Was it Good? - Chrono Trigger 

One incredible lore detail about Lucca's sidequest - the campfire conversation heavily suggests the time gates are created by the planet. The implication is really touching when you think about it. The red gate is literally _the Earth itself_ intervening to give this girl a chance to avert a traumatic event and save a loved one. I like to think that explains the exceptional color. It's an impossibly vast consciousness turning to one of the creatures that's fighting to save it, and saying: "this is for you".

Never realized the horror Lucca must have felt over what happened at the beginning of the game, given the context of her side quest.

Fun fact no one has mentioned yet... the main music composer of the game (Yasunori Mitsuda) made an almost entirely completed sound track to the game, but his hard drive crashed and he had to start entirely over again... we'll never get to hear any of those songs. "I made a lot of new material based off of the memory and feeling of the original compositions.." He was also stated as having music and tunes come to him in dreams. Talented guy... and I'm very thankful for his work.

When I first played this game I changed Robo's name to Promo as an idea of Prometheus and when I found out that was his real name I was so awe struck. The fact that Marle's final weapon is attached to Frog's quest actually makes sense because You met Frog only because Marle changed the past in the beginning of the game, and Frog as Glenn was in love with the queen's daughter. There's references to this in the other chrono games

I always liked how, if you beat the game without saving Crono, Marle will go and save him herself. You can let go, but she won't.

I was immediately skeptical from the intro but it took like two minutes for me to be like "wow, this dude is legit." Right away goes into more detail than 90% of the game essay/reviews out there.

One thing you forgot to mention: If you bring Magus to the fight against Queen Zeal, he will have an interesting conversation with her. And just before the fight begins, *his* boss theme will replace the standard boss theme, making the whole battle even more epic.

I wish they would do a remaster of this for switch. R.I.P Akira Toriyama. 😢

One of my favorite details from the game is how the gurus were all twisted and lost who they were due to Lavos' influence. Melchior, the guru of life, ends up making and selling weapons. Belthasar, the guru of reason, slowly loses his sanity in his isolation and despair. Gaspar, the guru of time, ends up at the end of time.

Only 2 things scare me like hell - Kefka's laugh - Lavos's scream

I came to this video after watching a couple of your other "Was it Good?" videos (pokemon red/blue, God of War, Medieval) as a game that I'd heard thrown about in name, but never played. Two minutes into this video, just by the premise of the game alone, I decided to play through it, and now that I've JUST finished it for the first time (beyond time ending), I've gotta say this is probably my favorite jrpg ever... so thank you for this video.

Rest in peace Akira Toriyama, you will be missed. Edit: Typo

"So, being a good person I pick up the amulet and bring it back to her." This is my favorite "trap" any game's ever sprung on me.

The scene of lucca as a child running back and forth in panic as her mom is getting pulled into the machine is heart-wrenching

40:50 Idk if anyone's mentioned this yet, because it's an extremely minor detail, but most keyboards can absolutely register 3 keys at once, lol, it's required for combinations like ctrl+alt+del for example. If you have a poor quality keyboard that ignores third inputs, other than modifier keys, you can easily just rebind one of the required buttons to a modifier key (like ctrl, shift, or alt). Good quality keyboards have n-key rollover, allowing you to press _every_ key simultaneously, registering each input. Not a big deal, but thought I should mention it.

I've played Chrono Trigger for days, weeks, months. Replayed it countless times. Some following breakthrough guides. Most of what I've seen in this video was new to me. The side quests for each character, the ultimate weapons, the optional endings... Chrono Trigger is light-years ahead of ANYTHING I've played. 28 years later and I'm still amazed by the depth it has. Trully a masterpiece. And your 2 hour long video? It has been a while since I paid attention to a youtube video without multitasking. I've sat through the 134 minutes with my eyes locked to the screen. Thank you for this.

I think Marle getting her weapon from Cyrus makes sense. He was the protector of Queen Leene and Marle is her descendant. It also respects Marle's character by giving her a weapon so that she can protect herself as the independent and adventurous spirit that she is.

