Chrono Trigger Director Asks What Fans Would Want In A Remake
FF7 Rebirth producer and Chrono Trigger director Yoshinori Kitase brought up the subject of remaking one of the best games of all time
Why remake perfection?
I wouldn't hate the pixel treatment the FF games got. I am playing through FF1 and have the other 5 on tap. I played the intro to FF6 and the changes are a real QOL improvement.
It would be super cool if they release an anime series like Ys 1&2 have.
Add that as a DLC and increase resolution of sprites and increase bitrate of music and call it a day. I'd buy that.
Too bad the art direction in Pixel Remasters is so inconsistent and garbage.
I would love to have the same story but more fleshed out appropriate to the character. Add way more exploration of the eras. Maybe a couple more playable characters that are already established in the game like Schala or Azala or one of the gurus in their younger form.
Money.
A different, coherent story, better art (not pixel), more challenging gameplay.
Try to keep some of the same feelings. Keep it menu based. Keep it isometric.
Invest in writers and art. The gameplay doesn't need to be complicated.
Let me explore 1999 AD before Lavos attack. I want to see the cities and get to know their culture before the apocalypse.
I'd love to see Magus's rise to power in the middle ages as well.
Make a different game? Stop remaking shit. Make a new story.
This. There's already half a dozen Chrono trigger remakes. I want a sequel. And no, Chrono cross isn't good enough.
I'm not a 2D purist. Quite the opposite actually. But Chrono Trigger really feels perfect for 2D. Kinda like Golden Sun. Like, you could try. But why?
It's like trying to cook a tender well done steak. Like you can if you want. Some people might say they prefer it that way. But the truth that if you want it tender, you should have just ordered it rare or medium rare.
It would depend on the skill of the team doing it. A lot of people are praising the FF7 remake even though the gameplay is completely different because of not only how it builds upon and unites all the lore that exists, but how it expands it and subverts expections, and it can only do this when it isn't just a remake cash grab.
What I want in a Chrono Trigger remake is rather than asking us, asking the original visionaries that created it what they would want to add into it if they created it today, and to put in the effort into making and ensuring that vision works out.
Well I am surprised no one has mentioned this but:
This is the best possible JRPG to do a retcon/reimagining of as is going on with FF7, but a bit differently.
Time travel!
So, start a new story with new characters, but intermix this with the old cast and story beats resulting in a completely new story that brings back old favorite settings and characters, introduces new ones.
Maybe you change significant plot points of the old story, maybe you don't, maybe you doom the world to some entirely new kind of catastrophe, maybe you get stuck in what would otherwise be called a soft lock but is actually in this world an intentional plot device that just looks like a soft lock but isnt.
Hell, if you /really/ want to go hog wild with this:
Make the new set of characters generally opposed to the original set of characters, have their own method of time travelling, and make it so much of the game is actually about attempting to out-time-travel-wit the others, basically with certain characters attempting to be time demons ala DB Xenoverse and others trying to stop them... all mixed with the narrative possibilities at many points for many characters to switch allegiances, go rogue, or mostly team up.
even moooore possible endings
No I have no clue how you could actually write something this complicated, but the entirety of Kingdom Hearts exists and people tell me somehow that all makes sense, so I am confident a team of competent writers can pull off an absurdly complex multivariate story line.
Isn't this what they did in Chrono Cross?
Normally I'm a fan of not messing with perfection, but adding content to integrate Chrono Cross and Radical Dreamers better would be nice.
I do not actually know as this is the first time I am even hearing of Chrono Cross.
Youre telling me theres a sequel?!?!?
I only ever managed to play Chrono Trigger on ZNES something like 20 years ago and remember being blown away by how different and more interesting it was from basically every other JRPG up to that point.
Now I must find this sequel.
Make the new set of characters generally opposed to the original set of characters
Chrono Triggered
You've come up with a neat game. I'd enjoy playing it. I think you've moved beyond remake and into sequel territory, though. The multiple parties working at odds reminds me of the Golden Sun series.
