R P G A M E R . C O M   -   E D I T O R I A L S

A Step Back In Time

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Sam Marchello
STAFF EDITORIALIST

When Chrono Trigger came out in 1995, I was thirteen years old, and it was my first venture into console RPGs. I remember being at my cottage one weekend going through my next door neighbour's pile of Super Nintendo games, and asking him what was about it, to which he replied, "I'll show you".

I watched my friend play battle after battle, until finally I begged him to let me have a chance. When he passed the controller to me, I found myself involved in a world that I never thought imaginable, and characters I do not think I ever could have possibly dreamed of. After that first, small, but plentiful taste, I remember going back to my own cottage and telling my mother my version of what I thought Chrono Trigger was about. A month later, on a trip to Belleville, we walked into a Mircoplay, and it was sitting on the shelf ready for me to take home. After that small moment in time, I was hooked, and it the only game I found myself playing over and over again, having a completely different experience each time.

Chrono Trigger is one of those games that is simply memorable. There are many notable scenes, musical compositions, and its cast is comprised of extraordinary characters who you will find yourself genuinely caring about. From Ayla, the wild child chief of the Ioka Tribe, to the bright, wide-eyed and curious Robo, and further to the tragic knight known as Frog. These are characters who stick with you because they are unique, lovable, and very strong-willed. While I use those three as an example, I could equally say fantastic and positive things about the rest of the cast as well. These characters allowed us as players to engage in a JRPG version of The Time Machine, a story that many of us were easily familiar with and loved.

I remember being thirteen and thinking that Chrono Trigger would make for a fantastic novel. I would sit for hours upon end just trying to understand how deeply complex the story was, which I find myself now, at twenty-two, having a lot more appreciation for. Time travel stories are extremely difficult to write and do well, and somehow, Chrono Trigger made it look easy. There is so much action, passion and conflict to drive the story forward that after forty hours felt as though I had barely scratched the surface. I remember getting to Lavos and thinking to myself that he looked like a giant porcupine, and thinking how neat it was that a giant porcupine was the creator of the apocalypse. Again, being thirteen years old, it was easier to make sense of the game that way than understanding that Lavos was harvesting DNA to control his evolution.

For those of you who have never played Chrono Trigger before, I am extremely excited for you. For those of us who have played the game, two or twenty times, I am equally as excited for all of you who will choose to have a nostalgia fest when the DS version is released on November 25th. For those of us who have played the game before, I'm sure we can all remember how it was we encountered this gem, and what that experience was like at the time. Whether it is your first, or twentieth time, there's always a reason why many of us end up calling this one of the greatest games ever created, and why for the many who have never had the chance or opportunity to play the game, crave the experience.