A timeless classic in the literal sense of the word. It brings tears to my eyes

i like how they have the battles happen in place instead of transitioning into a generic battle screen

I could never be objective with this game. This was my first rpg ever, I learned how to read to be able to play this game. As cringe as it sounds this game opened up an entire world for me, not just in gaming but beyond that. Hell I've introduced it to my children now. I will always, always love this game

Looking back, I think this game practically spoiled me for all RPGs in my life from when I played it as a kid. There's so many nice touches and small details - Josh just did a two-hour video for a twenty-hour game and didn't even get them all - that I'm still learning about some of them thirty years later! Hell, mostly because I'm geeking out, here's a few things he missed: -- If you go to repair the Masamune and Lucca isn't in your party, Robo will help out instead. Like Lucca, he doesn't have Melchior's magical skills, but basic metallurgy is certainly something he can help assist with. -- Lucca's mom, Lara, can be found in her house at any point in the game, and she stays seated in a chair by a window at all times. The first time you talk to her, Taban will actually come in and give her some of the money he's earned from the fair, and the dialogue shows that the two of them still love and care about each other. However, if you go back to her after saving her in Lucca's event, she'll actually get up and start doing things around the house AND be shown walking around during the Millennial Fair in the ending. -- If you take Magus to Spekkio to 'learn magic', Spekkio will not only say 'no need, he already knows it', he'll specify that Magus could probably teach HIM a thing or two instead. -- Remember Fritz, the guy you saved from the castle dungeon during Crono's escape? If you go to the item shop in Crono's town afterward, Fritz and his fiancee, who are looking after it for her father, will give you ten Hi-Potions for free as thanks. Then the father will walk in from the back, and while the couple freak out about being caught giving out free stuff, the father will thank Crono for helping save Fritz (either not noticing or not caring about the freebies). -- Bring Ayla with you on the Rainbow Shell quest, and when you and Marle find it in the castle storeroom, she canonically feels up Marle's chest, saying that she's not grown up quite yet. Because Ayla has zero chill. This game is so good and I've played through it so many times, I've memorized all this trivia and can recall it all three decades later. God, I love this game.

Wow, watching this as an adult.. I cannot believe I beat this game as young as I did. This game is beautifully deep.

One cool thing that some people miss is at 1:09:25 you can see Lavos in the sky beginning to fall to the planet before the fight with Azala even begins (look at timestamp in the upper right corner). Man, I love the attention to detail in this game!

Hironobu Sakaguchi asked Ted Woolsey to localize Chrono Trigger for English audiences with a deadline of 30 days. Woolsey was disappointed with this time-budget commenting that he preferred a timeline of about 75 days and that he felt rushed completing the translation. He later commented however that Chrono Trigger was "one of the most satisfying games he ever worked on or played." this article is one of many things I discover after play this game for the first time last year. The choice of 3 wise men's name, mura and masa, and many others was localization decision, with criminally small amount of time

1:35:15 Magus actually is powered down from when you fight him. You technically have access to all the spells he did in the boss fight, but you have to level him up to get back to that point. It's actually a really good bit of gameplay and story integration, because Magus has a very specific line in the confrontation with Lavos where he mentions that Lavos is draining his power. Magus starting off in the party with only the elemental spells (Lightning 2, Ice 2, and Fire 2) is how the game reflects that part of the story happening.

Josh covered almost everything in Chrono Trigger. The only thing I don't recall hearing is if you defeat the Black Omen in 1000AD, you can go to 600AD and 12000BC and defeat those incarnations of the Black Omen as well as a nod to timeline continuity. Same if you defeat it in 12000BC, it will be erased in future time eras. Also if you do the 1000AD path you can steal up to 3 Prism Dresses and 3 Prism Helms from Zeal's hands, so if you get the 3 helms from the Rainbow Shell quest you'll have 6 helms to cover all the party and 3 dresses for the 3 female members of the party.

