A review by joshuanovalis
Chrono Trigger by Michael P. Williams
When my oldest brother left for college, he left at home his SNES and a small collection of games for it. Super Metroid. Donkey Kong Country. Mario Kart. Super Mario World. And, of course, Chrono Trigger. While all of these games certainly got their share of attention, nothing captured 6-year-old me so completely as the latter.
Looking at my life trajectory since then, I can honestly say Chrono Trigger played an irreplaceable role in making me the person I am today. It ignited and stoked the fires of my imagination, priming me for many more years of science fiction and fantasy, time travel, airships, JRPGs, character-driven stories, and an unhealthy obsession with the musical artistry of Yasunori Mitsuda, Nobuo Uematsu, and others. This game wasn’t just a part of my childhood; it was my childhood, purified and distilled into one cultural artifact.
All that to say: there’s no way I could give this book a fair review, without my love for the game spilling over at every moment. Nevertheless, I can comfortably say that Michael P. Williams did a commendable job of capturing so many of the reasons Chrono Trigger is an enduring classic to this day. Williams covers the many joys experienced upon discovering the game and diving into its world. Chapters on the difficulties of translating the game into English, the various genre-bending worlds found within the game, the inherent paradoxes of time travel stories, as well as others, are fun to read and well-researched, and clearly come from someone who loves the game as much as I do.
If I had one complaint, it would be that some chapters felt rather unstructured and aimless. The chapter on representations of gender and race in the game was a fantastic idea, but it felt unclear in its thesis or direction, opting instead to work through each woman in the game one-by-one and decide if it was a fair and healthy representation of a female character. I would have loved to see a piece of criticism more grounded in the narrative thrust of the game.
However, for any fan of Chrono Trigger, it’s a worthy trip through the many beautiful aspects of the game they know and love. Greatly recommended!
Looking at my life trajectory since then, I can honestly say Chrono Trigger played an irreplaceable role in making me the person I am today. It ignited and stoked the fires of my imagination, priming me for many more years of science fiction and fantasy, time travel, airships, JRPGs, character-driven stories, and an unhealthy obsession with the musical artistry of Yasunori Mitsuda, Nobuo Uematsu, and others. This game wasn’t just a part of my childhood; it was my childhood, purified and distilled into one cultural artifact.
All that to say: there’s no way I could give this book a fair review, without my love for the game spilling over at every moment. Nevertheless, I can comfortably say that Michael P. Williams did a commendable job of capturing so many of the reasons Chrono Trigger is an enduring classic to this day. Williams covers the many joys experienced upon discovering the game and diving into its world. Chapters on the difficulties of translating the game into English, the various genre-bending worlds found within the game, the inherent paradoxes of time travel stories, as well as others, are fun to read and well-researched, and clearly come from someone who loves the game as much as I do.
If I had one complaint, it would be that some chapters felt rather unstructured and aimless. The chapter on representations of gender and race in the game was a fantastic idea, but it felt unclear in its thesis or direction, opting instead to work through each woman in the game one-by-one and decide if it was a fair and healthy representation of a female character. I would have loved to see a piece of criticism more grounded in the narrative thrust of the game.
However, for any fan of Chrono Trigger, it’s a worthy trip through the many beautiful aspects of the game they know and love. Greatly recommended!