Recap / Chrono Trigger

Chrono Trigger is the story of a young lad named Crono who, together, with his friends, saves the world using time travel.

Crono, a young boy from Truce in 1000 AD, begins the game being awoken by his mother in a trope-naming opening sequence. After waking up and being told about his friend Lucca's new invention, he heads to the Millennial Fair. Shortly after arriving, he bumps into an attractive blonde named Marle, who loses her pendant - Crono has the option to either check on her first or grab the pendant first - and asks him to show her around.

At this point, Crono can do several optional things that will come into play later:

• He can eat a stranger's lunch.
• He can bring back a small girl's cat. Alternatively, he can talk to her and ignore her pleas.
• When Marle tries to get candy, he can try to pull her away.
• Most importantly, he can talk to a local merchant named Melchior who offers to buy Marle's pendant. If Crono agrees to ask her to sell it, the merchant will realize the pendant is far too important to be purchased and drop the issue.

After some time running around the fair, Crono and Marle decide to go see Lucca's invention, the Telepod, a device that teleports matter from one location to another. Lucca goads Crono into being a guinea pig, which results in a successful teleportation. Marle decides to give it a try, but her pendant reacts with the Telepod and makes her disappear entirely. As Lucca and her father panic, Crono heroically steps up and grabs the pendant, volunteering himself to go find Marle.

Crono emerges into an area he doesn't recognize, and is beset by some unfamiliar-looking monsters. He easily disposes of them and follows the path into Truce - but it's not the one he knows. He eventually ends up at the castle, where he's accosted by the guards until the Queen - who seems to recognize him, much to his surprise - tells them to stand down. After going up to her room, the Queen informs him that she's really Marle; everyone seems to have mistaken her for the Queen due to strong resemblance.

However, Marle starts to suddenly disappear. Crono starts to head out of the castle when he runs into Lucca, who did some research and drops two big reveals: first, that they're 400 years in their past; second, Marle is indeed Princess Nadia from their era. Apparently at some point Queen Leene went missing and was saved by somebody; however, with Marle suddenly appearing, they called off the search, which put the Queen's life in danger, thereby causing Marle to cease to ever exist. They resolve to find Leene before this happens.

Following up on a lead, Crono and Lucca go to Manolia Cathedral, where after finding a royal pin, they're accosted by several strange monsters. They're ultimately rescued by a sword-wielding humanoid frog, who they decide to name Frog. With Frog's help, they venture into the cathedral and eventually find and save Leene, thereby ensuring Marle comes into existence. With the royals' gratitude, Crono, Marle, and Lucca return to 1000 AD. Lucca produces her new invention - the Gate Key, which allows them to travel through time disturbances to new eras (hereby dubbed "Gates").

Once they're back in their own time, Lucca leaves to do some more research while tasking Crono with returning Marle home. Once he arrives at 1000 AD-era Guardia Castle, he's accosted by the guards and accused of terrorism. This is a direct result of their actions, as the royals in 600 AD resolved after Leene's near-death to create a criminal justice system to harshly punish evildoers.

Crono is put on trial - his actions at the fair come back into play here. If he was a model citizen (not eating the man's food, saving the cat, not harassing Marle), he's found not guilty, if he was a right bastard he will be found guilty. Either way, he'll be put in jail for at least three days, and the chancellor will attempt to give him the death penalty (if Crono was a model citizen at the fair, there will be some additional dialogue where the warden expresses confusion at the execution, but things otherwise progress the same). Once put in jail, he has two options:

• Bust out of his cell and escape the prison on his own.
• Wait three days for his execution, at which point Lucca will come save his bacon.

Either way, he eventually escapes and runs afoul of the Dragon Tank. After Crono defeats it with Lucca's help, they collect Marle and are barricaded in a small portion of Guardia Forest by the guards. It's at this point that they find a Gate to an unknown destination. Lucca and Crono are reluctant to hop in, but Marle freely jumps in.