Lavos is the most lovecraftian entity i can think of in any game. Also lavos is only one and it makes spawns, meaning Lavos is a species and there is more of it out in space

I saw a review of this game by KingK, someone born well after it came out, who'd had little taste for retro games. He ended up giving this the highest praise he possibly could, mentioning how a true classic is something that is great even without the rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia. It was one of the most moving things I've ever seen, and it makes me proud to have played this game to completion.

You dont actually have to fight Spekkio to get magic, you just have to bring characters to him to get their magic "activated". He offers you a fight afterwards as a way yo test out your new powers.

RIP Toriyama. The greatest contributor to video gaming

One of the best games of all time, hands down. I first saw it in Nintendo Power and absolutely HAD to have it. It did not disappoint, no matter how many times I replayed it.

Lavos's scream is something that still to this day, even though I haven't played this game since it was new, that sends chills down my spine. Josh Strife Hayes video here, is the best review of Chrono Trigger that I've ever seen in my life.

The two moments that will always stick out for me are 1: When you rescue Crono with Marle in the party - because she clearly loves the selfless doofus, and that scene is just plain wholesome. and 2: Frog forgiving himself, and becoming the true hero everyone believes him to be...one of the few scenes in any video game that has made me tear up.

Lara is in the early game as well. You can see her if you go to Lucca's house, she's upstairs resigned to a chair of course. If you also periodically check in with Taban, he gives Lucca custom equipment for free. It breaks my heart that a few things like Singing Mountain were cut from the game as well!! Maybe Ayla could've had a fleshed out event at the end of the game

I've been in love with this game for nearly 2 decades, and everytime something reminds of it, I just remember how impressed I was back when I was 10 years. I played this thing a lot, and I just feel like playing again after this here video of 2:30.

This is one of those times where when people say its a masterpiece, they are not in fact over-hyping it. Truly brilliant, and it will forever remain among my personal favorites.

This game is a masterpiece. It's the first that actually made me really like video game music, the zeal kingdom music "corridors of time" is 10/10

Like many others I've been profoundly touched by my time with Chrono Trigger but, as time went on, I came to doubt myself. Was this game really that great or was it just nostalgia speaking? Thank you for this in-depth review Josh, you reminded about how masterful it really was. This was truly a dream project, a one of a kind experience, and it is no wonder that, after all these years, it is still hailed as one the absolute bests of the JRPG genre.

As a game dev this is such a great breakdown of what makes great games, here some bookmarks with key points: 20:40 Every fight progresses the story, rather then increasing a number 1:38:25 Fights that occur in the world should affect it

Yasunori Mitsuda did the majority of the soundtrack, Uematsu filled in a bit when he got sick and did a few songs.

So about Crono's cat appearing everywhere... if you play all the games available at the fair, you can win a second, female cat for Crono and I believe a cat for some if not all the characters if you have them as leader when you play one of the minigames at the fair, I forget which. You can also get replica dolls for each character after you get Crono's doll and also Poyozo dolls. You can find them in their different time periods from where the character comes from and the Poyozo dolls play the theme music for each character when you interact with them. After you get all the main prizes in the tent, if you play the games again and win, you get cat food. Get enough cat food, travel a bit, come back to Crono's house and you'll have kittens and depending on how much food you get for the cats, there can be quite a few kittens that go through the portal at the end of the game and THAT is why you see them in different time periods. It wasn't just the one cat. Cool stuff eh? I played the crap out of this game as a kid and did everything possible, even maxing out all character levels and their stats using the various tabs you get, which after you max them out, you'll see double stars.

R.I.P Akira Toriyama.

As one who was a kid from the ‘90’s I can affirm that it definitely was good. The point that it took a grown adult only 20 hours is fair, but for a kid playing through, not necessarily figuring everything out right away, this game felt absolutely massive. I try to judge games not just by how I feel about them as an adult, but by how I felt or would have felt about them as a middle school kid. Chrono Trigger and FF6 are for me the undisputed champions of that season of life in the ‘90’s.

I've played hundreds of games so far in my life and to this day I think my single favorite moment in any of the games I've played is when Frog, finally having accepted the restored Masamune and his role as the hero of legend, declares "Mine name is Glenn! Cyrus's hopes and dreams, and now the Masamune! Forthwith I shall slay Magus and restore honor!" before splitting the mountain to open the path to Magus' lair. It's such a fantastic hero moment.

