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Chapter 710 ZAGE November Games Review.
🕑 Added 2025-10-15 02:15:24 +0000 UTCSaturday 4 December 1996.
After just one week since release, ZAGE's November games have caught fire, with Chrono Trigger leading the charge. The game has taken the JRPG community by storm, thanks to its stunning storytelling and the mind-blowing way it remembers player decisions. The time travel mechanics—based on the butterfly effect—are deeply integrated into the gameplay, and the vibrant cast of characters and imaginative stages make it unforgettable. Fans are constantly amazed by how each choice ripples across timelines. Those who love JRPGs widely agree: Chrono Trigger isn’t just a standout—it's the best ZAGE game to date, and there's little doubt among the community about that consensus.
The major main point here is time travel. Unlike many other games where time travel serves as nothing more than a flashy narrative twist, in Chrono Trigger, it’s the absolute core of the experience. You don’t merely hop between different eras for novelty — every action in one era can ripple into others, creating permanent, meaningful consequences. Helping a character in the past might save a city in the future. Conversely, leaving something unresolved might lead to its destruction centuries later.
The game masterfully weaves together seven distinct timelines: Prehistoric, Ancient, Middle Ages, Present, Post-Apocalypse, Future, and the End of Time. Each era has its own culture, atmosphere, and stakes, but they all connect through shared characters, stories, and consequences. The deeper you play, the more intricately these timelines intertwine. For many players, this layered approach feels both overwhelming and awe-inspiring.
Even the transitions between these times are seamless, often tied directly to the player’s actions. The game doesn’t hold your hand—it trusts you to notice changes and understand what they mean. This adds a layer of depth that few RPGs attempt, let alone master. It turns the entire experience into a living, breathing narrative puzzle where you're not just watching history—you’re rewriting it.
And Chrono Trigger doesn’t just tell a story — it responds to you. Characters remember what you’ve done, side quests tie directly into character growth, and the world evolves as you play also the Chrono Trigger broke away from the formula of “random encounters” and “battle transitions.” Enemies appear right on the map — you see them, and you fight them without leaving the world screen.also introduced dual and triple techs, where characters could combine their powers for cinematic team attacks It made combat strategic, fast, and visually alive.
Akira Toriyama’s art style has now become widely recognized and appreciated. His manga Dragon Ball has seen a noticeable rise in readership and sales. While Toriyama may not yet be as legendary in this timeline as he was in Zaboru previous life, the release of Chrono Trigger has given him a major surge in popularity. The game's distinctive character designs and visuals have introduced his artistic genius to a broader audience, making his name even more respected across both gaming and manga communities.
The soundtrack also includes the insanely great Corridors of Time, To Far Away Times, Frog’s Theme, Wind Scene…
They don’t just sound great — they feel alive, painting every era with its own mood.
Even the great developer from Triangle Soft, Hironobu Sakaguchi, sat down for a passionate interview with ZEMITSU where he couldn't contain his enthusiasm. “Chrono Trigger is the best JRPG I’ve ever played,” he said, his eyes lighting up. “It’s so responsive—the controls, the pacing—everything feels just right. The soundtrack is phenomenal, the ambiance pulls you in, and every stage feels like a handcrafted moment in time. The gameplay is tight and rewarding, and the fact that you can get more than 11 or 12 endings? Wait—this one has 13! Thirteen different endings? That’s just insane!”
He went on to say, “I truly, deeply love Chrono Trigger from the bottom of my heart. It’s a masterpiece. ZAGE always delivers high-quality games, but this one is something else entirely. It raises the bar for what a JRPG can be. I genuinely hope that someday Triangle Soft can create something even close to this caliber of storytelling. It’s inspiring. And honestly, thank you, ZAGE, for making such an amazing experience possible. Chrono Trigger is more than a game—it’s a milestone.”
Sakaguchi’s praise quickly went viral across fan forums and developer circles alike. Hearing such acclaim from a respected of the genre added even more fuel to the fire surrounding Chrono Trigger’s growing legend.
