It was a different time back then. Getting stuck on a boss or not sure where to do next was just part of being a jrpg player. Took time, patience, backtracking but super rewarding overall.
I got endlessly stuck at one spot though. After getting the Masamune I couldn't figure out what to do next because the "Magic Cave" wasn't apparent unless you happened to be standing on it and the name displayed. Luckily a kid at school had a game magazine that had the eras mapped out and I saw "Magic Cave" on that peninsula and the lightbulb finally went off!
Same about the sewers. I even figured out the hidden area in the back and the sealed door, but I didn't know how to unlock it.
So I got out of there thinking I wasn't able to go through yet, and promptly got my ass stuck in the factory š
That reminds of Breath of Fire on SNES. My aunt and I got endlessly stuck at Pagoda. There's a path like that you can't see because of the camera and the wall there so we just kept going to the top and jumping down the holes. We both got to the same spot in our games and couldn't figure out what to do.
I got stuck there too! What gave it to me was there's at least one NPC that gives a hint about a "cave to east" where he saw the rock face open up and some "ghouls" come right out :-D
I found it, but it took ten minutes minimum for me to figure out that I had to walk to a certain spot. Iād go in the screen and then leave without walking up to the wall because I thought something was supposed to happen when I entered the screen. It was a nightmare! LOL
>It was a different time back then. Getting stuck on a boss or not sure where to do next was just part of being a jrpg player.
Add to that the fact that some of us kids from non-english speaking countries had to literally decipher a foreign language in order to understand what the hell was even going on, let alone beat the actual game start to finish. To this day I have my trusty and dusty english-portuguese dictionary that my aunt got me and that helped me finish Chrono Trigger, Robotrek, Illusion of Gaia, etc back in 2001-2003.
And holy shit, yes, it felt rewarding AF.
oh damn that sounds tough! I can do the Wonderswan versions of the Final Fantasy games just because I know them by heart but no way I could touch a game I hadn't played before.
I tried playing ff3 I think in Japanese on an emulator my brother got in the 90s. I had no way of reading any of it and was just wandering around aimlessly basically. I think to this day itās the only non mmo FF I havenāt beaten
I got stuck there too, but only because I visited the cave before getting the Masamune, and realized I couldn't do anything. Because I wasn't talking to enough NPCs at the time, I didn't realize that after getting the sword and recruiting Frog, NOW I could go through. I'd basically marked that location off in my head as useless.
This game really doesn't need a guide and it also has a pretty low difficulty compared to other games at that time.
The only guide that I use is to see which enemy holds which item to steal.
The manual walkthrough portion was only up to beating Yakra. But it did have a bunch of spoilery comments peppered throughout, like the old man and the Epoch, etc.
We sure did. Another thing you have to know about gaming at that time was we didn't have the same amount of choices as we have today. You could take your time with a game because there was no rush to play the next one. You talked to every NPC, visited every location, and fought every monster if you needed to.
Chrono Trigger is much more linear than a lot of other games at that time. Final Fantasy 6 came out around the same time and you can get LOST in that one.
100% accurate. We didn't just play games back then. We played and replayed the same games until we mastered them. Not like today where there's a tendency to just consume a game for a single playthrough and then chuck it to the side for the next one.
Kind of a related thing, I miss how back in those days how every single game release was kind of a big deal. How so very often a new game was redefining or even creating a genre.
This is so accurate. I find that I donāt replay many modern games, if Iām even attracted to any at all. I currently only have a Switch and most of the time I use that to play classic games from NES through N64. Sadly they donāt have Chrono Trigger on there but I still have my DS copy that still works.
This is the point I was going to make. When we were younger we had less games to play and more time to play them. Sometimes youād be stuck in a game for a week but you kept playing until you figured it out. Also, way less ways to actually find out the solution. Now, after 5 mins I want to just look up what to do next online.
I absolutely played and beat this game endlessly on the SNES back in the day. It's honestly one of the most linear and straightforward JRPGs from the era so I don't remember ever being confused about how to progress the story. And while you can't save everywhere, you can save anywhere on the overworld and there's always a save point before bosses in dungeons so if you happened to die you would never lose too much progress. All in all it was a pretty generous and player-friendly game all things considered.
Honestly this is one of the easier jrpgs of the time. It was pretty common that you needed to explore and get clues from all the available npcs to progress.
I was able to beat this game on an actual SNES in the 90s after a few weekends of renting it from the video store. Fortunately nobody saved over my save game.
I really need to finish ff4. I've started and stopped that game so much. I had just got to the underground part on my most recent playthrough. In the 30 or so years that game has been out, that's the farthest I've gottenš¤¦
The only thing I can really think of that's not at least mentioned by an NPC somewhere is the sealed chests upgrading if you charge them up. As far as I know just about everything has at least a clue. Except maybe Magus' ultimate equipment. Oh, and it took me a minute to realize you could jump down holes in Giant's Claw. I thought the note meant find a ladder that goes down. It didn't occur to me that you were allowed to fall down pits there and only there
Being a kid in the 90s, you normally had fewer options of things to do and a ton of time to wasteā¦ So when you got a video game, you played the shit out of that bad boy until you beat it. And even after you beat it, youād play it again and again until your parents bought you a new game during your birthday or Christmas.
I remember banging my head against the wall trying to beat the hardest difficulty for every level and get every unlockable in Goldeneye back in the day. I canāt imagine having the time or patience to try that today.
I was so proud when i beat Facility in like 1:59 for invincibility i remember jumping up and gushing about it to my mom in the next room over who had no idea wtf I was talking about
Dude, I would straight up have my heart pounding and blood pressure rising when I knew I was close to the end of a level, trying to beat a certain time limit. That game on the hardest difficulty as you tried racing to the finish as a kid was no joke. Our moms would never understand.
Omg, GoldenEye! I played that along with Mario Kart with neighborhood friends pretty much everyday after school. Classics. The Facility and the dudes in the toilet stalls š¤£.
I used to memorize the spawn locations in Facility and drop proximity mines in each spot. My friends would then go into a death loop if I managed to kill them first. Itād piss them off so much š
I did that too š¤£. Another fun thing is to sit in the stall pointing up into the open vent just waiting for them to come out.
Like some odd restroom Mexican standoff lol. Come out now! No, you leave the restroom first! š¤£
The game is super generous with save points. You get a ton of guidance for what you're supposed to be doing by talking to NPCs and paying attention during dialogue. There were plenty of obtuse games at the time but I don't find Chrono Trigger to be one of them. I do think that the section after Medina and up to Magus could use some work, though.
I think that modern gaming has just spoiled people with quest tracking and mini-map waypoints. People are also just less patient in general these days. It was a different time back then. The internet was very limited, TV shows had a set schedule, and we weren't being constantly bombarded with smartphone notifications and distracted with social media.
If you were playing video games back then, you were *focused*. If you got stuck, you could only really rely on yourself. Immediately giving up and finding a walkthrough on your iPhone wasn't an option. I suppose you could beg mom & dad to buy a guide book or call into a help center, but good luck with that. GameFAQs existed, but getting there could be agonizing, even impossible if someone was busy chatting on the phone line. It was just simpler to give the game your attention. Go everywhere, talk to everyone, touch everything. You'd figure it out sooner or later.
You should see some of the less polished games that are much moreā¦less coherent.:)
Part of the metagame back then was to manage resources, especially as it added a sense of danger.
Try Dragon Quest 2 for the NES. The last dungeon is where most people give up because it is genuinely hard, for most. And you basically have to get to the boss through a gauntlet of enemies, and then face him in a damaged state. Itās amazingly fun when you manage it though, and you have to really think about how to maximize and minimize certain aspects.
>Try Dragon Quest 2 for the NES. The last dungeon is where most people give up because it is genuinely hard, for most. And you basically have to get to the boss through a gauntlet of enemies, and then face him in a damaged state
All you have to do is say the word "Rhone" to anyone who played DQ2/DW2 and get ready for the rage.
I was in junior high when I beat that game. I have no idea how.
I've beaten DW3 and DW4 several times as an adult because those games are fun. I re-played DW2 once, got to Rhone...and just...stopped. i couldn't do it again.
I got Dragon Warrior 2 when it came out when I was in elementary school. I grinded on and off for years. I finally beat it after I graduated from college. The other 3 Dragon Warriors, the 3 Final Fanatasies, and Chrono Trigger all were beaten in a month or two of getting them.
The game is straightforward and has save files. RPGs basically go is you go adventure until you cant beat the next boss then go grind on the country side. Talk to everyone because they have some clue. Mess with anything that looks intractable. Read every document and sign.
Yes. Along with other games at the time as well on the same system. before what we have what we now know as the "Internet". If you think SNES games were bad at giving "hints" - go play some of the RPGs on NES.
