Chrono Trigger is what I used to teach my daughter to read. She HATED children's books, but this game's story caught her attention like nothing else. Even now, 12 years later, it's still really special to us.
Best parent. The fact you were able to find something to help her learn how to read when she despised reading as much as you just stated ... that means you not only didn't give up on her but you worked around her weakness to create a strength. Everyone here can learn from you. Good job.
bro this is literally the best, i love this game so much! just played it as a 15 year old, one of the games that inspired me to start my own channel lol.
The case for Marle: Marle's power shines through double techs and triple techs. Other character have strong double techs, to be sure; but theirs can mostly be described as "the thing I already do...but harder). Marle's double techs combine to grant element changes and/or effects that you can't otherwise get - either early on in the game, or at all: - The earliest access to full-party healing (through Crono...and Robo, but you literally have to have Crono in the party for the majority of the game). - Earliest access to high-damage shadow magic (through Lucca), and if I'm not mistaken, the only shadow magic that isn't accessed via Triple Techs, Magus, or Robo and his abysmal Laser Spin that's only useful very early on. - The strongest water magic in the game (through Frog and Ayla); Frog's strongest dual techs default to the other character's element (Spire, Frog Flare). - One of the only ways to access reraise (triple tech with Crono and Frog). Frog and Robo get better AoE healing; but by that time, you've probably got several Lapises, rendering AoE magic irrelevant - she's the only character who has it when there are no alternatives, imo. Haste Helms are great, but you only get one per playthrough, and you get access to the Haste spell much earlier than that. And, it goes without saying that no one else has Life 2. Thus, I think of Marle not as a "healer" (although she's got plenty of capability, there) and more as a "support" character. On her own, she doesn't offer much, but she's the gateway to powerful abilities you can't get early-game without her. Late game, she either gets the most powerful shadow magic without needing Magus (via Lucca), the most powerful water magics (via Frog or Ayla), and full party reraise (via Crono and Robo).
Yeah. Haste helm is easily replaced by Prism Helm (which you can get 3 of from the questline + 1 from Queen Zeal (+plus the dress for her on that same boss fight), thus allowing you to combo status immunity with haste status, which is really useful throughout the game. Also, I combo her with Robo with the Arm that the damage is based on last digit of hp. He has the Uzi punch (If I'm not mistaken, that's the name. It costs 12 MP IIRC). It'll deal 9999 damage for as long as Robo has XX9 HP. And with Marle you can easily keep him up there. Then, Lavos will simply melt. It's pretty much a Speed run strat in a sense (Speedruns probably don't use it, but it's a non-bug strat that's really fast, albeit conditional)
I hated Marle from a mechanical standpoint, but I enjoyed her from a story standpoint, and would often take her along just to see her own views on the storyline when possible. I like the idea of her officially hooking up with Crono, so something about that shipping pair made me want to flesh it out during the game.
"Built like a brick shithouse," is my new favorite phrase. Something I'd like to mention is that I actually like every character in this game, which is rare for an RPG. I never groaned when I was forced to use certain ones, because it instead gave me a chance to experiment with a unique character. Yeah, even Marle, because she at least made up with her fun personality (that's the other thing, all of the characters are likeable!) Such an awesome game.
Physical Attacker. Magical Attacker with P. Def Support and Fire Combos with Ayla. Healer and Support. (Good Team Already but too fragile) My favorite teams: 1* Ayla, Frog, Robo 2* Chrono, Lucca/Marle, Robo. 3* Magus, Frog, Ayla.
What sealed the deal on Robo AKA R-66Y being my favorite Chrono Trigger character as well was his selflessness. He helps everyone fix the future which very well could mean him being deleted/erased from the timeline since the future is being changed. And the characters still wonder about his fate when everyone goes back to their own time periods. But Robo didn’t care, he was happy to help still. At least Lucca ends up building a small clone of him in one of the endings
All the characters in Chrono Trigger are viable. The game isn't too hard, so you can actually use any combination of characters to beat it. That doesn't mean they are equal though. Aaliyah is new one to me. I thought she was a Pop R&B singer who died young, but I guess she's a playable character in Chrono Trigger who replaced the prehistoric cave woman Ay-La :)
Interesting that you rate both Marle and Frog so low. I usually always have them both in my party, at least in dungeons, simply cause their Ice Water dual tech is the easiest/cheapest/laziest screen clear in the game lol.
@@akhandtripathipyz9888 Nah not really, Frog is someone I often slot in my teams, but Crono, Ayla and Robo are so powerful it's night and da0y. Lucca is also just a massive Fire DPS caster. It also doesn't help that Crono, Ayla and Robo are able to do everything well, DPS, Healing and Buffs.
I stuck with Crono and Ayla with the 3rd being situational. Falcon Slash is just SO overpowered as a cheap dual tech. Frog is my usually slot-in guy especially towards the end; giving him everything to raise his crit chance means when it happens, he hits really hard. Tough to beat his easy heals, too.
Fun video! I definitely think I rank differently: 7. Marle - Yeah you nailed this. She's a dedicated healer who is outclassed at HEALING by other characters. 6. Magus - Yeah his lack of combination techs REALLY holds him back here. Imo he's a better black mage than Lucca, and is much better in basically every other area than the dedicated mages, but CT is all about syngergy, and Magus breaks the rules to his detriment there. 5. Lucca - Sure, she's an awesome black mage. But that gimmick just doesn't really stick for me here. For starters she only accesses one element, so feast or famine, and she has zero qualities outside of spell casting. And clearing a screen isn't really an impressive gimmick - many higher tiered characters can do that just as well while offering better utility, and basic-attack options. 4. Robo - Fighting words? Look, Robo's a beast. I consider him and Frog to fill similar "all rounder" roles. He's arguably better than Frog but Frog IS faster, (good for healing and multi-teching), and still an serviceable fighter. 3. Frog - I love this little fella and some of it's probably bias. But when you're *good* at everything, it's forgivable that you're not the best at anything. AOE heal, strong single-target heals, iconic X-strike, and the amazingly useful slurp-kiss; I could just never pass this fella up. 2. Ayla - My #1 spot was a close call in honesty. Ayla's a complete monster. Strong, tough, absurdly fast, spot heals, steals, the absurdly good Falcon Hit dual tech w/ Chrono. You'll never be disappointed by including this wrecking machine in your party. 1. Crono - Yes, MC gets my #1 spot. Who cares that he can't heal, when he can bring the hurt in any and every variety that you need - from the very moment you start the game? Fast, strong, ridiculously good spells, and a spot res if you need it. Crono takes the cake for me, because he really does have some of the best combo techs in the game, and again, I don't need him to be a healer. Others can cover that, while he brings the hurt.
I feel Robo is highly dependant of if you go through the trouble of maxing stats, with every character at max stat he actually stand out as having the best tech kit all around, but if you don't he will lack speed and magic power to fully take advantage of his techs.
@@nesoukkefka1741 That makes a good deal I sense. I seem to recall he's default the slowest character in the game, but I couldn't recall off-hand how much of a chore it'd be to bring his speed in line w/ the others. I just definitely remember that speed was pretty important - esp when syncing combo techs.
When I went through the game, I devalued the slow characters and valued the high speed characters. This put Robo and Lucca at the bottom - rarely used them unless I had to. This also made Ayla and Crono my favorites for that reason alone. Both characters could get to * speed - and that speed breaks the game in so many wonderful ways. Frog was my usual 3rd option as he could support them very well.
The only way Magus can use a multi-tech is if someone in the party is equipped with the Black Gemstone (Eternal Darkness) or Blue Gemstone (Omega Flare). However, the triple techs performed require specific characters to pull it off. Eternal Darkness requires Magus, Marle, and Lucca while Omega Flare requires Magus, Lucca, and Robo.
Here are some Frog standouts where he outshines even Robo: -The Ocean Palace. Lots of enemies are weak against water and fire in here, and unless you want Marle to compliment Crono and Lucca, Frog is MANDATORY in this dungeon. The fact that he's balanced honestly makes this a really good team. -The Zeal boss gauntlet. Queen Zeal is fond of reducing your HP to 1, and guess whose attack depends on low HP? Incidentally, the Masamune also weakens the Mammon Machine, so Frog is doubly useful. Bringing Ayla is practically required, since Dino Tail also deals damage in proportion to low HP, and did I mention you can steal the best equipment from the third Zeal fight? My third is always Magus, for the extra dialogue (and his theme plays for the end, which is always epic). Want to obliterate bosses? Give Robo the Crisis Arm, and have the last digit in his HP counter be 9 (anything higher than 6 is fine). Then have him and Ayla perform Beast Toss. Since this is dependent on his Uzzi Punch, you'll do obscene amounts of damage. Here's how to fix Marle: weaken her attack slightly but give her the ability to hit all enemies, like Edgar's Autocrossbow. Remove Frog's Cure 2 and have Marle's heal one person for high HP or the whole party for average HP. Replace Life 2 with an attack that hits one enemy with massive damage, inflicting Stop or Slow. Provoke should inflict Confuse and Slow on all enemies, while Aura heals less but has a Regen effect.
