Regarding Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross, the truth is that I did imagine a final episode of the Chrono trilogy, later in time than Chrono Trigger, in which Kid and the others had to save Crono, Marle and Lucca.
Mother of God.
Late to the party here, but I hear you 100% on this, and thank you r66y for doing this for us!! In regards to Kato’s statement about it not coming out, this is standard for devs and when representing a current or past company, even if a new game wasn’t going to come out, as Kato-san stated… means nothing. Ultimately that’s up to SE or whoever has the rights, but in my personal opinion? Kato is playing a game of his own here and biding his time. This material was compiled well before the December 2015 publishing date. So what has changed since then? Masato Kato came back for the most recent 2022 release of the Radical Dreamers edition… and previously Another Eden (a game connected even if indirectly to the Chrono series) which was released in Japan on April 2017, and in North America on January 2019… and in a recent discovery of CC:The Radical Dreamers Edition’s files saw that work began in 2019… All of this is connected. I have found, especially as I’ve grown older, that everything in life is connected, which is also a theme in CT and CC, and it’s also something that passionate writers never forget about, ala Kato who helped make this series what it is today. The man, myth, and legend (along with the other members) were brought back, even if it was to just give the team direction, and/or give us answers to Twitter questions… or this new text ending after having to complete BOTH games. So why add this at all? Kato knew he wasn’t going to get anything but a “Remaster” for CC and this RD localization… so he did the next best thing… to give his fans a message, this secret ending text, which is meant to tell us both he, and Chrono as a series, are still alive and well, thanks to us. I believe it’s also a message to not give up, to continue in our own walks of life, and help bring about positive change to others and our world.
In regards to this draft he may or may not have, I had actually brought this up recently from the translated Twitter dev responses, and five will get you ten, Kato definitely HAS that draft, whether on paper locked away in Viper Manor’s treasury, or locked away in his mind.
So that probably means Crono and Marle definitively died in the Fall of Guardia, and as shades, perhaps through the planet or in some other way (like the ghost of Cyrus), appeared with Lucca to the Chrono Cross party. This could also open the question of whether the shades of Crono, Marle, and Lucca in Chrono Trigger DS's dimensional distortion also represent post-CT ending shades of themselves after their deaths.
Edit: This also begs the question, how do you save Crono/Marle/Lucca? Because there's a pretty established, canonical way to pull that off, using clone dolls and a Time Egg. I have to assume he wouldn't have gone via an established route like that...if Crono/Marle died in the Fall of Guardia, that's fairly straightforward—you just roll in and substitute the dolls with time frozen...or if you lacked the time freeze effect, you give Dalton and Porre a beatdown, and then enjoy the complete and utter clusterfuck in the timeline from stopping Porre's ascent. Likewise, if Lucca still dies in the orphanage, it suggests that Lynx/Harle's visitation is preserved in time despite the Ideal Timeline coming into existence via the healed dimensions—that'd be some truly hardcore Time Traveler's Immunity at work. Again, straightforward—grab Lucca at the right moment and get the hell out of there with the kids.
Surely, there has to have been a grander design; maybe Crono, Marle, and Lucca survive in the Ideal Timeline but got into some other kind of trouble?
It is conceivable that Crono and Marle were made aware of some master plan Dalton was planning, so bad that Dalton needed to crush the only ones capable of subverting his scheme. I doubt Crono and company were killed or trapped with the Dream Eater when attempting to save Schala before the events of CC, as we have our amnesiac Magus becoming Guile later on.
But much to all of your points here, I think the “how” of their death is also in question here too. During the Fall of Guardia, Crono and Marle were either killed in the battle, by Dalton or another party, or sent away and sealed by Dalton in a pocket dimension or dimensional vortex like where Sprigg was, but frozen with no way out, where time doesn’t exist. Due to Crono and Marle’s extremely strong ties to the planet (perhaps even a bond to the planet), the shades were produced because the Entity had a plan for them, similarly to Cyrus and Toma, the latter appearing because of an item with a strong tie to the user, with the ultimate purpose in aiding Crono whom the Entity knew was integral to removing the parasite of Earth… but getting back to the Fall of Guardia and Porre, Crono and Marle are raw magic users thanks to Spekkio, albeit not as refined and powerful as Dalton’s magic capability, so this leads me to believe they were not killed from the assault, but instead removed from the equation via a dimensional vortex by Dalton. It was either Crono and Marle vs Dalton, or Dalton confronting them individually at different stages of the siege. Lucca on the other hand is different because Lynx and Harle were involved, not Dalton, as far as we know. She was (and I hate to say this) either beaten to death and thrown out the top story of the orphanage, incinerated via magic, or possibly sent into a dimensional vortex by Lynx, similarly to Serge at Fort Dragonia… but Lynx still needed Lucca for the Prometheus Circuit, right? Why kill her? Burning the orphanage was enough to break Lucca’s spirit in general to make her unlock the circuit, but she still wasn’t going to give in , and Kid suffered as she probably watched as Lucca getting thrown around (as evidenced by her glasses on the floor) and saw her “die” presumably, whether abducted and taken away via a portal that made it seem like she was vaporized. It emotionally scarred Kid forever, as the detail of her memories there were suppressed. The Entity creates a shade of Lucca, just like Crono and Marle, as echoes of those who are no longer of this world, but still capable of aiding CC’s party to champion the planet.
If the original team is “dead” then we would need multiple Time Egg’s and perfect clones from Norstein Bekkler, or the Neo-Epoch, or possibly intervention from the Entity. But if they are suspended in a dimensional vortex, or worse, then there may be a way to save them via Masa/Mune/Doreen, Dalton if confronted, or the original Zealians like Gaspar/Melchior/Belthasar/Schala/Magus/Guile.
Now here’s the kicker… Dalton probably knows we would attempt time travel to get them back, which leads me to believe he planned ahead to ensure time travel wasn’t an option to reacquire the ones who ruined his plans in the past. They are not dead, but sealed away from our reach and the Entity’s reach. They are integral to the planets survival, and are the only ones who can stop Dalton’s master plan, being magic wielders and the planets champions. The army of Porre is not even the tip of the iceberg though… Dalton wants power, for himself, or to possibly resurrect Zeal, or more sinisterly, to resurrect the Queen and Lavos by obtaining its DNA from a deceased Lavos spawn shell.
With the parasite removed, the DBT purged of the Time Devourer, the parallel worlds merged, what else is unresolved? Dalton. Everything comes back to Dalton. He is the key and connection here and going forward. He’s the only bad actor still at play who doesn’t belong in this time period. What are his goals? What does he want? Who are the ones that can stop him? Do we have something he needs? If going on the original trademark, does he intend to “break” time or stop/halt time (brake) via the introduction of anti-time in order for his grand vision of a world ruled by Zeal again?
Only time will tell. I say we ask Kato-san what this draft entailed
