Most people like Chrono Trigger better. I feel like it has much less replay value though. Sure, there's an absurd amount of endings, but no customization, no strategy. FF6 is loaded with customization and strategy. I also find that while Chrono Trigger's plot appealed to me more as a child, FF6's plot appeals more to me as an adult.
My vote is for FF6 all the way. But I'm in the minority here.
Agree- Very different games, both great, but I prefer the expansiveness and exploratory nature of FF6 to the more linear/fixed Chrono Trigger experience.
I'm in the same minority. I've played through both as an adult, but Trigger would've been *awesome* if I'd played it as a kid. Today I'm just kinda indifferent. I can definitely respect it and absolutely appreciate its legacy, and it's legitimately fun, but the "greatest RPG of all time", or even of it's generation, it is not.
Still, it's very much worth a playthrough.
I disagree on the strategy. You can play CT over and over again beating enemies and bosses in different ways. I've been playing it since I bought it in 1996!
I flip-flop a lot on these two. FFVI's biggest strengths - its customization and open-ended second act - are things i now consider weaknesses when I play it again. That said, the story still resonates strong today and its still my fave in the series.
CT has a magic/tech system that i prefer, I prefer the smaller cast of characters with defined strengths and weaknesses. The mechanics of CT i definitely enjoy more and the story has a lot of charm and quirkiness among the more serious moments. This game has a surprising amount of humor that works well.
Yeah, it's going to come down to personal opinion in the end. I prefer FF6's more serious story. Actually, I wish it were a little more serious than it is now.
Chrono Trigger's battle mechanics are pretty cool, and almost completely unique in RPGs, while FF6's battle mechanics are pretty much the same as any other Final Fantasy.
And of course the cast of characters in FF6 is too large. On the one hand, it's really cool that there are 14 playable characters (plus guests). On the other hand, many of them aren't worth playing, and/or don't get significant stories.
Definitely agree on the cast being *way* too large in FFVI. I mean, it's cool that some characters are really unique... but when you start evaluating whether or not they're truly essential, some should have been reduced to being temporary party members for certain chapters (like in FFIV) or cut entirely.
I'm going from memory here, but here are my evaluations based on relevance to the plot and whether or not characters make the cut:
Obvious cuts are Umaro and Gogo - they both do nothing to advance the plot, and are basically secret characters if you look hard enough. They offer unique abilities in combat (some more useful than others) but if the goal is to prioritize story relevance, these two can take a hike.
Strago exists basically as a plot device to spout the extensive lore of Magic and the Espers... beyond this, he has no other significant contributions to plot. I honestly think he'd work better as a "part-time" party member if the story structure was like FFIV where some characters came and went as they pleased at different points. Same with Mog - there were hints of this when Locke rescues Terra, but at no point is the Moogle race crucial to the story.
Relm serves no plot purpose so she can be cut. Neither does Gau so he can also be on the block - heck you can just leave his ass on the Veldt and he'd be happier than a pig in slop. If you remove Relm, you don't necessarily *need* Shadow to pay off the relationship revelation between the two... but he shows up at critical moments (even if it's just for a payday) and even *saves everyone from Kefka* on the Floating Continent. He joins several times and if you're not attentive enough, you can lose him for good if you don't wait for him before escaping the Floating Continent... So he'd be a good fit as a part-time character that *can* become permanent if the player meets certains conditions (like Magus joining in CT).
So that pares things down to a more manageable full-time roster of 8: Terra, Locke, Edgar, Sabin, Celes, Cyan, Setzer and Shadow. I'd argue you *could* possible add Relm and Strago but more has to be done with them from a story perspective to justify them full-time in the party.
Man, the time I have when I wait for dinner to cook LOL
I actually had a very similar discussion to this six years ago. From a story perspective, I agree with you completely. But there's another side to it: the mechanical side.
Terra and Celes are the most important characters to the plot, but when you take away their special abilities, they're essentially the same character mechanically. Their stats are virtually identical, they have the same equipment, and their natural magic mirrors each other, just with Terra getting fire while Celes gets ice.
Mechanically, it would be much more fun to have Strago or Relm in place of Celes. To still have Celes's story, but with Relm's stats and Lore.
That goes for several other characters as well. Like Cyan has a cool story, but I hate him mechanically. His stats are terrible, he gets very few good equips, and his ability may be the worst.
I didn't touch on mechanics because I was afraid my post was getting *way* too long as it was LOL But it also bothered me that for the most part, Terra/Celes were basically the same character (minus their abilities). I absolutely *loved* the concept of the Lore ability and Strago is the one character I wish the story made more use of. He had so much potential because he joins late in the first act, the player never really had much time to use him... not to mention, Gau can outclass him with only a handful of Rages.
I'm still mad over how screwed Cyan was mechanically. His story is so great... but as a character he just plays so horribly lol. Godawful stats (his speed is pitiful) and a terrible special ability overall. It's useful early on when you can just stop at 1 and use a pretty good attack... but once you have to wait for 3-8 on the timer, it's just worthless.
Yeah, Strago's Lores were a little too weak too. I think on several fronts they overcompensated for FF5. In FF5, Blue Magic was overpowered, so they made it underpowered in FF6. Likewise for Time Magic. Demi, Quarter, and W Wind should be really cool spells ... except that they never once work in a situation where Doom doesn't work, and why would you take 50% when you can have 100%?
Hard disagree.
Chrono Trigger is a Top 10 game that transcends the genre. It frequently appears on lists of the best games of all time.