One infuriating thing thing with Marle (and Frog to a lesser extent) there is a third tier Water spells use by some bosses called Hexagone, why the fuck Marle doesn't get that move as an ultimate spell being you know the supposedly Water Mage of the team ? Also Frog doesn't get this move either meaning Water is the only element for which you don't have access to it's strongest spell.
Frog also shines in the Lv99 spekkio fight, after the party wide drop to 1hp attack, he’s going to do the most damage before someone else chucks a megalixir
@@nesoukkefka1741 simple. because she is a WHITE mage, not a water mage, or an ice mage. she just learns some ice magic, but she was designed to be a healer
@@Riftweaver1981 Your point ? She has the highest Magic stat between her and Frog which is design to be more of a paladin while she is design o be the mage, I don't see what would prevent to get a powerfull offensive spells, not mentionning that depending of the White Mage had some offensive generally Holy and the Wind branch of spells so I don't see why she couldn't get her element's strongest spell. And adding to that other character are not design as Mages like Crono but still get the strongest spells of his element.
I think what also helps with Ayla is that she doesn't need any weapons, which makes her quite possibly, aside from Crono, the strongest fighter in the game, add her versatility with her healing stats and ability to steal items, and she has plenty of bases covered.
Ayla is great when you have to fight aboard that super-plane from Zeal, and you start off having no weapons. She's the only one who can fight until you get your equipment back.
I want to disagree with you on Marle, but I honestly can’t. Her healing abilities are instrumental to your success in the first few hours of the game, but then Frog, Robo and Ayla come along and make her obsolete. It’s a real shame too, because in terms of her story (especially her side quest), she was definitely one of my favourites.
I liked the list, but I would trade Frog and Lucca. One cannot overstate Frog's usefulness as a third choice interchangeable member throughout the story, being that he attacks well with increased crit, and fills every role, and has excellent heal synergy with dual techs (eg. Slurp kiss) or the early triple tech with Chrono-Robo-Frog. One also must take into account his story is one of the most well-written in RPG history. What are you going to do with Lucca when you are saving up tech for the unknown? Watch her hit an enemy with a Crochet stick or miss a pot shot at a flyer, or watch that sweet triple-digit jump in slash, slash animation? Great list as always, but if I was to make a change, it would be that. My go to party is Chrono, Ayla and Robo...but prior to end game, Frog always had a spot when one of those two wouldn't have worked for whatever reason.
What I'm gonna do with Lucca ? Not saving tech (cause frankly you get more MP regeneration than you'll ever need) and nuke everything daring to not resist Fire with Napalm, Fire2 or Flare that's what I'm gonna do with her XD
@@nesoukkefka1741 This guy has it right. Frog has utility, but Robo does everything he does better. Frog is just a worse jack of all trades, master of none. You might as well bring someone specialized like Lucca who can absolutely NUKE encounters and gives you access to stupid strong dual techs. Anyone who thinks Lucca is mediocre has not used her throughout a playthrough.
I used Crono, Ayla, and Magus. The attack power and speed was so high that I didn’t need healing, and if I ever encountered a situation where I did, an item helped that.
I do this too. Absolutely melted the final lavos fight by just having crono and magus pound him with luminaire and dark matter respectively, while Ayla attacks the main core directly.
CT was/is one of my favorite rpgs of all time. Everything about it was pure gold: time travel, characters, combat, etc. Frog is #1 for me and Robo a close #2. I chose these 2 not for anything they can do in combat; rather, just because I like them. 😀
This was one of my all-time favorite SNES games growing up. I love the music, Techs and the time-travel element. Thanks David for another great classic game video. I turned 50 this month. YAY!!! 🎉🎊🎉🎊🎉🎊
Honestly one of the few RPG's I can think of where every character is good. Some are better than others, but any party in CT is viable. All of them bring something good to the table.
If memory serves, my final team was Crono, Ayla and Janus aka Magus. Not the best team, but I'm a big sucker for the two polar opposites, a savage primal and a sophisticated dark mage. It sure was satisfying beating Queen Zeal with Magus!
Crono, Robo and Ayla is my favorite party in the game. Ayla gets the super useful steal ability and then her Falcon Hit dual tech with Crono is incredible as well. Robo meanwhile can heal everyone by himself, gets super good techs throughout the game that do tons of damage and is awesome. Then Crono meanwhile is just super powerful from the beginning of the game to the end. Chrono Trigger is one of my favorite games!
Heal BEAM sucks by game end I barely had it restore 250 HP but Slurp Kiss Ayla/Frog ONLY lose 1 MP EACH and it easily will restore 999 HP and the only good 3x TECH that doesn't suck is Crono Frog Ayla's anyways for end of game use.
7. Lucca-Her physical attack is bad, she has a bad weapons selection, and while she can use attack magic, Magus is better if you recruit her. Once you recruit Magus, she'll be on your bench permanently. 6. Marle-She has some useful dual techs and can heal and use haste. Still, her physical attack is bad and her ice spells are just not useful. She's a support character, and that's really all. 5. Ayla-Her physical attack is good and has high agility, but her inability to use magic is a real problem. 4. Frog-He is a great support character. He can heal, attack, and has some useful dual techs, not to mention a great weapons selection. 3. He's like a better version of Frog. He can attack, has some great techs, can heal, and has good physical defense. Only weakness is his lack of agility. 2. Magus-He can use all attack magic and has a lot of HP and MP. He's a beast! Only drawback is his inability to use dual techs. 1. Chrono-Is objectively the best character. Has amazing techs and a great physical attack. He'll do dual techs with anyone. He's in your party all the time, so he levels up quickly. Chrono is the best!
Yeah, but they have their names written in Japanese, and that shows how they are pronounced. Marle is “Mar-lay.” Magus is “May-Jus” Ayla is “Eye-La” Crono is “Chrono” (don’t know how you get that one wrong)
Marle might be lacking as a standalone character, but she has access to some of the strongest Double and Triple Techs in the game, including Antipode 3 and Poyozo Dance.
Everyone forgets about Anitpode. To bring Lucca into the conversation too, the dual techs Crono has with Lucca and Marle are game wreckers in the early going. They get outpaced by Falcon Slash with Ayla down the road, but those techniques deal a ton of damage early on.
Always love the stuff, David! A few years ago, I actually wrote a brief article on the list of my own rankings of Chrono Trigger characters! I've probably been through this game (counting New Game+) 150 times. I'm sharing it here with you in its entirety. Sorry for the length, but I hope you enjoy! 1. Crono: Duh. He's easily the best character. Balances amazing physical attacks and strong magic. He's so overpowered, and without the use of the rock accessories, he's the only triple tech character. Once he has the Rainbow sword (75% critical hit rate??????) and Luminaire, he's simply unbelievable. 2. Ayla: Tough choice here, but Ayla is the most physically powerful character in the game. She's a beast, and she often delivers critical hits. On top of that, her bare hands attacks eventually evolve as she levels up, and she can inflict status effects naturally when attacking. What pushes her over the top is that she has a healing ability (Kiss) and she can steal items (Charm), which is ridiculously useful in this game. She needs no magic. Ayla rocks (pun intended). 3. Lucca: Until she gets the Wondershot, her physical attacks are fairly weak (and even then, they are somewhat unreliable). However, Lucca has arguably the best tech/magic offensive in the game. Both Antipod 3 and Frog Flare are among the most devastating duel techs you will acquire. But all of her techs are frightfully powerful, even before she learns Flare. From the beginning of the game, you realize using her and Crono for a Fire Whirl is an overpowered option. And when she has an endgame weapon that can sometimes deliver over 2000 in damage? Yeah. 4. Robo: I truly feel that 2, 3, and 4 here could all be interchangeable. Robo is SO damn versatile. He's probably on par with Lucca, but he doesn't have the duel tech power that she does. On the other hand, he does have amazing physical attacks and awesome single techs. And the Triple Raid is the first triple tech you learn in the game--works very well in Magus' castle. He can even heal one or multiple characters. I feel that Robo is especially useful early on, then sort of fades out as your other characters grow more. However, his Shock ability is fantastic, and the Uzi Punch is downright destructive. The Crisis Arm is also a fantastic weapon. As long as the last digit of his HP is high (it should usually be a 9), he will deliver damage like no on else. It's too bad he lands so few critical hits. Love that animation. 5. Frog: Glenn is amazing when you first get him, and I think everyone loves X-Strike. He also has healing techs, which is a big plus. He has a high critical hit rate, which is even higher with the Masamune and Hero's Medal equipped. the problem is that there are three other characters with higher attack values, which is supposed to be Frog's forte. Even with the Masamune 2, Crono is still far more reliable with the Rainbow, which is nearly always a critical hit. Most glaringly, Frog's offensive techs and magic are fairly weak compared to the other characters. A few great duel techs, but overall, he's not as strong late game as the others. 6. Magus: Outside of Marle and Lucca without the Wondershot, he's the weakest physical attacker in the game. He also has no dual techs and only two triple techs with the aid of the rock accessories. So why is he 6 instead of last? His magic is awesome. Magus should only be outfitted with a gold stud as his accessory. He has access to all of the game's elemental magic, and he has a devastating single tech in Dark Matter, which you should use all the time once learned. It's fantastic. However, his single target spells are very lacking, so if you're fighting something like the Lavos Spawn, where you only want to target one thing, he becomes more of a hindrance than a benefit. Overall, he has a great arsenal, though, and a great magic stat. Plus he's so damn cool. 7. Marle: It's odd that I have her last, since I use her so often alongside Lucca. Marle has issues, though. As a natural healer, she should be very useful, but the problem is that so many other characters in this game can also heal--and they are much more powerful. Marle has the weakest physical attack in the game. Like the other girls, she can also often inflict status effects with her bows, but it isn't always a reliable reason to attack with her. Like the other water user, Frog, she has some great healing spells, but they aren't as crucial when you can put someone like Robo in your party to heal AND deal out damage. Her ice spells have a decent punch early on, but by endgame, she has very little to bring to the table offensively, which really hurts her. The best thing about Marle is her ability to cast Antipod 3 with Lucca. Otherwise, she's a bit weak. I do love her, though!"
