Chrono Trigger/Walkthrough/Chapter 1

Chapter 1: The Millenial Fair (1000 A.D. first time)

Introduction

After your naming your mute protagonist in the introduction, you'll be treated to a overview of the world map and the millenial fair, and your mother will come wake you up in a scene that will be echoed throughout the game. You'll gain control of a character henceforth to be known as Crono, amateur swordsman armed only with a wood sword at the start, and according to the menu screen his elemental is lightning. No word on what his sign or favorite color might be. You can play with the drapes if you want or check out the empty bowl of cat food, but head downstairs to get on with life.

Downstairs you'll get to name your inventor friend, Lucca by default. She won't join your party for a while, but at least you'll know what to call her now. Play with your cat if you'd like, and talk to your mom to pick up your allowance. Then, step outside and get ready to face the world.

Head into the Mayor's house at the bottom left of your little hamlet to pick up some tips on gameplay and controls. In general, you want to hold down B to run, and it also cancels actions; X accesses the menu; A talks to people, performs actions, and selects commands; and Y switches message windows to the top or bottom of the screen. L-R-Select-Start provides an ingame reset if you want to get back to the title screen.

Some techniques you can use target a single enemy, some attacks target all enemies in a certain radius around the one you select, some attacks target all enemies on a line of sight from you, some attacks target enemies on a horizontal line, some attacks target all enemies in a radius around yourself, and some attacks just hit all enemies period. It's not nearly as complicated as it may sound and you'll figure it out as you start using techniques. The usual RPG rules apply as to what statuses can be inflicted on your character, and offense and defense stats.

You can explore the houses around Crono's house in the village of Truce, head south to the village of Poore, or even take a boat ride between the two cities. You can also head through the forest to Guardia Castle although you won't be able to go inside yet. Once you feel like you've explored enough, head into the millennial fair at the north of Truce.

The Millenial Fair

The Millenial Fair is an event held once every thousand years to celebrate the defeat of Magus 400 years ago. And you get to go. You can buy some equipment and weapons here, although it's not really essential at this point in the game. Take your time exploring and talking to people, but there's a few things you should know:

Silver Points

Silver Points are prizes you win at the fairgrounds, and they can be traded for gold at the rate of 10 silver points for 50G, or used in Norstein Bekkler's Lab to win prizes. I'd recommend saving all your silver points since there are a lot of prizes you can win for each character. Places you can win silver points include:

The bell in the southwest of the entrance plaza. You get 1 point for hitting the bell squarely.
The soda guzzling contest to the east of Leene Square gives you 5 silver points.
If you go to the left of Leene Square you can fight a mini-battle with Gato the robot for 15 Silver Points.
In the right area of the entrance plaza you'll find a guy taking bets on a race constantly running. The old guy below the racetrack will give you some tips on who may win if you talk to him just before the race starts, and you can also run in front of the racers and press A to talk to them to slow them down to help your guy win. The reward is 20 silver points.

The prizes for spending them in the lab including a Poyozo Doll for 10 silver points, which will play your character's theme song and show up at their home. For 40 silver points you get a clone of the character that shows up in the same place, and for 80 you get a cat. Winning a game more than once gives you cat food which can help you breed up to 11 cats if you put it in the bowl back home, and later on in the game you'll be able to win dolls and clones for each character by putting them at the front of the party.

On your best behavior for the Trial

Without giving too much away, suffice it that anything you say or do at the fairgrounds can and will be used against you in a court of law. If you want to be a good little boy, try the following:

Don't eat the guy's lunch at the west end of Leene Square
Talk to the little girl in Leene Square and bring her cat to her. This particular outcome is kind of glitched, if you never talk to the girl at all it works well and if you bring her the cat before talking to her it seems to work best.
When Marle is shopping for candy, wait for her to be done and don't walk away
Don't offer to sell the pendant to Melchior if he gives you the chance
Talk to Marle before picking up her pendant.

If you want to let the world know your darker side:

Eat the lunch. Hey, do it as often as you want, it makes fighting Gato easier since it restores all your health.
Talk to the girl and don't bring her cat.
Try to drag Marle away from the candy booth.
Offer to sell the pendant to Melchior when you have Marle in the party.
Pick up the pendant before talking to Marle AND try to sell it to Melchior before ever speaking to Marle. Refusing her the pendant may help too.

And just so you know, you can't make her run into you, it'll be considered your fault no matter how you go about it, but you can still get all innocent.

Marle at the fair

Well, just in case you have no clue what I'm talking about, after playing around some you'll want to go to Leene Square underneath the giant bell and bump into the blond chick who looks like a harem girl. You'll both be knocked down, and she'll help you up. Talk to her or don't talk to her depending upon whether you're evil or good, but eventually you'll want to pick up her pendant and give it back to her. She'll thank you profusely, and ask to follow you around. You'll also get to name her, I prefer Marle.

I believe you may need to talk to the girl in the entrance plaza to help the game move forward and open up Lucca's slideshow, you can bring the girl her cat, dance, steal the lunch, or guzzle soda to get some reactions from Marle. Guess she likes the strong silent type. If you really want you can introduce her to Crono's Mom too, or take her to the gates of the castle, but if you want to get on with the game head north of Leene Square and talk to Lucca.

Crono will volunteer for a teleportation experiment and get transported all of several feet. Marle thinks it's a blast so she tries it out herself, only to have the pendant react with the telportation device and cause her to disappear. When you're ready, pick up the pendant yourself and prepare to begin an epic journey.

Challenging Lavos

This section will explain what happens if you confront Lavos at each point of the game. If you're in a New Game + you can skip straight to Lavos at almost any point by stepping onto the right telepad and pressing A. If you want to challenge Lavos now you'll get the programmer's ending. You can do this with Crono alone if you wait until Lucca asks you to help her demonstrate the device, or you can do it with Marle in your party as well if you step onto the right telepad right away. There's no real downside to doing it with Marle unless you just want to prove that Crono can take Lavos on solo. Check out the bosses section for more info on fighting Lavos. You can also get this ending by defeating the version of Lavos you're supposed to lose to in the ocean palace as well.

Continue to Chapter 2: The Queen Returns (600 A.D. first time)