Chrono Trigger

In Chrono Trigger, players follow the footsteps of Crono as he journeys through temporal dimensions to save the world from its seemingly inevitable demise at the destructive claws of Lavos, an evil slug-like creature intent on sucking the life force out of earth in order to propogate its genes throughout the universe.

Throughout his journey, Crono meets a colorful cast of companions, including Lucca, his tech savvy childhood friend; Marle, the princess of the medieval kingdom Guardia; Frog (my personal favorite), a gallant warrior-toad with a Shakespearean accent; Robo, a helpful and friendly robot; Ayla, a prehistoric female tribal warrior; and Magus, a mysterious magician with a shadowy demeanor. Each character has his or her own attacks, weapons, and magic spells.

At its heart, Chrono Trigger is a traditional rpg, featuring the ATB (Active Time Battle) System popularized by the Final Fantasy series. During battle, players can mix and match techniques and spells from different characters to create even stronger attacks, which opens up an immense number of possibilities to experiment with. Another crucial gameplay element is time travel, which allows the player to solve problems of the past in order to avert disasters in the future.

For its time, Chrono Trigger was a graphical showcase, and still remains a beautiful game. From the sun-scorched landscape of the prehistoric era to the colorful fields of Crono's childhood time; from the castle structures of the medieval kingdom to the barren wastelands of the post-apocalyptic world, the game displays a tremendous artistic sense and attention to detail that allows each location to have its own distinctive look.

The score, composed by Yasunori Mitsuda and famed composer Nobuo Uematsu, is an absolute pleasure to listen to and rivals the music of the other series for which Uematsu is famous.

All in all, Chrono Trigger is the near-perfect package: a compelling gameplay system that allows the player lots of freedom to experiment, an engaging story with multiple possible endings, a stunning art style, and a beautiful score to seal the deal. It's no wonder that Gamespot considers it one of the greatest games of all time.