Classic Gaming: [Chrono Trigger]

[Chrono Trigger] is a Japanese RPG produced by the company that created the Final Fantasy series.  It's widely beloved for good reason and is now available for the Nintendo DS.  If you like classic JRPGs and haven't played it, definitely pick it up.  Since it's so widely praised, I'll focus on those elements that I think would bear repeating in other games.

First off, there's a time travel plot.  I think time travel is a rather useful trope for games even if it's overplayed most everywhere else.  While the story is linear, albiet with side quests, it's still very satisfying to see the long term consequences of your actions.  That sort of reward typically only comes in at the end of RPGs, if at all.  I was particularly pleased that side quests allowed the PCs to bring peaceful relations between humans and various 'monsterous' races (although there's no real precense of people of color as frogs don't count).  Another benefit is that the big bad comes into view relatively early in the game and can be fought at any time without losing a sense of menace.  The system is an old style save/load, sadly no Prince of Persia or Braid style time tricks, but I think that tends to be another advantage of time travel related plotlines.

Second, the combat is relatively interesting for a JRPG.  There's combos available between most all of your party members which makes party selection more interesting and meaningful.  They also incorporate the map to an extent, there's attacks that travel in lines and in circular bursts.  This isn't a highly meaningful mechanic, but it encourages actually paying attention to what your enemies are doing.  The boss battles tend to require some tactical finesse and while sometimes overlong are highly varied.  This isn't to say that the combat is terrific, but it's a good deal better than I expect from classic JRPGs.

The main character, Chrono, is a classic cypher lead, but I definitely liked the other party members.  Particularly of note is Lucca, a mad scientist who despite being female is actually a bit unbalanced because she lacks healing abilities.  However, I do recommend sticking with her if you like her, as she can do ridiculous damage by the end.

As a side note, Stephen Totillo recently had a piece where he praised a feature Chrono Trigger and to a greater extent the Final Fantasy series could really use: fastforwarded special attacks.  The crazy graphics of special attacks is part of the fun of these games, but invariably they get old fast.  Skipping them is sometimes an option but that seems like a waste really.  Fast forwarding could be a nice middle ground.

In any event, I've actually played a fairly silly time travel card game [called Chrononauts by Looney Labs, maker of Fluxx; thanks Matt!].  It involved setting up a timestream with interrelated events.  For example assassinating Hitler had definite implications for WWII. However, some ways of changing the time stream had a mix of good and bad consequences.  I'd be interested to see a game like that, unlike Chronotrigger where most of the changes you make are reliably for the better.  It coudl be fun to see the impact of your intervation on the world at large, ideally with a great range of options that could interact in a rule base rather than a scripted manner.  Time travel wouldn't necessarily be required, but it would let you to see the full consequences quickly and even to rethink actions.  In any event, many games suffer from endings that are primarily determined by the final choice the player makes and not everything leading up to it.  The more consequences that emerge pre-ending, the less the risk of this problem.

Origin: Borrowed from Fiancee

[Update: The title is two words: Chrono Trigger and not Chronotrigger.]