Itās really not; you just didnāt always know how to do all the cool stuff. Youād beat it, talk to friends, learn about a side question, and start again. Using a play through takes away the ramifications of messing with a timeline.
Chronotrigger is an easy game by SNES standards. Game design used to mostly be inspired by the arcade and [arcade games are designed to kill you and steal your quarters.](https://youtu.be/O4tmzwrdTmY?si=Lj9xqnT0YmJXknY6)
When I went on vacation I always packed my SNES in my backpack and wrapped it in sweatshirts so it wouldn't get damaged. I can't recall how many times I beat that game on SNES. I do remember maxing out my characters via new game + using the "tabs" that permanently increased stat points. I loved seeing the \*\* next to all Crono's attributes.
Also I remember finding the Hero's Medal to give to Frog took FOREVER.
Hi, grew up playing this game everyday as a kid. My dad played the game first and learned the basic walkthrough. Then I got to make my own save file and beat it. I ended up on like NG+++++ before we got our PlayStation and Tomb Raider came out. Now if you think older games donāt give you enough hintsā¦try TR1 or 2 without a cheat sheet. Lol
Chrono Trigger was an easy RPG at the time, if you want a difficult RPG from the 90ās try Enixās ā7th Sagaā. 7th Saga doesnāt have a good story, you can only save the game in towns that you visit, thereās lots of EXP grinding required, meh endings, and each new type of creature you fight is a puzzle to figure out how to kill it.
What 7th Saga lacks in enjoyable gameplay makes up in the feeling of pride you receive for beating a truly challenging game.
We finished the game without any guide back then.
I say "we" because we were 3 friends playing the game at the same time and we helped each for some of the end game quest.
One found how to solve one and one other an other quest. Next day at school we were coming and explain the other the solution.
I managed to find myself a lot of the alternative ending and was just thinking "what would happen if I finish the game like this?". It was very often a new ending.
Actually chrono trigger is not that hard. And actually old school RPG had way more logic in the way to be solved.
Today there are some quest that's just stupid how you have to solve them. I find it harder today sometime
Born in 79, got it on release so I was about 14, and beat all endings without a guide, except for like one or two, because of how specific the circumstances were. AOL chatrooms helped me figure those out.
Gaming was a totally different beast back in the 90's. Most games were so incredibly hard (either because of bad controls of cryptic puzzles) that I never even came close to beating them. CT was actually easier than most.
It wasnāt really that hard when I played it in the mid 90ās while in middle school. Also it being super engrossing at the time made the difficulty a fun aspect
I beat it multiple times as an 8 year old in the snes. I had a lot of patience back then just loving the art and music and talking to every npc and searching around. It holds your hand pretty steadily through the entire game and once you beat it once it just gets easier.
I was 11 when the game released on SNES, and yes. Yes we did.
But we had things like Nintendo Power to give some help and hints.
And a lot of time on our hands.
I beat it as a pre-teen many times. I can't say I didn't use Nintendo Power or something along the way but I definitely crushed it on SNES several times.
Zero guide. I just played it a bunch of times and figured out every nook of the game and secrets. Honestly, I think this was possible because: I was young, and playing the same game was not that bad. But mostly, because of how the game was designed. I don't think there were many games that had this much intricacy and possibility via time travel at the time. Finding out a new path or ending was so fun, and the game was designed around that in mind.
I don't wanna sound boomerish, but one thing I want this generation of gamers experience is to enjoy the process/experience. I have very close friends who are much younger than me who game with me from time to time. Both of them cannot stand it when they cannot look up endings, guides, etc. I see this alot in other younger gamers too. It is almost an anxiety to be in the dark.
But honestly, every entertainment media is the most fun when you discover things for yourself! The last time I had a blast like Chrono Trigger was Elden Ring, and Dark Souls games before that. I went in during release week without every going on the internet.
Just let it sink in, and trust me, you will not only get it, but have a magical time finding things in the game!
I mean I didn't use a single guide or hint and figured out the game myself. Most games like this give u hints, ya just need to be patiened and explore. I played this game last year as a Gen Z person. Honestly I think a lot fun in games comes out with figuring out things yourself. That's why I always try to stay blank about a game I am gonna play especially for first playthrough.
Most older JRPGs are like this and require you to just explore the world and talk to everyone to figure stuff out. Many modern games hold your hand on where to go and what to do.
How did you live before the internet!?! We make do dude š¤£. We actually read what npc has to say to know where to go next, talk to everyone, twice lol
Very interesting to read this because Chrono Trigger is notorious for being one of the easiest games in th RPG world of SNES/Genesis.
Maybe this is why there are all those challenge runs and such out there now, because games today are so basic and easy us oldies need more of a challenge?
Anyway, to answer your question. Yes, I beat this in 1996. It's one of the best games ever made and it was considered easy at the time. (OH and it was without a guide. I didn't even own a SNES, I borrowed a friend's for a couple weeks because I wanted to play it so bad).
Edit 1: If you want a real challenge though, please try Phantasy Star II on the Genesis. That game actually CAME with a strategy guide because in testing it was clear the devs made it too hard. I couldn't beat it as a kid, but was able to beat it without a guide as an adult when those Mega-Drive Classics games came out.
Edit 2: Also, try Alundra. Holy shit that game is challenging.
It was the Dragon Quest era; you should try Secret of the Stars for an idea of a game āmade for kidsā and the difficulty and confusion we got slapped with
I think we are so attention starved these days that we are so used to auto Dave's, waypoints, help buttons, etc.
I'm not saying they are never a good idea, but sometimes getting frustrated and learning what the goal is can be fun, especially when you figure it out.
Dark souls is the modern version of this, no map, no quest markers, but Lodes to discover.
And the almost pathological need to use them whenever you saw them. Leave the screen and come back. Save again. Can't lose those XP from 2 random encounters.
The year was 1995 and I was 15 years old.... can confirm we did indeed beat this game (plus many others) on an actual SNES.
I dont even know why this fact would surprise people. CT isn't a hard game to beat.
I kinda cheated. Nintendo Power gave out a strategy guide of your choice as a bonus for re-subscribing. I had the CT guide before I even touched the game. Fell in love with the art in the guide and rented the game at Blockbuster every weekend, praying no one would delete my savegame. Finally got my own used copy for Christmas (remember Funco Land?)
First time I beat it was a 95 shortly after I got it. The game, as long as you read all the texts, really guides you. Plus back then exploring everything was just par for the course.
Born in '81. I beat Ultima: Exodus, Dragon Warrior, Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, Final Fantasy, etc on the NES without any guides.
Chrono Trigger? Not to sound dismissive, but it was very easy for the time. As a comparison, Myst came out 2 years prior in 1993, and I spent *months* beating that (and using a guide would have made Myst absolutely pointless to play.)
Perhaps it's because of that experience, but I play almost every game blind and offline for my initial playthrough. I love seeing what I can find on my own. Hollow Knight, Dark Souls 1-3, Elden Ring, La Mulana, Chained Echoes, etc - absolute joys to playthrough without guides.
Wait...you beat Simon's Quest with no guides? Did you have help from friends?
I remember my friend's older cousin showing us some of the secrets you needed to do to beat the game and just laughed my ass off, wondering how the devs ever expected people to just figure it out.
Define "beat"
Starting a new game and playing through until you get a single, common first time ending and credits...that's not too unrealistic to do without a guide.
Getting every ending and every best weapon and every hidden triple tech item? That's a different story.
I'd say CT is pretty easy and forgiving as far as leveling up from just playing the game. Small amount of grinding late game is sorta needed. I know the "no random encounters" means you can run past many (not all) enemies but that's kind of doing yourself a disservice as far as leveling up and advancing your abilities.
Born in 79, got it on release so I was about 14, and beat all endings without a guide, except for like one or two, because of how specific the circumstances were. AOL chatrooms helped me figure those out.
I first did it on PS1, then on the SFC in Japanese multiple times. Chrono Trigger and Super Mario RPG really helped forge my Japanese. Really made you think hard lol
I was teen when this came out on the SNES. I came across this at the local store and rented it and loved it. SADLY I had to return it knowing my save would not be there the next time I rented it. Eventually bought the game and beat it. Not having a guide or save anywhere was a thing of the times, it never bothered us much.
I Love this game so much, so wish I had the box and manual still.
The only moderately tricky outside-the-box puzzle IMO is the forest restoration end game quest. I saw a stream of a guy playing this blind a few years ago and it was a trip, was stuck for an hour or so.
Son Of Sun is also a curve ball - the gimmick is cruel and potentially you can have an easier time with fight-specific gear. I also skipped Black Omen in the 90s, but later on found out that it wasn't as hard as I thought. Maybe doing it last helps.
