Tremendous game, and probably my favorite soundtrack, but my favorite feature was the lack of random encounters.

I loved playing this game as a kid round at my friend's house on his SNES. The same era as Final Fantasy VI, Legend of Zelda, Secret of Mana and Earthbound. And that's just the fantastic RPG's that were on that console...

A truly golden time.

I remember seeing it in an enclosed plastic end cap at toys 'r' us. It was $80, so I assumed it wasn't for a kid like me. Marketing at the time did not do a good job with it in the US.

It’s funny how the internet and search has changed gaming, when I was 10 I discovered this game (was fairly new at the time), ran into lavos way too early where you’re not really supposed to beat him but it feels tantalizingly within reach. Tried leveling all my characters and every cheese imaginable but still failed. concluded that I just couldn’t beat it and put it down til my 20’s, lol. a simple google search had it been available would’ve told me what was going on. back in those days if you didnt know how to beat a game you had to ask a friend, buy a game magazine, or hope to get lucky.

I had a very similar experience with Castlevania's Symphony of the Night. Bought it when it came out, but quickly got one of the bad endings and that really soured me on the experience. Was years later when I found that I had literally missed over half of the game.

First time playing chrono trigger I was playing on an emulator, exclusively using a single save state. Went into the early lavos area, saved, got my ass beat. Discovered I couldn't go out again, save bricked :( took years until I gave the game another go

I somewhat miss those days of endless time I could dump into gaming. Nowadays if I’m stuck for 5-10min I google because my playtime is limited and I don’t want to spend it looking for the wrong thing or headed in the wrong direction.

But you formed a memory and a story around that experience, practiced the skill, and stretched your mind trying to achieve a goal.

I don't know if you're making the point that a search at the time would have been a better or worse experience. Either way it shows that internet search has come at a cost. I don't know if it's actually best for us to further optimize and streamline it.

Recently replayed it as a full-grown adult after repeatedly playing and beating it as a kid; its whimsical but barely coherent story is definitely more enjoyable as a persistent childhood memory. But the music and gameplay hold up very well even 20-30+ years later.

We have to remember this was a time where text was still kind of expensive, so making the story more than barely coherent required losing enemy variety and such. The advantages of the switch to CD-ROM wasn't really the pre-rendered cutscenes, but the fact that there were no practical limitations to how much text you want to use. Every bit of text also lead to harder localization, which was still a part of the industry in its infancy.

So from where I stand, the coherence of Chrono Trigger is already kind of a miracle, given cart sizes

I still hold out hope that Square-Enix will either remake this or release a new game in the series.

Chrono Chross was fun, but a different style. Radical Dreamers was completely different.

You know what I've always wanted for remakes? When it has something tangible to improve the game with

People like the FF7 remake but it's in a wildly different frame than the original game, whereas I maybe would've liked to see some of the glitches fixed and more to the point the translation

FF6 should also fix the glitches, but the GBA version has a worse translation (arguably more correct but more boring) and worse music

> People like the FF7 remake but it's in a wildly different frame than the original game, whereas I maybe would've liked to see some of the glitches fixed and more to the point the translation

The worst part is that they have all new authentic assets for the original game being used in an installment-based mobile game with a simplified battle system. They could have done that with the real thing. Shrug

Square-Enix did pixel remasters as well as remakes. There are mixed opinions on them but what you’re looking for exists.

My younger brother played this on an emulator in high school. He would just grind and grind to get all the endings and unlock all the character combos - eventually beating the game twice a night using frameskip to play through it faster.

I said this was the best game I had ever played after I first played it ~1996, and when asked today about my "favorite game", it's still top of mind.

The original Chronotrigger soundtrack is one of my go-to coding soundtracks.

There's something about some of the 80's and 90's games that showed exceptional love and art from the game makers.

I bought my 5-yo daughter an arcade for her birthday and we have been playing Bobble Bubble non-stop for months, finally beating the game with a single credit!

As we played the game, we discovered new patterns, tricks and pathways to beat impossibly-looking levels safely, and we discovered portals, bonuses and secrets galore. We also got to know each other better, as we play together better than we would play with other people.

The game pushes you constantly between competing to get power-ups and extra-lifes to collaborating to beat asymmetric levels.

There is one power-up that turns the level into a bonus where you have a score board and whoever gets the most bonus items wins extra points. But if you do even scoring, you both get the max bonus. The game is testing you!

It is when you beat the game at the end that the secret of the universe is revealed: Love & Friendship.