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".
Not really touching, it suggests that the planet is conscious but doesn't actively do anything about Lavos, instead, letting it happen and letting someone else do the work. HOWEVER, I will say that the only character I don't like in this game is lucca, I know lots of people love her. To me, however, she's a mary sue, and i just never related to her at all. Which is funny, hearing how the video refers to her (someone who is connected to machines and isn't very social) - is how people refer to me pertaining to tech. So, maybe it's a matter of looking in the mirror and not liking what I see, but I feel that she's never challenged at all, where as everyone else is - Lucca's mom lost her legs, and that's it - she's favored by the game after that and is more a plot device then a char to me, having less personality then crono, and the fact that lucca is the only one who had her childhood trauma reversed fully without any negative effects is just cheap to me
@@Bjorick Just because the planet's conscious doesn't mean it can make giant fists and punch Lavos. It IS doing something to stop Lavos.. that's what the Time Gates are. If they didn't exist, Lavos would win. DOES win.
@@evrfreez yes but that makes no sense from a logical perspective - the planet is conscious and has the ability to create time gates, which is shown to be done by the queen of Zeal but only AFTER tapping into the massive power of Lavos The planet, in this line of thought, has the power to do this easily and control factors to make someone come along and stumble on the gates and how to use them - okay however, if you have such powers, why not simply create a time gate to have a time gate appear at the time/date lavos landed and then either: 1. Push lavos into outer space and thus miss the planet completely, or; 2. Push lavos so far into the future that the time gate drops lavos into a time when the planet is already dead/dying and is just a dead rock floating in space? Again, it makes ZERO sense to say 'the planet has the ablity to create time gates and is conscious' and the only solution is 'have someone go in and maybe kill lavos or maybe die and make things worse'. Further, Lavos wasn't powerful when it landed, and wouldn't have the power to open gates until sucking the energy from the planet, so this change would prevent lavos from creating a time gate to stop this, as the planet would be dead when lavos appeared outside the gate, and never gain the power to open time gates and starve to death Zero logical sense.
@@Bjorick hmm... ya know, I was gonna say, don't forget it mentions how sentient life turned out the way it did because of lavos in the first place, so it's possible the planet needed lavos to create the life, but needed to stop it before it ate everything... But that would make no sense at all. The cavemen and the reptiles both were doing perfectly fine before lavos landed. in fact, as shown in the video, one of them naming it lavos as it arrived is how they got the name in the first place... so that would heavily, heavily imply life would've been perfectly fine with or without it... you may actually have a point there.
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.
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.
When I first played this game I changed Robo's name to Promo as an idea of Prometheus and when I found out that was his real name I was so awe struck. The fact that Marle's final weapon is attached to Frog's quest actually makes sense because You met Frog only because Marle changed the past in the beginning of the game, and Frog as Glenn was in love with the queen's daughter. There's references to this in the other chrono games
Did that ending on the first NG+....it felt empty at the end only to hear that we can bring him back....ALL YOU BITCHES, GET IN THE EPOCH!!! WE GETTIN' OUR BOY BACK!!!
Nor the composure necessary to not shit herself out of despair and PTSD in that moment. This is quite literally the closest thing she has experienced to what happened to her mother so far, this is why she fixated on machinery, this is what those 10 years lead up to: "A machine (that I made btw, for additional dramatic potency) has done something irreversible to someone in front of me. I must find a way to fix this."
@@insensitive919 We could if they ever made their promised Chrono Break. Otherwise it's like looking at the scaffolding to a building with an impressive base. Clearly something great could come of it, if they ever committed.
Even me who HATE Toriyama style very hard (yeah yeah dont kill me guys) LOVED this game so hard, even his characters who are so good that theyr style dont matter at all, and the OST is just lovely. In fact that game is the cause im today a writer, specifically because one character, but im not gonna say who :)
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.
@@dragon_knight2300 .... Which would have been Leene's pendant back in the day. ... Again hinting at a connection between Leene and Cyrus. ... Maybe they were siblings? From the Choras noble family (hince Cyrus's ghost being in the castle ruins?) That would give purpose to why Cyrus was so protective of Leene, why the sealed chests were in the ruins, AND why a weapon for marle would be involved in Cyrus's questline.
I've played hundreds of games so far in my life and to this day I think my single favorite moment in any of the games I've played is when Frog, finally having accepted the restored Masamune and his role as the hero of legend, declares "Mine name is Glenn! Cyrus's hopes and dreams, and now the Masamune! Forthwith I shall slay Magus and restore honor!" before splitting the mountain to open the path to Magus' lair. It's such a fantastic hero moment.
Mine is getting to the Undersea palace and the epic music continuing to play through the first encounter and then through the rest of the way within the context of what is going on in the story. A lot of top moments in that game.
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.
The problem with that quest was related to certain emulators. Some early emulators didn't acknowledge more then two buttons pressed at the same time. So the limitation was rarely connected to the keyboard.
oh, my keyboard struggles with a few inputs, like pressing two arrow keys and Space at the same time. this is only a problem with a few games, like Rayman Legends, during the underwater sections.
most keyboards are using a matrix switch layout that means that keys share certain physical traces and cant work together. you need a keyboard with "n-key rollover" to avoid this. most gaming keyboards will have it. cheap keyboards won;t
I was 14 when I first completed it (via emulator), and I can absolutely believe it. My taste in games honestly probably hasn't changed much since I was _quite_ young, I just play a lot less of the child-friendly platformers and more of the RPGs. That said, unlike almost every other RPG I've completed, I still haven't touched this since I was about 14, and that was a good couple decades back, so... I should probably give it another playthrough to see if there is anything I missed - or just remind myself of things I forgot. In my mind it's still there as a great experience.
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.
Josh covered almost everything in Chrono Trigger. The only thing I don't recall hearing is if you defeat the Black Omen in 1000AD, you can go to 600AD and 12000BC and defeat those incarnations of the Black Omen as well as a nod to timeline continuity. Same if you defeat it in 12000BC, it will be erased in future time eras. Also if you do the 1000AD path you can steal up to 3 Prism Dresses and 3 Prism Helms from Zeal's hands, so if you get the 3 helms from the Rainbow Shell quest you'll have 6 helms to cover all the party and 3 dresses for the 3 female members of the party.
Yep, as opposed to Locke’s steal in FFVI or earlier games, charm has a lot of benefits in maxing out other characters quicker than just running through NG+ a few times.
You can also go back after picking up the upgraded items from the sealed chests in 1000AD, and _also_ pick up the nonupgraded versions in 600AD. You just have to do it in the right order. This is useful, because even if the nonupgraded ones aren't as good, the armors still absorb an element at reduced effectiveness and stuff. Good for certain specific boss fights, since you can put the weaker one on a second party member.
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!
Ikr, when i see that red star i was like " the fq is that " i keep thinking about it until the scene lavos fall into the earth, my mind was like 🤯 dayyum so thats the beginning of this disaster come from, what a detail for game that came out many many years ago
I was immediately skeptical from the intro but it took like two minutes for me to be like "wow, this dude is legit." Right away goes into more detail than 90% of the game essay/reviews out there.
@@Imar13 I've seen a video that was 6 hours long to critique a 1.5 hour movie. It was rambling and awful. Length doesn't equate to quality. Though I suppose, by comparison, a 2 hour video for a game that could take on average 20-ish hours is rather short. Though not as comparatively short as his usual reviews for _whole MMOs_ are. :P
@@Kio_Kurashi Yea agreed. Video length doesn't matter. Take a look at the groups that make half hour long videos picking apart a 40 second long movie teaser trailer. Is there *really* enough content to go that long? no. No there is not.
@@WalkerRileyMC Well, maybe not enough on that trailer itself, but usually those groups go on to pull in other media or reference other things. Also just kinda 'shooting the shit' as it were. One of the ones that comes to mind is Shadiversity's Knights Watch channel where they do talk about trailers and take half an hour to an hour, usually when Shad is there. But most of that is discourse around the topic, and even sometimes things unrelated to it. For those, it's less about the trailer and more about interacting with each other and/or their community. I certainly wouldn't go to the channel if all I wanted was a quick rundown of the trailer XD Dunno if that's what you were talking about or if you were meaning people who go on a full tirade over the trailer alone.
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.
You can turn Magus away from your party when he first talks to you, being forced to beat the game without him. I did that once on accident.. I had to restart my game because I made the wrong choice DOH
-You can fight Magus at the North Cape as Frog in a one on one encounter. -In a NG+ you can attempt to fight Lavos from the teleporter at the start of the game and, depending on the sequence, you can do it with Crono alone. -Alya's weapons do eventually power up, once at 50, and then again at 70. -If you take Lucca and/or Marle to Death Peak to revive Crono, they both have a more touching reunion, where they hug the revived Crono, preferring Marle if they are both present. -If you complete the 3rd game of Bekkler's, the first time, you get a second cat. Each consecutive time you beat it, you get cat food. Each cat food allows another cat to spawn in Crono's house during specific events in the game. You can have a max of 11 cats, all of which jump into the time gate during the parade ending. -You can fight Queen Zeal 3 different times by doing going through the Black Omen in reverse order, allowing additional attempt so steal from her hands. -I discovered, by accident, that it is possible at high enough level in NG+ to auto-battle through all of Lavos's forms without healing. I'm actually surprised, I was not aware of the cross-screen Speed Tab Josh pointed out. It's rare for me to learn something new about this game.
Also regarding the Rainbow Shell quest, if you go all the way back to the cave with the Shell after asking the King to recover it, you'll find a group of soldiers trying to get it out of the cave.
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.
While I was born before the game's release I was a Sega kid and had very limited exposure to Nintendo games. When finishing college, a friend I had made there gave me a bunch of 'must play' games to try and it probably took me two or three years to get around to Chrono Trigger. I was definitely in my 20s by then, but from the moment I left the fair I was fully engrossed and it was all I spent any free time on for a week! Nostalgia had absolutely no part of me falling in love with the game and it's now on my list of 'must play' games!
Chrono Trigger is one of the only games I've ever played that is truly TIMELESS. A passion project of a game that seriously feels like it came out yesterday. This game holds a very special place in my heart, and even though I played it much later (i played the DS version) but am so happy I finally did. I will never forget it
@@ReyemNeirda Lol I can So damn relate to this. Iam also born in 1991 and Played it first on Nintendo DS. And also close to 2015. Its really timeless as everyone says.
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.
It's the heroin of rpgs. Nothing else compares after you've tried it and you'll spend forever searching for something that gives you that feeling again.
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.
This is the first one of these where I’ve got lost enjoying the story, and forgot it was a “Was it any good” video until you asked that at the end. Cheers for all the effort you put into these.
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.
@@ShockStormRPG funny thing is... I seem to recall chrono being the best damage dealer at the very end by far... he had an attack called... luminaire I think? it hit an enemy 4 times, and at that point could have such high attack it did insane damage.
I could never be objective with this game. This was my first rpg ever, I learned how to read to be able to play this game. As cringe as it sounds this game opened up an entire world for me, not just in gaming but beyond that. Hell I've introduced it to my children now. I will always, always love this game
To this day, Lucca's story and how it ties up to the game is one of my favorite moment in any RPG, Up until this point Lucca never did something to help herself, we help other people a lot. And the detail when you get in present time to see if you succeed, the pose of the mom before she actually walk is so stressing.
I didn't play this game until my mid 20's and yeah its so tough to find any rpg that can top it. Even my other favorite rpg in ff6 has a part or two that i would rather rush past but this one doesn't. 20 hours is short but you would swear it was longer. The characters, The story everything blends to make one of the best rpgs of all time and i wish i could play though it again for the first time.
@@TheAlmostOtaku it is perhaps telling on how the advancements in tech arent really giving us better stuff just shinnier. I can see this game comming out today and as long as they had prettier UI people would still rave about it it had depth in all the places people dont add depth to.
I always say this is my favorite game of all time. I don't know if that is true really, but it is what I feel. I will always remember Chrono Trigger, as a 12 year old, was the first game that made me cry. Not because of any devastating sad moment. I cried at the end of the game, when all of my friends, who I adventured with and grew with said good-bye and left for their own times and lives. It is something that will stick with me forever.
id argue that just makes the whole game as whole look more generic, i dont think either is bad they both have good points even though is CT it looks more generic the spacing system makes up for it but the detail and gameplay styles of other games like Suikoden II benefit a lot from the battle screen style and suits those games
just about the only thing i don't like about this game, is the way the enemies can move around, but your characters can't, which sometimes makes it hard to use those "hit several enemies in a row" abilities effectively.
@@imalittletoxicjustalittle in an rpg when you fight thousand of trash mob enemies it is nice to just get to the fight against unique enemies or bosses sure bring out the theatrics but it gets old having to transition from the overworld to the battle screen over and over again. Chrono Trigger was way ahead of it's time in this regard that many modern JRPGs still haven't caught on yet.
I was gonna make the same comment. Yeah, Uematsu's the more recognizable name, given his legendary work on the _Final Fantasy_ franchise, but using _his_ photo to illustrate the contributions of the composers, on one of the most memorable soundtracks of all time, when he was just a contributor and Mitsuda literally put himself in the hospital by pushing himself so hard in his efforts to prove himself worthy of the opportunity he'd been handed... that just feels all sorts of wrong!
@@alexpage4355 Really? I always felt like Yasunori was the more recognizable of the two, but I guess it's probably because most of the JRPG's I HAVE played, Yasunori did the soundtrack, like with Xenogears.
@@jadimich i mean just look up any of the uematsu ff songs vs mitsuda CT songs and you'll see just how much more known uemastu is. Mitsuda is just as amazing if not as ubiquitous
Not only is it an amazing song, the way its presented in the game is excellent. The windy snow billowing and blowing outside as you take the teleporter to the sky, and it just starts the mystical wonderful chiming. One of my favorite moments ever.
One of the best games of all time, hands down. I first saw it in Nintendo Power and absolutely HAD to have it. It did not disappoint, no matter how many times I replayed it.
Same here, i saw that nintendo power peace and the full page Ayla and i had to have this game. Funnily enough it wasn't even my copy of nintendo power, it was a friends!
You can actually complete the Black Omen a total of 4 times if you start in the future and work backwards. You want to do this because Ayla can actually steal a Prism Helm and a Prism Dress from the hands of Queen Zeal, so if you ask Melchior to give you 3 helms its possible to have a dress for all female characters and a helm for every character on your first playthrough
Once you kill zeal once she does not appear in the other times even if you started in the future. You can still do the black omen but zeal is not at the end.
@@alexboyadjian2758 You can not go through Black omen in post 1999 future. You get cut scene were Zeal mocks you for being too late. You can do "full" black omen run first in 1000, then 600 and then 1200 BC. However Panel, Aliens, and Tubster (enimes you can charm Speed, Magic & Power tabs from) do not respawn by going back in time. All bosses respawn *IF* you go back in time.
