I’ve recently been on an old school RPG kick and picked up Chrono Trigger which is a phenomenal game. Any other suggestions on similar games?
Chrono Trigger is so far ahead of its time, it’s insane. Enemies visible on the field map, battles taking place directly on the field map, character positioning mattering immensely, multi-character attacks, incredible music that holds up today, a compelling story with something like 15 total endings (granted, it’s not like they’re ENTIRELY different from one another, there are a few major branches with a few variations each)… Most of these things would all but vanish from games for twenty-plus years. I remember when Final Fantasy 12 came out, it was lauded for having the enemies shown on the map and battles taking place on the map as well.
@PrinceHabib72 Chrono Trigger also had New Game+, which basically created the term for RPGs. I played another JRPG long before Chrono Trigger, where enemies was visible on the playfield in dungeons: the infamous Final Fantasy Mystic Quest (fantastic soundtrack BTW).
One of the best RPGs ever made. I’d jump to either the Breath of Fire series, Wild Arms, or Suikoden. All are solid, though none quite as brilliant.
I played Wild Arms back in the day and I don’t remember too much about them although I did enjoy them all. Might be worth picking up again. Also, isn’t Suikoden getting a remake soon?
Yes it is! The first 2 games. It’s kind of an odd situation where the 2nd game is kind of a remake-ish retelling of the first game, sort of like Final Fantasy or Zelda, where it is different characters but same themes. I just thought of 2 more I could recommend! Grandia and Live a Live. Both fit nicely in Chrono Trigger’s orbit, though none are quite as good. Live a Live just got a low up and re-release recently too.
Director of Chrono Trigger, Takashi Tokita, directed Live a Live the year prior. Definitely a throughline there.
Holy hell, Tokita is a titan among devs. I had no idea that he was part of so many important games.
I almost bought Live A Live at the last Steam sale but opted to pick up the Trails in the Sky series. I was a little hesitant since you don’t play with all characters.
I wish Wild Arms had an official mobile port. Such a great series with no modern IP usage to take advantage of its cult status.
Best you can do for now is buy it on PlayStation store
Anbernic RG35XX or similar… Should run flawlessly
+1 for jumping to Suikoden II. If you love it you can check III and I
EDIT: I tried the BoF and Wild Arms sagas years ago too. The one that stood the most to me was BoF4
Gonna have to +1 Wild Arms and Breath of Fire 3
Wild Arms was so good
Nothing is exactly like Chrono Trigger, it’s in a league of its own as one of the best games of all time.
Final Fantasy 6 was released around the same time on SNES, and many people debate whether Chrono Trigger or Final Fantasy 6 are better, because they’re both great. 4, 5, and 6 are all really good. The Lufia series is also great.
From the same era but with much different gameplay is Terranigma, and there’s also the Legend of Mana series.
More modern examples of games that want to invoke Chrono Trigger are Septerra Core and Anachronox. Both are PC games, but they’re old enough that any reasonably modern PC can likely play them at full speed.
FF6 is such a great game. I saved up and bought both of these games as a kid, lots of late nights irrigating fields and killing rattlesnakes to get those titles. Both titles were great in their own way and I can’t imagine my childhood without them. Another great game was Secret of Evermore.
There is a game coming out next month called Sea of Stars by the devs who made The Messenger. No idea how it will stack up against the greats but it’s looking really good from what I’ve seen. It even has Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono Trigger composer) contributing some track.s.
Terranigma, Chrono Trigger, and Secret of Mana 2 are my favourite games.
I find the game play in Terranigma reminded me a bit of Zelda. I loved it.
I think Xenogears [same team] is absolutely in the same league and IMO a whole different bracket of excellence.
I played through disk 1 on a rental back in the day and it was amazing. I’ve heard that the ending is disappointing though.
Oh, I forgot Legend of Dragoon, that was a really cool game too.
The ending is absolutely mind blowing. The final FMV isn’t the greatest but you’ve already got the ending by the time you fight the final boss.
I know there’s all the controversy over disc 2 being rushed, but I never minded at all. It actually felt kinda refreshing after the way that most rpgs went at the time. It was all about seeing the characters change and grow over time that was really satisfying for me
And for those who don’t know, Yasunori Mitsuda worked himself so relentlessly on the soundtrack that he ended up developing stomach ulcers that required hospitalization. You know the soundtrack is good if the composer would rather be shitting blood than let his work be less than perfect.
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highly recommend chrono symphonic as an interpretation of the incredible original.
My favorite was always Frog’s theme, alternating between the triumphant knightly and the devastatingly tragic (which perfectly fit the character). Ah, what a perfect game with a soundtrack to match!
I was walking around the Iowa State Fair for an hour last summer before I realized I was whistling the theme to the Millennial Fair.
Now you gotta play Xenogears and really be ready for some mental shit.
I played Xenosaga forever ago, are they related at all? I have heard really good things about Xenogears so I will put it on my to play list.
I never played Xenosaga, but the teams that made them are totally different. I don’t know how to describe it, but it’s like Chrono Trigger with a more complex plot and characters. There’s something about it that feels a bit similar, it’s hard to describe. Good to go in without too many spoilers. Might be your thing and might not, but definitely worth giving a shot!
I’ve given the newer Xeno series a few looks over the years, but I just don’t think I’m the target audience. I feel really strongly JRPG’s declined in quality after (and in part during) the PS1 era. Not to say this didn’t exist previously, because it certainly did, but the genre began to include more traditional anime-tropes; and I feel the stories within them suffered greatly as a result.
