This is, quite possibly, the most timeless JRPG ever made. From its gorgeous 2D backgrounds, expressive spritework, tight pacing, and gameplay mechanics that were ahead of its time in terms of the convenience they offered, this game holds up in just about every regard as a true classic of the genre.
While I'm sure that much of this has been said countless times, as it is true, I can't help but look at it somewhat differently as a longtime fan of the JRPG genre and all that it has to offer. Chrono Trigger to me represents a turning point in the genre's history: when they started becoming more accessible, more thematically complex, and more anime inspired. It's a game still rooted in many conventions of the past yet not mired down by them, while also being one that showed glimpses of what was to come without the pace being dragged down or the story too complicated.
I think it's this particular point where its design philosophy falls that allows the game to be beloved even outside of JRPG circles, because just about every complaint from people who don't normally like turn based RPGs is either absent or remedied to an extent. The cost of this is that the game feels simple to someone like me who LOVES the mechanical and narrative complexity of many recent JRPGs, and while I could complain more about what this game isn't, I find what it is to still be rather impressive even when separated from the gaming landscape of its era. The truth is that there's often charm in simplicity, and when all of the pieces fit together just right like they do here, it's hard not to appreciate it. The story beats flow from one to another without staying in one location for too long, the combat is snappy and offers a sense of progression that encourages switching out your party members regularly, the bosses feel varied and the set pieces for these fights make each one stand out, the characters each have strong standout moments to make up for having relatively little dialogue throughout the story (or none in Crono's case), and the soundtrack does a great job of elevating all of these moments.
With these factors in mind I can't help but think that this game is perfect for people just getting into JRPGs, as it's not too difficult and sets up the expectations for what the genre is all about and capable of. It almost makes me disappointed that I didn't play this earlier, but in a way I feel that my perspective has given me a different kind of appreciation for it, so I will always value what this game was and still is. No matter how many games I think handle certain aspects of their design or storytelling better, there's never going to be another game that captures quite the same near-flawless experience that is Chrono Trigger.

Having finally finished Xenogears, after originally shelving it after disc 1, I can safely say that this is the most conflicted I've ever been with anything in my life. It's a game I both have respect for due to the risks it took from a story perspective as a game from Square but also have little respect for due to it's lack of ambition or passion for itself in particular as a work outside of that.

A major issue I have with Xenogears is that it's a cobbled together Frankenstein work taking bits and pieces of 20th century philosophy, religion and classic mecha anime from the time like Gundam/Gunbuster but it doesn't take these inspirations and run with them to create it's own standout identity. Instead, Xenogears is completely content with being an imitation of them that's almost like an advertisement for these other works because Takahashi's passion for these other works vastly overpowered any passion he had creating Xenogears. So, Xenogears' story, even outside of it's other issues, is quite unpalatable as it would rather provide an extremely surface level of the concepts present it borrows rather than come to it's own conclusion from it's own exploration of them. Instead, it's watered down the messages and conclusions of it's inspirations which makes it feel a bit like it's trivializing these inherited themes either because it didn't understand them or for the sake of pointing to things that have done it better. This makes the general plot feel generally unremarkable when given any real thought as near every story beat is from another work but not really transformative or given it's own real spin and if it is, it's presented in a way that's so utterly unsubtle, almost like a brick to the forehead, that it could be seen as admirable in a way for some but for others it could be a bit insulting. This kind of shows up in Takahashi's signature poor dialogue where characters where a lot of this is showcased very artificially through very stunted dialogue. Conversations, whether revolving around these topics or otherwise, are very awkward and don't flow well. A bit of a representative of the actual game.

However, at the same time, Xenogears is such a fascinating game to think and talk about. It has interesting themes, characters, plot points and a setting that is genuinely pretty well fleshed out. The fact that Xenogears was even willing to showcase a lot of what it did, even if it failed to properly explore or flesh them out, is praiseworthy and quite respectable in it's own right as they were generally good points for me to ponder about even if very little to none of it had actually come from Takahashi nor did the game really facilitate them properly. Most of the characters don't have much relevance, not unusual for a JRPG with a larger or even standard party size, or development with only Fei and Elly really developing substantially out of the main cast. The antagonist side is a bit better and more consistent in that regard but Fei and Elly alone are generally good enough to somewhat distract from the rest of the main cast being incredibly thin and lacking substance character wise. They had some pretty stand out development and were the only ones to have an actual complete story where things are actually properly foreshadowed and not just dropped for shock factor.

After hearing about the troubled development of Xenogears, it having issues with it's gameplay isn't all that surprising but it's also not something I'm willing to excuse because of that. The gameplay is honestly like the rest of the game, it has potential but it's not followed through on. Deathblows are unique but they're implemented in the most basic way where you just have to spam your strongest with no regards of teaching the player how to use them, combine them or even obtain them. Though combos are more or less useless with the lack of design the game has so it wasn't too much of a burden in the long run, it was still quite disappointing.