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And we’re back!
Full disclosure, I’m not running this one solo. I have a few friends in a group chat chiming in with their own recommendations and picks. I guess you could call it a draft by committee approach with my own private war room. So, while I’ve never personally played Baldur’s Gate 3, it was in the running for my first pick because a couple guys in my war room insist it is the greatest game they’ve ever played. I’ll make sure to note when I’m making a pick based on recommendation rather than personal experiences when it’s relevant in the future.
But this pick, this one’s all me.
Chrono Trigger (SNES) - 1995
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When we last did this draft 5 years before The Last of Us existed, I snagged Chrono Trigger in the fifth round, and said it had been “somewhat overlooked” when released. I honestly don’t know if that was just me being wildly out of touch with the zeitgeist, or if this masterpiece really did take a couple decades before being widely recognized as the certified classic it deserves to be. The very fact it lasted to the fifth round of a 16 person draft suggests I was onto something.
Now however, the creation of the Toriyama, Horii, Sakaguchi Dream Team is universally considered among the greatest RPGs specifically and video games generally of all time.
Fittingly, it would seem time has been very kind to this title.
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Even in saying that, I knew Chrono Trigger was special from the first time I experienced just the opening seconds of the game: The camera fades in over the ocean to no music or fanfare, just the gentle sounds of waves and seagulls as it slowly pans up toward Guardia. Soon we hear fairly faint bursts and pops that make you think for a second it's canon fire or the explosions of a battle, only to reveal moments later it's actually just a stream of multi-colored balloons rising from the Millennial Faire. The camera rests there briefly before moving again and settling on Crono's House, fading to black and bringing in the soft ringing of Leene's Bell accompanied by the words "Crono ... Crono! Good Morning, Crono!"
That is a ballsy way to start a 40+ hour game. Ordinarily developers want players hooked with some sense of urgency or intrigue in the opening minutes so they're willing to latch on for the long haul. But here's Crono Trigger kicking things off with seagulls and some kid's trip to the faire. It's awesome! The move told me two things: 1) Chrono Trigger was going to treat me like an adult and let me take in the world at my own pace, confident enough in the story it was telling that it didn't need to use a cheap narrative parlor trick to get my attention. 2) This world was a place I was going to love and want to protect and if necessary, avenge. Soothing, tranquil, peaceful and hey, what's going on at that faire? Looks like fun. Let's check it out.
Story-wise we have a narrative centered on time travel, which is executed beautifully. I must confess, time travel is one of my Sci-Fi fetishes, but it's quite tricky to pull off effectively in fiction. Emphasize it too little and it opens the work up to plot holes and annoying distractions. Emphasize it too much and it over complicates the story with chaos theory and quantum physics. CT instead has a fairly linear narrative and merely uses the time travel aspect to introduce a cause and effect dynamic and essentially link different worlds. That means all these fantastic worlds you visit: Savage Dinosaur Land, Magic Floating Sky Islands, Medieval Kingdom of Knights and Wizards, Post-Apocalyptic Cyberopolis: are all the SAME world, all YOUR world, and it's your job to save it from the apocalypse that, effectively, already happened or is at least destined to happen.
While I absolutely adored the game from the beginning, there is a very distinct moment I knew it had achieved legendary status.
Deep into the story having completed adventures in medieval, prehistoric, and post-apocalyptic times, learned magic at the End of Time, and defeated the sinister Magus, the team is sent to the final time period: the Ice Age. As expected, it is a barren blizzard-whipped waste seemingly with nothing of interest except for this strange empty temple with a mystical purple sigil. Step on the sigil and be transported to the Kingdom of Zeal
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“This is the Eternal Kingdom of Zeal. Where dreams come true. But at what price?”
These floating islands are the cornerstone of the entire plot of Chrono Trigger, and despite some very very subtle hints throughout the story, until you actually see them, you likely had no idea they even existed or that you were supposed to be looking for them. This blew my mind, and I spent hours exploring those tiny islands just out of pure astonishment. The game is filled with moments like this.
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Game mechanics are almost comically basic in the traditional style of turn-based strategy with only three options: Attack, Tech (Magic), or Item (Run is available by pressing L&R). Weapons and Armor are mostly specific to certain characters. Magic techs are preset becoming available with experience points and there’s no customization. Characters are assigned one of a supremely simple element system of Lightning, Fire, Water, and Shadow. The only innovations are the Active Battle system that determines turn order with a bar filling at different speeds and the double and triple tech system that gives special techs for characters growing experience together.
This is an unequivocal genius move by the developers, as it is accessible for the casuals while being nuanced enough to encourage exploration and experimentation for the hardcore types.
Another key component is the absence of random encounters. All the battle locations are preset and while some still come as a surprise the first time through, many can be seen coming and either prepared for or outright avoided. I feel this lends itself more toward actual strategy than the traditional random encounter system because the game designers can structure the game around the battles instead of leaving it to the chance of the RNG. Also, in my opinion, it made the overworld feel more alive because the enemies were visibly present and fought there without moving to a cut-away screen for the battle.
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The art style is the vision of legendary Dragon Ball artist, the late Akira Toriyama, whom we sadly lost last year. His distinctive style gives the characters warmth and the world gravitas, combined with some of the greatest pixel art on the SNES or any other system.
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The score is also a triumph, a testament to the superhuman effort of Yasunori Mitsuda at the time determined to make a name for himself in the industry frequently passing out in studio and eventually being forced to step aside due to extreme health concerns so the final handful of tracks could’ve be completed by another legend in Nobuo Uematsu.
I’m “allowed” a single video in my write-up, but instead of showing gameplay, I want to emphasize just how supernatural the Chrono Trigger score is by posting Schala’s Theme.
I could go on delving into the importance of Schala to the plot and how the developers used gamer psychology to make her one of the most consequential characters in RPGs, or how the American cover art is not an example of lazy developers forcing artists to create images without any actual experience or access to the game itself (it’s actually based on an early screenshot that was later scrapped)
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Or Tom Woolsey’s translation efforts giving Frog an Old English vibe for no reason, or how this might be the most devastating and inspiring “game over” screen in history
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But ultimately all that matters is Chrono Trigger is the most enduringly fun and endearing game I have ever played.
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www.windowscentral.com
How did I not know about this?