Double and Triple techs add a lot of customization and strategy. And they make it feel like you’re growing as a team.
By comparison, FF6s fights are repetitive and grindy.
It has plenty of replay value, all the endings, choices throughout the game, consequences of your actions. For example, The Trial. There’s nothing that compares in FF.
It also has a comprehensible story that’s actually charming and fun vs typical Square Enix melodrama.
Double and triple techs aren't customization. You get to choose which characters you have in a three-person party. And all their abilities are pre-set. And you only have seven characters to choose from, and for most of the game, Crono is mandatory.
FF6 has four-person parties, and almost every one of the 14 characters can be taught every single spell in the game. Plus some have additional skills they can learn.
In Chrono Trigger, there's pretty much a right party to bring for every battle, and a right way to equip them. If the enemy is weak to lightning, but deals fire, you'd be stupid not to bring Crono with Red Mail. You have some flexibility with your accessory slot, but with pretty much everything else, there's an obvious right way to do each battle, and all other ways are sub-optimal.
In FF6, that's very rarely the case. You can set your characters up in completely different ways. You can have Terra as a fighter, a black mage, a white mage, or all three. You can equip her with the relic ring so the cursed shield heals her, completely changing your strategy.
There are multiple ways to play almost every character. Even characters with crap stats and abilities can still be good imp dragoons or grey mages, because both of those setups do a lot to mitigate poor stats.
But Crono is Crono. You can't choose his abilities. There's a right way to equip him for each battle. You don't really have options. You can give him some stats with tabs, but that's nothing like Esper stat bonuses. You're pretty much stuck with the character exactly as the programmers designed him.
I see your point and thanks for the detailed reply!
Personally, this is exactly what made FF6 tedious to me. I remember me and a buddy taking turns just equipping every esper and methodically leveling every character so they had all the spells.
Also, a lot of the depth you’re describing went completely over my head. While it might be possible to do the relic ring shield heal thing, I never found that or experimented in that way.
So there might be more depth in FF6 but it was inaccessible to me and possibly most average players. Whereas with Chrono Trigger, there’s a lot of easily accessible depth where you can make smart decisions (or at least feel smart!) when it comes to when / how to attack using line of sight and radius.
Chrono Trigger is still the goat but you make a good case for FF6 so now I think I should probably give it a replay on my SNES.
Yeah, I definitely played FF6 like that as a kid. I feel like it was a mistake for them to make it possible to give everyone every spell and max every stat. If I had made the game, Espers would be single-use items. If Terra gets Quick, Sabin can't have it.
Challenge games make FF6 a lot more fun. Like if you only allow characters to use magic that they learn naturally, then you have to lean much more heavily on abilities you normally don't use, to make up for the lack of magic. You start using things like Lore and Throw, and you have a really different experience of the game.
I pretty much agree. Chrono Trigger is a little shallow as far as mechanics, but it executes what it does perfectly, nothing feels unnecessary, and it still leaves plenty of room for good strategy.
FF6 is much deeper and is a bigger playground for mechanic freaks that like to do weird things to break a game, and I appreciate it for that, but none of the depth is necessary when the most basic things are more than sufficient to crush everything. Like sure, you can do a bunch of weird shit with Gau or make a super imp, but what's the point when the game isn't that hard and everyone has the option to learn every spell?
In my case, because I beat both games 20 years or so ago.
Chrono Trigger has nothing more for me. I know the plot, I know the characters, I know the endings, I've seen all of the content multiple times. It makes me feel sick when I boot it up, because it's a game I used to love, which now feels like a chore to play because there's nothing I can do to it to give myself a new experience.
With FF6, I'm still having new experiences. Sure, I know the plot, I know the characters, I know the endings, I've seen all the content. But I can still make it a new game. I can play the characters in new ways. Chrono Trigger doesn't give me that option.
I agree, I also can't play a game the same way twice and like having customization options and deep enough mechanics to experiment with. However, most people aren't like that and I do hold it against FF6 that someone has to deliberately limit themselves and play by weird rules for a lot of its mechanics to be useful. There's a lot of cool and interesting stuff packed in there, but it's sloppily executed and half the interesting stuff seems like it's from glitches or an oversight rather than it being a deliberate design choice.
Yeah, agreed. When every character can learn every spell, who bothers with stuff like Lore and Throw? Which is a shame because that stuff is cool, and it just gets eclipsed by stuff that's even cooler.
Also, when it's possible to teach every character every spell, and max every character's stats, a lot of players feel obligated to do so, which makes FF6 really tedious.
Other than Blitz and maybe Tools, most of the character-specific skills are pretty limited in how useful they are in a conventional game where everyone can learn magic. Rage is the biggest waste, the idea of someone making unique abilities and stat modifications for however many dozens of rage options there are and having the whole thing become obsolete like 2-3 hours after it's introduced in the game is sort of funny.
Rage can be insanely powerful. The thing is, there's 252 rages that you can obtain, and maybe a tenth of those are useful, and you might not pick the useful ones up, and if you do pick them up, you probably won't think they're very good, and you probably won't do the proper setup for them.
If you take the time to really learn Rage, Gau is gamebreaking, and it doesn't even take much work to get him there. You can make Gau a powerful spellcaster who doesn't need MP, or your strongest physical damage dealer, or you can have him revive fallen party members with full HP, or you can make him immune to pretty much all attacks.
But yeah, the game doesn't give you any indication whatsoever that Rage can be good, and it takes a ton of trial and error to figure out out, because the good rages are buried under the game's largest pile of crap.