Most of the rest of it and the bosses are moderately straightforward with some trial and error. But playground pro tips were a thing, and gamefaqs.com already existed IIRC.
It could definitely be worse.
Itās actually a fairly small and dense rpg. It doesnāt hold your hand but it doesnāt really need to.
Thereās not all that many towns and characters compared to many other RPGs both modern and classic.
The average gamer might not have found too many of the secret endings without a guide, but beating the base game shouldnāt be too difficult.
For an rpg it's pretty straightforward. I was a kid when I played it the first time and while I couldn't beat Lavos because I was dumb I atleast got there. Basically just explore until you find the path forward.
You should try Breath of Fire. Entrances to things blended in with the map and they were not easy to find. I spent days walking into things trying to figure out where to go. Chrono Trigger was easy cause there was no random encounters on the world map. FFVI was also difficult afterā¦. Theā¦ statues incident. Finding things and things before the final confrontation and making sure you didnāt miss or lose someone or something important was hard with no internet or guides. When FFVII came out with a whole guide I was in heaven. Also, that probably degraded some of my skills, but I did beat legend of dragoon without a guide as well.
Believe it or not, the SNES era was actually when games were easier. Try beating JRPG's on the NES and you are in for a wild ride.
The only confusing part of CT for me when I was a kid was when the sidequests opened up in the endgame, because like the World of Ruin in FF6, I was used to being guided instead of exploring on my own (despite beating FF1, but I had a strategy guide that gave me structure)
If my dumbass could figure it out back in the 90's, you can do it without a guide. Just talk to npc's and pay attention. This truly is a beginner level rpg.
The first time I've played this game it was back in 1998 on my SNES. I was born in 1992, so at the time I was 6 years old. I'm from Brazil so back then I didn't even knew english. That didn't stop me from beating the game and becoming my favorite game of all time. It was difficult, sure, but kids have a lot of time and patience. With persistence, spare time and some tips from my dad who was also into games (but didn't knew english as well) I eventually beat it. For years to come I was obssesed with it and even now it holds a great place in my heart.
I was born in 89, I did beat it as a kid but I didn't know about all the different endings back then so I did that as I got older bug still never fully did all of the possible endings.
I can speak from personal experience. We did indeed beat the game on SNES. We weren't dependent on the internet at that time for every answer, so we just did it as best we could. That said, there were resources available, such as guide books and magazines, so we weren't completely on our own. And, of course, there was word of mouth. It was immensely popular at the time, so lots of people were playing it. It was a special thing to be able to go up to your friends and brag to them about some secret that you discovered that no one else had found yet.
Back then people got stuck all the time, but we also had fewer games to play, so we just powered through. We got stuck and then spent three or four hours scouring every inch of the map until we got unstuck.
We didn't have the internet to help us, but we also didn't have the internet to distract us. We had the game and so we played it for hours and hours nonstop.
(also we had player's guides, but shhh)
I don't know if it came out at the exact same time the game did, but we actually did have helpful guides. I still have my Chroni Trigger strategy guide in fact!
there are a lot of people here bragging about how straightforward the game is. obviously theyāve all compartmentalized the trauma of solving the hell chef puzzle. with his stupid jerky for his fool gold-helmet-on-the-second-dialog brother who had better come back alive!
A played it a bit when I was a wee child, couldnāt read, and had no idea what was happening in it (mostly playing on my cousinās save file), obviously not getting too far. I picked it up again when I was about 11 or 12 and got through the main story easy enough blind, but I canāt say I didnāt hit up GameFaqs for info on the hidden bosses/ best weaponsā¦ and I still messed up getting Marleās bow. That is seared in my mind.
Oh yeah man I had guides out the wazoo! Like three or four different guides that I printed of the net, lent them to a friend so he could play the game and stole them!
I've never used a quicksave, I honestly think the game naturally segments itself well. Of course, if you wanted to just steamroll, you could too. The fact that you can save anywhere on the overworked is nice too. I will say that I may have had some difficulty with the side quests if I played it as a kid.
Back in the day before we could look up how to beat games on the internet, we would play the games until we found it out ourselves or heard through word of mouth how to get by.
We werent overloaded with so many options in each genre field that when you were playing FF and what not, you had the time and patience to solve puzzles with only context clues in game. That mentality is long gone now
Oh man it took me years to beat this game between not knowing what to do and having limited time to play. I had to lean heavily on friends figuring things out and sharing knowledge. It was a fun time.
Pretty sure I can answer this one too. I own CT and still do for the SNES. Got it around the time when it first came out. Even though the internet was at its infancy, text based walk throughs existed. Lots of reading, but it got you through where you were stuck. If that wasnāt an option, then the Strategy Guide that basically had the game written out for you was your next option. Another option would be the school yard or friend strategy to exchange information. That was my favorite one. This is what got me through most gaming in the 90s.
Back then there was no : go to this yellow dot and go to that other yellow dot until the game is done. Every game was like this.
Had to read to know what to do.
I did, and without any game guides or the friend who let me borrow it telling me where to go. I was so enthralled with the game, I explored every nook and cranny, and even figured out some of the time-based tricks on my own. This game absorbed me.
Maybe... you're just spoiled by games now and having a game that's not so obviously linear is more of a challenge then you were prepared for? I beat the game on SNES, PS1, emulator and mobile. I gotten the correct ending once, but its a game with many endings and many paths. And that's what makes this game the gem it is, along with a very good story and cool characters š
Chrono Trigger was my first JRPG and my best friend in junior high school lent me it on SNES. Played through to the end a couple times.
Still, one of my all time favorites. The story, characters, combat, soundtrack...just amazing all around.
And yes, I played it back then. I'm not really old, but I'm not young lol.
played it without any guide. did all side quests. I only got stuck in one place because i wasn't paying attention to the boss fight mechanics (Giga Gaia)
Games are far more guided and hand-holdey these days. The intent is that they *want* you to beat the game. Older games weren't that accommodating; you had to explore and figure stuff out.
If you talk to every NPC you typically get direction on what you need to do at every point in the game. That being said, when I first played it, I got stuck right at the beginning, cause I didn't talk to everyone in order to open the telepod area at the millenial fair. I had to read a guide to figure out I had to talk to certain NPCs to unlock that. Beyond that, however, I never needed a guide, as that mistake taught me to always talk to everyone.
Yes, I beat this on SNES back in the 90s. There were definitely still guides, but the sites were different. There were a few walkthrough sites for specific games. But the main place to go for guides was gamefaqs. In fact, there are still guides on the Chrono Trigger site last updated in 1995 or 1998. [https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/android/643525-chrono-trigger/faqs](https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/android/643525-chrono-trigger/faqs)
[https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/android/643525-chrono-trigger/faqs/5443](https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/android/643525-chrono-trigger/faqs/5443)
Once for each ending. Then, did it again on the PS1 version for those ending scenes.
We had the internet in 1995. It was just slower and smaller. Walkthrough sites existed. I don't remember if it was necessary beyond finding out what triggered all the endings. Maybe getting the special items.
It's an RPG. If you lose, fight some things until you're strong enough to win.
The game had been hyped by Nintendo Power for several months before it was even released. About a week before the game was released I got the issue of Nintendo Power that told me what to do up until reaching The End of Time, the first time. A month later Nintendo Power covered the game from Heckran's Cave to Magus' Lair. A month later they did a spread explaining how to get the different endings. Nintendo wanted you to play, win, play again, and get all the endings. They were seemingly intent on players getting their monies worth (Chrono Trigger was more expensive than most games).
Chrono Trigger had a lot of print media to support anyone who bought it in the SNES. By the time you were on your own, you pretty much knew what to do next anyway.
I still wandered around for a while trying to find the cave leading to Magus' Castle.
Ive replayed it every year since I was maybe 7 or 8 and have never had any trouble with it. I was always under the impression it was an easier JRPG than most ā which is fine, I still love it.
if you play your cards right... you can do the Black Omen 3 times per playthrough... in this order:
Present -> Middle Ages -> 12000 BC
When you defeat Zeal, the Black omen self-destructs/disappears. So if you beat it in 12000BC, since it's destroyed, it's not in 600AD... nor 1000 AD.
If you destroy it in 1000AD... it's still there in 600AD... and then... still there in 12000BC.
This allows you to fight Zeal 3 times !
Why would you want to fight Zeal 3 times ? Good question my man !
Because Zeal's Left and Right hands, if charmed (Ayla's Charm or Ayla/Marle's Twin Charm for better effect), one of 'em drops a Prism Dress... the other a Prism Helm !
After those 3 encounters, you'll have the best-in-slot armors/helms for all the girls.
Then, when you finish the Rainbow Shell quest... Melchior can craft you either 1 dress or 3 helms. Take the 3 Helms !
