Video Game Review #183: Lego Marvel's Avengers

Lego Marvel's Avengers

PlayStation 4

Nostalgia Factor:

I have played a large number of these Lego games in my life. I used to like these games a lot, but over the past few years I’ve found that my patience for them has just about worn out. Sure, each game does something a little bit different from the one before it, but all in all, aside from the themes, each iteration of the Lego series is pretty much the exact same thing.

Why did I order this from GameFly if I wasn’t enjoying Lego games anymore? Good question. I wasn’t even trying to order this game, actually. I had Lego Avengers super low on my queue (I’d say around 10th or 11th in line), and I planned to keep it there until I was able to check some higher priority games like Doom, God of War, and Red Dead Redemption 2 off of my “to play” list. I am not sure why they sent Lego Avengers to me when there were a ton of other games above it that were labeled as “high availability."

Oh well. It is what it is. Despite the initial disappointment, I was still riding an Avengers high after seeing Endgame last month. I was a little excited to go back and play through a Lego re-imagining of the older Avengers movies. Would I enjoy this, or would it turn out to be just another uninspiring Lego game? Read on to find out.

Story:

For the most part, this game follows the events of the first two Avengers films. To try and keep things fresh, the story is told out of order. The game starts with the Avengers battling to take back Loki’s scepter from Hydra (as seen in the beginning of Age of Ultron). After you complete the level, the game flashes back to the first Avengers movie where it tells the story of Loki’s scepter and its journey. You play through the events of the film, then jump ahead in time to Age of Ultron, post-battle. There you play through the events of the rest of the movie until the end credits begin to roll.

The game is not over, however, as three levels from other Marvel movies open up. These levels tell stories taken out of Captain America: Winter Soldier, Thor 2, and Iron Man 3. Once you beat them, the game is over, unless you want to go back and collect everything you missed, which I never feel the urge to do in a Lego game. From the looks of it, there are loads and loads of DLC you can add to the base game, but seeing as how this was just a quick rental for me, I didn’t bother with any of that.

Gameplay:

Lego games are always easy to pick up and play, as I am sure they are designed with kids in mind. You jump, you punch, you smash the shit out of everything around you, you collect things, you solve puzzles, and you assemble broken Lego pieces to create key items to help you advance to the end of the stage.

In this game, each stage opens with funny Lego animations that reenact classic scenes from the Avengers films. Once the scenes are over, you take control of your character. Chances are, this character will be accompanied by two or three side characters. You can switch back and forth between characters with the push of a button. Different characters have different attributes – for example Iron Man can shoot explosives to knock down walls that can’t be destroyed with normal attacks. Captain America uses his shield to put out fires. Hawkeye shoots grappling hook-like arrows that can open doors, pull out-of-reach switches, or drag boxes or other movable items towards you.

Each stage is filled with character specific puzzles, so you are going to need to switch back and forth between characters quite often. One gripe I had with this game is that the answers to its puzzles aren’t always readily apparent. It happened quite often where I would completely clear out a room, and there would seemingly be nowhere for me to go. Turns out, 90% of the time there was something I had to break, but wound up missing because it had blended in with the background. Or there would be Lego pieces to assemble lying on the ground that just looked like regular debris. Or I would need to be using a specific character at a specific location to activate a button prompt.

The game does give you little hints as to what to do next, but oftentimes they are completely useless, as they try to point you in the direction of a secret item you can’t even get to yet. Other times, the hints were spot on and very helpful. But yeah, I got stuck quite often and would have to turn to the internet for help. A game designed for little kids has never made me feel so stupid!

Story mode is pretty simple and short. I didn’t keep track of how long I was playing, but I would be shocked if you told me it took me more than eight or nine hours to get through the base game. And most of that was probably me getting stuck and wandering around not knowing where to go next. Once you finish story mode, you can go back and play all the levels you’ve already played, but in free mode where you can pick any character, regardless of whether or not their appearance makes sense according to the movies. The more you play and the more stuff you collect, the more characters you unlock. Remember, different characters all have different powers and abilities in this game. If you are a Lego completionist, you are going to want to play through all the levels multiple times, using different characters to unlock everything there is in a single stage.

I definitely don’t have time for that. I have never even come close to getting 100% on a Lego game. I just want to play through the main storyline and move on to the next title. I do normally enjoy these Lego games, but I am not nearly dedicated enough to play through any of them multiple times.

