So, what's the big deal about a direct sequel anyway?

[Exodus]

Just think about this: the Chrono Universe essentially spans millions and millions of years. There could even be other PLANETS with humans living on them, and we're well aware that the super-species of which Lavos is a member produces quite a large number of spawn. Even if you think that's too far out there, why couldn't Lavos be defeated by different people multiple times? Chrono Cross has already obfuscated and muddied the waters so much as to render any objection questionable at best.

Why does it seem (at least to me) that the majority of people are obsessed with a direct sequel to Chrono Trigger? All of the elements which kept you captivated would still ultimately be there: time travel, dimensional travel, a rag-tag group of should be, would be, will be heroes from different places and times. Why is it of paramount importance that it be the same group of heroes? The group in Chrono Trigger ultimately completed their goal. Whether or not they simply delayed Lavos (we know they didn't) or out-right defeated it, banishing it to the DBT, their mission was fulfilled. What would you have a direct sequel be about, pray tell? Chasing Crono's mother and cats through time? (Yes, I'm well aware of Crimson Echoes, and what I saw of it on Youtube years back, it was very well crafted--I even contributed a little myself and opted not to have my name listed on the credits because I wasn't even sure I had contributed enough to justify my placement there, but I digress. Ultimately it doesn't change the fact that hoops were jumped through to create a story for the game and it was clearly borrowed VERY heavily from Chrono Cross in many ways, but that's a story for another time. Haha. So punny.)

Ultimately, I surmise, a dissatisfaction with anything except a direct sequel is likely a product of rose-tinted nostalgia goggles which prevents you from being able to accept that Chrono Trigger was never really about its characters in-so-much as it was about its deeper underlying themes. Crono could have been a blue-haired girl named Rhia and it would not have affected the outcome in any appreciable way. Likewise for every character in the game.  The game would have still been a commercial success and would have still captivated the imaginations of children and adults alike for years and years after its release, much like it does now.

Naturally, feel free to leave your opinions, or perhaps your shock that an eleven year old account has spontaneously begun posting again.

[Magus22]

ahh another veteran returns!

GrayLensman must be right around the corner.

That's an interesting take, and I am pretty sure you're right. Theoretically, there are an infinite possible of outcomes where Lavos was destroyed, and various ways the Day of Lavos came to be. Planets with other humans is likely, but only far into the future of Crono's planet.

Lavos' origin from deep space has always intrigued me.
Did he come to Crono's planet by accident, by choice, or was it told?
Lavos' survival is clear, but let me throw in something more...
Was it planned by the Lavos entity itself, or possibly from a larger hierarchy within Lavos' species?
If so, was Earth detected by long-range sensors before "Lavos" was sent, or was Lavos sent to seek out planets at random?
There are a lot of similarities to Lavos and The Borg from Star Trek.

Anywho, nostalgia and the unexplained fate of CT's team within CC is the major reason. Those who  played CT have a "bond" with the original cast. Many of us grew up with them, and they were apart of our childhood when life was less complex and everything was a mystery. The fate of the original team is something everyone wants to know about, even though it is implied they presumably died long ago. How did they die? Where? Are they even dead, or did Dalton seal some of them away somewhere? Where was Magus? What happened to Lucca? Crono and company may have completed their mission, but their fate is unknown, and thus, their stories incomplete. I direct sequel (or remake) of Trigger could tie in key elements to Cross, reintroduce the original cast, give us more facts about Dalton and Porre, and the Fall of Guardia, with Dalton presumably defeating the last wielder of the Masamune and how it became a major plot vessel during the events of El Nido.

Again, most importantly, the fans want any new game with Chrono in the title.
Secondly, they want the original cast. It would be the appropriate thing to do.
I agree it was more about the theme, but the characters play a huge roll with the fans.

[Razig]

Lavos' origin from deep space has always intrigued me.
Did he come to Crono's planet by accident, by choice, or was it told?
Lavos' survival is clear, but let me throw in something more...
Was it planned by the Lavos entity itself, or possibly from a larger hierarchy within Lavos' species?
If so, was Earth detected by long-range sensors before "Lavos" was sent, or was Lavos sent to seek out planets at random?
There are a lot of similarities to Lavos and The Borg from Star Trek.

Nothing in either game really confirms it, but I've always assumed that Lavos spawn just wander randomly through space until they find suitable planets for habitation. (Mother Brain's speech mentions the spawn "finding" new homes, implying their destinations are unknown at the time of departure, but there's really no way she could know such a thing with certainty.) If that's the case, "our" world was simply the victim of bad fortune rather than malevolent design. However, it's entirely possible that a supremely powerful elder Lavos could detect such worlds across interstellar distances and guide its children to them.

