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Chrono Trigger[a] is a role-playing video gamedeveloped and published by Square for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1995 that began the Chrono series. Chrono Trigger'sdevelopment team included three designers that Square dubbed the 'Dream Team': Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of Square's successful Final Fantasy series; Yuji Horii, a freelance designer and creator of Enix's popular Dragon Quest series; and Akira Toriyama, a manga artist famed for his work with Dragon Quest and Dragon Ball. In addition, Kazuhiko Aoki produced the game,[6]Masato Kato wrote most of the story, while composer Yasunori Mitsuda wrote most of the soundtrack before falling ill and deferring the remaining tracks to Final Fantasy series composer Nobuo Uematsu.[3][7] The game's story follows a group of adventurers who travel through time to prevent a global catastrophe.
Chrono Trigger was a critical and commercial success upon release, and is frequently cited as one of the greatest video games of all time. Nintendo Power magazine described aspects of Chrono Trigger as revolutionary, including its multiple endings, plot-related side-quests focusing on character development, unique battle system, and detailed graphics.[8]Chrono Trigger was the third best-selling game of 1995 in Japan,[9] and shipped 2.65 million copies worldwide by March 2003.[10]
Square released a ported version by Tose in Japan for the PlayStation in 1999, which was later repackaged with a Final Fantasy IV port as Final Fantasy Chronicles (2001) for the North American market. A slightly enhanced Chrono Trigger, again ported by Tose, was released for the Nintendo DS in North America and Japan in 2008, and PAL regions in 2009.[11] The Nintendo DS version sold 790,000 copies by March 2009, after about a year of sales.[12]Chrono Trigger has also been ported to i-mode mobile phones,[13]Virtual Console,[14] the PlayStation Network,[15]iOS devices,[16]Android devices,[17] and Microsoft Windows.[18]
Gameplay[edit]
Chrono Trigger features standard role-playing video game gameplay. The player controls the protagonist and his companions in the game's two-dimensionalfictional world, consisting of various forests, cities, and dungeons. Navigation occurs via an overworld map, depicting the landscape from a scaled-down overhead view. Areas such as forests, cities, and similar places are depicted as more realistic scaled-down maps, in which players can converse with locals to procure items and services, solve puzzles and challenges, or encounter enemies. Chrono Trigger's gameplay deviates from that of traditional Japanese RPGs in that, rather than appearing in random encounters, many enemies are openly visible on field maps or lie in wait to ambush the party. Contact with enemies on a field map initiates a battle that occurs directly on the map rather than on a separate battle screen.[19]
Unlike most other role-playing games at the time, combat in Chrono Trigger occurs in the same area where general navigation occurs, with all enemies visible on screen.
Players and enemies may use physical or magical attacks to wound targets during battle, and players may use items to heal or protect themselves. Each character and enemy has a certain number of hit points; successful attacks reduce that character's hit points, which can be restored with potions and spells. When a playable character loses all hit points, they faint; if all the player's characters fall in battle, the game ends and must be restored from a previously saved chapter, except in specific storyline-related battles that allow or force the player to lose. Between battles, the player can equip his/her characters with weapons, armor, helmets, and accessories that provide special effects (such as increased attack power or defense against magic), and various consumable items can be used both in and out of battles. Items and equipment can be purchased in shops or found on field maps, often in treasure chests. By exploring new areas and fighting enemies, players progress through Chrono Trigger's story.
Chrono Trigger uses an Active Time Battle systemâa staple of Square's Final Fantasy game series designed by Hiroyuki Ito for Final Fantasy IVânamed 'Active Time Battle 2.0.'[20] Each character can take action in battle once a personal timer dependent on the character's speed statistic counts to zero. Magic and special physical techniques are handled through a system called 'Techs.' Techs deplete a character's magic points (a numerical meter similar to hit points), and often have special areas of effect; some spells damage huddled monsters, while others can harm enemies spread in a line. Enemies often change positions during battle, creating opportunities for tactical Tech use. A unique feature of Chrono Trigger's Tech system is that numerous cooperative techniques exist.[19] Each character receives eight personal Techs which can be used in conjunction with others' to create Double and Triple Techs for greater effect. For instance, Crono's sword-spinning Cyclone Tech can be combined with Lucca's Flame Toss to create Flame Whirl. When characters with compatible Techs have enough magic points available to perform their techniques, the game automatically displays the combo as an option.
Chrono Trigger features several other distinct gameplay traits, including time travel. Players have access to seven eras of the game world's history, and past actions affect future events. Throughout history, players find new allies, complete side quests, and search for keynote villains. Time travel is accomplished via portals and pillars of light called 'time gates', as well as a time machine named Epoch. The game contains thirteen unique endings; the ending the player receives depends on when and how they reach and complete the game's final battle.[21]Chrono Trigger DS features a new ending that can be accessed from the End of Time upon completion of the final extra dungeon and optional final boss.[2]Chrono Trigger also introduces a New Game Plus option; after completing the game, the player may begin a new game with the same character levels, techniques, and equipment, excluding money, with which they ended the previous playthrough. However, certain items central to the storyline are removed and must be found again, such as the sword Masamune. Square has since employed the New Game Plus concept in later titles, including Chrono Cross, Parasite Eve, Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy X-2, and Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII.
Plot[edit]Setting[edit]
Chrono Trigger takes place in a world similar to Earth, with eras such as the prehistoric age, in which primitive humans and dinosaurs share the earth; the Middle Ages, replete with knights, monsters, and magic; and the post-apocalyptic future, where destitute humans and sentient robots struggle to survive. The characters frequently travel through time to obtain allies, gather equipment, and learn information to help them in their quest. The party also gains access to the End of Time (represented as year â), which serves as a hub to travel back to other time periods. The party eventually acquires a time-machine vehicle known as the Wings of Time, nicknamed the Epoch. The vehicle is capable of time travel between any time period without first having to travel to the End of Time.
Characters[edit]
Chrono Trigger's six playable characters (plus one optional character) come from different eras of history. Chrono Trigger begins in AD 1000 with Crono, Marle, and Lucca. Crono is the silent protagonist, characterized as a fearless young man who wields a katana in battle. Marle, revealed to be Princess Nadia, lives in Guardia Castle; though sheltered, at heart, she's a princess who seeks independence from her royal identity. Lucca is a childhood friend of Crono's and a mechanical genius; her home is filled with laboratory equipment and machinery. From the era of AD 2300 comes Robo, or Prometheus (designation R-66Y), a robot with a near-human personality created to assist humans. Lying dormant in the future, Robo is found and repaired by Lucca, and joins the group out of gratitude.[22] The fiercely confident Ayla dwells in 65,000,000 BC. Unmatched in raw strength, Ayla is the chief of Ioka Village and leads her people in war against a species of humanoid reptiles known as Reptites.
The last two playable characters are Frog and Magus. Frog originated in AD 600. He is a former squire once known as Glenn, who was turned into an anthropomorphic frog by Magus, who also killed his friend Cyrus. Chivalrous but mired in regret, Frog dedicates his life to protecting Leene, the queen of Guardia, and avenging Cyrus. Meanwhile, Guardia in AD 600 is in a state of conflict against the Mystics (known as Fiends in the US/DS port), a race of demons and intelligent animals who wage war against humanity under the leadership of Magus, a powerful sorcerer. Magus's seclusion conceals a long-lost past; he was formerly known as Janus, the young prince of the Kingdom of Zeal, which was destroyed by Lavos in 12,000 BC. The incident sent him forward through time, and as he ages, he plots revenge against Lavos and broods over the fate of his sister, Schala.[22] Lavos, the game's main antagonist who awakens and ravages the world in AD 1999, is an extraterrestrial, parasitic creature that harvests DNA and the Earth's energy for its own growth.
