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The biggest fad in video games at the moment is diving into the nostalgia mines to find a classic game to remake. Square Enix recently announced that the long-rumored remake of Final Fantasy Tactics is real and coming out this year, while the upcoming remake of Trails in the Sky is giving a whole new generation of fans the chance to try a great JRPG series from the start. However, there is one game that feels like it will never get the remake treatment – Chrono Trigger – and I’m absolutely baffled as to why.

JRPG fans know all about Chrono Trigger because it is the greatest JRPG of all time. Period. End of sentence. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk. First released in 1995 for the Super Nintendo, Chrono Trigger was made by what was referred to at the time as a “dream team” of developers that included the creators of both the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest series along with character designs by Akira Toriyama of Dragon Ball fame. Even when it was first released, Chrono Trigger was something special and its legacy has only grown over time.

Along with being one of the few pieces of pop culture that handles time travel well, Chrono Trigger was heavily influential for many of its gameplay mechanics, including multiple levels and being one of the first games to introduce a New Game Plus feature. The combat system allowed for different techniques that were unlocked when certain characters fought alongside each other, making party make-up even more crucial to success. And, of course, the music by Yasunori Mitsuda and Final Fantasy’s Nobuo Uematsu was one of the most complex scores of the era and remains iconic to this day.

Now, considering the legacy of Chrono Trigger that I just described – again, this is the greatest JRPG of all time we’re talking about – Square Enix has created numerous ports of the game over the years. We had the PlayStation port back in 2001, which included some cool anime-style cutscenes but was generally unplayable because of the obnoxiously long load times. In 2008, there was the Nintendo DS version, which tacked on a new ending and fixed some translation issues to arguably become the best version of the game. The most recent attempt to port Chrono Trigger was back in 2018, when we got the PC version that featured “updated” art so bad that it was an insult to the original, Akira Toriyama, and everyone with eyes.

But none of these versions was a true remake. Remasters and direct ports onto new consoles, sure, but not a recreation of the original for a new generation. Why is this? The existence of the DS and PC versions are generally seen as evidence that Square Enix feels the fanbase for Chrono Trigger has been satisfied, especially with the remaster of Chrono Cross coming out just a few years ago. However, the impending release of a Final Fantasy Tactics remake shows that the developer knows there is money to be made by satisfying our nostalgia. 

And to that I say, why not a Chrono Trigger remake? Perhaps not in the vein of the Final Fantasy VII remake, which took the original’s characters, story, and gameplay into new and terrifying directions, but updated graphics, some tweaks to the story to keep things fresh, and, dare I say, even voice acting, would be enough to give the game a modern feel. Keep the turn-based combat system (please!) and the dual/triple-tech combat mechanics, but add enough bells and whistles to keep things interesting to returning fans.

I would point to what Atlus has done with Persona 3: Reload as a good example of how to remake a game without losing what made the original special, but I don’t even think a Chrono Trigger remake needs to go quite that far. The original remains iconic and well-loved, but, unless you have a Nintendo DS lying around, it is difficult to play a good version of it. And sure, the DS is the best-selling handheld console of all time, but not everyone has a working one lying around these days.

More than 30 years after it was first released and nearly 17 years after the last good port of the game, Chrono Trigger remains an icon of the JRPG genre. A new version with moderate tweaks to its systems and a modern look would almost certainly be a huge hit for Square Enix, a company always looking for ways to cash in on its legacy. So I say once again, at the top of my lungs; what exactly do we have to do to get a Chrono Trigger remake?

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