Nearly 30 years later, Chrono Trigger remains one of the most important and iconic JRPGs representing Square’s creative and commercial heyday. The very existence of this game is a miracle, as two competing companies form a “dream team” with a common goal of creating the greatest RPG of all time. In the end, the joint effort of Final Fantasy’s Hironobu Sakaguchi and Dragon Quest’s Yuji Horii (with amazing graphics and design by Akira Toriyama, and haunting music by Yasunori Mitsuda and Nobuo Uematsu) was successful, giving the SNES a fitting swan song. Home to the “golden age” of the JRPG subgenre. But at the end of the day, it’s Chrono Trigger’s story that continues to draw fans.

Chrono Trigger’s story incorporates time travel in a meaningful way, clearly setting it apart from other RPGs of its era, as the player’s actions have lasting effects. Additionally, the various choices players make over the course of the main adventure will have a significant impact on the game’s outcome, with multiple endings possible that branch off from the various paths players can choose. Still, the heart of Chrono Trigger is the main story and the fantastic cast of compelling characters who come together to tell a tale of friendship, hope, and the willingness to fight for a better future.

The Millennial Fair and A Chance Encounter

The story of Chrono Trigger begins on the morning of the Millennium Festival, celebrating the 1000th anniversary of the founding of the Kingdom of Guardia and the victory over the evil Demon King Magus. After being woken up by his mother, young Chrono heads out to the fair to enjoy the day, where a chance encounter changes the course of history. On his way to show off his best friend Lucca’s new invention, Chrono meets a girl who was visiting the fair. After he helps her stand up, she realizes that her special pendant is missing, and Chrono retrieves it and returns it to her. The girl identifies herself as Marle and decides to join Chrono in enjoying the fair.

After spending time checking out the Millennial Fair and all its attractions, Marle and Crono go to Lucca’s demonstration, where Lucca proudly shows off her new invention, a teleportation device. Crono is the first to try out the invention, impressing the audience when he jumps through time and space and reappears in the corresponding teleporter. Marle decides that she would like to try out the invention as well, and soon boards the teleporter as the second person after Crono’s successful journey. However, the teleporter mysteriously reacts to Marle’s pendant, accidentally opening a portal, which Marle quickly absorbs and closes again, leaving the pendant behind. Crono steps forward without hesitation, grabs the pendant and chases after her. There, Lucca promises Crono that she will find a way to the two of them.

400 Years in the Past to The Trial

After venturing through a portal, Crono finds himself in a forest where he is immediately attacked by monsters. Soon after leaving the forest, Crono realizes that he is still in Guardia, only 400 years ago. Seeking answers, Crono heads to the castle and meets Queen Line, only to learn that her true identity is Marle. Marle explains to Crono that Queen Line is missing, but then Marle suddenly begins to fade from reality right in front of Crono’s eyes. It is perfectly timed as Lucca arrives shortly thereafter, and she is able to explain to Crono that Marle is actually Princess Nadia of her time, and that if anything were to happen to Queen Line, she would cease to exist.

Lucca and Crono enter a nearby cathedral to find Queen Line and are immediately attacked by evil spirits, but luckily a humanoid frog rider comes to their rescue. The brave knight named “Frog” accompanies Crono and Lucca, and the three succeed in thwarting the demon Yakura and rescuing Queen Line. After Line safely arrives at Guardia Castle, Frog bids farewell while Crono and Lucca return from the time stream to the scene of Marle’s disappearance. She reappears, thanks Crono and Lucca, and reveals her true identity to them. Lucca reveals that she reverse-engineered a time portal that would take them to the past and created a time key that the trio uses to return to the present.

Back in the present, Crono is accused of kidnapping Princess Nadia and is put on trial despite his protests to the contrary. Lucca and Marle are able to find Crono again after escaping from prison, and the three escape from Guardia through another time gate, not knowing where it leads.