Agree on most of this. I put Robo higher though; he can single handedly top off the party with healing, his later techs do a ton of AoE, and Uzi Punch puts out excellent damage for the cost. Chrono is a *very* close second; Rainbow + Rage Band = tons of crits. Magus is tough; he's actually a good final boss character since he can just spam Dark Matter, where Lucca tends to burn through her MP reserves much faster. But as you noted, he kinda sucks on single targets, where Lucca is superior. Lucca is the better character overall, but I actually prefer Magus for the Lavos Fight. Ayla is dominant on single targets, but the fact she has no AoE heal (unless you drag Frog along) limits her to that specific role. Kiss simply stops being useful relative to Robo's Heal Beam late game. The fact Frog's accessory slot pretty much has to be the Hero Medal to make him even marginally useful says it all. He's 3rd or 4th best at everything, and essentially has no useable accessory slot.
I made a video for this game a few weeks ago and I literally had the exact same ranking... Thanks David for the amazing video! You've inspired me to make my own RPG channel. You are the best gamer around, man :)
I'm not surprised you ranked Robo as the top character in Chrono Trigger. I've also always noticed just how strong he is and how much personality he has.
When I played through this game I noticed the problems with Marle. I later started using Robo more because he had more attacking power and had similar healing abilities. I never counted how much exactly, but his strength was noticeable and Marle's crossbow was not. I still remember using the anti-pod combo with Lucca and Marle a lot anyway. once I found something that worked, I pretty much ran with it to get all the endings. I felt that this was an efficient way to kill lavos repeatedly, but I never tested for better methods. Magus although cool, I almost never used him except for grinding because I was curious about what he would do if I maxed out his level. I would put Magus pretty low on the list because of how little he is used and other characters have stronger fire and light attacks than he has access to.
I disagree with Magus, but that's probably just the aesthetics of the character and that statue of him you can find in the monster town is some of my favorite pixel art of all time. I'd swap him with Luca personally, but otherwise I'd say spot on
Nah, Magus lacks duel techs which Lucca has in spades. It may not seem like much, but Lucca's Duel techs are some of the best in the game, and hard carry for the majority of the early and mid games. Outside of Dark Mater, Magus isn't actually that good, and the Lvl2 Spells are notably bad due to not often being useful, so there's half his spell list basically off the shelf right out of the gate. I'd have actually ranked him below Frog myself.
Robo was always my favorite. He was just a cool character. He had a great personal story as well. He also just farmed for centuries, so he’s multi-talented and effectively immortal.
Since there really isn't an unplayable Chrono Trigger party, I tend to use Frog because I like frogs and I've always enjoyed archaic dialog in the style of the early Dragon Warrior NES releases. As one of my friends aptly described him: he's a thou-talking frog.
They're all SSS tier. I've literally just quit Chrono Cross 2/3 of the way through on my first ever playthrough because I couldn't take it anymore. In comparison, every Trigger character is godlike.
Yeah I agree with the way these guys were ranked overall. My last playthrough of CT was last year, and when I streamed it made it a goal to use all the characters pretty much at least in one section of the game. My respect for Lucca and Robo has definitely shot up! They use to rank low for me but I would say they are exactly where they need to be in this list now. Both are heckuva lot of fun and I am so glad I gave them each a chance last year. My approach towards rpg’s has changed a lot since I was a teenager so I am glad when replaying these older games trying out different things than ever before.
(04:40) then the DS version decided to give her an armor that only her could use that made her immune to Magic which made her almost unkillable with protect and a haste hat, or just use a protect hat while using Schala's pendant.
Good list David. I feel Marle could have been balanced way better with only a couple tweaks. Remove Haste Helms, and make Marle's Haste target the whole party. You could even make this spell her ultimate, and this would still make very viable.
I disagree with Marle being so low because she really shines when paired with others with her duel techs. She has duel techs for every situation and she makes literally everyone stronger. For example aura whirl with Chrono is the first AoE heal. Double kiss with Alya makes up for her low magic stat and heals everyone to full and recovers all status. Cure wind with robo makes up for his low magic stat and heals everyone a massive amount. Ice water with frog makes up for his low magic and aoe clears everything not immune to ice and water. Twin charm increases steal rate. In boss fights there’s ice sword, antipode, iceberg toss and so on. Basically she turns Alya and robo into real healers while being able to do massive damage with Chrono making. She also has triple techs with Chrono, marle, Alya/robo making it a perfect team.
I’d be curious to find out which combination of players I used the most on my first play through of this game. And which character overall I utilized most frequently.
the porblem with lucca is that shes a galss cannon becuase she can do a lot of damage with magic but that gets depleted quick and she has some ass attack stat so when shes depleted of mana shes use less
I'm so glad to see this video as I'm doing my own LP of this gem. The only issue Robo has is he can be slow and if you don't use your magic tabs on him he can be a bit lackluster. But if you build him right our metal mate here will Rick roll through enemies both random and boss alike.
@Dawn Razor not min maxing just trying to get the most out of a good character. Plus being a best to worst list I would think taking all aspects of a character would be efficient don't you agree?
Even with Magic tabs Robo still sucks your better off giving ALL those to Ayla so that Slurp Kiss with Frog will always restore 999 HP to the entire party.
@@veghesther3204 why would I boost the magic stat of a character that her abilities are almost entirely physical for a good dual tech that robo can accomplish almost as well by himself thereby increasing the DPS of my party?
@Dawn Razor if I'm taking one team member in a team of three to heal that is one thing, taking two to heal while leaving one takes away from your total damage which would weaken your damage output.
@Dawn Razor well more accurately it would be dpt or damage per turn. I'm not usually one for min maxing but when you are grading a characters quality among a cast you have to look at much damage output they have or with support how much they can provide with our without help. The person I was commenting on was stating how good ayla/frog were for healing with a dual tech which with only three characters in an active party sorely takes away from the amount of damage the party can dish out per cycle especially when robo can do pretty much the same healing by itself.
I saw this list and thought "This is going to be spicy!" And while it delivers in that department, I find your reasonings to be spot on. Max Robo's Magic and his Techs are OP. Once Lucca installs an ice maker and plops a Marle Helm on him, there'll be absolutely nothing he can't do!
Just a question, but does spell damage scale differently between characters? So, if all characters have the same magic stat and use spells on the same tier, are the spells equally as strong, or would those who typically have low base magic stats have the stronger spells?
Great list. Maybe surprisingly I very much disagree with Marle for a few reasons. If you're not playing new game plus and you're taking progression into account the haste spell is just game breaking amazing. You don't get haste helms till very late into the game. I learn it on her during Magus castle which her and frogs double tech ice water really shines in that dungeon as well. It makes the Magus fight and Tyrano fight so easy. Pretty much any fight from then on out. I don't believe the haste helm replaces her either. You have to forgo the vigilants helm which is a must have in my opinion. Status immunity is much better than having to cast haste 3 times and not all of the best armor has status immunity. A smaller plus is life 2. If you're playing right you won't have to use it but it's much safer than revive and if you have good equipment on her she can survive to use it. Her biggest weakness is her survivability imo and to me it's not much of an issue unless you're trying to fight and beat lavos at the ocean palace. Trying to get her to survive during his attacks is tough.
One thing I love about Chrono Trigger is how all the characters are pretty viable. Yes, some do outshine others, but picking your favorites isn't going to screw you, like other games might do :) I find it funny how I'm torn on Frog. I feel like he should be higher, he IS a good character to have around, but I wouldn't move anyone to make a higher spot for him because everyone is just so good XD Except Marle. I like her, I'm always fond of the healer characters, but you're 100% right, multiple other characters can do the job better.
