Yasunori Mitsuda = another link between Final Fantasy XI and Chrono

[Chrono'99]

Not much was known at all about the score to Squaresoft's first online game other than that Nobou Uematsu would return; as well, Yasunori Mitsuda had been asked to contribute, as well. Unfortunately, as his schedule was busy with Xenosaga at the time, he was unable to do so.

This quote is from Liz Maas on http://www.rpgfan.com/soundtracks/ff11/index.html . I wonder where she got this information from, but I assume she wouldn't have wrote this if she weren't sure it was true.

Anyway, it's intriguing. Masato Kato was the scenario writer for FFXI and there are apparently quite a few similarities between it and the Chrono series... I wonder how much more Chrono-esque the game could have been with Mitsuda on board.

Also I guess this is a concrete example of how it's difficult to have the members of Chrono development team all available at the same time to work on a common project. If Mitsuda couldn't work on FFXI because of Xenosaga, he couldn't have worked on a new Chrono game either.

[FaustWolf]

I really worry that if Masato Kato gets enough Chrono-esque elements into his new projects, he'll lose interest in the Chrono franchise altogether, or at least that his interest will eventually dampen. I remember when I had my heart set on writing a version of Chrono Break as a huge fanfic but then when I found out I could port some of the ideas developed therein into other fan projects, I was able to temper my yearning for CB and focus on the others. I wonder how many ideas Kato developed for Chrono Break have already been ported into Kirite, FFXI, Mana, and his other projects?

The span between Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross seemed long to us non-Japanese fans, but Kato had Radical Dreamers to write in the interim, and then Chrono Cross would have begun a few years after that. Currently we're looking at a 9+ year interim between Cross and the next Chrono game, and the longer it drags on, the more disheartening things become.

[ZealKnight]

I think he has given up on it and looks at it as a major breakthrough in his life. But remember he and Mitsuda are working on World Destruction so hopefully it's the Chrono-esque experience we've been waiting for.

[Chrono'99]

Well the decision is entirely in Square Enix's hands in the end. If they ask Kato to write the story for a new Chrono game, I doubt he'll refuse...