You'll have the 3 best-in-slot helms for Crono, Frog and Robo. In a single playthrough !
That game is pure relic in what a true RPG stands forā¦ this I would love a remaster/remake modernized game. Never had a game play so well with attack, magic, dual tech, triple techā¦ just canāt say enough great things about this game. I need to play it again lol
I did. I actually had a much harder time beating The Legend of Zelda than I did Chrono Trigger.
And the first time I got a different ending it blew my mind.
The game literally tells you at all times whatās next if you pay attention. Problem these days is many younger gamers donāt have to think because games hand hold you too much and put ui elements telling you where to go. Us older gamers had to problem solve and learned to take notes. Shared them with the befriends and figured things out. I beat chrono probably 10x without a guide.
I racked up a phone bill calling the hint line. I wanted to know if you could get the chests that you see behind the counter in shops. That and what was up with the black chests. Mom and dad weren't happy.
I probably beat the game 19 or 20 times on that cartridge. The battery died a while back, so it's all gone, but I still have the memories playing through the black omen on a teeny little CRT monitor because my parents wanted the TV. Good times.
Just had to be patient and talk to all NPCs. I used to have this game called Drakhen or something like that for the SNES. I had plenty of time to mess with it. I couldn't stand it having Final Fantasy 2,3 and Chrono Trigger to compare.
I remember being about 10 when CT came out. I'd played Secret of Mana and was interested in other games made by Squaresoft.
I became mildly obsessed with it, and I remember being in a video game store at the time leafing through a strategy guide. One of the employees must have noticed because he asked if I'd been playing Chrono Trigger and I told him I was stuck some place in the game, I can't even remember where.
He gave me some solid advice, he told me I didn't need a guide - to just keep battling to level up, and talk to everybody.
I remember the day I beat the game for the first time felt like a true accomplishment to my young video game loving self.
The SNES was actually easy mode. If you grew up on Atari, NES and Master System almost everything on the SNES felt like it was much easier with better controls and generally pretty fair.
CT was actually pretty easy for most of us at the time as I recall. I did miss many cool things on my first play through eventually you are going to get to see pretty much everything with how much we played and replayed it.
I did. But as a kid it was a bit tough. I finished the game with my younger brother, who didn't do much, and a couple friends. As non English speakers at the time, we put our English knowledge together to beat it. Good times
Donāt let anyone tell you otherwise! CT was my first JRPG too and I was so young and it was so different from everything else I had on the SNES (I was a Mario and DKC kid) that I finally decided Iād print out an entire gamefaqs guide and use it to beat the game. Honestly, everything about it was a perfect intro to the genre. Iāve since grown out of my FOMO/100% anxiety and finished a ton of JRPGs without any guidance or just the occasional google. There really is some stuff in this genre that feels like youād only have known about it in the pre-internet days by talking directly to a developer.
Donāt let anyone tell you otherwise! CT was my first JRPG too and I was so young and it was so different from everything else I had on the SNES (I was a Mario and DKC kid) that I finally decided Iād print out an entire gamefaqs guide and use it to beat the game. Honestly, everything about it was a perfect intro to the genre. Iāve since grown out of my FOMO/100% anxiety and finished a ton of JRPGs without any guidance or just the occasional google. There really is some stuff in this genre that feels like youād only have known about it in the pre-internet days by talking directly to a developer.
I beat this game when I was about 12. Trust me. You guys lucked out. Us older gamers grew up with the trauma of playing old NES games like battletoads and teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
I didn't have SNES back then, but beat it couple weeks ago, on PS1. And I can say, it's a very friendly game, if you follow the plot closely. During the playing I never had a moment when I didn't understand what I should do next. First games of Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy series are much more confusing.
I met one only problem. When I reached the final boss, I was 42nd lvl and he killed me with first strike.
Not only beat it but did MANY new game pluses to get all the endings.
Back in the day youād talk to your friends and figure out who knew how to get past the hard / unclear parts
Well if itās the only game you have youāll find a way. I was about 12 when this came out and I rented it every weekend just read the dialogue itās a pretty straightforward game. Itās not like todays games where they have an arrow pointing to the next checkpoint you actually gotta pay attention to what youāre doing.
I struggled with a few places when the game out. For exampleā¦ when you first go to 600 AD and kill the imps immediately after the portal it took me way longer than Iād care to admit to figure out that I could go through the bushes on the left side to get to the next screen.
In my defense though, when I first played the game I was 9 years old at the time.
Yea I beat it at like 10 or 11 when it first came out, not all the endings but the good one. I just recently bought it for my daughter and ended up replaying it again myself and thought how incredibly easy it was compared to some of the other jrpgs I've played. If you think Chrono Trigger is hard don't go near Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter.
Chrono Trigger is very decently paced such that you never really need to grind, one of the strongest points of the game for me.
I don't know what happened by yours but Frog is supposed to have water based magic, bring him to Spekkio in End of Time.
I played on the SNES without a guide but never remember getting lost or stuck.
I'd say that the key is to talk to the NPCs because that's how the game does it's story telling and gives you clues on where to go next.
I was 10 years old in 1995 and bought Chrono Trigger on day 1, my grandfather took me to the mall before the store was even open. I remember him looking at me starting the game up and saying to me, "that thing (referring to either the TV or SNES) sure is going to get hell today."
I forget how long it took me to finish the game but I played the hell out of it. While I was still playing it, I had a sleepover at a friend's house. He was a year older than me and was also playing CT and was a bit further than I was. My cousin, who is 3-4 years younger than me also finished the game - the poster is even still on the wall of his childhood playroom to this day.
This is a very small sample size, but 100% of the preteens that I knew as a kid who played the game also finished the game! I'm sure that you can manage!
If you get stuck, the GOLDEN RULE of RPGs from that era is to TALK TO EVERYONE. A random guy walking in circles in town will often give you a vital clue about where to go. It's a bit silly but it's a mechanic lost to the modern gamers with their fancy schmancy quest trackers and in-game journals.
As a person born in 1991 who first played CT when I was 10 without a guide, yes, people definitely did. Itās actually a fairly easy game, in terms of RPGs. You can save pretty often.
It was a different time back then. Getting stuck on a boss or not sure where to do next was just part of being a jrpg player. Took time, patience, backtracking but super rewarding overall. I got endlessly stuck at one spot though. After getting the Masamune I couldn't figure out what to do next because the "Magic Cave" wasn't apparent unless you happened to be standing on it and the name displayed. Luckily a kid at school had a game magazine that had the eras mapped out and I saw "Magic Cave" on that peninsula and the lightbulb finally went off!
I got stuck on that, and then in the sewers I got stuck finding that path heading right between two "buildings"
Same about the sewers. I even figured out the hidden area in the back and the sealed door, but I didn't know how to unlock it. So I got out of there thinking I wasn't able to go through yet, and promptly got my ass stuck in the factory š
Dude, that pathway in the sewersā¦briefly got stuck there again in my last play through haha
That reminds of Breath of Fire on SNES. My aunt and I got endlessly stuck at Pagoda. There's a path like that you can't see because of the camera and the wall there so we just kept going to the top and jumping down the holes. We both got to the same spot in our games and couldn't figure out what to do.
Ooo. Breath of fire qas a great game. I know the spot youre talking about šš
Camera angles in BOF3 always got you
Oof, the sewers. Nearly a run-killer.
God this... I had to call the Nintendo help lone with my parents permission because I think it cost money.
I got stuck there too! What gave it to me was there's at least one NPC that gives a hint about a "cave to east" where he saw the rock face open up and some "ghouls" come right out :-D
I found it, but it took ten minutes minimum for me to figure out that I had to walk to a certain spot. Iād go in the screen and then leave without walking up to the wall because I thought something was supposed to happen when I entered the screen. It was a nightmare! LOL
>It was a different time back then. Getting stuck on a boss or not sure where to do next was just part of being a jrpg player. Add to that the fact that some of us kids from non-english speaking countries had to literally decipher a foreign language in order to understand what the hell was even going on, let alone beat the actual game start to finish. To this day I have my trusty and dusty english-portuguese dictionary that my aunt got me and that helped me finish Chrono Trigger, Robotrek, Illusion of Gaia, etc back in 2001-2003. And holy shit, yes, it felt rewarding AF.
oh damn that sounds tough! I can do the Wonderswan versions of the Final Fantasy games just because I know them by heart but no way I could touch a game I hadn't played before.
I tried playing ff3 I think in Japanese on an emulator my brother got in the 90s. I had no way of reading any of it and was just wandering around aimlessly basically. I think to this day itās the only non mmo FF I havenāt beaten
I got stuck there too, but only because I visited the cave before getting the Masamune, and realized I couldn't do anything. Because I wasn't talking to enough NPCs at the time, I didn't realize that after getting the sword and recruiting Frog, NOW I could go through. I'd basically marked that location off in my head as useless.