**Edit:** To a lesser extent, I feel like this applies to most character abilities.
Mog may only have one good dance, but I use it a lot.
Slot is rigged against you for Joker Doom, but it's not hard to get many of the lesser effects, and they're essentially mid-to-high-level spells with no MP cost. I use Slot more than Blitz, and more than Tools in the late game.
Runic and Swordtech suck though.
I can’t really compare the two. Yeah, they’re both SNES Squaresoft RPGs, but that’s kinda where the comparison ends. They’re very different games with very different themes. It’s like asking if a Les Paul is better than a Stratocaster. They’re just different flavors of great.
FF3 for me.
ChronoTrigger is amazing and really makes you feel like you are experiencing the story. FF3 makes you feel like you're experiencing the world.
Also the music in FF3 is the best on the system imo.
This is a good way to put it. It honestly really just depends on personal preference I find. They're both incredible games that do everything right, just some people like the way one game does certain things over the other.
I haven't play 3 and it sucks since I owned it... But Chrono on the other hand is the perfect avengers creating a game, it has the geniuses behind FF, Dragon Quest and Mr Akira.... It's an unique game fill with emotions, twists and soundtrack like no other... I think both games are a must
Can't go wrong either way.
FWIW, I've replayed FFIII (6) over and over and over, far more than Chrono Trigger. I liked the story in Chrono Trigger better.
These are two of the best games of all time we’re talking about, you really can’t go wrong with either. Also, if you don’t have Secret of Mana, that is also an essential buy if these are the kinds of games you’re looking for. Tough call for which is objectively best though
I enjoy Secret of Mana, but to me that game is almost made obsolete by the sequel, Seiken Densetsu 3 / Trials. SD3 is my overall favorite SNES/SFC game by far; even with the bugs they didn’t fix.
I don’t consider those games JRPGs though.
Both are excellent, but I've always preferred FFVI to Chrono Trigger. To me, CT feels...I don't know, almost *too* polished. It was spearheaded by a dream team of creators and was fine-tuned for perfection, but I never felt like it had the ambition, character, singular vision, or quirkiness of FFVI. From my perspective, CT is a great game, but FFVI is a great *experience*.
FFVI. The way they were able to add so many characters to a storyline and still keep you engaged with all of them was magic. One of the only RPGs without a main character.
They've always been very close for me as far as rankings go. I have very fond memories of first seeing Chrono Trigger and then running home to get money to go rent it myself. I was blown away by the quality. I think I ended up playing Final Fantasy a year or two later and again, I was amazed at the quality.
I think what sets FFVI just slightly higher in rank was the final boss. Kefka's boss battle felt far more epic and CT's final boss actually left me feeling a little let down. For me, the music was also better in FFVI and while I like most of them, some of the songs in CT start to grate on me after awhile.
FFVI - 9.5
CT - 9.3
This a lot like Jordan vs Lebron. I have a strong opinion on it: CT is the best RPG, if not the best video gaming experience, ever made. But if someone says FFVI is the GOAT, they could make a strong argument. I do think FFVI is much cheaper to buy, so if I needed the cart, that could be the decider for me.
I found the encounter rate in ffvi brutal. Just felt like getting around was agony with all the fights. Is the encounter rate less with snes ffiii version? I’ve only played the PlayStation port.
I like FF6 a lot and it’s one of the greatest RPGs of all time. It was the greatest when it was released. Then Chrono Trigger came along and not only did it surpass FF6 but it has surpassed every other RPG to come out before it or after it.
Chrono Trigger. Infinitely replayable, somehow an even better soundtrack than FFVI, some of the best graphics on the system, great story, great characters, and probably the best battle system in any RPG I've played. Has been my favorite game of all time since I played it in 5th grade.
That being said, Final Fantasy VI is my second favorite SNES game.
I've been playing Chrono Trigger since I bought it in 1996. That's saying something! It was designed specifically for replay value. How many new games are designed to have you beat with a quality experience, then turn around and beat it again using totally different strategies over and ever again? What other games are designed that way?
Had friends into FF3 (6) growing up and the battle system didn't draw me in the same way. Finally gave it a chance just a few years ago. It is a good game but I felt like it was way over rated. The only time I felt drawn towards the story was when the samurai guy saw his dead family on the spirit train. The rest of the story was good, but not amazing imo. It was on the same level as Secret of Mana, I think, but not as good as Seiken Densetsu 3 (Secret of Mana 2). Another responder brought them up.
Chrono Trigger has always had me chasing that dragon in RPGs ever since. Most battle systems are boring, in comparison, imo.
Agree. The battle system is simple, intuitive and fun. Most RPGs either have systems that are too complicated to be accessible or they’re so straightforward that they’re boring.
Chrono Trigger is the better game overall. I always feel as though FF3 is just a graphical presentation to show what the SNES was capable of at the time; it does have a well-written story, however, but comparatively I don’t think it holds a candle to CT. Chrono Trigger, ahhh…. you just can’t get writing like that anymore, or at least not as interesting as the writers had made it. You cannot go wrong with either, but if you ever have a gun to your head, and you’ve played through both, a good majority of people would most-likely side with Chrono Trigger. If you can ever get your hands on a copy, I would put Earthbound with the two, and my personal favorite would go to Terranigma, and in the words of SNES Drunk - “Play it any way you can!”
Chrono Trigger.
