Reibeatall’s latest New Game Plus got me thinking a lot about, surprisingly enough, Chrono Trigger. Not specifically the game, mind you; rather, it’s interesting that Rei’s blog was a personal reflection on when he first played the game, because the DS release has me doing the same thing. I actually didn’t buy Trigger when it first arrived on Super NES, but I spent hours reading all about it in Nintendo Power. It wasn’t until my best friend rented it that I knew I had to have it -– evidenced by the fact that I was content to watch him play a single-player RPG all afternoon. I still remember getting home and immediately making all sorts of promises and deals involving chores so that my mom would go out and buy it with me that moment. I probably would have willingly been indentured to her to this very day if she hadn’t been my mom and taken pity on me.
[[image: ar_112708_chrono_01.jpg:They don’t love you like I love you.:center:0]]
Of course, there are several other memories attached to the game: the time my SNES was broken and made the time warp screen repeat forever (to this day, I swear I’ve heard a song no other player has due to that); the time my college roommate and I skipped class because we both had the urge to replay it; the time I introduced my first girlfriend to it and she beat it in a week.
I don’t doubt that my affection for the game itself accounts for much of how fondly I look back on these memories; you won’t find me getting sentimental about most new games that come along, but just as when Final Fantasy VI hit GBA and Super Mario Galaxy launched last year, certain games and series were so good -– so important to me growing up –- that I can’t help but be sentimental about them. My story about getting Chrono Trigger really isn’t very interesting; how many people have played something at a friend’s house and then gotten it after begging their parents? And yet you were possibly entertained by it, or at least started thinking about similar experiences you’ve had. The memories surrounding the game seem to take on more significance simply because Chrono Trigger is involved, and I think, in the end, that is the mark of a truly exceptional game.
My SNES was strange in that it hated Chrono Trigger. Most games I fed it it could handle, but Chrono had strange glitches, and the copy worked fine on my friends’ SNES, so I know it was my yellowing brick that had the problem.
So on my machine I could ‘reliably’ get to the cave that comes before the Giga Gaia encounter, but no farther. I had to use my friends’ SNES to actually finish the thing.
When FFAnthology came out, I bought it, and proceded to ignore the hell out of it. When FFChronicles came out, I bought it, and proceded to unlock everything in Chrono Trigger (slow as hell menu access made dread out of battle healing). All the endings, all the movies, the soundtrack. At last I had a copy/console combination that did not hate each other.
Oh and, best RPG ever.
There is actually at least one song that’s in the game file but not findable anywhere by normal play — if you download the SPC archive it’s in there. (link: http://zsnes.zophar.net/zsnes/spc/ct.rar — I think it’s Singing Mountain)
Awesome game — maybe not my No. 1 favorite but certainly up there (my choice would probably be FFVI… but I admit to a weird, persistent affection for Lufia II).