They emerge in a bleak - yet technologically-advanced - world. They cross some ruins to a large dome that supposedly has an information center. The residents of the dome sent one of their own down for some food, but he hasn't reported back. Crono, Marle, and Lucca decide to go look on their behalf. After defeating a powerful robot, they find that the food has spoiled, but they're able to locate a seed, and are also able to gain access to the central computer.

Looking at the computer reveals three things: they're 1300 years in their future, there's a portal back to their time in another dome to the east, and 301 years ago - or 999 years in their future - an entity called Lavos will destroy the world, resulting in the bleak hellscape they see before them. Despite the cataclysmic event happening well after their natural deaths, they can't let it stand and decide to stop Lavos, resolving to return to their own time first to formulate a plan.

After crossing another set of ruins, the heroes end up in the Proto Dome, where a lone robot sits in need of repairs. Lucca repairs the robot, who they dub Robo. Robo informs them that the gate is probably behind a locked door, which he'll have to manually power in a derelict factory to the north. Robo, Crono, and another party member go turn on the power, then happen across several of Robo's counterparts. They begin attacking him, calling him a defect, but Crono and the other member are able to destroy them. Lucca re-repairs Robo, who decides to go with them. All four of them enter the gate...

...resulting in them being thrown into the End of Time, a still, voidlike area. There are a few pillars of light representing Gates, a lonely old man, and a locked door. Talking to the man reveals where they are and how they got there (whenever more than three people enter a Gate, they end up there), and opens the door for them to visit Spekkio, the Master of War. After a brief chat, he imbues them with magic:

• Crono gets lightning magic (light magic in other translations).
• Marle gets ice magic.
• Lucca gets fire magic.
• Robo can't learn magic as he isn't human, but his lasers deal shadow-elemental damage.

After learning magic, the heroes decide to return to 1000 AD. They're spat out in a random closet in Medina Village, a small town founded by monsters. While most of them are hostile to humans, the ones who own the closet aren't, and the monsters warn the heroes about the bad blood between their races. After leaving Medina, they briefly chat with Melchior, then go through a cave full of monsters, eventually fighting and defeating a monster named Heckran, who reveals that Magus - the same person whose defeat is celebrated by the Millennial Fair - was responsible for the creation of Lavos.

With a target in mind, the heroes head back to 600 AD. A previously-destroyed bridge has been repaired, but the Guardia knights are having difficulty holding it. They task Crono with assisting them, which he does, driving off the threat. Heading to the southern continents, they hear tell of a young man who is being called a hero, and decide to investigate, heading to a nearby mountain range. The boy turns out to be a fake, but at the top of the mountain, they come into possession of the broken Masamune, the evil-smiting sword. They next go to Frog's abode, where he reveals he kept the hilt of the sword - at this point, the heroes learn that Melchior forged the blade.

Melchior recognizes the Masamune, but as he lacks the Dreamstone to repair it, he can't help them. The heroes head to the prehistoric era, where Dreamstone was plentiful, and are saved from some marauding Reptites by Ayla, a heroic cavewoman. Ayla invites the heroes to her village, where depending on the version, she and Crono have either a drinking contest or a soup-eating contest. Crono wins, earning the Dreamstone, but when they wake up the next morning, the Gate Key has been stolen!

Ayla joins Crono and another party member to go get the key back from the Reptites. After going through their lair, they come across Azala, the Reptite leader, who summons her minion Nizbel. The team defeats Nizbel, retrieves the Gate Key, and returns to Melchior with the Dreamstone in hand. He successfully repairs it, and they deliver it to Frog. This leads Frog to reminisce:

Back in the day, there was a heroic knight named Cyrus. He took a young man named Glenn as his squire, and went to challenge Magus. He failed, and his squire was turned into Frog. Looking at the Masamune, Frog decides to finish his friend's job and take down Magus for good this time.

• At this point, Frog can learn water magic at the End of Time.

Crono, Frog, and another party member head to Fiendlord's Keep. After several grueling battles against Magus' generals, they eventually corner the man himself. After defeating him, he reveals he didn't create Lavos, he merely summoned him - and after your battle, Lavos has picked that moment to awaken. He throws you into a strange Gate, at which point you awaken in the prehistoric era.