@@whydid666 Bosses don't respawn if you go back in time aside from the Zeal/Mamon/Zeal fights. A good amount of trash spawns do repop, most notably the Power Tab guy after the midway point with the Nus, but the Speed/Magic Tab fights do not. The only real reason to go through the Black Omen 3 times is to steal 3 sets of prism helms/dresses from Zeal's 3rd form. If you took 3 helms from Melchior during the Rainbow Shell sidequest, you can kit out your whole party (sans Magus) with the strongest helm possible on a single playthrough. That said, I prefer to run Nova Armor and Haste/Safe Helm combo for the guys, since MDef does eventually cap out even without the +19 from Prism Helm/Moonbeam combo.
So about Crono's cat appearing everywhere... if you play all the games available at the fair, you can win a second, female cat for Crono and I believe a cat for some if not all the characters if you have them as leader when you play one of the minigames at the fair, I forget which. You can also get replica dolls for each character after you get Crono's doll and also Poyozo dolls. You can find them in their different time periods from where the character comes from and the Poyozo dolls play the theme music for each character when you interact with them. After you get all the main prizes in the tent, if you play the games again and win, you get cat food. Get enough cat food, travel a bit, come back to Crono's house and you'll have kittens and depending on how much food you get for the cats, there can be quite a few kittens that go through the portal at the end of the game and THAT is why you see them in different time periods. It wasn't just the one cat. Cool stuff eh? I played the crap out of this game as a kid and did everything possible, even maxing out all character levels and their stats using the various tabs you get, which after you max them out, you'll see double stars.
I got the cats because I used to spend so much time at the Millennial Fair as a kid. Lots of cat food. 😅 I surprised he didn't mention the doll clones. It was fun to see their different poses.
Some bits about the translation and how it was changed: Magus in Japanese doesn't have a name, he just calls himself "Mao", Demon King Masamune is a western sword in japanese, Grandleon Ozzie, Slash and Flea are Vinegar, Soy, Mayo (Dragonballs creator loves naming characters after food, i think that one was on him) If I remember something else I'll edit idk
@@violenceisfun The "original intent" of just having dumb, useless, throwaway silly names for some brief slapstick humor? Calm down, guy. No artistic vision is being lost in this change.
@@violenceisfun Oh man the original artistic intent of these three minor villains being named matching theme names that don't actually relate to their characters or abilities vs the translation of these three minor villains being named matching theme names that don't actually relate to their characters or abilities
As a game dev this is such a great breakdown of what makes great games, here some bookmarks with key points: 20:40 Every fight progresses the story, rather then increasing a number 1:38:25 Fights that occur in the world should affect it
The relationship between Magus, Queen Zeal, the Mammon Machine and the fact that the Masamune is PART of the Mammon Machine and thus why it is anathema to him is a wildly brilliant bit of storytelling that I never realized as a kid. Incredible.
The two moments that will always stick out for me are 1: When you rescue Crono with Marle in the party - because she clearly loves the selfless doofus, and that scene is just plain wholesome. and 2: Frog forgiving himself, and becoming the true hero everyone believes him to be...one of the few scenes in any video game that has made me tear up.
Even if Lucca's scene about saving her mother was not set up with as much effort as say Glenn's side quest, I could empathize with her struggles the most. It is not love and leadership or revenge, it is simply wanting to see a family member happy and healthy.
Frog cutting the mountain was awesome, and chrono and nadia or marlene when chrono is safe was so amaizing, every part of these game was so good, or Masa and Mune combining to become the sword was so good
My favorite thing about the Zeal fight atop the Black Omen, is that if you bring Magus to the fight, the boss music changes from what it normally is to Magus’ boss theme. That badass music blaring while fighting her was awesome, cause it tells me that Magus isn’t fighting Zeal, she is fighting HIM. They didn’t have to add such an epic, yet subtle bit of detail, but I’m so glad they did.
While the fight itself is Epic bc of the music change (which alone is why CT deserves a remake / dont forget the Black wind 💨 sounds either!!) but if you know the backstory of why Lil Magus probably hates Zeal so much for what she did to Schala.. Now play MY THEME MUSIC 🎶 b!eech
Hironobu Sakaguchi asked Ted Woolsey to localize Chrono Trigger for English audiences with a deadline of 30 days. Woolsey was disappointed with this time-budget commenting that he preferred a timeline of about 75 days and that he felt rushed completing the translation. He later commented however that Chrono Trigger was "one of the most satisfying games he ever worked on or played." this article is one of many things I discover after play this game for the first time last year. The choice of 3 wise men's name, mura and masa, and many others was localization decision, with criminally small amount of time
The translation is pretty bad honestly. Obviously for 30 days it's great. But Frog isn't supposed to have a medieval knight accent, for example. That's the author adding things he doesn't need to add. And Flea isn't so progressive. This is a classic translation issue from this era. Japan has a very widely accepted community of what might roughly translate as drag. Gay men performing as women. In America being a gay man was seen as more offensive than just being "confused". This also happened a lot on Sailor Moon and etc of the era. People hailing Flea as an LGBT icon is kind of ironic in that regard. You can also see this with the mama-san at Earth Angel in Yakuza. Basically in many traditional cultures, if you're a gay man you may be killed or forever shunned. But if you say you're a woman, people don't know what to do with you, so you're relatively safe. You'll see many translations by Americans today saying these people/characters are trans or queer. That's not necessarily true at all. They're often gay men who have to choose between death or identifying as a woman. In Islamic societies, for instance, gay men may be stoned. But if one man identifies as a woman they can get married and Allah blesses their relationship. Which would you choose? That's basically what Flea is. And just saying "yaaas flea is trans betch" kinda missed the point.
@KevinJDildonik That's fair to say the translation is technically bad. On the other hand, Frog's "Shakespeare talk" is why I kept him on my party the whole game. The Shaekspearian dialect sells the "knight who's super uptight about everything and takes himself too seriously." way better than modern English ever could, and adds personality that he would lack without the speech. "Lower thine guard and thou'rt allowing the enemy in. Is such a cool line and "My life retain'th it's meaning. We have'th our own will." Perfectly sums up the message of the game. Of course, it's not without its fault Marle's line "it's because we're healthy." is made better in the ds remake with "it's because we have hope." And all alcohol references are replaced with soda pop and "pork soup." which sometimes doesn't make sense, but that's mostly censorship.
This is an absolutely PHENOMENAL game. The attention to detail and amount of content to be found is insane. It's also an amazing story. I can still remember being left completely dumbfounded when the player character (which was safe to assume Crono is, given we meet him first and he's a clear self-insert for the player) dies midway and the game continues without him. What? This is not supposed to happen! You didn't see a lot of writing choices like this back then. This might really be one of the select few occasions that I would give a game a 10/10, because it's just that awesome.
Josh Strife, not sure if you'll see this but i wanted to say a big thank you. I suffer from chronic migraines and I really appreciate the "flashing light" warning at the start. It just means I get to enjoy your content without the threat of a day long episode. Thanks again and keep it up!
One bit about one of the endings, if you fail to rescue Lara in Lucca's time travel back to her childhood, the remains disabled for the rest of the game, like you said, there's no way to go back and try again. So she'll still be in her chair the entire rest of the game. But if you do save her, not only does she get up and walk around the house, but at the Millenial Fair she tries to get Taban to dance with her. I know at that point she never knew a life of being unable to walk or dance, but it still made me happy to see her doing so after I saved her.
Lara is in the early game as well. You can see her if you go to Lucca's house, she's upstairs resigned to a chair of course. If you also periodically check in with Taban, he gives Lucca custom equipment for free. It breaks my heart that a few things like Singing Mountain were cut from the game as well!! Maybe Ayla could've had a fleshed out event at the end of the game
This game was peak of my life. From Chrono Trigger to Majora's Mask. I had no worries. Just go to school come him and game. Too young for love. No bills! A good home and food. It's bittersweet. I listen to the music of Chrono Trigger. It's beautiful. It makes me tear up occasionally. I wouldn't go back to re-live it. Because I love my kids. But I do mourn the old days. This game was way ahead of its time. The music, the combat, the story! Everything. So much to do. The video store we went to was $5, 5 days, 5 videos or games. I rented this and Mario RPG Legend of the Seven Stars. I put hundreds of hours into each. Chrono Trigger will always be number 1 to me. For where I was in life and how happy I was.
My experience as well! Well said. Don't need to go back, but I can hear any song from this and instantly see my basement set up that claimed so many hours with this game.
Chrono Trigger to Majora's Mask is a good place to be gaming-wise. I still staunchly believe Chrono Trigger is the best turn-based RPG ever made, and that Majora's Mask is the best Legend of Zelda game ever made.
One thing you forgot to mention: If you bring Magus to the fight against Queen Zeal, he will have an interesting conversation with her. And just before the fight begins, *his* boss theme will replace the standard boss theme, making the whole battle even more epic.
Somewhat related note, if you fight Magus on the cliffside with Frog in the party, Frog will insist on a 1v1 battle and have a dramatic line if he wins. There are unique bits for bringing certain characters to certain moments in the game, and he only covers a tiny few. Another well known one is Marle embracing Crono if she's in the party when he's rescued.
It's rare,ya. The only similar thing I can think of is tales if the abyss. If you collect all the hymns and fight using Luke and tear. (Which most people would cuz mc+main healer) you'd get an extended boss fight were the music changes to be the extended combination of all the songs collected.
@@InternetHydra Very true! Ever taken Magus along when you repair Cyrus’s grave where Masa and Mune reappear to make the final form of the Masamume? Magus will turn away and pull his cape over his face when they appear.
I always have Marle there when I rescue Crono at death peak. Their reunion makes me tear up every time. Also it feels thematically appropriate to have her save him after he saved her early in the story.
Yes! This is actually a very cool thing to remember if you ever replay, new game + or otherwise. You can bring different characters along for different scenes throughout the game, and you can see how each of them react. Outside of parts where certain characters are 'locked in', they all have some unique dialog and interactions. It's one of those small but beautiful touches.
@@t3hsilarn It's actually one of my least favorite parts about JRPGs. I'm not big on replaying a game that takes 20+ hours to beat, and when I like all the characters, I always get that FOMO wanting to see all of their personalities shine in the same playthrough. It's why I appreciate it when some games have all the party members show up and you're just limited on choice exclusively in combat.
@THEREALTYREESNEED Oh thanks for making me aware what generation I was born in, guy I don't know. Clearly every single person who grew up in the 80s likes exactly the same thing in their video games.
I'm surprised at how little this review focused on the soundtrack. Chrono Trigger's OST is one of the GOATs and really helps set the mood. Each character gets their own theme and Frog's theme triumphantly kicks in when he slices the mountain open with the Masamune.
It would be 16 h long if it covered every great thing about this game and at this point it would be better to finish the game instead of watching the review ;d
The truth is few people really put so much importance on the soundtrack and many of those who do are simply pretending because they think it makes them appear more cultured
What I love most about Chrono Trigger is that pretty much every part of it up to the battle with Magus is basically a stealth tutorial for how the game works. Every boss fight tells you something new about the game's mechanics and how to deal with future bosses, with Magus being essentially your final exam. I wish more games would work this way.
@@jeremybrimmer1990 No. They were made fun for normies. Real games are mental and endurance tests that teach you how to play. Doom WADs like Myhouse illustrate what is missing today. Everything is easy. FF4 was so hard in Japan that they released an easier version. That game was great, nearly every encounter could be a wipe.
Lavos is the most lovecraftian entity i can think of in any game. Also lavos is only one and it makes spawns, meaning Lavos is a species and there is more of it out in space
I was thinking just that, because what is more "cosmic horror" than knowing there's an entire species of immortal, nigh-omnipotent planetary parasites out there in the vast, dark reaches of space?
@@AKPiratePrince Nothing lovecraftian abouot hitting a cosmic horror with a stick 1000 times until they die lol. Obviously there are many games inspired by lovecraft, but just like Bloodborne, they don't actually convey the feelings of cosmic dread.
@AKPiratePrince Bloodborne is definitely lovecraft inspired gothic horror and would definitely be considered an homage to Lovecraft. But they are more Big Baddies that you would take down like Kratos killing the gods. Lavos is a cosmic entity dropped down to the center of earth feeding on it and waiting millions of years before emerging once more. That in itself is classic lovecraftian that puts it on par with Bloodborne entities. What makes it surpass bloodborne as lovecraftian is the existential dread Lavos caused. Is it from Lavos that all life and magic owed its existence, permitted to live like a farmer breeding cattles to slaughter? Remember lovecraftian doesnt just mean it comes straight out of the Necronomicon. Cosmic horror and existential dread must go hand in hand for an entity to be truly lovecraftian.
@@cptKamina The biggest misconception about "Lovecraftian" is that the humans never win. Go read The Dunwich Horror. It's VERY rare, but the humans can catch Ws for the most Lovecratian reason of them all. Just as the uncaring universe doesn't side with humanity, it also doesn't side with even the Outer Gods. Make of that what you will.
The name Crono is also "kuro no" - literally "of black" in Japanese. The final dungeon, the Black Omen, is called _kuro no yume_ in Japanese, rendered as 'dream of black', but the context encourages you to reinterpret it as _dream of time._ My personal favorite team is crono, ayla, and frog - great physical attack, three of the four magic types, an aoe heal that costs next to nothing, and ayla can steal items from enemies. Arris dome is supposed to be Alice dome - because in Japanese, the factory dungeon after the jet bike race is wonderland factory. In the Japanese version, masa and mune are Gran and Leon, the sword is Grandlion, they changed it to masamune for brand synergy. Lucca gets stone drunk at Ayla's party and wakes up hung over. In Japan, Slash, Flea, and Ozzy are Soy-sauce, Mayonnaise, and Vinegar, one of toriyama akira's classic food puns. Ozzy/Vinger was being absolutely literal when he said there are 100 monsters in the castle - I know, I've counted! Also... is mayonnaise a gender? Mayonnaise is genderfluid. The magical kingdom of Zeal is a paragon of the false promises of evil gods in Japanese culture - a parasite promising prosperity but only delivering exploitation. "Where all your dreams come true - but is it worth the price?" Apparently the translation team thought the name 'Sara', which literally means _princess,_ wasn't interesting enough for the princess of a magical fantasy empire? The seal on the sealed doors and chests is the mammon machine (majinki - 'magic god vessel' or 'demon god vessel') Lavos' signature attack is called _it rains down from the heavens and destroys the world_ in Japan. Magus is maou, literally demon king. It's not a name, it's a title - for those who deserve to be feared. The Geno dome's middle name is 'ci'. You're supposed to go through the black dream three times (present, dark ages, ice age, in that order), where you can steal prism helms and prism dresses from Queen Zeal all three times. Grandlion drains the magic from the demon god vessel because that's literally what Grandlion was made for - using the same dreamstone the vessel uses to draw magic from Lavos to siphon it out of the vessel. It's the same reason Grandlion reduces Magus' defense. The true dreams of the dream stone overcome Lavos' false promises. Lavos' outer core is Cell. Also NecroPsaro. Toriyama has used the same bbeg three times - and the second time, his editor told him no one would take it seriously. _Wanna bet?_ I love the running gag with the cats. As ProJared said: "like a clock without hands - _timeless."_
@notoriouswhitemoth I own every version of chrono trigger, one of my favorite games of all time, tough to call my favorite FF ( 4,7 or tactics ) I wish they brought more of my favorite child hood games to pc, nes/snes had some of the best rpgs, but alot of innovation happened in ps1 and 2, so many good odd balls out there. Thanks for your informative comment, I appreciate it.
