Before anything, the player selects a battle mode and names the main character. I'm using default name of クロノ (Crono, or Chrono if you prefer). Then we get to the real opening...

The camera pans by a seaside town. Seagulls cry out, and balloons, loud noises, and other indications of festivities come from a park on the north side of town. The screen centers over one of the houses, then fades out. The sound of a bell (a large one like in a bell tower, not an alarm) is heard.

: Crono...
Crono!
Hey, Crono!

Fade in to reveal a bedroom. A woman stands next to a bed with someone sleeping in it, and a cat lies on the floor. 1-3 朝の日ざし (Morning Sunlight) plays.

Gina: How long are you sleeping?
Get up already!

There's a bit of a difference between "Gina" and "MOM", isn't there... "Jina" is equally valid if you prefer that spelling.

Gina walks over to the window and opens the curtains. Crono squirms in bed.

Gina: Ahh, Leene's Bell is
singing so pleasantly.

MOM: Ah, Leene's Bell makes such
beautiful music!

Gina: I'll bet you wound up too excited to
get to sleep last night, didn't you?
It IS the National Foundation Millennial
Festival, so I suppose that's only natural...
But don't get caught up in the moment
and party too much!

MOM: You were so excited about the
Millenial Fair that you didn't sleep
well, did you...?
I want you to behave yourself today!

Gina heads downstairs, and Crono finally gets out of bed. He has bright red spiky hair, green eyes, and wears a blue tunic, red footwear, and red armbands.

He's also apparently telepathic, since he never has any trouble communicating, even though he never actually speaks at any point in the game, with the exception of a single alternate ending. Actually, it's probably just so you can picture Crono as yourself, or something like that, but still.

The internal storyline progression tracking variable is now 0x03.

Anyway, he heads downstairs too. 1-4 やすらぎの日々 (Tranquil Days) plays. The cat follows Crono around the room, for what it's worth.

Gina: I see you finally got up.
Oh yes, your childhood friend,
that girl who likes inventions...
Oh, it's slipped my mind.
What was that girl's name?

The original doesn't make any distinctly gender-specific reference, but it hardly matters, since you can tell by the miniportrait on the naming screen. Then again, especially considering this is from Japan, maybe you really can't tell from that after all.

Time to name Crono's friend. I'm going with the default again, ルッカ (Lucca) for her.

Because English isn't entirely phonetic and often doesn't correspond exactly to Japanese sounds anyway, her name could as easily be "Lukka", "Rucca", or "Rukka", and "Luca", "Luka", etc. would work too. I go with "Lucca" because it looks better than most of the others, and I'm used to it from the NA release. Incidentally, that 'u' is closest to an English long 'u', so her name sounds more like "Luke" than like "luck".

Gina: That's right, Lucca!
You're going to see Lucca's invention, right?
Make sure not to be too late.
Go on, I'll see you later.

Crono leaves and heads to the festival.

The mayor's manor has tutorial information for playing the game, making it useful but optional.

I'm amazed at how much detail the NA version loses...

Referring to the NA version... First I'm not sure I've ever heard "real McCoy" used in actual conversation... it sounds corny. Second, I think that's a misuse of "log in". In any case, it would be better to use the same word for saving every time for consistency.

Advance warning: The following explaination of techinique effect ranges is mangled enough in the NA version to make it difficult to understand at times.

Scene change to a dull background in red with some borders. 1-12 戦い (Battle) plays, and some little blue goblins drop into the scene, in a line more or less facing Crono, who has his sword out.

A pointer points at the top goblin, and a magenta circle expands around it far enough to reach the middle one but not the bottom one.

The pointer moves to the center goblin, and a magenta circle of the same size appears, reaching all three goblins.

Two more goblins drop down, on a line from Crono through the bottom of the ones already present.

The pointer points at the farthest of the goblins lined up with Crono, and a yellow lines travels from Crono through all three and beyond.

The cursor moves to the nearest of those three goblins, and the line again goes through all three of them and beyond.

Actually, it usually does matter which monster this type of skill targets, since even though it hits everything on the line, the angle is rarely quite the same.

The cursor again moves to the farthest goblin, and a yellow line appears from Crono, through the middle two, and up to but not past the far one.

The cursor again moves to the nearest goblin, but this time the yellow line extends only to it.

Three of the goblins are now lined up horizontally. The cursor points at one, and a yellow line goes through all three and off both sides of the screen.

The cursor points at a different one of the lined-up goblins, and the yellow line again goes through all three and off both sides of the screen.

