Chrono Trigger: Difference between revisions

Chrono Trigger was produced by [[Kazuhiko Aoki]] while director credits were attributed to [[Akihiko Matsui]], [[Yoshinori Kitase]] and [[Takashi Tokita]]. Supervisors included [[Hironobu Sakaguchi]], producer and creator of the Final Fantasy series, and [[Yuuji Horii]], director and creator of the Dragon Quest series. The game was originally developed without involvement from Tokita and Kitase, the latter being busy directing [[w:c:finalfantasy:Final Fantasy VII|Final Fantasy VII]].

A fan of time travel fiction, Horii fostered a theme of time travel in his general outline of Chrono Trigger with input from [[Akira Toriyama]]. [[Masato Kato]] subsequently edited and completed the outline by writing the majority of the game's story, including all the events of the 12,000 B.C. era. Kato devised the system of multiple endings because he could not branch the story out to different paths. Kitase and Tokita then wrote various subplots. The characters of Chrono Trigger were designed by Akira Toriyama, creator of the manga Dragon Ball and a longtime contributor to the Dragon Quest series. Other notable designers include [[Tetsuya Takahashi]], the graphic director, and [[Yasuyuki Honne]], [[Tetsuya Nomura]], and [[Yusuke Naora]], who worked as field graphic artists.

Early alpha versions of Chrono Trigger were demonstrated at the 1994 and 1995 V-Jump festivals in Japan. A few months prior to the game's release, Square shipped a beta version to magazine reviewers and game stores for review. An unfinished build of the game, it contains unused music tracks, locations, and other features changed or removed from the final release—such as a dungeon named [[Singing Mountain]], and its eponymous song. The ROM image was uploaded to the internet, prompting fans to explore and document the game's differences, including two unused world map character sprites and presumed additional sprites for certain non-player characters. Rumors of a planned eighth character exist, but are wholly unsubstantiated.

Chrono Trigger used a 32-megabit cartridge with battery-backed RAM for saved games, lacking special on-cartridge coprocessors. The Japanese release of Chrono Trigger included art for the game's ending and running counts of items in the player's status menu. Developers created the North American version before adding these features to the original build, inadvertently leaving in vestiges of Chrono Trigger's early development. Hironobu Sakaguchi asked translator [[Ted Woolsey]] to localize Chrono Trigger for English audiences and gave him roughly thirty days to work. Lacking the help of a modern translation team, he memorized scenarios and looked at drafts of commercial player's guides to put dialogue in context. Woolsey later reflected that he would have preferred two-and-a-half months, and blames his rushed schedule on the prevailing attitude in Japan that games were children's toys rather than serious works. Some of his work was cut due to space constraints, though he still considered the game "one of the most satisfying games I ever worked on or played." Nintendo of America censored certain dialogue, including references to breastfeeding, consumption of alcohol, and religion. ROM hackers released a literal fan translation patch and annotated script in 2007 to clarify key differences. Square shipped the game with two world maps, and Japanese buyers who preordered received holographic foil cards.

{| class="wikitable"  

! Super Famicom release

| [[Image:Ctsnesjapanboxart.jpg|129px]]

! Final Fantasy Chronicles

| [[Image:Ffcbox.jpg|129px|Final Fantasy Chronicles box art]]

Square released an enhanced port of Chrono Trigger developed by [[TOSE]] in Japan for the Sony PlayStation in 1999. Square timed its release before that of [[Chrono Cross]] to give new players familiarity with the story of its predecessor. This version included anime cut scenes created by original character designer Akira Toriyama's Bird Studio and animated by Toei Animation, as well as several bonus features, accessible after achieving various endings in the game. Scenarist Masato Kato attended planning meetings at Bird Studio to discuss how the ending cut scenes would illustrate subtle ties to Chrono Cross. The port was later released in North America in 2001 along with a remastered version of Final Fantasy IV under the package title [[Final Fantasy Chronicles]]. Reviewers criticized Chronicles for lengthy load times and an absence of new in-game features.

Whether Chrono Trigger will appear on the Wii's Virtual Console service depends on the settlement of certain copyright issues. A Nintendo Power reader poll conducted in April 2008 identified the game as the third-most wanted game for the Virtual Console. There have been two notable attempts by Chrono Trigger fans to unofficially remake parts of the game for the PC with a 3D graphics engine. [[Chrono Resurrection]], an attempt at remaking ten small interactive cut scenes from the game, and [[Chrono Trigger Remake Project]], which sought to remake the entire game, were forcibly terminated by Square Enix by way of a cease and desist order. Since then, fans have created a few ROM hacks.

On July 2, 2008, Square Enix announced that they were officially planning to bring Chrono Trigger to the [[Nintendo DS]] handheld platform. The updated rerelease is set to take advantage of the Nintendo DS hardware with a new dual-screen presentation, support for the touch screen, and a wireless play mode. The game will also add a brand new dungeon.