Story[edit]
In AD 1000, Crono and Marle watch Lucca and her father demonstrate her new teleporter at the Millennial Fair in the Kingdom of Guardia. When Marle volunteers to be teleported, her pendant interferes with the device and creates a time portal into which she is drawn.[23] After Crono and Lucca separately recreate the portal and find themselves in AD 600, they find Marle only to see her vanish before their eyes. Lucca realizes that this time period's kingdom has mistaken Marleâ actually Princess Nadia of Guardiaâ for Queen Leene, an ancestor of hers who had been kidnapped, thus putting off the recovery effort for her ancestor and creating a grandfather paradox. Crono and Lucca, with the help of Frog, restore history to normal by rescuing Leene. After the three part ways with Frog and return to the present, Crono is arrested on charges of kidnapping Marle and sentenced to death by the current chancellor of Guardia. Lucca and Marle help Crono to flee, haphazardly using another time portal to escape their pursuers. This portal lands them in AD 2300, where they learn that an advanced civilization has been wiped out by a giant creature known as Lavos that appeared in 1999.[24] The three vow to find a way to prevent the future destruction of their world. After meeting and repairing Robo, Crono and his friends find Gaspar, an old sage at the End of Time, who helps them acquire magical powers and travel through time by way of several pillars of light (from this point onwards, the party is able to challenge Lavos; doing so and emerging victorious will unlock one of twelve different endings, depending on the point in the story at which Lavos is fought, as well as whether or not certain actions are completed beforehand).
Research in AD 1000 tells the party about Magus summoning Lavos into the world. To repair Frog's sword, the Masamune, they travel to prehistoric times and meet Ayla. After returning to AD 600, they challenge Magus, believing him to be the source of Lavos; after the battle, a summoning spell causes a time gate that throws Crono and his friends to the past.[25] Back in prehistory, Ayla joins the group to battle the Reptites and witness the origin of Lavos. They learn that Lavos was an alien being that arrived on the planet millions of years in the past, and began to absorb DNA and energy from every living creature before arising and razing the planet's surface in 1999 so that it could spawn a new generation. Entering a gate created by the newly-landed Lavos, they go to BC 12,000, an ice age, where the party finds the Kingdom of Zeal, who recently discovered Lavos and seeks to drain its power to achieve immortality through the Mammon Machine. Zeal's leader, Queen Zeal, imprisons Crono and friends on orders of the Prophet, a mysterious figure who has recently begun advising the queen. Though Zeal's daughter Schala frees them, the Prophet forces her to banish them from the realm and seal the time gate they used to travel to the Dark Ages. They return next to AD 2300 to find a time machine called the Wings of Time (or Epoch), which can access any time period without using a time gate. They travel back to BC 12000 to stop Zeal from activating the Mammon Machine in the Ocean Palace. Lavos awakens, disturbed by the Mammon Machine; the Prophet reveals himself to be Magus and unsuccessfully tries to kill the creature.[26] The party is beaten, and a broken Crono stands up to Lavos before being vaporized by a powerful blast. Schala transports the rest of the party back to the surface before Lavos destroys the Ocean palace and the Kingdom of Zeal.
Crono's friends awaken in a village and find Magus, who confesses that he used to be Prince Janus of Zeal.[27] In his memories, it is revealed that the disaster at the Ocean Palace scattered the Gurus of Zeal across time and sent him to the Middle Ages. Janus took the title of Magus and gained a cult of followers while plotting to summon and kill Lavos in revenge for the death of his sister, Schala. When Lavos appeared after his battle with Crono and his allies, he was cast back to the time of Zeal and presented himself to them as a prophet. At this point, Magus is either killed by the party, killed in a duel with Frog, or spared and convinced to join the party. As Crono's friends depart, the ruined Ocean Palace rises into the air as the Black Omen. The group turns to Gaspar for help, and he gives them a 'Chrono Trigger,' an egg-shaped device that allows the group to replace Crono just before the moment of death with a Dopple Doll (doing so is optional, and the game's ending will change depending on the player's decision in this matter). The party then gather power by helping people across time with Gaspar's instructions.[28] Their journeys involve defeating the remnants of the Mystics,[29] stopping Robo's maniacal AI creator,[30] giving Frog closure for Cyrus' death,[31] locating and charging up the mythical Sun Stone, retrieving the Rainbow Shell, and helping restore a forest destroyed by a desert monster.[32] The group enters the Black Omen and defeats Queen Zeal, then successfully battles Lavos, saving the future of their world before parting ways on the last night of the Millennial Fair.
If Magus joined the party, he departs to search for Schala. If Crono was resurrected before defeating Lavos, his sentence for kidnapping Marle is revoked by her father, King Guardia XXXIII, thanks to testimonies from Marle's ancestors and descendants, whom Crono had helped during his journey. Crono's mother accidentally enters the time gate at the Millennial Fair before it closes, prompting Crono, Marle, and Lucca to set out in the Epoch to find her while fireworks light up the night sky.[33] If Crono was not resurrected, Frog, Robo, and Ayla (along with Magus if he was recruited) chase Gaspar to the Millennial Fair and back again, revealing that Gaspar knows how to resurrect Crono; Marle and Lucca then use the Epoch to travel through time and figure out how to achieve this. Alternatively, if the party used the Epoch to break Lavos's outer shell, Marle will help her father hang Nadia's bell at the festival and accidentally get carried away by several balloons. If resurrected, Crono jumps on to help her, but cannot bring them down to earth. Hanging on in each other's arms, the pair travel through the cloudy, moonlit sky.
Chrono Trigger DS added two new scenarios to the game.[2] In the first, Crono and his friends can help a 'lost sanctum' of Reptites, who reward powerful items and armor. The second scenario adds ties to Trigger's sequel, Chrono Cross.[2] In a New Game +, the group can explore several temporal distortions to combat shadow versions of Crono, Marle, and Lucca, and to fight Dalton, who promises in defeat to raise an army in the town of Porre to destroy the Kingdom of Guardia.[34] The group can then fight the Dream Devourer, a prototypical form of the Time Devourerâa fusion of Schala and Lavos seen in Chrono Cross. A version of Magus pleads with Schala to resist; though she recognizes him as her brother, she refuses to be helped and sends him away. Schala subsequently erases his memories and Magus awakens in a forest, determined to find what he had lost.[35]
Development[edit]
Chrono Trigger was conceived in 1992 by Hironobu Sakaguchi, producer and creator of the Final Fantasy series; Yuji Horii, writer, game designer and creator of the Dragon Quest series; and Akira Toriyama, character designer of Dragon Quest and creator of the Dragon Ball manga series.[1] Traveling to the United States to research computer graphics, the three decided to create something that 'no one had done before'.[1] After spending over a year considering the difficulties of developing a new game, they received a call from Kazuhiko Aoki, who offered to produce.[1] The four met and spent four days brainstorming ideas for the game.[1] Square convened 50â60 developers, including scenario writer Masato Kato, whom Square designated story planner.[2] Development started in early 1993.[36] An uncredited Square employee suggested that the team develop a time travel-themed game, which Kato initially opposed, fearing repetitive, dull gameplay.[2] Kato and Horii then met several hours per day during the first year of development to write the game's plot.[2] Square intended to license the work under the Seiken Densetsu franchise and gave it the working title of 'Maru Island'; Hiromichi Tanaka (the future producer of Chrono Cross) monitored Toriyama's early designs.[37] The team hoped to release it on Nintendo's planned Super Famicom Disk Drive; when Nintendo canceled the project, Square reoriented the game for release on a Super Famicom cartridge and rebranded it as Chrono Trigger.[37] Tanaka credited the ROM cartridge platform for enabling seamless transition to battles on the field map.[37]
