Music of Chrono Cross

Lore & Background

Yasunori Mitsuda returned as lead composer for Chrono Cross after composing its predecessor, Chrono Trigger. After being contacted by game director Masato Kato, Mitsuda centered his work around Old World cultural influences, including Mediterranean, Fado, Celtic, and percussive African music. To complement the theme of parallel worlds, he gave the songs for the two worlds of the game, Another and Home, respectively dark and bright moods. Mitsuda was happy to accomplish even half of what he envisioned. Once production concluded, he played Chrono Cross to record his impressions and observe how the tracks intermingled with scenes.

The music of Radical Dreamers, a 1996 text-based visual novel set as a side story to Chrono Trigger, heavily inspired the soundtrack of Chrono Cross. Several themes and musical patterns from Radical Dreamers were adapted for Chrono Cross on the suggestion of Masato Kato; many appear unchanged except for new instrumentation. Appearing in Chrono Cross are "Gale", "Frozen Flame", "Viper Manor", "Far Promise ~ Dream Shore" (as part of "On the Beach of Dreams - Another World" and "The Dream that Time Dreams"), "The Girl who Stole the Stars", and "Epilogue ~ Dream Shore" (as part of "Jellyfish Sea"). Other entries in the soundtrack contain leitmotifs from Chrono Trigger and Radical Dreamers.

Reader's Guide

The Chrono Cross Original Soundtrack spans three discs and 67 tracks, covering a duration of 3 hours. It was published by DigiCube on December 18, 1999, and reprinted by Square Enix on June 29, 2005. The soundtrack won the Gold Prize for Sony's PlayStation Awards of 2000 and reached #72 on the Japan Oricon charts on its first print. A mini-album, Chrono Cross Music Selection, was released in North America exclusively as a bonus for pre-ordering the game. In 2015, Mitsuda released To Far Away Times: Chrono Trigger & Chrono Cross Arrangement Album to commemorate the 20-year anniversary of Chrono Trigger. An orchestral arrangement album was released on September 4, 2019, and a piano collections album was published on February 4, 2021. Songs from the soundtrack have been played at various orchestral concerts, such as the personal arrangements by Mitsuda for the Play! A Video Game Symphony concert series. Chrono Cross music has also been extensively remixed by fans, and such remixes have been included in both official and unofficial albums.

Did You Know?

• The soundtrack includes leitmotifs from both Chrono Trigger and Radical Dreamers.
• The ending song 'Radical Dreamers ~ Unstolen Jewel ~' was sung by Noriko Mitose, selected by Masato Kato.
• The Chrono Cross Music Selection mini-album was released only in North America as a pre-order bonus.
• An arranged album was first announced in 2005 but was not released until 2015 as To Far Away Times.