Chrono trigger did so much right. It's one of the only games that made me WANT to use the whole cast. Playing other games like FF6 I'd basically stick to the same 6ish characters and would be annoyed if I ever had to use the rest (setzer, umaro, strago etc). But in Chrono Trigger the smaller cast size, doube/triple techs, interesting personalities made experimenting so much fun. I never dreaded having to go through a section with a specific character like I do other games.
100% Even in the good RPGs they have 1 or 2 characters you can't stand whether it's personality or game specific. CT made everyone cool and badass in their own personal way.
Red is auto haste Green Auto Shell (Prism helms for Lucca/Marle/Ayla) Yellow Auto Protect Safe/Guardian helm but theirs only 2 of those on 1 run of the game. Dark Red colored = Berserker accessory effect so they can ONLY attack theirs 2 of those on 1 run of the game.
Ayla should be second. She doesn’t use weapons but her fist upgrades as she levels up. As she reaches level 99 her regular attack crits will automatically deal 9999 damage. She’s only second because she has no magic.
I never understood when I found out that Marle is often listed as the worst character when I never a single time in my entire life since the game came out skipped out on using her in my party. i just love Aura Whirl and Haste.
Chrono/Robo/Ayla tends to be my group through the entire game as soon as I grab each of those characters. When Robo joins in 2300AD for the first time, he becomes a permanent fixture in the group. Yes, I fight Magus with Robo in the group. In fact, I kill a couple Nus in the Hunting Range to make sure he has Heal Beam. Heal Beam completely negates Magus's Dark Matter spell, and Magus will actually sometimes use Dark Bomb during his first phase, and when he does, well, Robo's Laser Spin does more damage than Chrono's Lightning when Magus casts Lightning2, especially if you've been feeding him every Magic Tab you get your hot little mitts on like you should. Seriously, giving Robo every magic tab in the game makes him even more ludicrously overpowered. Then, with Ayla, well.. she's the only character in the game who can fight after Dalton captures you in the Blackbird which makes that section hilariously easy, instead of sneaking around, just have her smash up everything in your way until you find your equipment. Yeah, sure she has low defense because she's not wearing armor, but she can still handle any of the fights herself unless you were intentionally skipping fights and are low level. And of course, Crono is... Crono. The Hero of the group is almost always the well-rounded guy who's fairly decent at everything.
Magus’ best use is power leveling the rest of the team in the late game optional dungeon. Dark Bomb/Lumaire can wipe out the strongest enemies and you get an endless supply of elixirs from them to refill MP, make your 3rd someone useful like robo
Marle is a powerhouse depending on who she is teamed up with. Ice Water is deadly right when you get it. Through I do agree that they could have removed crap like Provoke and give her an AOE Heal spell, or give her a higher crit rate with her crossbow, or SOMETHING to make her a little more useful.
He's under the Berserk status (Makes you hit very hard physically at the cost of losing control of the character, it's triggered by an accessory i forgot the name of)
I can see why Magus is ranked lower, due to the fact that he's lacking in double techs and you're almost 90% through the game when you get him, but man, this guy really has some of the greatest dialogue that I've ever seen in gaming For instance, if you drag him along to the Black Omen and you battle Queen Zeal, he steps up to the plate, putting his own mother in his place, roasting her hard and mouthing off at her, before his battle theme kicks on (which kicks absolute ass) and you lay waste to her... purposely letting the other two members of the party get knocked out, and leaving Magus the last man standing The man is a cold hard badass - easily the best antihero of all time
Marle is one of my favorite characters to use, sadly she isn't a super strong option over others. I still use her regardless because I like her. She needed a tier 3 ice spell and a party heal of some kind. Aura Whirl as a solo tech perhaps. It would have also been okay if she had a skill that buffed defense, speed, removed debuffs, and granted regen or something along those lines as a supplement for a party-wide heal or the tier 3 spell
I think the fact that Marle is part of the lifeline tech makes her better than Frog. Frog has an advantage in damage output, and basic healing, but neither advantage makes enough of a real difference to outperform Lifeline. I'd put Marle in 5th, Magus in 6th, Frog in last. Magus may have access to all elements, but all he can do is screen wipe, and really, no one has much problem clearing out randoms anyway. Plus, he's inefficient against bosses where a specific weak point has to be targeted, and even against crowds with variable weaknesses and resistances.
This is a fun list I agree in a lot of different points. I also ironically enough use everyone in the party This is one game where I love the entire party There's literally no one I dislike that's a rarity for me. Another fantastic one
@davidvinc hmm. I didn't even remember that. Yeah doesn't he open up and vent out a bunch of steam when the buff ends? I haven't played Chrono trigger since the 90's when it came out on SNES.
I always have Ayla and Robo in my party whenever possible. Both Ayla and Robo (in the DS port) have 9999 critical hit physical attacks which I use quite a bit. For the 3rd person I'll have either Crono to use Luminaire or Magus
🤔…If Magus got low because he doesn’t sync well with other team members, then shouldn’t Marle be higher? Her strengths really come in with her double and triple techs.
Good video! I'm ondering if you could make a video ranking party cominations, since I've always thought that Marle has very nice double and triple techs
Great memories with this one! I can’t believe it’s been 16 years since playing through.. I started a new game a couple years ago but just got so swamped with other releases you know..
I feel like you didn't take party composition into consideration for this roster, since the best party is Crono, Ayla, and Frog, able to just melt any late game boss and turns the entire Lavos fight into a joke.
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Chrono Trigger is what I used to teach my daughter to read. She HATED children's books, but this game's story caught her attention like nothing else. Even now, 12 years later, it's still really special to us.
Best parent. The fact you were able to find something to help her learn how to read when she despised reading as much as you just stated ... that means you not only didn't give up on her but you worked around her weakness to create a strength. Everyone here can learn from you. Good job.
That's awesome.
bro this is literally the best, i love this game so much! just played it as a 15 year old, one of the games that inspired me to start my own channel lol.
Epic!
Just beat the game today with my daughter, with the exact same idea of helping her read! She loved the game and it improved her reading immensely!
Frog might not be the best character in terms of battle mechanics
But he is my favourite game character ever
Our little green friend has the best story in the game.
And has a badass theme
Too bad the BEST weapon that DOES transfer to NG+ runs for Frog SUCKS.
Spire forgives any shortcomings in battle, most badass attack in the game.
You mean Jean? From Breath of Fire 2?
if you get Ayla's magic point to max, she can heal you 999HP with just a kiss
and she gets a Bronze Fist at level 99
There is also Dino tail that gives you early max damage
Yeah, but if you max out Robo's magic he can heal _everyone_ simultaneously for that.
The case for Marle:
Marle's power shines through double techs and triple techs. Other character have strong double techs, to be sure; but theirs can mostly be described as "the thing I already do...but harder). Marle's double techs combine to grant element changes and/or effects that you can't otherwise get - either early on in the game, or at all:
- The earliest access to full-party healing (through Crono...and Robo, but you literally have to have Crono in the party for the majority of the game).
- Earliest access to high-damage shadow magic (through Lucca), and if I'm not mistaken, the only shadow magic that isn't accessed via Triple Techs, Magus, or Robo and his abysmal Laser Spin that's only useful very early on.
- The strongest water magic in the game (through Frog and Ayla); Frog's strongest dual techs default to the other character's element (Spire, Frog Flare).
- One of the only ways to access reraise (triple tech with Crono and Frog).
Frog and Robo get better AoE healing; but by that time, you've probably got several Lapises, rendering AoE magic irrelevant - she's the only character who has it when there are no alternatives, imo.
Haste Helms are great, but you only get one per playthrough, and you get access to the Haste spell much earlier than that. And, it goes without saying that no one else has Life 2.
Thus, I think of Marle not as a "healer" (although she's got plenty of capability, there) and more as a "support" character. On her own, she doesn't offer much, but she's the gateway to powerful abilities you can't get early-game without her. Late game, she either gets the most powerful shadow magic without needing Magus (via Lucca), the most powerful water magics (via Frog or Ayla), and full party reraise (via Crono and Robo).
Yeah. Haste helm is easily replaced by Prism Helm (which you can get 3 of from the questline + 1 from Queen Zeal (+plus the dress for her on that same boss fight), thus allowing you to combo status immunity with haste status, which is really useful throughout the game.
Also, I combo her with Robo with the Arm that the damage is based on last digit of hp. He has the Uzi punch (If I'm not mistaken, that's the name. It costs 12 MP IIRC). It'll deal 9999 damage for as long as Robo has XX9 HP. And with Marle you can easily keep him up there. Then, Lavos will simply melt.
It's pretty much a Speed run strat in a sense (Speedruns probably don't use it, but it's a non-bug strat that's really fast, albeit conditional)
you can get a second haste helm, I just replayed. Beat it first playthrough on steam and had two before lavos.