A Desolate Future

The trio once again find themselves in another era, but this time in a more technologically advanced place. Finding themselves in the distant future of Guardia, the heroes attempt to make their way to civilization, but eventually encounter the desolate remnants of humanity seeking refuge in a biodome. Deep within the dome, Crono, Lucca, and Marle discover the horrifying truth behind the state of the future. In 1999 A.D., the world was hit by a terrible catastrophe when an entity called Lavos emerged from the depths of the earth and brought rain of destruction to the Earth. The group finds themselves in a post-apocalyptic world and resolves to find a way to change the course of history.

Before Crono and his companions can try to prevent Lavos Day, they must first find a functioning time gate that can transport them from the future. The trio locate the existence of the time gate in a remote dome and are forced to brave the apocalyptic landscape, eventually finding their way through an abandoned robot factory. At the factory they encounter a broken robot that Lucca repairs, subsequently joining the group and helping them reach the time gate. Jumping into the time gate, the members find themselves outside of space-time, where a friendly face greets them.

Returning to the Present, the Dreamstone, and Shaping History

The group reaches the end of time, where they meet Gaspard, who tells them that there is a golden opportunity to stop Lavos from destroying the planet. With this knowledge in hand, Crono and his friends must return to the present, where they must meet one of Gaspard’s colleagues, Melchior. After meeting with Melchior at the Millennia Fair, Crono heads to Melchior’s house on the continent south of the truce. Here they are in contact with Gaspard, who tells them that they need a means to stop Lavos. The only clue that Melchior has is that he is the Demon King Magus, who is said to have summoned Lavos in 600 AD.

The group travels back to the past and reunites with Frog, who tells them they must stop Magus. Unfortunately, Frog informs them that the search is futile as the only blade capable of injuring Magus is the Masamune, and it is broken. After rejoining the group, Frog and Crono head to the top of the Denadoro Mountains, where they find the broken blade that belonged to Frog’s hilt in order to reforge the Masamune. However, they have no way to repair the blade, forcing them to turn to Melchior for help.

Melchior sends the group on a quest for the Dreamstone to reforge the Masamune, informing them that the material was last found in prehistoric times. Crono and his friends arrive in 65 million years BC. Returning to BC, they find that humanity is in the middle of a conflict with the Reptilians for control of the Earth. They obtain the Dream Stone, but witness Lavos’ arrival on the planet from space, and also defeat the Reptite leader.

Reforging the Masamune and Confronting Magus

With the Dreamstone and the shattered pieces of Masamune, the group returns to the present, where they meet with Melchior and reforge the blade. With Masamune in hand, Crono, Frog, and another party member travel back in time to 600 AD to stop Magus on the night he summoned Lavos. After climbing the dangerous heights of the castle and thwarting three evil lieutenants, the group finally faces a battle with Magus. After a long and tough battle, Crono and his companions emerge victorious, but realize too late that they are fighting the wrong enemy.

As it turns out, Magus’s attempt to summon Lavos was aimed at killing Lavos in his still-weakened state, and the group’s intervention ruined Magus’ chances of carrying out his plan. A disruption in time caused by an interrupted summoning sees Magus and the group sent to the past, arriving on a pristine, desolate planet in the midst of a terrible ice age. On their way to a nearby building, the adventurers enter a teleportation device and are transported to a magical land.

The Kingdom of Zeal and Crono’s Sacrifice

Despite the primitive and desolate landscape on the ground, in the skies the magical kingdom of Zeal thrives. Zeal is a utopia that harnesses the twin powers of technology and magic. This is made possible by the kingdom’s use of the so-called Mammon Machine. What most people in Zeal don’t know is that the Mammon Machine is a device that harnesses the power of Lavos and strengthens its people, as well as nourishing Lavos and helping it grow in power.

