Chrono Trigger is an RPG that every RPG enthusiast should play. Players take control of the titular character, Crono, as he makes his way through time with his allies to try and stop an evil force from undoing existence.
Full Review
Chrono Trigger Review
By, Jim Freedan
Backdrop
.hack Part 1 Infection (Dot Hack) begins with a bang. Something disastrous happens to your character‘s real world friend, while innocently playing a 20 million-subscriber base, wildly popular online RPG game (MMORPG), The World. To unravel the mystery of your friend’s misfortune, you become an online, ingame rogue hacker, exploring every corner of The World, even some virus-infected ones.
The hero is armed with the special skills of Data Drain and Gate Hack, and some colorful, talented fellow adventurers to fill the two other available party slots. Different adventurers must accompany you depending on the plot‘s development. You have some control over the others in your party, including upgrading them through trades or gifts. You can play only a single class, Twin Blade. Other characters are from different classes, with varied strengths and weaknesses, from a mage type (Wavemaster) to a bully (Heavy Axeman).
Gameplay
Gameplay takes place in three principal areas – towns, fields, and dungeons. Towns house The World’s servers. There, the player can save the game, buy magic scrolls and useful and unique items, store items, buy equipment, and talk and trade with lots of other players in character online. One town has an unusual ranch to check out, a patent homage to an enduring feature of just about every Final Fantasy.
The town’s Chaos Gate provides instant teleportation to a particular wide-open Field, containing monster encounter hotspots, a mystical spring, treasure, and lots of mysterious food. You enter three distinct keywords, some known at the game‘s onset, and others learned through play. Whatever keywords are entered, the difficulty level of the destination is helpfully revealed. This prevents a low-level party from being massacred. Once the keywords are entered, you travel through the Chaos Gate. (You can enter specific keywords learned to continue the plot, do side quests, or do unlimited exploring. Or, you can instruct the Gate to enter random keywords, and take your chances. There‘s also an option to enter any keywords you wish from a word list.) Every Field houses a single Dungeon. The dungeons, where you spend much of the game fighting for your life, are not overly large in size, and always range between three and five average levels.
Many have compared Dot Hack to Phantasy Star Online Episode I and II (PSO) on the Gamecube. Let us gently discredit this. We feel Dot Hack has far better graphics than PSO. The Fields and Dungeons contain many colorful, over stylized backdrops and settings, including weather effects. Dot Hack’s monsters resemble the beautifully-drawn monsters of the later Final Fantasy’s. Dot Hack’s world is gigantic with a seeming infinite number of locations to explore. PSO’s world is relatively small, and plot is threadbare, with meaningless, though fun, side quests, which instill no enthusiasm in the player. Dot Hack’s plot is deep and complex, with each subplot advancing the story just a little bit further. (Remember though, the end of this game in no way comes close to wrapping up the story, to be completed in the three games to be released later this year.) One visual treat, however, was lifted directly from PSO – the cascading rings that accompany the teleportation of characters to and from different areas.
Combat
Dot Hack’s combat engine can best be described as modified real-time. Much like the action-RPG, Kingdom Hearts, button mashing can be effective to beat monsters. Monster combat icons appear as large yellow twirling landmarks. As you approach, the landmark dissolves, monsters come at you big-time, and, undoubtedly, players will feel a healthy adrenaline rush. Some of Dot Hack’s many monsters do not stand around waiting to be pummeled, rather some you need to catch. Dot Hack lets you turn combat almost into a turn-based affair. The player needs only to hit Triangle in the middle of battle to pause the game instantly. From there the player can give orders to the others in the party, anything from healing someone, reviving another, casting a spell, designating a target monster. Without jeopardizing your party from the hailstorm of monster blows, combat becomes a calmer, more strategic, experience. This will help the many action-challenged. Camera angles play a big role in successful combat. You must be facing a monster to do any damage. As in many games, manipulating opposing environmental elements, like fire vs. water, is a key to successful monster combat.
Dot Hack’s cyberspace setting provides a wealth of Wow-inducing outbursts. The Data Drain option in combat is a great example. When a monster’s approaches zero, the player can Data Drain to reduce a horrendous, gigantic steel robot, for example, into a sniveling, puny monster, easily defeated with a single blow. Data Drain always results in a nifty, rare item or essential Virus Cores so you can Gate Hack areas of The World now closed, but needing investigation. One bad side effect – if you defeat, a Data Drained monster, but a single experience point is earned. One REALLY bad side effect – if you Data Drain too often without giving the skill a rest, you may overload and explode. Game Over. In the case of Boss monsters, Data Drain works the same, but what remains is no sniveling puny monster, but a full-blooded slightly less tough monster. All of this makes for interesting and captivating combat, a large part of the game.
