50 Fun Facts About Chrono Trigger

Which manga artist designed Chrono Trigger's heroes and monsters, having drawn Dragon Quest's cast?

Akira Toriyama, the creator of Dragon Ball, drew the characters, monsters, vehicles and the look of every era. The staff studied his sketches so the sprites would match his light-hearted style.

Which Olympics used Chrono Trigger's 'Frog's Theme' and 'Robo's Theme' in the parade of nations?

Tokyo 2020 brought its athletes into the stadium to 19 pieces of Japanese video game music, a soundtrack that had to last through a march of about two hours.

Which trait of Chrono Trigger's spiky-haired hero Crono did its writers want from the very start?

He never speaks: Crono gets through the adventure on facial expressions alone, a silent lead that one of the story's writers asked for at the outset.

Which invention of Lucca's misfires at the fair in Chrono Trigger, hurling Marle into the past?

A teleporter meant to move people a few steps across the fairground reacts with Marle's pendant and tears open a gate to the year 600 AD instead.

Which replay option, named by Chrono Trigger, lets players restart with their levels and equipment?

New Game Plus carries levels, techniques and gear into a fresh run, but not money, and story items such as the Masamune sword must be found again.

Which Bible figures give Chrono Trigger's gurus Melchior, Gaspar and Belthasar their Western names?

The Wise Men who brought gold, frankincense and myrrh lend the gurus their Western names. In Japan the trio are plain Gasch, Hash and Bosch.

In Japan, Chrono Trigger's villains Ozzie, Slash and Flea are named after which kind of thing?

Condiments it is: the three are Vinegar, Soy Sauce and Mayonnaise in Japanese, the sort of joke the staff said would have been impossible in a Final Fantasy.

For which supposed crime does Guardia's chancellor condemn Crono early in Chrono Trigger?

Kidnapping Marle is the charge, though she had slipped away from her royal home by herself. She and Lucca help Crono escape prison, and all three flee through another gate in time.

Which programmer threatened to quit Square unless he could compose, then scored Chrono Trigger?

Yasunori Mitsuda was offered the job with the remark that it might even raise his salary. He went on to sleep in his studio for nights at a stretch to finish the score.

What is the default name of the Wings of Time, the craft Chrono Trigger's party finds in 2300 AD?

Epoch is only a suggestion, since players may rename the ship when they get it. Unlike the gates, it can reach any era directly, and a villain's tinkering later lets it fly.

Which hub outside history, home to the old sage Gaspar, links the eras in Chrono Trigger?

The End of Time was added by the developers as a place to hand out hints, because they worried players would get stuck and reach for a walkthrough.

What was the human name of Chrono Trigger's Frog before Magus's spell transformed the young squire?

Glenn served the knight Cyrus and saw Magus kill him before the curse fell. Avenging his friend shapes everything the amphibian swordsman does afterwards.

What is the real name of Marle, the runaway royal who meets Crono at the fair in Chrono Trigger?

Nadia is a princess of Guardia, often at odds with her father the king, who slips out to the fair because she is bored of royal life.

What was the birth name of Chrono Trigger's Magus when he was the young prince of Zeal?

Janus was thrown through a gate as a boy when Lavos woke, and landed among the Mystics of the Middle Ages. He grew up plotting revenge and brooding over his lost sister, Schala.

Which time-travel puzzle makes Marle vanish in Chrono Trigger when 600 AD takes her for its queen?

The grandfather paradox arises because the search for Queen Leene, Marle's ancestor, is called off once Marle turns up, so her own family line is cut short.

What does Chrono Trigger call the special moves its heroes pair into Double and Triple attacks?

Techs drain magic points, and each hero learns eight of their own. When the right partners have enough points, the menu offers the combined move automatically.

Which humanoid species, led by Azala, wages war on Ayla's prehistoric tribe in Chrono Trigger?

Reptites are scaly rivals of the early humans, out to prove their own superiority. Their rule ends when Lavos falls from the sky onto their stronghold.

From which two of her tribe's words does Ayla coin the name Lavos in Chrono Trigger?

Fire and big are what 'La' and 'Vos' mean, Ayla says, as she watches the creature blaze down from space. The world-ending monster owes its name to a cavewoman.

Which flying fortress does Queen Zeal's ruined palace become when it rises into the sky in Chrono Trigger?

Black Omen hangs in the sky of every later era, even the ruined future, because the queen lives on inside it for thousands of years.

Which weapon does Magus swing in Chrono Trigger, where Crono carries a katana and Frog a broadsword?

A scythe suits the dark sorcerer, who is also the only hero able to cast every kind of magic. He learns no two-person moves with the others.

What serial number identifies Robo, the robot Lucca repairs in the ruined future of Chrono Trigger?

R-66Y is one of a whole R-Series, and his brother robots turn on him and leave him badly damaged when the party meets them in a derelict factory.

What original name does Robo recover at his birthplace, the Geno Dome, in Chrono Trigger?

Prometheus was built to observe and study humans, a mission wiped from his memory until he walks back into the factory that made him.

Which rogue computer, Robo's maker, brands him a traitor for befriending humans in Chrono Trigger?

Mother Brain wants a world of robots with no people in it, and turns Robo's old companion against him before he manages to shut her down.

Which task for a woman named Fiona keeps Chrono Trigger's Robo busy for four centuries?

Replanting a forest keeps Robo toiling for four hundred years, while his friends simply jump ahead to 1000 AD. He passes the time pondering who made the gates.

Which singing robot, built by Lucca, spars with visitors at Chrono Trigger's Millennial Fair?

Gato serenades his opponents before and after every bout and pays the winner in Silver Points. In Japan he goes by Gonzales.