Reviews are pouring in rapidly, and the excitement is contagious. The ZAGE forums have exploded with nonstop chatter about Chrono Trigger, with countless threads analyzing characters, speculating about time travel theories, and debating the best team compositions. Even more impressively, fans have already begun crafting detailed guides on how to unlock each of the game’s multiple endings. These guides have sparked even more engagement, with players sharing tips and comparing notes. The result? A community that feels electrified — buzzing with theories, and love for the game. The forums have never felt more alive.
In ZAGE's version of Chrono Trigger, Zaboru crafted the game to closely resemble what he remembered from his previous life, ensuring even the smallest details carried personal significance. One of the most intriguing additions he made was the inclusion of a hidden Easter egg involving the enigmatic ZABO-Man. This secret becomes accessible only after the player collects every single Z-Token hidden across all available timelines — a demanding but rewarding task that unlocks a mysterious portal to a secret area known as the ZABOMAN-Society.
Upon entering, players find themselves in the outskirts of a surreal town populated entirely by variations of ZABO-Man. Though players can't explore deep into the city, the outskirts alone offer strange and cryptic dialogue from these alternate ZABO-Men, hinting at their origins and purposes. The fact that so many versions exist in a single timeline all but confirms that ZABO-Man is a time traveler — at least within the Chrono Trigger universe. This revelation alone has ignited a storm of fan theories.
Discussion threads on the ZAGE forums lit up almost instantly. ZABO-Man has always been a favorite subject among fans due to his recurring appearances in previous ZAGE games — sometimes as a secret boss, sometimes a mysterious merchant, other times as a bizarre support character or even a just a cameo He never absent from any ZAGE or games lead by Zaboru. Now, with his time-traveling identity subtly canonized in Chrono Trigger, fans are more obsessed than ever.
The ZABOMAN-Society timeline has sparked speculation not only about his role in Chrono Trigger, but about whether ZABO-Man might serve as a connective thread across all ZAGE franchises — a multidimensional traveler influencing each world in ways yet to be understood. It’s added an entirely new layer of mystery to an already beloved character, deepening the lore and thrilling the community.
Thanks to its overwhelming popularity and constant buzz, Chrono Trigger has been selling at an astonishing pace. Within just the first week of its release, the game shattered ZAGE’s all-time sales records, making it the fastest-selling title in the company’s history. The sheer demand has exceeded expectations, with retailers struggling to keep it on shelves and fans rushing to secure their copies.
Next up is StarCraft, which has rapidly gained popularity within the PC gaming community. The game is being hailed as a strategic masterpiece, praised for its deep mechanics and distinct faction design. Players are especially impressed by how the PROTOSS, TERRANS, and ZERG each offer completely unique playstyles, with different strengths, weaknesses, and tactics. This asymmetry not only enhances the single-player experience but makes the multiplayer environment incredibly dynamic.
The potential for online matchmaking is massive, with many already describing StarCraft as the next big competitive title. Matches unfold like high-stakes chess games, where strategic planning, fast reflexes, and deep knowledge of each race’s abilities come into play. As a result, the game naturally showcases player skill, with good players able to demonstrate extraordinary decision-making and micro-management on the battlefield.
Community forums and early competitive ladders are already filling with discussion, replays, and debates on build orders and best strategies. The buzz is real, and its future in the eSports scene is looking incredibly bright which there are rumour for it.
Zaboru is now already shifting his attention to a new set of events scheduled for December. The traditional ZAGE Game of the Year (GOTY) event is being officially replaced by the newly branded "ZAGE End of Year Events." Rather than selecting a single Game of the Year in the usual way, this new celebration will focus on commemorating ZAGE’s overall achievements throughout the year and highlighting the most beloved games as voted by the fans themselves while also having fun.
Meanwhile, the formal GOTY honors will no longer be handled internally by ZAGE. Instead, those awards will now be managed jointly by ZEMITSU and COMPUTE X under a new, collaborative title: FAMICOM GOTY 1996. .
And now at ZAGE Offices Japan, Zaboru soon is giving an announcement that will make his employees prepare to move to ZAGE Tower.
To be continue