Aoki ultimately produced Chrono Trigger, while director credits were attributed to Akihiko Matsui, Yoshinori Kitase and Takashi Tokita. Toriyama designed the game's aesthetic, including characters, monsters, vehicles, and the look of each era.[1] Masato Kato also contributed character ideas and designs.[2] Kato planned to feature Gaspar as a playable character and Toriyama sketched him, but he was cut early in development.[38] The development staff studied the drawings of Toriyama to approximate his style.[39] Sakaguchi and Horii supervised; Sakaguchi was responsible for the game's overall system and contributed several monster ideas.[1][39] Other notable designers include Tetsuya Takahashi, the graphic director, and Yasuyuki Honne, Tetsuya Nomura, and Yusuke Naora, who worked as field graphic artists.[40] Yasuhika Kamata programmed graphics, and cited Ridley Scott's visual work in the film Alien as an inspiration for the game's lighting.[41] Kamata made the game's luminosity and color choice lay between that of Secret of Mana and the Final Fantasy series.[41] Features originally intended to be used in Secret of Mana or Final Fantasy IV, also under development at the same time, were appropriated by the Chrono Trigger team.[42] According to Tanaka, Secret of Mana (which itself was originally intended to be Final Fantasy IV) was codenamed 'Chrono Trigger' during development before being called Seiken Densetsu 2 (Secret of Mana), and then the name Chrono Trigger was adopted for a new project.[43]
Hironobu Sakaguchi, part of the 'Dream Team'
Yuji Horii, a fan of time travel fiction (such as the TV series The Time Tunnel), fostered a theme of time travel in his general story outline of Chrono Trigger with input from Akira Toriyama.[44][45] Horii liked the scenario of the grandfather paradox surrounding Marle.[39] Concerning story planning, Horii commented, 'If there's a fairground, I just write that there's a fairground; I don't write down any of the details. Then the staff brainstorm and come up with a variety of attractions to put in.'[39] Sakaguchi contributed some minor elements, including the character Gato; he liked Marle's drama and reconciliation with her father.[39] Masato Kato subsequently edited and completed the outline by writing the majority of the game's story, including all the events of the 12,000 BC era.[3] He took pains to avoid what he described as 'a long string of errands .. [such as] 'do this', 'take this', 'defeat these monsters', or 'plant this flag'.'[2] Kato and other developers held a series of meetings to ensure continuity, usually attended by around 30 personnel.[41] Kato and Horii initially proposed Crono's death, though they intended he stay dead; the party would have retrieved an earlier, living version of him to complete the quest.[2] Square deemed the scenario too depressing and asked that Crono be brought back to life later in the story.[2] Kato also devised the system of multiple endings because he could not branch the story out to different paths.[46]Yoshinori Kitase and Takashi Tokita then wrote various subplots.[3] They also devised an 'Active Time Event Logic' system, 'where you can move your character around during scenes, even when an NPC is talking to you', and with players 'talking to different people and steering the conversation in different directions', allowing each scene to 'have many permutations.'[47] Kato became friends with composer Yasunori Mitsuda during development, and they would collaborate on several future projects.[3] Katsuhisa Higuchi programmed the battle system, which hosted combat on the map without transition to a special battleground as most previous Square games had done.[41] Higuchi noted extreme difficulty in loading battles properly without slow-downs or a brief, black loading screen.[41] The game's use of animated monster sprites consumed much more memory than previous Final Fantasy games, which used static enemy graphics.[41]
Hironobu Sakaguchi likened the development of Chrono Trigger to 'play[ing] around with Toriyama's universe,' citing the inclusion of humorous sequences in the game that would have been 'impossible with something like Final Fantasy.'[39] When Square Co. suggested a non-human player character, developers created Frog by adapting one of Toriyama's sketches.[39] The team created the End of Time to help players with hints, worrying that they might become stuck and need to consult a walkthrough.[39] The game's testers had previously complained that Chrono Trigger was too difficult; as Horii explained, 'It's because we know too much. The developers think the game's just right; that they're being too soft. They're thinking from their own experience. The puzzles were the same. Lots of players didn't figure out things we thought they'd get easily.'[39] Sakaguchi later cited the unusual desire of beta testers to play the game a second time or 'travel through time again' as an affirmation of the New Game + feature: 'Wherever we could, we tried to make it so that a slight change in your behavior caused subtle differences in people's reactions, even down to the smallest details .. I think the second playthrough will hold a whole new interest.'[39] The game's reuse of locations due to time traveling made bug-fixing difficult, as corrections would cause unintended consequences in other eras.[41]
Music[edit]
Chrono Trigger was scored primarily by Yasunori Mitsuda, with contributions from veteran Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu, and one track composed by Noriko Matsueda. A sound programmer at the time, Mitsuda was unhappy with his pay and threatened to leave Square if he could not compose music.[7] Hironobu Sakaguchi suggested he score Chrono Trigger, remarking, 'maybe your salary will go up.'[48] Mitsuda composed new music and drew on a personal collection of pieces composed over the previous two years.[2] He reflected, 'I wanted to create music that wouldn't fit into any established genre .. music of an imaginary world. The game's director, Masato Kato, was my close friend, and so I'd always talk with him about the setting and the scene before going into writing.'[7] Mitsuda slept in his studio several nights, and attributed certain piecesâsuch as the game's ending theme, To Far Away Timesâto inspiring dreams.[48] He later attributed this song to an idea he was developing before Chrono Trigger, reflecting that the tune was made in dedication to 'a certain person with whom [he] wanted to share a generation'.[49] He also tried to use leitmotifs of the Chrono Trigger main theme to create a sense of consistency in the soundtrack.[50] Mitsuda wrote each tune to be around two minutes long before repeating, unusual for Square's games at the time.[41] Mitsuda suffered a hard drive crash that lost around forty in-progress tracks.[51] After Mitsuda contracted stomach ulcers, Uematsu joined the project to compose ten pieces and finish the score.[7] Mitsuda returned to watch the ending with the staff before the game's release, crying upon seeing the finished scene.[51]
Yasunori Mitsuda composed the bulk of the music for Chrono Trigger and would later serve as composer for Chrono Cross.
At the time of the game's release, the number of tracks and sound effects was unprecedentedâthe soundtrack spanned three discs in its 1995 commercial pressing.[8] Square also released a one-disc acid jazz arrangement called 'The Brink of Time' by Guido that year. The Brink of Time came about because Mitsuda wanted to do something that no one else was doing, and he noted that acid jazz and its related genres were uncommon in the Japanese market.[50] Mitsuda considers Chrono Trigger a landmark title which helped mature his talent.[52] While Mitsuda later held that the title piece was 'rough around the edges', he maintains that it had 'significant influence on [his] life as a composer'.[49] In 1999, Square produced another one-disc soundtrack to complement the PlayStation release of Trigger, featuring orchestral tracks used in cut scenes. Tsuyoshi Sekito composed four new pieces for the game's bonus features which weren't included on the soundtrack.[50] Some fans were displeased by Mitsuda's absence in creating the port, whose instruments sometimes aurally differed from the original game's.[50] Mitsuda arranged versions of music from the Chrono series for Play! video game music concerts, presenting the main theme, Frog's Theme, and To Far Away Times.[53] He worked with Square Enix to ensure that the music for the Nintendo DS would sound closer to the Super NES version.[51] Mitsuda encouraged feedback about the game's soundtrack from contemporary children (who he thought would expect 'full symphonic scores blaring out of the speakers').[2] Fans who preordered Chrono Trigger DS received a special music disc containing two orchestral arrangements of Chrono Trigger music directed by Natsumi Kameoka; Square Enix also held a random prize drawing for two signed copies of Chrono Trigger sheet music.[50][54] Mitsuda expressed difficulty in selecting the tune for the orchestral medley, eventually picking a tune from each era and certain character themes.[49] Mitsuda later wrote:
