When I was around 7 turning 8 I had great expectations for my birthday, I had a SNES and some great games at the time (Super Mario World, Star Fox, Super Metroid) and already tasted my first RPG (Earthbound) which seduced me into the genre.

I remember I scored that birthday, because I got Mega Man X2 and Donkey Kong Country, some clothes ( you know the usual uncle/aunt that thinks clothes are a boy's dream at that age ), but I didn't get a gift from a specific uncle, so I as a recently 8 year old who was angry for not getting his reward for being born and lasting 8 years in the world, demanded an explanation. To my surprise he said that he would take me shopping when he came back from a business trip which was 3 months long, but as I had two new games and the possibility of getting a new one after I finished them I realized the wait couldn't be bad. I also got money that day so I bought Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Turtles in Time and Super Mario Kart to spend the time. Greedy kid, I know.

The afternoon came he picked me up, and we drove to the videogame store near my house, needless to say I was anxious, yes anxious, because so many possibilities lay on my hands. So I took a wild shot and started looking at all the games that lay there, hundreds of different games just lay there for me to pick, it was both enjoyment and anxiousness, because what would happen if I chose the wrong game, one I wouldn't like? I would have wasted that and would torture myself until christmas, but I had to make a choice, and so, as I was looking at the box art of the games, and one stood out the most, a specific box that had a girl using some kind of fire spell, a bad-ass looking monster, a knight aiming his sword towards the monsters, and at the time what I thought was the frog knight henchmen of the monster, but that day they also got in another title I had already heard of, SMW 2 Yoshi's Island, so I had a choice, either go with the flow and chose Yoshi, my beloved dinosaur, or take a journey to the unexpected and choose the other game I had my eyes on, it was chrono trigger btw. After some time my uncle demanded me to choose one, so I did, I chose Yoshi's Island, I knew the name of the other game so I could come and pick it up when I saved enough money, but it didn't turn out how we all expected.

You see that videogame store held a lottery each month, if you bought a game certain day, you would be in a game of choosing out of 100,000 (just to put on some excitement) different colored eggs, and 1 of those had a magic ticker, which would give you 1 free game. I bought my Yoshi and chose an egg, a dark-blue one, as I was opening it I saw the greatest words an 8 year old could read, YOU WON A FREE GAME. So I ran to the clerk, showed the ticket and looked straight forward to Chrono Trigger. Yes sir I owned that year.

Don't think I'm just a Square fanboy who praises each and every single game they make, and I also don't think it's my favorite game because of it being free. In simple words that game sucked me in.

I was chrono, a teenager from 600 AD who by choice of destiny was enrolled to take part in a quest to save my world from a calamity from the skies, I could travel in time, people from different ages would join my part and I was having fun.

What I think is the best thing in Chrono Trigger is the story, sure there were other great stories in game at that time, but I praise CT for sticking out, for being a game I still remember perfectly, it had everything I wanted for an RPG, different characters to choose from, had to level up so my magic skills would grow, and a many, many playing hours.

I was sucked into that game for a month, doing all the sidequests took time, mostly because of the world of CT being huge, a ton of bosses that took me to the verge, and that made me find my guilty pleasure, over-leveling. Ah who could forget Masa and Mune? Two Imps that would blast away my party, and I had to train! I had to become stronger, so I did as any other fighter that wants to become stronger, I went and killed hundreds of monster, that would mysteriously carry around items, food and money. And I would become stronger, and I would defeat the enemy, and then the process would repeat endlessly until I reached the main enemy, Lavos, so I made my army had the best equipment I had, and went on to defeat my enemy.

I would atleast play the game once a year, until I was introduced to the PlayStation, but still hold CT as one of the most memorable games back in the day.