My favorite thing about the Zeal fight atop the Black Omen, is that if you bring Magus to the fight, the boss music changes from what it normally is to Magus’ boss theme. That badass music blaring while fighting her was awesome, cause it tells me that Magus isn’t fighting Zeal, she is fighting HIM. They didn’t have to add such an epic, yet subtle bit of detail, but I’m so glad they did.

I finished this game last week blind having never played if before. It's fair to say it completely holds up today I understand the praise it gets and it deserves all of it.

20 hours? My first playthrough was like 70! That aside... this video rem8nded me how much I love this game. It's as you said, CT set a bar so high tuat it's still up there today, it's got so much gameplay and narrative depth; some of the moments came back to me as you narrated them, and I got emotional again just thinking about them. The characters stuck with me. And damn, it's been yearsand I still haven't seen all the endings! PS: I will always ship Lucca and Crono.

Yes!! I knew you'd get to this one day when you started this channel. The original "when the boss joins the party vs when you fight him" too

You missed a nice detail about the cave that leads to the Magus Castle. If you enter it without unlocking magic for Frog, the first time you win a fight where you casted a spell, it will play a short cutscene where Frog is surprised you can use it and whoever is the third party member will suggest visiting Spekkio.

RIP Akira Toriyama.

It's been nearly 20 years and I still throw on the OST from time to time. What a sonic masterpiece - I couldn't pick a favorite track to this day.

This is the first one of these where I’ve got lost enjoying the story, and forgot it was a “Was it any good” video until you asked that at the end. Cheers for all the effort you put into these.

I didn't play this game until last year. Without any nostalgia glasses to go on, I can easily say this is one of the best games I've ever played

I wasn't expecting this style of video from the title but I really like the analysis you were able to do while we went along the story

I can't believe how much I missed in this game as a kid; truly a masterpiece.

I always say this is my favorite game of all time. I don't know if that is true really, but it is what I feel. I will always remember Chrono Trigger, as a 12 year old, was the first game that made me cry. Not because of any devastating sad moment. I cried at the end of the game, when all of my friends, who I adventured with and grew with said good-bye and left for their own times and lives. It is something that will stick with me forever.

No wonder, the absolute GOATS of all time came together to create a love letter to JRPG's. You'll never see this quality ever again.

R.I.P Toriyama

RIP Akira Toriyama

I always have Marle there when I rescue Crono at death peak. Their reunion makes me tear up every time. Also it feels thematically appropriate to have her save him after he saved her early in the story.

One bit about one of the endings, if you fail to rescue Lara in Lucca's time travel back to her childhood, the remains disabled for the rest of the game, like you said, there's no way to go back and try again. So she'll still be in her chair the entire rest of the game. But if you do save her, not only does she get up and walk around the house, but at the Millenial Fair she tries to get Taban to dance with her. I know at that point she never knew a life of being unable to walk or dance, but it still made me happy to see her doing so after I saved her.

Thank you Akira Toriyama for the greatest JRPG in history, RIP.

I was 14 when this game came out and I must've played it through a half-dozen times in the first few months I had it. The game has so much soul, you can feel it in every moment and every interaction. I wouldn't be surprised if, seventy-two years from now, people still consider it a seminal moment in the evolution of a medium.

This is an absolutely PHENOMENAL game. The attention to detail and amount of content to be found is insane. It's also an amazing story. I can still remember being left completely dumbfounded when the player character (which was safe to assume Crono is, given we meet him first and he's a clear self-insert for the player) dies midway and the game continues without him. What? This is not supposed to happen! You didn't see a lot of writing choices like this back then. This might really be one of the select few occasions that I would give a game a 10/10, because it's just that awesome.