I feel that the way we interact with music has changed greatly in the last 13 years, even for me. For better or for worse, I think it would be extremely difficult to create something as 'powerful' as I did 13 years ago today. But instead, all that I have learned in these 13 years allows me to compose something much more intricate. To be perfectly honest, I find it so hard to believe that songs from 13 years ago are loved this much. Keeping these feelings in mind, I hope to continue composing songs which are powerful, and yet intricate..I hope that the extras like this bonus CD will help expand the world of Chrono Trigger, especially since we did a live recording. I hope there's another opportunity to release an album of this sort one day.[49]
Music from the game was performed live by the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra in 1996 at the Orchestral Game Concert in Tokyo, Japan. A suite of music including Chrono Trigger is a part of the symphonic world-tour with video game music Play! A Video Game Symphony, where Mitsuda was in attendance for the concert's world-premiere in Chicago on May 27, 2006. His suite of Chrono music, comprising 'Reminiscence', 'Chrono Trigger', 'Chrono Cross~Time's Scar', 'Frog's Theme', and 'To Far Away Times' was performed. Mitsuda has also appeared with the Eminence Symphony Orchestra as a special guest.[55]Video Games Live has also featured medleys from Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross.[56] A medley of Music from Chrono Trigger made of one of the four suites of the Symphonic Fantasies concerts in September 2009 which was produced by the creators of the Symphonic Game Music Concert series, conducted by Arnie Roth.[57] Square Enix re-released the game's soundtrack, along with a video interview with Mitsuda in July 2009.[58]
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Release[edit]
The team planned to release Chrono Trigger in late 1994, but release was pushed back to the following year.[39] Early alpha versions of Chrono Trigger were demonstrated at the 1994 and 1995 V-Jump festivals in Japan.[59] A few months prior to the game's release, Square shipped a beta version to magazine reviewers and game stores for review. An unfinished build of the game dated November 17, 1994, it contains unused music tracks, locations, and other features changed or removed from the final releaseâsuch as a dungeon named 'Singing Mountain' and its eponymous tune.[60][61] Some names also differed; the character Soysaw (Slash in the US version) was known as Wiener, while Mayonnay (Flea in the US version) was named Ketchappa.[62] The ROM image for this early version was eventually uploaded to the internet, prompting fans to explore and document the game's differences, including two unused world map NPC character sprites and presumed additional sprites for certain non-player characters.[60] Around the game's release, Yuji Horii commented that Chrono Trigger 'went beyond [the development team's] expectations', and Hironobu Sakaguchi congratulated the game's graphic artists and field designers.[39] Sakaguchi intended to perfect the 'sense of dancing you get from exploring Toriyama's worlds' in the event that they would make a sequel.[39]
Chrono Trigger used a 32-megabitROM cartridge with battery-backed RAM for saved games, lacking special on-cartridge coprocessors. The Japanese release of Chrono Trigger included art for the game's ending and running counts of items in the player's status menu.[63] Developers created the North American version before adding these features to the original build, inadvertently leaving in vestiges of Chrono Trigger's early development (such as the piece 'Singing Mountain').[64] Hironobu Sakaguchi asked translator Ted Woolsey to localize Chrono Trigger for English audiences and gave him roughly thirty days to work.[65] Lacking the help of a modern translation team, he memorized scenarios and looked at drafts of commercial player's guides to put dialogue in context.[65] Woolsey later reflected that he would have preferred two-and-a-half months, and blames his rushed schedule on the prevailing attitude in Japan that games were children's toys rather than serious works.[65] Some of his work was cut due to space constraints, though he still considered Trigger 'one of the most satisfying games [he] ever worked on or played'.[65][66]Nintendo of America censored certain dialogue, including references to breastfeeding, consumption of alcohol, and religion.[63]
The original SNES edition of Chrono Trigger was released on the Wii download service Virtual Console in Japan on April 26, 2011,[14] in the US on May 16, 2011,[67] and in Europe on May 20, 2011.[68] Previously in April 2008, a Nintendo Power reader poll had identified Chrono Trigger as the third-most wanted game for the Virtual Console.[69] It went on to receive a perfect score of 10 out 10 on IGN.[70]
PlayStation[edit]
Ayla, as shown in an animated cut scene in the PlayStation release
Square released an enhanced port of Chrono Trigger developed by Tose in Japan for the Sony PlayStation in 1999. Square timed its release before that of Chrono Cross, the 1999 sequel to Chrono Trigger, to familiarize new players with story leading up to it.[45] This version included anime cutscenes created by original character designer Akira Toriyama's Bird Studio and animated at Toei Animation, as well as several bonus features, accessible after achieving various endings in the game. Scenarist Masato Kato attended planning meetings at Bird Studio to discuss how the ending cutscenes would illustrate subtle ties to Chrono Cross.[45] The port was later released in North America in 2001âalong with a newly translated version of Final Fantasy IVâunder the package title Final Fantasy Chronicles. Reviewers criticized Chronicles for its lengthy load times and an absence of new in-game features.[71][72] This same iteration was also re-released as a downloadable game on the PlayStation Network on October 4, 2011, for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, and PlayStation Portable.[73]
Nintendo DS[edit]
On July 2, 2008, Square Enix announced that they were planning to bring Chrono Trigger to the Nintendo DS handheld platform. Composer Yasunori Mitsuda was pleased with the project, exclaiming 'finally!' after receiving the news from Square Enix and maintaining, 'it's still a very deep, very high-quality game even when you play it today. I'm very interested in seeing what kids today think about it when they play it.'[51] Square retained Masato Kato to oversee the port, and Tose to program it.[2] Kato explained, 'I wanted it to be based on the original Super NES release rather than the PlayStation version. I thought we should look at the additional elements from the Playstation version, re-examine and re-work them to make it a complete edition. That's how it struck me and I told the staff so later on.'[2] Square Enix touted the game by displaying Akira Toriyama's original art at the 2008 Tokyo Game Show.[74]
The DS re-release contains all of the bonus material from the PlayStation port, as well as other enhancements.[75] The added features include a more accurate and revised translation by Tom Slattery, a dual-screen mode which clears the top screen of all menus, a self-completing map screen, and a default 'run' option.[76] It also featured the option to choose between two control schemes: one mirroring the original SNES controls, and the other making use of the DS's touch screen.[77] Masato Kato participated in development, overseeing the addition of the monster-battling Arena,[78] two new areas, the Lost Sanctum and the Dimensional Vortex, and a new ending that further foreshadows the events of Chrono Cross.[79] One of the areas within the Vortex uses the 'Singing Mountain' song that was featured on the original Chrono Trigger soundtrack. These new dungeons met with mixed reviews; GameSpot called them 'frustrating' and 'repetitive', while IGN noted that 'the extra quests in the game connect extremely well.'[80][81] It was a nominee for 'Best RPG for the Nintendo DS' in IGN's 2008 video game awards.[82] The Nintendo DS version of Chrono Trigger was the 22nd best-selling game of 2008 in Japan.[83]
Mobile[edit]
A cellphone version was released in Japan on i-mode distribution service on August 25, 2011.[84] An iOS version was released on December 8, 2011. This version is based on the Nintendo DS version, with graphics optimized for iOS.[85] The game was later released for Android on October 29, 2012.[86][87] An update incorporating most of the features of the Windows versionâincluding the reintroduction of the animated cutscenes, which had been absent from the initial mobile releaseâwas released on February 27, 2018.
