Chrono Trigger is the SNES all-star package: Toriyama’s designs, Mitsuda’s melodies, and a time-travel story that still hits with childlike wonder. The Fellowship talks bouncing through eras to find when time went wrong, facing Lavos, and a cast of frog, robot, princess, and Magus that makes the adventure stick.

In this Mythic Mind Games conversation, Dr. Andrew Snyder and guests (including Michael Kane) read the game as art that works on all fronts: music you still hum, a silent hero’s sacrifice and return, and the rare sense that a JRPG can stage wonder without losing dramatic force.