The timeless RPG classic returns loaded with upgrades! Journey to the forgotten past, to the far future, and to the end of time. A big adventure to save the planet, now begins…...
I’ve watched some jrpgs as letsplays and it really seems the genre likes massive number of random encounters and grinding these encounters in hopes of exp or rare items. …and tbh it looks so tedious.
How much, if any, does this game have? Optional or not.
One of the biggest reasons why Chrono Trigger has been so influential is because it had no random encounters. Instead, it has a large set of encounters that fire when the player reaches them in the dungeons. A lot of these are skippable if desired, some require a degree of pathfinding to avoid, and some aren’t avoidable. The gameplay flows around this, and being among the first to do it, there are a couple of slow areas.
A player that knows what they are doing can proceed through the dungeons without having to stop and grind, although there are some difficulty spikes along the way (especially if you swap out to a character you haven’t been using). The endgame sidequests are technically optional, though you’ll probably want the xp/tech points/loot.
I’m with you in regards to JRPGs and grinding in particular - the story and other gameplay of Like a Dragon kept me around to the end, but ended up watching the end on YouTube instead of grinding up for the final gauntlet.
All that said, I love Chrono Trigger. Great story, solid combat for what it is, totally recommend as one not-big-on-jrpg-type to another.
One thing that hasn’t been mentioned in this thread yet is that Chrono Trigger is going to be 25 hours or less for most first-time players. That alone probably makes it less intimidating to spend an hour or two towards the end getting ready.
It’s really not that grindy. There are multiple different endings, and if you want what most consider to be the best/most complete ending you’ll be playing for a while, but then then you don’t really need to spend any time xp milling
Game length isn’t an issue. It’s mostly a question about meaningful content to me.
I really wouldn’t like to do same thing over and over (eg. Kill 100 of x, or whatever). But it’s a wishy-washy distinction since I do enjoy diablo-like arpgs too. So… :D
But I take this game is more about story than combat mechanics… Is it? But there probably is quite a bit of combat regardless.
Combat mechanics are pretty important to the game, but it’s not all that grindy. It’s not like FF where you may need to grind encounters a bit if you were a bit too efficient getting to the next area. You can also avoid most fights on the over world if you’re just backtracking for some reason.
I played about half of the game or so and bailed when I got frustrated with a boss fight (Magus) and thought I would need to grind. But after complaining online and getting helpful responses, I think it was probably a skill issue. I have very little tolerance for grinding and thoroughly enjoyed the first half of the game and intend to play it again sometime.
I haven’t played a ton of JRPGs (see grinding comment), but it plays like a typical JRPG game in combat mechanics (cooldown instead of turn based, but otherwise similar) and has a similar amount of grinding as Ys Origin (I think I needed to grind for <5 min like twice in the entire game). It’s really well designed to avoid it, and while combat is a central part of the game, you’re not forced to go through waves of easy encounters and it keeps the story moving along.
It’s not grindy at all. There are no random encounters and if you just get through the encounters you can not skip, you should still be appropriately powerful to defeat the bosses (barring Lavos, the final boss, which you can take on at multiple points, some of which are next to impossible when you first run into them).
Of course, you can also just spend a day fighting the tutorial robot until you’re max level.
I finally played it for the first time a couple of years ago when the initial covid lockdowns granted me large chunks of free time. I was playing for a while, but never found myself intentionally grinding. Unlike a lot of games of that genre/era, it varies up the environments/enemies and progresses the story enough to grant enough xp while going the things you need/want to do anyway.
For a bit of context, just before Chrono Trigger, I tried playing through Phantasy Star II, a Genesis game from a few years earlier in the same genre/era…and I got maybe 15-20% through the game before realizing it was too grindy and just uninstalling it. I’m not coming into this with infinite patience or anything.
what’s Chrono Trigger?
It’s a JRPG that originally came out for the Super Nintendo; it was generally considered one of the best games on that platform.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrono_Trigger
For example, this top-25 list has it at #2:
https://www.gamesradar.com/best-snes-games-all-time/
This has it at #3:
https://www.nintendolife.com/guides/50-best-super-nintendo-snes-games-of-all-time?page=5
This has it at #2:
https://www.ign.com/lists/top-100-snes-games/91
This has it at #3:
https://www.denofgeek.com/games/best-snes-games/
It’s also still generally considered the top JRPG among genre fans.