Windows[edit]
Square Enix released Chrono Trigger without an announcement for Microsoft Windows via Steam on February 27, 2018. This version includes all content from the Nintendo DS port, the improved graphics from the mobile device releases, support for mouse and keyboard controls, and autosave features, along with additional content such as wallpapers and music.[88] The PC port received negative reception due to its inferior graphical quality, additional glitches, UI adapted for touchscreens, and failure to properly adapt the control scheme for keyboards and controllers.[89][90][91][92][93][94] In response, Square Enix provided various UI updates and other improvements over the next few months to address the complaints.[95][96][97]
Reception[edit]
The game was a bestseller in Japan.[124] The game's SNES and PS1 iterations have shipped more than 2.36 million copies in Japan and 290,000 abroad.[10] The first two million copies sold in Japan were delivered in only two months,[125] and the game ended 1995 as the third best-selling game of the year behind Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation and Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest.[9] The game was met with substantial success upon release in North America, and its rerelease on the PlayStation as part of the Final Fantasy Chronicles package topped the NPD TRSTS PlayStation sales charts for over six weeks.[126][127][128] This version was later re-released again in 2003 as part of Sony's Greatest Hits line. Chrono Trigger DS has sold 490,000 copies in Japan, 240,000 in North America and 60,000 in Europe as of March 2009.[12]
Chrono Trigger garnered much critical praise in addition to its brisk sales. Famicom Tsūshin gave Chrono Trigger first an 8 out of 10[129] and later a 9 out of 10 in their Reader Cross Review.[130]Nintendo Power compared it favorably with Secret of Mana, Final Fantasy, and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, citing improved graphics, sound, story and gameplay over past RPG titles.[118]GamePro praised the varied gameplay, the humor, the ability to replay the game with previously built-up characters, and the graphics, which they said far exceed even those of Final Fantasy VI. They commented that combat is easier and more simplistic than in most RPGs, but argued that 'Most players would choose an easier RPG of this caliber over a hundred more complicated, but less developed, fantasy role-playing adventures.' They gave the game a perfect 5 out of 5 in all four categories: graphics, sound, control, and funfactor.[111]Electronic Gaming Monthly gave it their 'Game of the Month' award, with their four reviewers praising the graphics, story, and music.[105]Chrono Trigger won multiple awards from Electronic Gaming Monthly's 1995 video game awards, including Best Role-Playing Game, Best Music in a Cartridge-Based Game, and Best Super NES Game.[122]Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine described Trigger as 'original and extremely captivating', singling out its graphics, sound and story as particularly impressive.[8][71] IGN commented that 'it may be filled with every imaginable console RPG cliché, but Chrono Trigger manages to stand out among the pack' with 'a [captivating] story that doesn't take itself too serious [sic]' and 'one of the best videogame soundtracks ever produced'.[127] Other reviewers (such as the staff of RPGFan and RPGamer) have criticized the game's short length and relative ease compared to its peers.[128][131] Victoria Earl of Gamasutra praised the game design for balancing 'developer control with player freedom using carefully-designed mechanics and a modular approach to narrative.'[132]
Overall, critics lauded Chrono Trigger for its 'fantastic yet not overly complex' story, simple but innovative gameplay, and high replay value afforded by multiple endings. Online score aggregator GameRankings lists the original Super NES version as the 2nd highest scoring RPG[133] and 24th highest scoring game ever reviewed. In 2009, Guinness World Records listed it as the 32nd most influential video game in history.[134]Nintendo Power listed the ending to Chrono Trigger as one of the greatest endings in Nintendo history, due to over a dozen endings that players can experience.[135]Tom Hall drew inspiration from Chrono Trigger and other console games in creating Anachronox, and used the campfire scene to illustrate the dramatic depth of Japanese RPGs.[136]Next Generation reviewed the Super NES version of the game, rating it four stars out of five, and stated that 'it [..] easily qualifies as one of the best RPG's ever made'.[117]
Chrono Trigger is frequently listed among the greatest video games of all time. It has placed highly on all six of multimedia website IGN's 'top 100 games of all time' listsâ4th in 2002, 6th in early 2005, 13th in late 2005, 2nd in 2006, 18th in 2007, and 2nd in 2008.[137][138][139]Game Informer called it its 15th favourite game in 2001. Its staff thought that it was the best non-Final Fantasy title Square had produced at the time.[140]GameSpot included Chrono Trigger in 'The Greatest Games of All Time' list released in April 2006, and it also appeared as 28th on an 'All Time Top 100' list in a poll conducted by Japanese magazineFamitsu the same year.[141][142] In 2004, Chrono Trigger finished runner up to Final Fantasy VII in the inaugural GameFAQs video game battle. In 2008, readers of Dengeki Online voted it the eighth best game ever made.[143]Nintendo Power's twentieth anniversary issue named it the fifth best Super NES game.[144] In 2012, it came 32nd place on GamesRadar's '100 best games of all time' list,[145] and 1st place on its 'Best JRPGs' list.[146]GamesRadar named Chrono Trigger the 2nd best Super NES game of all time, behind Super Metroid.[147]
In contrast to the critical acclaim of Chrono Trigger's original SNES release, the 2018 Microsoft Windows port of Chrono Trigger was critically panned. Grievances noted by reviewers included tiling errors on textures, the addition of aesthetically-intrusive sprite filters, an unattractive GUI carried over from the 2011 mobile release, a lack of graphic customization options, and the inability to remap controls. In describing the port, Forbes commented: 'From pretty awful graphical issues, such as tiling textures and quite a painful menu system, this port really doesnât do this classic game justice.'[148]USGamer characterized the Windows release as carrying 'all the markings of a project farmed out to the lowest bidder. It's a shrug in Square-Enix's mind, seemingly not worth the money or effort necessary for a half-decent port.'[149] In a Twitter post detailing his experiences with the Windows version, indie developer Fred Wood derisively compared the port to 'someone's first attempt at an RPG Maker game', a comment which was republished across numerous articles addressing the poor quality of the rerelease.[150][151][152]
![]() Legacy[edit]Add-ons[edit]
Chrono Trigger inspired several related releases; the first were three titles released for the Satellaview on July 31, 1995.[153] They included Chrono Trigger: Jet Bike Special, a racing video game based on a minigame from the original; Chrono Trigger: Character Library, featuring profiles on characters and monsters from the game; and Chrono Trigger: Music Library, a collection of music from the game's soundtrack. The contents of Character Library and Music Library were later included as extras in the PlayStation rerelease of Chrono Trigger. Production I.G created a 16-minute OVA entitled 'Nuumamonja: Time and Space Adventures' which was shown at the Japanese V-Jump Festival of July 31, 1996.[154][155]
Fangames[edit]
There have been two notable attempts by Chrono Trigger fans to unofficially remake parts of the game for PC with a 3D graphics engine. Chrono Resurrection, an attempt at remaking ten small interactive cut scenes from Chrono Trigger, and Chrono Trigger Remake Project, which sought to remake the entire game,[156][157] were forcibly terminated by Square Enix by way of a cease and desist order.[158][159][160][161] Another group of fans created a sequel via a ROM hack of Chrono Trigger called Chrono Trigger: Crimson Echoes; developed from 2004 to 2009; although feature-length and virtually finished, it also was terminated through a cease & desist letter days before its May 2009 release. The letter also banned the dissemination of existing Chrono Trigger ROM hacks and documentation.[162] After the cease and desist was issued, an incomplete version of the game was leaked in May 2009, though due to the early state of the game, playability was limited.[163]This was followed by a more complete ROM leak in January 2011, which allowed the game to be played from beginning to end.[164]
Sequels[edit]Nintendo Creators Program Game List
Square released a fourth Satellaview game in 1996, named Radical Dreamers: Nusumenai HÅseki. Having thought that Trigger ended with 'unfinished business', scenarist Masato Kato wrote and directed the game.[45]Dreamers functioned as a side story to Chrono Trigger, resolving a loose subplot from its predecessor.[46] A short, text-based game relying on minimal graphics and atmospheric music, the game never received an official release outside Japanâthough it was translated by fans to English in April 2003.[165] Square planned to release Radical Dreamers as an easter egg in the PlayStation edition of Chrono Trigger, but Kato was unhappy with his work and halted its inclusion.[45]
Square released Chrono Cross for the Sony PlayStation in 1999. Cross is a sequel to Chrono Trigger featuring a new setting and cast of characters.[166] Presenting a theme of parallel worlds, the story followed the protagonist Sergeâa teenage boy thrust into an alternate reality in which he died years earlier. With the help of a thief named Kid, Serge endeavors to discover the truth behind his apparent death and obtain the Frozen Flame, a mythical artifact.[166] Regarded by writer and director Masato Kato as an effort to 'redo Radical Dreamers properly', Chrono Cross borrowed certain themes, scenarios, characters, and settings from Dreamers.[46] Yasunori Mitsuda also adapted certain songs from Radical Dreamers while scoring Cross.[167]Radical Dreamers was consequently removed from the series' main continuity, considered an alternate dimension.[168]Chrono Cross shipped 1.5 million copies and was almost universally praised by critics.[10][169][170]
There are no plans for a new title, despite a statement from Hironobu Sakaguchi in 2001 that the developers of Chrono Cross wanted to make a new Chrono game.[171] The same year, Square applied for a trademark for the names Chrono Break in the United States and Chrono Brake in Japan. However, the United States trademark was dropped in 2003.[172] Director Takashi Tokita mentioned 'Chrono Trigger 2' in a 2003 interview which has not been translated to English.[173]Yuji Horii expressed no interest in returning to the Chrono franchise in 2005, while Hironobu Sakaguchi remarked in April 2007 that his creation Blue Dragon was an 'extension of [Chrono Trigger].'[174][175] During a Cubed³ interview on February 1, 2007, Square Enix's Senior Vice President Hiromichi Tanaka said that although no sequel is currently planned, some sort of sequel is still possible if the Chrono Cross developers can be reunited.[176] Yasunori Mitsuda has expressed interest in scoring a new game, but warned that 'there are a lot of politics involved' with the series. He stressed that Masato Kato should participate in development.[48] The February 2008 issue of Game Informer ranked the Chrono series eighth among the 'Top Ten Sequels in Demand', naming the games 'steadfast legacies in the Square Enix catalogue' and asking, 'what's the damn holdup?!'[177] In Electronic Gaming Monthly's June 2008 'Retro Issue', writer Jeremy Parish cited Chrono as the franchise video game fans would be most thrilled to see a sequel to.[178] In the first May Famitsu of 2009, Chrono Trigger placed 14th out of 50 in a vote of most-wanted sequels by the magazine's readers.[179] At E3 2009, SE Senior Vice President Shinji Hashimoto remarked, 'If people want a sequel, they should buy more!'[180]
In July 2010, Obsidian Entertainment designer Feargus Urquhart, replying to an interview question about what franchises he would like to work on, said that 'if [he] could come across everything that [he] played', he would choose a Chrono Trigger game. At the time, Obsidian was making Dungeon Siege III for Square Enix. Urquhart said: 'You make RPGs, we make RPGs, it would be great to see what we could do together. And they really wanted to start getting into Western RPGs. And, so it kind of all ended up fitting together.'[181][182] Yoshinori Kitase stated that he used the time travel mechanics of Chrono Trigger as a starting point for that of Final Fantasy XIII-2.[183]
Notes[edit]References[edit]
External links[edit]
Quotations related to Chrono Trigger at Wikiquote
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chrono_Trigger&oldid=914709901'
Shigeru Miyamoto (Japanese: å®®æ¬ èHepburn: Miyamoto Shigeru, pronounced [mijamoto ÉiÉ¡eɾɯ]; born November 16, 1952)[4] is a Japanese video game designer and producer at Nintendo, where he serves as one of its representative directors. He is the creator of some of the most acclaimed and best-selling game franchises, such as Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Star Fox, F-Zero, and Donkey Kong.
