an RPG with
time-travel; a frog swordsman -
CT for the win!!
Additional Comments:
This is the fourth time I've attempted this game, and finally I made it all the way through. Why four times? Was the game too hard? No. For an answer, let's look back at a quote from SMRPG.
"Although, at the time, I only played up through Nimbus Land and then quit playing - as I typically do with RPG's especially Square-Enix RPG's due to the repetitive nature of their games."Ok, it's true that for a Square game, Chrono Trigger is not anywhere near as repetitive as other Square games, mostly due to the fact, in my opinion, that it uses more of an action/adventure gameplay element, while still retaining turn-based monster battles. But nevertheless, for me, turn-based monster battles become repetitive, and so for the first three tries - game over.
Well, here it is a fourth time, and finally I pushed my way through to the end. Despite my turn-based gripes, the game is fantastic. The story is fantastic, the graphics are fantastic, the music is fantastic (case in point: Zeal Palace) - even the twisting of the time fabric by accomplishing all of the side quests is well done. All in all, this is probably one of the best games ever made for the SNES. Oh, and did someone say multiple endings? Yup, it's got that too.
Now then, all my praise aside, let me go on to say why this game pisses me off to no end. Oh, and Spoiler Alert: I'm taking the "nano" out of "nano-rant".
It saddens me that so many Square games piss me off, and all for the same reasons. Now, I already discussed Square's want to create end bosses that have 10 million hitpoints in SMRPG's rant, so I'm not going to talk about that here. Instead, I want to talk about Square's other enjoyment when it comes to end bosses: gauntlets and multiple forms. Ok, anyone who's played an RPG knows that the end of the game is going to throw everything it can at you, and that's fine. Yea, gauntlets and multiple forms are to be expected. But Chrono Trigger, on the other hand, appears to have taken both of these concepts to a whole new level.
Before I really get into it, let me say this: I'm not complaining because of any difficulty concerning Lavos or even Lavos Core - in fact, for end bosses, despite the usage of bullshit techniques and exponential hitpoint ratios in their favor, they were pretty easy, especially once you figured out exactly what you needed to do. Also, I should state that my rage would probably be halved if I decided to finish the game through the Bucket Warp or perhaps even through 1999, but instead I chose to dare the Black Omen, mostly because I wanted to see as much of the game as possible. If I chose the aforementioned paths as opposed to the Black Omen, yea, I'd only have to face Lavos (and his ten million impersonations - ok, maybe technically it's just one form) and Lavos Core. However, trudge through Black Omen and then Lavos - forget about it.... Talk about a serious gauntlet of bosses - this is fucking insane!!! Really, like I said, it's not so much Lavos alone, but the combined efforts of the Black Omen plus Lavos that really got me riled up. Come on, Queen Zeal, is there any form you can't take!? Truthfully, I think I threw more f-bombs at her than I did at Lavos/Lavos Core - although Lavos Core did cause a bit of a fit with a Spell/Crying Heavens combination that immediately killed my party after a long 20-30 minutes into the battle and having already taken a good 25,000 hitpoints off the Right Bit. #%$@!
An additional beef I have with this whole gauntlet/multiple forms technique often employed by Square is the letting up of hopes that you've beaten the game. It just never ends! Are you sure you've put enough bosses in there? How about a few more? Why not? It's like watching the movie Das Boot, which is a great freakin' movie, don't get me wrong, but you keep asking yourself "How can it get any worse than where we're at right now?" Oh, but it does - and does it ever....
Chrono Trigger - I both love and hate you at the same time. Congrats!!
Rating: 4 endings out of 5
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