Some bits about the translation and how it was changed: Magus in Japanese doesn't have a name, he just calls himself "Mao", Demon King Masamune is a western sword in japanese, Grandleon Ozzie, Slash and Flea are Vinegar, Soy, Mayo (Dragonballs creator loves naming characters after food, i think that one was on him) If I remember something else I'll edit idk

Rip toriyama

1:41:41 The red mail, red vest, and Taban armors for Lucca also make this fight pretty trivial as Taban gear also resists fire and the vest/mail absorb fire damage

lol I like how you saved Crono with the least emotionally impacted party possible.

Was it any good? Damn right it was. A masterpiece ahead of its time.

Man, what an intense nostalgia trip this video was! It was amazing to relive the game in abridged format while trying to remember how many of the side quests, endings, and optional content I unlocked as a kid. I think personally, the biggest flaw in the game is that enemies can move on the field but you can't, which always gave me a sense of unfairness. I'm now tempted to search out my Chrono Trigger cartridge and see if I still have a save file on there. And if, so, how much I'd found... It is so awesome that you can make these videos a combination of humor, telling the game story, telling your story with the game, and describing the pros and cons of the design of the game, all at once. Major kudos to you!

42:25 if you pay attention you can see the race starts at a view that would have them going left to right (west to east). It then rotates the camera around for effect and only APPEARS they’re going east to west.

1:51:34 you can see lucca's mother in the game at any time, its just that you need to go to lucca's house to talk to her, she is in her room. you can even meet her at the start of the game before even meeting marle.

Just a side note about the beginning when you talk about the composer, there's the picture of Nobuo Uematsu, but the music was mainly composed Yasunori Mitsuda. It was his first gig at Square as a composer, after doing sound effects for other games for the company. He was overwhelmed though, that's why Nobuo Uematsu also composed a few tracks.

Not only do I appreciate your thorough in depth walkthrough of this amazing game, I just wanna say thank you for interjecting the different endings in relation to where you are in the story. Many videos I've seen that talk about the multiple endings for this game tend to lump them all together and with 14 endings, it starts to sound like mush. So again, thank you for that. Awesome video.

i never gonna play this game because im not a fans of jrpg but holy moly what a plot!!! everything was insanely great and i forgot that this game is in SNES! SNES!!! HOW!? with the combat system, animation, sound track. its amazing. i always question why this game is the "goat" now i understand why

It's gonna be him yelling YES! For like two hours. Awesome!

Also the fact that if you have Magus in the Party when the Masamune levels up he physically reacts like hes in pain. Great stuff for 30 years ago.

I'll never forget getting this for Christmas back when it was released ,and playing playing it straight for 2 days before I beat it the first time. One of my favorite game memories

AWSOME VIDEO! I’ve been playing this game since 97 and you showed me many things that I didn’t know about. New sub!

You can actually complete the Black Omen a total of 4 times if you start in the future and work backwards. You want to do this because Ayla can actually steal a Prism Helm and a Prism Dress from the hands of Queen Zeal, so if you ask Melchior to give you 3 helms its possible to have a dress for all female characters and a helm for every character on your first playthrough

There's a very special Let's Play Endurance Run on RU-vid by late Giant Bomb host Ryan Davis before his tragic passing with Patrick Klepek It turned out to be Ryan Davis last Endurance Run before his tragic passing in 2013 on his honeymoon. 😥 It's like a soap opera and I would advise everyone to watch the entire series one a day. Don't binge it. You will be hooked on the story even if you have no desire to play it. RIP Ryan Davis

Videos this long are labor of love, you've more than earned your current subscribers and deserve more.

Chrono Trigger, The Secret of Mana, and Final Fantasy IV have always been my favorite game RPGS. I remember spending so much time in my youth playing those games while unlocking all their secrets. Truly classics of an era and the SNES console. All with great story telling, gameplay, and timeless enjoyment.

God I played this game 20 years ago, and despite having played hundreds of games since then, this has remained my #1 pick for best game of all time. The emotions and feeling I felt as a young teenager and aspiring writer after I finished this game was overwhelming. And to this day, I still can't listen to the soundtrack "To Far Away Times" without smiling.