Graphics:

This is a very fun, sharp, and colorful looking game. The stars of the game as far as graphics go are definitely the characters. I like how they adapted the designs of all these classic Marvel characters and put them into Lego form. Some of them are just flat out adorable. If you are a fan of the Avengers movies, you are probably going to be charmed by these characters.

The levels are pretty diverse and interesting to look at. I wouldn’t say that anything looks TOO good, however. I think this game could have easily been made on a PS3 and you wouldn't be able to tell much of a difference. I’m not knocking the game’s look, just that there is only so much you can do graphically with these Lego games.

Sound:

When I first turned the game on and heard that classic Avengers theme song start to play, that is when I knew I was going to love the game's music. I wasn't wrong. From beginning to end, you are going to recognize many different musical scores pulled directly from the MCU, and they are all magnificent. For seasoned Lego vets, you will recognize all the familiar sounds of the series. The sounds the studs make when you destroy something and they hit the floor. The sound it makes when you pick them up. The sound it makes when you assemble Lego pieces to build something new. All of these classic Lego sound effects make their return here, and they all sound better than ever.

I don't know exactly when the characters started talking in Lego games, but they talk in this one. The voice acting is pulled directly from the movies. There is a lot of chatter in this game, so it is nice to be able to hear Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, Chris Evans as Captain America, and so on. It really makes you feel like part of the action. I haven't done any research, so I may be wrong, but some of the voices didn't sound like the original actors. I am wondering if some people refused to lend their voice to the game, or there was some kind of legal reason they couldn't appear here. Or maybe I am just losing my mind. I swear, some of the voices didn't sound quite right.

Speaking of the voices, while I for the most part enjoyed them, they did sound a little fuzzy at times. I understand that a lot of the quotes used in this game were pulled directly from the movies, and oftentimes during the movies when people are talking there is music or other things happening in the background. The makers of the game had to blur out that background noise, so the voices would fit what was happening in the game. I understand that, but it still screwed up the audio quality of the voices. Most of the time they sounded okay, but other times they would sound tinny, fuzzy, or really super quiet. It was a valiant effort, but incorporating the characters' voices into the game didn't quite work.

Overall:

What more can I say about this game that I haven't said about every other Lego game that I have played? Not a whole lot. If you have played one Lego game, you have played them all. Each game is the exact same thing, but with a new skin. Whether or not you are interested in playing the game depends on how much you are devoted to the theme, and your overall enjoyment of the Lego series.

If you are an Avengers fan, and you aren't completely burnt out by Lego games, you will love this. If you love Lego and eat up anything Lego related that hits store shelves, you will love this. Outside of that is where things start to get murky. Even though I haven't played a Lego title in over a year, as soon as I fired up this game and started playing through the first level, I was all like "and here we go again." I know I sound like a broken record, but each Lego game is just SO SIMILAR. Even though I love the Avengers, I just could not muster up enough enthusiasm to truly enjoy this game.

I like the game's music and sound effects. I like its graphics and presentation. It is definitely a very polished game. Whether or not it is any fun is debatable. I think this is definitely a "to each his own" type of game. To me, it felt like I was just going through the motions the whole time I was playing it. I think the fact of the matter is, I just can't get excited for Lego games anymore. At the same time, I understand their appeal and I can see why other people would love this game. But for me, it's a no, dawg. I definitely need to take a Lego break and wait another ten years or so before I play another one of these again.

Final Score:

C-

If you liked this review, please check out some of my other game reviews:

Lego Jurassic World

Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Spider-Man

Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series

Ratchet & Clank

Video Game Review #182: Spider-Man

Spider-Man

PlayStation 4

Nostalgia Factor:

Spider-Man has been on my “to play” list from the moment it first hit store shelves. I have heard absolutely nothing but good things about it. Now, thanks to the miracle of GameFly, I am finally able to see if it lives up to all the overwhelmingly positive reviews.

Story:

There is a lot to unpack in this game, but I am just going to give you the basics. First thing, this is NOT a Spider-Man origin story. Thank god, because after countless cartoons, movie reboots, comic books, and other video games, I am about Spider-Man origin storied out. In this game, Peter Parker is a high school graduate living on his own in a “hole in the wall” apartment in New York city. He is struggling to make ends meet, working as a lab assistant to Doctor Otto Octavius. When not at work in the lab, Peter prowls the streets and fights crime as Spider-Man. Having an adult Spider-Man is a good move on behalf of the game makers, because trying to balance Peter’s schooling with his Spider-Man duties, while also having a curfew and being under Aunt May’s watchful eye would have been hard to pull off.

