Chrono (series)

The Chrono series is a role-playing game franchise originally created and published by Square, and now under Square Enix. It launched in 1995 with *Chrono Trigger*, a game centered on time travel. This title led to two follow-ups: *Radical Dreamers: Nusumenai Hōseki* and *Chrono Cross*. A promotional anime and two ports of *Chrono Trigger* were also made. As of March 31, 2003, *Chrono Trigger* had shipped 2.65 million units, making it Square Enix’s 12th best-selling game, while *Chrono Cross* had shipped 1.5 million units, ranking 24th. By 2019, combined sales of the two games had exceeded 5.5 million units. Critics have called the series’ entries among the greatest of all time, with *Chrono Trigger* receiving most of the acclaim. The original soundtracks, composed by Yasunori Mitsuda, have also been widely praised, and multiple soundtrack releases have been produced. The first game, *Chrono Trigger*, was produced by Kazuhiko Aoki and directed by Akihiko Matsui, Yoshinori Kitase, and Takashi Tokita. Its development was called the "Dream Project," led by a "Dream Team" that included supervisor Hironobu Sakaguchi from *Final Fantasy*, freelance supervisor Yuji Horii and character designer Akira Toriyama from *Dragon Quest*. Horii, a fan of time travel fiction like the TV series *The Time Tunnel*, shaped the story’s time travel theme. Story planner and script writer Masato Kato finalized the outline. In 1996, Kato and other *Chrono Trigger* staff worked on a small project for the Super Famicom Satellaview extension, *Radical Dreamers: Nusumenai Hōseki*. Originally a short text-based adventure developed in three months with little planning, Kato later linked its plot and characters to *Chrono Trigger*, making it a side story. Because the Satellaview platform was not mainstream, these connections were left deliberately vague and unadvertised. In 1999, a continuation called *Chrono Cross* was announced. Though the "Dream Team" did not participate, most of the original staff returned. Producer Hiromichi Tanaka stated it was not a direct sequel; instead, the team aimed to let gameplay evolve with the hardware, creating a new game that restructured the original style to maximize console performance. The gameplay focuses on parallel worlds rather than time travel, though time travel remains central to the plot. Director and scenario writer Masato Kato described *Chrono Cross* as "not a *Chrono Trigger 2*," but "a result of a pulled trigger," "another Chrono."

*Chrono Trigger* was released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System on March 11, 1995, in Japan and August 22 in North America. Its story follows Crono and a group of young adventurers accidentally transported through time, who learn the world will be destroyed in the distant future and travel through history to prevent it. Critics consider it one of the greatest games ever made. It was ported to the PlayStation in 1999 in Japan and in 2001 as part of the *Final Fantasy Chronicles* compilation in North America. An enhanced port for the Nintendo DS arrived on November 20, 2008, later released on iOS in 2011, Android in 2012, and on PC via Steam on February 27, 2018. Three related applications were released for the Satellaview in 1995: *Character Library* (profiles of characters and monsters), *Jet Bike Special* (a racing minigame), and *Music Library* (soundtrack music). The contents of *Character Library* and *Music Library* were later included as extras in the PlayStation re-release. *Radical Dreamers: Nusumenai Hōseki* (meaning "The Jewel That Cannot Be Stolen") is a Japanese-exclusive text-based game released in 1996 for the Satellaview. The player controls Serge, a young adventurer, alongside Kid, a teen thief, and Gil, a mysterious masked magician. It serves as a side story to *Chrono Trigger*, resolving a loose plot thread from the original. *Chrono Cross* was released on the PlayStation on November 18, 1999, in Japan and August 15, 2000, in North America. Its story is partly a remake of *Radical Dreamers*, replacing it as *Chrono Trigger*'s successor. Protagonist Serge, facing an alternate reality where he died as a child, seeks his past and meets Kid, a thief searching for the Frozen Flame artifact. Their fates are ultimately rooted in the events of *Chrono Trigger*. A remaster, *Chrono Cross: Radical Dreamers Edition*, was released in 2022. Square Co. filed two trademarks: *Chrono Brake* in Japan on November 5, 2001, and *Chrono Break* in the United States on December 5, 2001. These followed a press report where Hironobu Sakaguchi mentioned the *Chrono Cross* team was interested in developing a new game in the series, with script and story ideas under consideration.