Again, it sometimes does matter which one you target, since the line may shift up or down somewhat.

A magenta circle spreads out from Crono, but doesn't hit anything.

The goblins all jump in close to Crono, and the circle appears again, covering them all.

The scene returns to the mayor's manor.

The maximums for various attributes are level 99, 999 HP (still displays as a number), 99 MP (still displays as a number), 255 attack power (still displays as a number, and only one character can reach it), 255 defense power (still displays as a number, but 238 is the highest possible without cheating anyway), 99 power, 16 speed (use Speed Capsules to raise), 99 evasion (only two characters can reach 99, and only with an accessory), 99 hit (but 98 is the highest possible without cheating, even with accessories), 99 magic power, 99 stamina, and 99 magic defense.

Also, attack power, at least, isn't really capped at 255; only the displayed value is. The one character who can reach 255, thanks in large part to using character level as part of the calculation, can most definitely exceed it, reaching nearly 400 attack power at level 99, and the additional amount will increase attack damage. The same goes for a certain skill for another character that uses the same attack power calculation.

Note that because magic defense works as a percentage reduction (roughly; it's actually out of 102.4 and not 100), small differences in the amount near maximum value mean huge proportionate differences in damage taken. If a magic attack would inflict 12,000 damage to someone with no magic defense, one with 99 takes (about) only 398 damage, while at 98 it's 516 damage, 633 at 97, and so on. Put another way, you'll take roughly four times as much magic damage at 89 mDef as compared to 99 mDef. Maxing it out is extremely useful. Defense actually works similarly, as damage is multiplied by 1 - (defense/256), but since you can't get as close to the maximum, the difference is less obvious.

Conversely, monsters can have a maximum of 255 defense and 100 magic defense, so for the excessively armored ones it's the physical attacks that are reduced more, elemental effects notwithstanding. Such a monster would cut our hypothetical 12,000 damage attack to 47 if physical or 281 if magical.

Scene change to the lead character on a black background. "Battle" plays. The character is hunched over with purple bubbles around the head.

Poison:
Your HP gradually decreases.
While under this condition,
your attack power also drops.

The attack penalty from poison seems to be about 20%.

The character now stands normally, but with a glowing white outline.

Slow:
Your speed slows, and you can't move
on to your next attack as quickly.

The character now falls on the ground, with little zZ snores.

Sleep:
You fall sleep, and your defense drops.
But take an attack and you'll wake up.

The character now stands, laughing insanely, with a star spinning overhead.

Confusion:
You don't know what you're doing any more.
You'll do things like attacking allies. Scary!

Confusion in this game isn't nearly as bad as in many others. Confused characters will attack at random, but will only use normal attacks, with a low hit rate and vastly reduced power (25%?). This minimizes the damage it can do, and means it won't waste any MP or items.

The character stands normally, but has a symbol in front of the face that blinks between an eye and a big X.

Blind:
You can't see your surroundings well and
have a hard time hitting monsters with attacks.

The character now has a big ? overhead.

Lock:
You become unable to use any techniques.

The character now stops moving except shaking the head, with a stopwatch overhead.

Stop:
This is when your movement stops and
you become unable to do anything.

Scene change back to the mayor's house.

Some enemies may also inflict a status effect typically called "slip" in Squaresoft games, which causes HP to gradually drop. Anything that prevents negative status in general will prevent it.

There are also a number of (mostly) positive status effects, listed in order of visual priority from highest to lowest:

Berserk (Berserk Ring): +50% bonus to physical damage, but the character attacks uncontrollably. I find that the damage bonus typically doesn't make up for mindless targeting and no skills. Indicated visually by a flushed appearance.

Barrier (Prism Dress, ★Magic Barrier, Barrier Ball): Magical damage taken is reduced by about 1/3. Indicated visually by a pulsing green outline.

Protect (Protect Helm, Berserk Ring, ★Protect, Protect Ball): Physical damage taken is reduced by about 1/3. Indicated visually by a defensive stance and pulsing yellow outline.

Haste (Haste Helm, ★Haste): Speed is effectively doubled, up to a maximum of 24; the maximum without Haste is 16. Indicated visually by a pulsing red outline.

Reraise (Verdant Dream, Keep Araise): If incapacited, automatically revive with HP = magic * 5, but lose the status. No visual indication.

There's no real point to coming here, as the ferry just goes to Palepoli, and you can walk there across Zenan Bridge, to the southwest of Truce (which is this town, as can be seen in the inn name).

