I’ve played a lot of video games to completion over the years. I tend to finish these games once and then move on, periodically poking back in for a few minutes here and there. However, there have been a few games I’ve played through, start to finish, more than once. Metroid Prime, for example, I’ve played to completion four times. The SNES RPG Chrono Trigger, however, stands alone as a game I have played through at least a half dozen times. Three of those times were end on end. This game was that good.

With Chrono Trigger confirmed for Nintendo DS this November in North America, there’s a great deal of excitement floating around. There are all kinds of questions as well regarding additional material that’s being added for the port, but without a doubt, the game is going to sell very well. This feature will focus on some of the more obscure aspects of the game in great detail. That means this will serve as your spoiler alert. If you’ve never played Chrono Trigger and you don’t want to have the game’s various twists and turns ruined for you, stop reading now and ignore all of these from now on. Prepare yourself, for I am about to reminisce.

Today, I’ll talk about Spekkio, the Master of War.

Spekkio is first encountered at the End of Time in Chrono Trigger, sitting in a side room. He serves a singular special purpose in the game: he unlocks the magical abilities in most of the game’s playable characters. For example, the first time you bring Lucca to him, he unlocks her fire abilities. Then he battles you so you can test those abilities out.

Spekkio asks you if he looks strong to you, then after you respond, he explains that he looks strong if you are strong. When you first meet him, he looks pretty unintimidating. As you level up through the game he takes on different forms, eventually reaching the form you see in the above video, which is a pink Nu. As you’ll see if you watch the video, the pink Nu form of Spekkio is pretty darn powerful.

The most memorable aspect of Spekkio, however, may be his theme music, which is of course also in the video above. I had this music as a ringtone on my phone at one point, and it’s almost impossible not to smile when you hear it. Another testament to the excellent work of composer Yasunori Mitsuda.