This game had me hooked when I was a teenager. Chrono Trigger expertly wove a time traveling plot line together that managed to avoid most loopholes. You gathered together a group of adventurers that were collected throughout time and fought evil with them. Changes that you made in the past effected the future. It made sense in a weird Back To The Future sort of way.
The combat wasn't entirely original, but it did have a key gameplay feature that no other JRPG has done since. You could create Team Attacks between certain party members that attacked the screen in a certain way. Is there an enemy in between Crono and his target? Have Robo throw Crono at the enemy. Both enemies get attacked and you're more efficient because of it. It was a unique twist on the genre.
Most important to me was the multiple endings. There were various times in the game that you could confront the final boss, Lavos. On your first playthrough, more than likely, you'd only be strong enough to fight him at the end of the game. But on subsequent playthroughs, because you retained your exp and items, you could defeat him earlier and come across a different ending video. It added a replayability feature to a genre that desperately needed it.
Tales of Symphonia kind of did the whole team attack thing, but it was part of the limit break/trance/whatever you wanna call it, not a part of normal combat, if memory serves.
ReplyDelete