The bridge is known to have been broken in a prerelease version, which would have made the ferry needed to reach the southern continent—and get back, so the likely original purpose for the mayor there paying visitors a small amount exactly equal to the fare for spinning around and clucking like a chicken was to ensure players couldn't get stranded on the wrong side. Also in the prerelease, a man in the Truce Inn mentioned that the bridge across the Zenan Channel had recently been destroyed in an earthquake. The same man talks about earthquakes in the final version, but they have no relevance any more. And since the ferry could bypass the bridge anyway, it's also unclear what the point of it being out was to begin with, unless earthquakes were supposed to be significant.

Anyway, now there's no real reason to come here other than talking to the NPCs. So let's do that.

Elaine: My boyfriend... Fritz went
on a journey and hasn't returned...
I would ask for nothing more if only
he were here...

ELAINE: If only Fritz would return.
I'd ask for nothing more!

There's also little point to visiting Guardia Forest, though it has some weak monsters and a few treasures, particularly a Power Capsule in the southeast.

The Mini Calamity (Avian Chaos) is comparatively strong and can inflict Confusion status, but will not yet engage in combat at this point. The monsters that will fight, Scarabée (Beetle) and Mossty (Hetake), should be pushovers even for a novice adventurer. None have any weaknesses, but since you don't have much in the way of attack options at this point, and only the Mini Calamity has more than 14 hit points anyway, it hardly matters.

Visiting the castle proves even more pointless, since the guards deny entry. Let's just go to that festival.

The square is full of people, games, merchant booths, colorful decorations, and so on. 1-6 ガルディア王国千年祭 (Guardia Kingdom Millennial Festival) plays, as the festival is a celebration of Guardia Kingdom's 1000th anniversary. As he roams around trying to see everything, Crono runs into a girl who isn't looking where she's going either. She has long blonde hair in a ponytail, green eyes, and wears a white top and baggy pants. The collision knocks them both to the ground, and a pendant flies off to the side. The music halts as soon as they run into each other.

Girl: Eeek!
Owie...

She gets up slowly, brushing herself off. Leene's Bell, nearby, starts ringing on its own as she goes to check on Crono.

Girl: I-I'm sorry!
Are you okay?

Girl: H-huh?
My pendant...

GIRL: Uh oh...
My pendant!

Crono, as usual, doesn't say anything, but he gets up and nods. She starts rushing back and forth, though.

The internal storyline progression tracking variable is now 0x06.

Crono can check on her to find out what's wrong:

Girl: Th-this is awful!
Could I have lost it?

GIRL: Oh, no!
Don't tell me I've lost it!

Spotting the pendant nearby, Crono picks it up and takes it to her.

Girl: Thanks!!
That pendant's mine.
It's worn out, but it's really important.
Could you give it back?

Crono can refuse, but nothing else happens until he gives it back to her.

Girl: I came to see the festival.
Hey, you're from this town, right?
It's no fun alone.
Let's wander around together!
That's okay, right? C'mon, okay?

Girl: Oh, come on! Please, think of it as
helping a out poor helpless girl

The music resumes playing as soon as Crono agrees.

Girl: Yaaay, all right!
Ah, I haven't told you my name.
U-ummm, I'm...

Time for the player to name her. I'm going with the default, as always, and that's マール (Marle) in this case.

Marle is pronounced with the 'e' more or less like one of those schwa sounds that most dictionaries show as an upside-down 'e'. They're the unemphasized vowels that come out sounding like a weak 'uh', like the 'a' in 'about'. The correct pronunciation of her name is actually somewhat important later.

Marle: I'm Marle.
And you?
Crono? That's a good name!
Nice to meet you, Crono!
C'mon, let's go, quick!

Crono and Marle head off together.

The internal storyline progression tracking variable is now 0x08.

Note that the Mini Calamity in Guardia Forest will participate in combat now that Marle has joined the group.

Though most of it is completely optional, there's a lot to see and do at the festival. Here's a sampling of some of the events and attractions.

Gonzales is a large, red, vaguely humanoid robot that also sort of resembles a cat. And he sings, too: 1-7 ゴンザレスのお (Gonzales's Song)

I guess "Gato" because it's shorter and Spanish for "cat"? I can't deny that the English version of the song is catchier, though.

So they fight. Crono wields a katana, and Marle uses a crossbow. During this battle, and every other regular one, "Battle" plays. Like most battles, winning nets not just the experience points normally found in RPGs, but also わざポイント (tech points) needed to learn combat techniques, which is how the game collectively refers to skills and spells.