The game begins with Spider-Man taking out crime boss Wilson Fisk, who I mainly recognized from the TV show Daredevil. I didn’t know that he was a Spider-Man villain as well, but I guess it makes sense seeing as how both this game and Daredevil are set in New York City. After Fisk’s fall, all the criminals in the city fight for table scraps, causing a spike in crime for Spider-Man to take on. Things get particularly ugly when a rally for Mayor (?!) Norman Osborn is attacked and dozens of innocent people are killed. One of the people killed is Jefferson Davis, a hero cop who assisted Spidey on one of his previous missions. Peter befriends Jefferson’s son, Miles, while also trying to rekindle his relationship with old flame Mary Jane Watson. Spider-Man is blamed for the crime, and a group of mercenaries led by the Silver Sable is called in to help enforce a militaristic order in the suddenly chaotic city.

As you play, a larger plot comes into focus. A group of criminals known as the Demons is after Norman Osborn because they want to get their hands on something called Devil’s Breath. Devil’s Breath is a biological weapon accidentally created in a lab by Osborn. Eventually the bad guys, led by Peter’s former good guy employer Otto Octavius, get their hands on the virus and release it into the air. To add injury to insult, a nearby prison sees a major break out, and incarcerated villains like Electro, Vulture, Scorpion, and the rest of the Sinister Six escape along with thousands of inmates. So not only does the city become a violent, dangerous cesspool full of criminals and super villains with a biological weapon floating around in the air, but Spider-Man also has to worry about Sable’s forces and the police coming after him because they think he is a criminal too.

The meat of the story is tracking down all the supervillains and eliminating them. There are lots of side missions to take on, some of which tie into the main story, some of which do not. The end result is a final, heart pounding battle with Doc Ock at the end of the game. Seems pretty straightforward, but there are many layers to the game’s story. Whatever you do, don’t dismiss Mary Jane, Aunt May, and Miles Morales as bit characters in this game. They all play a huge role in Peter’s journey. You really begin to care for all of them over time. I won’t spoil anything, but the end of the game had me in tears, which I was not expecting one bit. I thought this was just going to be a funny, action packed, comic book beat ‘em up. There is so much more to it than that.

Gameplay:

If you have played any of the Batman Arkham games outside of the first one, you should have at least an idea of how Spider-Man works. This game takes place from a behind the back perspective. You are dropped off in the middle of New York City. The whole map is available to you right from the get go. As you explore, you can you pause the game to check out the map. The more you explore, the more you’ll see it fill up with all kinds of collectibles and missions. Check out the city at your leisure. You can choose to ignore all the extra content and focus on the story-based missions if that is your thing, but where is the fun in that?

You traverse the city by swinging from building to building, tree to tree, street light to street light using your webs. All you do is basically hold the R2 trigger as you run, and Spider Man does the rest. I’ve seen  the web slinging mechanic praised by other reviewers online, and I can’t say I disagree with them. There is something so much more exciting about swinging through the city at high speeds, rather than simply driving from point to point.

Combat took me a while to get used to, but once I got the hang of it I was a pro. During battle, you can run, roll, evade, punch, jump, and use gadgets to take down your enemies. My favorite thing is using the trigger buttons to grab things with my web slingers, and then swinging them around and heaving them at my opponents. So satisfying! Spider Man also uses his spidey sense in battle, which to me was very reminiscent of Batman’s intuition in the Arkham games that let him dodge and counter enemy attacks. It doesn’t work quite the same though, and it was throwing me off for a while. Spidey doesn’t counter-attack when you use his spidey sense to dodge attacks, he simply dodges them or rolls to the side. I found myself getting beat down regularly, because I’d try to jump right back into attacking after dodging an attack, thinking Spidey would counter-attack like Batman. He doesn’t. Oftentimes I would find myself walking right into a punch in the face. You have to regroup after dodging and play a lot more defensively in this game than the Arkham games.

There are no health items in Spider-Man, nor does health simply regenerate over time. You have a Focus gauge that fills when you swing around the city, or when you dodge attacks or hit enemies. If you let this gauge fill up, the game allows you to one-hit kill a few enemies before the gauge drops back down to zero again. Otherwise, you can use this gauge as a backup health meter. Just hit the down button on the D-pad to transfer energy from your Focus gauge to your health bar. I like this system a lot. If you are in the middle of a challenging fight, simply run away, swing around on your webs a little bit, and use that energy to fill your health meter.

Spider-Man gains EXP as you play. The more you level up, the stronger you become. Each time you level up, you gain a skill point that you can use to upgrade your abilities. In addition, there are several collectible items and challenges located around New York City. Collecting things or completing challenges gives you tokens that you can use to buy and upgrade new items, weapons, or suits for your character.