Fresh Features
Dot Hack is replete with new and interesting features that kept us riveted.
To start, the entire background and story of a real world gamer becoming a rascal hacker, penetrating deep into a virus-infected online game, is quite novel. Combine this with Dot Hack’s emulating the look and feel of an online game universe. (Message traffic on the web shows many gamers mistakenly believe Dot Hack is a real online MMORPG, along with monthly fees! No real Internet connection is required.)
Just like in the real word, Dot Hack replicates your excitement level when “New” appears before a popular forum or on your email screen. Some of the game involves receiving emails as the plot develops, as well as new, crucial information surfacing on The World’s Board. (Look out for emails challenging you to a strange game of Tag.) The online game world looks very familiar with a bunch of characters wandering around the game’s towns, with the ubiquitous balloon icons talking typical “trash” to each other, even criticizing “newbies“.
Combat grippingly called for surprisingly strategic decision-making to succeed, not related to the usual attack or defend choices. Do you go for experience and upgrade your character or try for some special equipment or a Virus Core, vital to Gate Hacking? The innovative control of other party members became second nature to us after some practice. The game rewards a player taking chances, like entering a Field or Dungeon rated 5 levels above the player’s current level. On the other hand, the game scoffed at players entering areas much lower rated the their current level, by awarding negligible experience points for victory.
Dot Hack takes progress reports to a new level, by slowly unlocking books that contain much in the way of statistics and information. There’s even a monster compendium with tips for defeating them.
Some might complain about the minimal “Save Game” ability, but we thrived on it. You explore a very hostile cyberspace environment without the facility to save. Only in a server-hosting town is saving possible at the local Recorder. We may be a solitary voice in the Wilderness, but we like this throwback to the good old RPG days. Those of you old enough to remember the Wizardry series, may recall those fingernail-biting multi-combat treks back to the Castle just to save the game. In case you’re really stuck deep in a dungeon, a common item will teleport you to the outdoor field, from where you can simply gate back to town from the command menu.
Many pieces of equipment come with distinctive powerful attack, healing, and status skills, essential to combat dominance. The player must tradeoff whether to equip something that will raise defense or offense or something less vigorous that lets you use a powerful skill. Trading is the most successful way to upgrade equipment.
In a first, Dot Hack comes with a 45 minute anime video. This gives some great background on what’s going on in The World, as well as provide clues for completing the game. In a nice twist, voiceovers for game speech can be set for Japanese or English presentation. Listening to the authentic Japanese voices really keeps you glued to the game.
Though some may scoff at what follows as meaningless, we liked the game’s unlocking of some nifty new “toys” to like, some only available when the game is cleared. You can unlock many different background music play lists. Tired of creepy tunes, just switch to something more upbeat, or futuristic. Just like real world gamers, who constantly change their desktop wallpaper, new and different wallpapers are unlocked along the way. Some are concept art of characters, while others are full blown anime renditions of the characters. This makes for great fun, and seems to pump additional energy into the game. As you progress over a dozen special cut scenes or movies will become viewable after defeating the game.
Though Dot Hack’s extras and new wrinkles enhance the RPG game experience, much of the gameplay will ring true to those who enjoy RPG‘s. Expect plenty of exploration in a huge 3D world, frequent monster combat, tons of treasure to earn and discover, upgrading your character’s weapons and armor, and needing to level before tackling pivotal story dungeons. The status screens for the characters and all equipment are well laid out and easy to grasp.
Time for Completion
Game length in hours always concerns many purchasers. A short RPG normally takes a lot of flack, and many online are asking about Dot Hack‘s time for completion. (Some have questioned whether Bandai should have released a single 80 hour game for $50, rather than four 20-hour games for $200 for a single story. This matter is beyond the scope of this review, but our high opinion of this game as a standalone is obvious.) Our experience, playing the plot without doing side quests or extra exploration, is in the 12 to 15-hour range. Players side-questing and extensively exploring, aside from the main plot, can expect to spend 25 hours to complete the game. You can even continue to advance your character, after game completion, to get a jump start on Part 2 due in May. In the next game, your character can be imported from Part 1.