The party gets some rest. When they awake, they learn Ayla has decided to have her final showdown with the Reptites. They follow her to the Dactyl Nest and, as thanks for retrieving the Gate Key, decide to help her finish the job. After a lengthy trek through the castle, Ayla defeats Azala and her Black Tyranno, ending the Reptites' reign and ensuring humanity's future. At this moment, Lavos crashes into the earth, destroying the Reptites' stronghold. The team checks the ruins, noticing a new gate, which sends them into a heretofore-unseen era.

As they begin exploring the era - which they learn is 12000 BC - they notice it's advanced beyond their wildest dreams, the cities are all on floating islands, and the citizenry can use magic. After some traveling, they arrive in Zeal, a kingdom with a sinister aura ruled by a Queen with grand designs - specifically, she aims to attain immortality using Lavos. To attain this goal, they seek to create an Ocean Palace to awaken the beast. The team decides to stop this - in the interim they're able to energize Marle's pendant so it can open magic doors - but after fighting with the Queen's right-hand man Dalton, they're ultimately kicked out of the era by a prophet who seems to recognize them.

It's at this point that the game opens up somewhat. While there were previously several impassable doors and unopenable boxes, using the newly-energized pendant, they can now be opened. The team opens these doors, including the one at the Keeper's Dome in 2300. They're thusly entrusted with the Wings of Time, which they name Epoch. This machine can be used to transport through the various eras, but they use it to return to 12000 BC. While the floating islands are blocked off to them, they're able to duck into a network of caves where the residents without magic power (known as the "Earthbound Ones") live. The locals warn that the Guru of Life is imprisoned in a nearby mountain. The team rescues him only to discover that the Guru is Melchior.

Schala, the reasonable daughter of Queen Zeal, arrives at the cave to warn Melchior that the queen has completed the Ocean Palace and is about to summon Lavos. Dalton shows up and kidnaps Schala, threatening to kill the Earthbound Ones if she doesn't comply. Schala reluctantly goes with him, and after they leave, the team decide to follow. They traverse the Ocean Palace only to ultimately face Lavos...

...and it doesn't pan out well (while he can technically be defeated, it's borderline-impossible on a first playthrough and very, very tough in a New Game Plus as he's designed to be tougher than average there). The prophet who had you kicked out reveals himself to be Magus, but even he's no match for the unearthly abomination, and finds himself getting drained of a large chunk of his power. Finally, Crono decides he's had enough and charges Lavos, costing him his life in the process. Schala uses the last of her power to warp out the party and Magus, begging you not to hate her mother with her last breath.

The remaining party members awaken to find that the once-large landmass has been reduced to a small island, with only a few simple huts and a common area left over. The Earthbound ones and the previously-magic-imbued Zeal residents are now one and the same, and they overcome their differences. Dalton shows back up and jails your party members - after some stealth action, they obtain their items and fight him off. In the interim, he's added wings to the previously-stationary Wings of Time, which means the heroes now have a proper airship. As soon as they hop in the airship for the first time, the Ocean Palace will appear in the sky, now rechristened the Black Omen.

They decide to visit the North Cape of the remaining island, where they encounter Magus. He reveals that in his childhood, he was Schala's brother, Janus - your previous fight with Lavos threw him into 12000 BC, where he used his foreknowledge of events to masquerade as a prophet and enter the Queen's inner court, all in the name of getting revenge on Lavos. However, his defeat has rendered him unwilling to try again, and as he declares Lavos undefeatable, he disparages Crono, which doesn't sit well with his allies. At this point, there are two options:

• Fight Magus (Frog will fight him alone if he's in your party). When the heroes win, he'll die and say that the curse on Frog will eventually wear off.
• Sheathe Your Sword and leave Magus alive. He will then join you.

Either way, Magus tells you that Gaspar, the Guru of Time, might know a way to revive Crono. Gaspar turns out to be the lonely old man at the End of Time. He seemingly at first offers no way to fix Crono's death, but he later gives you the Chrono Trigger, which will allow you to bring Crono back. After meeting with the other Guru, Belthasar, the heroes go to Death Peak in 2300 AD to revive Crono. They succeed.