With 76 hit points, Gonzales can survive several attacks at this point, and he'll also strike back at a nearby character—not necessarily the attacker—when struck, as long as any are close enough. Otherwise, he's unremarkable, and has no weaknesses or resistances.

After earning a few tech points, Crono and Marle start learning techniques, and even learn one that they do together (which is one of the Really Nifty Things about Chrono Trigger). However, after learning their second techniques, Crono and Marle both suddenly stop learning more, even though both have plenty of free space on their technique lists. More on that later...

As far as combat attributes go, Crono has better physical stats than magical and is quite fast, while Marle has better magical stats than physical. Interestingly, they have the same hit rate as each other at every level. While this leaves them tied for last place in that category, it's not far below the average, and most enemies have little evasion anyway, so it rarely has any effect beyond hindering Marle's attack power slightly.

Crono's status screen has a golden 天 (Aether) in the top corner, and Marle's has a blue 水 (Water). This means more later, but for now I'll just mention that each has an innate 20% resistance to attacks of the matching trait.

So anyway, they beat Gonzales. His song plays again for his litte ditty, then the usual music resumes.

Elsewhere, a little girl is crying...

わたち (watachi) is either a cutesy kiddy version of わたし (watashi), or it's the Japanese equivalent of "miffing my two fwont teef"...

Crono can find the cat across the square and lead it back to the girl.

Elsewhere, a kid talks history...

This is foreshadowing, though the NA version mostly loses it. Also note their different translation of 魔王 here, as opposed to "Magus" elsewhere.

魔王 (maou) is a tricky term to translate. As becomes clear later, it refers to a person. 魔 roughly equates to "demon" or "magic", but in this case it's more likely a direct reference to 魔族 (mazoku). 魔族, in which 族 indicates a "tribe" or "race", refers in Chrono Trigger to a collection of mostly humanoid supernatural creatures. "Demons" is perhaps the closest English can come, though 魔族 doesn't seem to have quite the same connotations. Getting back to 魔王, since 王 equates to "king", the title just means that he's their ruler, but writing out King of the Demons gets very cumbersome very quickly. I thought about "Warlock King" for a while, but that gets to be a pain too. Eventually, I just gave in and went with the NA rendition, but I try to refer to him as "the Magus" rather than simply "Magus" to reflect that it's a title, not a name. In other contexts, I've taken to rendering the term as "Dark Lord" or "Archfiend".

As I previously neglected to note, the terms and concepts most likely originate more from European folklore than anything else. 魔王 seems to be a Japanization of the Erlkönig (anglicized as "Erlking") of German folklore, and 魔族 is perhaps comparable to the originally Scottish idea of the Unseelie Court. None of them seem to be quite well enough ingrained into English usage to make them adequately suitable here, though. 魔王 and 魔族 have also been used as equivalents to the devil and demons, but again, that's never felt quite right to me in many contexts where I've seen them used, including this game (though there are other contexts where that interpretation fits nicely).

Marle giggles. She seems to do that a lot.

Marle: I'm happy!
I'm here with Crono.

Marle: Crono...
I'm having a great time!

One of the merchants in the square looks particularly distinctive.

Normally he functions as just another merchant, but if Crono talks to him after Marle joins up, Bosch notices her pendant.

As with any event, there are gossips around. And we all know how often rumors in RPGs are meaningful, right?

One intersting side bit in this game is seeing how Crono's mother reacts to the various party members...

Gina: Oh my, how unusual for Crono to do a
thing like bringing a girl besides Lucca here.
What's your name?

MOM: My, how nice!
I've only seen you with Lucca!
Who's your pretty new friend?

Marle: It's nice to meet you!
I'm Marle.

Gina: Hm? Marle?
...?
Haven't I met you somewhere?
How odd. Perhaps it's my imagination.

MOM: Eh?! Marle?
...?
I'm sure I've seen you before, dear!
Now, where was that...?

More foreshadowing...

Back to the festival. After Marle joins Crono, talking to any of several people here will allow the story to advance. Here's one of them.

Marle: Huh, sounds interesting.
Lead the way, Crono!

Marle: This is going to be fun!
Come on, Crono!

So Crono goes to check it out. On the way there...

Marle: Wait up!!
I'm gonna go buy some candy!

Crono waits as she browses a candy booth.

Trying it again goes over even worse...

Marle: This isn't a kidnapping, is it?
Don't yank on my arm like that!

