On its own it's pretty great stuff - some of it was even composed by famed Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu - but it complements the game's events so perfectly that it's hard not to get genuinely emotional at certain times, such is its power.
Finally there's the all-important gameplay, in particular the battle mode. When the SNES version of Chrono Trigger was released Square made a big deal of the game's 'Active Time Battle 2.0' system. Basically, all this meant was two things. Firstly, whenever enemies attack, you fight them there and then on the game map, instead of cutting to a separate battle screen. Secondly, instead of taking turns to go on the offensive, your character gets to fight once their own attack meter fills up (the higher their speed stat, the faster their timer runs out). Although similar systems have since been implemented over the years there's no denying it's still an effective, simple and exciting way of playing. Since the action is still happening as you go through each character's list of actions, you're forced to choose quickly to prevent being attacked while you decide which move to make.

Role-Playing Gem
On top of all of that, numerous new elements have been added to the DS version over the SNES original. For starters, there's a special DS version of the game which moves all the on-screen menus to the bottom screen to let you see more of the action and lets you play the game with stylus control.

There are also all sorts of options allowing you to change anything from the colour of the in-game menus to the ability to let your character run automatically instead of having to hold a button to activate it. Then there's the ability to raise monsters from one of four different 'smidges' and then train them to fight against your friend's monster in wireless multiplayer.

Finally, the game now has two brand new dungeons which, while not quite as engaging as those in the original game, add to the longevity nonetheless. To be frank though, these various new additions are simply cherries on an already delicious cake - a cake which, more importantly, has yet to be tasted by 99.9% of the UK gaming public.

If you're an RPG fan we can't recommend Chrono Trigger highly enough. It's a beautiful example of the genre that will have you hooked from start to finish. Speaking of which, there's masses to see here too. With a ridiculous 14 (!)different endings depending on the way you play, Chrono Trigger is an RPG which will keep you busy for months.

Chris Scullion

As a remake this is recommended, but as it's a 'new' game in the UK it's essential.

Fantastic, deep storyline

The soundtrack is beautiful

Slick battle system

Multiple endings

The new DS stuff is average

Screenshots

Interactive

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Posted by Onna76_NL

I'm so happy about this DS version. I have to wait a bit as I've pre ordered the US version. I have the Japanese original version on the Virtual Console (own a US and JP Wii) but despite my basic knowledge of Japanese it was sometimes difficult to follow. I hope the difficulty level is about the same... you'll have a blast.

Posted by RobertK

I don't mind about the new stuff in the game, I've never played (or even heard of chrono trigger) until it was brought up in ONM. Now I have to get this game and as long as somethings here in the game I'm gonna play it whether it's good or bad

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