The Story of Chrono Trigger: How the RPG Dream Team Created a Timeless Masterpiece
764Over 30 years ago, the three biggest names in Japanese RPGs got together for a once in a lifetime game!
(Chapter Markers and more below…)
Episode information
GTV 187 “The Dream Game" Season 10 Episode 4
Original Airdate: April 4, 2025
Produced February-March, 2025
Recorded at Butsudan Studios and edited on my 14” MacBook M1 Pro! Edited and produced with Photoshop, Final Cut Pro and on occasion Topaz Video and Photo AI. All paid for with Gainful Employment™ while riding the train to work and home, back and forth, day after day, and lunch breaks too!
0:00 GTV ID: Enough Time Where Available.
0:05 In Memory of Akira Toriyama
0:11 Introduction: Forward to the Past
0:43 Act 1: The Hero Appears
4:33 CM 1: Now is Our Dream (Japan, 1995)
4:50 Act 2: Break The Seal!
15:20 CM 2: The Complete Edition (Japan, 1999)
15:52 Act 3: The Village of Magic
24:14 CM 3: The Dream is Reborn (Japan, 2008)
24:31 Act 4: The Fated Hour
34:46 CM 4: Hop on In! (Japan, 2008)
35:03 Epilogue: The Final Battle
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Partial transcript
On November 26, 2002, the world of video games was rocked by the announcement of a merger between two Industry Giants: Square and Enix. While imaginations soared at the possibility of what these two companies could come up with as one entity, a collaboration of sorts had already happened 8 years earlier! In 1995 the best minds behind Enix’s Dragon Quest and Square’s Final Fantasy joined up to form “The RPG Dream Team” and release one of the best games of the genre that is still cherished 30 years later. Stay here for the Story of Chrono Trigger!!!
On March 11th, 1995 Chrono Trigger was released for the Super Famicom in Japan. A game that for almost a decade prior was on everyone’s wishlists. Even if you didn’t think about it because you didn’t expect it to ever be possible.
Chrono Trigger was a collaboration of the biggest names in the Japanese Role Play Game genre: Yuji Horii, Hironobu Sakaguchi and Akira Toriyama. Many other influential names were part of the project, but these three alone were jaw dropping when the first announcements of the game were made. Namely because the staff were from two different companies, and rivals at that.
By the ‘90s, a clear rivalry had formed with Team Dragon Quest on one side and Team Final Fantasy on the other. Within the industry itself, the competition was fierce, but there was a mutual respect amongst those who made the games. As such, Yuji Horii and Hironobu Sakaguchi would cross paths from time to time, and become friends. In the fall of 1992 members of both Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy team had traveled to America for seminars and workshops on next generation graphic design. While there, Hori, Sakaguchi and Akira Toriyama discussed the possibilities of a collaboration. A Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy Crossover, combining the best talent from each series, and giving the fans something they had always dreamed of, but never thought possible!
What made this theoretical arrangement possible were the stark differences in the corporate and managerial structures of Enix and Square.
On the day Chrono Trigger went on sale on March 11th, 1995 the mood in the gaming world was at a fevered pitch. Great Role Playing Games had been coming left and right, but that was only one part of a larger scene where the best games of all genres arrived in large numbers, coinciding with the end of the 16-Bit Era and the dawn of the Next Generation. A time looked back on today as the apex of 2D game design, perhaps the greatest era of Video Games ever. Now, the greatest minds behind Japan's two biggest series have come together for a once in a lifetime collaboration! There is truly no way to properly explain the excitement. You just had to be there.