Sandbox

Unofficial Chrono Trigger 2: Past, Present, and Future

We've seen them all come and go: Chrono Trigger Resurrection, Chrono Trigger Remake Project, and numerous other fan games that popped up before or during the Compendium's tenure, and faded away. One fan game project outlasted them all; Unofficial Chrono Trigger 2 began in XXXXXXXXX, and existed in one incarnation or another until it's suspension in mid-2008. Thanks to Kenji Moroboshi and others, the Chrono Compendium is taking an exhaustive look at the history of this project and its intended future, thrown into question by recent events.

Chronology of the Project

The project began with a simple plot and relatively small ambitions. The creators planned to feature the original cast of Chrono Trigger in a new adventure using their 2.5D engine, rendering sprites in a very, very simple 3D world. Kylar, the first story specialist, came on board before 2002 and began making bold edits to the original outline, though keeping the overall aim a "play-it-safe" sequel to Chrono Trigger.

Kenji describes the plot: "The first scene of Kylar's plot was a festival, like the Millennial Fair, taking place in 1005 A.D. Crono and Marle live in Gina's house, in a sort of CBS-style idyllic domesticity, and they have a four-year-old child who would start to resemble Gohan really quickly. As the festival turned to night, monsters attacked... maybe or maybe not Porrean soldiers, and Crono and Marle would rush to the castle only to find the king dead. By some kind of gargoyle, I believe. Then they met a mysterious man from the future (who was their son, from the future) who beat them down and sent them to the Prehistoric Age, where they'd meet Ayla. Beyond that, there was something involving a tower that was set as a memorial to the Guardian Royal House in 2000, which would make the player realize something was afoot, probably leading to an attempt to interfere with the Fall of Guardia. That was as far as it went, that basic setup. Like I said before, Kylar didn't remember where I wanted to take it, implying that he had been off the project long enough to forget (unless he just had a terrible memory), and that's the springboard I used."

The team meanwhile released two demos, named Build 10 and 11, in 2002. These allowed players to exit Crono's house and fight a few battles in Guardia Forest. As that year went on, certain staff members fell away, including Kylar; Gangis replaced him with Kenji Moroboshi, the third or fourth writer to apply. Kenji had a few very brief chats with Kylar to confirm certain story points, and then began creating his own new directions and changes for the plot.

That covers it! Though the lightning-pace of development envisioned in January 2007 was ultimately deferred, the project was finished in December thanks to a similar effort spearheaded by Chrono'99 and supported by several others. It's not too hard to hack simple scenes and map beautiful places when it comes down to it, so give editing Chrono Trigger a try if you'd like to make something new and become a community leader. Check out the links in the sidebar to the modification pages and Temporal Flux downloads, and have fun!

http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://uct2.net Article

~~