Be sure to continue the fun with our Chrono Trigger 25th Anniversary Celebration by checking out all our other posts.
The Chrono Trigger release date for North America is shrouded in mystery, as there are resources that point to either August 11 or August 22. However, we chose today because that's what was listed on the official Nintendo website that we found using the Wayback Machine.
That said, it's Chrono Trigger‘s birthday! 25 years. Wow. That's a long time for a game to have been released and stayed near the top of the popular consciousness, you know? And for a game to consistently be considered one of the — if not the — best games in its genre.
But if you've played CT, you probably already know why that is. (Unless you're Austin, but that's a whole different article…well, podcast.)
25 Years Ago…
Hironobu Sakaguchi (the big brain behind Final Fantasy) is credited as the Game Designer, Akira Toriyama (everyone's favorite Dragon Quest and Dragon Ball artist) did the Art Design, and Yuji Horii (Mr. Dragon Quest himself) is credited as a Supervisor. As the story goes, the three of them were in the U.S. together doing research when they decided to work on a game together.
So…Chrono Trigger was born. Well, kind of.
The actual directors of the games were Takashi Tokita (who directed FF IV and Parasite Eve), Akihiko Matsui, and Yoshinori Kitase, who’s really the big name here. Kitase directed FF VI, VII, VIII, and X. So if you were a fan of Final Fantasy in the mid-to-late 90s, this guy pretty much directed all of those games. Not to mention that Nobuo Uematsu, the genius composer behind FF's music was involved in guiding the composers for CT.
So basically…it was a big deal.
Yuji Horii is credited with coming up with the time travel theme of the game, and he came up with a lot of the scenarios. However, in interviews, it seems like he didn’t do much of the actual writing himself. Instead, he kinda just told the writers his ideas, and they fleshed those ideas out.
Our Enjoyment Came at a Price, Though
Probably one thing everyone who owned a copy of Chrono Trigger back in the day remembers is the higher-than-average cost of the game cart. Because of the sheer amount of data on the cartridge, a larger-than-normal amount of memory had to be included. That increased the price. Depending on where you lived, the cart could run anywhere from $79.99 to over $100+.
And what's really funny about that is because of its popularity…that price hasn't gone down any in the past couple of decades. Like most Pokemon games and Nintendo titles, fans were (and are) willing to pay for quality experiences.
So we're curious…did you then or have you lately paid a premium for the pleasure of playing Chrono Trigger on the SNES? And if so, how much?
Here's to Another 25 Years
We're just happy that the game has held up as well as it has. A lot of games from the mid-90s have not. They feel dated or even straight-up boring. But Chrono Trigger really feels as fresh as the day it was released, at least in terms of RPGs. Part of that is because it was such an influence on the games that came after it.
From New Game+, 13(ish) different endings, enemies on the field and no random battles, having multiple characters team up for attacks, non-linear RPG storytelling, and even missable party members, Chrono Trigger really was…wait for it…ahead of its time.
Be sure to continue the fun with our Chrono Trigger 25th Anniversary Celebration by checking out all our other posts.