Square-Enix Wants Better Chrono Trigger Sales Before A Sequel

Posted by Spider on Jun 8, 2009 in Gaming |

Square Enix Senior Vice President Shinji Hashimoto has stated that there won’t be any work on a new Chrono Trigger sequel unless sales of the latest release/port of the classic game picks up.

Excuse us a moment, Mr. Hashimoto, but what the hell is wrong with you?

The game originally came out in 1995 for the SNES, was re-released in 1999 for the PSX/PSOne in Japan, rereleased again in 2001 for the PSOne in Final Fantasy Chronicles, then once more this last year (2008) for the Nintendo DS in North America (2009 for Europe).

How many more ports of the original do we need to buy before development of a new game is warranted? Radical Dreamers was never released in North America but was used as a basis for Chrono Cross, the only sequel us North American gamers got. While it was a fine game that was released in 2000 for North America.

The last new game in the series was nine years ago (this August 15th will be the nine year anniversary of Chrono Cross’ release).

With the long development times of Final Fantasy games we can understand not wanting to bank on a title that could be a loss, but where is the innovative spirit that brought Final Fantasy around? The whole name Final Fantasy is because Squaresoft was on the verge of shutting down and decided to make one last game, a hail mary. It was to be their “final fantasy” game. Fourteen games and myriad spin-offs, ports and much more later the series is still going strong.

Perhaps if you had shown some of that love to the Chrono series it might be in the same place. Chrono Trigger, to this day, is still hailed as one of the best, if not the best, RPGs ever made.

It consistently places high in “Top 100 Best Game Ever!” lists. The original game was the third best selling game of the year in 1995. The PSX/PSOne rerelease was on the best selling charts for six weeks straight.

Mr. Hashimoto, perhaps you should rethink your strategy of “need to sell more” when we, the gaming public, have bought more than enough of a single game over the span of 14 years.

IGN: Square-Enix Wants Better Chrono Trigger Sales.