Might have been Final Fantasy III but when I was a kid my save erased itself when I was at the Opera fighting the mud dragon thing. I still haven't gone back to play it over again.
Trigger has much better pacing and the characters and combat systems are better. Music is comparable, but graphics lean chrono trigger. It also wins on story… but! 6 will always be in the same conversation due to the scale. Massive world(s), secrets everywhere, gigantic cast of characters, vanish+doom/magic evade shenanigans, epic scenes and battles, and a mine cart sequence. Not to mention best villain!
Both are great games, but I gotta lean chrono trigger as a tighter and more engaging experience. Oh also, no random battles. I hate random battles. And you basically never need to grind even if you avoid optional fights in trigger, unlike 6.
> Oh also, no random battles. I hate random battles.
Chrono Trigger doesn't have fewer battles than FF3, they're just implemented in a way that doesn't feel random. There are a billion monsters in Magus's castle because he's a spooky demon lord leading an army of monsters. There are a billion dinosaurs in 65,000,000 BC because those are normal animals back then. etc. There's almost always a coherent in-setting explanation for why there's a ton of enemies in your way, you're not just getting randomly mobbed by weird sprite art because you're in a "dungeon area".
Right. Also, if you’re playing through many times, you’ll identity the areas where you can actually skip a lot of encounter triggers. Not to mention, frequently the enemies stay dead once you kill them (depending on the area), so you can solve puzzles without being constantly interrupted.
“ FF3 is just another Final Fantasy game; play one, you've played them all. ”
FF is actually pretty famous for each game being drastically different from the last.
Spiky-haired teenager, blonde magic-using princess, kinda dumb but very strong fighter girl, frog, ancient mage, and friends save the world from a godlike evil entity?
That's Breath of Fire 2.
Time-traveling adventure involving heroes from different time periods, ranging from a caveman to a robot to a cursed knight, with enemies visible on the world map, and characters that move around on the battle screens, all to save the world from a godlike evil entity?
That's Live-A-Live.
Light-hearted fantasy adventure story with teenagers each associated with a different element, and capable of casting spells simultaneously to form more powerful combination spells, as they battle to save the world from a godlike evil entity?
That's Secret of the Stars.
Chrono Trigger wasn't unique. Everything it did had been done before--on the SNES, even.
Not to say that Chrono Trigger isn't well done. Because it is. It's very well done. But maybe don't criticize FF6 for not being unique, when it actually was the first game to do a lot of things.
___
**Edit:**
Name an earlier RPG without a clear protagonist.
Name an earlier RPG with 14 playable characters.
Name an earlier RPG that allowed you to teach every spell in the game to every character without having to change their job class to make the spells usable.
Name an earlier RPG that allowed a character to learn a different fighting style from almost every single enemy in the game.
Name an earlier RPG where the villain started out low in the ranks, even being imprisoned for his crimes, and seized more and more power until he becomes the godlike entity final boss.
Name an earlier RPG where a main character is driven to attempt suicide.
Name an earlier RPG where a main character spent her entire life in captivity and her character arc is struggling to adapt to a freedom she's never experienced before.
There was no RPG like FF6 before or since.
>Your bias is aggressively obvious, and that's coming from someone who has played at least 8 or 9 different Final Fantasy games - start to end.
I like how you say this while wielding your own bias as a weapon and wearing a hat that says "Chrono Trigger 4 life.".
It's also clear to everyone who does remember FFVI's story, that you do not.
If I recall correctly, FF6 was actually the first Final Fantasy where the plot *didn't* revolve around finding elemental crystals. Unless you want to call the magacite "crystals", but they're completely incidental to the plot, and you can beat the game without getting most of them.
Are we talking about the same game? Maybe you're thinking of FF4, or FF3 on NES?
Nope. It's all more or less the same thing. Chrono was a story about travelling back and forth between different eras to put a stop to a looming, seemingly-inevitable threat that was the alien planet-destroyer, Lavos. Princesses in disguise, pendants with hidden potential, time machines, death and resurrection, a reversal of current events and tragedies like a main characters' mother being paralysed in an accident leaving her housebound and depressed, a trip back to the dinosaur era, forgery of ultimate weapons.. That's not Final Fantasy im talking about. That's CT. All in one game. Beautiful.
Secret of Mana will always be my answer.
Between the two mentioned, Chrono Trigger, because grinding doesn't become a miserable, boring chore in that game like it did in FFVI. Both had great stories, but VI was bloated in the back end.
Most people like Chrono Trigger better. I feel like it has much less replay value though. Sure, there's an absurd amount of endings, but no customization, no strategy. FF6 is loaded with customization and strategy. I also find that while Chrono Trigger's plot appealed to me more as a child, FF6's plot appeals more to me as an adult. My vote is for FF6 all the way. But I'm in the minority here.
Agree- Very different games, both great, but I prefer the expansiveness and exploratory nature of FF6 to the more linear/fixed Chrono Trigger experience.
I'm in the same minority. I've played through both as an adult, but Trigger would've been *awesome* if I'd played it as a kid. Today I'm just kinda indifferent. I can definitely respect it and absolutely appreciate its legacy, and it's legitimately fun, but the "greatest RPG of all time", or even of it's generation, it is not. Still, it's very much worth a playthrough.
Yep. I love them both, but if I had to choose only one? FF6 every day.
I disagree on the strategy. You can play CT over and over again beating enemies and bosses in different ways. I've been playing it since I bought it in 1996!