In the lategame you can give Robo a haste helm with so many speed boosters that he's at 24 speed instead of 6. His magic stat-ratio on his solo-tech aoe heal is massive, and when magic tab spammed, heals for 550~ to the whole party as a solo tech. Then Magus casts magic resist up on all members while everyone stacks physical defense and haste helm (other than Magus who is only 12 speed, not 24). Chrono mash physical tech with lategame super weapon, Magus mash elemental targeting, Robo mash heals.
You missed a nice detail about the cave that leads to the Magus Castle. If you enter it without unlocking magic for Frog, the first time you win a fight where you casted a spell, it will play a short cutscene where Frog is surprised you can use it and whoever is the third party member will suggest visiting Spekkio.
y'know, I never even thought about unlocking magic for frog before going in there. I always thought you had to see that cutscene to learn magic for some reason.
It's a masterpiece, but I'd say it was precisely of its time. There was plenty of innovation happening in games in the SNES, N64, and Gamecube eras but things really stagnated in the early 2000's. Luckily indie development has become easy enough that tons of great new stuff has come out in the past 10 years or so again.
@@whatdothlife4660I think it C.C was a game ahead of so many future games, this s why it is still considered a masterpiece. It had it almost all and whatever came in the next decade was just borrowing things from C.C or other classics
God I played this game 20 years ago, and despite having played hundreds of games since then, this has remained my #1 pick for best game of all time. The emotions and feeling I felt as a young teenager and aspiring writer after I finished this game was overwhelming. And to this day, I still can't listen to the soundtrack "To Far Away Times" without smiling.
I have listened to "far away times" during some of the worst times of my life. 2:40, at the drop, has brought me to tears, and saved me from so many moments of pain. It reminds me of a time in my life that was simple and happy, when i played the best rpg/game of all time.
20 hours? My first playthrough was like 70! That aside... this video rem8nded me how much I love this game. It's as you said, CT set a bar so high tuat it's still up there today, it's got so much gameplay and narrative depth; some of the moments came back to me as you narrated them, and I got emotional again just thinking about them. The characters stuck with me. And damn, it's been yearsand I still haven't seen all the endings! PS: I will always ship Lucca and Crono.
When he says 20 hours he means: 20 hours of progressive gameplay. Not 20 hours of ACTUAL gameplay. When you save it adds the play time to the existing saved time to create a new saved time, BUT if you decide to stop playing without saving (to go back because you made a mistake or were "chasing a red herring" or even reload from a save even further back in the game) THEN you just lost that entire last session. It doesn't add time to the save BUT you still just wasted a bunch of real time.
@@freedomextremist7215 Anytime you spend time on something and it doesn't contribute to your goal (even if it's simple entertainment) then, it's a "waste of time". Some people like to waste time. I have even lost many hours watching the same episode of some program over again. My point is that these save game files do not accurately keep track of how much TOTAL time that a player spends playing. Just how much time the player added to the total since they last reloaded that saved game the very last time they started over. What happens with the time spent (without saving) is lost and NOT added to the grand total. It may entertain the player; it may add additional information previously unknown, it may even be another player entertaining themselves by "messing around" with somebody else's saved game however, that time is wasted because it doesn't add to progress in the game.
This is one of those times where when people say its a masterpiece, they are not in fact over-hyping it. Truly brilliant, and it will forever remain among my personal favorites.
It came out when I was at that age that girls entered the picture and I kind of left video games to the side for a while. Now that I'm older, I gave it a go a couple of years back. Pretty good, I'd say. Hard to give it too much praise nowadays, but it was worth playing. I feel like for the time I would have given it a much higher ranking though.
@@stephenthomas1492 Chrono trigger was responsible for a lot of the systems we have today including the ATB system. Story is top notch, characters are top notch and honestly there's really nothing i can say bad about it. Hell you can beat the game without the main character without realizing you could have saved him. Love it.
@@stephenthomas1492"Hard to give it too much praise nowadays" Care to expand on this? Imo the art, music, themes, and gameplay are timeless, and hold up in comparison to modern rpg's
1:29:11 Thought I'd mention. "In ancient Roman religion and myth, Janus is the god of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages, frames, and endings." I love all the mythological references in this game. Also, amazing video Josh!
Just a side note about the beginning when you talk about the composer, there's the picture of Nobuo Uematsu, but the music was mainly composed Yasunori Mitsuda. It was his first gig at Square as a composer, after doing sound effects for other games for the company. He was overwhelmed though, that's why Nobuo Uematsu also composed a few tracks.
The Kingdom of Zeal will FOREVER have a place in my heart. As a child, it was the first time the idea of a floating city was ever shown to me, and it shaped me and made me fall in love with high fantasy. As a result, my adolescent and teenage years were spent playing fantasy JRPG's. The music of Zeal is my favorite song from Chrono Trigger and hearing the orchestral version still gets me misty eyed. I hope when I die, the afterlife is a idealized version of the city in the clouds..
Chrono Trigger, The Secret of Mana, and Final Fantasy IV have always been my favorite game RPGS. I remember spending so much time in my youth playing those games while unlocking all their secrets. Truly classics of an era and the SNES console. All with great story telling, gameplay, and timeless enjoyment.
100%, I don't see The Secret of Mana mentioned as often as the other two, but it deserves to be mentioned. These are the three games that made Super Nintendo for me. Between these and Shining Force 1 and 2 on the Genesis the era was just so awesome for RPG's.
1:51:26 Technically, you do see Lara (Lucca’s mother) in the original timeline. She is sitting upstairs in her home, lamenting the fact that “Lucca and Taban only care about their silly toys.” If you fail to prevent the accident, it changes the ending slightly. (Lara will be sitting with Taban instead of wanting to dance with him.)
Also if you manage to save her mom and return to that same room upstairs, you will find her sitting at the same place but only this time she will stand up and start walking. My personal favorite moment in the game.
@@vendretyvangarde7383 yes me too. On the first play thru I didn't know what was about to happen and I watched Lara get crushed by the machine. It was horribly traumatic. Many years later I played thru the game again only half remembering it when suddenly I realized what was about to happen.. 'F this! There is no way I'm letting this happen again! Not on my watch! ". Paused the game, looked on the internet how to stop the machine, then burst into tears that I'd healed an old psychological wound I forgotten about. Seeing Lara on her feet I've never felt such a burden lifted off my mind from a game before.
1:51:34 you can see lucca's mother in the game at any time, its just that you need to go to lucca's house to talk to her, she is in her room. you can even meet her at the start of the game before even meeting marle.
It's amazing how Toriyama made artworks for nearly every item, armor and weapon in this game as well as every major character. You can see these graphics in chrono fandom wiki. There are helmets, armors, robes, helmets, rings and even items like Flea's bustier or Ozzie pants (which is a headgear btw). So much effort put into this game.
On one hand, I have to credit this video with renewing my appreciation for this game. It's always been one of my favorite RPGs, but I definitely haven't stopped to really acknowledge all the finer details of its design in a very long time. I'm very grateful for that. On the other hand... Man, not taking Magus into the Black Omen is a cardinal sin. The whole showdown with Zeal hits so much better if he's in the party, for obvious reasons.
@@darthgamer9861Yeah, I was a bit bummed that he didn’t mention that. Magus’ theme playing when battling against Zeal is just the cherry on top: Magus’ theme first plays when you fight him. He is clearly the villain at that time and his epic theme fits is perfectly. But now, with a new resolve, his theme makes a come back and you can feel the changes. It’s not an evil boss theme, it’s one of redemption. To make this right.
Chrono Trigger will always be in my memory as the best rpg game I've ever been blessed to play along with Super Mario RPG. That was the golden age of gaming, where quality mattered and some of the best games to ever exist were created.
Games then, were an experience, rather than being made to make money. I've found quite few indie games that I love almost as much of some of these old ones. There's still some amazing games that give quality these days.
Hearing Josh Strife not raise his voice once in a review and speaking his conclusion in a calm but satisfied-sounding tone is something I haven't experienced before. This was pretty damn special.
Even Crono’s mother acknowledges the Black Omen as a normal everyday thing. It’s such a freaky concept, with everyone considering it normal with only the player and the main cast knowing otherwise. Imagine waking up one day and seeing an ominous floating structure in the sky, yet everyone you ask just says it’s always been there.
Over 2 hours of Chrono Trigger commentary?! I'm here for it. How long did this take you to script, though? This seems like an IMMENSE amount of work - and it's definitely noticed and appreciated.
Just when I was thinking he is getting "lazy" with the few recent "Was it good" videos, presenting pretty short and arcadishgames, he releases this bomb. As you said, this is impressive work.
Another cool detail is in the name of the Mammon Machine. Mammon is the name of the demon who rules over the Greed circle of hell, so you could called it the "Greed Machine" which is appropriate cause its sole purpose was for Queen Zeal to achieve her ultimate Goal: Immortality; Which she would sacrifice anything to attain.
I know right?! When I do it it go through with Marle in my party because she has an absolute breakdown and her relief when he comes back is palpable. When I tried to explain to my wife about why I love this game so much I get misty eyed talking about his rebirth scene…all based on Marle’s pain and relief when she thought the egg didn’t work, then recounting what they did to bring him back. Gorram I love this game.
Chrono Trigger is as close to perfection as I have experienced in a video game. The pacing, the difficulty, the puzzle like bosses that make grinding meaningless, the polish, the story, the characters, the battle system with the variety of combined attacks, all an absolute master class. Kinda sad that gaming peaked in 1995.
It aged insanely well. 16-bit graphics tend to age better compared to early 3D graphics, and the battle system still holds up and doesn't feel dated. The multiple endings also give it a lot of good replay value.
Awesome video, friend. I have never played this game before or any JRPG. I was born in 94 in Nigeria and only got into PC gaming when I built my first rig in 2021. Retro games like this really appeal to me cause of how so many folks speak of their great stories, characters and influence on gaming. Looking forward to playing it myself after I am done with summer school in college😊👍
Good luck friend. I would say, the SNES, and PS1 era of games were the most unique and fun. I'm absolutely biased because I grew up with them, but many of these early games are direct influences to popular franchises now.
27:30 I always loved how Lucca took her hat off when she was sleeping. Edit: The Masamune is called Grandleon （グランドリオン）, with the brother spirits being Gran and Leon. In the Japanese game, Crono wields katanas, who all receive Japanese names, while Frog uses western swords, who all receive western names. Changing Frog's legendary sword's name from Grandleon to Masamune breaks that motif they have.
TBH I think having the names flipped for a western audience is a nice bit of localization. It keeps the motif of the 'local' hero having the local names, while the 'exotic' hero of legend having foreign names for their weapons.
@@leadpaintchips9461 I disagree with that. The original developers had an idea in mind of what they wanted the mythos of their world to be, what they wanted the players to experience. When those names get changed, the whole thought process behind them is undermined. Besides, it's Crono who's the outlier here, not Frog. Frog's story is the traditional hero knight tale, with a kidnapped princess rescued by the valiant knight who marches towards the Demon Lord's castle in the fateful fight to save humanity (if this wasn't clear enough, Magus' name in Japanese is 魔王/maou, literally "Demon Lord". They had to change his name because of character limitation, I do not blame the localization team for that one). It's a very well known and heavily utilized to this day tale in Japan, that has always used medieval Europe style, which is exactly what Guardia 600 A.D. On the other hand, Crono is the only character in the entire game that has an Eastern motif. He wears clothes that resemble a martial artist's gi a uses katana for combat in a land that has nothing to do with Eastern culture in a world where said is never portrayed. Crono was made to be the audience surrogate, the character you are meant to project yourself onto and the game was made by Japanese developers for a Japanese audience, meaning Crono was meant to be the Japanese player bearing their tradition in this medieval European world. Every character uses European weapons - crossbows, guns, sickles and swords. Even Robo and Ayla use their fists instead of weapons that would be expected of their time period. Crono is the only character that uses a weapon that would not have been found in an European setting, and all of his katanas have a Japanese name, even the ones that use Katakana in their names thanks to their origins (such as the Mammoth Tusk/マンモスの剣 or Slasher/ソイソーとう). By calling the Gandleon "Masamune", the localizers just disregarded the worldbuilding of Chrono Trigger.
I was 14 when this game came out and I must've played it through a half-dozen times in the first few months I had it. The game has so much soul, you can feel it in every moment and every interaction. I wouldn't be surprised if, seventy-two years from now, people still consider it a seminal moment in the evolution of a medium.
If you think about it, Marle receiving her ultimate weapon, the Valkyr, on Frog's quest, makes perfect sense. Who would have taken Cyrus' remains back to his estate to be buried? The person he spent his whole life guarding... Queen Leene. Cyrus more then likely gave the Queen the weapon to defend herself, as she likely had the same spirit of adventure as her decendant, Marle. This shows that Cyrus was her friend, that he listened to her desires, and possibly the two of them went on clandestine adventures together to take down mages and monsters, without the knowledge of the rest of her family. And, when he died, she realized her adventuring days were over, as that part of her life ended with his death, and she left her weapon in his tomb as a sign of their friendship together. Frog already had his ultimate weapon. Marle simply received hers from family and destiny, as a result and consequence.
Marle's initial story is a crazy paradox if you think about it. She ends up back in time and erases her own existence, but then that means she never could have traveled back in time to undo her own existence in the first place. But also, since she erased her own existence, they would think the queen was missing again and keep searching for her (and maybe that is what happened but they never found her this time) but Glenn was still looking for her and probably was going to find her, so maybe the Queen would have been saved anyway and Marle wouldn't have stopped existing... and then your nose starts to bleed
@@Onikage55 I like to think that there's a lag of a few "days" between events changing and the real timeline "correcting", as well as the changes in the timeline not changing the memories of those who have jumped through time. I think Magus might slightly disprove that theory, since he was able to "foretell" of your coming in 12,000BC, but that could also just be a plot hole ...
@@Pickleton There's more evidence of this "lag" as it were during the Rainbow Shell arc, where for us the Rainbow Shell being recovered by the kingdom in 600AD was just a few minutes ago, and Marle's dad has NO CLUE what the hell is going on even though he should have knowledge 400 years in advance.
I am so happy you covered this masterpiece of a game. I discovered this gem years ago without ever having heard of it and I was completely sucked in by the plot. From the time travel hook, to the awesome characters, the animation, the music, the story. Every aspect was perfectly crafted. My favorite moment of the whole game was Lucca's experience with the red gate. That was so traumatic I'm not ashamed I save scummed to get the proper resolution. The other highlight is the whole assault on Magus' castle. It really built up to it and you felt teh dread walking into that room when the fires lit up. Just watching you go through the game brought back so many wonderful and fond memories. It was one of the highlights of my youth. I've always hoped to see the spirit of the story carried on and even to emulate it. Even though it was two hours, I'm just grateful to see the memory of the game kept alive. If you're looking for other classic RPGS from the SNES era, I'd love to hear your take on Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Hidden Stars. That was another formative game for me.
