Chrono Trigger

This turn-based Japanese RPG follows young Crono, who is thrown into time travel after a malfunctioning teleporter. To rescue his unfortunate companion, he must journey across eras and navigate a complex web of dangers from both past and present. As the story unfolds, Crono discovers an evil force determined to destroy the world, sparking a race against time to change history and secure a brighter future.

In Chrono Trigger, a time-traveling JRPG set across multiple eras, teenager Crono is drawn into a conflict that spans the history—and future—of the world after learning about Lavos, a planet-ending entity. In 1000 A.D., Crono visits the Millennial Fair in Truce, celebrating 1,000 years since the Kingdom of Guardia was founded. There, he meets Princess Nadia—better known as Marle, the heir to Guardia. When they test Lucca’s teleportation device, Marle’s family pendant triggers a time Gate that sends her to 600 A.D. Crono follows using the pendant and finds Marle mistaken for Queen Leene, who had gone missing shortly before Marle’s arrival. When Marle suddenly vanishes, Lucca arrives via a Gate Key and explains the disruption. Crono, Lucca, and a knight who appears as a frog rescue Queen Leene, and Marle reappears at Guardia Castle. The trio returns to 1000 A.D. Back home, Lucca heads out while Crono escorts Marle to the castle—only for Crono to be accused of kidnapping the princess and put on trial. He is found either guilty or not guilty, then sentenced to three days of solitary confinement with the possibility of execution. With Lucca’s help, Crono breaks out, confronts the Chancellor, and escapes with Marle into Guardia Forest. Cornered, they leap into a nearby Gate and arrive in 2300 A.D., a devastated future. Exploring ruined domes and abandoned cities, they discover a video record revealing that Lavos surfaced in 1999 A.D. and destroyed the world. The party swears to defeat Lavos. In 2300 A.D., they meet a damaged robot, Robo, whom Lucca repairs. Trying to return through a Gate in the Proto Dome, they find the route blocked and travel to a factory to restore power before using the Gate. Because of the Conservation of Time Theorem, Crono, Marle, Lucca, and Robo arrive at the End of Time, overseen by an old man. They meet Spekkio, the “God of War,” who grants them magic. The old man explains that all Gates connect to the End of Time. The party then takes a Gate back toward 1000 A.D., landing on a different continent and entering Medina, home of the Mystics—warlocks and monsters who fought humans in 600 A.D. under the mage Magus. After battling the monster Heckran, they learn a claim that Magus created Lavos in 600 A.D. The party heads to 600 A.D. and finds Guardia under attack. After defending Zenan Bridge, they learn the Masamune is said to be the key to defeating Magus. They climb Denadoro Mountains to obtain it and, after fighting spirits tied to the blade, Crono receives a broken piece. The group visits Frog—the knight from earlier—and receives the other piece of the Masamune. To repair it, they seek Melchior, a smith in 1000 A.D., who tells them to find Dreamstone. They travel to 65,000,000 B.C., where a village chief holds the mineral while humans war with the Reptites. Ayla meets the party while fighting off Reptites and invites Crono to a celebration. By outdrinking Ayla, Crono earns the Dreamstone. Soon after, the Reptites raid the village and steal the Gate Key; Kino, Ayla’s mate, took it out of jealousy and later gave it to the raiders. The party infiltrates a Reptite hideout, confronts the Reptite leader Azala, and recovers the Gate Key. Returning to 1000 A.D., they have Melchior repair the Masamune. In 600 A.D., Frog joins the party to avenge Cyrus, who fell to Magus in 590 A.D., and a flashback reveals Glenn was turned into Frog during that event. Armed with the restored blade, the party storms Magus’ Lair and defeats his top knights—Ozzie, Slash, and Flea—before facing Magus himself. During the battle, a massive time warp erupts as Magus’ summoning of Lavos spirals out of control, pulling both the party and Magus into it. It is revealed here that Magus did not create Lavos; he only summoned it. The party is thrown back to 65,000,000 B.C., while Magus is cast into 12,000 B.C., the Dark Ages. After a Reptite attack destroys Laruba Village and captures Kino and others, Ayla and the party assault the Reptite stronghold. They fight their way to Azala, defeat Azala and a Tyrano defender, and then Lavos descends—without being summoned by Azala—forcing the fortress deep underground. Believing Lavos is vulnerable right after landing, the party attempts to fight, but instead finds a Gate at the impact point and travels to 12,000 B.C. In this era, an ice age grips the world in the aftermath of Lavos’ impact. The party discovers a teleportation center leading to the Kingdom of Zeal, floating islands in the sky filled with magic and elemental power. They visit Enhasa, Kajar, and Zeal Palace, where they witness the Mammon Machine extracting energy from Lavos. Plans are announced to move the machine to an undersea palace. The party confronts Queen Zeal, aided by a prophet, but Schala—sister of the child-prince Janus—intervenes and spares them. Crono and the others are banished, and the Gate they used is sealed. Back at the End of Time, the old man explains that a sage in 2300 A.D. was building a time-travel machine. In 2300 