You don’t only play as Spider-Man. There are sections of the game where you have to take control of either Miles Morales or Mary Jane Watson. I wasn’t a huge fan of these segments, as most of them are stealth-based, and I have always lacked the patience to excel at stealth. You also have to do lots of laboratory-based mini games, that play out similarly to hacking in Bioshock. Again, I wasn’t a huge fan of these. They aren’t too difficult, they just take a lot of trial and error. And there are certain areas of the game where you have to do this SO MANY times. I could have done without them at all. I think the game gives you the option to skip some of them, but I didn’t want to do that and then risk possibly missing out on getting a platinum trophy on the game because I skipped over content.

Anyway, I am only scratching the surface at what Spider-Man has to offer. There is a lot of stuff crammed into this game, and honestly, it was a bit overwhelming for me at first. But no fear. The more I played, the more I realized I had nothing to worry about. The game is very user friendly. Things became second nature for me very quickly.

Graphics:

This game looks really good. I’ve never actually been to New York City, but things seem to be faithfully recreated for the game. I recognized a ton of historic locations, like Central Park, the Statue of Liberty, and the Brooklyn Bridge. The game even gives a shout out to other Marvel heroes, as Avengers Tower, the Sanctum Santorum, Alias Investigations, and many other New York City based Marvel characters have their haunts featured here.

Not only is New York faithfully recreated, it looks really beautiful too. I always loved climbing the highest buildings just to take in the sights from above. The view looks photo-realistic at times. The characters are amazing too. Spider-Man and all his villains are instantly identifiable. I loved the cartoon-looking Spider suit that I unlocked about halfway through the game. It was a cool feeling being able to control a cartoon character walking and swinging around in a world full of “real people”.

Little details really make the game come to life. There is diversity among NPCs you see walking around on the streets. There are realistic looking store fronts, reflections on windows, graffiti on the walls, personal clutter when you enter indoor locations, and so much more. This is a big game, and it is very evident that the people who made it really went all out to give players a visual feast they would never forget.

Sound:

The game’s music, sound effects, and voice acting are on par with the visuals. Play this with headphones on, and you will not only see, but HEAR New York City come to life, bustling crowd noise, beeping car horns and all. The voice acting is terrific. I can’t complain about a single member of the game’s voice acting cast. I can give a shout out to Spider-Man himself, as the voice actor really gives this character a fun, vibrant, and relatable personality. His one-liners are quite good. I am not generally someone who laughs a lot, but this game had me chuckling on many occasions.

I loved the music too. Nothing compares to that feeling when you are swinging through the city, and that familiar epic tune crescendos in your ear. It is classic Spider-Man at its best.

Overall:

I’ve heard nothing but good things about Spider-Man since it came out in 2018, and I can tell you that it deserves all of the good reviews it has received. Whether you are advancing the storyline, doing side missions, collecting things, completing challenges, or just swinging around the city, you are going to have a good time with this game.

I did have a few gripes. Mainly, I did not like the stealth missions and all the lab work you have to complete. But I touched on those already. There were other things too. I’d often be listening to J Jonah Jameson’s radio show while swinging around, only to have it cut off when I would near a mission point. Same thing with character conversations too, such as phone calls with Aunt May or Spider-Man’s assistant, Yuri. I was interested in these conversations and wanted to hear what the characters had to say. But the problem is, if I wanted to hear them I’d have to stop short of the mission marker and hang out, doing nothing, while listening to the characters talk. I feel that this could have been handled slightly better.

As far as originality goes, this game isn’t exactly groundbreaking. We’ve seen open world games set in big cities before (Grand Theft Auto, Infamous). We’ve controlled a superhero who swings around from building to building (Batman). The combat system seems like it borrows heavily from other titles like the Arkham series or God of War. The game makers did NOT break the mold with Spider-Man, but they did make it better than pretty much every game that inspired it.

So those are my complaints. Take them with a grain of salt, because the game is freaking fantastic. Spider-Man is so easy to pick up and play and instantly fall in love with. Graphics, music, storyline, gameplay, voice acting, controls, everything comes together perfectly. New York City is massive, and bustling with personality and life. I enjoyed webslinging my way across the city and taking in all the sights. The game's map is loaded with content, from collectables to side missions to challenges to the main story missions themselves. This game is the ultimate "let me just check out this one thing nearby, and then I will stop playing" game. It is so addictive.