Furthermore, imagine trying to explore every nook and cranny of the fields and dungeons accessible by a large number of 3-word combinations. Doing that would put the game in the 50-hour range, if not more. However, at a certain point, new items dry up, and a single experience point is earned for any defeated monster, no matter how tough.
Shortcomings
While, as is evident above, there is much to recommend in Dot Hack, certain concerns to varying degrees deserve mention.
From the “Why oh why did they leave this out?“ File. Pregame game board traffic and information about the Japanese version released months ago had many salivating for replaying the game in “parody” mode. This mode apparently converted all Dot Hack’s game world characters into satirical comedians. Sorry to say, this highly-anticipated feature is missing from the version released here.
The game requires massive amounts of button pressing. Every item or treasure uncovered from combat victories or exploration (opening chests, searching expired adventure remains, collecting food for Grunty’s, as examples) must be confirmed with a button press. When there could be 50-100 such occurrences in a single dungeon or field, over the course of the game, finger cramps seem inevitable. Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance also required lots of bashing for buried treasure and chests, but the items literally flew into your inventory, a much better way to handle this.
The manual is woefully terse and lacking in some crucial information and guidance. While the ingame tutorials fill in many of the gaps, one extremely important gameplay feature is missing from both the manual and tutorials – instructions on control your characters directly during combat.
Final Word
We got a kick out of Dot Hack. The feeling of “just one more dungeon” dominated our lives for the 3 days to completion. The engaging environment held our attention without much effort. The strategic nature of combat, plus the convoluted plot kept us going for hours on end. The constant unlocking of both frivolous and important gameplay features created a “what’s next” anticipation. Now, if I could only read Japanese better, Dot Hack Part 2 is already out in Japan!
Final Grade: B
When most American gamers think of console RPG games, they think of Final Fantasy. In contrast, when most Japanese gamers think of console RPGs, they think of Dragon Quest.
So what happens when the people responsible for the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest games join forces to create one game? Some might say the result is one of the best RPG games ever created.
Chrono Trigger was originally released in 1995 and created by Square’s “Dream Team” division, which was led by Hironobu Sakaguchi (who created the Final Fantasy series). The game was written by scenario writers, Yuji Hori (creator of the Dragon Quest games) and Masato Kato (later directing both Radical Dreamers and Chrono Cross; wrote much of Xenogears and XenoSaga I & II), and character designer Akira Toriyama (of Dr. Slump, Dragon Ball and Dragon Quest fame). All of the game’s music was composed primarily by Yasunori Mitsuda (later known for his breathtaking music in Xenogears, Crono Cross, and XenoSaga) under the watchful eye of Nobuo Uematsu (the best known Final Fantasy music composer).
As a result of this combination of legendary talent, Chrono Trigger is often regarded as one of the best games EVER created, and for good reason.
Graphics A+
This re-release really was intended for just one audience, and that is the fans who first played it. An anime opening sequence has been added and, I swear, when it began to play I literally had tears in my eyes at how SWEET it was. If there was ever a game created by Square which needed to be turned into an anime, it is Chrono Trigger. Sadly, this is probably the closest we will ever get to seeing “what if..?”. Although there are not as many anime sequences as I would have liked, some of the more memorable sequences have had an anime sequence added, and it’s worth playing through the game just to see them all.
As for the actual game graphics, believe it or not, Chrono Trigger was one of the best looking games ever made on the SNES, and in its day, its graphics were top-notch. Although the special effects seem dated today, Chrono Trigger was one of the few games on the SNES that fully utilized the Nintendo “FX chip” to allow “vector graphics”. These vector graphics were used heavily for spell attacks to great effect, and really did change the way special attacks were designed in all future console RPG games.
Story A+
The game starts out with the teenage protagonist of the story, Chrono, waking up in the morning, scaring his cat and then running off to a town festival. From there, he meets a pretty tomboy of a girl named Marle, and then meets up with his nerdy childhood friend Lucca. After an experiment gone awry involving a prototype teleporter device, Marle is thrust back into the past and Chrono sets out to save his new girlfriend. A quest that first sets out to avoid changing history and simply return to your own timeline quickly transforms into an epic crusade to defeat a Lovecraftian super-alien god of destruction who will eventually rise up and destroy the world. Your job is to make sure he never wakes up to start the Apocalypse, and to do this you must travel into the future and the past to change the entire flow of Time itself. Think of Zelda: The Oricana of Time on an acid trip.
