“It’s not just nostalgia: Kid Brother beats Chrono Trigger… and loves it!”
4 min read
It shouldn’t work. It shouldn’t be magic. You shouldn’t weep happy and then sad and then happy again. But you do. And I do. And we all do.
The Cat’s Pajamas
My family has been out here to visit me from Hawaii and I got to spend some extra time with my kid brother, and one of the first things I told him is that he was going to have the opportunity to play and experience Chrono Trigger for himself.
No longer a truly “kid” brother at age 19 but still 15 years younger than me, Chrono Trigger has always been on his too-play list even though he was born 5 years after the game released. He is, therefore, too young to feel any natural nostalgia for the Super Nintendo and its powerful canon of JRPGs.
One of the most exciting things about what I do has to do with accumulating data, and there are few things more delightfully confirming of bias than getting people to play Chrono Trigger for the first time, which they inevitably love. I’ve heard the argument endlessly, typically without reasons to back it up: “It’s all just nostalgia”, referring of course to any love for anything retro gaming, however you define “retro”.
Well, my kid bro is the 2nd person I know to finish Chrono Trigger this year. He’s admitted it is now his favorite retro game and JRPG, and his 2nd favorite RPG behind Monster Hunter: World.
Because this was such a special event, I decided to capture some data from his nostalgia-less playthrough. Below are some of the things kid bro wanted to mention. It’s Chrono Trigger nostalgia on trial.
Favorite Characters
“Frog, Ayla, Magus, Robo, Crono, Marle, Lucca”. These were the names he listed when I asked him about his favorite playable characters in order. Actually, the dude adored Frog, err… I mean Glenn. Every time Frog was on screen, he devoured the archaic dialogue, the swordplay flourish and flair, the amphibians activity.
Favorite Tracks
The first time I caught him whistling a tune when the game was not on was with “Memories of Green”, which plays early in the story. He also loved “Decisive Battle with Magus”, “Frog’s theme”, “Undersea Palace”, and “Boss Battle 2”. When these came on for the first time in the game, he couldn’t stop grinning.
Favorite Dungeons
Tyrano Lair had some fun fights and interesting mazes but Ocean Palace and Black Omen both took his first place spot for best dungeons. That’s because of a combination of their unforgettable music, intense fights, and grueling length.
Favorite Bosses
Magus. There can be only one and while he said he loved the fights against Masamune, Zeal, and the Black Tyrano, it came down to the confrontation against Frog’s arch-nemesis. Plus the shifting elemental shields kept things interesting. Fun fact, if you read the dialogue at an average speed, the battle begins as the music crescendoes. Perfect game design.
Favorite NPCs
Gaspar, Melchior, Spekkio topped his list for favorite NPCs. When he finished the game and saw Melchior again in the Millennial Fair, he said “Awww, Melly”. Gaspar has got to be one of the most iconic characters in the entire game (so much so that I created this merch for him), and Spekkio has that delightful music. For least favorite, I think he really hates the Chancellor.
Favorite Eras
He reports that he’s torn between Prehistory and Antiquity. My personal favorite is of course Antiquity with the Kingdom of Zeal and its emotional beats.
Ending Received
He received “Ending 1” after beating the Black Omen and finishing all the side quests. It was pretty much the completionist ending for his first run through. I’m not sure if he’ll be making a New Game Plus adventure or not, but I did show him about the NG+ solo Crono fight against Lavos!
Time Beaten
24:49. And now onto Chrono Cross! Let’s see if Chrono Trigger nostalgia stretches that far.
Red formerly ran The Well-Red Mage and now serves The Pixels as founder, writer, editor, and podcaster. He has undertaken a seemingly endless crusade to talk about the games themselves in the midst of a culture obsessed with the latest controversy, scandal, and news cycle about harassment, toxicity, and negativity. Pick out his feathered cap on Twitter @thewellredmage, Mage Cast, or Story Mode.
I feel honoured to be in the ‘people who have played Chrono Trigger for the first time this year thanks to Red’ club along with him!
For what it’s worth, I played Chrono Trigger on 2014 for the first time and enjoyed it despite not enjoying many JRPGs. The concise pace, real-time combat, music, and writing are all spot on. Glad he enjoyed it. 😀
It’s not bloated or shonen which is what a lot of JRPGs have become yeah? What are some of your least favoritr JRPGs?
Yeah exactly.
Oh boy. What springs to mind recently would be Hyper Dimension Neptunia and Bravely Default.
Nep’s writing, at times, was at least funny because of how it’d make fun of common anime tropes. Unfortunately, it ends up being a lot of really tedious grinding against enemies that don’t pose a threat, but take multiple turns of combat to beat. It is a game that revels in wasting time.
Bravely Default feels self aware of its own problems. I used the auto-battle feature a lot on trash mobs and played the back half of the game without random encounters on because I was tired of them constantly interrupting the flow. Having those features present almost feels like the devs acknowledging that most of the random encounters aren’t that fun since you can either make the game play them for you, or skip them entirely. Plus the second half of the game ends up re-treading a lot of the same ground repeatedly, well beyond the point when someone will have reasonably figured out what is going on in the story.
I’m not tremendously patient haha. I don’t want to have to waste time waiting for the game to get to the good part, or return to the good part when I could just as easily play something else.
I played Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross each for the first time three or four years ago.
I think they are both great games, Trigger being significantly better than Cross.
As for Trigger being one of the best JRPG’s or best games of all time and all that, I personally think “No, definitely not.”
Awwww shucks! Can’t win ’em all! 😉
When I first played it, I hadn’t ever heard of it before. Only played it because I had finished FFIV on the same PS1 disc and figured might as well get my money’s worth. Blown away. Such a great game. Glad your brother thinks so too.
And that’s with the extra PS1 loading times on that disc, too! It was cool to relive a first experience through his eyes again.
A rousing “Huzzah!” for your brother! It’s not “nostalgia only” when the source was truly fantastic, and Chrono Trigger is just that, in every way!
If he digs different music get him to listen to The Brink of Time.
Shake his hand for me and tell him I said “Congrats”.
I will! And he’s already been forced to listen to Brink by yours truly 🙂
Then hit him with the CT medley on SQ Chips!
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-RVB-h4gvg&w=640&h=360]
AND THIS CHARACTER THEME MEDLEY!!!!
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwVmBMcMTOI&w=640&h=360]
If I ever get my resin order I promise Ill be making a rainbow sword!!