I remember running into the ghosting issue of "having to press 3 keys on a keyboard" issue in this game as a kid. Though that was because I was using a cheap keyboard. These days, most keyboards have anti-ghosting measures and you can press as many keys as needed because loads of games need you to press three keys at once occasionally.
I remember playing Final Fantasy 3 (6 in Japan) and thinking there would never be a better RPG on the SNES. Then Chrono Trigger came out and I was blown away. The sprites were so much larger and more detailed than anything else at the time. The music was phenomenal, I own and still listen to the orchestral arangements. And the story. Damn, just damn. I can't hear Frogs theme without getting ASMR tingles down my spine. Everything in the story fits together so well and with so many interconections and motivations thats its honestly one of the best stories ever told. Its a game that will always be entertaining to go back to again and again, even after you've unlocked all the endings. In a way I'm glad there never was a direct sequel to Chrono Trigger. So many games devs these days rush out crap sequels every year that do nothing to add to a series other than another cash grab. Squaresoft, now Squeenix, has never gone back to Chrono Trigger and it's world and characters and as much as I would love to go back, you can't force lightning to strike twice. The odds are good no sequel could compare to the original, and I am OK with that.
Very true. Some gems should not be made into a series. Although, I wouldn't say no to a FF VII style current-gen remake. It could be a fun and alternate way of experiencing the story. But yeah, we don't need sequels to CT.
I never got the SNES version of the game - just never saw a copy in a store at the time. I instead found the Playstation version of it and some of the Final Fantasy games some time in the late 2000s, and bought it then, thinking "Well, I heard this was a pretty good game but who knows how it stands up over a decade later." I then played it and was absolutely blown away by how amazingly good it was. It immediately flew to my list of all-time favorites and has remained there ever since.
I've played Chrono Trigger for days, weeks, months. Replayed it countless times. Some following breakthrough guides. Most of what I've seen in this video was new to me. The side quests for each character, the ultimate weapons, the optional endings... Chrono Trigger is light-years ahead of ANYTHING I've played. 28 years later and I'm still amazed by the depth it has. Trully a masterpiece. And your 2 hour long video? It has been a while since I paid attention to a youtube video without multitasking. I've sat through the 134 minutes with my eyes locked to the screen. Thank you for this.
As one who was a kid from the ‘90’s I can affirm that it definitely was good. The point that it took a grown adult only 20 hours is fair, but for a kid playing through, not necessarily figuring everything out right away, this game felt absolutely massive. I try to judge games not just by how I feel about them as an adult, but by how I felt or would have felt about them as a middle school kid. Chrono Trigger and FF6 are for me the undisputed champions of that season of life in the ‘90’s.
If I recall, you can actually prevent that last end bit of the cat running away into the portal. At the faire in one of the side games (I think the tent of horrors that you get the Cronos clone from), one of the rewards is cat food. If you never actually get this, your cat runs away because you forgot to feed it. If you DO get the item, it won't run away at the end.
Follow up to that, if you keep getting more and more cat food then you will also acquire more and more cats. I'm not sure if there is a limit but I stopped at around 20 cats cluttering up the house. That being said, I still had the cats enter the portal at the end. And they all do, though the mother still seems to only be after the one.
There are some variations that Josh didn't show. If you use the Epoch to crash into Lavos, instead of the bucket or Ocean Palace, you will still go to the Moonlight Festival. Crono's cat and mom won't end up going into the portal and afterwards you will be called to the bell tower by the King to hang up a bell carrying Marle's name (Nadia's Bell, to replace Leene's Bell). The bell has balloons tied to it which Marle grabs hold off and they take her into the air. Crono quickly jumps up to save her grabbing hold of the balloons... and then they both float upwards into the starlit night sky holding each other. That ending is so beautiful and calming with Marle and Crono finally getting some time to just be alone with each other and lets you think back on your adventure. It's my favorite ending.
The fact that Ayla and Kino are the ancestors of Guardia making her Marle's (insert all the greats here) grandparents is a nice touch of how all of the game is connected, damn i love this game
The idea that comes to mind when I think about this game is *craftsmanship.* One of the things that I distinctly remember is that, when replaying it, I could recall every single enemy encounter. Enemy composition and numbers, how they enter the area, and so on. The moment I entered an area I could tell the exact moment when I would encounter enemies. Even the trash mob encounters were created with utmost care and each was unique. And that level of care and craftsmanship was put into the entire game in a way that is incredibly rare for even the best products.
Ok, one correction: Your choice with the Rainbow Shell is a Prism Dress, an extremely powerful armor, not a weapon. The Prism Dress is probably the best armor in the game, available only to females. It would be a great piece of equipment for Marle because, as the party healer, her survivability is more important than damage output. So, her best piece of equipment is tied to her own personal quest, it's just not a weapon.
There's a bit of a game knowledge thing here, but the best choice is the helms. Zeal's hands can both be stolen from and one has a prism dress, and the other a prism helm. You can fight Zeal 3 times if you start at 1000ad, then go back to 600 and 12000. So doing this you end up with 3 dresses and 6 helms
1:27:42 to help you out about the importance of Janus; Janus had a very important job in the ancient Roman world. All Roman gods had a job to do, but Janus was the Roman god of the threadhold of a doorway or gate. His job was to keep evil spirits out of homes, buildings, shrines, schools, courtyards, and wherever there was a doorway or gate. This game is layered with religion of all kinds. Thanks for covering one of my all time favorite games!
As you come to your conclusion, and say that there Have to be faults to find: You missed a bit. In New Game Plus mode, you can use the right hand teleporter at the faire to fight Lavos almost as soon as the game begins. If you win, you'll get the dev room ending from if you beat Lavos when you were supposed to lose to him. But if you talk to Everyone, you're told you'll be given the credits in a form that's suitable for someone who beat the final boss That early in the game. And then the text blurs across the screen in about 2 seconds.
Why is this a fault? I think is a cheeky nod/joke from developers about how fast you beat the game, so you get the credits (not credit as in adoration) in a suitably fast way
The dev room ending actually gets mentioned! I'd have to check the time stamp, but it certainly wasn't missing from the review - well, except for the credits part.
And to think that after around 20 years after I played it, I still break crying when JSH talks about the bigger, emotional moments as a 30+ yr old man with mortgage and taxes and everything. I think nothing will ever take the top1 ever made game spot for me from the chrono trigger
1:41:41 The red mail, red vest, and Taban armors for Lucca also make this fight pretty trivial as Taban gear also resists fire and the vest/mail absorb fire damage
The game was referred to as made by a "dream team" and I really couldn't agree more. Hironobu Sakaguchi during Square's prime. Yuji Horii (of Dragon Quest fame), and Akira Toriyama for the art direction. The soundtrack worked with Yasunori Mitsuda and Nobuo Uematsu. You had tons of industry veterans, programmers, and writers all coming together in a perfect storm to create a pretty damn good game. One of my personal favorites of my childhood and one that still invokes emotional responses. "The Future Refused To Change" still gives me goosebumps
![[TH] 2024 PMGC League | Survival Stage วันที่ 1 | PUBG MOBILE Global Championship](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/FVFT-PFwU80/mqdefault.jpg)
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".
Not really touching, it suggests that the planet is conscious but doesn't actively do anything about Lavos, instead, letting it happen and letting someone else do the work.
HOWEVER, I will say that the only character I don't like in this game is lucca, I know lots of people love her. To me, however, she's a mary sue, and i just never related to her at all. Which is funny, hearing how the video refers to her (someone who is connected to machines and isn't very social) - is how people refer to me pertaining to tech.
So, maybe it's a matter of looking in the mirror and not liking what I see, but I feel that she's never challenged at all, where as everyone else is - Lucca's mom lost her legs, and that's it - she's favored by the game after that and is more a plot device then a char to me, having less personality then crono, and the fact that lucca is the only one who had her childhood trauma reversed fully without any negative effects is just cheap to me
@@Bjorick Just because the planet's conscious doesn't mean it can make giant fists and punch Lavos. It IS doing something to stop Lavos.. that's what the Time Gates are. If they didn't exist, Lavos would win. DOES win.
@@evrfreez yes but that makes no sense from a logical perspective - the planet is conscious and has the ability to create time gates, which is shown to be done by the queen of Zeal but only AFTER tapping into the massive power of Lavos
The planet, in this line of thought, has the power to do this easily and control factors to make someone come along and stumble on the gates and how to use them - okay
however, if you have such powers, why not simply create a time gate to have a time gate appear at the time/date lavos landed and then either:
1. Push lavos into outer space and thus miss the planet completely, or;
2. Push lavos so far into the future that the time gate drops lavos into a time when the planet is already dead/dying and is just a dead rock floating in space?
Again, it makes ZERO sense to say 'the planet has the ablity to create time gates and is conscious' and the only solution is 'have someone go in and maybe kill lavos or maybe die and make things worse'. Further, Lavos wasn't powerful when it landed, and wouldn't have the power to open gates until sucking the energy from the planet, so this change would prevent lavos from creating a time gate to stop this, as the planet would be dead when lavos appeared outside the gate, and never gain the power to open time gates and starve to death
Zero logical sense.
@@Bjorick hmm... ya know, I was gonna say, don't forget it mentions how sentient life turned out the way it did because of lavos in the first place, so it's possible the planet needed lavos to create the life, but needed to stop it before it ate everything...
But that would make no sense at all. The cavemen and the reptiles both were doing perfectly fine before lavos landed. in fact, as shown in the video, one of them naming it lavos as it arrived is how they got the name in the first place... so that would heavily, heavily imply life would've been perfectly fine with or without it...
you may actually have a point there.
@@Bjorick Those Eagles really should have carried and dropped Lavos directly into Mount Doom, huh?
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.
Huh, never caught that. Pretty neat.
@@reloadpsi Same
The only one i noticed was Belthasar but i never thought about that!
Never thought of that. Good one.
You might say Gaspar ended up outside of time even :)
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.
Wow. I thought I knew everything about this game, but that's a new one. Thanks!
@breadandcircuses8127 Is it that surprising? If you remember dreams they're more or less imagination and that is what fuels artistic creativity.
We are both thankful for that
Imagine the hard drive is still around and all we needed was a data recovery service? Haha 🤔😎
I bet after that he started to have a back up copy.
When I first played this game I changed Robo's name to Promo as an idea of Prometheus and when I found out that was his real name I was so awe struck.
The fact that Marle's final weapon is attached to Frog's quest actually makes sense because You met Frog only because Marle changed the past in the beginning of the game, and Frog as Glenn was in love with the queen's daughter. There's references to this in the other chrono games
...what other chrono games? lmao
@@FredMaverik Radical Dreamers and Chrono Cross. Did you skip the beginning of the video?
@@FredMaverikit’s always one of you. 🤦🏾♂️😂😂
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.
Best girl.
Never knew that. Could never not bring him back... cool to know though!
I must have forgotten that ending, especially since I could never let him stay down. That's an amazing, beautiful insight. Thanks for sharing!
Get yoself a girl like Marle.
Did that ending on the first NG+....it felt empty at the end only to hear that we can bring him back....ALL YOU BITCHES, GET IN THE EPOCH!!! WE GETTIN' OUR BOY BACK!!!
Only 2 things scare me like hell
- Kefka's laugh
- Lavos's scream
Fun fact, Bekkler's laugh is just a slowed down version of Kefka's laugh. So you got the best of both worlds in CT
Add on Nine Balls theme and the phrase "Commencing Hostiltites" and that'd be my list.
For me it’s the idea of inevitable aging and death, the collapse of civilization, and waking up without my penis.
I wish to add only one more. Diablos's Roar.
The 2 best JRPG’s of all time? To me they are, though CT is misclassified IMO. Its not really an RPG but a story focused adventure game.
Never realized the horror Lucca must have felt over what happened at the beginning of the game, given the context of her side quest.
Fortunately things go well and got ultimately fixed, should that ends bad she'd be traumatized for life even more than she already has.
Nor the composure necessary to not shit herself out of despair and PTSD in that moment. This is quite literally the closest thing she has experienced to what happened to her mother so far, this is why she fixated on machinery, this is what those 10 years lead up to: "A machine (that I made btw, for additional dramatic potency) has done something irreversible to someone in front of me. I must find a way to fix this."
she gets worse in the sequel
@@TheShamefurDispray We don't talk about Chrono Cross...
@@insensitive919 We could if they ever made their promised Chrono Break. Otherwise it's like looking at the scaffolding to a building with an impressive base. Clearly something great could come of it, if they ever committed.
Rest in peace Akira Toriyama, you will be missed.
Edit: Typo
Toriyama influence will live on
He brought much beauty and joy to millions, his legacy and influence will carry on.
>akiro
Even me who HATE Toriyama style very hard (yeah yeah dont kill me guys) LOVED this game so hard, even his characters who are so good that theyr style dont matter at all, and the OST is just lovely. In fact that game is the cause im today a writer, specifically because one character, but im not gonna say who :)
I knew he had something to do with the art design the moment I looked at it. Wonderful.
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.
It also has a certain connection because it comes out of the mystic chests, which can only be opened/upgraded by Marles pendant.
@@dragon_knight2300 .... Which would have been Leene's pendant back in the day. ... Again hinting at a connection between Leene and Cyrus. ... Maybe they were siblings? From the Choras noble family (hince Cyrus's ghost being in the castle ruins?)
That would give purpose to why Cyrus was so protective of Leene, why the sealed chests were in the ruins, AND why a weapon for marle would be involved in Cyrus's questline.
@@NAzo. yeah, there was one in the castle. It has one of the elemental vests/plates inside it. I forget which one.
@@Shadethewolfy Red.
Boy, I played this game a lot..... 🥴
@@insensitive919 thank you~
I've played hundreds of games so far in my life and to this day I think my single favorite moment in any of the games I've played is when Frog, finally having accepted the restored Masamune and his role as the hero of legend, declares "Mine name is Glenn! Cyrus's hopes and dreams, and now the Masamune! Forthwith I shall slay Magus and restore honor!" before splitting the mountain to open the path to Magus' lair. It's such a fantastic hero moment.
Mine is getting to the Undersea palace and the epic music continuing to play through the first encounter and then through the rest of the way within the context of what is going on in the story. A lot of top moments in that game.
Ooohhhh...so Cyrus from Another Eden is a direct reference to the frog. Makes so much more sense now.
The way his theme song cuts in at those moments helps a lot. It's so good.
Just a real special moment in time playing that game
Best moment in gaming hands down. Still get goosebumps when I see the segment.
A timeless classic in the literal sense of the word. It brings tears to my eyes
bUt HoW CaN It bE TimElEsS iF It's AbOuT tImE TRavEl?
Every characters arc is compelling! I was empathizing with a robot at 13!
Hot
Weird how I feel the same emptiness after even just this video, as I've felt after finishing this damn game
To Far Away Times is such a tear jerker for me
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.
I first played this game emulating it on my computer back in the 2000s. Never had any problems with that quest.