An above average story with very memorable characters, Chrono Trigger deals with hard issues like morality, authority, etc. without patronizing the players. Many of the quests simply revolve around trying to help one of your party members deal with their deeply rooted problems, or in the case of Magus, save their soul from being consumed by darkness.
Throughout the course of the game, you’ll travel to the prehistoric era to fight alongside cavemen, take part in a way against an evil wizard, free an enslaved people from their utopian masters, and journey into the future to bring light to a dark era that might not even occur if you succeed in your ultimate quest of defeating Lavos.
An interesting aspect of the story is that what you choose to do in the game really does come into play later on, as what you do in the past directly impacts what happens in the future. This is most evident with the alternate endings, as at what stage of the game you choose to confront the end game boss will determine the future of your world. This said, in order to advance in the story you generally need to do some time traveling to influence the past or future by either speaking to someone, defeating someone or bringing some event item which only exists in one era into another era in order to complete a quest. Also worthy of note is that Chrono Trigger is the only game I know of where the main character will die and yet the game can be completed without the revival of the central protagonist. The player is left with the decision whether or not to go on the side-quest of reviving the fallen hero or not, and this is just one example of how non-linear the story really is.
Gameplay B-
Chrono Trigger’s battle engine relies heavily on the ATB system developed for use in FF4, but really takes advantage of it in a way no other game produced by Square ever has. The battle system in the game’s sequel, Chrono Cross, was more similar to Xenogears than Trigger, and that is probably what disappointed fans the most. Characters in the party are capable of delivering “double” and “triple” technique combo attacks, and these party attacks are a highlight of the game, preventing battles from becoming too repetitive.
The battle engine is actually a psuedo-realtime turn-based system. Having no random battles, battles are usually initiated when the party confronts enemies onscreen. The party members then quickly separate and surround the enemy right there on the screen, no need for loading a special “battle screen” as seen in so many other RPG games. Since battles are normally initiated only when you confront enemies, the player can avoid many of the “unnecessary” battles by merely sneaking past enemies, which is useful to the player who does not want to focus on leveling up characters, instead preferring to dig right into the story. Other than Parasite Eve, a battle engine like this has yet to be reproduced in any other console RPG I know of.
A largely story-driven game, there are few mini-games to keep players engaged, but there is no incentive for a player to return to these mini-games for repeat play. The game only requires about 20 hours to complete, but since the game has multiple-endings, and by making a “New Game+”, you are able to start the game with all the levels, items and techniques your party had gained in your previous game, this helps you unlock the alternative endings and bonus features that were packed into the PlayStation re-release.
While normally I would easily give the gameplay of the original SNES an A+ score, I cannot do so in this PS1 port of the game. There is an unfortunate glitch with loading times concerning battles. Apparently, when Square ported the English version of the game from the SNES to the PS1, they didn’t completely bug-test the emulator. There have been a few times when the game stops loading and freezes up, usually right when a battle should start, but most players might only encounter this bug once out of every few hundred battles they encounter. Since there are save areas scattered around every dungeon and you can save anywhere on the world map, this isn’t too large of a problem. You can quickly return to the game as long as you remember to save often. It can be very annoying though, and might frustrate some players. However, it is the only negative aspect the game even possesses, and cannot be blamed on the original game development team, since the team who ported the game to the PS1 was a different staff.
Sound/Music: A+
I am not kidding when I say that despite being ten years old, Square still makes a ton of money off the soundtrack to this game. The music is some of the most memorable you’ll ever find in any video game, EVER. One of the primary reasons the game is so beloved is because of the music that was composed for it. Every situation has appropriate music for setting the proper mood, and it really helps to pull you into the story on an emotional level.
The music in Chrono Trigger is the first original work Yasunori Mitsuda ever composed for a Square game, and because of the excellent job he did, he was attached to the teams of other memorable Square games such as Xenogears and Chrono Cross.
Final Thoughts
Those who play Chrono Cross before having played Chrono Trigger will not be able to fully enjoy the story of Cross, because the events which take place in Trigger create the events which take place in Cross. For that reason alone, it really should be required playing. That said, Chrono Trigger stands alone on its own two feet for several reasons—one of them being it is far better than Chrono Cross was and the second is that even though it is a decade-old game, Chrono Trigger still ranks higher above most console RPGs being released today. There was a lot of love put into this game, and it really shows.
Final Verdict: 93%