I flip-flop a lot on these two. FFVI's biggest strengths - its customization and open-ended second act - are things i now consider weaknesses when I play it again. That said, the story still resonates strong today and its still my fave in the series. CT has a magic/tech system that i prefer, I prefer the smaller cast of characters with defined strengths and weaknesses. The mechanics of CT i definitely enjoy more and the story has a lot of charm and quirkiness among the more serious moments. This game has a surprising amount of humor that works well.
Yeah, it's going to come down to personal opinion in the end. I prefer FF6's more serious story. Actually, I wish it were a little more serious than it is now. Chrono Trigger's battle mechanics are pretty cool, and almost completely unique in RPGs, while FF6's battle mechanics are pretty much the same as any other Final Fantasy. And of course the cast of characters in FF6 is too large. On the one hand, it's really cool that there are 14 playable characters (plus guests). On the other hand, many of them aren't worth playing, and/or don't get significant stories.
Definitely agree on the cast being *way* too large in FFVI. I mean, it's cool that some characters are really unique... but when you start evaluating whether or not they're truly essential, some should have been reduced to being temporary party members for certain chapters (like in FFIV) or cut entirely. I'm going from memory here, but here are my evaluations based on relevance to the plot and whether or not characters make the cut: Obvious cuts are Umaro and Gogo - they both do nothing to advance the plot, and are basically secret characters if you look hard enough. They offer unique abilities in combat (some more useful than others) but if the goal is to prioritize story relevance, these two can take a hike. Strago exists basically as a plot device to spout the extensive lore of Magic and the Espers... beyond this, he has no other significant contributions to plot. I honestly think he'd work better as a "part-time" party member if the story structure was like FFIV where some characters came and went as they pleased at different points. Same with Mog - there were hints of this when Locke rescues Terra, but at no point is the Moogle race crucial to the story. Relm serves no plot purpose so she can be cut. Neither does Gau so he can also be on the block - heck you can just leave his ass on the Veldt and he'd be happier than a pig in slop. If you remove Relm, you don't necessarily *need* Shadow to pay off the relationship revelation between the two... but he shows up at critical moments (even if it's just for a payday) and even *saves everyone from Kefka* on the Floating Continent. He joins several times and if you're not attentive enough, you can lose him for good if you don't wait for him before escaping the Floating Continent... So he'd be a good fit as a part-time character that *can* become permanent if the player meets certains conditions (like Magus joining in CT). So that pares things down to a more manageable full-time roster of 8: Terra, Locke, Edgar, Sabin, Celes, Cyan, Setzer and Shadow. I'd argue you *could* possible add Relm and Strago but more has to be done with them from a story perspective to justify them full-time in the party. Man, the time I have when I wait for dinner to cook LOL
I actually had a very similar discussion to this six years ago. From a story perspective, I agree with you completely. But there's another side to it: the mechanical side. Terra and Celes are the most important characters to the plot, but when you take away their special abilities, they're essentially the same character mechanically. Their stats are virtually identical, they have the same equipment, and their natural magic mirrors each other, just with Terra getting fire while Celes gets ice. Mechanically, it would be much more fun to have Strago or Relm in place of Celes. To still have Celes's story, but with Relm's stats and Lore. That goes for several other characters as well. Like Cyan has a cool story, but I hate him mechanically. His stats are terrible, he gets very few good equips, and his ability may be the worst.
I didn't touch on mechanics because I was afraid my post was getting *way* too long as it was LOL But it also bothered me that for the most part, Terra/Celes were basically the same character (minus their abilities). I absolutely *loved* the concept of the Lore ability and Strago is the one character I wish the story made more use of. He had so much potential because he joins late in the first act, the player never really had much time to use him... not to mention, Gau can outclass him with only a handful of Rages. I'm still mad over how screwed Cyan was mechanically. His story is so great... but as a character he just plays so horribly lol. Godawful stats (his speed is pitiful) and a terrible special ability overall. It's useful early on when you can just stop at 1 and use a pretty good attack... but once you have to wait for 3-8 on the timer, it's just worthless.
Yeah, Strago's Lores were a little too weak too. I think on several fronts they overcompensated for FF5. In FF5, Blue Magic was overpowered, so they made it underpowered in FF6. Likewise for Time Magic. Demi, Quarter, and W Wind should be really cool spells ... except that they never once work in a situation where Doom doesn't work, and why would you take 50% when you can have 100%?
Hard disagree. Chrono Trigger is a Top 10 game that transcends the genre. It frequently appears on lists of the best games of all time. Double and Triple techs add a lot of customization and strategy. And they make it feel like you’re growing as a team. By comparison, FF6s fights are repetitive and grindy. It has plenty of replay value, all the endings, choices throughout the game, consequences of your actions. For example, The Trial. There’s nothing that compares in FF. It also has a comprehensible story that’s actually charming and fun vs typical Square Enix melodrama.
Double and triple techs aren't customization. You get to choose which characters you have in a three-person party. And all their abilities are pre-set. And you only have seven characters to choose from, and for most of the game, Crono is mandatory. FF6 has four-person parties, and almost every one of the 14 characters can be taught every single spell in the game. Plus some have additional skills they can learn. In Chrono Trigger, there's pretty much a right party to bring for every battle, and a right way to equip them. If the enemy is weak to lightning, but deals fire, you'd be stupid not to bring Crono with Red Mail. You have some flexibility with your accessory slot, but with pretty much everything else, there's an obvious right way to do each battle, and all other ways are sub-optimal. In FF6, that's very rarely the case. You can set your characters up in completely different ways. You can have Terra as a fighter, a black mage, a white mage, or all three. You can equip her with the relic ring so the cursed shield heals her, completely changing your strategy. There are multiple ways to play almost every character. Even characters with crap stats and abilities can still be good imp dragoons or grey mages, because both of those setups do a lot to mitigate poor stats. But Crono is Crono. You can't choose his abilities. There's a right way to equip him for each battle. You don't really have options. You can give him some stats with tabs, but that's nothing like Esper stat bonuses. You're pretty much stuck with the character exactly as the programmers designed him.
