Chrono Trigger’s reputation precedes itself. If you haven’t played Chrono Trigger yourself already, you’ve surely heard tales of its legend. A 30 year old game made in the golden era of RPGs. Back when Square Enix were separated into SquareSoft and Enix. Legendary creators in of themselves. It is no wonder why this game is heralded as one of the best RPGs ever made, if not the best for many. As an RPG lover this was a game that I have been wanting to play but never got around to. I didn’t play many SNES or NES games growing up. My childhood gaming was spent on the N64 and original playstation. It’s been a blindspot for me forever. And now to play the game for the first time, to experience this legendary game for the first time with 29 years of game design between when it originally released to now, it’s astonishing to me that this game not only stood the test of time, but feels incredibly fresh and more modern than some modern RPGs.

TLDR at the end

Modern Sensibilities

Part of this is that it’s filled with modern interpretations that games just recently started incorporating. Things like your entire party getting experience from fights, all fights being on screen or scripted, and I think what really sets the game apart from the rest being the dual techs and how enemies move around and that affecting certain attacks. It’s crazy to see these ideas so early in games when there’s easily 15-20 years until that becomes a modern practice in RPGs. It’s also crazy to see choices impacting the game as well. That’s still not even common in JRPGs as a whole. It’s largely specific styles of RPGs like Baldur’s Gate 3 or Mass Effect that heavily employ that. While I don’t think Chrono Trigger has it as in depth as those games, the court scene still blew me away. That mixed with just how each encounter feels so thoughtful. The encounters are quick but a majority of the enemies have mechanics to them and not just higher health values of resistances. And how it organically tells you. Early on in the prehistoric area of the game there’s an enemy type that is resistant to physical attacks, and you only have Crono, Lucca, and Marle. So naturally after the first physical attack doesn’t do much you’d use your newly acquired magic and Crono only has lightning. Then lightning decreases its defense. It’s not even a status effect. It’s just a mechanic of the enemy. Which I found incredibly engaging. The creators were so ahead of their time with so much of the game.

Old Mixed with the New

Not to say there aren't some old school designs or ideas in Chrono Trigger. It is still a product of its time. But I feel these older school design philosophies are feeling fresher again. It’s an old school style JRPG with the overworld map and different areas to visit within said map. There’s old school side mission design with no quest log really, there’s no way points, there’s just NPCs with directions and hints. And I honestly think this is a welcomed change of pace. I think the popularity of Elden Ring and the souls games have brought to the limelight the joys of figuring things out. When the game opened up and provided a variety of side quests I had a lot of fun tracking them down, figuring out when, where and what to do for it. There were just 2 quests I looked up hints for. After looking them up I realized I had already been given the hints in the game but just didn’t register that they were connected to the quests. Which for an SNES title to only have to look up 2 things for just side quests and nothing more was really impressive. Since a lot of the older games tend to have some parts where things just feel obscure. This old school hands off approach feels incredibly refreshing now and I feel is returning to the gaming zeitgeist.

Pacing Perfection

This game on top of feeling so ahead of its time is just masterfully crafted. Chrono Trigger’s pacing is so incredible. Starting at the millennial fair, then quickly getting thrusted into medieval times and stumbling into an apocalyptic future sets up a tone and cadence that just doesn’t slow down or get boring. I think what helps in the pacing is that the game is also shorter compared to a lot of RPGs. This game can easily be finished in 20ish hours in a first playthrough. It took me 30 hours to finish the main game and side quests. Really the only critiques to the pacing could be that the millennial fair takes a little bit to figure out what to do, but it’s largely about exploring the fair. And the end sequence can have just a lot of bosses. But these are more like nitpicks rather than actual critiques. This is one the best paced games I’ve ever played.

