Square · 1995 · Super Nintendo · Role-Playing Game
CHRONO TRIGGER
A game made by three legends. A story told across six time periods. Thirteen ways the world can be saved.
The Dream Team
In 1992, three of Japan’s most celebrated creative minds sat down together and decided to make a game. Hironobu Sakaguchi had created Final Fantasy and saved Square from bankruptcy. Yuji Horii had invented Dragon Quest and built the template for the Japanese RPG. Akira Toriyama had drawn Dragon Ball and defined a generation’s visual imagination. Their collaboration became known as the Dream Project.
The game they made, Chrono Trigger, was released in 1995 on the Super Nintendo. It combined everything each creator did best: Sakaguchi’s systemic ambition (thirteen distinct endings driven by player choice), Horii’s narrative craft (time travel logic that held together across six eras spanning 65 million years), and Toriyama’s character designs (seven immediately iconic party members). Yasunori Mitsuda, a 22-year-old staff programmer who told Sakaguchi he would quit if not allowed to compose, wrote 54 of the game’s 64 tracks from a hospital bed.
The result is widely regarded as the greatest JRPG ever made. It achieved this without any of its creators having done it before — it was Mitsuda’s first major composition, and a collaboration unlike anything that had preceded it in game development.
Corridors of Time
Six Eras, One Story
Chrono Trigger unfolds across six distinct time periods — each with its own visual identity, music, characters, and civilisation. The prehistoric world of 65 million BC gives way to the magical floating kingdom of 12,000 BC, the medieval war of 600 AD, the millennial fair of 1000 AD, and the ruined apocalyptic Earth of 2300 AD. Beyond all of them lies the End of Time, a metaphysical platform outside chronology where the game’s mysteries converge.
The genius of the game’s design is that every era is connected. An action in 65,000,000 BC has consequences visible in 1000 AD. A forest planted in 600 AD stands ancient in the Present. The future is not fixed — and the party’s task is to prove it.
What You Will Find Here
The Creators
Sakaguchi, Horii, Toriyama, Mitsuda — four creators whose collaboration was unprecedented in game development. This site profiles each one in depth.
Meet the Dream TeamThe Deep Dive
All 13 endings, the complete party roster, Lavos lore, and the development story behind one of gaming’s most ambitious projects.
Flagship Deep Dive