The first people the group meets in Zeal are the Queen’s children, Princess Shara and her brother, Prince Janus. While Janus is quiet and reserved, Shara is warm, friendly and caring, and soon feels a strange connection to Crono and his friends. Learning the truth behind Zeal’s fate, the group attempts to destroy the Mammon Machine. This leads to them being arrested and imprisoned aboard the Blackbird, a giant jet plane built by Belthasar, one of Zeal’s three gurus.

After escaping the Blackbird and meeting two other gurus, Melchior and Gaspard, the group heads to the Ocean Palace, where they confront Queen Zeal and succeed in destroying the Mammon Machine. The Queen’s advisor turns out to be a magician in disguise, and again attempts to kill Lavos while the monster is asleep. Realizing the betrayal, the Queen summons Lavos, who unleashes a giant energy blast killing the group. In a moment of self-sacrifice, Crono protects the rest of the group and takes the full force of the explosion.

The Time Egg

Shortly after Crono’s sacrifice, the three Zealot Gurus, as well as Shara and Janus (who the group realizes are in fact magicians) disappear. The Ocean Palace rises from the deep sea and towers into the heavens. The Queen of Zeal is now at the height of her power and has gone completely insane. After Crono’s death, the group is very desperate and confused, but Magus offers to ally with them and takes on the role of de facto leader for the time being. After they leave for Doomsday and talk with Gaspard, he leads the group to Belthasar’s workshop in the future, where he tells them about two inventions that await them.

One of the inventions is the flying time machine, Epoch. This is what Belthasar ends up building for the group after being sent to the future from the moment of Crono’s death and Lavos’ ascension. In addition to the era, Belthasar gifts the group with a Time Egg or a device he calls “Chrono Trigger”. This device allows the group to travel to a specific point in time and change the outcome, but there are some things to keep in mind when doing so. Nothing can be added or removed from the time stream, meaning that if they want to save Chrono, they must find an exact likeness.

Using the clone doll that Chrono and Marle won at the Millennial Fair, the group makes their way to the top of Death Peak and activates the Time Egg. Replacing the real Chrono with the clone doll at the moment of sacrifice, the group rescues the heroes and reunites the group to fight Lavos and save the future.

The Final Assault on Lavos to Change the Future

From here, players have several choices on how to confront Lavos. Depending on which era of the timeline they challenge the creature in, the fight will either be incredibly difficult or much easier to deal with. Additionally, the time of day the party is in when challenging Lavos will directly affect the outcome of the game, as will the decision to face Lavos directly through the Time Gate or conquer the Ocean Palace and confront Lavos at its core.

Regardless of how the group challenges Lavos, the climax of Chrono Trigger’s story sees the group put the future of Earth on the line in a battle against the evil alien parasite. After first defeating its terrifying exterior, the group ventures inside to challenge the machinery that lies beneath. After defeating this second stage, Lavos’ final true form is revealed. The real Lavos is a small, sickly alien creature that challenges the group in a final attempt to carry out his plan to feed the Earth. With the power of hope on their side, the group emerges victorious. By defeating Lavos, Crono and his companions are convinced to open the future once and for all.

Various Endings

Chrono Trigger has many different possible endings, some of which are happier than others, due to a number of factors. The developers have one ending that they consider to be the only true “canonical” ending of the game, but various other endings can be achieved by making certain decisions or by choosing to fight Lavos in certain eras after certain eras have been completed or avoided side quests.

Referring to the original SNES release of the game, there are 12 different endings, with the first ending having five different variations depending on which side quests the player completes. The official “canonical” ending of the game is this first ending, in which each member of the group returns to their respective timelines, with the exception of Robo, who remains in the present to live with Lucca. In this ending, there are some interesting variations in the various scenes that play during the ending sequence depending on which side quests the player has completed, but essentially everyone lives “happily ever after.”

The true ending of Chrono Trigger’s story finally gives reason for hope: by joining forces with friends and willingly fighting for a better future, the story’s protagonist ensures that a brighter future awaits Earth.