Frog Encompasses Everything That Makes Chrono Trigger Great
This article will spoil Frog’s story and in its entirety, alongside some of the biggest twists of the rest of Chrono Trigger, so go play it before reading on. It really is worth the hype.
Chrono Trigger is my absolute favourite game ever. A huge part of my love for the game comes from its cast of iconic, larger-than-life characters. Each party member is amazing in their own right, but there’s something special about everyone’s favourite, Frog. To me, his arc throughout the game and the story of his revenge against Magus is something that has massively inspired me as a writer from the first time I played Chrono Trigger. To this day, every time I replay it I find something new in that story and I appreciate it even more than I did before. So, what better time than Chrono Trigger’s 30th anniversary to talk about that lovable Frog and why he holds such a special place in many fans’ hearts?
Frog is noble, strong and polite, and he’s got a banging theme song, but he always carries a weight around with him. When he’s first introduced, after helping Crono and Lucca, Lucca is taken aback by his appearance. Then, as if he’s had the same conversation a million times, he breaks eye contact and says, with a fun little pseudo-Shakespearian touch, “My guise doth not incur trust in you? Very well.” He doesn’t try to reason with the party or convince them to let him tag along despite sharing the same goal of saving the queen of Guardia — he just tries to leave. It takes Lucca getting over her initial shock to ask him to join instead. The way the power dynamics of that scene flip themselves so quickly reveals everything about Frog in the space of a minute. He is, first and foremost, a skilled swordsman who wants to help people and do good, but he’s crippled by his insecurities.
Once you save the queen, he blames himself for letting her get kidnapped and leaves the party unceremoniously. You can tell he loathes himself and there’s a clear conflict between the person he is and the person he thinks he deserves to be, despite everyone else appreciating him. Some time later, after the party discovers humanity’s destined end at the hands of Lavos and the game’s time travel mechanics start opening up, the party then comes to believe that the Fiend Lord Magus created Lavos. Now with a lead, they head back to the Middle Ages to get Frog’s help and stop Magus. You then learn that he’s not actually a frog, but a man called Glenn. He was the squire of Sir Cyrus, a legendary knight who was killed in a battle with Magus. The same battle saw Glenn cursed by Magus and turned into the Frog we meet.
However, when presented with the chance to get even, Frog refuses the request to join the party, claiming that he isn’t worthy to help them. Once again, his insecurities hold him back. He shows the party what’s left of Cyrus’ sword — the Masamune — and explains that it’s the only tool that can defeat Magus, but after his defeat in battle, all that’s left of it is a broken hilt. We get a nice visual metaphor for Frog’s self-image; a sword with no blade perfectly reflecting the way that Frog’s self-worth is shattered, leaving him as a defensive “hilt” that holds him back from the “blade” of anger and his desire for revenge.
Whether Frog wants to use it or not, the party still needs the Masamune. This sets off a quest to fix the sword that takes Crono and the gang across time to find prehistoric materials, the missing parts of the sword and someone to put it back together. What’s especially interesting here is that this amounts to a traditional hero’s journey.
If you don’t know what that is, the short version is that in a mythic story structure (as defined by literary critic Joseph Campbell), a hero would receive a call to adventure to fix the world’s problems, refuse that call, eventually be convinced to accept it, then go on an adventure fighting against physical and mental obstacles before growing as an individual, earning the key to fixing the world and using it to defeat evil and save the world. It’s a structure you probably know from Star Wars or The Hobbit, but it’s also common in a lot of ‘80s and ‘90s role-playing games like Final Fantasy IV and Dragon Quest III.
What makes the quest to repair the Masamune interesting is that you are essentially pushing Frog’s hero’s journey forward on his behalf. He has already accepted a call to adventure and faced countless difficulties with Cyrus, but it goes wrong. Cyrus is unsuccessful, Frog’s transformation was for the worse and the Masamune isn’t the cure to the world’s problems. Repairing the Masamune allows Frog to regain his confidence, accept a second call to adventure and redirect his self-loathing into vengeful anger. He then directs that anger toward a large mountain that he splits in half, much to the delight of 11 year old me… and 23 year old me.
This is where Frog’s story and Chrono Trigger’s story as a whole takes a different turn. While the attack on Magus’ castle is a massive climax for the game up to that point, the twist after defeating Magus influences where Frog’s story goes from that point forward. Right as Frog is about to take revenge for Cyrus, Magus reveals that he was summoning Lavos from beneath the Earth to kill it. To me, this moment is where Chrono Trigger goes from great to incredible. The scope of the story broadens out as you realise that everything you knew up to this point is barely scratching the surface of the full story. By having Magus have the same goal as the heroes, the game raises more questions about what Lavos is and why Magus knows about it in the first place. That said, Frog is left in an awkward position after this. He didn’t get revenge and failed to defeat Magus again. That’s where his story is left for a good while as you’re thrown through time into prehistory before you have the chance to process things.
