Finding Schala ultimately means defeating Lavos, and Magus operates accordingly. Speaking of characters' individual troubles, Magus is initially presented to you as a generic evildoer, but he has a very clear goal: He wants to find his sister, Schala, who gets lost during the Undersea Palace disaster in 12,000 B.C. Every character has their own struggles that they need to address even after the world's been saved.
It's easily one of the coolest endings in the game, and it highlights an important theme we see running through many of Chrono Trigger's endings: Killing Lavos doesn't fix everything. Ted Woolsey's translation of this ending is a bit rough, which is why I posted the DS version instead. It's purposefully indistinct it might be Frog, but it might be Magus. When the struggle between Magus and Frog concludes, we see a shadowy figure with a billowing cape standing on the dragon statue that decorates the roof of Magus' abode. After the Fiendlord has a surprisingly respectful exchange with Frog, the credits start rolling while we hear an intense battle raging behind the black screen. Frog travels back to his own time period, intent on killing Magus to avenge his fallen friend Cyrus. If you manage to defeat Lavos before you bring down Magus' empire in 600 B.C., you're rewarded with a peaceful world, save for one troubled amphibian. Here's a sampling of the endings that'll make you rethink Chrono Trigger's canon. You can even behold a supremely disturbing reality where Marle learns she's Frog's offspring.
If you know where to look, you can witness an epic duel between Frog and Magus, or you can see Frog as a human, or you can see an upside-down world where robots inherit the future after Crono takes Magus' spot as the Fiendlord. A couple are admittedly duds-despite its dire name, the "Good Night" ending just features cute critters dicking around-but others flesh out characters, present weird paradoxes, and narrate behind-the-scenes story points. Chrono Trigger doesn't half-ass these endings, either.
HOW TO GET THE DIFFERENT CHRONO TRIGGER ENDINGS TV
In an era before DLC, when "The End" on your TV screen meant exactly that, chasing down over a dozen endings was an unparalleled delight. Tank! Tank! Tank! | Square EnixĬhrono Trigger is such a brilliant overarching experience that we sometimes neglect to pay tribute to the multitude of endings that contribute to the game's canon in ways that are surprising, heartening, and even disturbing. You're always off to some new location, whether it's the devastated future or a prehistoric landscape where reptiles and mammals struggle for dominance. Its story and gameplay intertwine perfectly, and there's rarely any downtime. Legendary composer Nobuo Uematsu loaned his talents to Chrono Trigger's soundtrack, though most of it was the work of Yasunori Mitsuda-a young composer who's since become a legend himself.Ĭhono Trigger's once-in-a-lifetime staff assembly put together an adventure that, simply put, feels natural. It's the product of a development "Dream Team" that includes manga artist Akira Toriyama, former Final Fantasy producer Hironobu Sakaguchi, and Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii. There's no shortage of reasons to pile praise onto Chrono Trigger.
Our own Editor-in-Chief Kat Bailey played Chrono Trigger for the first time just a few years ago, and she discovered it more than holds up, even in a market where RPGs literally give us entire worlds to interact with. Crono's journey to save the past, present, and future from a life-devouring space parasite named Lavos is still beloved by RPG fans worldwide-and that's not just nostalgia talking, either. Chrono Trigger is 25 years old today, and its quarter century of life has only helped cement its status as the Greatest RPG of All Time.