Ah, good old Chrono Trigger, one of the most famous RPGs ever, always a good game to play, and often considered very overrated. But it has many good qualities which is why it is overrated. The most famous RPG when it comes to time travel, the most famous or possibly second most famous Eldritch Abomination type of villain, a memorable set of characters all around, kickass music, interesting battles, multiple endings, there's almost nothing I hate about this game.
The gameplay is the best representation of Active Time battle system, apparently touted Active Time Battle 2.0. It's cool to see your characters apparently find a position to go to against the enemies they fight, as well as the usage of techs, unique equipments, and the combining of attacks and magic. Not to mention the idea of position changes, where enemies may just line up, say you are trying to use Crono's line tech. Several enemies have set patterns that can be figured out rather interestingly. A good example is the Golem, a boss the game makes you supposedly lose to, but in reality is possibly the easiest boss to beat because he always copies what element hit him last and he can be prevented from taking any action if the party just attacks him with different magic over and over. Admittingly, some other battles are definitely hard, especially when you factor in enemies with percent damage attacks, such as Queen Zeal herself.
Yes, the time travel gimmick may not have originated here, but Chrono Trigger does it best. It's accidental because of Marle's pendant, you have the consequences of altering time because of a missing queen who is Marle's ancestor, the post-apocalpytic future where Lavos obviously destroyed everything and survivors in the ruins are using odd machines and stuff, the side-story involving Glenn and Cyrus, as well as Magus's overall motives. The whole thing with Lavos is rather intense, especially given a certain queen is quite the zealot in unleashing it. Interestingly enough she manages to not be an example of an underling who doesn't get killed by her unleashed superior, yet the consequences, as many players have seen, which involves Crono and Schala, are insanely dire. In between all the crazed and nasty plots are some pretty funny moments, like with Ayla's first meeting, the actually decent minigames (impressive), and basically anything Dalton does.
The game does an exceptional job with its setting, showcasing the happy lifestyles of the prehistoric times and the millenium times, the grim and dull lifestyle of the middle ages, and the despair in the post-apocalyptic future. 12000 BC showcases the extremes of this, the floating kingdom of Zeal is rich with lush riches and elite classmen, while the ground below has the ruffians who are unfortunate enough not to be part of the rich caste system, cast as poor ones below. It's startling stuff and done very well.
The game's Fated Hour stuff is basically where the game completely opens up, and I love everything that can be done here. It opens up around the time after Crono dies, and a whole slew of subquests can be done. Even the Black Omen counts as a subquest, and each subquest pertains to specific characters: Ayla has the return of the Reptites, Magus has his former subordinates, Frog has Cyrus's ghost, Lucca is gonna fix her mother's legs, Marle has that other trial, Robo has Geno Dome. Things you can do with your time machine to influence these quests and get the items you want = so much fun.
Ah yes, and then there's New Game +, where you can try out different endings, get to Lavos faster, all that with the stats and equipment to keep. Man, this game is memorable and good, one that is certainly worth replaying. In my opinion, the ones who say its overrated haven't played it yet, and need to play it to discover why it is overrated.
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