ABSTRACT
The central principle of videogame design is that games should slowly get more difficult as the player gets deeper into them. This chapter focuses on how Chrono Trigger implements many of the core principles of videogame design in its systems, especially in enemy design. The gradual development of non-boss enemies in Chrono Trigger is generally uninteresting; most of the interesting design ideas appear in the boss fights. Nevertheless, the way that Chrono Trigger's later bosses gradually combine each of the individual boss attributes is a perfect demonstration of how the process of accumulation works. There is only one real evolution in wipeout attacks. Chrono Trigger is not as granular as Super Mario World, but the two games definitely have some iterative practices in common. In Reverse Design: Super Mario World, the author laid out definitions for qualitative "evolutions" and quantitative "expansions" in the "challenge, cadence, skill theme (CCST)" framework.
