Unimpressed with Chrono Trigger

Over the years I've had the pleasure of enjoying many RPG's from both the SNES and the Genesis, like:

Earthbound
Star Ocean
Bahamut Lagoon
Phantasy Star 4
Shining Force 1 & 2

However I had never played Chrono Trigger, so upon finding it at a thrift shop, I was quite sure I was in for a treat. Most of my friends (most of them SNES owners), sing the praises of Chrono Trigger. On the internet its showered with scores of 10 out of 10, which should mean the game is perfect.

When I first played it, I made it to the future, realized i was bored, and played something else.
A few years later i gave it another chance, and again, got to the future, got bored, played shining force for the fifth time through instead.

The big question is, am I crazy or is the rest of the world?

Also I'm not trying to incite any sort of fanboy war,I just want some honest opinions on the game from other people, and maybe some good discussion about what makes a good oldschool RPG.

well...what don't you like? there's not a lotta character interaction (not uncommon from the era, there's like zero in Secret of Mana, etc), but the setting, OST, and battle engine are pretty great. are you backlashing from the decades of hype or is something else in particular just not clicking for you?

Well, honestly, Last time I played it was like over 15 years ago. I remember I was feeling pretty unimpressed and felt the game was overrated at the time.
I still played the game to completion though, so it must not have been that bad. But at the time I was in awe with FFVI and I think I could not help complain how this was lesser to FFVI.
Back then I was playing on a borrowed cart from a friend.

Never played since but actually bought the game 2 weeks ago when I found a good deal on Craiglist. So yeah, might be revisiting that one soon.

Mostly I felt like the story felt kinda flat and uninteresting, I recall Star Ocean and Phantasy Star 4 having much better hooks, and both games kept me far more entertained throughout.

I also had really high expectations for it from all the hype.

I still need to play FFIII, just never got around to it.

I agree that the story and characters are pretty flat, and the soundtrack and the ugly artwork (I don't like Toriyama's style) are why I dislike the game. I do think it's neat how the game incorporates lots of different paths and endings with its time travel idea. It's a good game, but I don't understand why it's treated as the best thing ever by some.

again one big plus for me is the speed (and variety, at least as far as combo attacks) that the battles move - personally, as an old-school JRPG fan, i like it when a game doesn't want to waste my time grinding in a clunky & obtuse system. new game+ and multiple paths make it easier to experience all the game has to offer without being bogged down like so many of its era would do.

Not everyone will like everything, and while it was absolutely a very impressive game for its time, coming back at it for a first impression at this stage, many of the things that were novel and impressive at the time just won't really be the same now.

I still love the game, not my favorite RPG by any stretch, but I like it. But I also have the nostalgia of playing it when it was first released. Back then it was one of the best looking/sounding RPG games you could find. The art style you obviously may not like, but it was still visually interesting for its time.

The battle system, the branching story and multiple ways you could do things. There was lots of "stuff" you could do at a time when that wasn't really a common thing.

So no, not crazy. Any maybe you wouldn't have even liked it back at release, but its standing at the time might have glossed over a few of the things you dislike about it. But maybe not.

It's pretty early to judge the story until you've completed the game 100% and saw the best ending. I'm sure you'll love it.

Earthbound sucks, unless the only thing you need from a game is quirky humour.
Bahamut Lagoon is a special effect fest with ridiculously slow combat and a shit story.
Star Ocean doesn't even have a story.

If the 3 above are what you like, Chrono Trigger is not for you.

I was lucky with Chrono Trigger, in that I'd only heard about it in a vague way when I sat down to play it sometime around 2005/2006. I absolutely loved it -- it's one of the only RPGs that's ever engaged me that thoroughly. Had I been aware of the hype, I don't know if I would've had the same reaction.

One theory of mine is that a lot of this game's resonance revolves around the music, and whether you love/hate/are indifferent to the game depends heavily on that. I've never much liked the "epic" Final Fantasy style of RPG music, which often amounts to a bunch of regurgitated film music and lite-classical clichés. But Chrono Trigger uses a lot of jazz-influenced harmony and ambient/Eno elements, and for me that makes a world of difference. (Yes, I know Uematsu contributed to the soundtrack, but most of it is Mitsuda.)

Even the music in the very first scene of the game itself -- when Crono's mother wakes him up -- has a haunting, nostalgic quality that few RPG soundtracks can match. My understanding is that Mitsuda worked himself to exhaustion on the music, and it really shows through in the quality of the compositions; they have that carefully-wrought quality that usually only comes from a crazy guy working long hours alone until everything is just right.

Hmm... For me, it works because of the non-random battles, and the overall simplicity, in spite of being developed by the leads of the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest series'.

The downside is that it was also the game that ended up convincing me I might like the rest of the genre, without realizing it wasn't the norm. I had beaten it on the original hardware(brothers friends) when it was relevant, and that was also the first time I had beaten an RPG. I think I enjoyed the concept of a game that took that much time to complete, than actually enjoying the games for what they are, which for me, is impossible with 95% of this genre. Star Ocean and Tales of Phantasia might have action, but the random battles still kill any enjoyment I could ever get out of those.

I guess I put gameplay over story too, which is why I'm not fond of video gaming once it hits 3D/disc.

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Originally Posted by midnightrider

Hmm... For me, it works because of the non-random battles, and the overall simplicity, in spite of being developed by the leads of the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest series'.

The downside is that it was also the game that ended up convincing me I might like the rest of the genre, without realizing it wasn't the norm.

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Yeah you're definitely like me, an RPG can't hold me if it's gameplay can't. It's one of the reasons I love strategy and action RPGs.

My first time playing through Chrono Trigger was the DS port a few years back and I loved it. It does have it's slow parts, but it does start to pick up after the first trip to the future.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TrekkiesUnite118

My first time playing through Chrono Trigger was the DS port a few years back and I loved it. It does have it's slow parts, but it does start to pick up after the first trip to the future.

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+1. I'm not a fan of JRPGs, so CT was a perfect fit for me on the DS.

I pretty much agree with the OP, have tried to play it 2 or 3 times and always just stopped somewhere around the future section and just never had any impetus to go any further. Just nothing particularly grabbed me, I guess.