The problem with that quest was related to certain emulators. Some early emulators didn't acknowledge more then two buttons pressed at the same time. So the limitation was rarely connected to the keyboard.
oh, my keyboard struggles with a few inputs, like pressing two arrow keys and Space at the same time.
this is only a problem with a few games, like Rayman Legends, during the underwater sections.
most keyboards are using a matrix switch layout that means that keys share certain physical traces and cant work together. you need a keyboard with "n-key rollover" to avoid this. most gaming keyboards will have it. cheap keyboards won;t
@@cho4d i didnt know that. interesting. i will look into that. cheers
Wow, watching this as an adult.. I cannot believe I beat this game as young as I did. This game is beautifully deep.
Had this exact reaction. I think I was 12 when I beat it.
I was 14 when I first completed it (via emulator), and I can absolutely believe it. My taste in games honestly probably hasn't changed much since I was _quite_ young, I just play a lot less of the child-friendly platformers and more of the RPGs.
That said, unlike almost every other RPG I've completed, I still haven't touched this since I was about 14, and that was a good couple decades back, so... I should probably give it another playthrough to see if there is anything I missed - or just remind myself of things I forgot. In my mind it's still there as a great experience.
I was a tad older, we did not get it in our region and had to wait for import.
Seeming I remember most I had way to much time back then 😂
Right?! How did we do any of this?
Giggity
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.
Josh covered almost everything in Chrono Trigger. The only thing I don't recall hearing is if you defeat the Black Omen in 1000AD, you can go to 600AD and 12000BC and defeat those incarnations of the Black Omen as well as a nod to timeline continuity. Same if you defeat it in 12000BC, it will be erased in future time eras. Also if you do the 1000AD path you can steal up to 3 Prism Dresses and 3 Prism Helms from Zeal's hands, so if you get the 3 helms from the Rainbow Shell quest you'll have 6 helms to cover all the party and 3 dresses for the 3 female members of the party.
Yep, as opposed to Locke’s steal in FFVI or earlier games, charm has a lot of benefits in maxing out other characters quicker than just running through NG+ a few times.
There are also Speed tabs that you can steal over and over again, which is a big help as speed is a really important stat.
You guys make me feel like I never even played these games.
You also get to hear the awesome music from inside the Black Omen three times as well
You can also go back after picking up the upgraded items from the sealed chests in 1000AD, and _also_ pick up the nonupgraded versions in 600AD. You just have to do it in the right order. This is useful, because even if the nonupgraded ones aren't as good, the armors still absorb an element at reduced effectiveness and stuff. Good for certain specific boss fights, since you can put the weaker one on a second party member.
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!
This is so fucking neat. I love it.
Ikr, when i see that red star i was like " the fq is that " i keep thinking about it until the scene lavos fall into the earth, my mind was like 🤯 dayyum so thats the beginning of this disaster come from, what a detail for game that came out many many years ago
You can also see it earlier from the cliff where you mount pterans first time.
I was immediately skeptical from the intro but it took like two minutes for me to be like "wow, this dude is legit." Right away goes into more detail than 90% of the game essay/reviews out there.
Yeah. While I don't always agree with Mr.Hayes, he always makes certain to bring enough footage and explanation to form your own opinion.
The 2 hour 20 minute video timer did not quell your skepticism?
@@Imar13 I've seen a video that was 6 hours long to critique a 1.5 hour movie. It was rambling and awful. Length doesn't equate to quality. Though I suppose, by comparison, a 2 hour video for a game that could take on average 20-ish hours is rather short. Though not as comparatively short as his usual reviews for _whole MMOs_ are. :P
@@Kio_Kurashi Yea agreed. Video length doesn't matter. Take a look at the groups that make half hour long videos picking apart a 40 second long movie teaser trailer. Is there *really* enough content to go that long? no. No there is not.
@@WalkerRileyMC Well, maybe not enough on that trailer itself, but usually those groups go on to pull in other media or reference other things. Also just kinda 'shooting the shit' as it were.
One of the ones that comes to mind is Shadiversity's Knights Watch channel where they do talk about trailers and take half an hour to an hour, usually when Shad is there. But most of that is discourse around the topic, and even sometimes things unrelated to it. For those, it's less about the trailer and more about interacting with each other and/or their community. I certainly wouldn't go to the channel if all I wanted was a quick rundown of the trailer XD
Dunno if that's what you were talking about or if you were meaning people who go on a full tirade over the trailer alone.
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.
You can turn Magus away from your party when he first talks to you, being forced to beat the game without him. I did that once on accident.. I had to restart my game because I made the wrong choice DOH
-You can fight Magus at the North Cape as Frog in a one on one encounter.
-In a NG+ you can attempt to fight Lavos from the teleporter at the start of the game and, depending on the sequence, you can do it with Crono alone.
-Alya's weapons do eventually power up, once at 50, and then again at 70.
-If you take Lucca and/or Marle to Death Peak to revive Crono, they both have a more touching reunion, where they hug the revived Crono, preferring Marle if they are both present.
-If you complete the 3rd game of Bekkler's, the first time, you get a second cat. Each consecutive time you beat it, you get cat food. Each cat food allows another cat to spawn in Crono's house during specific events in the game. You can have a max of 11 cats, all of which jump into the time gate during the parade ending.
-You can fight Queen Zeal 3 different times by doing going through the Black Omen in reverse order, allowing additional attempt so steal from her hands.
-I discovered, by accident, that it is possible at high enough level in NG+ to auto-battle through all of Lavos's forms without healing.
I'm actually surprised, I was not aware of the cross-screen Speed Tab Josh pointed out. It's rare for me to learn something new about this game.
Also regarding the Rainbow Shell quest, if you go all the way back to the cave with the Shell after asking the King to recover it, you'll find a group of soldiers trying to get it out of the cave.
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.
While I was born before the game's release I was a Sega kid and had very limited exposure to Nintendo games. When finishing college, a friend I had made there gave me a bunch of 'must play' games to try and it probably took me two or three years to get around to Chrono Trigger. I was definitely in my 20s by then, but from the moment I left the fair I was fully engrossed and it was all I spent any free time on for a week!
Nostalgia had absolutely no part of me falling in love with the game and it's now on my list of 'must play' games!
Chrono Trigger is one of the only games I've ever played that is truly TIMELESS. A passion project of a game that seriously feels like it came out yesterday. This game holds a very special place in my heart, and even though I played it much later (i played the DS version) but am so happy I finally did. I will never forget it
I was born in 1991 and started gaming in 1993 but didn't play chrono trigger before 2015 and i was amazed
@@ReyemNeirda Lol I can So damn relate to this. Iam also born in 1991 and Played it first on Nintendo DS. And also close to 2015. Its really timeless as everyone says.
@@Schwenakasven yeah, i was impressed by everything, at a point that i had a really hard time to enjoy jrpg until persona 5
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.
It's the heroin of rpgs. Nothing else compares after you've tried it and you'll spend forever searching for something that gives you that feeling again.
@@TC-lk2ev COUGHS Disco Elysium COUGH
@@zeframmann1641 damn, is it that good? I'll have to check it out
@@zeframmann1641Great game but not even close
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.
The Magus theme hits me like that lol.
I was 9 when this game came out, and I am still terrified of Lavos. That scream should have a trigger warning lol.
When the video opened with it, I knew it was going to be a good one from someone who really appreciated the game.
@@gsgaming6976 λ
Lavos' scream is glued in my mind right beside Skull Kid's, just too memorable and chilling.
This is the first one of these where I’ve got lost enjoying the story, and forgot it was a “Was it any good” video until you asked that at the end.
Cheers for all the effort you put into these.
SAME
I thought we were watching a retelling of the story and game mechanics
Same. I was just listening the story with all my heart, with all the nostalgia it brought.
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.
Yeah the magic was very important the spells can be super good!
I had to walk around the room, clockwise, four times in a perfect circle as per instructions :D
@@ShockStormRPG funny thing is... I seem to recall chrono being the best damage dealer at the very end by far... he had an attack called... luminaire I think? it hit an enemy 4 times, and at that point could have such high attack it did insane damage.
@@banaman7746 confuse
@@banaman7746 Ayla's fist weapon changes at higher levels. It becomes the golden fist iirc at 99 and crits for max damage on regular attacks.
I could never be objective with this game. This was my first rpg ever, I learned how to read to be able to play this game. As cringe as it sounds this game opened up an entire world for me, not just in gaming but beyond that. Hell I've introduced it to my children now. I will always, always love this game
Nothing cringe about enjoying a great game, brother.
I also began learning English simply so I could speak to other players online
The scene of lucca as a child running back and forth in panic as her mom is getting pulled into the machine is heart-wrenching
I don't remember finding the password or maybe i didn't input it in time but i remember being fucking traumatised by that part when i was young O_O
Seriously not to mention the how kino the entire sequence is. Regrowing forest with robo -> epic unique campfire scene -> Lucca mom scene. Fire.
L, A, R, A
It was extra harrowing as a kid, felt even more helpless
To this day, Lucca's story and how it ties up to the game is one of my favorite moment in any RPG,
Up until this point Lucca never did something to help herself, we help other people a lot.
And the detail when you get in present time to see if you succeed, the pose of the mom before she actually walk is so stressing.
I didn't play this game until last year. Without any nostalgia glasses to go on, I can easily say this is one of the best games I've ever played
you're the best game I've ever played
this really is one of the games
@@IdkAkaIdk Mother
I didn't play this game until my mid 20's and yeah its so tough to find any rpg that can top it. Even my other favorite rpg in ff6 has a part or two that i would rather rush past but this one doesn't. 20 hours is short but you would swear it was longer. The characters, The story everything blends to make one of the best rpgs of all time and i wish i could play though it again for the first time.
@@TheAlmostOtaku it is perhaps telling on how the advancements in tech arent really giving us better stuff just shinnier. I can see this game comming out today and as long as they had prettier UI people would still rave about it it had depth in all the places people dont add depth to.
I always say this is my favorite game of all time. I don't know if that is true really, but it is what I feel. I will always remember Chrono Trigger, as a 12 year old, was the first game that made me cry. Not because of any devastating sad moment. I cried at the end of the game, when all of my friends, who I adventured with and grew with said good-bye and left for their own times and lives. It is something that will stick with me forever.
Its like that for me as well. It was truly an experience
i like how they have the battles happen in place instead of transitioning into a generic battle screen
id argue that just makes the whole game as whole look more generic, i dont think either is bad they both have good points even though is CT it looks more generic the spacing system makes up for it but the detail and gameplay styles of other games like Suikoden II benefit a lot from the battle screen style and suits those games
just about the only thing i don't like about this game, is the way the enemies can move around, but your characters can't, which sometimes makes it hard to use those "hit several enemies in a row" abilities effectively.
@@imalittletoxicjustalittle in an rpg when you fight thousand of trash mob enemies it is nice to just get to the fight against unique enemies or bosses sure bring out the theatrics but it gets old having to transition from the overworld to the battle screen over and over again. Chrono Trigger was way ahead of it's time in this regard that many modern JRPGs still haven't caught on yet.
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
u must be clairvoyant.
Yasunori Mitsuda did the majority of the soundtrack, Uematsu filled in a bit when he got sick and did a few songs.
I was gonna make the same comment. Yeah, Uematsu's the more recognizable name, given his legendary work on the _Final Fantasy_ franchise, but using _his_ photo to illustrate the contributions of the composers, on one of the most memorable soundtracks of all time, when he was just a contributor and Mitsuda literally put himself in the hospital by pushing himself so hard in his efforts to prove himself worthy of the opportunity he'd been handed... that just feels all sorts of wrong!
@@alexpage4355 Really? I always felt like Yasunori was the more recognizable of the two, but I guess it's probably because most of the JRPG's I HAVE played, Yasunori did the soundtrack, like with Xenogears.
@@llinium I'd say that he's second to Koji Kondo, Koji is probably the most well know one
@@llinium I'd argue that Mitsuda's Chrono Trigger OST alone has made him more recognizable.
@@jadimich i mean just look up any of the uematsu ff songs vs mitsuda CT songs and you'll see just how much more known uemastu is. Mitsuda is just as amazing if not as ubiquitous
This game is a masterpiece. It's the first that actually made me really like video game music, the zeal kingdom music "corridors of time" is 10/10
Not only is it an amazing song, the way its presented in the game is excellent. The windy snow billowing and blowing outside as you take the teleporter to the sky, and it just starts the mystical wonderful chiming. One of my favorite moments ever.
Peep out a mashup album called Chrono Jigga, Jay z with chrono trigger songs.
@@drointhewind480 That is cringe garbage praying on peoples nostalgia.
@@RanEncounter Thank you.
OC remixes has some great alternate versions of it.
One of the best games of all time, hands down. I first saw it in Nintendo Power and absolutely HAD to have it. It did not disappoint, no matter how many times I replayed it.
Same here, i saw that nintendo power peace and the full page Ayla and i had to have this game. Funnily enough it wasn't even my copy of nintendo power, it was a friends!
You can actually complete the Black Omen a total of 4 times if you start in the future and work backwards. You want to do this because Ayla can actually steal a Prism Helm and a Prism Dress from the hands of Queen Zeal, so if you ask Melchior to give you 3 helms its possible to have a dress for all female characters and a helm for every character on your first playthrough
Once you kill zeal once she does not appear in the other times even if you started in the future. You can still do the black omen but zeal is not at the end.
@@alexboyadjian2758 you can absolutely fight the head and hands again, I've done this countless times
@@alexboyadjian2758 You can not go through Black omen in post 1999 future. You get cut scene were Zeal mocks you for being too late.
You can do "full" black omen run first in 1000, then 600 and then 1200 BC.
However Panel, Aliens, and Tubster (enimes you can charm Speed, Magic & Power tabs from) do not respawn by going back in time. All bosses respawn *IF* you go back in time.
@@whydid666 Bosses don't respawn if you go back in time aside from the Zeal/Mamon/Zeal fights. A good amount of trash spawns do repop, most notably the Power Tab guy after the midway point with the Nus, but the Speed/Magic Tab fights do not.
The only real reason to go through the Black Omen 3 times is to steal 3 sets of prism helms/dresses from Zeal's 3rd form. If you took 3 helms from Melchior during the Rainbow Shell sidequest, you can kit out your whole party (sans Magus) with the strongest helm possible on a single playthrough.
That said, I prefer to run Nova Armor and Haste/Safe Helm combo for the guys, since MDef does eventually cap out even without the +19 from Prism Helm/Moonbeam combo.
But then you have to do Black Omen 4 times...
So about Crono's cat appearing everywhere... if you play all the games available at the fair, you can win a second, female cat for Crono and I believe a cat for some if not all the characters if you have them as leader when you play one of the minigames at the fair, I forget which. You can also get replica dolls for each character after you get Crono's doll and also Poyozo dolls. You can find them in their different time periods from where the character comes from and the Poyozo dolls play the theme music for each character when you interact with them.
After you get all the main prizes in the tent, if you play the games again and win, you get cat food. Get enough cat food, travel a bit, come back to Crono's house and you'll have kittens and depending on how much food you get for the cats, there can be quite a few kittens that go through the portal at the end of the game and THAT is why you see them in different time periods. It wasn't just the one cat. Cool stuff eh?