I further assumed that since they have the power to escape their home planets' gravities in the first place, the Lavos spawn could easily have some means of altering their trajectories once in space, allowing them to avoid stars, black holes, and other dangers; perhaps even using them for gravity assists. Even with such speed boosts, the unfathomably vast distances involved always led me to wonder how old Lavos already was when it arrived.

Anywho, nostalgia and the unexplained fate of CT's team within CC is the major reason. Those who  played CT have a "bond" with the original cast. Many of us grew up with them, and they were apart of our childhood when life was less complex and everything was a mystery. The fate of the original team is something everyone wants to know about, even though it is implied they presumably died long ago. How did they die? Where? Are they even dead, or did Dalton seal some of them away somewhere? Where was Magus? What happened to Lucca? Crono and company may have completed their mission, but their fate is unknown, and thus, their stories incomplete. I direct sequel (or remake) of Trigger could tie in key elements to Cross, reintroduce the original cast, give us more facts about Dalton and Porre, and the Fall of Guardia, with Dalton presumably defeating the last wielder of the Masamune and how it became a major plot vessel during the events of El Nido.

I'll second this, although I disagree with the assessment that a new Chrono game would have to follow the original cast. I'm not certain that a new Chrono game would even be a good idea; Square's track record in recent years is pretty deplorable. A series that thrives on subtlety is probably far beyond their abilities at this point, although handing it off to Tokyo RPG Factory remains an option.

In any event, since I think we're unlikely to see another Chrono sequel after 17 years of waiting, I think a Chrono Cross remake would be much more feasible. The original was obviously quite rushed in its later stages, creating all kinds of narrative problems. A remake with more careful pacing could easily tie up all the loose ends you mention, plus address CC's own plethora of unanswered questions. An extra dungeon or two would work wonders, adding a few hours to spread out the massive infodumps and reveal that information in a more natural fashion. As an added bonus, it could even have a sweet extras feature like the PS1 and DS versions of Chrono Trigger.

A remake of CT would almost certainly be a misstep in my opinion; the game is perfect as it is.

[Exodus]

ahh another veteran returns!

GrayLensman must be right around the corner.

I'd heard whispers of a new Chrono game coming out (which will probably go the way of Break if history is any indicator) and started reminiscing about my 14-15 year old self, sitting in my mother's beautiful, sun-lit living room all day playing Chrono Trigger in ZSNES and posting on these forums... Ahh, to return to better times!

The place seems to be in a bit of disarray, though. One thing I noticed is that the forum seems to have literally died for awhile before people started coming here and necroposting (likely around the time of CT DS, no?)

Either way, I'm amazed that so many are still here, ten or eleven years later. Crazy. Does ZealitY still post? I haven't spoken to that guy in so long. Or well, any of you, really. I imagine if there is a grain of truth to a new Chrono game, the place will come back to life for awhile.

I further assumed that since they have the power to escape their home planets' gravities in the first place, the Lavos spawn could easily have some means of altering their trajectories once in space, allowing them to avoid stars, black holes, and other dangers; perhaps even using them for gravity assists. Even with such speed boosts, the unfathomably vast distances involved always led me to wonder how old Lavos already was when it arrived.

Gas ejection. No, really. As to the age of Lavos when it arrived on Earth, keep in mind that the "real" Lavos resides within a pocket dimension inside of its shell. It could very well have a finite life-span not much different from that of a human while "existing" for millions and millions (potentially billions) of years, purely on the merit that it can interact with any plot of time it so desires.

[Prince Janus]

Chrono Cross ended ambiguously. Yes, Schala is free, but now what? We know she eventually gets a somewhat happy ending by finding and marrying Serge, but what about her brother? Does anyone honestly expect that whole thing to just lay down and die? Especially when he came so close once.

 I think that's what a lot of people are asking for in a sequel: some proper closure. Even if Janus doesn't realize who he is or what's going on, Schala might and could at least keep close tabs on him. Something at least confirming this happening would be nice.

[Michael Zeal]

Lavos' origin from deep space has always intrigued me.
Did he come to Crono's planet by accident, by choice, or was it told?
Lavos' survival is clear, but let me throw in something more...
Was it planned by the Lavos entity itself, or possibly from a larger hierarchy within Lavos' species?
If so, was Earth detected by long-range sensors before "Lavos" was sent, or was Lavos sent to seek out planets at random?
There are a lot of similarities to Lavos and The Borg from Star Trek.

