Chrono Trigger is claimed by many to be not only the best RPG and the SNES, but the greatest of all time. This game has every essential element in making an epic fantasy quest, and it successfully introduces the concept of time travel to the RPG genre.
The story begins in 1000 A.D. You play as Crono, a teenage red-haired boy who looks like a Dragonball Z character (which is no surprise - Akira Toriyama (Dragonball Z artist) is responsible for the creation of the game's characters). While attending the millennial fair, you meet a girl named Marle, and a few minutes later she is mysteriously sucked through a time portal, and, like any brave hero, you go after her. This is where the true adventure begins.
Chrono Trigger's gameplay is nothing but top-notch. It is a top-down 2D RPG, so you can move up, down, left, or right on the screen. But unlike most RPGs, there are no random battles. Instead, you see the enemies on the screen before you fight them, and when you get near them, a battle begins. In battles, you have one to three people on your side. All seven playable characters have their own unique weapon, and their own strengths and weaknesses as well. Battles are fought in the traditional turn-based formula, but Chrono Trigger brings something new to the table. If you have two or three characters whose battle meters are filled all the way up (which means it's their turn to attack), then you can have them perform a double or triple attack, which almost always does more damage to enemies. You'll need them too, because some of the bosses are so hard that it'll be your only hope, along with the enhanced healing maneuvers.
Other RPGs in the past might have used a 'time travel' concept, but no one has used or will ever use it as well as in Chrono Trigger. As the game progresses, you obtain access to almost a dozen different time periods, but it doesn't give them all to you at the beginning of the game, so you shouldn't get confused. The time travel idea works very well with the story as well. If something is done in the past, then something will be affected sometime in the future. This is essential in making the game's story move along, and also in getting very useful items. Each character has their own story, played out like chapters in a book.
The game is quite challenging too. The bosses you face demand every shred of strategy and intelligence you have. They also require lots of patience, but it would be much worse if they were too easy. By the end of the game, you will have probably used every characters' attacks at least once, since many of Chrono Trigger's bosses are different in fighting style. The game also has plenty of replay value. There are about thirteen endings, and each one requires you to do different tasks, and while some can be a bit on the tedious side, some don't require much effort at all, but it's worth seeing every ending to appreciate the amount of time SqaureSoft put into developing the characters. Chrono Trigger also has a feature called "New Game +" which allows you to start a new game, but with the stats and abilities you have in a finished game (obviously, you have to beat the game to get this.)
And now for the bad stuff. Sometimes, you get into battles every two steps you take, which makes it annoying just to get from one place to another. However, that problem is present in virtually every RPG, so in Chrono Trigger's case it really isn't that bad. Also, battles move kinda slow because whenever you or an enemy does something, your battle meter freezes so you have to wait until the move is over, then wait three more seconds to take a turn. Chrono Trigger is the only RPG I've ever played that has this problem, and it is probably the only flaw with the battle system.
Overall, this game is an all-time classic. It has everything - compelling storyline, amazing graphics, music and sound, plenty of game time (twenty to thirty hours your first time through), and unique characters. You owe it to yourself to get this game, it deserves every bit of hype it gets.
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