Miyamoto joined Nintendo in 1977, when it was moving into video games away from the Japanese playing cards it had made since 1889. His games have been flagships of every Nintendo video game console, with his earliest work appearing on arcade machines in the late 1970s. He managed Nintendo's Entertainment Analysis & Development software division, which developed many of the company's first-party titles. As a result of Nintendo president Satoru Iwata's death in July 2015, Miyamoto fulfilled the role of acting president alongside Genyo Takeda until being formally appointed as the company's 'Creative Fellow' a few months later.[5]
Early life
Miyamoto was born in the Japanese town of Sonobe, a rural town northwest of Kyoto,[6] on November 16, 1952. His parents were of 'modest means', and his father taught the English language.[6]
From an early age, Miyamoto began to explore the natural areas around his home. On one of these expeditions, Miyamoto came upon a cave, and, after days of hesitation, went inside. Miyamoto's expeditions into the Kyoto countryside inspired his later work, particularly The Legend of Zelda, a seminal video game.[7]
Miyamoto graduated from Kanazawa Municipal College of Industrial Arts with a degree in industrial design[6] but no job lined up. He also had a love for manga and initially hoped to become a professional manga artist before considering a career in video games.[8] He was influenced by manga's classical kishÅtenketsu narrative structure,[9] as well as Western genre television shows.[10] The title that inspired him to enter the video game industry was the 1978 arcade hit Space Invaders.[11]
Career1977â1984: Arcade beginnings and Donkey Kong
Nintendo, a relatively small Japanese company, had traditionally sold playing cards and other novelties, although it had started to branch out into toys and games in the mid-1960s. Through a mutual friend, Miyamoto's father arranged an interview with Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi. After showing some of his toy creations, Miyamoto was hired in 1977 as an apprentice in the planning department.[6]
Miyamoto went on to become the company's first artist.[6] He helped create the art for the company's first original coin-operated arcade video game, Sheriff.[13] He first helped the company develop a game with the 1980 release Radar Scope. The game achieved moderate success in Japan, but by 1981, Nintendo's efforts to break it into the North American video game market had failed, leaving the company with a large number of unsold units and on the verge of financial collapse. In an effort to keep the company afloat, Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi decided to convert unsold Radar Scope units into a new arcade game. He tasked Miyamoto with the conversion,[14]:157 about which Miyamoto has said self-deprecatingly that 'no one else was available' to do the work.[15] Nintendo's head engineer, Gunpei Yokoi, supervised the project.[14]:158
Miyamoto imagined many characters and plot concepts, but eventually settled on a love triangle between a gorilla, a carpenter, and a girl. He meant to mirror the rivalry between comic characters Bluto and Popeye for the woman Olive Oyl, although Nintendo's original intentions to gain rights to Popeye failed.[6] Bluto evolved into an ape, a form Miyamoto claimed was 'nothing too evil or repulsive'.[16]:47 This ape would be the pet of the main character, 'a funny, hang-loose kind of guy.'[16]:47 Miyamoto also named 'Beauty and the Beast' and the 1933 film King Kong as influences.[17]:36Donkey Kong marked the first time that the formulation of a video game's storyline preceded the actual programming, rather than simply being appended as an afterthought.[17]:38 Miyamoto had high hopes for his new project, but lacked the technical skills to program it himself; instead, he conceived the game's concepts, then consulted technicians on whether they were possible. He wanted to make the characters different sizes, move in different manners, and react in various ways. However, Yokoi viewed Miyamoto's original design as too complex.[16]:47â48 Yokoi suggested using see-saws to catapult the hero across the screen; however, this proved too difficult to program. Miyamoto next thought of using sloped platforms and ladders for travel, with barrels for obstacles. When he asked that the game have multiple stages, the four-man programming team complained that he was essentially asking them to make the game repeat, but the team eventually successfully programmed the game.[17]:38â39 When the game was sent to Nintendo of America for testing, the sales manager disapproved of its vast differentiation from the maze and shooter games common at the time.[16]:49 When American staffers began naming the characters, they settled on 'Pauline' for the woman, after Polly James, wife of Nintendo's Redmond, Washington, warehouse manager, Don James. The playable character, initially 'Jumpman', was eventually named for Mario Segale, the warehouse landlord.[16]:109 These character names were printed on the American cabinet art and used in promotional materials. The staff also pushed for an English name, and thus it received the title Donkey Kong.[17]:212
Donkey Kong was a success, leading Miyamoto to work on sequels Donkey Kong Jr. in 1982 and Donkey Kong 3 in 1983. In his next game, he reworked the Donkey Kong character Jumpman into Mario, and gave him a brother: Luigi. He named the new game Mario Bros. Yokoi convinced Miyamoto to give Mario some superhuman abilities, namely the ability to fall from any height unharmed. Mario's appearance in Donkey Kongâoveralls, a hat, and a thick mustacheâled Miyamoto to change aspects of the game to make Mario look like a plumber rather than a carpenter.[18] Miyamoto felt that New York City provided the best setting for the game, with its 'labyrinthine subterranean network of sewage pipes'. The two-player mode and other aspects of gameplay were partially inspired by an earlier video game entitled Joust.[19] To date, games in the Mario Bros. franchise have been released for more than a dozen platforms.[20] Shortly after, Miyamoto also worked the character sprites and game design for the Baseball, Tennis, and Golf games on the NES.[21]
1985â1989: NES/Famicom, Super Mario Bros., and The Legend of Zelda
Miyamoto's Super Mario Bros. was bundled with the NES in America. The game and the system are credited with helping to bring North America out of the slump of the 1983 game industry crash.
As Nintendo released its first home video game console, the Family Computer (rereleased in North America as the Nintendo Entertainment System), Miyamoto made two of the most momentous titles for the console and in the history of video games as a whole: Super Mario Bros. (a sequel to Mario Bros.) and The Legend of Zelda (an entirely original title).
In both games, Miyamoto decided to focus more on gameplay than on high scores, unlike many games of the time.[7]Super Mario Bros. largely took a linear approach, with the player traversing the stage by running, jumping, and dodging or defeating enemies.[22][23] By contrast, Miyamoto employed nonlinear gameplay in The Legend of Zelda, forcing the player to think their way through riddles and puzzles.[24] The world was expansive and seemingly endless, offering 'an array of choice and depth never seen before in a video game.'[6] With The Legend of Zelda, Miyamoto sought to make an in-game world that players would identify with, a 'miniature garden that they can put inside their drawer.'[7] He drew his inspiration from his experiences as a boy around Kyoto, where he explored nearby fields, woods, and caves; each Zelda title embodies this sense of exploration.[7] 'When I was a child,' Miyamoto said, 'I went hiking and found a lake. It was quite a surprise for me to stumble upon it. When I traveled around the country without a map, trying to find my way, stumbling on amazing things as I went, I realized how it felt to go on an adventure like this.'[16]:51 He recreated his memories of becoming lost amid the maze of sliding doors in his family home in Zelda's labyrinthine dungeons.[16]:52 In February 1986, Nintendo released the game as the launch title for the Nintendo Entertainment System's new Disk System peripheral.