Nothing in either game really confirms it, but I've always assumed that Lavos spawn just wander randomly through space until they find suitable planets for habitation. (Mother Brain's speech mentions the spawn "finding" new homes, implying their destinations are unknown at the time of departure, but there's really no way she could know such a thing with certainty.) If that's the case, "our" world was simply the victim of bad fortune rather than malevolent design. However, it's entirely possible that a supremely powerful elder Lavos could detect such worlds across interstellar distances and guide its children to them.

I further assumed that since they have the power to escape their home planets' gravities in the first place, the Lavos spawn could easily have some means of altering their trajectories once in space, allowing them to avoid stars, black holes, and other dangers; perhaps even using them for gravity assists. Even with such speed boosts, the unfathomably vast distances involved always led me to wonder how old Lavos already was when it arrived.

Anywho, nostalgia and the unexplained fate of CT's team within CC is the major reason. Those who  played CT have a "bond" with the original cast. Many of us grew up with them, and they were apart of our childhood when life was less complex and everything was a mystery. The fate of the original team is something everyone wants to know about, even though it is implied they presumably died long ago. How did they die? Where? Are they even dead, or did Dalton seal some of them away somewhere? Where was Magus? What happened to Lucca? Crono and company may have completed their mission, but their fate is unknown, and thus, their stories incomplete. I direct sequel (or remake) of Trigger could tie in key elements to Cross, reintroduce the original cast, give us more facts about Dalton and Porre, and the Fall of Guardia, with Dalton presumably defeating the last wielder of the Masamune and how it became a major plot vessel during the events of El Nido.

I'll second this, although I disagree with the assessment that a new Chrono game would have to follow the original cast. I'm not certain that a new Chrono game would even be a good idea; Square's track record in recent years is pretty deplorable. A series that thrives on subtlety is probably far beyond their abilities at this point, although handing it off to Tokyo RPG Factory remains an option.

In any event, since I think we're unlikely to see another Chrono sequel after 17 years of waiting, I think a Chrono Cross remake would be much more feasible. The original was obviously quite rushed in its later stages, creating all kinds of narrative problems. A remake with more careful pacing could easily tie up all the loose ends you mention, plus address CC's own plethora of unanswered questions. An extra dungeon or two would work wonders, adding a few hours to spread out the massive infodumps and reveal that information in a more natural fashion. As an added bonus, it could even have a sweet extras feature like the PS1 and DS versions of Chrono Trigger.

A remake of CT would almost certainly be a misstep in my opinion; the game is perfect as it is.

Agreed; Chrono Trigger doesn't require improvement. Chrono Cross, however, badly needs a remake, and I think that the ending added to the DS enhanced port of CT was meant to set one up with an amnesiac Magus. Some of the plot threads were just plain forgotten in the original: like how was Serge the "Assassin of Time"? What exactly was the Dead Sea and why did it form? Then there's stuff that isn't adequately explained or addressed like when did Kid travel back in time to save Serge, or what Schala and Kid's link is. More character development for the characters who are actually important/could be important would be nice, too, even if that involves cutting some 'fat'.

It would probably be the Tokyo RPG Factory who would do the job; although Silicon Studio would be capable of it were they not busy with the Bravely series. I would imagine that Kato would need to be hired to write it and Mitsuda to compose the score.

[ThatGuy]

Am I the only one who wouldn't mind if Chrono Cross was disregarded as canon and we just moved forward with Chrono Trigger 2. You could have Schala show up again and resolve her deal... Hell, you could have all new characters and only encounter some/all of the originals. But it'd be directly after CT.

But then, sequels of 20 years later, if Hollywood is any indication.

[Scintillating_Void]

Am I the only one who wouldn't mind if Chrono Cross was disregarded as canon and we just moved forward with Chrono Trigger 2. You could have Schala show up again and resolve her deal... Hell, you could have all new characters and only encounter some/all of the originals. But it'd be directly after CT.

But then, sequels of 20 years later, if Hollywood is any indication.

Probably an unpopular opinion, but I agree.  Technically it never happened anyway despite El Nido existing at the end.

For the people who wonder why there should be a Chrono Trigger 2, it's because a common criticism of CT was that it was too short!  Even the multiple endings weren't really what I'd think multiple endings should be, there was little difference between endings, but nothing really timeline diverging, they seemed mostly like Easter Eggs.

So the game often left you craving more. 

[ThatGuy]

I would daresay that being left craving more means it *wasn't* too short after all.

