Chrono Trigger (DS)
Riv , 2010/06/21 23:18

Publisher:	Square Enix
Genre:	Role-Playing Game
Players:	1 Player
Rating	Everyone
The Good:	The ultimate port of Chrono Trigger contains a more accurate translation of the game, bonus dungeons, cinematic cut-scenes and the ability to take this classic game anywhere on the go.
The Bad:	None of the additions are anything spectacular, and there's very little new ground for veterans to the series to really care about here.
The Ugly:	In 1999 AD a giant turtle destroys the world... How pathetic.

How do you improve on the perfect RPG? You make it portable, which is a godsend when you're being forced to sit at something long and annoying.

Chrono Trigger has to be one of the most memorable RPGs going into my teen years. For its time it was one of the absolute best Super Nintendo RPGs ever released. With 80+ hours of gameplay, ten or more endings with slight variations depending on what side-quests you completed (or did not complete), an engrossing story and one of the most amazing soundtracks in a videogame ever produced, it's no surprise to anyone that Chrono Trigger still stands the test of time (no pun intended) and is one of the most sought-after RPGs ever.

In fact, the original Chrono Trigger cartridge fetches hundreds of dollars on E-Bay - a classic hard to find. Finally, however, Nintendo and Square Enix decided that it was time to bring this title to the Nintendo DS so that new generations could experience it for the first time and new generations could experience it again. And while not much has really changed here, not much really needed to, either.< P>

For those who've never played Chrono Trigger, here's the gist of it: You control Crono (no, his name is not Chrono, and this is because of spelling limitations back on Super NES), a young boy who is attending the Millennial Fair - a celebration of his kingdom's victory against evil wizards many years ago. On the way he bumps into a young girl named Marle and they accompany each other on what becomes a little date - that little date turns into a big nightmare when Marle decides to try out a teleportation device on display by Lucca, the local mad scientist. Marle vanishes into thin air and instead of teleporting from one place to another seems to have been thrust through time. Crono valiantly follows on an adventure that leads he, Marle, and Lucca into the past and also into the future to witness the End of the World at the hands of a parasite living within the planet named Lavos. The three embark on a quest to prevent the apocalypse and meet several other characters and allies along the way.

You control a party of three characters in Active-Time Battle, not unlike Final Fantasy, but unlike Final Fantasy you actually see the enemy characters moving around and closing in on you in battles. You see the enemies before the battles as well and can completely avoid them if you are sneaky. Most characters have Dual Techs and some combinations have Triple Techniques that do additional damage or healing. It's a very fluid and natural battle system, and doesn't take very long to get used to at all.

Overall not much has really changed with Chrono Trigger over the years, however many critics have always stood against the "toned down" translations on Super NES, ones that generally seemed to be erroneous and/or insulted the intelligence of the gamer to understand concepts like life, death, god, the devil, hell, or heaven. Fortunately all that has been brought up to speed here, and so you won't feel like Square Enix thinks you're a total fucking idiot this time through.

Some nice additions have in fact been added to the game, such as viewers and galleries and cutscenes, although the cutscenes are rather short and taken from the Sony Playstation port of this title. Still it's nice to see them back. There are two new dungeons with new monsters and new rewards, but just like with most Square Enix titles that feature such things, the new monsters are just re-colors of the old monsters, the new dungeons are just re-arrangements of old dungeons, and unless your name is Justin McDonald you probably won't even bother with it if you can help it. Fortunately they've added one additional ending if you decide to go through the trouble although it's somewhat short and somewhat disappointing despite being a decent bridge to the somewhat liked, somewhat hated sequel to Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross which has also been reviewed on this very site.

Also included is a new monster-training mode that allows you to capture and train a monster and duel with other players who have done the same who have a Nintendo DS and Chrono Trigger. This probably only sounds exciting if you're fucking 8. And even if you were - what the fuck are you doing on this site without your parent's permission? Get the fuck out. Anyway, Pokemon it is not, and this new mode is a novelty at best. Other than for a few bugs that get you some unlimited items you probably won't go anywhere near it, again unless you're 8 and if you are GET THE FUCK OFF MY SITE.

All in all, I can't complain about much still - As I said before - how do you improve on the perfect RPG? You make it portable, which is a godsend when you're being forced to sit at something long and annoying like a wedding, or a funeral, or the movie Beaches, or anything that makes you wish you could jump forward through time to get away from right here and right now. You might not actually be able to jump into the future in the real world, but being able to jump into it in what was arguably the greatest RPG of the 1990s might be a close second.

-- Riv - jasonrivera@jasonrivera.com