There is not one category where this game doesn't excel. Combat is great, the storyline is great, the graphics are great. It is a ton of fun. There is no other way to say it. This could possibly be the greatest superhero game of all time. Congratulations to Insomniac Games, as they have created a modern day masterpiece.

Overall:

A+

If you liked my review of Spider-Man, check out some of my other game reviews:

Batman: Arkham Asylum

Batman: Arkham Origins

Batman: Arkham Knight

Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

Video Game Review #181: Batman: The Enemy Within

Batman: The Enemy Within

PlayStation 4

Nostalgia Factor:

When I first got my PS4 back in December of 2017, it came with a free one month trial of PlayStation Plus. One of the free games available during that trial was Batman: The Telltale Series. I’ve always been a big fan of Batman. I’ve always been a big fan of Telltale and their games. It was an easy decision that I was going to check the game out.

I played the game and I enjoyed it. I thought it was a unique take on the Dark Knight. It focused more on Bruce Wayne than any other Batman game I had ever played. It was dark, it was surprising. It was a lot of fun! After I was done, I looked up the game online to see what other people thought of it. While doing my research, I was surprised to see that there was a sequel for the game that was already out. I made a note to myself to check out the sequel someday.

Now, that day has come. I renewed my GameFly subscription late last month, and made this one of the first titles I added to my queue. It wasn’t #1, but due to the limited availability of games ahead of it, it was the first one shipped out. Since Telltale Games has shut down, I played this with a heavy heart knowing that it is one of the last of their games I hadn’t played yet that I would get to review.

 Story:

Telltale games are known for their storylines rather than their gameplay, and The Enemy Within is no exception. The game starts with Batman in pursuit of the Riddler, who is killing people with elaborate “Saw”-like contraptions. Batman’s personal battle with the Riddler is only the tip of the iceberg. There is a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes, most notably the battle for a virus for which, if used properly, could lead to a cure-all type serum. If used incorrectly, well, it will kill everyone it comes into contact with.

Many other villains get introduced to the fold: Mr Freeze, Bane, and my personal favorite – Harley Quinn, among others. Catwoman returns, and the game also reintroduces John Doe from the first game and throws him in the mix. He befriends Bruce Wayne, which leads to some interesting decisions you have to make. You can shun him and treat him like a criminal, or you can befriend him and try to turn him away from a life of crime. I’m pretty sure he becomes The Joker no matter what you do (most obvious plot twist ever), but it’s the thought that counts, right?

Just like in the first game, The Enemy Within switches character control back and forth between Bruce Wayne and Batman. Bruce does the schmoozing and the undercover work, Batman handles the fighting and the high tech investigations. Also like in the first game, different choices you make can affect how the game plays out. I only played through the game once, so I didn’t investigate what would have happened if I’d played differently. I can only imagine that people can have very different experiences with the game depending on the choices they make.

Gameplay:

I’ve reviewed a ton of Telltale games, and they all basically work the same. You walk around looking at things, you make conversation choices, and you perform QTE during battle sequences. I don’t want to dive into detail YET AGAIN explaining the game mechanics. They are very self-explanatory and easy to get a hang of. After reading through my old reviews, I really start to sound like a broken record after a while, explaining how these games work. So I am not going to do that here.

Graphics:

Telltale games have never been known for their spectacular graphics. That doesn’t mean that the games look bad, they just look very basic. I think they are going for the “pulled directly from the pages of a graphic novel” look. I’ve always liked this art style. It gives the games character, and a very distinct “Telltale” look to them. That said, the Enemy Within looks better than most Telltale games. Things are a bit more crisp. The characters are expressive and well-designed. Telltales’ graphics have been getting ever so slightly better over the years, even if the changes aren’t particularly noticeable from game to game. It’s a shame I won’t be able to see where they take their graphics in the coming years, since Telltale won’t be making games anymore.

Yeah, I am still bitter about it.

Sound:

The voice acting for Telltale’s games has always been strong, at least in my opinion. This game is no exception. Line delivery can be a bit stiff at times, particularly when Bruce is speaking, but for the most part it is very good. I love the Joker’s voice. The side characters are all strong. My personal favorite voice from this game is Harley Quinn. Usually I don’t like those trashy New York/New Jersey tough girl accents, but I liked it here. A lot. Here’s my “TMI DAN!!!” moment of the review: I was actually kind of turned on by it. I don’t know why. One cannot explain how the heart works. It just does.