Setting, Style, and Vibes

I love sci-fi and time travel settings. I was raised on watching Back to the Future so time travel has always been a favorite science fiction idea of mine. Getting to explore the same few continents and how they chance as eras change is so fun to see and experience. And the vibes and art of each era is so beautiful. And if it wasn’t clear already, the art for this game was done by the legendary Akira Toriyama. (May he rest in peace) It’s honestly incredible how defined his art style in this. It’s not just in the animated scenes and cover art (I played this on steam so I got those, they weren’t in base Chrono Trigger) but it so clearly bleeds into every aspect of the game. The backgrounds, the pixel art. You can really tell upon seeing the fiends, dinosaurs and the final boss. Such beautiful art provides so much life to this game. And possibly even more renowned than the game itself is the game's soundtrack. I heard the chrono trigger soundtrack before seeing the game or playing the game. The iconic soundtrack and vibes of it are unparalleled. From the music in the woods to the music of antiquity. It’s so beautiful and so tranquil. If you haven’t listened to the music of Chrono Trigger I highly recommend checking it out.

TLDR

Chrono Trigger feels so fresh playing it even today which is an incredible feat. This game stands the test of time and it is no wonder why it has inspired so many. This game is simply a treasure and is a must play for anyone but especially any RPG fan. Built by the dream team of Hironobu Sakaguchi, Yuji Horii, and Akira Toriyama. This game’s legacy is well earned and deserved. A masterpiece ahead of it's time.

Let’s get this out of the way. GTFO is a very brutal game. If you are averse to failing in games or don’t have a full squad of 4 to play with I honestly don’t recommend this game at all. This is 100% an acquired taste. That being said, if this is a taste you like then the flavor is exquisite. GTFO is now one of my favorite co-op experiences and I think will go down as an all time favorite for me.

TLDR at the end

What is GTFO

GTFO is a hardcore horror tactical FPS game. You work together to complete missions in the Complex, aka Garganta. These missions are predetermined and not procedurally generated. So these are hand made missions. They’re separated by different numbered Rundowns. Each rundown contains a variety of different missions. Some have more than others and are graded by a letter difficulty. A being the easiest and E being the hardest. The rundowns themselves are numbered and generally the numbers are indicative of what order to start them in. However an A level in say rundown 3 will be easier than R1D1. So it’s not directly the case that all missions on the next rundown are harder than all missions in the previous rundown.

You start each mission in a weapon loadout screen where you can see what all your teammates are bringing. There’s a wide variety of weapons from firearms to melee weapons. Each weapon has its own pros and cons. Some are better for dealing massive damage to tough targets while others are better for clearing our hordes of enemies. Some are quick, some are slow. It really comes down to you and your team bringing what weapons you feel are right for the occasion.

There are also tools which range from a c(ryo) foam launcher, sentry turrets, a bio tracker, and more. All of these tools serve a purpose. Some are more general than others. It’s always a good idea to have 1 sentry and have someone with a biotracker. Those aren’t explicitly necessities but they will 100% help you. There are also artifacts you can collect in runs that give you various bonuses from damage resistance to increased damage dealt.

When you’re all ready you’ll drop down into your run to complete the various missions by trying to stealth around the enemies, scavenging for supplies like medkits, ammo packs and more. When shit inevitably hits the fan that’s when the guns are busted out. The game is all about having a back up plan for your plan. As one mistake that you aren’t ready for can lead to a run ending. One wrong move, one friendly fire incident is all it takes to fuck up run. Which is why I opened up with if you aren’t able to fail at games this game isn’t for you.


Enemies and Hazards

At first the game will seem like there’s not a lot of enemy variety. The game is very slow and intentional about dishing out the new enemies. The main enemy you’ll be seeing are called sleepers. Basically they’re your zombies. They’re scattered across the areas and if you walk fast, shine flashlights or make noise it will alert them. If they wake up they can alert the whole room then you’ve got a fire fight on your hands. Which if you aren’t prepared for can go bad super quick. All the enemies are called sleepers but the primary ones you’ll see are the strikers, which are the melee boys with teeth, shooters, which are the lumpy girls that shoot out projectiles, then there’s the giants. There’s sub categories of giants too. Those are the primary enemies you’ll find in the first few rundowns. There are additional ones but I’ll not spoil the surprise of those enemies. But even then the beginning combination of those is really intense at first. It takes a coordinated team to take down one giant in stealth. And if you kill things too close to each other it can alert others in the room. So it’s a matter of assessing what targets to prioritize and when to team up or spread out to clear out multiple at once.

