The 1990s were a good time — the Cold War ended and MTV still played good music. Back in 1995, Squaresoft (now known as SquareEnix) released what is now considered by many one of the best role-playing game's of all time. Chrono Trigger was released in North America on Aug. 22, 1995.

Chrono Trigger is a RPG with a story based around a main character who, throughout the game, never says a word. Chrono is a teenager who, when at the millennium fair, runs into a girl and is forced to spend the day with her. When a horrible malfunction in a machine accidentally sends her through a time portal, Chrono jumps right into the machine and goes after her. After saving the girl, getting arrested and thrown headlong into the future, Chrono and friends learn what's going to destroy the world and decide to stop it no matter what.

The combat system, like most other RPGs, is turn-based. What sets this game apart for its time was the special moves that all characters had called techs. The single techs sure enough are just like spells from other games, but there were special techs between two and even three characters in the fights. So instead of each character attacking separately, it allowed two or all of them to attack the enemy at once.

The story is by far one of the best Square has ever written for any of their games. Most gamers know this game for its ingenuity and how far it pushed the RPG genre in story and gameplay. But the game does have a few drawbacks: easy combat, lack of new enemy sprites and recycled sprites. But the positives far outweigh the negatives.

If you can find a retro game store near you, go see if you can find a copy and grab it while you can. If not, you'll just be missing an amazing game.


Ethan Walsh is a sophomore at the Academy for Technology and the classics. You can reach him at bobmundo97@gmail.com.