Why We Still Love Chrono Trigger After 30 Years

Some games stand the test of time and others do not. And then there are the legends – the games that refuse to be forgotten, no matter how many console generations come and go. Chrono Trigger is one of those legends.

Chrono Trigger was a SNES game released in 1995 by Square (aka SquareSoft, eventually to become Square Enix) after being developed by the “Dream Team” of Hironobu Sakaguchi, Yuji Horii, and Akira Toriyama (of Dragon Ball fame). At the time of release, it was considered a commercial success and has been consistently hailed as one of the best games of all time. It’s since been released on several other platforms, including the PlayStation (packaged with Final Fantasy IV as “Final Fantasy Chronicles”), the Nintendo DS, and eventually onto Steam (where it can still be purchased!). It’s been updated along the way, including new endings and cutscenes.

But here’s the real question, why does nostalgic Chrono Trigger still hold up today, especially in a world obsessed with ray tracing, 4K graphics, and endless sequels?

Spoilers ahead (But let’s be real, this game is 30 years old. You’ve had time.)

Timeless Storytelling and Characters

Not many video games have made me cry. Chrono Trigger was one of them. At its core, this isn’t just an RPG about time travel—it’s a story about fate, free will, and sacrifice. Crono literally dies to save his friends, and you spend a big chunk of the game without him. How many RPGs are gutsy enough to kill off their silent protagonist and not immediately undo it?

Then there’s the cast—each character feels fully realized, even the NPCs and villains. Magus, for example, has one of the most compelling arcs in RPG history, and Ayla? She says exactly what she wants, when she wants, and we love her for it.

My favorite, though, is how the time-travel mechanic actually affects the story. At the time, a game having multiple endings was unprecedented. Well, maybe you could have two endings, a “good” and “bad” ending, but how about 13 endings? You could directly control which ending you received through the tasks you completed throughout the game, at which point you decide to defeat Lavos, and whether or not you revived Crono. Even small tasks and side quests had massive impact through the magnification of time travel. Who can forget finally obtaining the Moon Stone and traveling to every single time period to check on its progress (only to find it goes missing!)?

Revolutionary Gameplay and Combat

As a Final Fantasy die-hard fan, I found the no random encounters of Chrono Trigger refreshing. All of the enemies could be seen on screen (well, most of them, you could be ambushed!), which meant that if you knew how you could avoid some encounters. Grinding was still necessary, which required leaving the area and returning rather than walking forever in circles, but at least you could skip battles without having to run away.

The Active Time Battle (ATB) system made combat feel urgent. You weren’t just waiting your turn, you were planning and reacting, changing plans on the fly in response to which enemy had just attacked. Who else screamed at the screen for Marle to hurry up because the party needed healing? 🙋

Of course, there are also the Tech Combos. Instead of just having party members spam their strongest attacks, Chrono Trigger encouraged teamwork. Want to see Frog and Crono pull off an epic X-Slash? Pair them up. Want to nuke the battlefield with a Triple Tech? Build the right party. It wasn’t just about strategy—it was about experimenting and discovering new, devastating moves.

Gorgeous Pixel Art and Timeless Music

Do you remember the excitement of getting a new game and flipping through the guidebook for all the character art? I remember loving the designs created by the legendary Dragon Ball creator, Akira Toriyama. Not only were the designs fresh and exciting, the pixel art in the game was gorgeous and detailed. I still get chill bumps thinking about the scene on Death Peak when you finally get Crono back, and how the snow glittered on the tree. Each character was lovingly animated, their moods and expressions easily read even as pixels.

And we cannot talk about Chrono Trigger without mentioning the iconic soundtrack. Still, to this day, Yasunori Mitsuda and Nobuo Uematsu’s work on Chrono Trigger is considered some of the best music ever made for a video game. To be perfectly honest, I’m listening to it right now as I write this! When I was a kid in my high-stress high school, I had a saved game in the Kingdom of Magic to fire up just so I could listen to Corridors of Time. Now we have 10-hour YouTube loops instead, but back then keeping a saved game at that spot was the only way to listen to it when you needed it. The soundtrack is simply stunning.

Shaping the Future of RPGs

Chrono Trigger, of course, was so iconic that it influenced later RPGs, such as later Final Fantasy releases, Xenogears, and Octopath Traveler. It has also influenced seemingly unrelated games, such as Stardew Valley (when I first started playing, I remarked that the character design felt a lot like Chrono Trigger, since before its release, pixel art characters were much more squat, as you see in Final Fantasy IV).

And now that it is available to modern audiences through Steam and the PC, there is a modding community that keeps the love of Chrono Trigger alive and well today. While it’s not as popular as, say, Minecraft, you can still find gamers streaming their replays, as well.

We will never forget Chrono Trigger and how it has shaped RPGs.

With its iconic soundtrack, lovingly detailed graphics and character design, revolutionary gameplay, and touching storyline, Chrono Trigger will be relevant for the next 30 years.

What was your favorite Chrono Trigger moment? Let me know in the comments!