I played it for the first time about 10 years ago on a SNES emulator (because it kept on popping up in “best game of all time” lists), and I wasn’t disappointed. Well, I don’t think it is the best game ever, but I really enjoyed it, so I don’t think it’s a game that’s propped up only by nostalgia.
I’d kind of like to see someone review retro games on a “equal standing” with current games. That is, sure, they’re using old technology, sure, but see how they stand up to current games in terms of what you pay and the time investment in playing them.
While I remember having fun with Chrono Trigger, I don’t know if, in 2025, I’d recommend it or any older RPG to someone who has never played them. By the standards of its time, it wasn’t very grindy, but speaking broadly, older RPGs have a lot of repetitive combat.
On the other hand, a lot of, say, older shmups are, I think, still competitive. I don’t feel like the genre has changed as much (though I’ll concede that I haven’t spent a lot of time on modern shmups). So I’d probably be more-inclined to recommend an older shmup, even though I’d say that Chrono Trigger was probably, in its time, a better Super Nintendo game than any Super Nintendo shmup.
EDIT: For an extreme example, I think I first played Tetris on a Game Boy around 1990. I think that that’s probably still about on-par with the 2018 Tetris Effect: Connected with a VR headset. The thirty intervening years haven’t really seen that much change in the fundamentals of falling-block games.
I played it for the first time about 10 years ago on a SNES emulator (because it kept on popping up in “best game of all time” lists), and I wasn’t disappointed. Well, I don’t think it is the best game ever, but I really enjoyed it, so I don’t think it’s a game that’s propped up only by nostalgia.
Sounds promising. I’ve seen other posts of people who played it “recently” and enjoyed it.
I’d kind of like to see someone review retro games on a “equal standing” with current games. That is, sure, they’re using old technology, sure, but see how they stand up to current games in terms of what you pay and the time investment in playing them.
While I remember having fun with Chrono Trigger, I don’t know if, in 2025, I’d recommend it or any older RPG to someone who has never played them. By the standards of its time, it wasn’t very grindy, but speaking broadly, older RPGs have a lot of repetitive combat.
On the other hand, a lot of, say, older shmups are, I think, still competitive. I don’t feel like the genre has changed as much (though I’ll concede that I haven’t spent a lot of time on modern shmups). So I’d probably be more-inclined to recommend an older shmup, even though I’d say that Chrono Trigger was probably, in its time, a better Super Nintendo game than any Super Nintendo shmup.
EDIT: For an extreme example, I think I first played Tetris on a Game Boy around 1990. I think that that’s probably still about on-par with the 2018 Tetris Effect: Connected with a VR headset. The thirty intervening years haven’t really seen that much change in the fundamentals of falling-block games.