So I am going to play Chrono Trigger for the first time ever

[Grey Acumen]

I'll also answer a few questions which I noticed were answered, but not really thoroughly.

2. The game itself is a reasonable length, but the one interesting point is that you can play the game multiple times, and you can even lose certain events and battles without actually losing the game. Playing a game over again to try to beat these points is quite a bit of fun, but the other thing is that certain items can only be obtained by manipulating time in the proper sequence, as a result, getting the best stuff in the game will almost absolutely take you more than 1 play through, on top of that there are roughly 7 different points at which you can randomly take on the boss character, and each different time you beat him creates a different ending.

Along with all of this is an option called Game+, if you beat the game, you can continue through the game using those characters, and having access to all of everyone's best equipment from the very beginning. In some cases, there is only a limited number of the best items in the game, so if you want to get the best item for EVERYONE you'll have to beat the game a solid 7 or 8 times, not counting cases where you beat the game at one of the non standard points which results in alternate endings.

3. You can name every one of your party members, though one or two of them, you're only naming their fake names... Of course if you do that, it makes it hard as hell to remember who is who is you're talking to anyone else about the game. Trust me, I did it, I suffered from it.

4. It depends on how you play through the game, if you take on pretty much EVERY encounter you come across, then you'll usually be reasonably leveled up by the time you hit the end of the game.

5. Battle encounters are usually not random. You can always see the enemy on screen, but there are occasional unavoidable battle encounters or ambush encounters(you don't see it coming, but if you know it's there, it's avoidable) The one thing to keep in mind is that avoiding too many battle encounters can make all following battles that much more difficult, it's usually better to just take on everything you can so that you're adequately leveled up.

6. There aren't really any summons, but there are cool moves, and you can learn to combine techniques. On top of this, there are even techniques that will be affected by what order your party is in, and how the enemies are laid out on the screen.

7. The BASIC story is easy to understand. The time travel part gets a little confusing. As long as you don't actually try to think too hard about it, it's an AWESOME story. it's amazing what they were able to do with nothing more than a few sprite animations

8. The overworld map has no encounters, sometimes there is a very limited path you can take, but sometimes you can literally go anywhere.

9. Extra tip that I got from a friend going into the game: in the fair, play the 80 silver pieces game and beat it. Yes, it's worth the hassle.