Miyamoto worked on various different games for the Nintendo Entertainment System, including Ice Climber, Kid Icarus, Excitebike, and Devil World. He also worked on sequels to both Super Mario Bros and The Legend of Zelda. Super Mario Bros. 2, released only in Japan at the time, reuses gameplay elements from Super Mario Bros., though the game is much more difficult than its predecessor. Nintendo of America disliked Super Mario Bros. 2, which they found to be frustratingly difficult and otherwise little more than a modification of Super Mario Bros. Rather than risk the franchise's popularity, they cancelled its stateside release and looked for an alternative. They realized they already had one option in Yume Kojo: Doki Doki Panic (Dream Factory: Heart-Pounding Panic), also designed by Miyamoto.[25] This game was reworked and released as Super Mario Bros. 2 (not to be confused with the Japanese game of the same name) in North America and Europe. The Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 2 was eventually released in North America under the title Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels.
The successor to The Legend of Zelda, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, bears little resemblance to the first game in the series. The Adventure of Link features side-scrolling areas within a larger world map rather than the bird's eye view of the previous title. The game incorporates a strategic combat system and more RPG elements, including an experience points (EXP) system, magic spells, and more interaction with non-player characters (NPCs). Link has extra lives; no other game in the series includes this feature.[26]The Adventure of Link plays out in a two-mode dynamic. The overworld, the area where the majority of the action occurs in other The Legend of Zelda games, is still from a top-down perspective, but it now serves as a hub to the other areas. Whenever Link enters a new area such as a town, the game switches to a side-scrolling view. These separate methods of traveling and entering combat are one of many aspects adapted from the role-playing genre.[26] The game was highly successful at the time, and introduced elements such as Link's 'magic meter' and the Dark Link character that would become commonplace in future Zelda games, although the role-playing elements such as experience points and the platform-style side-scrolling and multiple lives were never used again in the official series. The game is also looked upon as one of the most difficult games in the Zelda series and 8-bit gaming as a whole. Additionally, The Adventure of Link was one of the first games to combine role-playing video game and platforming elements to a considerable degree.
Soon after, Super Mario Bros. 3 was developed by Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development; the game took more than two years to complete.[27] The game offers numerous modifications on the original Super Mario Bros., ranging from costumes with different abilities to new enemies.[27][28] Bowser's children were designed to be unique in appearance and personality; Miyamoto based the characters on seven of his programmers as a tribute to their work on the game.[27] The Koopalings' names were later altered to mimic names of well-known, Western musicians in the English localization.[27] In a first for the Mario series, the player navigates via two game screens: an overworld map and a level playfield. The overworld map displays an overhead representation of the current world and has several paths leading from the world's entrance to a castle. Moving the on-screen character to a certain tile will allow access to that level's playfield, a linear stage populated with obstacles and enemies. The majority of the game takes place in these levels.
1990â2000: SNES, Nintendo 64, Super Mario 64, and Ocarina of Time
Miyamoto was responsible for the controller design of the Super Famicom/Nintendo. Its L/R buttons were an industry first and have since become commonplace.
A merger between Nintendo's various internal research and development teams led to the creation of Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development (Nintendo EAD), which Miyamoto headed. Nintendo EAD had approximately fifteen months to develop F-Zero, one of the launch titles for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.[29] Miyamoto worked through various games on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, one of them Star Fox. For the game, programmer Jez San convinced Nintendo to develop an upgrade for the Super Nintendo, allowing it to handle three-dimensional graphics better: the Super FX chip.[30][31] Using this new hardware, Miyamoto and Katsuya Eguchi designed the Star Fox game with an early implementation of three-dimensional graphics.[32]
Miyamoto produced two major Mario titles for the system. The first, Super Mario World, was a launch title and was bundled with Super Nintendo Entertainment System consoles. It featured an overworld as in Super Mario Bros. but introduced a new character, Yoshi, who would go on to appear in various other Nintendo games. The second Mario game for the system, Super Mario RPG, went in a somewhat different direction. Miyamoto led a team consisting of a partnership between Nintendo and Square Co.; it took nearly a year to develop the graphics.[33] The story takes place in a newly rendered Mushroom Kingdom based on the Super Mario Bros. series.
Miyamoto also created The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, the third entry in the series. Dropping the side-scrolling elements of its predecessor, A Link to the Past introduced to the series elements that are still commonplace today, such as the concept of an alternate or parallel world, the Master Sword, and other new weapons and items.
Shigeru Miyamoto mentored Satoshi Tajiri, guiding him during the creation process of Pocket Monsters: Red and Green (released in English as Pokémon Red and Blue), the initial video games in the Pokémon series. He also acted as the producer for these games and worked on social gameplay concepts such as trading.[34] Pokémon would go on to be one of the most popular entertainment franchises in the world, spanning video games, anime, and various other merchandise.[35]
Miyamoto made several games for the Nintendo 64, mostly from his previous franchises. His first game on the new system, and one of its launch titles, was Super Mario 64, for which he was the principal director. In developing the game, he began with character design and the camera system. Miyamoto and the other designers were initially unsure of which direction the game should take, and spent months to select an appropriate camera view and layout.[36] The original concept involved a fixed path much like an isometric-type game, before the choice was made to settle on a free-roaming 3D design.[36] He guided the design of the Nintendo 64 controller in tandem with that of Super Mario 64.
Using what he had learned about the Nintendo 64 from developing Super Mario 64 and Star Fox 64,[10] Miyamoto produced his next game, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, leading a team of several directors.[37] Its engine was based on that of Super Mario 64 but was so heavily modified as to be a somewhat different engine. Individual parts of Ocarina of Time were handled by multiple directorsâa new strategy for Nintendo EAD. However, when things progressed slower than expected, Miyamoto returned to the development team with a more central role assisted in public by interpreter Bill Trinen.[38] The team was new to 3D games, but assistant director Makoto Miyanaga recalls a sense of 'passion for creating something new and unprecedented'.[39] Miyamoto went on to produce a sequel to Ocarina of Time, known as The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. By reusing the game engine and graphics from Ocarina of Time, a smaller team required only 18 months to finish Majora's Mask.
Miyamoto worked on a variety of Mario series spin-offs for the Nintendo 64, including Mario Kart 64 and Mario Party.
2000â2011: GameCube, Wii, and DS
Miyamoto holding up a Wii Remote at E3 2006
Miyamoto produced various games for the GameCube, including the launch title Luigi's Mansion. The game was first revealed at Nintendo Space World 2000 as a technical demo designed to show off the graphical capabilities of the GameCube.[40] Miyamoto made an original short demo of the game concepts, and Nintendo decided to turn it into a full game. Luigi's Mansion was later shown at E3 2001 with the GameCube console.[41] Miyamoto continued to make additional Mario spinoffs in these years. He also produced the 3D game series Metroid Prime, after the original designer Yokoi, a friend and mentor of Miyamoto's, died.[42] In this time he developed Pikmin and its sequel Pikmin 2, based on his experiences gardening.[6] He also worked on new games for the Star Fox, Donkey Kong, F-Zero, and The Legend of Zelda series on both the GameCube and the Game Boy Advance systems.[43][44][45] With the help of Hideo Kojima, he guided the developers of Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes.[46] He helped with many games on the Nintendo DS, including the remake of Super Mario 64, Super Mario 64 DS, and the new game Nintendogs, a new franchise based on his own experiences with dogs.[47]
Miyamoto played a major role in the development of the Wii, a console that popularized motion control gaming, and its launch title Wii Sports, which helped show the capability of the new control scheme. Miyamoto went on to produce other titles in the Wii series, including Wii Fit. His inspiration for Wii Fit was to encourage conversation and family bonding.[6]
At E3 2004, Miyamoto unveiled The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, appearing dressed as the protagonist Link with a sword and shield. Also released for the GameCube, the game was among the Wii's launch titles and the first in the Zelda series to implement motion controls. He also helped with The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, which featured more accurate motion controls. He also produced two Zelda titles for the Nintendo DS, The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass and The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks. These were the first titles in the series to implement touch screen controls.