I hated Marle from a mechanical standpoint, but I enjoyed her from a story standpoint, and would often take her along just to see her own views on the storyline when possible. I like the idea of her officially hooking up with Crono, so something about that shipping pair made me want to flesh it out during the game.
She got replaced by a helmet. Cold blooded 😂😂😂😂
Right? The helmet deserved better.
Poor haste helm 🤣
Ice cold, winter came early 😂
pinkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk
"Allie-uh" XD First time I've heard that one.
Often time people pronounce it either Eij-Laa or Aiij-Laa. But Allie-Uh is a new new.😅
"Built like a brick shithouse," is my new favorite phrase. Something I'd like to mention is that I actually like every character in this game, which is rare for an RPG. I never groaned when I was forced to use certain ones, because it instead gave me a chance to experiment with a unique character. Yeah, even Marle, because she at least made up with her fun personality (that's the other thing, all of the characters are likeable!) Such an awesome game.
The Marle/Lucca combo is very underrated. I’m a HUGE fan of Antipode. Very respectable damage.
Agreed! Marle, Lucca, and Ayla was my team!
and if i not mistake is shadow damage this duo technique! :)
Physical Attacker.
Magical Attacker with P. Def Support and Fire Combos with Ayla.
Healer and Support.
(Good Team Already but too fragile)
My favorite teams:
1* Ayla, Frog, Robo
2* Chrono, Lucca/Marle, Robo.
3* Magus, Frog, Ayla.
Every second damn thing nowadays is unDERRaTEd 🤦♂️ Senseless comments.
All 3 Antipode are POWERFUL as hell
What sealed the deal on Robo AKA R-66Y being my favorite Chrono Trigger character as well was his selflessness. He helps everyone fix the future which very well could mean him being deleted/erased from the timeline since the future is being changed. And the characters still wonder about his fate when everyone goes back to their own time periods. But Robo didn’t care, he was happy to help still. At least Lucca ends up building a small clone of him in one of the endings
400 years of farming as well not to mention! That could save our planet currently as is!
Love Magus but he didn't spend his time as well as Robo
All the characters in Chrono Trigger are viable. The game isn't too hard, so you can actually use any combination of characters to beat it. That doesn't mean they are equal though. Aaliyah is new one to me. I thought she was a Pop R&B singer who died young, but I guess she's a playable character in Chrono Trigger who replaced the prehistoric cave woman Ay-La :)
Like suikoden 2,you almost can beat the game with any combination of characters,because the game let you do it
@@zengramBut wont possible with the worst like tuta and muku muku squad lol
@@Yoedi16 almost
the way he pronounces some of the names was pretty bad.
Interesting that you rate both Marle and Frog so low. I usually always have them both in my party, at least in dungeons, simply cause their Ice Water dual tech is the easiest/cheapest/laziest screen clear in the game lol.
They are good characters
All characters in chrono trigger are good
@@akhandtripathipyz9888 Nah not really, Frog is someone I often slot in my teams, but Crono, Ayla and Robo are so powerful it's night and da0y. Lucca is also just a massive Fire DPS caster. It also doesn't help that Crono, Ayla and Robo are able to do everything well, DPS, Healing and Buffs.
I stuck with Crono and Ayla with the 3rd being situational. Falcon Slash is just SO overpowered as a cheap dual tech. Frog is my usually slot-in guy especially towards the end; giving him everything to raise his crit chance means when it happens, he hits really hard. Tough to beat his easy heals, too.
Yup, it's my team for magus castle. Ice water makes clearing fights and farming s breeze.
They’re good early but fall off as with most healers in jrpgs.
There's a segment in the Flames of Eternity romhack where you have to play as Marle solo and it's every bit as painful as you can imagine.
Jesus Christ
As a scientist myself, my favourite CT character is Lucca. She and Robo make it what I call the Technoparty.
I hear Norman Osborn is also something of a scientist himself
I like how steampunk Lucca and Robo are.
Whenever I wanted to have Robo on my team I always picked Lucca too so they were together because I really loved their friendship :)
Fun video! I definitely think I rank differently:
7. Marle - Yeah you nailed this. She's a dedicated healer who is outclassed at HEALING by other characters.
6. Magus - Yeah his lack of combination techs REALLY holds him back here. Imo he's a better black mage than Lucca, and is much better in basically every other area than the dedicated mages, but CT is all about syngergy, and Magus breaks the rules to his detriment there.
5. Lucca - Sure, she's an awesome black mage. But that gimmick just doesn't really stick for me here. For starters she only accesses one element, so feast or famine, and she has zero qualities outside of spell casting. And clearing a screen isn't really an impressive gimmick - many higher tiered characters can do that just as well while offering better utility, and basic-attack options.
4. Robo - Fighting words? Look, Robo's a beast. I consider him and Frog to fill similar "all rounder" roles. He's arguably better than Frog but Frog IS faster, (good for healing and multi-teching), and still an serviceable fighter.
3. Frog - I love this little fella and some of it's probably bias. But when you're *good* at everything, it's forgivable that you're not the best at anything. AOE heal, strong single-target heals, iconic X-strike, and the amazingly useful slurp-kiss; I could just never pass this fella up.
2. Ayla - My #1 spot was a close call in honesty. Ayla's a complete monster. Strong, tough, absurdly fast, spot heals, steals, the absurdly good Falcon Hit dual tech w/ Chrono. You'll never be disappointed by including this wrecking machine in your party.
1. Crono - Yes, MC gets my #1 spot. Who cares that he can't heal, when he can bring the hurt in any and every variety that you need - from the very moment you start the game? Fast, strong, ridiculously good spells, and a spot res if you need it. Crono takes the cake for me, because he really does have some of the best combo techs in the game, and again, I don't need him to be a healer. Others can cover that, while he brings the hurt.
I feel Robo is highly dependant of if you go through the trouble of maxing stats, with every character at max stat he actually stand out as having the best tech kit all around, but if you don't he will lack speed and magic power to fully take advantage of his techs.
@@nesoukkefka1741 That makes a good deal I sense. I seem to recall he's default the slowest character in the game, but I couldn't recall off-hand how much of a chore it'd be to bring his speed in line w/ the others. I just definitely remember that speed was pretty important - esp when syncing combo techs.
When I went through the game, I devalued the slow characters and valued the high speed characters. This put Robo and Lucca at the bottom - rarely used them unless I had to. This also made Ayla and Crono my favorites for that reason alone. Both characters could get to * speed - and that speed breaks the game in so many wonderful ways. Frog was my usual 3rd option as he could support them very well.
I agree with that order
The only way Magus can use a multi-tech is if someone in the party is equipped with the Black Gemstone (Eternal Darkness) or Blue Gemstone (Omega Flare). However, the triple techs performed require specific characters to pull it off. Eternal Darkness requires Magus, Marle, and Lucca while Omega Flare requires Magus, Lucca, and Robo.
One thing not mentioned about Ayla in this vid, is that if her level gets high enough, she does 9999 damage on a crit.
What's a crit ?
@brianfoster4493 Critical hit. Usually they do double damage, but Ayla's ultimate weapon brings the critcal hit damage to 9999.
@Alakaizer really ? I didn't know that. What do I have to do ? Max everything out ?
@brianfoster4493 just get Ayla to level 96 and she gets the Bronze Fist automatically
@Alakaizer 96 ? That's a crazy High level. That's pretty cool tho
Here are some Frog standouts where he outshines even Robo:
-The Ocean Palace. Lots of enemies are weak against water and fire in here, and unless you want Marle to compliment Crono and Lucca, Frog is MANDATORY in this dungeon. The fact that he's balanced honestly makes this a really good team.
-The Zeal boss gauntlet. Queen Zeal is fond of reducing your HP to 1, and guess whose attack depends on low HP? Incidentally, the Masamune also weakens the Mammon Machine, so Frog is doubly useful. Bringing Ayla is practically required, since Dino Tail also deals damage in proportion to low HP, and did I mention you can steal the best equipment from the third Zeal fight? My third is always Magus, for the extra dialogue (and his theme plays for the end, which is always epic).
Want to obliterate bosses? Give Robo the Crisis Arm, and have the last digit in his HP counter be 9 (anything higher than 6 is fine). Then have him and Ayla perform Beast Toss. Since this is dependent on his Uzzi Punch, you'll do obscene amounts of damage.
Here's how to fix Marle: weaken her attack slightly but give her the ability to hit all enemies, like Edgar's Autocrossbow. Remove Frog's Cure 2 and have Marle's heal one person for high HP or the whole party for average HP. Replace Life 2 with an attack that hits one enemy with massive damage, inflicting Stop or Slow. Provoke should inflict Confuse and Slow on all enemies, while Aura heals less but has a Regen effect.
One infuriating thing thing with Marle (and Frog to a lesser extent) there is a third tier Water spells use by some bosses called Hexagone, why the fuck Marle doesn't get that move as an ultimate spell being you know the supposedly Water Mage of the team ? Also Frog doesn't get this move either meaning Water is the only element for which you don't have access to it's strongest spell.