Truly awesome seeing a in depth video of chrono trigger and loved every moment of it, it'd be awesome to see a "is it good legend of dragoon" sometime :D

One thing I thought was neat was that if you stand in Marle's way at the beginning, she can't run into you, you HAVE to be moving to collide with her. Not sure if this is just a biproduct of the system, but it's interesting because in Crono's trial, they ask if you initiated contact and if you say "no", the chancellor says witnesses saw you do so.

Josh Strife, not sure if you'll see this but i wanted to say a big thank you. I suffer from chronic migraines and I really appreciate the "flashing light" warning at the start. It just means I get to enjoy your content without the threat of a day long episode. Thanks again and keep it up!

The fact that Ayla and Kino are the ancestors of Guardia making her Marle's (insert all the greats here) grandparents is a nice touch of how all of the game is connected, damn i love this game

The Kingdom of Zeal will FOREVER have a place in my heart. As a child, it was the first time the idea of a floating city was ever shown to me, and it shaped me and made me fall in love with high fantasy. As a result, my adolescent and teenage years were spent playing fantasy JRPG's. The music of Zeal is my favorite song from Chrono Trigger and hearing the orchestral version still gets me misty eyed. I hope when I die, the afterlife is a idealized version of the city in the clouds..

I'm surprised at how little this review focused on the soundtrack. Chrono Trigger's OST is one of the GOATs and really helps set the mood. Each character gets their own theme and Frog's theme triumphantly kicks in when he slices the mountain open with the Masamune.

What I love most about Chrono Trigger is that pretty much every part of it up to the battle with Magus is basically a stealth tutorial for how the game works. Every boss fight tells you something new about the game's mechanics and how to deal with future bosses, with Magus being essentially your final exam. I wish more games would work this way.

Man I loved this game so much. I played through it more times than I could possibly remember. I forgot how great the story was written. Thanks for the member berries.

RIP the legend Akira Toriyama.

This game was peak of my life. From Chrono Trigger to Majora's Mask. I had no worries. Just go to school come him and game. Too young for love. No bills! A good home and food. It's bittersweet. I listen to the music of Chrono Trigger. It's beautiful. It makes me tear up occasionally. I wouldn't go back to re-live it. Because I love my kids. But I do mourn the old days. This game was way ahead of its time. The music, the combat, the story! Everything. So much to do. The video store we went to was $5, 5 days, 5 videos or games. I rented this and Mario RPG Legend of the Seven Stars. I put hundreds of hours into each. Chrono Trigger will always be number 1 to me. For where I was in life and how happy I was.

Chrono Trigger will always be in my memory as the best rpg game I've ever been blessed to play along with Super Mario RPG. That was the golden age of gaming, where quality mattered and some of the best games to ever exist were created.

These videos are amazing, the commentary, the footage. I've watched quite a few of these videos the past coupe of days and This one really is remarkable! I stopped playing my game to dedicate to watching this. great job!

Chrono Trigger is my favorite game of all time, bar none. That having been said, this is my favorite retrospective of the game I've ever seen, so thank you Josh. You pointed out basically everything about the game that I love, both as a kid and on a replay as an adult. I am a bit surprised that you didn't talk about the soundtrack, since Uematsu's work is absolutely incredible all across the 20+ hours of play, but I realize that you had a LOT of things to talk about in this. Still. Thank you, Josh. This was a wonderful video that took me back in time. Also, just as a fun note? There's a trick to making the Son of Sun significantly easier. If you have Magus in your party in the right party slot, his Black Hole spell will consume two of the fires and leave you with only three possibilities to hit. It makes the fight SIGNIFICANTLY easier.

Hearing Josh Strife not raise his voice once in a review and speaking his conclusion in a calm but satisfied-sounding tone is something I haven't experienced before. This was pretty damn special.

It aged insanely well. 16-bit graphics tend to age better compared to early 3D graphics, and the battle system still holds up and doesn't feel dated. The multiple endings also give it a lot of good replay value.

Wow dude, this was AMAZING! Brought back so many fond childhood memories of actually playing this on the SNES. Forgot so many small bits and you showed so many small bits that I loved about the game. Cheers to you, these 200 minutes flew by like it was nothing. Thank you, sincerely. ❤