Instead, Magus takes centre stage when you find the ancient kingdom of Zeal. It is revealed that while everyone else was flung to the prehistoric era, he was sent back as well, to what is actually his original time period. As a result, he is present both as a child called Janus and an adult, and you learn his story from both perspectives. As a child, he sees Lavos kill his sister Schala and destroy his home before he gets thrust into the Middle Ages, where he is groomed into becoming the man we meet. As an adult, he has the benefit of hindsight and claims to be a prophet with visions of the future to try and stop his past from happening. It’s an efficient use of time travel as a storytelling tool that both humanises and allows you to sympathise with the seemingly ultimate evil that was Magus. Much like how there was a strong-willed hero hiding within Frog, there’s a sad little boy who wants his sister back in Magus. What separates the two is that Frog never forgets Glenn and everything he stood for, while Magus buries every trace of Janus along with his old home and embraces his position as the Fiend Lord to get revenge.
So, when Frog and Magus finally meet again, Crono is dead, Schala is gone, Magus’ plan as the prophet failed to stop Lavos and Frog has failed to protect his friends again. Yet they stand together on the edge of a cliff overlooking the ruins of a once proud kingdom. In this moment, neither of them has anything left but their hatred for each other. Then, the game gives you a choice: Fight Magus or leave him. It’s a simple yes or no decision, like so many up to this point, but it determines how Frog and Magus’ stories end. Magus’ battle theme is already playing while you make this decision — their final duel seems inevitable, but you as the player are still given the choice to say no.
I didn’t even think it was a real option the first time I played the game. I just assumed you could say no to inevitably come back later but what actually happens blew my mind. If you fight Magus, Frog kills him and gets his revenge. The other party members and the game itself never berates you for killing him, but in his last moments, he tells you about a way to bring Crono back from the dead, you get the pendant his sister trusted him with and ultimately, Frog is still cursed, still a frog. There’s something melancholic about it and the game uses the concept of post-battle loot and that simple choice to make you feel like Magus’ story and maybe even his redemption had been cut short, even if in that moment Frog was justified in his actions.
What happens if you do say no, though? Frog puts his sword away, tells Magus that “vanquishing thee will neither return Crono nor Cyrus” and just walks away. Magus then talks to Frog about how to save Crono and he joins the party. This scene perfectly mirrors Frog’s introduction, as he walks away and needs to be convinced to join forces with Magus like he did with Crono. The key difference here is that his decision to walk away comes from his inner strength and conviction to do good by those he lost rather than the guilt and embarrassment he starts with. The final encounter between Frog and Magus is a beautiful milestone to show how far he has come since that initial encounter. Whether you choose to fight or not, the story continues and Frog has to live with his actions.
Even though the revenge story is done after that, Frog still needs closure. His journey has transformed him internally, but he still hasn’t realised it. When you do his side quest at the end of the game, he has a chance encounter with the ghost of Cyrus. He seems angry at Frog but nobody knows why. After some time travel shenanigans, Frog finds himself at Cyrus’ grave. Here, Cyrus admires how much Frog has grown and the two finally get to make their goodbyes. Now that Frog can move on from the past, the keepers of the Masamune unleash its true power and it gains the strength needed to save the world and complete his hero’s journey. Interestingly, if you bring Magus along, he hides his face from the rest of the party and avoids making eye contact with Frog. Without a word, you can see how leaving Magus alive lets him feel the weight of his actions. He never apologises, he never vows to atone for his actions and he doesn’t want redemption, but in that moment you can tell he wishes it could’ve been different. Unlike Frog, he can’t accept the past and doesn’t know how to move on.
I think that’s the core of what makes Frog such a wonderful character. He is a man who has faced a horrible tragedy, is filled with regrets and hates himself. Despite this he still has a strong sense of what makes a hero, and even though he doesn’t believe he fits that description until the very end, he tries to live up to it. Initially, he thinks that revenge will let Cyrus rest, but that satisfaction doesn’t arrive, whether he kills Magus or not. His true power doesn’t come from a big battle or a challenge to prove his might, but from getting a chance to say goodbye to his closest friend. He is so wrapped up in preserving Cyrus’ legacy that he doesn’t realise that he has surpassed his mentor until Cyrus himself tells it to his face. He tries to have a longer conversation, but Cyrus’ spirit fades away before he can, not because he doesn’t want to talk more, but because he doesn’t need to.
I think the way Frog overcomes his demons and learns to love himself, warts and all, is what makes the character so beloved. The simple desire to help people and belief in the good in people that every character in Chrono Trigger, even Magus, possesses despite everything they go through is what has given it such a legacy and why it will continue to inspire people like myself and countless others for decades to come.