I realized after writing this all out that it was closer to a sequel than a remake but... oh well, I thought it was a neat idea nonetheless.
And yes now that you mention it this is actually similar to the Golden Sun series irt the dueling groups of protagonists (antagonists?), but I swear I did not realize this and was going more from the DB Xenoverse time demon angle.
Preferably don't. But if you had to, perhaps a 3d version using unreal but with the style of the box art.
Same. Chrono Trigger holds surprisingly well. It’s art, music, gameplay, story. Everything. It doesn’t need a remake.
This is what I came here looking for.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
I remember being so hyped for this... And then it got C&D'd
I'd like nintendo to not have a single scrap to do with it.
Square made Chrono Trigger. Nintendo didn't have anything to do with it in the first place.
And the 👑 would like to keep it the way
oh I know. I just don't want nintendo to get their paws on it again.
chrono trigger was a game developed by a fantastic supergroup of talented individuals. it's still my favorite rpg all these years later because of that effort and skill.
just... please don't put it on switch. please.
TBH, I feel that widescreen and all the DS content will be sufficient. If it must be in 3D, maybe a Octopath Traveler like 3D Design.
I remember the PS1 version when it came out with the animated cutscenes and loving it as simple, sparse, and incomplete as they were. The game was no different but there were bonus little scenes. That worked for me.
So I would love to see animated renderings based on the actual playthrough doing the things you did and how you did them in the game.
As these remakes and such come out I have been able to reflect on what more I would have wanted back in 1995. And today all I want would be the memory of what my choices were my first playthrough. Or any one after that really. I'd love just about any data at all on them, to get saved somehow.
Show me what the final timeline looks like with all my gameplay choices. Render important scenes with every combination of party member using things they used in the run.
I'd love the shit out of that.
If they absolutely had to remake it, make it the ultimate love letter to fans. Call up Toriyama-san, get him directing artists to make the updated 3D character models, allow players to switch between old and new OSTs, if they're not going to do a complete open world 3D overhaul then allow players to toggle between old and new graphics if it's more of a remaster than a remake, update the motorcycle race so that Johnny doesn't psychically know where you are at all times to bounce you 1000 times, fix some of the endgame stuff with the Black Omen so that it's not just a repetitive dungeon you do 4x, but has more impact on the world.
Dunno, couple of ideas off the top of my head. OG Chrono Trigger still plays so well, the sprites are perfect, the OST is s-tier, and if it's not the best it's easily in the top 3 best 16-bit RPGs.
Call up Toriyama-san
Hate to break it to you, but he passed away a few days before you made this comment.
But srsly, moar side quests. Connect and collab with fan-made 3D remake people.
They should just make an animated movie. But don’t let anyone of Square Enix write the script.
I remember the chrono resurrection, I would want something like that. I srill hate Square for killing that. They could have worked with that team a released that game for that generation, and I think it was a 1 to 1 recreation.
A release date.
Art-wise if this were to be made I'd like to see water color artwork. No pixel perfect or whatever the FF games came out as. Make it a cool looking art style in proper HD 2D.
Toriyama ain't that old. Chuck an absurd amount of money his way and let his company run wild with it. Id get behind that all day.
If they are gonna do it they should really do it properly like with FFVII remake/rebirth
What could they possibly do better? I can't even imagine a subtle graphical improvement wouldn't make it worse.
Make it a re-imagining like FF7 but good
A 3d remake like chrono cross got could be good
I'd play it. I would also still really want it to have a very psx aesthetic but with less jankiness.
Would love to see a remake like FF7 got.
I think the industry is in a hurry to stop spending $100M+ per game, so I'd say that's unlikely.
No thank you, the VII remake feels like they are making the rest of the game in the next room. "No, you can't do the next part, you have to collect flowers for orphans and have a motorcycle chase." Constantly buying time with stupid crap.
The original was well paced and fun, they would undoubtedly fuck it up and have Tetsuya Nomura write it.