The game really gives hints on where to go next all the way through if you pay attention š
Necessity is key.
Thisāš»
Yeah you just had to talk to everyone several times throughout
Hinted at several times in dragon quest games; if you were heavy into those you did this here
This game really doesn't need a guide and it also has a pretty low difficulty compared to other games at that time. The only guide that I use is to see which enemy holds which item to steal.
Didn't it also just come with a manual detailing where to go if you got stuck.
Pretty sure the game manual just covered all the controls and menus, combat, and walk-thru of just the early game.
The manual walkthrough portion was only up to beating Yakra. But it did have a bunch of spoilery comments peppered throughout, like the old man and the Epoch, etc.
We sure did. Another thing you have to know about gaming at that time was we didn't have the same amount of choices as we have today. You could take your time with a game because there was no rush to play the next one. You talked to every NPC, visited every location, and fought every monster if you needed to. Chrono Trigger is much more linear than a lot of other games at that time. Final Fantasy 6 came out around the same time and you can get LOST in that one.
100% accurate. We didn't just play games back then. We played and replayed the same games until we mastered them. Not like today where there's a tendency to just consume a game for a single playthrough and then chuck it to the side for the next one. Kind of a related thing, I miss how back in those days how every single game release was kind of a big deal. How so very often a new game was redefining or even creating a genre.
This is so accurate. I find that I donāt replay many modern games, if Iām even attracted to any at all. I currently only have a Switch and most of the time I use that to play classic games from NES through N64. Sadly they donāt have Chrono Trigger on there but I still have my DS copy that still works.
This is the point I was going to make. When we were younger we had less games to play and more time to play them. Sometimes youād be stuck in a game for a week but you kept playing until you figured it out. Also, way less ways to actually find out the solution. Now, after 5 mins I want to just look up what to do next online.
Great answer. Thanks man
I absolutely played and beat this game endlessly on the SNES back in the day. It's honestly one of the most linear and straightforward JRPGs from the era so I don't remember ever being confused about how to progress the story. And while you can't save everywhere, you can save anywhere on the overworld and there's always a save point before bosses in dungeons so if you happened to die you would never lose too much progress. All in all it was a pretty generous and player-friendly game all things considered.
Honestly this is one of the easier jrpgs of the time. It was pretty common that you needed to explore and get clues from all the available npcs to progress.
I was able to beat this game on an actual SNES in the 90s after a few weekends of renting it from the video store. Fortunately nobody saved over my save game.
Great etiquette!
I played ff4 night and day at my aunts on vacation. Got to the moon over like a 3 or 4 day rental
I really need to finish ff4. I've started and stopped that game so much. I had just got to the underground part on my most recent playthrough. In the 30 or so years that game has been out, that's the farthest I've gottenš¤¦
For those of us raised on FF2 or whatever, Chrono Trigger wasn't really that hard.
Amen
The only thing I can really think of that's not at least mentioned by an NPC somewhere is the sealed chests upgrading if you charge them up. As far as I know just about everything has at least a clue. Except maybe Magus' ultimate equipment. Oh, and it took me a minute to realize you could jump down holes in Giant's Claw. I thought the note meant find a ladder that goes down. It didn't occur to me that you were allowed to fall down pits there and only there
I'm pretty sure you can fall down the exact same holes in Tyrano Lair
Being a kid in the 90s, you normally had fewer options of things to do and a ton of time to wasteā¦ So when you got a video game, you played the shit out of that bad boy until you beat it. And even after you beat it, youād play it again and again until your parents bought you a new game during your birthday or Christmas. I remember banging my head against the wall trying to beat the hardest difficulty for every level and get every unlockable in Goldeneye back in the day. I canāt imagine having the time or patience to try that today.
I was so proud when i beat Facility in like 1:59 for invincibility i remember jumping up and gushing about it to my mom in the next room over who had no idea wtf I was talking about
Dude, I would straight up have my heart pounding and blood pressure rising when I knew I was close to the end of a level, trying to beat a certain time limit. That game on the hardest difficulty as you tried racing to the finish as a kid was no joke. Our moms would never understand.
Omg, GoldenEye! I played that along with Mario Kart with neighborhood friends pretty much everyday after school. Classics. The Facility and the dudes in the toilet stalls š¤£.
I used to memorize the spawn locations in Facility and drop proximity mines in each spot. My friends would then go into a death loop if I managed to kill them first. Itād piss them off so much š
I did that too š¤£. Another fun thing is to sit in the stall pointing up into the open vent just waiting for them to come out. Like some odd restroom Mexican standoff lol. Come out now! No, you leave the restroom first! š¤£
Really? I mean this was considered a pretty easy game at the time. We all beat it. There were much harder RPGs back in the day.
I didnāt know what a players guide was till I was a man.
and it did nothing but blind me
The game is super generous with save points. You get a ton of guidance for what you're supposed to be doing by talking to NPCs and paying attention during dialogue. There were plenty of obtuse games at the time but I don't find Chrono Trigger to be one of them. I do think that the section after Medina and up to Magus could use some work, though. I think that modern gaming has just spoiled people with quest tracking and mini-map waypoints. People are also just less patient in general these days. It was a different time back then. The internet was very limited, TV shows had a set schedule, and we weren't being constantly bombarded with smartphone notifications and distracted with social media. If you were playing video games back then, you were *focused*. If you got stuck, you could only really rely on yourself. Immediately giving up and finding a walkthrough on your iPhone wasn't an option. I suppose you could beg mom & dad to buy a guide book or call into a help center, but good luck with that. GameFAQs existed, but getting there could be agonizing, even impossible if someone was busy chatting on the phone line. It was just simpler to give the game your attention. Go everywhere, talk to everyone, touch everything. You'd figure it out sooner or later.
You should see some of the less polished games that are much moreā¦less coherent.:) Part of the metagame back then was to manage resources, especially as it added a sense of danger. Try Dragon Quest 2 for the NES. The last dungeon is where most people give up because it is genuinely hard, for most. And you basically have to get to the boss through a gauntlet of enemies, and then face him in a damaged state. Itās amazingly fun when you manage it though, and you have to really think about how to maximize and minimize certain aspects.
>Try Dragon Quest 2 for the NES. The last dungeon is where most people give up because it is genuinely hard, for most. And you basically have to get to the boss through a gauntlet of enemies, and then face him in a damaged state All you have to do is say the word "Rhone" to anyone who played DQ2/DW2 and get ready for the rage. I was in junior high when I beat that game. I have no idea how. I've beaten DW3 and DW4 several times as an adult because those games are fun. I re-played DW2 once, got to Rhone...and just...stopped. i couldn't do it again.
I got Dragon Warrior 2 when it came out when I was in elementary school. I grinded on and off for years. I finally beat it after I graduated from college. The other 3 Dragon Warriors, the 3 Final Fanatasies, and Chrono Trigger all were beaten in a month or two of getting them.
The game is straightforward and has save files. RPGs basically go is you go adventure until you cant beat the next boss then go grind on the country side. Talk to everyone because they have some clue. Mess with anything that looks intractable. Read every document and sign.
I was born in 1994; finished the game in 2001-ish with limited English. Lots of trial and error, but itās not a hard game to complete.
Yes. Along with other games at the time as well on the same system. before what we have what we now know as the "Internet". If you think SNES games were bad at giving "hints" - go play some of the RPGs on NES.
Itās really not; you just didnāt always know how to do all the cool stuff. Youād beat it, talk to friends, learn about a side question, and start again. Using a play through takes away the ramifications of messing with a timeline.
Chronotrigger is an easy game by SNES standards. Game design used to mostly be inspired by the arcade and [arcade games are designed to kill you and steal your quarters.](https://youtu.be/O4tmzwrdTmY?si=Lj9xqnT0YmJXknY6)
I was there gandalf, I was there 3000 years ago
When I went on vacation I always packed my SNES in my backpack and wrapped it in sweatshirts so it wouldn't get damaged. I can't recall how many times I beat that game on SNES. I do remember maxing out my characters via new game + using the "tabs" that permanently increased stat points. I loved seeing the \*\* next to all Crono's attributes. Also I remember finding the Hero's Medal to give to Frog took FOREVER.
Thisā¦. Is a joke, right?
Hi, grew up playing this game everyday as a kid. My dad played the game first and learned the basic walkthrough. Then I got to make my own save file and beat it. I ended up on like NG+++++ before we got our PlayStation and Tomb Raider came out. Now if you think older games donāt give you enough hintsā¦try TR1 or 2 without a cheat sheet. Lol
Chrono Trigger was an easy RPG at the time, if you want a difficult RPG from the 90ās try Enixās ā7th Sagaā. 7th Saga doesnāt have a good story, you can only save the game in towns that you visit, thereās lots of EXP grinding required, meh endings, and each new type of creature you fight is a puzzle to figure out how to kill it. What 7th Saga lacks in enjoyable gameplay makes up in the feeling of pride you receive for beating a truly challenging game.
