stormwolf18 said:
You are probably too young little boy cause you didnt had the oportunity to play it on the mighty SNES (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Nintend...tainment_System ).
See, you were probably not even born when i used to play CT on my snes. droo droo droooll nooob
I'll reply to the TC ignoring trolls or flamers that just reply to him with "NO U!" answers... I'll try be as more specific as I can.
Honestly, I LOVE Chrono Trigger.. and I've been loving it way before this huge hype it's been getting (similar to FFVII... lol -.-'). Also I'd like to state that I'm not a fanboy of this game, I just like it and I can recognize it has its ups and downs...
Let's start with:
Story:
I like it.. yes sure it has some plotholes (Like why didn't the pendant get sucked into the wormhole the first time?) and such but they can always be explained with some expedients (like those people at ChronoCompendium do). All in all it's a very innovative story... and I'm talking about a point of perspective of 1995... Nowadays the whole time-travel story has been written and re-used a lot of times, however Chrono Trigger's one can still be rated as one of the tops... (at least by me, I don't know about you all). Sure, there is the whole mute-character problem, but that was intended by the developers because they wanted the player to personify with the main character and give him its own characterization without falling into standards.. It can be liked or not...
The characters are somewhat of cliché-type but they all have a very interesting back story, well written, that explains to the player why they ended up being like that. This is something that most games in the past (and present) don't do... We know why Marle is the princess-tomboy type, and even though it can be considered a cliché, it's well put into the game. The same applies to all the other characters except for Crono: that's because YOU the player are Crono, you can give him whatever background you like.
All in all I'd give this story an 8/10
Gameplay:
The gameplay is a very simple and easy to understand one. It's a classic turn based RPG à-la-Final Fantasy. It's got the classical ATB with characters that wait for their turn to strike. BUT! It has its own additions that most games after it don't even use (and that's a shame because those are great I think):
-Double/Triple Tech: Chrono Trigger has a huge array of different Double-Triple tech, each to be used with different character and combinations of teams... most of them are even more than one per couple of characters... It's really something to admire! The acquisition of techs is also something very easy to understand but not so boring or lame... it's just tech points you earn from enemies. Remember, the more elaborated =\= the better! Lots of games nowadays just put into gameplay a lot of useless complex crap that makes the game less enjoyable.
-Battles are played on the normal field: This is very innovative and not a lot of games do this (RPGs at least...). Final fantasy started doing this with FFXII which came out 11/12 years after Chrono Trigger... This is very innovative, isn't it? It's something I love from this game. This also eliminates the whole random-battle crap in the gameplay which makes it even more enjoyable and less annoying. You can decide whether you want to fight a group or enemies or not. It also includes skills in avoiding some enemies (like, wait for them to walk away from a spot or something like that).
-New Game+: Actually, Chrono Trigger is one of the milestones that invented the New Game+ feature. I'm not 100% sure about this but it was surely one of the firsts. Nowadays almost all the RPGs have New Game+ and additional content (Multiple endings, anyone? CT has got 13 ones, most modern RPGs don't have that many!!) and you can decide whether or not you want to 100% complete the game (which isn't even a grind fest like most other RPGs out there that are made just to leech time from players without providing satisfaction in accomplishing things).
Probably I'm missing some points in Gameplay but this isn't supposed to be a full review and I'm writing this during spare time so it'll probably end up messy and badly written >.<
However I give the Gameplay a 9/10
Controls:
Now, you gave 5/10 to CT controls? WTF? Is it a badly developed fps? How can controls be bad on a 2D RPG? You just move around, you press B to run, interaction with the environment is done excellently. The menu is really easy to understand and to use. It's got some minigame (like drinking alcohol or dance or race with a motorbike) which makes this game even MORE vary and fun....
I give Controls a 10/10 because there is actually no real reason to give this any less... >_> Also the DS with the touch screen added stylus control for people who want to play this with the stylus..The more, the merrier I say!
Graphics:
Even after 14 years, I can't stop watching Chrono Trigger sprites and think "wow, these are really well done!!" in the SNES era this was one of the best 2D sprite graphics ever, on par with Star Ocean for SNES and Final Fantasy VI. The remake on the DS doesn't lag a little, it's been perfectly ported and the resolution of the sprites has been improved. They have more frames and it's more enjoyable.. You can't really complain about it. Some sprite-based RPGs nowadays on the DS have very badly drawn sprites and they lack the graphics Chrono Trigger already had in 1995. The anime cut scenes are a Love or Hate thing. They are drawn by Akira Toryiama (yes, that "DBZ guy" ) and you can be either a fan, or a hater of that author. However if you don't like them, you can just turn them off and feel the original feeling of the SNES era..
All in all I give 9/10 on CT graphics.. not 10/10 because it's true, they are a bit outdated, but still they surpass a lot of other NDS games made these years.
Music:
Chrono Trigger's music can't be called bad. You can't give it a 3/10... Yes you can dislike it, I concede you this, but you can't say it's not a masterpiece. It's on par with most other symphonies out there and the OST that's been released after the original game (I think they re-released one after the DS game came out, correct me if I'm wrong) was at the top of most websites.. It's really a masterpiece and some songs are just amazing. I usually just start an emulator with the original SNES game or my DS with my CT game and just listen to them in loop.. Or most of the times I go on youtube just to listen to them. If you youtube "Chrono Trigger Orchestral" or something like that you can see those masterpieces of music played by real musicians with an orchestra.. and they are really amazing!!
After all this, I give 10/10 to Chrono Trigger's music.
In total, I'd rate Chrono Trigger 9/10.
Or maybe I'm just a fanboy, you decide... However I still think that this game is a masterpiece and giving it anything less than 7/10 is not correct.