that opening scene was for me as an 8-10 year old kid replaying it over and over. I grew up with a single mom. I always slept in, as most young boys do. She never remembered my friend's names. I was always left to kinda figure out life on my own terms, too. Like Crono. 2/8

the single mom of JRPG protagonist is kind of a common trope. There are some with happy, whole families, but often, it's a plucky upstart from a broken home in some way. What I always appreciated was that it's almost NEVER explored as part of the protagonist's backstory. 3/8