Which self-styled Master of War awakens the party's magic in Chrono Trigger, though Robo gets none?

Spekkio changes shape as the party grows stronger, from a small frog-like creature upwards. He cannot teach Robo because the robot is not a living thing.

Which special attack does the knight Cyrus unleash on the Frog King in a Chrono Trigger flashback?

Nirvana Strike wins Cyrus the Hero's Badge, but soon afterwards Magus kills him in the Denadoro Mountains. His ghost haunts the Northern Ruins until his old squire lays it to rest.

Which red prehistoric stone is needed to reforge the broken Masamune in Chrono Trigger?

Dreamstone has vanished from the world by the Middle Ages, so the party must fetch a piece from prehistory. Marle's pendant is made of the same material.

Which item, given by the sage Gaspar, lets the party restore the fallen Crono to life in Chrono Trigger?

The Time Egg, the 'Chrono Trigger' of the title, works only if the party also holds a lifelike doll of Crono, won at the fair, to swap into the instant he dies.

On which mountain of 2300 AD can Chrono Trigger's party bring the fallen Crono back to life?

Death Peak's summit is where an eclipse sends the party back into the frozen instant of Crono's fall, so that a double can be left in his place.

Which village of the Kingdom of Guardia is Crono's home at the opening of Chrono Trigger?

Truce also hosts the Millennial Fair, so Crono only has to stroll up the road from his house to walk into the whole adventure.

Of which prehistoric village is Ayla the chief in Chrono Trigger's 65,000,000 BC?

Ioka throws a feast at which Crono must out-drink Ayla to win a rare red stone. The contest was alcohol in Japan and became soup in the American release.

Which shapeshifting monster impersonates Guardia's chancellor in the Middle Ages of Chrono Trigger?

Yakra has a descendant who repeats the trick four centuries later, and it is that false chancellor who puts Crono on trial.

Which general of Zeal breaks the fourth wall in Chrono Trigger by grumbling about the music?

Dalton complains that the wrong tune is playing as he makes off with the heroes' timeship. He commands an army of Golems and wants the power of Lavos for himself.

In which stronghold of Zeal does Crono give his life against Lavos in Chrono Trigger?

Ocean Palace was meant to be the end of Crono for good, but Square found that too depressing and asked the writers to let players bring him back.

Which robot gang leader makes Crono race him along a ruined highway in the future of Chrono Trigger?

Johnny can fold his own body into a motorbike, and the robots he leads call him 'Bro'. The race later became a spin-off of its own, Jet Bike Special.

What does Zeal call its magicless people, left to live on the frozen surface in Chrono Trigger?

The Earthbound Ones live on the icy ground while the magic-users float on islands overhead. Princess Schala is among the few in the sky who sympathise with them.

Which final spell of Crono's swells into a green dome of light over every enemy in Chrono Trigger?

Luminaire is the eighth and last move Crono learns, and the strongest attack of its element anywhere in the adventure.

Which weapon does Marle carry in Chrono Trigger, alongside her healing and ice magic?

A crossbow is the weapon the princess ended up with; in the first sketches she had shorter hair and was the daughter of a fairy king.

How does Frog talk in Chrono Trigger's original American script, a quirk the DS version dropped?

Like Shakespeare, with every 'thou' and 'shalt', is how the first translation made him sound, though nobody else from his era talks that way. In Japanese he is simply rude.

Which Final Fantasy composer finished Chrono Trigger's score when its lead composer fell ill?

Nobuo Uematsu supplied ten pieces after stomach ulcers took his colleague off the project. The finished soundtrack filled three discs, a scale unheard of at the time.

Which Dragon Quest creator did rival Enix lend to Square to help plan Chrono Trigger's story?

Yuji Horii loved time-travel stories and sketched the plot outline, and was fond of the twist in which Marle vanishes. He also devised Lavos, wanting the last boss to be an ancient evil.

Which translator had roughly thirty days to put Chrono Trigger into English for the Super Nintendo?

Ted Woolsey memorised scenes and read drafts of strategy guides to keep the dialogue in context. He said later that he would have preferred two and a half months.

Which mishap cost Chrono Trigger's composer around forty unfinished pieces of music?

A hard drive crash wiped the work in progress. He came back before release to watch the ending with the staff, and wept when he saw the finished scene.

For which cancelled Nintendo add-on was Chrono Trigger planned before it moved to a cartridge?

The SNES-CD died when Nintendo scrapped the project, and a Square producer later credited the cartridge for the seamless jump into fights on the map.

Which optional boss, a fusion of Schala and Lavos, was added to the DS version of Chrono Trigger?

Dream Devourer is an early form of the final enemy of the PlayStation sequel, added to tie the two stories together. Beating it unlocks a thirteenth ending.

Which boy, pulled into a world where he died, is the hero of Chrono Trigger's 1999 sequel?

Serge leads Chrono Cross, a PlayStation adventure about parallel worlds with a new cast, which shipped 1.5 million copies.

Which text-based side story to Chrono Trigger did Square release for Japan's Satellaview in 1996?

Radical Dreamers was finished in three months by the original's writer, who felt the first story had left unfinished business. Unhappy with it, he blocked its inclusion in a later port.

On which PC store did Chrono Trigger appear unannounced in 2018, in a port critics panned at launch?

Steam buyers met filtered sprites and a menu lifted from the phone version, and one developer likened it to a first try at an RPG Maker project. After a string of big patches, some called it the best version.

Which new area in Chrono Trigger's DS version revives 'Singing Mountain', a tune unused in 1995?

Dimensional Vortex also rebuilds a dungeon that was dropped from the 1995 release, and clearing it leads to a new ending. Reviewers were split on whether the extra areas were worth the trip.