Chrono Trigger Recollections

Remixer Recollections

Note that if you are an established remixer and were not asked to be a part of this, I am immensely sorry; I sent e-mails out to everyone I could find. You can still be a part of the page; simply e-mail chronocompendium at gmail dot com. A huge thank you to those who have contributed!

Geoffrey Taucer

* 'Canvass of Dreams' ( Link )
* 'Town Life on Acoustic Guitar' ( Link )
* 'The Girl with the Starlit Eyes' ( Link )

A few years ago, a friend of mine lent me her copy of Chrono Trigger along with a pile of other RPGs, because I told her I hadn't played any RPGs before (except Mario RPG). I had heard of the game, and heard it was one of the best. So I played it and, of course, it was. The plotline was brilliant and engaging, the pacing was perfect, and the battle system was (and still is) the best I've ever encountered. Chrono Trigger is also the game that introduced me (and got me hooked on) RPGs. It was one of my first RPGs; needless to say, it was not my last.

But the most noteable thing about Chrono Trigger was that it introduced me to the music of Yasunori Mitsuda, who remains to this day my favorite composer, not just of game music but of music in general. I remember that right from the first note of the first song I heard (Peaceful Days -- I had the sound turned off for some reason at the very beginning), I fell in love with the game's soundtrack. At almost every new area, I would, after entering, put down the control and listen to the music for sometimes as long as five or even ten minutes.

From the blissful tranquility of "Peaceful Days" to the delight of "Robo's Theme," from the hypnotic beats and arpeggios of "Zeal" to the triumphant piano of "To Far Away Times" (which literally brought tears to my eyes the first time I heard it), this music was more brilliant, more beautiful, and more emotional than any I had ever heard before. I have since bought at least three games simply because Mitsuda wrote the music for them, and I have yet to be dissappointed by a single one of his soundtracks, but Chrono Trigger will always have a special place as my first and favorite Mitsuda soundtrack.

The Prophet

* 'Akoustical Dreaming v2.0' ( Link )
* 'Rave's Scar' ( Link )

I discovered Chrono Trigger through OCRemix, ironically. I was noticing the immense amount of music that was remixed for this Chrono game, and I figured I'd check it out. I played it on ZSNESW, originally, and loved it so much I BOUGHT an SNES and the game cartridge just to play it on. I personally found the soundtrack to be phenomenal - even still, when I hear motifs of Chrono played in other types of music by accident, I still think of the point in the game when I remember that happening. I've remixed four or five tunes from this game and its adopted brother, Chrono Cross, and I'm working on another one involving the ending song from Radical Dreamers, Chrono Trigger's original sequel. The quality of the music - not necessarily the most difficult chords, rhythms, or timbres, but the scattered ideas and themes that came together to form a really organic soundtrack, was what attracted me. My songs are scattered throughout the web, at both www.soundclick.com/theprophetofmephisto (Akoustical Dreaming v2.0), and also at www.vgmix.com (Canvas of Dreams, from FF6 and Radical Dreamers with Geoffery Taucer).

This game was a revolutionary step in musical quality of the soundtrack, as well as the in-depth gameplay and constant battle situations that have come to define the role playing game genre. I love it. [/nostalgia]

K-Wix

* 'Ayla's Rollo Cat Trance Attack' ( Link )
* 'Impulses of Zeal' ( Link )

Chrono Trigger was - for the most part my very first RPG experience. It was probably the first game I had ever played with significant attention payed to the plot details, the characters, and the story in general. I don't think I could possibly ask for a better story in a game then Chrono Trigger, the game really delivers in that aspect, I think thats why its so popular to this day - i'd sit in my living room at 5 AM, a whole 3 hours before school started with the tv bright and the volume JUST low enough to not wake my parents up, exploring the fantastic world of the game. I initially found the game in a video rental store, my mom brought me out there and I saw the box with the cool looking hero on the front, and I pulled the empty case Only to discover the Poster from the game was STILL in the box - I immediately decided that I would rent that title, and keep the poster, which I still have hanging in my room... >.>

I think I kept the game for 10 days, I wouldn't let my mother take it back - I got all the way to the future area somewhere, and then within the next few weeks, I had my mother buy it for me as a gift. To this day, I dont think I've found an RPG title with such engaging characters, or such a fun plot - you can really tell a lot of work went into the game, it really set the standard exceedingly high and also showed me that graphics and gameplay arent everything - story can be just as important and in some rare cases - even more so. I can only hope future gamers will have the opportunity to play through something as well designed as CT.

