Chrono Trigger DS Canonicity

Inquiry[edit]

Are the new parts of Chrono Trigger DS canon, like the Arena of the Ages, Dimensional Vortex, Lost Sanctum, and new ending at the Darkness Beyond Time?

Answer[edit]

  • The Arena of the Ages is considered non-canonical since it's designed expressly as a multiplayer mini-game and isn't incorporated into the main story. Still, for fan authors, it's not hard to imagine it really exists as a pocket dimension or something.
  • The Lost Sanctum is considered canonical because it doesn't conflict with any principles of the game. Though some of its map areas are designed poorly, and though things like the origin of the Archaeofangs and Master-at-Arms reek of simply being "monsters of the week", the overall plot is fine and non-contradictory. The Chrono Compendium considers the Lost Sanctum to be a large swath of land with a Reptite colony that became "disconnected" and "adrift" from normal time sometime before 65000000 B.C. The use of two Prismastones to make a Saintstone does conflict with Time Bastard theory on the surface, but with established theory, the Saintstone could have existed for 64999400 years before Time Bastard would have become operable and destroyed half of it.

The Dimensional Vortex and the Darkness Beyond Time are half-canon. If taken as part of Crono's quest, they pose problems:

  • What part of the game do they fall under? There's no cohesive ending for the team after the Dream's Epilogue ending, and they can only be completed after the main quest is finished.
  • If the party meets Dalton in the Dimensional Vortex and learn that he intends to destroy the Kingdom of Guardia, they would presumably be able to prepare for it; instead, main canon is that Guardia is destroyed, suggesting they didn't meet.
  • How can the Dream Devourer, a being created by the defeat of Lavos, exist before the party defeat Lavos?
  • How can the party meet a future version of Magus, given Flow Principle based around the observer and the series' thematic rejection of determinism?

Because of these issues, the Chrono Compendium holds that the events of the Dimensional Vortex—namely, Dalton's plan to destroy the Kingdom of Guardia and Magus's battle with the Dream Devourer after Chrono Trigger—are canonical, but their observation and visit by the original Chrono Trigger team are not. With this explanation, the player's visiting these events just represents a storytelling concession that had to be made in order to show the player what happened interactively (versus a long cut scene). The Compendium also holds that the Dream Devourer is an intermediary evolutionary stage of the Time Devourer. These explanations tidy the matter and allow the new events to be part of canon.

From: Common Questions