The game has a knack for being both accessible to newcomers and still being revered by experienced players.
As an outsider to the genre, how grindy is it?
I’ve watched some jrpgs as letsplays and it really seems the genre likes massive number of random encounters and grinding these encounters in hopes of exp or rare items. …and tbh it looks so tedious.
How much, if any, does this game have? Optional or not.
One of the biggest reasons why Chrono Trigger has been so influential is because it had no random encounters. Instead, it has a large set of encounters that fire when the player reaches them in the dungeons. A lot of these are skippable if desired, some require a degree of pathfinding to avoid, and some aren’t avoidable. The gameplay flows around this, and being among the first to do it, there are a couple of slow areas.
A player that knows what they are doing can proceed through the dungeons without having to stop and grind, although there are some difficulty spikes along the way (especially if you swap out to a character you haven’t been using). The endgame sidequests are technically optional, though you’ll probably want the xp/tech points/loot.
I wouldn’t call enemies on the way as grinding, but those you need to repeatedly fight without real progression def. are.
But all in all sounds good, maybe I do need to check this game out, finally
I’m with you in regards to JRPGs and grinding in particular - the story and other gameplay of Like a Dragon kept me around to the end, but ended up watching the end on YouTube instead of grinding up for the final gauntlet.
All that said, I love Chrono Trigger. Great story, solid combat for what it is, totally recommend as one not-big-on-jrpg-type to another.
One thing that hasn’t been mentioned in this thread yet is that Chrono Trigger is going to be 25 hours or less for most first-time players. That alone probably makes it less intimidating to spend an hour or two towards the end getting ready.
It’s really not that grindy. There are multiple different endings, and if you want what most consider to be the best/most complete ending you’ll be playing for a while, but then then you don’t really need to spend any time xp milling
Game length isn’t an issue. It’s mostly a question about meaningful content to me.
I really wouldn’t like to do same thing over and over (eg. Kill 100 of x, or whatever). But it’s a wishy-washy distinction since I do enjoy diablo-like arpgs too. So… :D
But I take this game is more about story than combat mechanics… Is it? But there probably is quite a bit of combat regardless.
Combat mechanics are pretty important to the game, but it’s not all that grindy. It’s not like FF where you may need to grind encounters a bit if you were a bit too efficient getting to the next area. You can also avoid most fights on the over world if you’re just backtracking for some reason.
I played about half of the game or so and bailed when I got frustrated with a boss fight (Magus) and thought I would need to grind. But after complaining online and getting helpful responses, I think it was probably a skill issue. I have very little tolerance for grinding and thoroughly enjoyed the first half of the game and intend to play it again sometime.
I haven’t played a ton of JRPGs (see grinding comment), but it plays like a typical JRPG game in combat mechanics (cooldown instead of turn based, but otherwise similar) and has a similar amount of grinding as Ys Origin (I think I needed to grind for <5 min like twice in the entire game). It’s really well designed to avoid it, and while combat is a central part of the game, you’re not forced to go through waves of easy encounters and it keeps the story moving along.
It’s not grindy at all. There are no random encounters and if you just get through the encounters you can not skip, you should still be appropriately powerful to defeat the bosses (barring Lavos, the final boss, which you can take on at multiple points, some of which are next to impossible when you first run into them).
Of course, you can also just spend a day fighting the tutorial robot until you’re max level.
I finally played it for the first time a couple of years ago when the initial covid lockdowns granted me large chunks of free time. I was playing for a while, but never found myself intentionally grinding. Unlike a lot of games of that genre/era, it varies up the environments/enemies and progresses the story enough to grant enough xp while going the things you need/want to do anyway.
For a bit of context, just before Chrono Trigger, I tried playing through Phantasy Star II, a Genesis game from a few years earlier in the same genre/era…and I got maybe 15-20% through the game before realizing it was too grindy and just uninstalling it. I’m not coming into this with infinite patience or anything.