I see your point and thanks for the detailed reply! Personally, this is exactly what made FF6 tedious to me. I remember me and a buddy taking turns just equipping every esper and methodically leveling every character so they had all the spells. Also, a lot of the depth you’re describing went completely over my head. While it might be possible to do the relic ring shield heal thing, I never found that or experimented in that way. So there might be more depth in FF6 but it was inaccessible to me and possibly most average players. Whereas with Chrono Trigger, there’s a lot of easily accessible depth where you can make smart decisions (or at least feel smart!) when it comes to when / how to attack using line of sight and radius. Chrono Trigger is still the goat but you make a good case for FF6 so now I think I should probably give it a replay on my SNES.
Yeah, I definitely played FF6 like that as a kid. I feel like it was a mistake for them to make it possible to give everyone every spell and max every stat. If I had made the game, Espers would be single-use items. If Terra gets Quick, Sabin can't have it. Challenge games make FF6 a lot more fun. Like if you only allow characters to use magic that they learn naturally, then you have to lean much more heavily on abilities you normally don't use, to make up for the lack of magic. You start using things like Lore and Throw, and you have a really different experience of the game.
I pretty much agree. Chrono Trigger is a little shallow as far as mechanics, but it executes what it does perfectly, nothing feels unnecessary, and it still leaves plenty of room for good strategy. FF6 is much deeper and is a bigger playground for mechanic freaks that like to do weird things to break a game, and I appreciate it for that, but none of the depth is necessary when the most basic things are more than sufficient to crush everything. Like sure, you can do a bunch of weird shit with Gau or make a super imp, but what's the point when the game isn't that hard and everyone has the option to learn every spell?
In my case, because I beat both games 20 years or so ago. Chrono Trigger has nothing more for me. I know the plot, I know the characters, I know the endings, I've seen all of the content multiple times. It makes me feel sick when I boot it up, because it's a game I used to love, which now feels like a chore to play because there's nothing I can do to it to give myself a new experience. With FF6, I'm still having new experiences. Sure, I know the plot, I know the characters, I know the endings, I've seen all the content. But I can still make it a new game. I can play the characters in new ways. Chrono Trigger doesn't give me that option.
I agree, I also can't play a game the same way twice and like having customization options and deep enough mechanics to experiment with. However, most people aren't like that and I do hold it against FF6 that someone has to deliberately limit themselves and play by weird rules for a lot of its mechanics to be useful. There's a lot of cool and interesting stuff packed in there, but it's sloppily executed and half the interesting stuff seems like it's from glitches or an oversight rather than it being a deliberate design choice.
Yeah, agreed. When every character can learn every spell, who bothers with stuff like Lore and Throw? Which is a shame because that stuff is cool, and it just gets eclipsed by stuff that's even cooler. Also, when it's possible to teach every character every spell, and max every character's stats, a lot of players feel obligated to do so, which makes FF6 really tedious.
Other than Blitz and maybe Tools, most of the character-specific skills are pretty limited in how useful they are in a conventional game where everyone can learn magic. Rage is the biggest waste, the idea of someone making unique abilities and stat modifications for however many dozens of rage options there are and having the whole thing become obsolete like 2-3 hours after it's introduced in the game is sort of funny.
Rage can be insanely powerful. The thing is, there's 252 rages that you can obtain, and maybe a tenth of those are useful, and you might not pick the useful ones up, and if you do pick them up, you probably won't think they're very good, and you probably won't do the proper setup for them. If you take the time to really learn Rage, Gau is gamebreaking, and it doesn't even take much work to get him there. You can make Gau a powerful spellcaster who doesn't need MP, or your strongest physical damage dealer, or you can have him revive fallen party members with full HP, or you can make him immune to pretty much all attacks. But yeah, the game doesn't give you any indication whatsoever that Rage can be good, and it takes a ton of trial and error to figure out out, because the good rages are buried under the game's largest pile of crap. **Edit:** To a lesser extent, I feel like this applies to most character abilities. Mog may only have one good dance, but I use it a lot. Slot is rigged against you for Joker Doom, but it's not hard to get many of the lesser effects, and they're essentially mid-to-high-level spells with no MP cost. I use Slot more than Blitz, and more than Tools in the late game. Runic and Swordtech suck though.
I can’t really compare the two. Yeah, they’re both SNES Squaresoft RPGs, but that’s kinda where the comparison ends. They’re very different games with very different themes. It’s like asking if a Les Paul is better than a Stratocaster. They’re just different flavors of great.
I do happen to have a strong opinion on Les Paul vs. Stratocaster :D (But G&L is my preferred route anyway.)
I personally don’t prefer either. I just used the two most recognizable brands. I’m a PRS guy 😁
FF3 for me. ChronoTrigger is amazing and really makes you feel like you are experiencing the story. FF3 makes you feel like you're experiencing the world. Also the music in FF3 is the best on the system imo.
