Actually, your descriptions of Final Fantasy IV, VI, and Zelda sound kind of accurate to me (not familiar enough with V to comment). :P
In all seriousness though, I'm aware that there's a bit more backstory to those games, but that's really what they boil down to. I'm aware that Chrono Trigger has backstory of its own since I used to play it as a kid, but I should point out that character development is what I'm most interested in. I've always considered the entire cast outside of Magus to be extremely flat, which by the way, is why I always find Cross complaints about character development to be massively ironic.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that I've always considered the Zeal stuff to be Magus development more than anything else. I don't particularly remember anything in that Undersea Palace business that really changed the "teenagers destroy giant monster and save the world" part. Maybe it's just me, but I would've been more forgiving of the plot if something along the way changed the end goal even slightly from the first time you see Lavos on the computer monitor. Like maybe Lavos wasn't this completely evil creature or something, I don't know.
But anyway, I'm sure this is something we'll have to just agree to disagree on. I just honestly think too many people have their nostalgia glasses on when it comes to Chrono Trigger and there's nothing I can do to change that. I appreciate that the author of that article didn't give it an overly generous spot because it at least hints that there's no filter at work like I'd expect on a great number of other lists.
The same goes for the battle system comment. I personally don't see any strategy involved in the game unless you're doing a challenge or speed run of some kind, because otherwise you'll probably be leveled up enough and with good enough gear that you can do exactly what I mentioned in my first post. Lavos might give you a little grief I guess, but nothing some armor upgrades won't solve. I just don't like the simplicity of it all, you know?
As for the last part, I find that a bit insulting. Just because I don't have as high regard for it as you do doesn't mean that I've never played it. Some things just don't click with people or just lose their appeal over time. In my case, this was the latter. The more I started playing Chrono Cross (and reading all the unfair hate), the more I started to appreciate the stuff that it did so much better than Trigger. I guess by playing it so much, I took off my nostalgia glasses (which I assure you, I had) and started to realize Trigger wasn't everything I thought it was as a kid. Is that so bad?
And just to be totally clear, nowhere in there did I say Chrono Trigger is a bad game. I just said it's not top 10 material. It's an enjoyable game and something I think any RPG player should try, but nothing more.
