Gaspar confirmed to be cut 8th character for Chrono Trigger!

[ZeaLitY]

Earlier this year, Vehek made an amazing discovery by finding excerpts of a CT interview from a player's guide in Japan, previously unknown to the Compendium and English-speaking community. Angerona then did the impossible by acquiring and scanning the entire thing. Guess what else? It just so happens that this guide was the one featuring some of Toriyama's earliest character sketches (which will be in the official art section by the next update), previously brought to light by Chains of Fate. Just now, we've gotten to reviewing it as I'm slowly updating the site, and I noticed a pretty important sketch...

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Yeah. That's Gaspar, in full Zeal Guru of Time regalia. Compare with his sprites, which also feature his staff:



As soon as I saw this, I politely asked GlitterBerri (well, more like I screamed with excitement at her) to translate the caption underneath that image. And what did we get? "The mysterious cut character,'Sage'. It's a waste not to use it despite its good flavor." Bang! 15 years to reach us, but there it is! It touched 5 Chrono fans, and now we're shouting it from the mountaintop. Gaspar was probably cut early in development, as no extra sprites of him exist in the Prerelease. Still, this is FANTASTIC information! The Guru of Time has attained a very special new significance; he was truly going to be the 8th member of the team! Huge thanks to Chains of Fate, Vehek, Angerona, GlitterBerri, and a ton of other people. We're going to get this Ultra Update finished and keep the Chrono heartbeat pumping with nothing but hot blood!

[Mr Bekkler]

That's incredible! Very cool find.

Perhaps the plans to make him a playable character caused them to only make a limited number of compressed sprites, assuming they'd have a wider range of movement for him in the uncompressed playable character sprite section?

I don't entirely know what I'm talking about. But it made sense when I thought of it.

[Acacia Sgt]

Wha...?

Amazing! Now I wonder, how it would have been his fighting style had he been kept as a party member...

Only thing in mind is magic oriented (though unsure of the element) with, highly likely, staves as his weapons.

What an amazing discovery, nonetheless.

[Mauron]

I knew there was an 8th! I knew it!

[rushingwind]

This is awesome.

Edit: Makes me wonder about that guard-like overworld sprite in the Prerelease version. Perhaps it's an unfinished version of a Gaspar sprite?

[FaustWolf]

This is too awesome for words. Thanks to everyone who had a part in bringing this to light! It's the gift that keeps on giving, over a decade later.

[utunnels]

http://www.chronocompendium.com/Term/File:P584_Idea_Sketch_I.jpg.html

Could that old "Sage" be him?

[Vehek]

Wow...
When I posted about that magazine, I wasn't sure what else would be in there besides that interview. I could guess that maybe it was the source of the early character sketches and maybe where those character ages/measurements came from (still need to confirm this). But I wouldn't have guessed that the old speculation based on glitchy behavior and a badly translated line might actually be true.

Barring any other unknown magazine issues with early CT content, future interviews, or leaks of older prototype versions, I'm going to say what we find from this magazine is probably the last of the discoveries about the development.

[tushantin]

xDDD Who says Gaspar isn't the 8th hero of time even now? He's been assisting Crono and co since day one! Great find, nevertheless. I just wonder what kind of powers he'd have compared to the rest. Since he's a true Zealian, training and all, he's bound to be as powerful as Magus if not more.

@utunnels: Yeah, that's him alright.

[Sajainta]

Heh, so I guess the Ted Woolsey translation of "If you really want to thank me, make me a member of your team!" isn't all that strange now in retrospect. 

[Crono666]

I wonder what skills he'd have, if he had been playable in the game.

[utunnels]

Hehe, guess some time magic like Time Freeze.

[maggiekarp]

FINALLY people will stop thinking I'm crazy for saying that

[Nangbaby]

Oh snap!  This is something I would have never expected.  I wonder how long it will be for the spriters return and make a theoretical sprite sheet based on this information.

[TheMage]

Damn! And everyone thought the 8th playable character was Schala! It would have been so awesome to have Gaspar in your party for sure! To bad his sprites are so limited. Ah well thats what the fans are for

Oh snap!  This is something I would have never expected.  I wonder how long it will be for the spriters return and make a theoretical sprite sheet based on this information.

Im working on one now XD.

Makes me wonder about that guard-like overworld sprite in the Prerelease version. Perhaps it's an unfinished version of a Gaspar sprite?

It deffinantly could be:


I want to know what double and triple techs he would have had XD maybe they would have given him and Magus something zealian and kickass!