I played the crap out of this game as a kid and did everything possible, even maxing out all character levels and their stats using the various tabs you get, which after you max them out, you'll see double stars.
oh wtf, I have gotten many of the game endings and replayed the game a lot and I didnt know about this, wow
I got the cats because I used to spend so much time at the Millennial Fair as a kid. Lots of cat food. 😅 I surprised he didn't mention the doll clones. It was fun to see their different poses.
me too, haha
Some bits about the translation and how it was changed:
Magus in Japanese doesn't have a name, he just calls himself "Mao", Demon King
Masamune is a western sword in japanese, Grandleon
Ozzie, Slash and Flea are Vinegar, Soy, Mayo
(Dragonballs creator loves naming characters after food, i think that one was on him)
If I remember something else I'll edit idk
Nice job by the localization team tho in naming them after rock legends. :D
Why is it a nice job? Don't you think that the minor amusement you got from an outdated references is worth less than the original intent?
@@violenceisfun bet you're a real hoot at parties.
@@violenceisfun The "original intent" of just having dumb, useless, throwaway silly names for some brief slapstick humor? Calm down, guy. No artistic vision is being lost in this change.
@@violenceisfun Oh man the original artistic intent of these three minor villains being named matching theme names that don't actually relate to their characters or abilities vs the translation of these three minor villains being named matching theme names that don't actually relate to their characters or abilities
As a game dev this is such a great breakdown of what makes great games, here some bookmarks with key points:
20:40 Every fight progresses the story, rather then increasing a number
1:38:25 Fights that occur in the world should affect it
*Rather than
Also the fact that if you have Magus in the Party when the Masamune levels up he physically reacts like hes in pain. Great stuff for 30 years ago.
i never knew that and i beat this game at least 7 times
The relationship between Magus, Queen Zeal, the Mammon Machine and the fact that the Masamune is PART of the Mammon Machine and thus why it is anathema to him is a wildly brilliant bit of storytelling that I never realized as a kid. Incredible.
@@gumpyflyale2542that’s one of the reasons why its the best game ever made…
The two moments that will always stick out for me are
1: When you rescue Crono with Marle in the party - because she clearly loves the selfless doofus, and that scene is just plain wholesome.
and 2: Frog forgiving himself, and becoming the true hero everyone believes him to be...one of the few scenes in any video game that has made me tear up.
Frog's theme makes me about as misty-eyed as Aerith's, but for totally different reasons.
Can't help but respect a man who can cleave a mountain in half.
Well said.
Even if Lucca's scene about saving her mother was not set up with as much effort as say Glenn's side quest, I could empathize with her struggles the most. It is not love and leadership or revenge, it is simply wanting to see a family member happy and healthy.
Frog cutting the mountain was awesome, and chrono and nadia or marlene when chrono is safe was so amaizing, every part of these game was so good, or Masa and Mune combining to become the sword was so good
My favorite thing about the Zeal fight atop the Black Omen, is that if you bring Magus to the fight, the boss music changes from what it normally is to Magus’ boss theme. That badass music blaring while fighting her was awesome, cause it tells me that Magus isn’t fighting Zeal, she is fighting HIM.
They didn’t have to add such an epic, yet subtle bit of detail, but I’m so glad they did.
His theme is one of the coolest boss themes of all time no doubt
I got chills reading that one - well said!
While the fight itself is Epic bc of the music change (which alone is why CT deserves a remake / dont forget the Black wind 💨 sounds either!!) but if you know the backstory of why Lil Magus probably hates Zeal so much for what she did to Schala.. Now play MY THEME MUSIC 🎶 b!eech
The black wind howls...
Hironobu Sakaguchi asked Ted Woolsey to localize Chrono Trigger for English audiences with a deadline of 30 days. Woolsey was disappointed with this time-budget commenting that he preferred a timeline of about 75 days and that he felt rushed completing the translation. He later commented however that Chrono Trigger was "one of the most satisfying games he ever worked on or played."
this article is one of many things I discover after play this game for the first time last year. The choice of 3 wise men's name, mura and masa, and many others was localization decision, with criminally small amount of time
Woolseyisms et al, the dude is a legend
Ted Woosly is a national treasure and "in my opinion" the best translator from Japanese to English.
The translation is pretty bad honestly. Obviously for 30 days it's great. But Frog isn't supposed to have a medieval knight accent, for example. That's the author adding things he doesn't need to add. And Flea isn't so progressive. This is a classic translation issue from this era.
Japan has a very widely accepted community of what might roughly translate as drag. Gay men performing as women. In America being a gay man was seen as more offensive than just being "confused". This also happened a lot on Sailor Moon and etc of the era. People hailing Flea as an LGBT icon is kind of ironic in that regard. You can also see this with the mama-san at Earth Angel in Yakuza. Basically in many traditional cultures, if you're a gay man you may be killed or forever shunned. But if you say you're a woman, people don't know what to do with you, so you're relatively safe. You'll see many translations by Americans today saying these people/characters are trans or queer. That's not necessarily true at all. They're often gay men who have to choose between death or identifying as a woman. In Islamic societies, for instance, gay men may be stoned. But if one man identifies as a woman they can get married and Allah blesses their relationship. Which would you choose? That's basically what Flea is. And just saying "yaaas flea is trans betch" kinda missed the point.
@KevinJDildonik That's fair to say the translation is technically bad. On the other hand, Frog's "Shakespeare talk" is why I kept him on my party the whole game. The Shaekspearian dialect sells the "knight who's super uptight about everything and takes himself too seriously." way better than modern English ever could, and adds personality that he would lack without the speech. "Lower thine guard and thou'rt allowing the enemy in. Is such a cool line and "My life retain'th it's meaning. We have'th our own will." Perfectly sums up the message of the game. Of course, it's not without its fault Marle's line "it's because we're healthy." is made better in the ds remake with "it's because we have hope." And all alcohol references are replaced with soda pop and "pork soup." which sometimes doesn't make sense, but that's mostly censorship.
@@KevinJDildonik "But Frog isn't supposed to have a medieval knight accent"
And? He's better for it and has tons more personality.
This is an absolutely PHENOMENAL game. The attention to detail and amount of content to be found is insane. It's also an amazing story. I can still remember being left completely dumbfounded when the player character (which was safe to assume Crono is, given we meet him first and he's a clear self-insert for the player) dies midway and the game continues without him. What? This is not supposed to happen! You didn't see a lot of writing choices like this back then. This might really be one of the select few occasions that I would give a game a 10/10, because it's just that awesome.
Josh Strife, not sure if you'll see this but i wanted to say a big thank you. I suffer from chronic migraines and I really appreciate the "flashing light" warning at the start. It just means I get to enjoy your content without the threat of a day long episode. Thanks again and keep it up!
"SCP Games: Were They Any Good" when?
@@noot3427 "Was Tme Crisis any good ? I'm gonna play everything the game got for a whole week to answer"
Go take an aspirin already.
What is this, a crossover episode?
Start taking high dose B1. Or Bentofiamine. This has gotten rid of migraines for a lot of people
One bit about one of the endings, if you fail to rescue Lara in Lucca's time travel back to her childhood, the remains disabled for the rest of the game, like you said, there's no way to go back and try again. So she'll still be in her chair the entire rest of the game. But if you do save her, not only does she get up and walk around the house, but at the Millenial Fair she tries to get Taban to dance with her.
I know at that point she never knew a life of being unable to walk or dance, but it still made me happy to see her doing so after I saved her.
Lara is in the early game as well. You can see her if you go to Lucca's house, she's upstairs resigned to a chair of course. If you also periodically check in with Taban, he gives Lucca custom equipment for free.
It breaks my heart that a few things like Singing Mountain were cut from the game as well!! Maybe Ayla could've had a fleshed out event at the end of the game
This game was peak of my life. From Chrono Trigger to Majora's Mask. I had no worries. Just go to school come him and game. Too young for love. No bills! A good home and food.
It's bittersweet. I listen to the music of Chrono Trigger. It's beautiful. It makes me tear up occasionally. I wouldn't go back to re-live it. Because I love my kids. But I do mourn the old days.
This game was way ahead of its time. The music, the combat, the story! Everything. So much to do.
The video store we went to was $5, 5 days, 5 videos or games. I rented this and Mario RPG Legend of the Seven Stars. I put hundreds of hours into each. Chrono Trigger will always be number 1 to me. For where I was in life and how happy I was.
I hear you brother and feel the same.
Same here, this, early FF games, dragon quest IV on NES, secret of mana, illusion of gaia. Shining force on sega...... man, i miss these days so much.
My experience as well! Well said. Don't need to go back, but I can hear any song from this and instantly see my basement set up that claimed so many hours with this game.
Chrono Trigger to Majora's Mask is a good place to be gaming-wise. I still staunchly believe Chrono Trigger is the best turn-based RPG ever made, and that Majora's Mask is the best Legend of Zelda game ever made.
Baby boy... You don't know pain..... Yet.....
One thing you forgot to mention:
If you bring Magus to the fight against Queen Zeal, he will have an interesting conversation with her. And just before the fight begins, *his* boss theme will replace the standard boss theme, making the whole battle even more epic.
I'm surprised that no video game out there does that anymore.
It gives him closure he doesn't know he needs.
Somewhat related note, if you fight Magus on the cliffside with Frog in the party, Frog will insist on a 1v1 battle and have a dramatic line if he wins.
There are unique bits for bringing certain characters to certain moments in the game, and he only covers a tiny few. Another well known one is Marle embracing Crono if she's in the party when he's rescued.
It's rare,ya. The only similar thing I can think of is tales if the abyss. If you collect all the hymns and fight using Luke and tear. (Which most people would cuz mc+main healer) you'd get an extended boss fight were the music changes to be the extended combination of all the songs collected.
@@InternetHydra Very true! Ever taken Magus along when you repair Cyrus’s grave where Masa and Mune reappear to make the final form of the Masamume? Magus will turn away and pull his cape over his face when they appear.
I always have Marle there when I rescue Crono at death peak. Their reunion makes me tear up every time. Also it feels thematically appropriate to have her save him after he saved her early in the story.
Yes! This is actually a very cool thing to remember if you ever replay, new game + or otherwise. You can bring different characters along for different scenes throughout the game, and you can see how each of them react. Outside of parts where certain characters are 'locked in', they all have some unique dialog and interactions. It's one of those small but beautiful touches.
@@t3hsilarn It's actually one of my least favorite parts about JRPGs. I'm not big on replaying a game that takes 20+ hours to beat, and when I like all the characters, I always get that FOMO wanting to see all of their personalities shine in the same playthrough. It's why I appreciate it when some games have all the party members show up and you're just limited on choice exclusively in combat.
@THEREALTYREESNEED Oh thanks for making me aware what generation I was born in, guy I don't know. Clearly every single person who grew up in the 80s likes exactly the same thing in their video games.
@@GruppeSechs I'd recommend just ditching that FOMO. It's a bad habit that only makes you unhappy in life.
@@jdb101585 Eh, only really have it in games where I'm dumping 40+ hours of mylife into a single game and not really feeling like replaying it.
I wish they would do a remaster of this for switch. R.I.P Akira Toriyama. 😢
A Remaster or Remake for modern consoles would be neat, if it's a Remake i think they should do it dragon quest 11 style
There's one for mobile
@@spoopyd.8910 Let phones phone & consoles game. Square Enix needs to stop putting shit on mobile
@@spoopyd.8910 I know, thanks. I am not into gaming on a phone
How abt ds?
I'm surprised at how little this review focused on the soundtrack. Chrono Trigger's OST is one of the GOATs and really helps set the mood. Each character gets their own theme and Frog's theme triumphantly kicks in when he slices the mountain open with the Masamune.
i had burned it to a cd so i could drive around and listen to it in my car.
It would be 16 h long if it covered every great thing about this game and at this point it would be better to finish the game instead of watching the review ;d
i even squeezed a few soundtracks to my wedding playlist. heh
Glenn slicing the mountain in half was the most badass moment in SNES Gaming at that point. It even made a skybeam
The truth is few people really put so much importance on the soundtrack and many of those who do are simply pretending because they think it makes them appear more cultured
It's gonna be him yelling YES! For like two hours. Awesome!
Damn, you beat me to it lol.
Had the same thought
Lol I thought too
Lmao
Love this series
What I love most about Chrono Trigger is that pretty much every part of it up to the battle with Magus is basically a stealth tutorial for how the game works. Every boss fight tells you something new about the game's mechanics and how to deal with future bosses, with Magus being essentially your final exam. I wish more games would work this way.
Games are supposed to be fun, not exams. Wtf lol!!!
@@jeremybrimmer1990 No. They were made fun for normies. Real games are mental and endurance tests that teach you how to play. Doom WADs like Myhouse illustrate what is missing today. Everything is easy. FF4 was so hard in Japan that they released an easier version. That game was great, nearly every encounter could be a wipe.
@@jeremybrimmer1990games that teach you organically are the funnest games ever. The fuck are you on about?
@@jeremybrimmer1990 Yeah, and what's more fun than doing the _exact_ same thing over, and over, and over... zzzz...
@@JoshuaKevinPerry "normies" lol there you go then
Lavos is the most lovecraftian entity i can think of in any game. Also lavos is only one and it makes spawns, meaning Lavos is a species and there is more of it out in space
Uhhh, try Bloodborne...?
I was thinking just that, because what is more "cosmic horror" than knowing there's an entire species of immortal, nigh-omnipotent planetary parasites out there in the vast, dark reaches of space?
@@AKPiratePrince Nothing lovecraftian abouot hitting a cosmic horror with a stick 1000 times until they die lol.
Obviously there are many games inspired by lovecraft, but just like Bloodborne, they don't actually convey the feelings of cosmic dread.
@AKPiratePrince Bloodborne is definitely lovecraft inspired gothic horror and would definitely be considered an homage to Lovecraft. But they are more Big Baddies that you would take down like Kratos killing the gods.
Lavos is a cosmic entity dropped down to the center of earth feeding on it and waiting millions of years before emerging once more. That in itself is classic lovecraftian that puts it on par with Bloodborne entities. What makes it surpass bloodborne as lovecraftian is the existential dread Lavos caused. Is it from Lavos that all life and magic owed its existence, permitted to live like a farmer breeding cattles to slaughter? Remember lovecraftian doesnt just mean it comes straight out of the Necronomicon. Cosmic horror and existential dread must go hand in hand for an entity to be truly lovecraftian.
@@cptKamina The biggest misconception about "Lovecraftian" is that the humans never win. Go read The Dunwich Horror. It's VERY rare, but the humans can catch Ws for the most Lovecratian reason of them all. Just as the uncaring universe doesn't side with humanity, it also doesn't side with even the Outer Gods. Make of that what you will.
The name Crono is also "kuro no" - literally "of black" in Japanese. The final dungeon, the Black Omen, is called _kuro no yume_ in Japanese, rendered as 'dream of black', but the context encourages you to reinterpret it as _dream of time._
My personal favorite team is crono, ayla, and frog - great physical attack, three of the four magic types, an aoe heal that costs next to nothing, and ayla can steal items from enemies.