The game’s music? I don’t remember much of it. There was one particular tune that sounded like it was pulled straight from the Christopher Nolan movies, and I was digging it. Outside of that, I didn’t really take notice of the game’s music. It wasn’t particularly memorable, but it wasn’t noticeably bad at the same time. I must not be a video game music person, because I say this quite often in my reviews.

Overall:

For the most part, I know what I am getting into when I pick up a Telltale game. The graphics will be serviceable, but nothing spectacular. The voice acting will be good. The gameplay is going to be very basic and “hands-off”. You’re going to spend most of your time talking to people and making conversation selections and trying to steer the story the way you want it to go. All of that is fine and dandy with me. What defines a good Telltale game lies in its storyline and if you care about its characters. To me, The Enemy Within delivers.

As a big Batman fan, I can admit to being a little biased. I eat up and enjoy anything Batman related, even if it has obvious glaring flaws (I’m looking at you, Batman & Robin). I’m a sucker for the Dark Knight, what can I say? A lot of this game is fan service, and I am okay with that. Do we really need to cram Mr. Freeze, the Joker, Harley Quinn, Catwoman, the Riddler, Bane, and several other enemies into one game? Not really, but seeing as how this is the last Telltale Batman game, I am glad they went all out. Better too much than not enough has always been a personal motto of mine.

From a pure video gaming standpoint, this game has obvious flaws, and some can even argue that this is barely a game at all and more of an interactive movie. It’s short, laughably easy, and in a world of Batman universes (comics, TV shows, other games, etc), it is set in a universe that is going to be forgotten about quickly. Still, it is good at what it does. I had a fun time playing it, and isn’t that what video games are all about?

If you are a fan of Telltale games, you can’t go wrong with this. You probably have an idea in your mind of what you are getting into, and that idea is probably an accurate one. Similarly, if you are a Batman fan you will want to check out both this game and its predecessor for their unique take on the world of the Dark Knight.

Overall:

B

If you liked my review of Batman: The Enemy Within, check out some of my other game reviews:

Batman: Arkham Knight

Batman: The Telltale Series

Game of Thrones: A Telltale Games Series

The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead Season Two

Next game I will be reviewing shall be Spider-Man for PS4. It was the next game from my GameFly queue to arrive, and I just beat it and sent it back a few days ago.

Video Game Review #180: Chrono Trigger

Chrono Trigger

Super Nintendo

Nostalgia Factor:

Despite being an all-time classic in the minds of many gamers, I don’t have a whole lot of experience with Chrono Trigger. As I’ve mentioned many times on this blog, I grew up with a Sega Genesis as a kid. As a result, I missed out on this game in the 90s when it was big. Almost all of my grade school pals had a Super Nintendo. I had to listen to them talk all the time about how great Final Fantasy III and Chrono Trigger were, and it always made me feel left out. I wanted so badly to go out and get a Super Nintendo for myself. I never did until I was much older, though.

I ended up playing and beating Chrono Trigger around 2008, but I don’t remember any of it. This was during the heavy drinking phase of my life. I also played A Link to the Past around the same time, and I don’t remember any of that either, for the same reason. In fact, I don’t remember a LOT of what happened back then. Playing Chrono Trigger now in 2019 was like playing it for the first time.

Story:

As an old-school JRPG, Chrono Trigger's storyline is just as important as its gameplay. While I don’t think that the game’s storyline is as great as, say, Final Fantasy VII’s, it is still pretty good. What makes this game unique is that it revolves heavily around time travel. Different things you do in the past can affect how the game plays out when you travel into the future.

Things start out simply enough. You take control of a young man named Chrono. He wakes up one day, excited to go visit his friend Lucca’s science exhibit at the big Millennial Fair taking place in town. Lucca’s experiment is meant to act as a transporter of sorts, kind of like you see on Star Trek. Beam a person from one platform to the other. During the demonstration, things go horribly wrong.

A rift in time is opened, and it sucks in a passerby, a girl that Chrono just met. The rift closes behind her. You find out that the girl who disappeared (Marle) was the King’s daughter. Oops. Lucca does some tinkering and is able to recreate the time portal. Lucca and Chrono jump in, in an attempt to find Marle and bring her back.

The effects of messing with the timeline quickly make themselves apparent. In the past, Chrono and Lucca visit the royal palace and find Marle, who vanishes before their eyes. See, Marle looks exactly like one of her ancestors, a girl that was kidnapped by bandits and had to be rescued from them. Because the royal family in the past thinks that Marle IS the princess and is present in the castle, they never go looking for the real kidnapped princess. As a result, the real princess is killed by the bandits and Marle’s bloodline dies out and she is never born. Heavy stuff.