Frog also shines in the Lv99 spekkio fight, after the party wide drop to 1hp attack, he’s going to do the most damage before someone else chucks a megalixir
@@nesoukkefka1741 simple. because she is a WHITE mage, not a water mage, or an ice mage. she just learns some ice magic, but she was designed to be a healer
@@Riftweaver1981 Your point ? She has the highest Magic stat between her and Frog which is design to be more of a paladin while she is design o be the mage, I don't see what would prevent to get a powerfull offensive spells, not mentionning that depending of the White Mage had some offensive generally Holy and the Wind branch of spells so I don't see why she couldn't get her element's strongest spell.
And adding to that other character are not design as Mages like Crono but still get the strongest spells of his element.
I think what also helps with Ayla is that she doesn't need any weapons, which makes her quite possibly, aside from Crono, the strongest fighter in the game, add her versatility with her healing stats and ability to steal items, and she has plenty of bases covered.
Ayla is great when you have to fight aboard that super-plane from Zeal, and you start off having no weapons. She's the only one who can fight until you get your equipment back.
I want to disagree with you on Marle, but I honestly can’t. Her healing abilities are instrumental to your success in the first few hours of the game, but then Frog, Robo and Ayla come along and make her obsolete. It’s a real shame too, because in terms of her story (especially her side quest), she was definitely one of my favourites.
I liked the list, but I would trade Frog and Lucca. One cannot overstate Frog's usefulness as a third choice interchangeable member throughout the story, being that he attacks well with increased crit, and fills every role, and has excellent heal synergy with dual techs (eg. Slurp kiss) or the early triple tech with Chrono-Robo-Frog. One also must take into account his story is one of the most well-written in RPG history. What are you going to do with Lucca when you are saving up tech for the unknown? Watch her hit an enemy with a Crochet stick or miss a pot shot at a flyer, or watch that sweet triple-digit jump in slash, slash animation?
Great list as always, but if I was to make a change, it would be that. My go to party is Chrono, Ayla and Robo...but prior to end game, Frog always had a spot when one of those two wouldn't have worked for whatever reason.
What I'm gonna do with Lucca ? Not saving tech (cause frankly you get more MP regeneration than you'll ever need) and nuke everything daring to not resist Fire with Napalm, Fire2 or Flare that's what I'm gonna do with her XD
@@nesoukkefka1741 This guy has it right. Frog has utility, but Robo does everything he does better. Frog is just a worse jack of all trades, master of none. You might as well bring someone specialized like Lucca who can absolutely NUKE encounters and gives you access to stupid strong dual techs. Anyone who thinks Lucca is mediocre has not used her throughout a playthrough.
@@ShaggyLad Yeah and she especially get some stupidly strong Dual Tech with Frog in the endgame.
I used Crono, Ayla, and Magus. The attack power and speed was so high that I didn’t need healing, and if I ever encountered a situation where I did, an item helped that.
I do this too. Absolutely melted the final lavos fight by just having crono and magus pound him with luminaire and dark matter respectively, while Ayla attacks the main core directly.
CT was/is one of my favorite rpgs of all time. Everything about it was pure gold: time travel, characters, combat, etc. Frog is #1 for me and Robo a close #2. I chose these 2 not for anything they can do in combat; rather, just because I like them. 😀
This was one of my all-time favorite SNES games growing up. I love the music, Techs and the time-travel element. Thanks David for another great classic game video. I turned 50 this month. YAY!!! 🎉🎊🎉🎊🎉🎊
I got called out. My team was always Crono, Marle, Frog. 😵
Honestly one of the few RPG's I can think of where every character is good. Some are better than others, but any party in CT is viable. All of them bring something good to the table.
I only used Ayla as a stealer to get all those tabs and unique items. My end game party was always Magus, Crono and Robo.
What??? #7 was a total shock. 😂😂😂
Aliah ? Thiks it's Aye-Lah
If memory serves, my final team was Crono, Ayla and Janus aka Magus. Not the best team, but I'm a big sucker for the two polar opposites, a savage primal and a sophisticated dark mage. It sure was satisfying beating Queen Zeal with Magus!
Crono, Robo and Ayla is my favorite party in the game. Ayla gets the super useful steal ability and then her Falcon Hit dual tech with Crono is incredible as well. Robo meanwhile can heal everyone by himself, gets super good techs throughout the game that do tons of damage and is awesome. Then Crono meanwhile is just super powerful from the beginning of the game to the end. Chrono Trigger is one of my favorite games!
Heal BEAM sucks by game end I barely had it restore 250 HP but Slurp Kiss Ayla/Frog ONLY lose 1 MP EACH and it easily will restore 999 HP and the only good 3x TECH that doesn't suck is Crono Frog Ayla's anyways for end of game use.
7. Lucca-Her physical attack is bad, she has a bad weapons selection, and while she can use attack magic, Magus is better if you recruit her. Once you recruit Magus, she'll be on your bench permanently.
6. Marle-She has some useful dual techs and can heal and use haste. Still, her physical attack is bad and her ice spells are just not useful. She's a support character, and that's really all.
5. Ayla-Her physical attack is good and has high agility, but her inability to use magic is a real problem.
4. Frog-He is a great support character. He can heal, attack, and has some useful dual techs, not to mention a great weapons selection.
3. He's like a better version of Frog. He can attack, has some great techs, can heal, and has good physical defense. Only weakness is his lack of agility.
2. Magus-He can use all attack magic and has a lot of HP and MP. He's a beast! Only drawback is his inability to use dual techs.
1. Chrono-Is objectively the best character. Has amazing techs and a great physical attack. He'll do dual techs with anyone. He's in your party all the time, so he levels up quickly. Chrono is the best!
I love seeing everyone's pronunciation of names in games where there was no voice acting. No one is ever wrong because we had no way way of knowing!
In this case, he's saying "Al-lee-ya" for "Eye-la" though. Saying the Y sound after the L that it comes after it.
@@DRCEQ yeah that makes no sense
I began pronouncing her name at 13 years old. I’m not changing it now lol
@@DRCEQ It isn't eye-la. It's Ay-La. In Japanese エイラ (Eira).
Yeah, but they have their names written in Japanese, and that shows how they are pronounced.
Marle is “Mar-lay.”
Magus is “May-Jus”
Ayla is “Eye-La”
Crono is “Chrono” (don’t know how you get that one wrong)
Marle might be lacking as a standalone character, but she has access to some of the strongest Double and Triple Techs in the game, including Antipode 3 and Poyozo Dance.
Everyone forgets about Anitpode. To bring Lucca into the conversation too, the dual techs Crono has with Lucca and Marle are game wreckers in the early going. They get outpaced by Falcon Slash with Ayla down the road, but those techniques deal a ton of damage early on.
Always love the stuff, David! A few years ago, I actually wrote a brief article on the list of my own rankings of Chrono Trigger characters! I've probably been through this game (counting New Game+) 150 times. I'm sharing it here with you in its entirety. Sorry for the length, but I hope you enjoy!
1. Crono: Duh. He's easily the best character. Balances amazing physical attacks and strong magic. He's so overpowered, and without the use of the rock accessories, he's the only triple tech character. Once he has the Rainbow sword (75% critical hit rate??????) and Luminaire, he's simply unbelievable.
2. Ayla: Tough choice here, but Ayla is the most physically powerful character in the game. She's a beast, and she often delivers critical hits. On top of that, her bare hands attacks eventually evolve as she levels up, and she can inflict status effects naturally when attacking. What pushes her over the top is that she has a healing ability (Kiss) and she can steal items (Charm), which is ridiculously useful in this game. She needs no magic. Ayla rocks (pun intended).
3. Lucca: Until she gets the Wondershot, her physical attacks are fairly weak (and even then, they are somewhat unreliable). However, Lucca has arguably the best tech/magic offensive in the game. Both Antipod 3 and Frog Flare are among the most devastating duel techs you will acquire. But all of her techs are frightfully powerful, even before she learns Flare. From the beginning of the game, you realize using her and Crono for a Fire Whirl is an overpowered option. And when she has an endgame weapon that can sometimes deliver over 2000 in damage? Yeah.
4. Robo: I truly feel that 2, 3, and 4 here could all be interchangeable. Robo is SO damn versatile. He's probably on par with Lucca, but he doesn't have the duel tech power that she does. On the other hand, he does have amazing physical attacks and awesome single techs. And the Triple Raid is the first triple tech you learn in the game--works very well in Magus' castle. He can even heal one or multiple characters. I feel that Robo is especially useful early on, then sort of fades out as your other characters grow more. However, his Shock ability is fantastic, and the Uzi Punch is downright destructive. The Crisis Arm is also a fantastic weapon. As long as the last digit of his HP is high (it should usually be a 9), he will deliver damage like no on else. It's too bad he lands so few critical hits. Love that animation.