Arris dome is supposed to be Alice dome - because in Japanese, the factory dungeon after the jet bike race is wonderland factory.
In the Japanese version, masa and mune are Gran and Leon, the sword is Grandlion, they changed it to masamune for brand synergy.
Lucca gets stone drunk at Ayla's party and wakes up hung over.
In Japan, Slash, Flea, and Ozzy are Soy-sauce, Mayonnaise, and Vinegar, one of toriyama akira's classic food puns. Ozzy/Vinger was being absolutely literal when he said there are 100 monsters in the castle - I know, I've counted! Also... is mayonnaise a gender? Mayonnaise is genderfluid.
The magical kingdom of Zeal is a paragon of the false promises of evil gods in Japanese culture - a parasite promising prosperity but only delivering exploitation. "Where all your dreams come true - but is it worth the price?"
Apparently the translation team thought the name 'Sara', which literally means _princess,_ wasn't interesting enough for the princess of a magical fantasy empire?
The seal on the sealed doors and chests is the mammon machine (majinki - 'magic god vessel' or 'demon god vessel')
Lavos' signature attack is called _it rains down from the heavens and destroys the world_ in Japan.
Magus is maou, literally demon king. It's not a name, it's a title - for those who deserve to be feared.
The Geno dome's middle name is 'ci'.
You're supposed to go through the black dream three times (present, dark ages, ice age, in that order), where you can steal prism helms and prism dresses from Queen Zeal all three times.
Grandlion drains the magic from the demon god vessel because that's literally what Grandlion was made for - using the same dreamstone the vessel uses to draw magic from Lavos to siphon it out of the vessel. It's the same reason Grandlion reduces Magus' defense. The true dreams of the dream stone overcome Lavos' false promises.
Lavos' outer core is Cell. Also NecroPsaro. Toriyama has used the same bbeg three times - and the second time, his editor told him no one would take it seriously. _Wanna bet?_
I love the running gag with the cats.
As ProJared said: "like a clock without hands - _timeless."_
Awesome and entertaining info
@@Omnar_Goldmane_RGLH (I kind of love that my comment mostly ended up being translation notes)
@notoriouswhitemoth I own every version of chrono trigger, one of my favorite games of all time, tough to call my favorite FF ( 4,7 or tactics ) I wish they brought more of my favorite child hood games to pc, nes/snes had some of the best rpgs, but alot of innovation happened in ps1 and 2, so many good odd balls out there. Thanks for your informative comment, I appreciate it.
Congrats, you have the rare distinction of telling me some things I did not know about my favorite game of all time
In the lategame you can give Robo a haste helm with so many speed boosters that he's at 24 speed instead of 6. His magic stat-ratio on his solo-tech aoe heal is massive, and when magic tab spammed, heals for 550~ to the whole party as a solo tech. Then Magus casts magic resist up on all members while everyone stacks physical defense and haste helm (other than Magus who is only 12 speed, not 24). Chrono mash physical tech with lategame super weapon, Magus mash elemental targeting, Robo mash heals.
No wonder, the absolute GOATS of all time came together to create a love letter to JRPG's.
You'll never see this quality ever again.
You missed a nice detail about the cave that leads to the Magus Castle. If you enter it without unlocking magic for Frog, the first time you win a fight where you casted a spell, it will play a short cutscene where Frog is surprised you can use it and whoever is the third party member will suggest visiting Spekkio.
Spekkio!! Thats his name 😊!! Yeah getting all forms is kinda tough.. man I wanna replay it now too
y'know, I never even thought about unlocking magic for frog before going in there. I always thought you had to see that cutscene to learn magic for some reason.
I still remember this detail, How is this possible? lol
RIP Toriyama. The greatest contributor to video gaming
Was it any good? Damn right it was. A masterpiece ahead of its time.
It's a masterpiece, but I'd say it was precisely of its time. There was plenty of innovation happening in games in the SNES, N64, and Gamecube eras but things really stagnated in the early 2000's. Luckily indie development has become easy enough that tons of great new stuff has come out in the past 10 years or so again.
@@whatdothlife4660I think it C.C was a game ahead of so many future games, this s why it is still considered a masterpiece. It had it almost all and whatever came in the next decade was just borrowing things from C.C or other classics
crono trigger ans secret of mana....square soft and enix was fine but everything they have done is just mehhhh like the long awaited remake of FF7
@@TheWorsey indeed, for me secret of mana 3 and crono trigger, were the few JPRG, thati have play and enjoy playing from beggining to end
When you said Frog out of ten I cried briefly but deeply. Frog is all some of us ever want to be.
yurafag
@@cl8804 Gotta love how "yurafag" is translated as "uterus"
@@abzhuofficial#wombpride
This reply chain was a goddamn rollercoaster.
Dont worry most of you are lol
God I played this game 20 years ago, and despite having played hundreds of games since then, this has remained my #1 pick for best game of all time. The emotions and feeling I felt as a young teenager and aspiring writer after I finished this game was overwhelming. And to this day, I still can't listen to the soundtrack "To Far Away Times" without smiling.
same as me , the best game of all time.
I got it for my 3DS. I still do a playthrough now and then. (has a game plus mode) It's like reading a old and favorite book.
I have listened to "far away times" during some of the worst times of my life. 2:40, at the drop, has brought me to tears, and saved me from so many moments of pain. It reminds me of a time in my life that was simple and happy, when i played the best rpg/game of all time.
20 hours? My first playthrough was like 70!
That aside... this video rem8nded me how much I love this game. It's as you said, CT set a bar so high tuat it's still up there today, it's got so much gameplay and narrative depth; some of the moments came back to me as you narrated them, and I got emotional again just thinking about them. The characters stuck with me. And damn, it's been yearsand I still haven't seen all the endings!
PS: I will always ship Lucca and Crono.
When he says 20 hours he means: 20 hours of progressive gameplay. Not 20 hours of ACTUAL gameplay. When you save it adds the play time to the existing saved time to create a new saved time, BUT if you decide to stop playing without saving (to go back because you made a mistake or were "chasing a red herring" or even reload from a save even further back in the game) THEN you just lost that entire last session. It doesn't add time to the save BUT you still just wasted a bunch of real time.
Ya. I always feel odd at "jrpg is only 20hrs" considering i find 60 my comfort zone
@@terminallygray When it comes to Chrono Trigger, the word "waste" is not really fitting but you are correct in the technical aspects.
@@freedomextremist7215 Anytime you spend time on something and it doesn't contribute to your goal (even if it's simple entertainment) then, it's a "waste of time". Some people like to waste time. I have even lost many hours watching the same episode of some program over again. My point is that these save game files do not accurately keep track of how much TOTAL time that a player spends playing. Just how much time the player added to the total since they last reloaded that saved game the very last time they started over. What happens with the time spent (without saving) is lost and NOT added to the grand total. It may entertain the player; it may add additional information previously unknown, it may even be another player entertaining themselves by "messing around" with somebody else's saved game however, that time is wasted because it doesn't add to progress in the game.
This is one of those times where when people say its a masterpiece, they are not in fact over-hyping it.
Truly brilliant, and it will forever remain among my personal favorites.
It came out when I was at that age that girls entered the picture and I kind of left video games to the side for a while. Now that I'm older, I gave it a go a couple of years back. Pretty good, I'd say. Hard to give it too much praise nowadays, but it was worth playing. I feel like for the time I would have given it a much higher ranking though.
@@stephenthomas1492 Chrono trigger was responsible for a lot of the systems we have today including the ATB system. Story is top notch, characters are top notch and honestly there's really nothing i can say bad about it. Hell you can beat the game without the main character without realizing you could have saved him. Love it.
@@stephenthomas1492"Hard to give it too much praise nowadays"
Care to expand on this? Imo the art, music, themes, and gameplay are timeless, and hold up in comparison to modern rpg's
@ZachM2020 really though. I enjoyed the game so much more as an adult.
@@charlesdunn5215actually it was ff4 that introduced the atb system but yeah you’re mostly right.
1:29:11 Thought I'd mention. "In ancient Roman religion and myth, Janus is the god of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages, frames, and endings."
I love all the mythological references in this game. Also, amazing video Josh!
Just a side note about the beginning when you talk about the composer, there's the picture of Nobuo Uematsu, but the music was mainly composed Yasunori Mitsuda. It was his first gig at Square as a composer, after doing sound effects for other games for the company. He was overwhelmed though, that's why Nobuo Uematsu also composed a few tracks.
The Kingdom of Zeal will FOREVER have a place in my heart. As a child, it was the first time the idea of a floating city was ever shown to me, and it shaped me and made me fall in love with high fantasy. As a result, my adolescent and teenage years were spent playing fantasy JRPG's. The music of Zeal is my favorite song from Chrono Trigger and hearing the orchestral version still gets me misty eyed. I hope when I die, the afterlife is a idealized version of the city in the clouds..
Chrono Trigger, The Secret of Mana, and Final Fantasy IV have always been my favorite game RPGS. I remember spending so much time in my youth playing those games while unlocking all their secrets. Truly classics of an era and the SNES console. All with great story telling, gameplay, and timeless enjoyment.
Ditto!
All FFs from 4 to 6 were fantastic
100%, I don't see The Secret of Mana mentioned as often as the other two, but it deserves to be mentioned. These are the three games that made Super Nintendo for me. Between these and Shining Force 1 and 2 on the Genesis the era was just so awesome for RPG's.
@@donalddavis7423 I did Phantasy Star for the Genesis. The generational RPG of magic vs sci fi families was a fun and interesting concept for me.
1:51:26 Technically, you do see Lara (Lucca’s mother) in the original timeline. She is sitting upstairs in her home, lamenting the fact that “Lucca and Taban only care about their silly toys.” If you fail to prevent the accident, it changes the ending slightly. (Lara will be sitting with Taban instead of wanting to dance with him.)
Also if you manage to save her mom and return to that same room upstairs, you will find her sitting at the same place but only this time she will stand up and start walking. My personal favorite moment in the game.
This exact moment was the first time I was brought to tears by a game. Just the memory of it still chokes me up.
@@vendretyvangarde7383 yes me too. On the first play thru I didn't know what was about to happen and I watched Lara get crushed by the machine. It was horribly traumatic.
Many years later I played thru the game again only half remembering it when suddenly I realized what was about to happen.. 'F this! There is no way I'm letting this happen again! Not on my watch! ". Paused the game, looked on the internet how to stop the machine, then burst into tears that I'd healed an old psychological wound I forgotten about. Seeing Lara on her feet I've never felt such a burden lifted off my mind from a game before.
1:51:34 you can see lucca's mother in the game at any time, its just that you need to go to lucca's house to talk to her, she is in her room. you can even meet her at the start of the game before even meeting marle.
It's amazing how Toriyama made artworks for nearly every item, armor and weapon in this game as well as every major character. You can see these graphics in chrono fandom wiki. There are helmets, armors, robes, helmets, rings and even items like Flea's bustier or Ozzie pants (which is a headgear btw). So much effort put into this game.
On one hand, I have to credit this video with renewing my appreciation for this game. It's always been one of my favorite RPGs, but I definitely haven't stopped to really acknowledge all the finer details of its design in a very long time. I'm very grateful for that.
On the other hand... Man, not taking Magus into the Black Omen is a cardinal sin. The whole showdown with Zeal hits so much better if he's in the party, for obvious reasons.
I love that bringing Magus switches the battle theme to his theme
@@darthgamer9861Yeah, I was a bit bummed that he didn’t mention that. Magus’ theme playing when battling against Zeal is just the cherry on top:
Magus’ theme first plays when you fight him. He is clearly the villain at that time and his epic theme fits is perfectly.
But now, with a new resolve, his theme makes a come back and you can feel the changes. It’s not an evil boss theme, it’s one of redemption. To make this right.
You always bring Magus to the Black Omen, and you always bring Marle to revive Crono. These aren't optional!
@@CantFaketheFunk I hadn't thought about that one but yeah, that's also pretty important.
I mean, I almost never actually use Magus and always have Frog end his story lol
Chrono Trigger will always be in my memory as the best rpg game I've ever been blessed to play along with Super Mario RPG. That was the golden age of gaming, where quality mattered and some of the best games to ever exist were created.
Games then, were an experience, rather than being made to make money. I've found quite few indie games that I love almost as much of some of these old ones. There's still some amazing games that give quality these days.
Mario RPG was EPIC
omg, i played games back in the day when they meant something, todays music is awful, kids just dont get it.
Hearing Josh Strife not raise his voice once in a review and speaking his conclusion in a calm but satisfied-sounding tone is something I haven't experienced before. This was pretty damn special.
Even Crono’s mother acknowledges the Black Omen as a normal everyday thing. It’s such a freaky concept, with everyone considering it normal with only the player and the main cast knowing otherwise. Imagine waking up one day and seeing an ominous floating structure in the sky, yet everyone you ask just says it’s always been there.
Over 2 hours of Chrono Trigger commentary?! I'm here for it.
How long did this take you to script, though? This seems like an IMMENSE amount of work - and it's definitely noticed and appreciated.
Just when I was thinking he is getting "lazy" with the few recent "Was it good" videos, presenting pretty short and arcadishgames, he releases this bomb.
As you said, this is impressive work.
And a very well-written script at that.
I mean, if you played it you know how much work playing through the whole thing is, especially in a 100% run xDD
Another cool detail is in the name of the Mammon Machine. Mammon is the name of the demon who rules over the Greed circle of hell, so you could called it the "Greed Machine" which is appropriate cause its sole purpose was for Queen Zeal to achieve her ultimate Goal: Immortality; Which she would sacrifice anything to attain.
Pu 😁 mk nnh khil😊
Mammon is also the ancient term for material wealth.
@@DAMusic-qu2ecthe golden calf
lol I like how you saved Crono with the least emotionally impacted party possible.
I always thought it was a nice touch that if you have Marle in the party when you save Crono, it adds a lot of impact to the scene.
I know right?! When I do it it go through with Marle in my party because she has an absolute breakdown and her relief when he comes back is palpable. When I tried to explain to my wife about why I love this game so much I get misty eyed talking about his rebirth scene…all based on Marle’s pain and relief when she thought the egg didn’t work, then recounting what they did to bring him back. Gorram I love this game.
I was screaming at the screen. Josh is a monster for not bringing Marle or Lucca.
Chrono Trigger is as close to perfection as I have experienced in a video game. The pacing, the difficulty, the puzzle like bosses that make grinding meaningless, the polish, the story, the characters, the battle system with the variety of combined attacks, all an absolute master class. Kinda sad that gaming peaked in 1995.
It aged insanely well. 16-bit graphics tend to age better compared to early 3D graphics, and the battle system still holds up and doesn't feel dated. The multiple endings also give it a lot of good replay value.
Awesome video, friend. I have never played this game before or any JRPG. I was born in 94 in Nigeria and only got into PC gaming when I built my first rig in 2021. Retro games like this really appeal to me cause of how so many folks speak of their great stories, characters and influence on gaming. Looking forward to playing it myself after I am done with summer school in college😊👍
CT is an amazing game, a total must play! Have fun on your new journey through gaming!
oh boy. if this is your first game, prepare for a journey.