Eventually, Marle picks something.

Marle giggles and turns to Crono.

They now reach the north end of the square, where a small crowd faces a strange device with two large platforms that resemble sci-fi teleport pods. A man speaks to the crowd, while a girl who could only be Lucca tweaks the equipment. She's wearing an orange dress and large glasses, has teal eyes, and wears a shell-like hat that covers most of her purple hair.

Taban: Come one, come all, all those
with the time and bravery bear witness!
THIS is the great invention of the century!
It's the Ultra Dimensional Matter-Transfer
Machine Number 1!!
In short, when you get on over here,

Taban runs to the other pod.

Taban: You're transferred to over here.
The device works like a dream!
The one who invented this my very own
sharp-minded daughter, abounding in
both brilliance and beauty, Lucca!

At this, Lucca turns around and does a little victory dance, but no one looks interested in getting any closer to that bizarre contraption. Crono, being sympathetic, and perhaps more brave than sensible, decides to investigate—he's the protagonist; does he really have any other choice?

If you've carried over data from another save, after clearing the game and unlocking that option, the righthand pod will have a sparkle on it that jumps directly to the final boss when examined. Clearing the game at this point results in the alternate ending "The Dream Project".

Upon speaking to Lucca, the internal storyline progression tracking variable becomes 0x0A.

Lucca: Crono!
I've been waiting for you!
Nooo one will put the Telepod's
transferrence to the test.
Come on, won't you do it?

Marle: It looks neat!
Try it out. I'll be watching!

She walks over to stand with the other spectators.

In an interesting bit of attention to detail, Marle's Pendant is removed from your inventory at this point.

Crono gets in the pod, and Taban and Lucca take up positions by the controls.

Crono turns into a cloud of sparkles, which then floats to the other pod and turns back into Crono.

Everyone: Ohhhh!!
Great!!

The funniest thing about that line, IMO, is that "great" is in English, just written phonetically in katakana.

Taban: Everything went well!?
What an unusual...
A-ahem!
No, no, it's Lucca's invention,
so of course! Isn't it great!?

Lucca: So, were you surprised?
You can do it again, if you want?

Crono can keep trying it repeatedly without incident, but talk to Marle to continue.

You can save a little time by talking to Marle as soon as she steps aside. Crono doesn't need to use the device himself for her to be ready to try it "too".

Lucca: Huh?
Hey, hold on, Crono.
Just when did you manage
to pick up such a cute girl?

Marle: I can do it, right, Crono?
Wait here.
Don't go anywhere!

行っちゃや is 行ってはいや run together. Basically the same as 行ってはいけない, but with いや ("DO NOT WANT") instead of いけない (must not do).

Taban: Well, well, the challenger
is such a lovely young woman!
Come on, right this way please!

Marle: Eh heh heh.
Well, be right back!

Taban: Are you sure this is okay?
If you're quitting, now's the time for it.

Marle: No problem!
It's not like it's scary or anything.

She steps onto the left platform. Ominously, the music fades to silence.

Taban: Well then, everyone!
Let's hear some applause when this
lovely young woman vanishes.

TABAN: Okay, everyone, let's give her a
great big hand when she reappears!

As the machine powers up, 1-8 不思議な出来事 (Strange Happening) begins playing, and a light begins to shine from somewhere around Marle's chest...

Marle: What's this?
My pendant's...

Electricity suddenly arcs from the machine, driving Lucca and Taban away from the controls.

Between the pods, some kind of rift in space opens. Instead of reappearing on the right pod, Marle materializes in the middle of the distortion. Her pendant drops to the ground, and the rift closes, leaving no sign of either Marle or itself.

Taban: Hey, Lucca, she's
not coming out?

TABAN: Lucca!
Where is she?!

Taban: Y-yes! As you can see,
she's vanished without a trace!
Sh-show's over!!

TABAN: Show's over, folks!
Let's head along now!

Everyone leaves except Crono, Lucca, and Taban.

Taban: Hey, Lucca!
What the hell's going on?
What happened to that girl!?

Lucca: The way that girl vanished isn't
how the Telepod's transference works.
The way space warped... and how
the pendant seemed to be reacting...
and there's something... else...

Taban: What should we do?
Can we help her?

"Can we" is implied; all he says outright in the second question is "helping her" as a sentence topic.

Lucca: That girl...
...hm? Come to think of it, haven't
I seen her somewhere before?

The internal storyline progression tracking variable is now 0x0C, starting the next chapter.