A.D., the party obtains the Epoch from the sage’s legacy, preserved in a being called the Nu. Using the Epoch, they return to 12,000 B.C. and meet the Earthbound—humans who cannot use magic—who tell them a guru of Zeal has been exiled to a nearby floating mountain. After defeating a guardian, they rescue Melchior, who warns that moving the Mammon Machine to the Ocean Palace will bring disaster. He gives the party a Ruby Knife to destroy the Mammon Machine. Schala appears briefly but is abducted by Dalton, Queen Zeal’s aide. The party infiltrates the Ocean Palace via a Skygate from Zeal Palace and fights to the chamber holding the Mammon Machine. Crono drives the Ruby Knife into it, but Schala reveals it will not work. The machine’s energy drain awakens Lavos, and the prophet reveals himself to be Magus. Magus attempts to defeat Lavos and fails. As Queen Zeal stands atop Lavos, the creature begins pulling Magus and Schala toward it. Crono sacrifices himself, and Schala teleports the others—along with Magus—back to the surface before the Ocean Palace collapses. Lavos then annihilates Zeal, triggering a tidal wave that devastates the world. In the aftermath, survivors gather in Last Village as the Earthbound emerge from hiding. Dalton attacks, and the party is captured aboard the Blackbird, a flying ship built by the guru Belthasar. Dalton steals the Epoch and orders it upgraded with wings, flight systems, and weapons. The party escapes, defeats Dalton, regains the Epoch, and accidentally shoots down the Blackbird. Later, they find Magus at the North Cape. He reveals he is Janus and has lived for revenge against Lavos. The story also reveals that the three gurus of Zeal—Melchior, Gaspar (the old man at the End of Time), and Belthasar (creator of the Epoch)—were scattered across time by the Ocean Palace incident. Magus joins the party and offers hope of reviving Crono. As they depart the era, they witness the Ocean Palace rising into the sky as the Black Omen, ruled by Queen Zeal. At the End of Time, Gaspar explains that Crono can be revived using the Chrono Trigger, also called the Time Egg—but the party needs a Crono clone to replace him at the moment of his death. They obtain the clone at the Millennial Fair in 1000 A.D. and consult Belthasar’s guidance in 2300 A.D. The party is instructed to climb Death Peak, formed by Lavos’ eruption in 1999 A.D. At the summit, the Time Egg shatters and sends them to the instant before Crono’s death in the Ocean Palace, where they swap Crono with the clone and bring Crono back to Death Peak. With Crono restored, Gaspar points the party toward side quests to strengthen their chances against Lavos. They travel to 600 A.D. to defeat Retinite and restore Fiona’s Forest, with Robo staying behind to cultivate the land for 400 years. Later, Lucca discovers a special Gate that gives her a single chance to save her mother from losing her legs in 990 A.D. The party also destroys Ozzie, Slash, and Flea’s hideout in 600 A.D., helping end Mystic hatred toward humans by 1000 A.D. In 2300 A.D., they stop Mother Brain, a deranged AI exterminating humans, after Robo’s history with the facility is revealed and a robot named Atropos attacks him under brainwashing. They pursue the Sun Stone, defeating the Son of Sun in Zeal’s Sun Temple in 2300 A.D., then recharge the stone by leaving it in 65,000,000 B.C. When it is later stolen by the Porre mayor in 1000 A.D., they influence the mayor’s family by giving free jerky to the Elder’s wife in 600 A.D., leading to the Sun Stone’s return. Fully charged by 2300 A.D., the Sun Stone is used by Lucca to create powerful items. With Frog, the party also lays Cyrus to rest by repairing his gravesite in 1000 A.D., strengthening the Masamune. They hunt the Rainbow Shell, guided by the explorer Toma, and find it in Giant’s Claw in 600 A.D.—which also contains the buried Tyrano Lair. After defeating the Tyrano again, they recover the shell with the help of Guardia knights. Back in 1000 A.D., the King of Guardia is put on trial for selling the Rainbow Shell. The party proves the prosecution’s evidence false, and the Chancellor reveals himself as Yakra XIII, descendant of the villain who abducted Queen Leene in 600 A.D. After defeating Yakra XIII, Marle reconciles with her father, and Melchior forges extraordinarily powerful weapons using the Sun Stone and Rainbow Shell. In the final stretch, the party enters the Black Omen, fights through it, and confronts Queen Zeal. After destroying the Mammon Machine again, they face Zeal atop the Black Omen and then battle Lavos. They destroy Lavos’ outer organs, enter its shell, and discover an alien creature that has collected the DNA of life on the planet. Concluding that Lavos has guided evolution for its own biological gain, they fight on. Lavos transforms into its true form—built from the best possible combination of the DNA it gathered—and is finally defeated. Afterward, the party returns to 1000 A.D., where King Guardia jokes that Crono still must face execution, before revealing he knows about their quest. The heroes are celebrated on the final day of the Millennial Fair. Lucca remarks that the Entity is now at rest, and everyone returns to their own era as the Gates close, their purpose fulfilled. Before the last Gates vanish, Crono’s mother and cats enter the Telepod Gate, and Crono, Marle, and Lucca use the Epoch to search for her. (Chrono Compendium, 2015).