Alexander Prievert

* 'Schala Trance' ( Link )

Zeratul

* 'Belthasar' ( Link )
* 'Blue Minded God' ( Link )
* 'Magus (Raw Trance Exhaustion) ( Link )
* 'Magus, Darkness Infected Angel ( Link )
* 'Millenial Fair 2001' ( Link )
* 'ReveD'Ordinateur' ( Link ) Zeratul's Blog

I think I first read about Chrono Trigger in 1995 as it was reviewed in a german computer magazine, I can't really remember if it was hyped in any way but I came to know it in the first place due to this review. In mid 1998 I got really into playing Snes games via an emulator and started downloading all these old games I could never buy myself because I hadn't unlimited money as a child and because most RPG-Games never made it to the european (read: german) market. One of them was Chrono Trigger. I had this habit of trying every newly downloaded game for about 30 minutes after I downloaded it, and thus I played Chrono Trigger too. But this one was different; it catched me; Immediately drew all my attention and enclosed me into it's world. I couldn't stop playing. I used every free minute to play Chrono Trigger, neglecting school, friendships and what not. And after I had finished it, I played it again. I loved it.

I especially loved the music and had been playing around with Chrono Trigger Music Remixes repeatedly. So when I discovered Remix.Overclocked.Org in mid 2000 I submited one of my old self-made remixes to the site, and couldn't even sleep that night wondering if David would actually publish the remix. Well there we are now, I consequently submitted two additional Chrono Trigger Remixes and had a Magus Remix released on the PMM/OneUp Squaredance Compilation. I've been playing around with music before, but those Chrono Trigger remixes along with the videogame remix community got me back into making music, I still make music although I hardly have the time, but everything I achieved (which is for example that Squaredance release) hadn't happened if it wouldn't be for Chrono Trigger. Few games actually had an Impact on the way my life went, Chrono Trigger had.

Flik

* 'To Far Away Dreams' ( Link ) by Flik

How I came across Chrono Trigger:

Shortly after I'd gone mad searching the World of Ruin in FFVI for any sign of Locke Cole, I heard about Chrono Trigger through different groups of friends from Square Net chat. I didn't know a thing about except that it was a really good game, or so I was told. In November of 1998, I was out with my dad at a Chicago-based Funcoland for no good reason, and the Chrono Trigger box was sitting right up there with the rest of the SNES games. Overwhelmed with excitement, I convinced my dad to purchase the game for the overpriced value of $65 and played for hours the very second we arrived home.

Why I Love Chrono Trigger:

I love the multiple endings in the game. It reminds me of the old "Choose Your Own Adventure" books that I used to read when I was a kid. Aside from that, the developers did a fantastic job of creating the different worlds. The art direction is very alive, and each time period and town have a very distinct atmosphere, whether it's through the music, visuals, or dialogue. The worlds are really brought to life.

Also, it did a very good job of not doing what most RPGs do. My favorite example here is Lavos' final form - How many of you unleashed chaos on the humanoid form in the center, only to discover that you had to take out the little satellite on the right?! Ugh.

Music? What?

I started remixing Chrono Trigger music in 1999, when Square Net / RPGamer held its X-MIDI-1 competition. It was actually the first time I've remixed and released a song on the Internet, and I chose to arrange "To Good Friends" in "Waltz For The Moon" style, being influenced by the FFVIII soundtrack. "To Good Friends" is a favorite song of a friend of mine, and I wanted to add liveliness to the song. Listening to it again, I'm rather embarassed about it, since it's lacking in a lot of things musically, but it's all in good fun. Eventually, the rest of the soundtrack grew on me. "To Far Away Times" became the song I'd use as a TetriNET background when I wanted to relax, and "Frog's Theme" became endlessly stuck in my head.

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