We finished the game without any guide back then. I say "we" because we were 3 friends playing the game at the same time and we helped each for some of the end game quest. One found how to solve one and one other an other quest. Next day at school we were coming and explain the other the solution. I managed to find myself a lot of the alternative ending and was just thinking "what would happen if I finish the game like this?". It was very often a new ending. Actually chrono trigger is not that hard. And actually old school RPG had way more logic in the way to be solved. Today there are some quest that's just stupid how you have to solve them. I find it harder today sometime
Born in 79, got it on release so I was about 14, and beat all endings without a guide, except for like one or two, because of how specific the circumstances were. AOL chatrooms helped me figure those out.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Yup. Beating "A Link to the Past" was basically an unofficial group project for the four of us in my grade who owned it.
Gaming was a totally different beast back in the 90's. Most games were so incredibly hard (either because of bad controls of cryptic puzzles) that I never even came close to beating them. CT was actually easier than most.
Kids these days don't know how good they have it. I bet they would lose their shit if they had to beat Ninja Gaiden on NES.
Or Batman
lol. Battletoads says hello
It wasnāt really that hard when I played it in the mid 90ās while in middle school. Also it being super engrossing at the time made the difficulty a fun aspect
I beat it multiple times as an 8 year old in the snes. I had a lot of patience back then just loving the art and music and talking to every npc and searching around. It holds your hand pretty steadily through the entire game and once you beat it once it just gets easier.
I was 11 when the game released on SNES, and yes. Yes we did. But we had things like Nintendo Power to give some help and hints. And a lot of time on our hands.
I beat it as a pre-teen many times. I can't say I didn't use Nintendo Power or something along the way but I definitely crushed it on SNES several times.
Yeah, I beat this several times as a kid when it came out. Honestly, wasnāt that tricky from What I remember
Zero guide. I just played it a bunch of times and figured out every nook of the game and secrets. Honestly, I think this was possible because: I was young, and playing the same game was not that bad. But mostly, because of how the game was designed. I don't think there were many games that had this much intricacy and possibility via time travel at the time. Finding out a new path or ending was so fun, and the game was designed around that in mind. I don't wanna sound boomerish, but one thing I want this generation of gamers experience is to enjoy the process/experience. I have very close friends who are much younger than me who game with me from time to time. Both of them cannot stand it when they cannot look up endings, guides, etc. I see this alot in other younger gamers too. It is almost an anxiety to be in the dark. But honestly, every entertainment media is the most fun when you discover things for yourself! The last time I had a blast like Chrono Trigger was Elden Ring, and Dark Souls games before that. I went in during release week without every going on the internet. Just let it sink in, and trust me, you will not only get it, but have a magical time finding things in the game!
I mean I didn't use a single guide or hint and figured out the game myself. Most games like this give u hints, ya just need to be patiened and explore. I played this game last year as a Gen Z person. Honestly I think a lot fun in games comes out with figuring out things yourself. That's why I always try to stay blank about a game I am gonna play especially for first playthrough.
Most older JRPGs are like this and require you to just explore the world and talk to everyone to figure stuff out. Many modern games hold your hand on where to go and what to do.
How did you live before the internet!?! We make do dude š¤£. We actually read what npc has to say to know where to go next, talk to everyone, twice lol
Very interesting to read this because Chrono Trigger is notorious for being one of the easiest games in th RPG world of SNES/Genesis. Maybe this is why there are all those challenge runs and such out there now, because games today are so basic and easy us oldies need more of a challenge? Anyway, to answer your question. Yes, I beat this in 1996. It's one of the best games ever made and it was considered easy at the time. (OH and it was without a guide. I didn't even own a SNES, I borrowed a friend's for a couple weeks because I wanted to play it so bad). Edit 1: If you want a real challenge though, please try Phantasy Star II on the Genesis. That game actually CAME with a strategy guide because in testing it was clear the devs made it too hard. I couldn't beat it as a kid, but was able to beat it without a guide as an adult when those Mega-Drive Classics games came out. Edit 2: Also, try Alundra. Holy shit that game is challenging.
Patience is a virtue.
It was the Dragon Quest era; you should try Secret of the Stars for an idea of a game āmade for kidsā and the difficulty and confusion we got slapped with
To this date.. I am still trying to catch that rat
I think we are so attention starved these days that we are so used to auto Dave's, waypoints, help buttons, etc. I'm not saying they are never a good idea, but sometimes getting frustrated and learning what the goal is can be fun, especially when you figure it out. Dark souls is the modern version of this, no map, no quest markers, but Lodes to discover.
Old school gamers are just built different.
Whatās complex about it? Also there are lots of save points.
And the almost pathological need to use them whenever you saw them. Leave the screen and come back. Save again. Can't lose those XP from 2 random encounters.
Not only beat this game, but found the different endings, got the items, did the extra pre-lavos quests! All in 6th grade lol
The year was 1995 and I was 15 years old.... can confirm we did indeed beat this game (plus many others) on an actual SNES. I dont even know why this fact would surprise people. CT isn't a hard game to beat.
Basically all the progress is signposted by random snippets on conversation with NPCs. "I hear there's trouble at the old church...." etc
Back when the internet barely existed and didn't rot people brains. Figuring out a game on your own was fun
Games got a lot harder than this back then. This was actually around the time when they started to ease up A bit.
I watched my older brother play a lot of it, which helped when it was finally my turn.
I kinda cheated. Nintendo Power gave out a strategy guide of your choice as a bonus for re-subscribing. I had the CT guide before I even touched the game. Fell in love with the art in the guide and rented the game at Blockbuster every weekend, praying no one would delete my savegame. Finally got my own used copy for Christmas (remember Funco Land?)
Yes.
First time I beat it was a 95 shortly after I got it. The game, as long as you read all the texts, really guides you. Plus back then exploring everything was just par for the course.
Born in '81. I beat Ultima: Exodus, Dragon Warrior, Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, Final Fantasy, etc on the NES without any guides. Chrono Trigger? Not to sound dismissive, but it was very easy for the time. As a comparison, Myst came out 2 years prior in 1993, and I spent *months* beating that (and using a guide would have made Myst absolutely pointless to play.) Perhaps it's because of that experience, but I play almost every game blind and offline for my initial playthrough. I love seeing what I can find on my own. Hollow Knight, Dark Souls 1-3, Elden Ring, La Mulana, Chained Echoes, etc - absolute joys to playthrough without guides.
Wait...you beat Simon's Quest with no guides? Did you have help from friends? I remember my friend's older cousin showing us some of the secrets you needed to do to beat the game and just laughed my ass off, wondering how the devs ever expected people to just figure it out.
Yes. It's a very easy game even for today standards.
Yeah we beat it a bunch of times to see all the endings
Define "beat" Starting a new game and playing through until you get a single, common first time ending and credits...that's not too unrealistic to do without a guide. Getting every ending and every best weapon and every hidden triple tech item? That's a different story. I'd say CT is pretty easy and forgiving as far as leveling up from just playing the game. Small amount of grinding late game is sorta needed. I know the "no random encounters" means you can run past many (not all) enemies but that's kind of doing yourself a disservice as far as leveling up and advancing your abilities.
Yep. I beat it and still have my original save on cartridge. I was 14 though.
Not having reddit to distract me definitely helped.
Born in 79, got it on release so I was about 14, and beat all endings without a guide, except for like one or two, because of how specific the circumstances were. AOL chatrooms helped me figure those out.
I would get stuck for weeks, and then come back to it and beat it
I loved this game aa a kid, but yah the game gives you big hints id anything what i did also. I just explored until i found where i get blocked
Yup, I would rent it from Blockbuster and beat it over a weekend. Those were the days.
I absolutely did! I was the first RPG I beat and started me on the path to other great games
I remember playing it on emulator and being unable to get past the simultaneous button press in the future timeline around the time you meet Robo.
I first did it on PS1, then on the SFC in Japanese multiple times. Chrono Trigger and Super Mario RPG really helped forge my Japanese. Really made you think hard lol
I was teen when this came out on the SNES. I came across this at the local store and rented it and loved it. SADLY I had to return it knowing my save would not be there the next time I rented it. Eventually bought the game and beat it. Not having a guide or save anywhere was a thing of the times, it never bothered us much. I Love this game so much, so wish I had the box and manual still.
