Being 11 years old, I really didn't put much speculation into what era this time period COULD be, but I was anxious to find out. After a few minutes of walking, I thought it was going to be a 65 million b.c. rip, except a bit more dull since the landscape consisted of only snow. So anyways, I continue walking for a minute, and then I see this strange building that immediatly intrigued me. I walked up to it, noticed the name "Skyway" and thought, "Wow, where is this going?" I went inside, noticed the interesting architecture that radiated scientific genius, yet didn't remind me of futuristic inventions, instead something of a more magical and enigmatic nature, which fascinated me. Up I go, and the first thing I notice is this beautiful piece of music begin to play and more importantly, that I was standing on green grass. I stepped outside, and then that's where it all took off...
Zeal for me, in many ways, made Chrono Trigger the great game it was at the time I'd been playing it (Now I have a bit of a different opinion, but Zeal's still special to me.) First of all, entering Enhasa, I was delightfully mystified at the people, dressed in elegant robes of vibrant colors. As I talked to the people, I was filled with their whole philosophy of dreams, and with Corridors of Time playing in the background, it gave me an image of something of great meaning and beauty. Enhasa, in my opinion, is what makes Zeal. Without it, Zeal would still retain some of it's splendor, but it would lose a great deal of mysteriousness and would not be as interesting.
The second major thing about Zeal was that the civilization seemed so...educated, about the anamoly that is Lavos. Now, up to this point of the game, you've gone slightly off course. After learning about him in the ruined future of 2300 A.D., you go back to 1000 A.D. to "go back to your own time." After that, you're taking part of the mystic vs. human war, and then to 65 mil. B.C. for dreamstone so the Masamune can be reforged so Frog will defeat Magus. Now, by no means am I saying that these parts of the game weren't interesting (Magus's castle is probably my favorite part of the game in terms of dungeon gameplay.) But I felt that, after learning of Lavos's ruination of the world and getting hyped up to learn more about him and defeat him, that I got slightly cheated, and my energy cooled after learning nearly zilch in this whole time (with exception to when he first crashes into Tyrano's Lair or whatever in the prehistoric era; that was cool to know.)
But now, that's not the case at all! The whole focus of the game seems to turn back to Lavos (now that he is being used for a source of power as opposed to the planet's energy.). And I was glad to finally learn some more about him.
In essence, Zeal was the catalyst for me completing the game, and Chrono Trigger would not be what it is without it.