Takashi Tokita, director on the original Chrono Trigger Wants to see a "High-End" Remake
Chrono Trigger director Takashi Tokita said he'd like to see Square Enix bring back the beloved RPG in some form, be it a remake or a movie. Personally, I'd like both, but I'm willing to settle for a remake. Let's see how the World of Warcraft and Assassin's Creed movies do first.
Tokita said in an interview with Game Informer that Chrono Trigger was special because it merged two franchises together perfectly: Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. Because of this, Chrono Trigger has been topping many RPG fans' "Best RPG Ever" list, and has become somewhat sacred, even among Square Enix.
“It’s probably considered sacred since the companies merged,” he says. “It was essentially a dream mix between Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest; creating or exceeding what it was in its original form is a very difficult feat.”
It seems Chrono Trigger wasn't just fun to play, Tokita describes development on the title as festive, something I haven't heard anyone say about developing a game pretty much ever.
“Once everyone was done developing Final Fantasy VI, hordes of staff helped out on Chrono Trigger. At the end, we had a couple hundred working on the game at the same time. It was kind of like a grand festival – it was really fun. [Tetsuya] Nomura was actually creating the environment background pieces in Chrono Trigger – like the courthouse scene, that was created by him. But everyone probably enjoyed how we were able to do things we’d never done with Chrono Trigger. That was the most exciting part.”
With so many holding this game in such high regard, and its sequel Chrono Cross, its not surprising Square Enix is reluctant, to say the least, to dust off the franchise. Still, fans want to see this come back in one for or another, and they're not alone. “Personally, if there is ever an opportunity, I would love to see a high-quality, high-end version of Chrono Trigger. Or a movie production, or something of the sort," says Tokita. I agree!
Maybe in a remake, battles could actually look like this
I wholeheartedly agree! Please, Square Enix bring this one back to life! I don't think they'd have to do much; don't mess with the story or combat system, just upgrade the visuals to more current-gen, make it somewhat open world, random battles or world-map enemies up for debate, and keep the combat system turn based. The biggest obstacle would obviously be bring it up to current gen visual standards, I know. I've seen what kind of work goes into making even just a few models and backdrops, let alone whole games. And a remake of a game like this would take time and resources, but I honestly feel it'd be a good investment on Square's part. So long as they don't touch the story and combat (because us RPG nerds love some turn-based games [looking at you, Bravely Default]), they can't go wrong.
