I am about to “finish it” and I haven’t played it in one sitting for sure, I have done some pauses for months here and then and when I go back to it I always find myself lost in their objectives.
One thing I can say I don’t like, and it must be a very personal issue, is that the game work “kinda open” with not clear objectives of where you should head off then, which just increases my sense of loss.
I suppose many games of those days worked like that (like not having pointers in a map of where to go) but I just couldn’t… And if you add the secondary missions to it that involves time traveling it all just gets more confusing for me.
I am aware the game has quite good post game content, so I hope I do my best there…
In a nutshell I think this game does well for people that know it at 100% (as in, their favorite nostalgic game) but for newcomers you’ll get lost and need a guide at hand, especially if you want to enjoy it at “its fullest” doing all the secondary quests available, that is my personal experience though.
It’s tough because I’m sure people that grew up playing games with map markers could certainly get lost in it, but at the same time Chrono Trigger is one of the most straight-forward games of its era/genre. There are JRPGs that came out two generations later that had a real rough time with the “find the NPC to advance the story” problem.
Depending on the version you’re playing, the post game content isn’t quite as sharp as the original stuff (it was added years later by a different team). The New Game+ mode, on the other hand, was in the original and is good stuff.
I am definitely not one of those who grew up playing game with markers though (I am 32 years old and that’s why I specified it must be a me problem 🤣).
I am playing the DS version which seems to be the definitive version, even to this day.
Getting the full experience from Chrono Trigger specifically, unlike most other similar games, is getting all of the endings. The New Game+ mode will help there.
Chrono Trigger has 18 endings, if I recall correctly, including various permutations. Plus one additional one in the rereleases from the DS version forward. Some of them are only very subtly different from each other depending on which combination of character side quests you fully completed, and they all vary depending at which point your manage to defeat the final boss in the main story sequence. Several of them are significantly different interpretations of the future (or the past) post the defeat of the final boss with various for-want-of-a-nail factors causing huge changes to the outcome.
You have quite a few opportunities to fight the final boss up to and including immediately after discovering the first time gate all the way back at the beginning of the game. (Do that in New Game+ with an overpowered Crono, though, unless you want to get steamrolled instantly…)
I am about to “finish it” and I haven’t played it in one sitting for sure, I have done some pauses for months here and then and when I go back to it I always find myself lost in their objectives.
One thing I can say I don’t like, and it must be a very personal issue, is that the game work “kinda open” with not clear objectives of where you should head off then, which just increases my sense of loss.
I suppose many games of those days worked like that (like not having pointers in a map of where to go) but I just couldn’t… And if you add the secondary missions to it that involves time traveling it all just gets more confusing for me.
I am aware the game has quite good post game content, so I hope I do my best there…
In a nutshell I think this game does well for people that know it at 100% (as in, their favorite nostalgic game) but for newcomers you’ll get lost and need a guide at hand, especially if you want to enjoy it at “its fullest” doing all the secondary quests available, that is my personal experience though.
It’s tough because I’m sure people that grew up playing games with map markers could certainly get lost in it, but at the same time Chrono Trigger is one of the most straight-forward games of its era/genre. There are JRPGs that came out two generations later that had a real rough time with the “find the NPC to advance the story” problem.
Depending on the version you’re playing, the post game content isn’t quite as sharp as the original stuff (it was added years later by a different team). The New Game+ mode, on the other hand, was in the original and is good stuff.
I am definitely not one of those who grew up playing game with markers though (I am 32 years old and that’s why I specified it must be a me problem 🤣).
I am playing the DS version which seems to be the definitive version, even to this day.
Getting the full experience from Chrono Trigger specifically, unlike most other similar games, is getting all of the endings. The New Game+ mode will help there.
Chrono Trigger has 18 endings, if I recall correctly, including various permutations. Plus one additional one in the rereleases from the DS version forward. Some of them are only very subtly different from each other depending on which combination of character side quests you fully completed, and they all vary depending at which point your manage to defeat the final boss in the main story sequence. Several of them are significantly different interpretations of the future (or the past) post the defeat of the final boss with various for-want-of-a-nail factors causing huge changes to the outcome.
You have quite a few opportunities to fight the final boss up to and including immediately after discovering the first time gate all the way back at the beginning of the game. (Do that in New Game+ with an overpowered Crono, though, unless you want to get steamrolled instantly…)