Chrono Trigger (as an admittedly superb standout even amongst other 90’s offerings) is a captivating story filled with interesting characters and world building first. Characters are more than a one-note trope, or an archetype that can be boiled down to a Shonen protagonist and their motley crew of companions (the irony is not lost on me that Akira Toriyama, the creator of DragonBall which is ostensibly the model most other Shonen Manga and anime are still emulating, was a character designer for the game).
This feels rather difficult to put into words without dismissing an entire medium of animation and art, which is NOT my intention, but I don’t that nk it is controversial that the average quality of animation and Manga out of Japan began to decline around the early 2000’s, with obvious exceptions of course. The weird, Otaku culture began to be catered to and I believe in some respects actively cultivated; and the end result was a large swathe of media that communicated in rather immature and shallow methods. Again, totally cool if you’re into that, not trying to take anyone’s favorites away from them, but with the establishment of both a fanatical customer base and a sucessful formulaic plot structure JRPG writing began to follow in suit. In some ways the had to, as gaming technology advanced and allowed for a wider array of dynamic moment to moment gameplay the perception of the genre as somehow lesser or worthwhile became more prevalent; forcing it to cater to the markets that were interested more heavily. Which, of course, leads to dumbing down of the storytelling, and the adherence to the aforementioned stereotypical structure of the market at large.
It’s also worth mentioning that games as a whole become tremendously more difficult to produce, but this rant is already pretty lengthly. I concede I could be wrong about Xenogears, and if that’s your jam then live your best life man, but I don’t know if I’d consider it to be a direct jump from Golden Age of Squaresoft.
It’s the best jrpg of all time.
I would really recommend Chrono Cross for the PS1. It’s set in the same world as Chrono Trigger but isn’t a direct sequel. It has some really great elements to it. I played it when I was a kid and I still revisit it every few years.
@Phyzaks For anyone not aware, there is a re-release of Chrono Cross last year! It’s available on Steam and consoles: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1133760/CHRONO_CROSS_THE_RADICAL_DREAMERS_EDITION/ (even Steam Deck verified) The graphics and art is upscaled, partly with AI, and the results got mixed receptions. And “Radical Dreamers” is included as well, according to the Steam page. Just wanted to point this out, in case emulation is complicated for some.
For more modern CT-likes I would recommend Chained Echoes and the soon-to-be-released Sea of Stars. Chained Echoes was fantastic.
When does Chrono Trigger really start to get good? I’ve tried to play it a few times but it never fully holds me.
The best shit happens after you’ve been to every time period at least once and end up at The End of Time. That’s when you get magic, and things really get good in the amount of choice you have.
My favorite parts are the Prehistoric Era when you actually fight Azala and her Black Dino, and the entirety of the Land of Zeal/Ice Age part where we see the Mammon Machine come online.
For me? As soon as I power on the SNES. For most folks I know? After you complete the intro (festival).
For me it’s a few points. When you discover the day of Lavos, when you take the fight to Magus’ keep, when you first visit Zeal, and when you get the wings of time are all some of my favourite moments.
The trial?
I remember being hooked the moment Marle disappears for the first time. That was 20 years ago. I’m not sure the game would have the same impact on me today.
For me it got good as soon as I went through the first time portal.
It got great at the second visit to the past.
It became immortal at the first visit to the dark ages.I find the first visit to the future to be a slog for the most part, although it has one of the strongest scenes in the game. Power through that segment and it gets better in a hurry.
Also, don’t play Chrono Trigger with the sound off until you can play the soundtrack in your head. The soundtrack doesn’t gently suggest atmosphere like a modern game. It sets the tone for the scene.
the scene where you finally see what happened to the world was bone-chilling the first time i saw it
Check out the “Tales Of” series. I feel those games don’t get the attention they deserve
I haven’t played tales of, but another modern game that gave me heavy chrono vibes is Chained Echoes. I’ve been loving it. Streamlined the right parts of jrpgs imo
I played that since it was free on XBox pass and loved it. Actually is the reason I picked up Chrono Trigger. I really hope the developer is able to create more games similar in nature. From what I understood it was just one person?
I have actually played a few of the more recent ones, Zestiria, Berseria, and Arise although I haven’t finished the last one. I also picked up Trails in the Sky series from the last Steam sale and they are quite good.
Definitely try out Tales of Xillia if you get a chance.
I loved Xillia! I keep hoping against all odds they’ll remaster it for modern platforms like Symphonia or Vesperia.
Tales of Graces is my favorite followed closely by Symphonia. I would also recommend Lost Odyssey for 360.
Lost Odyssey was great!
I don’t know why I never played it for so long. I played it on DS man it was amazing.
Play Terranigma.
Try Secret of Evermore. The combat is very different but the game allows for two players! One controls the main character and the other can control his pet dog. It’s one of the rare action RPGs of the time.
Would Secret of Mana also qualify - even has three players (lots of multi-tap powered memories).
Agreed. SoM was also a classic. I just enjoyed the aesthetic of Evermore and it had a cool dog companion.
One of the best games ever made.
Chrono Trigger is that awesome game that I never played back in the day… Until now, I started it like a month ago (the DS version) and I’m liking it so far.
@Xylinna I did a post a few years ago: https://thingsiplay.game.blog/2020/02/11/what-to-do-after-chrono-trigger/