5. Frog: Glenn is amazing when you first get him, and I think everyone loves X-Strike. He also has healing techs, which is a big plus. He has a high critical hit rate, which is even higher with the Masamune and Hero's Medal equipped. the problem is that there are three other characters with higher attack values, which is supposed to be Frog's forte. Even with the Masamune 2, Crono is still far more reliable with the Rainbow, which is nearly always a critical hit. Most glaringly, Frog's offensive techs and magic are fairly weak compared to the other characters. A few great duel techs, but overall, he's not as strong late game as the others.
6. Magus: Outside of Marle and Lucca without the Wondershot, he's the weakest physical attacker in the game. He also has no dual techs and only two triple techs with the aid of the rock accessories. So why is he 6 instead of last? His magic is awesome. Magus should only be outfitted with a gold stud as his accessory. He has access to all of the game's elemental magic, and he has a devastating single tech in Dark Matter, which you should use all the time once learned. It's fantastic. However, his single target spells are very lacking, so if you're fighting something like the Lavos Spawn, where you only want to target one thing, he becomes more of a hindrance than a benefit. Overall, he has a great arsenal, though, and a great magic stat. Plus he's so damn cool.
7. Marle: It's odd that I have her last, since I use her so often alongside Lucca. Marle has issues, though. As a natural healer, she should be very useful, but the problem is that so many other characters in this game can also heal--and they are much more powerful. Marle has the weakest physical attack in the game. Like the other girls, she can also often inflict status effects with her bows, but it isn't always a reliable reason to attack with her. Like the other water user, Frog, she has some great healing spells, but they aren't as crucial when you can put someone like Robo in your party to heal AND deal out damage. Her ice spells have a decent punch early on, but by endgame, she has very little to bring to the table offensively, which really hurts her. The best thing about Marle is her ability to cast Antipod 3 with Lucca. Otherwise, she's a bit weak. I do love her, though!"
Agree on most of this. I put Robo higher though; he can single handedly top off the party with healing, his later techs do a ton of AoE, and Uzi Punch puts out excellent damage for the cost. Chrono is a *very* close second; Rainbow + Rage Band = tons of crits.
Magus is tough; he's actually a good final boss character since he can just spam Dark Matter, where Lucca tends to burn through her MP reserves much faster. But as you noted, he kinda sucks on single targets, where Lucca is superior. Lucca is the better character overall, but I actually prefer Magus for the Lavos Fight.
Ayla is dominant on single targets, but the fact she has no AoE heal (unless you drag Frog along) limits her to that specific role. Kiss simply stops being useful relative to Robo's Heal Beam late game.
The fact Frog's accessory slot pretty much has to be the Hero Medal to make him even marginally useful says it all. He's 3rd or 4th best at everything, and essentially has no useable accessory slot.
There are no bad characters in chrono trigger
I made a video for this game a few weeks ago and I literally had the exact same ranking... Thanks David for the amazing video! You've inspired me to make my own RPG channel. You are the best gamer around, man :)
So when suikoden remaster comes out what u getting it for switch,ps4,or pc personally switch for me to play whenever 😆
Nah Lucca and Nadia’s dual techs (specifically Antipode 3) make them very op and definitely doesn’t make Nadia the worst.
I'm not surprised you ranked Robo as the top character in Chrono Trigger. I've also always noticed just how strong he is and how much personality he has.
When I played through this game I noticed the problems with Marle. I later started using Robo more because he had more attacking power and had similar healing abilities. I never counted how much exactly, but his strength was noticeable and Marle's crossbow was not.
I still remember using the anti-pod combo with Lucca and Marle a lot anyway. once I found something that worked, I pretty much ran with it to get all the endings. I felt that this was an efficient way to kill lavos repeatedly, but I never tested for better methods.
Magus although cool, I almost never used him except for grinding because I was curious about what he would do if I maxed out his level. I would put Magus pretty low on the list because of how little he is used and other characters have stronger fire and light attacks than he has access to.
I hate to be THAT guy, but..."Ahh-lee-uh" and "Kraw-noh"? That was butchered harder than a pig during a bacon shortage LOL.
David never misses an opportunity to read Marle for filth lol
She deserves everything she gets!
I disagree with Magus, but that's probably just the aesthetics of the character and that statue of him you can find in the monster town is some of my favorite pixel art of all time. I'd swap him with Luca personally, but otherwise I'd say spot on
Nah, Magus lacks duel techs which Lucca has in spades. It may not seem like much, but Lucca's Duel techs are some of the best in the game, and hard carry for the majority of the early and mid games. Outside of Dark Mater, Magus isn't actually that good, and the Lvl2 Spells are notably bad due to not often being useful, so there's half his spell list basically off the shelf right out of the gate. I'd have actually ranked him below Frog myself.
Robo was always my favorite. He was just a cool character. He had a great personal story as well. He also just farmed for centuries, so he’s multi-talented and effectively immortal.
Since there really isn't an unplayable Chrono Trigger party, I tend to use Frog because I like frogs and I've always enjoyed archaic dialog in the style of the early Dragon Warrior NES releases. As one of my friends aptly described him: he's a thou-talking frog.
They're all SSS tier. I've literally just quit Chrono Cross 2/3 of the way through on my first ever playthrough because I couldn't take it anymore. In comparison, every Trigger character is godlike.
Frog story is the best in characters
Yeah I agree with the way these guys were ranked overall. My last playthrough of CT was last year, and when I streamed it made it a goal to use all the characters pretty much at least in one section of the game.
My respect for Lucca and Robo has definitely shot up! They use to rank low for me but I would say they are exactly where they need to be in this list now. Both are heckuva lot of fun and I am so glad I gave them each a chance last year.
My approach towards rpg’s has changed a lot since I was a teenager so I am glad when replaying these older games trying out different things than ever before.
(04:40) then the DS version decided to give her an armor that only her could use that made her immune to Magic which made her almost unkillable with protect and a haste hat, or just use a protect hat while using Schala's pendant.
where do the backdrop pictures and animated cartoon bits come from, i dont think i have seen them before.
Good list David. I feel Marle could have been balanced way better with only a couple tweaks. Remove Haste Helms, and make Marle's Haste target the whole party. You could even make this spell her ultimate, and this would still make very viable.
I disagree with Marle being so low because she really shines when paired with others with her duel techs. She has duel techs for every situation and she makes literally everyone stronger.
For example aura whirl with Chrono is the first AoE heal. Double kiss with Alya makes up for her low magic stat and heals everyone to full and recovers all status. Cure wind with robo makes up for his low magic stat and heals everyone a massive amount. Ice water with frog makes up for his low magic and aoe clears everything not immune to ice and water. Twin charm increases steal rate. In boss fights there’s ice sword, antipode, iceberg toss and so on.
Basically she turns Alya and robo into real healers while being able to do massive damage with Chrono making. She also has triple techs with Chrono, marle, Alya/robo making it a perfect team.
I’d be curious to find out which combination of players I used the most on my first play through of this game. And which character overall I utilized most frequently.
the porblem with lucca is that shes a galss cannon becuase she can do a lot of damage with magic but that gets depleted quick and she has some ass attack stat so when shes depleted of mana shes use less
"Ayla's kiss outranks aura because it cures status ailments"
My dumbass who didn't even know:
Love every character in this game. There's no Chrono Trigger with any of them absent.
No caps
I think a top 10 characters theme songs 🎵 would be a cool series! Because if I'm being honest, Frog is number 1 in my heart ;)
I'm the complete opposite. Seeing a game with ONLY human party members is just a bummer to me. I love having a variety of creatures/beings. ❤️
Do you know the point of the dual tech steal that Marie and Ayla share?
I'm so glad to see this video as I'm doing my own LP of this gem. The only issue Robo has is he can be slow and if you don't use your magic tabs on him he can be a bit lackluster. But if you build him right our metal mate here will Rick roll through enemies both random and boss alike.
@Dawn Razor not min maxing just trying to get the most out of a good character. Plus being a best to worst list I would think taking all aspects of a character would be efficient don't you agree?
Even with Magic tabs Robo still sucks your better off giving ALL those to Ayla so that Slurp Kiss with Frog will always restore 999 HP to the entire party.
@@veghesther3204 why would I boost the magic stat of a character that her abilities are almost entirely physical for a good dual tech that robo can accomplish almost as well by himself thereby increasing the DPS of my party?
@Dawn Razor if I'm taking one team member in a team of three to heal that is one thing, taking two to heal while leaving one takes away from your total damage which would weaken your damage output.
@Dawn Razor well more accurately it would be dpt or damage per turn. I'm not usually one for min maxing but when you are grading a characters quality among a cast you have to look at much damage output they have or with support how much they can provide with our without help. The person I was commenting on was stating how good ayla/frog were for healing with a dual tech which with only three characters in an active party sorely takes away from the amount of damage the party can dish out per cycle especially when robo can do pretty much the same healing by itself.
