Chrono Trigger puts a sea of tension in a single bucket

destructoid.com:

There are many imposing forms a boss can take, but I don’t know I’d count a bucket among them. And yet, that’s what Chrono Trigger does. It puts a bucket in front of you and asks if you think you can beat it. It’s a question that’s lingered every minute since.

I’ve been playing through Chrono Trigger for the first time, nigh-unspoiled on what makes this role-playing game such a legend in the genre. (So if you’re scrolling down to the comments already, please be chill.) I’ve already been majorly impressed with how Squaresoft’s team signals to the player that their actions, big and small, ripple out through the story.

So imagine my surprise when I’ve been brought to The End of Time, Chrono Trigger‘s equivalent of the archetypal RPG campfire, and there’s a few anachronisms lingering around. The area itself is strange, floating in some kind of void; a man stands alone in the center, underneath a modern lamppost. Golden fencing runs around the edges. And in the corner, there’s a bucket.

I’m told what this place is, and how my party members can rest here while I travel. I can meet Spekkio, the Master of War, who teaches my team the ways of magic. Further out, I can see portals in a grid, letting me travel through all the holes in time I’ve ripped open.

And in the corner, there’s a bucket. What’s in the bucket? The end of the world, apparently.

There are a lot of ways to build out narrative tension, and dangling a looming threat overhead like an axe is a great one. The bucket in Chrono Trigger is a little different, though. As the old man tells the player, inside that bucket is the gate towards Lavos, the big bad I’ve only just learned about. Lavos is coming, and will end the world. I need to time travel around and find a way