Stuck in the past, Chrono and Lucca come to the conclusion that they have to find and rescue the real missing princess and restore the timeline, which they do. This restores Marle, who reappears out of nowhere. Their job done, the heroes try to return home, but more bad stuff happens. They accidentally shoot themselves too far into the future, which is a bleak and desolate land. Humanity is nearly dead, killed off by a powerful creature called Lavos.

Destroying Lavos and stopping him from eventually destroying humanity becomes your new goal. You and your party have to travel through different time periods, discovering the origin of Lavos and trying to gauge when he is at his weakest to kill him (which is in the past when he first shows up). A fun thing about this game is that you can actually attempt to kill Lavos at almost any point you want. You’ll get massacred because you aren’t tough enough if you do this too early in the game, but hey you can always try.

There are many other time traveling quests and missions that you have to undertake in the meantime, but I’m only here to recap the essentials. Your first time through, you don’t want to fight Lavos too early. You want to play all the way to the end of the game before you take him on. Killing him officially ends the game and opens up New Game Plus. When you start a New Game Plus, you start with all your fancy equipment and you keep your high levels. Because you start out the game at a high level, you can feel free to challenge Lavos immediately. Beating him while there are still plot threads dangling about changes the game’s ending. In fact, I hear there are about 20 different endings you can see depending on when you choose to challenge him. While this is a freaking awesome feature that adds a lot of replay value to the game, I got places to be and things to do and plenty of other games to play. I only played the game and beat it one time. If I ever pick it up again in the future I will probably start from my New Game Plus and check out some of the endings. But not now.

Gameplay:

This is a very traditional turn based RPG. You can select to either attack, use an item, or use magic each turn. Combat takes place using an active time counter, so be sure that you are prompt when making your selections. Take too long, and the computer can sneak multiple attacks in while you are still making a selection. You usually have three people in your party. I like to keep people who are strong both physically and with magic attacks in my party, along with one healer.

What I like about combat in this game is that the battles are not randomly generated. You can normally see enemies on the map, and then decide whether you want to attack them or sneak by. Sometimes enemies will hide and pop out at you, but once you beat them, they’re gone. This is a HUGE addition to this game. I’ll use Final Fantasy VI as an example why. I’d enter a new area, take two steps, and get attacked. After the battle, I’d walk around for a few seconds and then I’d get attacked. After that battle, I’d walk around for a few seconds and get attacked. On and on it went. While this is typically how RPGs work, that doesn’t mean I have to like it. If anything, I think it actively discourages exploration, particularly in more challenging areas. In Chrono Trigger, I was free to explore to my heart’s content.

Aside from the battles not being randomly generated, most of what you see in Chrono Trigger you have probably seen in other RPGs. You have towns and villages where you talk to NPCs. There are stores where you can buy or upgrade items. There are treasure chests out in the field that contain helpful stuff. You gain EXP when you defeat enemies in battle, which helps you level up and become more powerful. If it wasn’t for its name, this game could have easily passed for a Final Fantasy title.

Graphics:

This game truly looks fantastic. Just because it is old doesn’t mean it has to look bad. I think it has held up wonderfully over the years. The characters are all well-designed. They may look a little pixelated if you zoom in on them, but I think they are nicely drawn and very charming and expressive. The landscapes are varied and dynamic, featuring many iconic set pieces. Like I said, I didn’t grow up with Chrono Trigger, but I still recognize many of the locations from the game. The Millennial Fair, Zenan Bridge, the Dactyl Nest, the ruined future, Lucca’s house, the campfire. All of these are iconic locations that even people who aren’t fans of the series may still be able to recognize.

Everything is so bright, colorful, and full of life. If I had to compare this game’s graphics to those of Final Fantasy VI, which came out just a year earlier, this game definitely wins. You could even argue that the graphical style holds up better than later generation RPGs like Final Fantasy VII and VIII. 24 years after this game’s release, and it still looks good. I think it will still look good in another 24 years, and another, and another. Chrono Trigger’s graphics have a timeless appeal.

Sound:

While Chrono Trigger may look better than Final Fantasy VI, I can’t say that it sounds better. Sure, there are a few pleasant or “nice” tunes in this game, but none of the game’s music stood out to me as being particularly memorable or iconic. When you look at Final Fantasy VI (I hate to keep comparing these two titles, but they were made by the same people and came out around the same time), that game has loads of memorable, iconic musical tracks. I am not sure if I could identify more than two or three Chrono Trigger songs. Not to say that the music is bad, I’ve just heard better. Much better.

