Chrono Trigger 2 still not happening at Square Enix due to politics

12 June 2008

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Posted by:Ferry Groenendijk

There are no known plans for Chrono Trigger 2 despite various claims from creators of the original. Although fans of 1995′s Chrono Trigger did get an indirect sequel in 2000′s Chrono Cross, it didn’t wrap up certain unfinished plot threads of the original game since it had a new cast. Let’s see how this Square drama has played out over the years.

2001: Hironobu Sakaguchi said that the developers of Chrono Cross wanted to make a new Chrono game. The same year, Square applied for a trademark for the name Chrono Break in the United States and Chrono Brake in Japan. However, the United States trademark was dropped in 2004.

2003: Director Takashi Tokita (also of Parasite Eve fame) mentioned Chrono Trigger 2 in a Japanese interview. Sadly further details are unknown (at least I can’t make any sense of the Tokita game interview translation).

2005: Supervisor Yuji Horii (of Dragon Quest creator fame) expressed no interest in returning to the Chrono franchise saying “Since everything I would like to do can be done in a Dragon Quest title, the chances of me making a sequel to Chrono Trigger are unlikely. Although as long as the title is interesting I’d definitely love to check it out and play it, even if it’s not Chrono Trigger.”

2007: Supervisor Hironobu Sakaguchi (of Final Fantasy creator fame) remarked in April that his creation Blue Dragon was an “extension of [Chrono Trigger].”

During an interview in February Square Enix’s Senior Vice President Hiromichi Tanaka said that although no sequel is currently planned, some sort of sequel is still possible if the Chrono Cross developers can be reunited. To quote: “There’s still a possibility, but since the main director is not working for Square Enix now — he’s working on other titles in a different company, Namco Bandai, it’s a bit difficult to ask him to come back and be the head of a team again. And also, Kato-san is working on the fourth game in the Mana series. So there’s still a possibility that he might think he might want to make it again…”

2008: Music composer Yasunori Mitsuda has expressed interest in scoring a new game, but warned that “there are a lot of politics involved” with the series. He stressed that Masato Kato (the Story Planner) should participate in development.

I suppose you could say fans have been Chronoroll’d!

Sources: Cubed3, 1UP, Wikipedia, EGM issue June 2007 & 1UP again