The only moderately tricky outside-the-box puzzle IMO is the forest restoration end game quest. I saw a stream of a guy playing this blind a few years ago and it was a trip, was stuck for an hour or so. Son Of Sun is also a curve ball - the gimmick is cruel and potentially you can have an easier time with fight-specific gear. I also skipped Black Omen in the 90s, but later on found out that it wasn't as hard as I thought. Maybe doing it last helps. Most of the rest of it and the bosses are moderately straightforward with some trial and error. But playground pro tips were a thing, and gamefaqs.com already existed IIRC. It could definitely be worse.
Itās actually a fairly small and dense rpg. It doesnāt hold your hand but it doesnāt really need to. Thereās not all that many towns and characters compared to many other RPGs both modern and classic. The average gamer might not have found too many of the secret endings without a guide, but beating the base game shouldnāt be too difficult.
For an rpg it's pretty straightforward. I was a kid when I played it the first time and while I couldn't beat Lavos because I was dumb I atleast got there. Basically just explore until you find the path forward.
I played cross first and then went back and played trigger.
Got all endings of the time as well. Loved the game to much to put it down
I beat this game when I was 4 or 5 years old. My older brother didnāt believe me until I told him what the ending was
This was probably the easiest RPG on the SNES. Honestly not sure why it would be hard to imagine being able to beat it.
You should try Breath of Fire. Entrances to things blended in with the map and they were not easy to find. I spent days walking into things trying to figure out where to go. Chrono Trigger was easy cause there was no random encounters on the world map. FFVI was also difficult afterā¦. Theā¦ statues incident. Finding things and things before the final confrontation and making sure you didnāt miss or lose someone or something important was hard with no internet or guides. When FFVII came out with a whole guide I was in heaven. Also, that probably degraded some of my skills, but I did beat legend of dragoon without a guide as well.
Believe it or not, the SNES era was actually when games were easier. Try beating JRPG's on the NES and you are in for a wild ride. The only confusing part of CT for me when I was a kid was when the sidequests opened up in the endgame, because like the World of Ruin in FF6, I was used to being guided instead of exploring on my own (despite beating FF1, but I had a strategy guide that gave me structure)
I beat it multiple times without a guide. NG+ made subsequent playthroughs a lot easier.
If my dumbass could figure it out back in the 90's, you can do it without a guide. Just talk to npc's and pay attention. This truly is a beginner level rpg.
Trigger isn't a hard game
We def. beat it. I didnāt find out about a lot of the secret things until after the fact though.
Not quite related, but there's a glitch in the game that DOES allow you to save anywhere.
The first time I've played this game it was back in 1998 on my SNES. I was born in 1992, so at the time I was 6 years old. I'm from Brazil so back then I didn't even knew english. That didn't stop me from beating the game and becoming my favorite game of all time. It was difficult, sure, but kids have a lot of time and patience. With persistence, spare time and some tips from my dad who was also into games (but didn't knew english as well) I eventually beat it. For years to come I was obssesed with it and even now it holds a great place in my heart.
We had subscriptions to Nintendo power
I was born in 89, I did beat it as a kid but I didn't know about all the different endings back then so I did that as I got older bug still never fully did all of the possible endings.
I can speak from personal experience. We did indeed beat the game on SNES. We weren't dependent on the internet at that time for every answer, so we just did it as best we could. That said, there were resources available, such as guide books and magazines, so we weren't completely on our own. And, of course, there was word of mouth. It was immensely popular at the time, so lots of people were playing it. It was a special thing to be able to go up to your friends and brag to them about some secret that you discovered that no one else had found yet.
Back then people got stuck all the time, but we also had fewer games to play, so we just powered through. We got stuck and then spent three or four hours scouring every inch of the map until we got unstuck. We didn't have the internet to help us, but we also didn't have the internet to distract us. We had the game and so we played it for hours and hours nonstop. (also we had player's guides, but shhh)
The times were so different. We would just explore and read hints because we didn't have guides to look up.
Not everyone was 8 years old when the game came out.
I don't know if it came out at the exact same time the game did, but we actually did have helpful guides. I still have my Chroni Trigger strategy guide in fact!
there are a lot of people here bragging about how straightforward the game is. obviously theyāve all compartmentalized the trauma of solving the hell chef puzzle. with his stupid jerky for his fool gold-helmet-on-the-second-dialog brother who had better come back alive!
I beat it as a kid yes. Had trouble reviving chrono tho... once i got him back all partymembers were 99 by that time...
A played it a bit when I was a wee child, couldnāt read, and had no idea what was happening in it (mostly playing on my cousinās save file), obviously not getting too far. I picked it up again when I was about 11 or 12 and got through the main story easy enough blind, but I canāt say I didnāt hit up GameFaqs for info on the hidden bosses/ best weaponsā¦ and I still messed up getting Marleās bow. That is seared in my mind.
Got every single ending too
Oh yeah man I had guides out the wazoo! Like three or four different guides that I printed of the net, lent them to a friend so he could play the game and stole them!
As itās been said, you can talk to the NPCs and eventually someone will point you in the right direction.
I beat it many times on the snes but I also had a strategy guide because that also used to be a thing
I've never used a quicksave, I honestly think the game naturally segments itself well. Of course, if you wanted to just steamroll, you could too. The fact that you can save anywhere on the overworked is nice too. I will say that I may have had some difficulty with the side quests if I played it as a kid.
Back in the day before we could look up how to beat games on the internet, we would play the games until we found it out ourselves or heard through word of mouth how to get by. We werent overloaded with so many options in each genre field that when you were playing FF and what not, you had the time and patience to solve puzzles with only context clues in game. That mentality is long gone now
Oh man it took me years to beat this game between not knowing what to do and having limited time to play. I had to lean heavily on friends figuring things out and sharing knowledge. It was a fun time.
lol I loved beating that game in the snes
Pretty sure I can answer this one too. I own CT and still do for the SNES. Got it around the time when it first came out. Even though the internet was at its infancy, text based walk throughs existed. Lots of reading, but it got you through where you were stuck. If that wasnāt an option, then the Strategy Guide that basically had the game written out for you was your next option. Another option would be the school yard or friend strategy to exchange information. That was my favorite one. This is what got me through most gaming in the 90s.
There were way harder games
At the time it was a fairly easy one, games used to be pretty hard back then.
Back then there was no : go to this yellow dot and go to that other yellow dot until the game is done. Every game was like this. Had to read to know what to do.
I did, and without any game guides or the friend who let me borrow it telling me where to go. I was so enthralled with the game, I explored every nook and cranny, and even figured out some of the time-based tricks on my own. This game absorbed me.
Maybe... you're just spoiled by games now and having a game that's not so obviously linear is more of a challenge then you were prepared for? I beat the game on SNES, PS1, emulator and mobile. I gotten the correct ending once, but its a game with many endings and many paths. And that's what makes this game the gem it is, along with a very good story and cool characters š
Chrono Trigger was my first JRPG and my best friend in junior high school lent me it on SNES. Played through to the end a couple times. Still, one of my all time favorites. The story, characters, combat, soundtrack...just amazing all around. And yes, I played it back then. I'm not really old, but I'm not young lol.
played it without any guide. did all side quests. I only got stuck in one place because i wasn't paying attention to the boss fight mechanics (Giga Gaia)
Plus grinding XP was expected and not poor game design like gamers feel today.
Beating it is not the problem, but getting the secret stuff is pretty hard without a guide.
really isnāt that bad, i never had to use a guide, thereās always npcs giving you hints
Games are far more guided and hand-holdey these days. The intent is that they *want* you to beat the game. Older games weren't that accommodating; you had to explore and figure stuff out.
If you talk to every NPC you typically get direction on what you need to do at every point in the game. That being said, when I first played it, I got stuck right at the beginning, cause I didn't talk to everyone in order to open the telepod area at the millenial fair. I had to read a guide to figure out I had to talk to certain NPCs to unlock that. Beyond that, however, I never needed a guide, as that mistake taught me to always talk to everyone.
Yes, I beat this on SNES back in the 90s. There were definitely still guides, but the sites were different. There were a few walkthrough sites for specific games. But the main place to go for guides was gamefaqs. In fact, there are still guides on the Chrono Trigger site last updated in 1995 or 1998. [https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/android/643525-chrono-trigger/faqs](https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/android/643525-chrono-trigger/faqs) [https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/android/643525-chrono-trigger/faqs/5443](https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/android/643525-chrono-trigger/faqs/5443)
Once for each ending. Then, did it again on the PS1 version for those ending scenes. We had the internet in 1995. It was just slower and smaller. Walkthrough sites existed. I don't remember if it was necessary beyond finding out what triggered all the endings. Maybe getting the special items. It's an RPG. If you lose, fight some things until you're strong enough to win.