At this point, several sidequests open up:

• In 2300 AD, there's a building called the Sun Palace, where after defeating a monster, the heroes obtain a Moon Stone. By subjecting it to 65,002,300 years of sunlight, they get a powerful rock they can make weapons with.
  • As a side note, during this quest, the Sun Stone is stolen in 1000 AD and given to the Mayor of Porre (a town south of Truce). The Mayor is something of a miser and is unwilling to part with it; however, if you go back in time and give his ancestor some free food, he'll become generous-to-a-fault and freely give you back the stone.
• Also in 2300 AD, Robo is able to visit the Genocide Dome, where he was born. He encounters another of his counterparts here.
• In 600 AD, there is a ruined grave where Frog's friend Cyrus rests. After clearing it of several monsters and hiring a carpenter, you're able to repair it and turbocharge the Masamune.
• Also in 600 AD, Ozzie - Magus' top general - maintains a fort near his former keep. The heroes can visit it and beat him up.
• Also in 600 AD, there's an area called the Giant's Claw - that's just the Tyranno Lair from the prehistoric era forced underground - where you can obtain the Rainbow Shell.
  • Once you've successfully obtained the shell, you can return to Guardia Castle in 1000 AD, where the king is on trial for allegedly selling the heirloom without anyone knowing. The heroes are able to prove the king's innocence and repair his relationship with Marle.
• Finally, in 600 AD, there's a monster in a central desert that's destroying the trees. After the heroes destroy the monster, they press Robo into service reseeding the forest, which succeeds after 400 years.
  • As a thank-you for this, Lucca is sent back 10 years in time to save her mother (who is unable to walk in the current timeline). If she succeeds, her mother will begin walking again.

It's worth pointing out that up until this point, nothing the team has done has made much difference on the end result of things. Leene would still be found, Magus would still be defeated, the Reptites would still lose to the humans, and humanity would survive the end result of the fall of the kingdom of Zeal. However, with these sidequests, the heroes have made a tangible change on future events (Ozzie's defeat renders Medina much more human-friendly, what was previously a desert near Porre's 1000 AD version becomes a lush forest, the Mayor of Porre turns into a much nicer person overall, and, most notably, the citizens of 1000 AD warmly recall Cyrus as a hero, rather than regarding his gravesite with suspicion).

Once the sidequests are done, the team decides to take down Lavos. They have three options:

• They can take the Wings of Time to 1999 AD. This has the side effect of skipping the first Lavos fight, but it also becomes a Point of No Return as well, as the Wings of Time are destroyed.
• They can use the bucket at the End of Time to warp to 1999 AD. They will have to fight all three of Lavos' phases, but they can return back after the first one.
• They can go through the Black Omen, which is an endgame dungeon. After completing it, they will fight Lavos. Barring the lengthy dungeon beforehand, it's the same as the previous example.

Regardless of how they engage him, they fight Lavos' forms.

• The first form is the outer shell. First, there's a Boss Rush of already-defeated bosses. These bosses have the exact same stats as they did when they were fought before. After the boss rush, they fight Lavos' shell itself.
• Next, they'll fight the inner shell of Lavos, which looks like Imperfect Cell.
• Finally, they fight the Lavos Core.

After the Lavos Core is defeated, they've saved humanity. The gates disappear forever, but the heroes still possibly have the Wings of Time, and they freely celebrate the newly-guaranteed future. The player is then given the option to begin a New Game Plus and try for one of the multiple endings.

In the re-releases, there's some more story added after the game is beaten. The heroes fight evil variants of Crono, Marle, and Lucca, after which they fight Dalton, who swears to militarize Porre to get revenge on the heroes. Later, the team fights the Dream Devourer, a supercharged version of Lavos that's draining Schala of her energy. After you knock out the Dream Devourer, Schala will come to her senses and briefly recognize Magus, but will send him away before Lavos reawakens. Magus then removes his own memories in an attempt to move on. (Both of the previous plot points are meant to tie together this game and its by-that-point-released sequel, Chrono Cross).