90s roleplayer Chrono Trigger celebrates 30th birthday by teasing new projects
One of the most revered role-playing games ever made has turned 30 this week and fans are begging Square Enix to re-release it for modern consoles.
One of the most revered role-playing games ever made has turned 30 this week and fans are begging Square Enix to re-release it for modern consoles.
Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest may be Square Enix’s bread and butter, but for many people, including us, the company’s best 16-bit role-player will always be Chrono Trigger. Despite the worldwide acclaim it’s received though, Square Enix has rarely done anything with it.
There was only ever one traditional sequel, Chrono Cross for the PS1 (which hasn’t aged as gracefully and has little gameplay or story connection to the original), and a Japanese-only text-based visual novel called Radical Dreamers, that’s since been integrated into the Chrono Cross remaster.
However, with any luck, fans will be seeing more of Chrono Trigger later this year, as Square Enix has teased new Chrono Trigger related projects as part of the game’s 30th anniversary.
What is Chrono Trigger?Chrono Trigger launched for the SNES in 1995 and depicts a band of heroes who must travel through different time periods to save the world. It only ever launched in Japan and the US, though, even when it was ported to the PS1 in 1999.
It didn’t become available in the UK until the 2008 Nintendo DS port, though nowadays you can easily get the game on mobile devices and PC via Steam.
However, it’s surprisingly still absent on modern consoles. Ideally, a new re-release is what Square Enix is hinting at in an X post it made earlier today, to commemorate the game’s original launch in Japan.
‘As we mark the 30th anniversary, we will be launching various projects that go beyond the world of the game over the next year to express our gratitude to everyone who has played Chrono Trigger so far,’ it reads.
Judging by the responses, a re-release seems to be the most popular demand, with PlayStation 5, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch owners all asking for their own version to play.
Others, though, have suggested a full-blown remake or remaster, specifically one done in the same HD-2D style as the Dragon Quest 3 remake.
Any Chrono Trigger remaster or remake, though, would have to be done without the ‘dream team’ credited for spearheading the original game: Hironobu Sakaguchi, Yuji Horii, and Akira Toriyama.
While Horii, who created Dragon Quest, is still with Square Enix, and currently busy with Dragon Quest 12, Sakaguchi left the company years ago in 2003 and Toriyama (who served as a character designer on Chrono Trigger and the Dragon Quest games) sadly died last year.
The sprite work still holds up so the graphics don’t need that much of a glow up (Square Enix)Email [email protected], leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter, and sign-up to our newsletter.
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