There are also a variety of hazards in the game. Alarm doors that you need to do scans for while alerting hoards, infection fog that lowers your max health, non stop alarms, and so much more. The game loves throwing new hazards and combinations of enemies at you. All of this factored in with length of missions and many missions are a battle of attrition. In a good way though. The pressure that summounts from being so deep into a run, everyone is low and health and ammo, half of your squad are infected and you’ve got a class 4 alarm to go through to extract is what makes this game so incredible. Using your combined skill and resources to squeak out a win in GTFO is one of the most satisfying experiences I’ve had in gaming. It truly is one of the most tactical FPS games I’ve ever played. My group and I will spend so much time plotting out what doors to seal, where enemies will come from, where to place sentries and mines and what choke points to hold only to have a plan go to shit and we have to revert to the back up plan of running out of a room or doing our absolute best to survive.

The Difficulty

This brings me to the difficulty of this game. I’ve mentioned it but it's worth reiterating that this game is brutal. I remember seeing a stat that the devs shared on steam saying that there was a failure rate of missions at around 90%. It’s rough but it’s honestly so much fun. And to be 100% honest as long as you are willing to learn, take your time, and are open to trial and error, this game is not as hard as it makes itself out to be. Once me and my group got adjusted in how to play, things were relatively smooth. We’re easily able to clear all A and B levels on the first try. Or at least most. There’s some crazy A3 levels. But I put this part in to say that I think if the game sounds even remotely interesting to you that you should take the risk if you can find a group to play it with. Maybe grab it on a sale despite it being well worth that full price. I think it’s somewhat of a niche game and sometimes $40 is a steep price for a niche game that might make you rage quit. But it’s honestly such an incredible experience.

The Lore

I don’t have the time in the world nor the full knowledge of the lore to explain it or break it down here. But know that the lore is actually really fucking cool. It’s just so dense and truthfully convoluted but in a good way (I love convoluted plots I’m a Metal Gear fan). On the first page of the wiki it drops “According to the ‘Dual Reality Theory’ there are two different worldlines or variants of the story set in parallel universe” and that should be enough to tell you what kind of insane ass scifi horror plot this game has.

Issues

There are some issues with the game that I’ve encountered in my 100+ hours of gameplay. Sometimes enemy detection can be finicky and you’ll be detected by enemies that feel like they were way too far away. There’s some issues with the game crashing from time to time as well. My friend often would have to do hard restarts to fix the crashing upon loading in. There were also some connection issues and some desync issues but they’d generally fix themselves and it was usually due to a blip in internet performance for the host. But overall nothing really that took my enjoyment out of the game. But it’s always worth noting some technical issues. It’s still an easy recommendation but it can depend on your tolerance for that kind of stuff.

TLDR

GTFO is one of my favorite co-op experiences I’ve had in gaming. The strategy and tactics and butt clenching tension of running these missions is unmatched by anything I’ve played and tbh I think anything the market has to offer at the moment. Its atmosphere and lore are top notch and I think if you’ve got a group of friends to play it with and like tactical shooters or scifi horror this is a must play. However do note that the game starts slow and you will fuck up a lot. There’s a reason the game's tagline is “Work together or die together”. I personally say it’s well worth full price but I do always advocate for getting games cheaper when you can. And considering it’s a niche game and you ideally want a full group to play, it’s probably best to recommend waiting for a sale on this game. But it’s so worth it regardless.

SUPERHOT is the most innovative shooter I've played in years!
SUPER. HOT. SUPER. HOT.

Memes aside this game is fantastic. Short and sweet experience and it really is a cool concept. I'm still playing through all the challenges in the game but it is a joy. A very unique experience that was very addicting. Feels at times like a puzzle solving game and a shooter which I absolutely love. It's got a little bit of a story which subverted my expectations. Overall this game is an easy recommend to anyone in my book.