The game’s sound effects are fine. No complaints here. Final Fantasy vets will recognize the high pitched beep sound the game makes when you navigate menus. I can’t say anything else really stood out to me as far as the game’s sound. Chrono Trigger is a very good game, but its audio is one area where I found it to be a little bit lacking.

Overall:

I came into this game after reading all of its glowing reviews and seeing it ranked highly on many people’s top RPG lists. Heck, it even cracked the top 5 on several peoples’ top GAMES list, period. The bar for Chrono Trigger was set very high for me. There are so many opinion pieces out there stating that this is one of the best games ever made. So is it?

I have mixed feelings on the subject.

There is no denying that this is a good game. In fact, I would even say that this is a REALLY good game. It charmed me right from the very start. The story, the characters, the graphics, the music (even if I can’t remember much of it), and the controls all came together to create the definitive 16-bit RPG. Everything that you want an RPG to be, this game is.

The first ten hours or so of Chrono Trigger, I had an absolute blast with. I was having a much better time with this game than I was with FFVI when I first started playing it. To me it was so much more fun, colorful, and charming. I was really digging the game’s storyline too. I’d say my enjoyment of the game started to slow down the first time I got lost.

I don’t remember the exact circumstances, but I had stopped playing for a couple of days because I was busy. When I came back, I couldn’t remember what was going on or where I was supposed to go next. I talked to all the characters in my vicinity and came up with nothing. I visited a bunch of locations in the area and came up with nothing. I returned to The End of Time (which is basically the game’s time traveling hub) and came up with nothing. There is even a character who hangs out in the End of Time who is supposed to give you clues and help you when you are stuck, but all he would tell me is “come visit me if you need help!” Well, I need help now, you shithead! Screaming at the TV didn’t make him change his tune however. I traveled to different time periods and I STILL couldn’t find out where to go next. I had been trying to beat the game without the help of an online guide, but after several hours of wandering around aimlessly I was forced to cave in and look for help.

Turns out, I had to travel to the middle-ages and go to the castle, where I had to go to the kitchens and talk to the cook, who would give me food to deliver to the troops on the front line. Then the battle would move on, and I could advance the plot. A somewhat obscure task, especially after being away from the game for so long. But the kicker is, I had already talked to the cook earlier in the game and he didn’t have anything important to say to me. How TF should I have known I’d have to return to him in order to get the game’s storyline rolling again? I wasted so many hours when an NPC could have easily, EASILY pointed me in the right direction. This isn’t the only instance of something like this happening for me. I got stuck like this at several different points during the game and had to look to the internet for help. Very annoying.

I also wasn’t infatuated with where certain parts of the storyline went. This became an issue for me when the team traveled to the Kingdom of Zeal. Maybe it is because we weren’t given a proper history of the world of Chrono Trigger, but I had a hard time telling what was going on, who was who, and where these characters fell in to the grand scheme of things.

The game is very short. I beat the whole thing in under 20 hours, and that is even with all the time I spent aimlessly wandering around when I’d get lost. Sure, the multiple endings add a tremendous amount of replay value to the game, but I’d rather have a longer game than one you have to play through multiple times to see all its content.

Expect to spend a lot of time grinding, too. This issue wasn’t particularly bad for me as I was playing through the story, but when I got to the end where I had to fight Lavos, I quickly discovered that I was woefully under leveled. I battled through about 10 or so variations of Lavos, only to have the last one kill my entire party in one hit. That meant that not only did I have to go back and seriously level up, but also that I would have to sit through those 10 fights again the next time I wanted to take on Lavos. No spank you! There was a lot that was good about this game, but a lot that was bad too.

So yeah. My feelings on the game are mixed. If you’d asked me at the eight or nine hour mark what I thought of the game I would have said it was an A+. Ask me a few hours after that and I would have said an A. Then I would have said an A-. Then it would have been in the B range. The longer I played the game, the more I began to dislike it. That shouldn’t be the case. You are supposed to like a game the more you play it, not the other way around.

All in all, I did enjoy this (slightly) more than Final Fantasy VI, so it gets a (slightly) better grade. But still, for a game as insanely hyped up as Chrono Trigger, I expected more. Not to say I hated the game, only that it did not meet or exceed the expectations I had for it. Good game. Really good game. But an all-time classic? Ehhhhhh……

Maybe if you grew up with the game, you’d see it different from me. But that’s my stance and I’m sticking to it.

Overall:

B

And here is my Final Fantasy VI review, since I reference that game so many times in this one!
Final Fantasy VI