Music of Chrono Trigger

Lore & Background

Yasunori Mitsuda, a sound programmer at Square, was unhappy with his pay and threatened to leave the company if he could not compose music. Hironobu Sakaguchi suggested he score Chrono Trigger, remarking 'maybe your salary will go up.' Mitsuda wanted to create music that would not fit into any established genre, describing it as 'music of an imaginary world.' He consulted with director Masato Kato about settings and scenes before writing. Mitsuda struggled to start, trying four times and taking a month and a half before knowing how to compose. He slept in his studio several nights and attributed some tracks, such as 'To Far Away Times,' to inspiring dreams. He used leitmotifs of the main theme for consistency. A hard drive crash lost around forty in-progress tracks. After Mitsuda contracted stomach ulcers, Nobuo Uematsu joined to compose ten tracks and finish the score. Mitsuda cried upon seeing the finished ending scene before release. He considers Chrono Trigger a landmark title that helped his talent mature.

Reader's Guide

The music of Chrono Trigger is significant for its emotional range and lasting influence. The original soundtrack has been hailed as one of the best video game soundtracks ever made, with IGN calling it 'one of the best videogame soundtracks ever produced' and noting its role in capturing player emotions. The game won Electronic Gaming Monthly's 'Best Music in a Cartridge-Based Game' award in 1995. The soundtrack inspired four official album releases: the Original Sound Version (1995, re-released 2004), a greatest hits album (1999, with abbreviated versions in 2001 and 2005), an acid jazz arrangement album The Brink of Time (1995, re-released 2004), and a 2008 orchestral arranged album. A reissued soundtrack accompanied the Nintendo DS release in 2009, and a 2015 arranged album To Far Away Times commemorated the 20th anniversary. Pieces from the soundtrack have been played at orchestral concerts, including Mitsuda's personal arrangements for the Play! A Video Game Symphony series. The music has also been extensively remixed by fans, with remixes appearing on both official and unofficial albums.

Did You Know?

• Mitsuda suffered a hard drive crash that lost around forty in-progress tracks during development.
• Mitsuda contracted stomach ulcers during composition, leading Nobuo Uematsu to compose ten tracks to finish the score.
• The original soundtrack spans three discs and 64 tracks, covering a duration of 2:39:52.
• The acid jazz arrangement album The Brink of Time required frying several eggs to get the correct shape for its cover art.