Chrono Trigger
Chrono Trigger is a Japanese role-playing game developed and published by Square for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, released in Japan on 11 March 1995 and in North America on 22 August 1995. It was created by the “Dream Team” of Hironobu Sakaguchi, Yuji Horii, and Akira Toriyama, with music composed primarily by Yasunori Mitsuda (54 of 64 tracks) and Nobuo Uematsu (10 tracks).
The game follows Crono, a young man from Truce Village in the year 1000 AD, who becomes embroiled in a time-travelling adventure spanning six distinct eras from 65,000,000 BC to the End of Time. The central objective: prevent Lavos, an alien parasite that has been feeding on the planet for 65 million years, from destroying the world on 13 July 1999.
Across the Eras
The visual diversity of Chrono Trigger is one of its most striking achievements. Toriyama’s character designs maintain a consistent aesthetic across radically different settings: a prehistoric tribal chieftain, a medieval knight-turned-frog, a floating magical kingdom, a ruined post-apocalyptic wasteland. Each era feels visually distinct while remaining unmistakably part of the same world.
The Corridors of Time
The Chrono Trigger soundtrack contains 64 tracks spanning six time periods. Yasunori Mitsuda composed 54 of them; Nobuo Uematsu completed the remaining ten after Mitsuda was hospitalised. The score is widely regarded as one of the greatest in video game history.
Each era has a distinct musical identity: Celtic folk inflections for the Middle Ages, ambient arpeggios for the Kingdom of Zeal, tribal percussion for the Prehistoric era, desolate sparse tones for the ruined Future. The music serves as a second layer of world-building, communicating the character of each time period as powerfully as the visuals.
All 13 Endings
Chrono Trigger delivers thirteen distinct endings, each triggered by defeating Lavos at a different point in the game or under specific conditions. The endings range from the true ending — a triumphant farewell — to comedic developer cameos, bittersweet resolutions, and the haunting glimpses of what might have been. New Game+ exists specifically to let players reach every ending.
Beyond Time
True ending — defeat Lavos after reviving Crono, all side quests resolved. The most complete farewell.
Reunion
New Game+ ending — complete the game normally in a second playthrough. Crono and friends return home.
The Dream Project
New Game+ — defeat Lavos immediately from the title screen via the first time gate. Developer cameo ending.
The Successor of Guardia
Defeat Lavos during the Ocean Palace sequence, before acquiring the Epoch.
Good Night
Defeat Lavos in the Ocean Palace with a revived Crono but without fully completing the scenario.
The Legendary Hero
Defeat Lavos in the Middle Ages era before retrieving the Masamune or saving the Queen.
The Unknown Past
Defeat Lavos after arriving in 65,000,000 BC but before certain key events in that era.
People of the Times
Defeat Lavos mid-game, after Crono’s trial but before the Ocean Palace incident.
The Oath
Defeat Lavos after Crono has died but before his resurrection at Death Peak.
Dino Age
Defeat Lavos before the pivotal events of the 65,000,000 BC era are fully resolved.
What the Prophet Seeks
Defeat Lavos in the Kingdom of Zeal before the full Antiquity storyline is completed.
Memory Lane
New Game+ — defeat Lavos in an early window of the second playthrough.
Dark Ages
New Game+ — defeat Lavos at a specific point in Antiquity during a second playthrough.
I wanted the player to feel that their choices mattered — not just at the end, but throughout. Thirteen endings was not a gimmick. It was a statement about what games could be.
— Hironobu Sakaguchi
Seven Playable Characters
Chrono Trigger’s seven party members are among the most distinctive in JRPG history. Each is drawn from a different era, each carries a distinct narrative arc, and each was designed by Akira Toriyama with the principle that personality should be legible from the silhouette alone.
Crono
Silent protagonist. Red-haired swordsman from Truce, 1000 AD. The player’s canvas.
Marle
Princess Nadia. Impulsive, warm, crossbow-wielding. Escaping her royal life at the Millennial Fair.
Lucca
Inventor and mechanical genius. Crono’s childhood friend. One of gaming’s earliest female scientist characters.
Robo
R-66Y. Deactivated robot found in 2300 AD. Warm despite mechanical origins. Plants a forest across 400 years.
Frog
Glenn, knight transformed by Magus’s curse. Guardian of the Masamune. Speaks in archaic register — dignified, melancholy.
Ayla
Chieftain of the Ioka tribe, 65,000,000 BC. Apex physical fighter. The only party member without magic.
Magus
The dark wizard. Janus, Schala’s brother, sent through time and grown into vengeance. Optional party member.
Lavos
Lavos is the antagonist at the centre of Chrono Trigger’s narrative — an alien parasite that fell to Earth from space in 65,000,000 BC, buried itself in the planet’s core, and spent 65 million years feeding on the planet’s energy and genetic information. On 13 July 1999, it emerges, destroying human civilisation and reducing Earth to the ruined wasteland the party witnesses in 2300 AD.
The design of Lavos is one of Toriyama’s most ambitious. Its outer shell suggests both a sea creature and a meteor — organic spines covering a domed body that communicates scale and fundamental wrongness. Its true inner form is more mechanical and alien, implying that the outer shell is an adaptation rather than its original body. The final confrontation takes place inside Lavos, where the party battles a core that mimics the attacks of every boss they have defeated during the game.
Lavos does not act as a conventional RPG antagonist. It has no dialogue, no stated motive, and no response to the heroes. It simply feeds. The horror of Lavos is not malevolence but indifference — a being so far beyond human scale that humanity is simply a resource rather than an adversary.
Lavos was a design challenge — how do you make something feel genuinely alien? I went with organic forms mixed with mechanical ones, trying to make something that looked like it came from somewhere else entirely.
— Akira Toriyama
What the Game Established
Chrono Trigger sold over 2.65 million copies on the SNES and has been ported to PlayStation, Nintendo DS, iOS, Android, and PC. It remains, in virtually every major critical ranking, among the top three JRPGs ever made and frequently the first or second. Its innovations — New Game+, visible enemies, multiple endings, dual-tech and triple-tech combination attacks — shaped the genre for a decade after its release.
The game also launched or advanced three careers: Mitsuda’s as one of game music’s most celebrated composers; and reinforced the creative authority of Horii and Toriyama within the medium. The Dream Team never worked together again. Chrono Trigger is the only product of their collaboration.
Mitsuda nearly worked himself to death on that score. The music is extraordinary. I sometimes feel guilty that he suffered for it, and then I hear it and I understand why he pushed that hard.
— Hironobu Sakaguchi