Good luck friend. I would say, the SNES, and PS1 era of games were the most unique and fun. I'm absolutely biased because I grew up with them, but many of these early games are direct influences to popular franchises now.
27:30 I always loved how Lucca took her hat off when she was sleeping.
Edit: The Masamune is called Grandleon （グランドリオン）, with the brother spirits being Gran and Leon. In the Japanese game, Crono wields katanas, who all receive Japanese names, while Frog uses western swords, who all receive western names. Changing Frog's legendary sword's name from Grandleon to Masamune breaks that motif they have.
TBH I think having the names flipped for a western audience is a nice bit of localization. It keeps the motif of the 'local' hero having the local names, while the 'exotic' hero of legend having foreign names for their weapons.
Yes, has always been confused by why does the western sword has a Japanese name.
@@ハク-q6e1j the only reason why I disagree is that Crono is a red head.
But I see where you coming from.
@@leadpaintchips9461 I disagree with that. The original developers had an idea in mind of what they wanted the mythos of their world to be, what they wanted the players to experience. When those names get changed, the whole thought process behind them is undermined.
Besides, it's Crono who's the outlier here, not Frog. Frog's story is the traditional hero knight tale, with a kidnapped princess rescued by the valiant knight who marches towards the Demon Lord's castle in the fateful fight to save humanity (if this wasn't clear enough, Magus' name in Japanese is 魔王/maou, literally "Demon Lord". They had to change his name because of character limitation, I do not blame the localization team for that one). It's a very well known and heavily utilized to this day tale in Japan, that has always used medieval Europe style, which is exactly what Guardia 600 A.D.
On the other hand, Crono is the only character in the entire game that has an Eastern motif. He wears clothes that resemble a martial artist's gi a uses katana for combat in a land that has nothing to do with Eastern culture in a world where said is never portrayed. Crono was made to be the audience surrogate, the character you are meant to project yourself onto and the game was made by Japanese developers for a Japanese audience, meaning Crono was meant to be the Japanese player bearing their tradition in this medieval European world.
Every character uses European weapons - crossbows, guns, sickles and swords. Even Robo and Ayla use their fists instead of weapons that would be expected of their time period. Crono is the only character that uses a weapon that would not have been found in an European setting, and all of his katanas have a Japanese name, even the ones that use Katakana in their names thanks to their origins (such as the Mammoth Tusk/マンモスの剣 or Slasher/ソイソーとう).
By calling the Gandleon "Masamune", the localizers just disregarded the worldbuilding of Chrono Trigger.
Sienna's (Chained Echoes) appearance/weapon/fighting style comes to mind, reading these comments.
I was 14 when this game came out and I must've played it through a half-dozen times in the first few months I had it. The game has so much soul, you can feel it in every moment and every interaction. I wouldn't be surprised if, seventy-two years from now, people still consider it a seminal moment in the evolution of a medium.
Haha, me too. Was a great moment in video games.
This was a treat to watch Josh, I didn't even notice this video is over two hours long.
If you think about it, Marle receiving her ultimate weapon, the Valkyr, on Frog's quest, makes perfect sense.
Who would have taken Cyrus' remains back to his estate to be buried? The person he spent his whole life guarding... Queen Leene.
Cyrus more then likely gave the Queen the weapon to defend herself, as she likely had the same spirit of adventure as her decendant, Marle. This shows that Cyrus was her friend, that he listened to her desires, and possibly the two of them went on clandestine adventures together to take down mages and monsters, without the knowledge of the rest of her family. And, when he died, she realized her adventuring days were over, as that part of her life ended with his death, and she left her weapon in his tomb as a sign of their friendship together.
Frog already had his ultimate weapon. Marle simply received hers from family and destiny, as a result and consequence.
That make sense to me!
thats the spirit boys, now REACH
Marle's initial story is a crazy paradox if you think about it. She ends up back in time and erases her own existence, but then that means she never could have traveled back in time to undo her own existence in the first place. But also, since she erased her own existence, they would think the queen was missing again and keep searching for her (and maybe that is what happened but they never found her this time) but Glenn was still looking for her and probably was going to find her, so maybe the Queen would have been saved anyway and Marle wouldn't have stopped existing... and then your nose starts to bleed
@@Onikage55 I like to think that there's a lag of a few "days" between events changing and the real timeline "correcting", as well as the changes in the timeline not changing the memories of those who have jumped through time. I think Magus might slightly disprove that theory, since he was able to "foretell" of your coming in 12,000BC, but that could also just be a plot hole ...
@@Pickleton There's more evidence of this "lag" as it were during the Rainbow Shell arc, where for us the Rainbow Shell being recovered by the kingdom in 600AD was just a few minutes ago, and Marle's dad has NO CLUE what the hell is going on even though he should have knowledge 400 years in advance.
I am so happy you covered this masterpiece of a game. I discovered this gem years ago without ever having heard of it and I was completely sucked in by the plot. From the time travel hook, to the awesome characters, the animation, the music, the story. Every aspect was perfectly crafted. My favorite moment of the whole game was Lucca's experience with the red gate. That was so traumatic I'm not ashamed I save scummed to get the proper resolution. The other highlight is the whole assault on Magus' castle. It really built up to it and you felt teh dread walking into that room when the fires lit up. Just watching you go through the game brought back so many wonderful and fond memories. It was one of the highlights of my youth. I've always hoped to see the spirit of the story carried on and even to emulate it. Even though it was two hours, I'm just grateful to see the memory of the game kept alive.
If you're looking for other classic RPGS from the SNES era, I'd love to hear your take on Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Hidden Stars. That was another formative game for me.
I never got to play this as a child, was too young. But fuck me, just watching a video about it made me teary eyed. What an incredible piece of art
I remember running into the ghosting issue of "having to press 3 keys on a keyboard" issue in this game as a kid. Though that was because I was using a cheap keyboard. These days, most keyboards have anti-ghosting measures and you can press as many keys as needed because loads of games need you to press three keys at once occasionally.
Yep
This. My keyboard isn't even a very expensive one and it can accept as many simultaneous keypresses as i could possibly want.
yeah i heard him say that and was like wtf?
I remember playing Final Fantasy 3 (6 in Japan) and thinking there would never be a better RPG on the SNES. Then Chrono Trigger came out and I was blown away. The sprites were so much larger and more detailed than anything else at the time. The music was phenomenal, I own and still listen to the orchestral arangements. And the story. Damn, just damn. I can't hear Frogs theme without getting ASMR tingles down my spine. Everything in the story fits together so well and with so many interconections and motivations thats its honestly one of the best stories ever told. Its a game that will always be entertaining to go back to again and again, even after you've unlocked all the endings. In a way I'm glad there never was a direct sequel to Chrono Trigger. So many games devs these days rush out crap sequels every year that do nothing to add to a series other than another cash grab. Squaresoft, now Squeenix, has never gone back to Chrono Trigger and it's world and characters and as much as I would love to go back, you can't force lightning to strike twice. The odds are good no sequel could compare to the original, and I am OK with that.
Very true. Some gems should not be made into a series. Although, I wouldn't say no to a FF VII style current-gen remake. It could be a fun and alternate way of experiencing the story. But yeah, we don't need sequels to CT.
@@TG-ge1oh Not a fan of the changes in the new FF7?
Terranigma and Trials of mana are also great Snes RPGs.
I never got the SNES version of the game - just never saw a copy in a store at the time. I instead found the Playstation version of it and some of the Final Fantasy games some time in the late 2000s, and bought it then, thinking "Well, I heard this was a pretty good game but who knows how it stands up over a decade later."
I then played it and was absolutely blown away by how amazingly good it was. It immediately flew to my list of all-time favorites and has remained there ever since.
@@TG-ge1oh Chrono Cross is not that bad as you make it to be...
I've played Chrono Trigger for days, weeks, months. Replayed it countless times. Some following breakthrough guides. Most of what I've seen in this video was new to me.
The side quests for each character, the ultimate weapons, the optional endings...
Chrono Trigger is light-years ahead of ANYTHING I've played. 28 years later and I'm still amazed by the depth it has. Trully a masterpiece.
And your 2 hour long video? It has been a while since I paid attention to a youtube video without multitasking. I've sat through the 134 minutes with my eyes locked to the screen. Thank you for this.
Games still haven't caught up to Chrono Trigger, and I doubt they will in my lifetime.
As one who was a kid from the ‘90’s I can affirm that it definitely was good. The point that it took a grown adult only 20 hours is fair, but for a kid playing through, not necessarily figuring everything out right away, this game felt absolutely massive. I try to judge games not just by how I feel about them as an adult, but by how I felt or would have felt about them as a middle school kid. Chrono Trigger and FF6 are for me the undisputed champions of that season of life in the ‘90’s.
If I recall, you can actually prevent that last end bit of the cat running away into the portal. At the faire in one of the side games (I think the tent of horrors that you get the Cronos clone from), one of the rewards is cat food. If you never actually get this, your cat runs away because you forgot to feed it. If you DO get the item, it won't run away at the end.
Follow up to that, if you keep getting more and more cat food then you will also acquire more and more cats. I'm not sure if there is a limit but I stopped at around 20 cats cluttering up the house. That being said, I still had the cats enter the portal at the end. And they all do, though the mother still seems to only be after the one.
There are some variations that Josh didn't show. If you use the Epoch to crash into Lavos, instead of the bucket or Ocean Palace, you will still go to the Moonlight Festival. Crono's cat and mom won't end up going into the portal and afterwards you will be called to the bell tower by the King to hang up a bell carrying Marle's name (Nadia's Bell, to replace Leene's Bell).
The bell has balloons tied to it which Marle grabs hold off and they take her into the air. Crono quickly jumps up to save her grabbing hold of the balloons... and then they both float upwards into the starlit night sky holding each other.
That ending is so beautiful and calming with Marle and Crono finally getting some time to just be alone with each other and lets you think back on your adventure. It's my favorite ending.
@@himme8471 This is the canonical ending in my heart.
@@thegrossmeyer The cats multiplying through the magic of time paradox and conquering the universe is my canonical ending. :3
Aye, Wutelgi.
The fact that Ayla and Kino are the ancestors of Guardia making her Marle's (insert all the greats here) grandparents is a nice touch of how all of the game is connected, damn i love this game
tbf on that timescale they're ancestral to every human alive
@@caffetiel I bet she and Kini had many, MANY babies.
I know what I would in Kino's place....
And how Doan in the future is also a descendant of Marle (and a certain spiky haired boy)
I loved Chrono Trigger so much as a kid. My wife and I played a rendition of "To Far Away Times" as the recessional song at our wedding.
to far away times best song ever. you could also play marles theme at a wedding really good song
There was a guy who modded chrono trigger for a proposal
Same here!! That's awesome
@@RollsChaotic You also played that song as a major part of your wedding??? Did we just become best friends!?
@@misharumkittum I don't think we have a choice. It was our recessional song too!
The idea that comes to mind when I think about this game is *craftsmanship.*
One of the things that I distinctly remember is that, when replaying it, I could recall every single enemy encounter. Enemy composition and numbers, how they enter the area, and so on. The moment I entered an area I could tell the exact moment when I would encounter enemies. Even the trash mob encounters were created with utmost care and each was unique. And that level of care and craftsmanship was put into the entire game in a way that is incredibly rare for even the best products.
Ok, one correction: Your choice with the Rainbow Shell is a Prism Dress, an extremely powerful armor, not a weapon. The Prism Dress is probably the best armor in the game, available only to females. It would be a great piece of equipment for Marle because, as the party healer, her survivability is more important than damage output. So, her best piece of equipment is tied to her own personal quest, it's just not a weapon.
good point, and that also makes a bit of a subversion of common JRPG tropes.
There's a bit of a game knowledge thing here, but the best choice is the helms. Zeal's hands can both be stolen from and one has a prism dress, and the other a prism helm. You can fight Zeal 3 times if you start at 1000ad, then go back to 600 and 12000. So doing this you end up with 3 dresses and 6 helms
But if Marle's role is to heal, couldn't you say her armor is her weapon?
OR you could throw that on Ayla and have her be the most badass boss ever
@@Varangian_af_Scaniae ... no? she literally has a weapon slot. she can equip weapons. armor is not a weapon.
1:27:42
to help you out about the importance of Janus;
Janus had a very important job in the ancient Roman world. All Roman gods had a job to do, but Janus was the Roman god of the threadhold of a doorway or gate. His job was to keep evil spirits out of homes, buildings, shrines, schools, courtyards, and wherever there was a doorway or gate.
This game is layered with religion of all kinds.
Thanks for covering one of my all time favorite games!
i read Janus as Jesus the entire post
His name was Mao in Japan.
As you come to your conclusion, and say that there Have to be faults to find:
You missed a bit.
In New Game Plus mode, you can use the right hand teleporter at the faire to fight Lavos almost as soon as the game begins.
If you win, you'll get the dev room ending from if you beat Lavos when you were supposed to lose to him. But if you talk to Everyone, you're told you'll be given the credits in a form that's suitable for someone who beat the final boss That early in the game. And then the text blurs across the screen in about 2 seconds.
Why is this a fault? I think is a cheeky nod/joke from developers about how fast you beat the game, so you get the credits (not credit as in adoration) in a suitably fast way
The dev room ending actually gets mentioned! I'd have to check the time stamp, but it certainly wasn't missing from the review - well, except for the credits part.
@@Battlefoxx98 and the fact that you can fight Lavos that early.
@@Battlefoxx98 The dev ending is mentioned if accessed via surviving the scripted party wipe, not the solo-as-Crono madness.
@@billionai4871 It's not a fault of the ending itself, it's a fault that the video forgot to mention how early you can really beat lavos
And to think that after around 20 years after I played it, I still break crying when JSH talks about the bigger, emotional moments as a 30+ yr old man with mortgage and taxes and everything. I think nothing will ever take the top1 ever made game spot for me from the chrono trigger
Legend. What a treat to have experienced this game, right
Lavos's screech and FF6's Kefka laugh are highlights of the snes era of sound effects.
Add on the Breath of Fire lightning strike!
Norstein Bekkler actually used Kefkas laugh too. They both in CT
Kefka's laugh still angers me 30 yrs later
@@joe_schmoe_420 ro-ho-ho-ho *laughs in sprite*
Add the cry of the baby Metroid to the list, and we're golden.
This was an insanely good commentary, even by JSH standars. Would love to see a Blue Dragon, 'was it good'. I think it's a very under rated game.
1:41:41 The red mail, red vest, and Taban armors for Lucca also make this fight pretty trivial as Taban gear also resists fire and the vest/mail absorb fire damage
The game was referred to as made by a "dream team" and I really couldn't agree more. Hironobu Sakaguchi during Square's prime. Yuji Horii (of Dragon Quest fame), and Akira Toriyama for the art direction. The soundtrack worked with Yasunori Mitsuda and Nobuo Uematsu.
You had tons of industry veterans, programmers, and writers all coming together in a perfect storm to create a pretty damn good game. One of my personal favorites of my childhood and one that still invokes emotional responses.
"The Future Refused To Change" still gives me goosebumps