Was it Good? - Chrono Trigger

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* - Flashing Light Warnings: Several magic spells and teleportation effects use repeated flashes of bright light - *

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Often praised as the greatest JRPG of all time, Chrono Trigger is a time travelling journey where you start by saving a cat and end up killing a god.

It holds the top spot on many 'best game ever' lists, so everyone know's it's meant to be good, but is that just nostalgia talking? Does Chrono Trigger still hold up today?

Many thanks to the supporters on Patreon, Youtube and Twitch who allow me to create long form videos like this, while not needing to take sponsors to do so.

[LunarLemonade]

One incredible lore detail about Lucca's sidequest - the campfire conversation heavily suggests the time gates are created by the planet. The implication is really touching when you think about it. The red gate is literally _the Earth itself_ intervening to give this girl a chance to avert a traumatic event and save a loved one. I like to think that explains the exceptional color. It's an impossibly vast consciousness turning to one of the creatures that's fighting to save it, and saying: "this is for you".

[bannelore]

Never realized the horror Lucca must have felt over what happened at the beginning of the game, given the context of her side quest.

[Zillionman]

One of my favorite details from the game is how the gurus were all twisted and lost who they were due to Lavos' influence. Melchior, the guru of life, ends up making and selling weapons. Belthasar, the guru of reason, slowly loses his sanity in his isolation and despair. Gaspar, the guru of time, ends up at the end of time.

[mavvasquez]

Fun fact no one has mentioned yet... the main music composer of the game (Yasunori Mitsuda) made an almost entirely completed sound track to the game, but his hard drive crashed and he had to start entirely over again... we'll never get to hear any of those songs. "I made a lot of new material based off of the memory and feeling of the original compositions.."

He was also stated as having music and tunes come to him in dreams. Talented guy... and I'm very thankful for his work.

[FalenDragmire]

1:35:15 Magus actually is powered down from when you fight him. You technically have access to all the spells he did in the boss fight, but you have to level him up to get back to that point. It's actually a really good bit of gameplay and story integration, because Magus has a very specific line in the confrontation with Lavos where he mentions that Lavos is draining his power. Magus starting off in the party with only the elemental spells (Lightning 2, Ice 2, and Fire 2) is how the game reflects that part of the story happening.

[Stroimex]

A timeless classic in the literal sense of the word. It brings tears to my eyes

[vfaulkon]

Looking back, I think this game practically spoiled me for all RPGs in my life from when I played it as a kid. There's so many nice touches and small details - Josh just did a two-hour video for a twenty-hour game and didn't even get them all - that I'm still learning about some of them thirty years later! Hell, mostly because I'm geeking out, here's a few things he missed:

-- If you go to repair the Masamune and Lucca isn't in your party, Robo will help out instead. Like Lucca, he doesn't have Melchior's magical skills, but basic metallurgy is certainly something he can help assist with.
-- Lucca's mom, Lara, can be found in her house at any point in the game, and she stays seated in a chair by a window at all times. The first time you talk to her, Taban will actually come in and give her some of the money he's earned from the fair, and the dialogue shows that the two of them still love and care about each other. However, if you go back to her after saving her in Lucca's event, she'll actually get up and start doing things around the house AND be shown walking around during the Millennial Fair in the ending.
-- If you take Magus to Spekkio to 'learn magic', Spekkio will not only say 'no need, he already knows it', he'll specify that Magus could probably teach HIM a thing or two instead.
-- Remember Fritz, the guy you saved from the castle dungeon during Crono's escape? If you go to the item shop in Crono's town afterward, Fritz and his fiancee, who are looking after it for her father, will give you ten Hi-Potions for free as thanks. Then the father will walk in from the back, and while the couple freak out about being caught giving out free stuff, the father will thank Crono for helping save Fritz (either not noticing or not caring about the freebies).
-- Bring Ayla with you on the Rainbow Shell quest, and when you and Marle find it in the castle storeroom, she canonically feels up Marle's chest, saying that she's not grown up quite yet. Because Ayla has zero chill.

This game is so good and I've played through it so many times, I've memorized all this trivia and can recall it all three decades later. God, I love this game.

[ShadowMark]

40:50 Idk if anyone's mentioned this yet, because it's an extremely minor detail, but most keyboards can absolutely register 3 keys at once, lol, it's required for combinations like ctrl+alt+del for example. If you have a poor quality keyboard that ignores third inputs, other than modifier keys, you can easily just rebind one of the required buttons to a modifier key (like ctrl, shift, or alt). Good quality keyboards have n-key rollover, allowing you to press _every_ key simultaneously, registering each input. Not a big deal, but thought I should mention it.

[MechanosaurusWrex]

I think Marle getting her weapon from Cyrus makes sense. He was the protector of Queen Leene and Marle is her descendant. It also respects Marle's character by giving her a weapon so that she can protect herself as the independent and adventurous spirit that she is.

[Jebbtube]

I saw a review of this game by KingK, someone born well after it came out, who'd had little taste for retro games.
He ended up giving this the highest praise he possibly could, mentioning how a true classic is something that is great even without the rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia.
It was one of the most moving things I've ever seen, and it makes me proud to have played this game to completion.

[joeylittle]

Wow, watching this as an adult.. I cannot believe I beat this game as young as I did. This game is beautifully deep.

[bryguy]

One cool thing that some people miss is at 1:09:25 you can see Lavos in the sky beginning to fall to the planet before the fight with Azala even begins (look at timestamp in the upper right corner). Man, I love the attention to detail in this game!

[stevenhartwell]

I always liked how, if you beat the game without saving Crono, Marle will go and save him herself. You can let go, but she won't.

[jgalla]

Yasunori Mitsuda did the majority of the soundtrack, Uematsu filled in a bit when he got sick and did a few songs.

[RayDark]

Only 2 things scare me like hell
- Kefka's laugh
- Lavos's scream

[tylerseidel]

I came to this video after watching a couple of your other "Was it Good?" videos (pokemon red/blue, God of War, Medieval) as a game that I'd heard thrown about in name, but never played. Two minutes into this video, just by the premise of the game alone, I decided to play through it, and now that I've JUST finished it for the first time (beyond time ending), I've gotta say this is probably my favorite jrpg ever... so thank you for this video.

[leshpar]

Lavos's scream is something that still to this day, even though I haven't played this game since it was new, that sends chills down my spine. Josh Strife Hayes video here, is the best review of Chrono Trigger that I've ever seen in my life.

[scorcher_]

Yes!! I knew you'd get to this one day when you started this channel.

The original "when the boss joins the party vs when you fight him" too

[HasegawaRayven]

You dont actually have to fight Spekkio to get magic, you just have to bring characters to him to get their magic "activated". He offers you a fight afterwards as a way yo test out your new powers.

[Djou-Karl]

Rest in peace Akira Toriyama, you will be missed.
Edit: Typo