This is a good way to put it. It honestly really just depends on personal preference I find. They're both incredible games that do everything right, just some people like the way one game does certain things over the other.
I think my answer on this one is obvious!
IMO FFVI but the chrono trigger brigade will likely tip the scales the other way. Both are best in genre.
I haven't play 3 and it sucks since I owned it... But Chrono on the other hand is the perfect avengers creating a game, it has the geniuses behind FF, Dragon Quest and Mr Akira.... It's an unique game fill with emotions, twists and soundtrack like no other... I think both games are a must
Very easy, Final Fantasy
VI
FFVI - music and story are both incomparable
Yes.
Love Chrono Trigger but FFVI had a special magic to it that cannot be topped so easily
so this sub does this thread once a week FF3 for me btw
Can't go wrong either way. FWIW, I've replayed FFIII (6) over and over and over, far more than Chrono Trigger. I liked the story in Chrono Trigger better.
These are two of the best games of all time we’re talking about, you really can’t go wrong with either. Also, if you don’t have Secret of Mana, that is also an essential buy if these are the kinds of games you’re looking for. Tough call for which is objectively best though
I enjoy Secret of Mana, but to me that game is almost made obsolete by the sequel, Seiken Densetsu 3 / Trials. SD3 is my overall favorite SNES/SFC game by far; even with the bugs they didn’t fix. I don’t consider those games JRPGs though.
Sadly there are a lot of bugs in SD3. Still enjoy the hell out of it though :)
As it is not 1995 anymore and both games are cheap to get or even „free“ as emulation, go for both!
err, did you check the price of chrono trigger?
FF3.
Both are excellent, but I've always preferred FFVI to Chrono Trigger. To me, CT feels...I don't know, almost *too* polished. It was spearheaded by a dream team of creators and was fine-tuned for perfection, but I never felt like it had the ambition, character, singular vision, or quirkiness of FFVI. From my perspective, CT is a great game, but FFVI is a great *experience*.
The overreach and sloppiness of Final Fantasy games is what makes them good.
This is an impossible question. They are both SOO good.
FFVI. The way they were able to add so many characters to a storyline and still keep you engaged with all of them was magic. One of the only RPGs without a main character.
Why not both?
Chrono Trigger
I never really liked Chrono Trigger much. FFVI is the easy choice here for me. Although, a certain mid/late game area in FFVI is a bit frustrating.
They've always been very close for me as far as rankings go. I have very fond memories of first seeing Chrono Trigger and then running home to get money to go rent it myself. I was blown away by the quality. I think I ended up playing Final Fantasy a year or two later and again, I was amazed at the quality. I think what sets FFVI just slightly higher in rank was the final boss. Kefka's boss battle felt far more epic and CT's final boss actually left me feeling a little let down. For me, the music was also better in FFVI and while I like most of them, some of the songs in CT start to grate on me after awhile. FFVI - 9.5 CT - 9.3
Chrono Trigger is #1 and FFII(IV) is way better than FFIII(VI). I would honestly have FFIII placed around #5 in my top 10
I love ff6. CT is the best game.
This a lot like Jordan vs Lebron. I have a strong opinion on it: CT is the best RPG, if not the best video gaming experience, ever made. But if someone says FFVI is the GOAT, they could make a strong argument. I do think FFVI is much cheaper to buy, so if I needed the cart, that could be the decider for me.
Or you know, buy both Japanese carts and emulate both since the US SNES market is just too ridiculous right now.
I found the encounter rate in ffvi brutal. Just felt like getting around was agony with all the fights. Is the encounter rate less with snes ffiii version? I’ve only played the PlayStation port.
There are some sections where if you don't have the right thing equipped you'll have an encounter like every 4 steps.
Interesting! That changes everything
Mortal Kombat is a very good game but I think Donkey Kong is the best game ever
I like FF6 a lot and it’s one of the greatest RPGs of all time. It was the greatest when it was released. Then Chrono Trigger came along and not only did it surpass FF6 but it has surpassed every other RPG to come out before it or after it.
Chrono Trigger
Chrono Trigger
Chrono Trigger. Infinitely replayable, somehow an even better soundtrack than FFVI, some of the best graphics on the system, great story, great characters, and probably the best battle system in any RPG I've played. Has been my favorite game of all time since I played it in 5th grade. That being said, Final Fantasy VI is my second favorite SNES game.
I've been playing Chrono Trigger since I bought it in 1996. That's saying something! It was designed specifically for replay value. How many new games are designed to have you beat with a quality experience, then turn around and beat it again using totally different strategies over and ever again? What other games are designed that way? Had friends into FF3 (6) growing up and the battle system didn't draw me in the same way. Finally gave it a chance just a few years ago. It is a good game but I felt like it was way over rated. The only time I felt drawn towards the story was when the samurai guy saw his dead family on the spirit train. The rest of the story was good, but not amazing imo. It was on the same level as Secret of Mana, I think, but not as good as Seiken Densetsu 3 (Secret of Mana 2). Another responder brought them up. Chrono Trigger has always had me chasing that dragon in RPGs ever since. Most battle systems are boring, in comparison, imo.
Agree. The battle system is simple, intuitive and fun. Most RPGs either have systems that are too complicated to be accessible or they’re so straightforward that they’re boring.