[Zaulche]

I find it fascinating that someone mentions veterans returning, as I myself just recently felt drawn to revisit this forum again. I was around when the cease and desist hammer came down and it did get dark for a while. I think I haven't been around in five or six years...but I digress.

I am one of the people that liked Chrono Cross. It had issues, but I feel like a well done patch would help a lot (akin to the restored content patch for KOTOR 2). I am not sure a full blown remake needs to be done, though I also wouldn't be opposed to it.

Chrono Trigger is a great game, but I do not think I would call it perfect. It has some plot inconsistencies, even if they are minor.

As far as a direct sequel, I think good points are brought up about the vastness of the world created. We saw in Chrono Cross the unintended consequences of fighting Lavos and changing time. There is a lot that could be done there. Especially since time and dimensional travel are canon.

Lavos is very intriguing. And it sucking the life force of the planet implies more than just eating minerals. I would imagine in would need to target planets with "life" to reproduce, though I suppose that is a debate for another time.

What if Lavos wasn't natural, but created? Maybe there is a planet in the universe going through its own energy crisis. The people delve in dark science (or magic or both) and shady means to solve it. You play an RPG style game (do you help? hinder? both?) and the end result might be the creation and expulsion of Lavos into the universe. The entire game could be unrelated to the Chrono verse except for that end and it would still be a powerful connection. It seems reasonable that if the planet in the Chrono games has Balthasar that there are other people willing to meddle with space-time out there as well.

[ThatGuy]

^ some intriguing ideas...

[HadesKane]

What is left for a direct sequel to explore?

I've posted before an idea or general thought process on where another game could go, which heavily involves Belthasar effectively serving as puppet master for everything that transpired after the Time Crash.  I'll just copy/paste the relevant parts of a previous post...

Ultimately the final villain would be Belthasar.  My idea rests on the idea that the first two games (and really, more Cross than Trigger) was about Belthasar's machinations to ensure the defeat of Lavos fully and completely, and in this third game, he would be completely gone and not a concern any longer.  But can you imagine what being able to have the power and intelligence to engineer things in a manner such as Belthasar had?

That's about as close to absolute power as one gets, and you know what they say about absolute power corrupting absolutely.

And while it would be that Belthasar started off with good intentions (CT) by the time Chrono Cross rolled around and all his plans started unfolding and he got the taste of manipulating and ultimately controlling not only people's individual lives but time and space/dimensions as well?  That became a taste of power he wasn't keen to let go of.

From here, I've had a few competing ideas, but my favorite would involve his return to Chronopolis in the future and him being the master/boss Belthasar that then coordinates with his younger selves in various eras in order to control/manipulate things from all sides, which would see the party in Chrono 3 (likely consisting primarily of a few new characters, sprinkled with party members from the two previous games that you'd pick up during the course of the game) having an opportunity to travel through most of the eras of the previous games (namely, 12,000bc, 1000ad, and 2300ad) but finally getting to truly explore and experience 2300ad in its non lavos destroyed form (especially and particularly Chronopolis).  Some measure of dimension/timeline hopping as well would be good, and a good way to tie into the plots of Chrono Cross (although understanding that the dimensions/timelines were merged in Chrono Cross, it would take perhaps examining the smaller theme of the game of the "dying timelines" or the timelines that were erased or were being erased by the actions of the party in CT to tie that in... and an opportunity to hop into the timeline that Dinopolis came from would be very interesting as well, and a chance to pick up a Reptite as a party member).

Overall though, it may not be perfect, but I think it'd be a fantastic way to tie in all three games into a cohesive narrative, and be an interesting, unexpected, but completely sensible twist in ultimately making Belthasar the biggest and most powerful threat of the series.  Afterall, he may not be the man who physically defeated Lavos, but for all intents and purposes, he can be viewed as the man who overcame this being.

[ThatGuy]

^ more interesting ideas...

you know... in my undying need to disregard CC, if you made Belthasar anything like you describe, you could easily call the entire game a simulation he ran to try and better understand time travel and its consequences.

now, here's a really crazy idea i don't think i even like, but what the hell: what if, in the prosperous 2300, Belthasar (accidently) created Lavos and sent him back in time to 65mil?

[EgyLynx]

now, here's a really crazy idea i don't think i even like, but what the hell: what if, in the prosperous 2300, Belthasar (accidently) created Lavos and sent him back in time to 65mil?

Sounds fanfiction behind plot... if you understand what i say.

[ThatGuy]

I'm afraid I don't...