Nothing surpasses chronotrigger even after all these years.

Two contemporaries of chronotrigger that were much different but still quite good are terranigma and seiken detensu 3.

Two games that claimed to be trying to do something similar mechanically that are RPGs are septerra core and anachronox. Both are for PC and should run on a potato these days.

The legacy of Kain series and in particular the soul reaver offshoot has a great story and time travel elements, but they're more action puzzle games.

Can you give me some tips?

I've come back to this game to give it another shot since it was originally released, I never really enjoyed it or got past the first entry into the future.

This time round I've just gained access to the prehistoric world, although I'm not sure I should visit here yet, and I have got parts of the Masamune sword, I beat the two kids recently,, but I'm basically lost and without a quest log in game I don't know what ime supposed to be doing next, any ideas?

Suikoden.

To add to all the other great suggestions:

LIVE A LIVE

An rpg with multiple stories. Each in a different time period and with slightly different mechanics. It was first released for the snes only in Japan, but has recently been rereleased in the style of Octopath Travelers

The world ends with you

Part action rpg and jrpg. It's set in modern (at the time) Tokyo and has a great story. It was originally released on the DS and has been rereleased on the Switch. A cool but lacking sequel was released some years ago too.

CROSSCODE

Action rpg with an MMORPG setting (game is singleplayer)

Phantasy Star 4 for Genesis. 2 & 3 were also really good but 4 was by far the best. I would not bother with the 1st.

Maybe that’s why I didn’t get into many of them after it and replayed it so many times.

Phantasy Star IV does not reach the same level, but you should give it a try anyway. It has some neat things for its time, if you can put yourself back there. Like comic style "cutscenes" in a 16-bit game, and hidden combination attacks.

Chrono Cross (PS1). I've only played through it once but while very different and odd, I still had a good time. Despite being a sequel, it doesn't feel similar.