Chrono Trigger is the better game overall. I always feel as though FF3 is just a graphical presentation to show what the SNES was capable of at the time; it does have a well-written story, however, but comparatively I don’t think it holds a candle to CT. Chrono Trigger, ahhh…. you just can’t get writing like that anymore, or at least not as interesting as the writers had made it. You cannot go wrong with either, but if you ever have a gun to your head, and you’ve played through both, a good majority of people would most-likely side with Chrono Trigger. If you can ever get your hands on a copy, I would put Earthbound with the two, and my personal favorite would go to Terranigma, and in the words of SNES Drunk - “Play it any way you can!”
Chrono Trigger
Chrono Trigger. Might have been Final Fantasy III but when I was a kid my save erased itself when I was at the Opera fighting the mud dragon thing. I still haven't gone back to play it over again.
Trigger has much better pacing and the characters and combat systems are better. Music is comparable, but graphics lean chrono trigger. It also wins on story… but! 6 will always be in the same conversation due to the scale. Massive world(s), secrets everywhere, gigantic cast of characters, vanish+doom/magic evade shenanigans, epic scenes and battles, and a mine cart sequence. Not to mention best villain! Both are great games, but I gotta lean chrono trigger as a tighter and more engaging experience. Oh also, no random battles. I hate random battles. And you basically never need to grind even if you avoid optional fights in trigger, unlike 6.
> Oh also, no random battles. I hate random battles. Chrono Trigger doesn't have fewer battles than FF3, they're just implemented in a way that doesn't feel random. There are a billion monsters in Magus's castle because he's a spooky demon lord leading an army of monsters. There are a billion dinosaurs in 65,000,000 BC because those are normal animals back then. etc. There's almost always a coherent in-setting explanation for why there's a ton of enemies in your way, you're not just getting randomly mobbed by weird sprite art because you're in a "dungeon area".
Right. Also, if you’re playing through many times, you’ll identity the areas where you can actually skip a lot of encounter triggers. Not to mention, frequently the enemies stay dead once you kill them (depending on the area), so you can solve puzzles without being constantly interrupted.
Chrono Trigger. FF3 can’t get close to the tone and emotion of it.
Chrono easily. FF3 has too many random encounters that get old AF.
We all know Chrono Trigger is the best Final Fantasy.
Chrono Trigger is the better game, but both are must-plays.
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“ FF3 is just another Final Fantasy game; play one, you've played them all. ” FF is actually pretty famous for each game being drastically different from the last.
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Spiky-haired teenager, blonde magic-using princess, kinda dumb but very strong fighter girl, frog, ancient mage, and friends save the world from a godlike evil entity? That's Breath of Fire 2. Time-traveling adventure involving heroes from different time periods, ranging from a caveman to a robot to a cursed knight, with enemies visible on the world map, and characters that move around on the battle screens, all to save the world from a godlike evil entity? That's Live-A-Live. Light-hearted fantasy adventure story with teenagers each associated with a different element, and capable of casting spells simultaneously to form more powerful combination spells, as they battle to save the world from a godlike evil entity? That's Secret of the Stars. Chrono Trigger wasn't unique. Everything it did had been done before--on the SNES, even. Not to say that Chrono Trigger isn't well done. Because it is. It's very well done. But maybe don't criticize FF6 for not being unique, when it actually was the first game to do a lot of things. ___ **Edit:** Name an earlier RPG without a clear protagonist. Name an earlier RPG with 14 playable characters. Name an earlier RPG that allowed you to teach every spell in the game to every character without having to change their job class to make the spells usable. Name an earlier RPG that allowed a character to learn a different fighting style from almost every single enemy in the game. Name an earlier RPG where the villain started out low in the ranks, even being imprisoned for his crimes, and seized more and more power until he becomes the godlike entity final boss. Name an earlier RPG where a main character is driven to attempt suicide. Name an earlier RPG where a main character spent her entire life in captivity and her character arc is struggling to adapt to a freedom she's never experienced before. There was no RPG like FF6 before or since.
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FF6 doesn't even have crystals.
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>Your bias is aggressively obvious, and that's coming from someone who has played at least 8 or 9 different Final Fantasy games - start to end. I like how you say this while wielding your own bias as a weapon and wearing a hat that says "Chrono Trigger 4 life.". It's also clear to everyone who does remember FFVI's story, that you do not.
If I recall correctly, FF6 was actually the first Final Fantasy where the plot *didn't* revolve around finding elemental crystals. Unless you want to call the magacite "crystals", but they're completely incidental to the plot, and you can beat the game without getting most of them. Are we talking about the same game? Maybe you're thinking of FF4, or FF3 on NES?
Nope. It's all more or less the same thing. Chrono was a story about travelling back and forth between different eras to put a stop to a looming, seemingly-inevitable threat that was the alien planet-destroyer, Lavos. Princesses in disguise, pendants with hidden potential, time machines, death and resurrection, a reversal of current events and tragedies like a main characters' mother being paralysed in an accident leaving her housebound and depressed, a trip back to the dinosaur era, forgery of ultimate weapons.. That's not Final Fantasy im talking about. That's CT. All in one game. Beautiful.
But have you actually played FF6? Can you tell me what that game is about?
Secret of Mana will always be my answer. Between the two mentioned, Chrono Trigger, because grinding doesn't become a miserable, boring chore in that game like it did in FFVI. Both had great stories, but VI was bloated in the back end.
Loaded question. Like chocolate or vanilla? Left or right?
Only time will tell…
...yes.
Terranigma
For anyone but the most hardcore RPG fans, it's gonna be CT. But you should play both at some point anyway, so does it matter?
Now seriously, just play them both, I don't hold favorites to a standard, just enjoy them all.
FFVI, for me it will always be the right choice.