I saw this list and thought "This is going to be spicy!" And while it delivers in that department, I find your reasonings to be spot on. Max Robo's Magic and his Techs are OP. Once Lucca installs an ice maker and plops a Marle Helm on him, there'll be absolutely nothing he can't do!
That "replaced by a helmet" comment cracked me up!! 🤣 I couldn't stop laughing!!!
Just a question, but does spell damage scale differently between characters? So, if all characters have the same magic stat and use spells on the same tier, are the spells equally as strong, or would those who typically have low base magic stats have the stronger spells?
Did you take double or triple techs into account?
Great list. Maybe surprisingly I very much disagree with Marle for a few reasons.
If you're not playing new game plus and you're taking progression into account the haste spell is just game breaking amazing. You don't get haste helms till very late into the game. I learn it on her during Magus castle which her and frogs double tech ice water really shines in that dungeon as well. It makes the Magus fight and Tyrano fight so easy. Pretty much any fight from then on out.
I don't believe the haste helm replaces her either. You have to forgo the vigilants helm which is a must have in my opinion. Status immunity is much better than having to cast haste 3 times and not all of the best armor has status immunity.
A smaller plus is life 2. If you're playing right you won't have to use it but it's much safer than revive and if you have good equipment on her she can survive to use it.
Her biggest weakness is her survivability imo and to me it's not much of an issue unless you're trying to fight and beat lavos at the ocean palace. Trying to get her to survive during his attacks is tough.
I'm near the final boss and Marle has carried my party since the beggining to the very end.
All right! I love the retro rpg videos, thanks!
One thing I love about Chrono Trigger is how all the characters are pretty viable. Yes, some do outshine others, but picking your favorites isn't going to screw you, like other games might do :)
I find it funny how I'm torn on Frog. I feel like he should be higher, he IS a good character to have around, but I wouldn't move anyone to make a higher spot for him because everyone is just so good XD Except Marle. I like her, I'm always fond of the healer characters, but you're 100% right, multiple other characters can do the job better.
Does chrono need a healiing ability if theres powerful items to use for healing instead?
Nice point, especially if you got the item provider AKA: Ayla
Chrono trigger did so much right. It's one of the only games that made me WANT to use the whole cast. Playing other games like FF6 I'd basically stick to the same 6ish characters and would be annoyed if I ever had to use the rest (setzer, umaro, strago etc). But in Chrono Trigger the smaller cast size, doube/triple techs, interesting personalities made experimenting so much fun. I never dreaded having to go through a section with a specific character like I do other games.
100% Even in the good RPGs they have 1 or 2 characters you can't stand whether it's personality or game specific. CT made everyone cool and badass in their own personal way.
Plus, there are no random encounters is Chrono Trigger, so that is a huge plus for a Square title in the 1990s.
Frog was an absolutely crucial in my fight against Lavos. Surprised to see him towards the low end of this list.
How is Robo red? Is it a different version? Or perhaps a different armor piece?
Red is auto haste Green Auto Shell (Prism helms for Lucca/Marle/Ayla) Yellow Auto Protect Safe/Guardian helm but theirs only 2 of those on 1 run of the game.
Dark Red colored = Berserker accessory effect so they can ONLY attack theirs 2 of those on 1 run of the game.
Robo is so good because he never gives you up.
Frog and Robo have great healing and if you throw in Ayla... the most badass trio.
Ayla should be second. She doesn’t use weapons but her fist upgrades as she levels up. As she reaches level 99 her regular attack crits will automatically deal 9999 damage. She’s only second because she has no magic.
I never understood when I found out that Marle is often listed as the worst character when I never a single time in my entire life since the game came out skipped out on using her in my party. i just love Aura Whirl and Haste.
I've always used her, myself. She's endearing as a character. And Aura Whirl is pretty indispensable in the early game.
Will you be doing a review of Various Daylife?
I vehemently disagree with how you purposefully omitted Double and Triple Techs for Frog and Marle.
You mention them with everyone else, except them.
I rarely use Robo due to the Lighting weakness and low Magic defense but that can be corrected with armor and items.
Ah, this list brings back memories if your let’s play. Man, that was a fantastic watch.
Chrono/Robo/Ayla tends to be my group through the entire game as soon as I grab each of those characters. When Robo joins in 2300AD for the first time, he becomes a permanent fixture in the group. Yes, I fight Magus with Robo in the group. In fact, I kill a couple Nus in the Hunting Range to make sure he has Heal Beam. Heal Beam completely negates Magus's Dark Matter spell, and Magus will actually sometimes use Dark Bomb during his first phase, and when he does, well, Robo's Laser Spin does more damage than Chrono's Lightning when Magus casts Lightning2, especially if you've been feeding him every Magic Tab you get your hot little mitts on like you should. Seriously, giving Robo every magic tab in the game makes him even more ludicrously overpowered. Then, with Ayla, well.. she's the only character in the game who can fight after Dalton captures you in the Blackbird which makes that section hilariously easy, instead of sneaking around, just have her smash up everything in your way until you find your equipment. Yeah, sure she has low defense because she's not wearing armor, but she can still handle any of the fights herself unless you were intentionally skipping fights and are low level. And of course, Crono is... Crono. The Hero of the group is almost always the well-rounded guy who's fairly decent at everything.
Magus’ best use is power leveling the rest of the team in the late game optional dungeon. Dark Bomb/Lumaire can wipe out the strongest enemies and you get an endless supply of elixirs from them to refill MP, make your 3rd someone useful like robo
Wait, why Dark Bomb and not Dark Matter?
It’s been a bit but I think it’s probably more cost effective MP wise while taking same amount of actions to kill
Marle is a powerhouse depending on who she is teamed up with. Ice Water is deadly right when you get it. Through I do agree that they could have removed crap like Provoke and give her an AOE Heal spell, or give her a higher crit rate with her crossbow, or SOMETHING to make her a little more useful.
No wonder my default group was always Crono, Robó and Ayla.
Thanks David!
Your ranking videos are my favorite. Thanks!
Love this style of video be great to see other characters ranked in this style
Why is Robot red in 5:43 segment...
He's under the Berserk status (Makes you hit very hard physically at the cost of losing control of the character, it's triggered by an accessory i forgot the name of)
Loved the video! Only missed a bit more character specific equipment shoutouts such as thr crysis arm and the powered up masamune with the hero badge
I can see why Magus is ranked lower, due to the fact that he's lacking in double techs and you're almost 90% through the game when you get him, but man, this guy really has some of the greatest dialogue that I've ever seen in gaming
For instance, if you drag him along to the Black Omen and you battle Queen Zeal, he steps up to the plate, putting his own mother in his place, roasting her hard and mouthing off at her, before his battle theme kicks on (which kicks absolute ass) and you lay waste to her... purposely letting the other two members of the party get knocked out, and leaving Magus the last man standing
The man is a cold hard badass - easily the best antihero of all time
Ayla. Pronounced AL-EE-YA.
Good list! You pronounce more than half the names differently than I do 😆
Marle is one of my favorite characters to use, sadly she isn't a super strong option over others. I still use her regardless because I like her. She needed a tier 3 ice spell and a party heal of some kind. Aura Whirl as a solo tech perhaps. It would have also been okay if she had a skill that buffed defense, speed, removed debuffs, and granted regen or something along those lines as a supplement for a party-wide heal or the tier 3 spell
I think the fact that Marle is part of the lifeline tech makes her better than Frog. Frog has an advantage in damage output, and basic healing, but neither advantage makes enough of a real difference to outperform Lifeline.
I'd put Marle in 5th, Magus in 6th, Frog in last. Magus may have access to all elements, but all he can do is screen wipe, and really, no one has much problem clearing out randoms anyway. Plus, he's inefficient against bosses where a specific weak point has to be targeted, and even against crowds with variable weaknesses and resistances.
This is a fun list I agree in a lot of different points. I also ironically enough use everyone in the party This is one game where I love the entire party There's literally no one I dislike that's a rarity for me. Another fantastic one
What is going on with Robo being red in some of the footage. What is that about.
Berserk
@davidvinc hmm. I didn't even remember that. Yeah doesn't he open up and vent out a bunch of steam when the buff ends? I haven't played Chrono trigger since the 90's when it came out on SNES.
I always have Ayla and Robo in my party whenever possible. Both Ayla and Robo (in the DS port) have 9999 critical hit physical attacks which I use quite a bit. For the 3rd person I'll have either Crono to use Luminaire or Magus
🤔…If Magus got low because he doesn’t sync well with other team members, then shouldn’t Marle be higher? Her strengths really come in with her double and triple techs.
Good video! I'm ondering if you could make a video ranking party cominations, since I've always thought that Marle has very nice double and triple techs
Great memories with this one! I can’t believe it’s been 16 years since playing through.. I started a new game a couple years ago but just got so swamped with other releases you know..
I feel like you didn't take party composition into consideration for this roster, since the best party is Crono, Ayla, and Frog, able to just melt any late game boss and turns the entire Lavos fight into a joke.