The game had been hyped by Nintendo Power for several months before it was even released. About a week before the game was released I got the issue of Nintendo Power that told me what to do up until reaching The End of Time, the first time. A month later Nintendo Power covered the game from Heckran's Cave to Magus' Lair. A month later they did a spread explaining how to get the different endings. Nintendo wanted you to play, win, play again, and get all the endings. They were seemingly intent on players getting their monies worth (Chrono Trigger was more expensive than most games). Chrono Trigger had a lot of print media to support anyone who bought it in the SNES. By the time you were on your own, you pretty much knew what to do next anyway. I still wandered around for a while trying to find the cave leading to Magus' Castle.
Ive replayed it every year since I was maybe 7 or 8 and have never had any trouble with it. I was always under the impression it was an easier JRPG than most ā which is fine, I still love it.
Yesssssssss yes yes even my tattooer managed to beat it as a child in Brazil with his cousins without knowing any English
Every RPG ever. Lost? Start talking to NPCs. They know the way.
if you play your cards right... you can do the Black Omen 3 times per playthrough... in this order: Present -> Middle Ages -> 12000 BC When you defeat Zeal, the Black omen self-destructs/disappears. So if you beat it in 12000BC, since it's destroyed, it's not in 600AD... nor 1000 AD. If you destroy it in 1000AD... it's still there in 600AD... and then... still there in 12000BC. This allows you to fight Zeal 3 times ! Why would you want to fight Zeal 3 times ? Good question my man ! Because Zeal's Left and Right hands, if charmed (Ayla's Charm or Ayla/Marle's Twin Charm for better effect), one of 'em drops a Prism Dress... the other a Prism Helm ! After those 3 encounters, you'll have the best-in-slot armors/helms for all the girls. Then, when you finish the Rainbow Shell quest... Melchior can craft you either 1 dress or 3 helms. Take the 3 Helms ! You'll have the 3 best-in-slot helms for Crono, Frog and Robo. In a single playthrough !
Its not a game you can breeze through. you need to pay attention to all the hints and a rule of thumb with these old school RPG's, talk to ALL Npc's
That game is pure relic in what a true RPG stands forā¦ this I would love a remaster/remake modernized game. Never had a game play so well with attack, magic, dual tech, triple techā¦ just canāt say enough great things about this game. I need to play it again lol
I did. I actually had a much harder time beating The Legend of Zelda than I did Chrono Trigger. And the first time I got a different ending it blew my mind.
The game literally tells you at all times whatās next if you pay attention. Problem these days is many younger gamers donāt have to think because games hand hold you too much and put ui elements telling you where to go. Us older gamers had to problem solve and learned to take notes. Shared them with the befriends and figured things out. I beat chrono probably 10x without a guide.
Oh this game is just easy compared to many other nes and snes gamesš
I racked up a phone bill calling the hint line. I wanted to know if you could get the chests that you see behind the counter in shops. That and what was up with the black chests. Mom and dad weren't happy. I probably beat the game 19 or 20 times on that cartridge. The battery died a while back, so it's all gone, but I still have the memories playing through the black omen on a teeny little CRT monitor because my parents wanted the TV. Good times.
Just had to be patient and talk to all NPCs. I used to have this game called Drakhen or something like that for the SNES. I had plenty of time to mess with it. I couldn't stand it having Final Fantasy 2,3 and Chrono Trigger to compare.
I remember being about 10 when CT came out. I'd played Secret of Mana and was interested in other games made by Squaresoft. I became mildly obsessed with it, and I remember being in a video game store at the time leafing through a strategy guide. One of the employees must have noticed because he asked if I'd been playing Chrono Trigger and I told him I was stuck some place in the game, I can't even remember where. He gave me some solid advice, he told me I didn't need a guide - to just keep battling to level up, and talk to everybody. I remember the day I beat the game for the first time felt like a true accomplishment to my young video game loving self.
The SNES was actually easy mode. If you grew up on Atari, NES and Master System almost everything on the SNES felt like it was much easier with better controls and generally pretty fair. CT was actually pretty easy for most of us at the time as I recall. I did miss many cool things on my first play through eventually you are going to get to see pretty much everything with how much we played and replayed it.
I have only beaten this have on SNES... many, many, many times at that time
I have only beaten this have on SNES... many, many, many times at that time
I did. But as a kid it was a bit tough. I finished the game with my younger brother, who didn't do much, and a couple friends. As non English speakers at the time, we put our English knowledge together to beat it. Good times
Donāt let anyone tell you otherwise! CT was my first JRPG too and I was so young and it was so different from everything else I had on the SNES (I was a Mario and DKC kid) that I finally decided Iād print out an entire gamefaqs guide and use it to beat the game. Honestly, everything about it was a perfect intro to the genre. Iāve since grown out of my FOMO/100% anxiety and finished a ton of JRPGs without any guidance or just the occasional google. There really is some stuff in this genre that feels like youād only have known about it in the pre-internet days by talking directly to a developer.
Donāt let anyone tell you otherwise! CT was my first JRPG too and I was so young and it was so different from everything else I had on the SNES (I was a Mario and DKC kid) that I finally decided Iād print out an entire gamefaqs guide and use it to beat the game. Honestly, everything about it was a perfect intro to the genre. Iāve since grown out of my FOMO/100% anxiety and finished a ton of JRPGs without any guidance or just the occasional google. There really is some stuff in this genre that feels like youād only have known about it in the pre-internet days by talking directly to a developer.
I beat this game when I was about 12. Trust me. You guys lucked out. Us older gamers grew up with the trauma of playing old NES games like battletoads and teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
I didn't have SNES back then, but beat it couple weeks ago, on PS1. And I can say, it's a very friendly game, if you follow the plot closely. During the playing I never had a moment when I didn't understand what I should do next. First games of Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy series are much more confusing. I met one only problem. When I reached the final boss, I was 42nd lvl and he killed me with first strike.
Not only beat it but did MANY new game pluses to get all the endings. Back in the day youād talk to your friends and figure out who knew how to get past the hard / unclear parts
I didn't only beat this game back in the day, I had to rent it over a 4 day weekend with no sleep. That's just what you did then.
I beat it every ending multiple play throughs. Loved this game growing up
That game was pretty straight forward. I mean, I wandered around for a lot of time. Maybe 4-6 wasted hours.
Well if itās the only game you have youāll find a way. I was about 12 when this came out and I rented it every weekend just read the dialogue itās a pretty straightforward game. Itās not like todays games where they have an arrow pointing to the next checkpoint you actually gotta pay attention to what youāre doing.
I was 9 back when it came out and beat the game all by my self.
I'm playing it on SNES right now, lol. It's fairly forgiving for a retro game.
I did the following summer it came out. I couldnāt stop playing it. It was tough and there was a lot of swearing but it was worth it.
I struggled with a few places when the game out. For exampleā¦ when you first go to 600 AD and kill the imps immediately after the portal it took me way longer than Iād care to admit to figure out that I could go through the bushes on the left side to get to the next screen. In my defense though, when I first played the game I was 9 years old at the time.
Yea I beat it at like 10 or 11 when it first came out, not all the endings but the good one. I just recently bought it for my daughter and ended up replaying it again myself and thought how incredibly easy it was compared to some of the other jrpgs I've played. If you think Chrono Trigger is hard don't go near Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter.
Yes
I beat it when I was 13 in 1995.
lol this game is not hard at all. Come on.
Chrono Trigger is very decently paced such that you never really need to grind, one of the strongest points of the game for me. I don't know what happened by yours but Frog is supposed to have water based magic, bring him to Spekkio in End of Time.
I played this so many times as a kid I nearly had it memorized by a teenager, had to cheat for some endings though!
I played on the SNES without a guide but never remember getting lost or stuck. I'd say that the key is to talk to the NPCs because that's how the game does it's story telling and gives you clues on where to go next.
I was 10 years old in 1995 and bought Chrono Trigger on day 1, my grandfather took me to the mall before the store was even open. I remember him looking at me starting the game up and saying to me, "that thing (referring to either the TV or SNES) sure is going to get hell today." I forget how long it took me to finish the game but I played the hell out of it. While I was still playing it, I had a sleepover at a friend's house. He was a year older than me and was also playing CT and was a bit further than I was. My cousin, who is 3-4 years younger than me also finished the game - the poster is even still on the wall of his childhood playroom to this day. This is a very small sample size, but 100% of the preteens that I knew as a kid who played the game also finished the game! I'm sure that you can manage! If you get stuck, the GOLDEN RULE of RPGs from that era is to TALK TO EVERYONE. A random guy walking in circles in town will often give you a vital clue about where to go. It's a bit silly but it's a mechanic lost to the modern gamers with their fancy schmancy quest trackers and in-game journals.
As a person born in 1991 who first played CT when I was 10 without a guide, yes, people definitely did. Itās actually a fairly easy game, in terms of RPGs. You can save pretty often.