Miyamoto produced three major Mario titles for Wii from 2007 to 2010: Super Mario Galaxy, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, and Super Mario Galaxy 2.
2011âpresent: Wii U, 3DS, and Switch
Miyamoto produced both Super Mario 3D Land and Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon for the 3DS, and Pikmin 3 for the Wii U.
Following the death of Nintendo president Satoru Iwata in July 2015, Miyamoto was appointed as an acting Representative Director, alongside Genyo Takeda.[48] He was relieved of this position in September 2015 when Tatsumi Kimishima assumed the role of the company's president. He was also appointed the position of 'Creative Fellow' at the same time, providing expert advice to Kimishima as a 'support network' alongside Takeda.[2][49]
Miyamoto served as a creative director on the 2017 game Super Mario Odyssey, as opposed to serving as one of its producers, and is credited as being a major influence on the game's development.[50]
Development philosophy
Miyamoto, and Nintendo as a whole, do not use focus groups. Instead, Miyamoto figures out if a game is fun for himself. He says that if he enjoys it, others will too.[6] He elaborates, citing the conception of the Pokémon series as an example, 'And that's the point â Not to make something sell, something very popular, but to love something, and make something that we creators can love. It's the very core feeling we should have in making games.'[51] Miyamoto wants players to experience kyokan; he wants 'the players to feel about the game what the developers felt themselves.'[6]
He then tests it with friends and family. He encourages younger developers to consider people who are new to gaming, for example by having them switch their dominant hand with their other hand to feel the experience of an unfamiliar game.[6]
Miyamoto's philosophy does not focus on hyper-realistic graphics, although he realizes they have their place. He is more focused on the game mechanics, such as the choices and challenges in the game.[6] Similar to how manga artists subverted their genre, Miyamoto hopes to subvert some of the basic principles he had popularized in his early games, retaining some elements but eliminating others.[6]
His use of real-time rendered cinematics (not prerendered video) serves both his own rapidly interactive development process with no rendering delays, and the player's interaction with the game's continuity. He prefers to change his games right until they are finalized, and to make 'something unique and unprecedented'. He prefers the game to be interactively fun rather than have elaborate film sequences, stating in 1999, 'I will never make movie-like games';[51] therefore, the more than 90 total minutes of short cutscenes interspersed throughout Ocarina of Time[12] deliver more interactive cinematic qualities.[51][52]:5 His vision mandates a rapid and malleable development process with small teams, as when he directed substantial changes to the overall game scenario in the final months of the development of Ocarina of Time. He said, 'The reason behind using such a simple process, as I am sure you have all experienced in the workshop, is that there is a total limit on team energy. There is a limit to the work a team can do, and there is a limit to my own energy. We opted not to use that limited time and energy on pre-rendered images for use in cinema scenes, but rather on tests on other inter-active elements and polishing up the game'.[12]
For these reasons, he opposes prerendered cutscenes.[12][10][51][12] Of Ocarina of Time, he says 'we were able to make use of truly cinematic methods with our camera work without relying on [prerendered video].'[12]
Triple A Map Creator
In 2003, he described his 'fundamental dislike' of the role-playing game (RPG) genre: 'I think that with an RPG you are completely bound hand and foot, and can't move. But gradually you become able to move your hands and legs.. you become slightly untied. And in the end, you feel powerful. So what you get out of an RPG is a feeling of happiness. But I don't think they're something that's fundamentally fun to play. With a game like that, anyone can become really good at it. With Mario though, if you're not good at it, you may never get good.'[53]
Impact
Takashi Tezuka, Miyamoto, and Koji Kondo, 2015
Time called Miyamoto 'the Spielberg of video games'[54] and 'the father of modern video games,'[11] while The Daily Telegraph says he is 'regarded by many as possibly the most important game designer of all time.'[55]GameTrailers called him 'the most influential game creator in history.'[56] Miyamoto has significantly influenced various aspects of the medium. The Daily Telegraph credited him with creating 'some of the most innovative, ground breaking and successful work in his field.'[55] Many of Miyamoto's works have pioneered new video game concepts or refined existing ones. Miyamoto's games have received outstanding critical praise, some being considered the greatest games of all time.
Miyamoto's games have also sold very well, becoming some of the best-selling games on Nintendo consoles and of all time. As of 1999, his games had sold 250 million units and grossed billions of dollars.[55]
Calling him one of the few 'video-game auteurs,' The New Yorker credited Miyamoto's role in creating the franchises that drove console sales, as well as designing the consoles themselves. They described Miyamoto as Nintendo's 'guiding spirit, its meal ticket, and its playful public face,' noting that Nintendo might not exist without him.[6]The Daily Telegraph similarly attributed Nintendo's success to Miyamoto more than any other person.[55]Next Generation listed him in their '75 Most Important People in the Games Industry of 1995', elaborating that, 'He's the most successful game developer in history. He has a unique and brilliant mind as well as an unparalleled grasp of what gamers want to play.'[57]
Influence on the video game industry
Miyamoto's best known and most influential title, Super Mario Bros., 'depending on your point of view, created an industry or resuscitated a comatose one.'[6]The Daily Telegraph called it 'a title that set the standard for all future videogames.'[55] G4 noted its revolutionary gameplay as well as its role in 'almost single-handedly' rescuing the video game industry.[58] The title also popularized the side-scrolling genre of video games. The New Yorker described Mario as the first folk hero of video games, with as much influence as Mickey Mouse.[6]
GameSpot featured The Legend of Zelda as one of the 15 most influential games of all time, for being an early example of open world, nonlinear gameplay, and for its introduction of battery backup saving, laying the foundations for later action-adventure games like Metroid and role-playing video games like Final Fantasy, while influencing most modern games in general.[59] In 2009, Game Informer called The Legend of Zelda 'no less than the greatest game of all time' on their list of 'The Top 200 Games of All Time', saying that it was 'ahead of its time by years if not decades'.[60]
At the time of the release of Star Fox, the use of filled, three-dimensionalpolygons in a console game was very unusual, apart from a handful of earlier titles.[61] Due to its success, Star Fox has become a Nintendo franchise, with five more games and numerous appearances by its characters in other Nintendo games such as the Super Smash Bros. series.
His game Super Mario 64 has made a lasting impression on the field of 3D game design, particularly notable for its use of a dynamic camera system and the implementation of its analog control.[62][63][64]The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time's gameplay system introduced features such as a target lock system and context-sensitive buttons that have since become common elements in 3D adventure games.[65][66]
The Wii, which Miyamoto played a major role in designing, is the first wireless motion-controlled video game console.[6]
Critical reception
Miyamoto's games have received outstanding critical praise, and are widely considered among the greatest of all time.[6]
Games in Miyamoto's The Legend of Zelda series have received outstanding critical acclaim. A Link to the Past is a landmark title for Nintendo and is widely considered today to be one of the greatest video games of all time. Ocarina of Time is widely considered by critics and gamers alike to be one of the greatest video games ever made.[67][68][69][70]Twilight Princess was released to universal critical acclaim, and is the third highest-rated title for the Wii.[71] It received perfect scores from major publications such as CVG, Electronic Gaming Monthly, Game Informer, GamesRadar, and GameSpy.[72][73][74][75][76]
Super Mario 64 is acclaimed by many critics and fans as one of the greatest and most revolutionary video games of all time.[77][78][79][80][81][82]
According to Metacritic, Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Galaxy 2 are the first- and second-highest rated games for the Wii.[71]
A 1995 article in Maximum stated that 'in gaming circles Miyamoto's name carries far more weight than Steven Spielberg's could ever sustain.'[83]
Commercial reception
Miyamoto's games have sold very well, becoming some of the best-selling games on Nintendo consoles and of all time.
Miyamoto's Mario series is, by far, the best-selling video game franchise of all time, selling over 400 million units. Super Mario Bros. is the second best-selling video game of all time. Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3, and Super Mario Bros. 2 were, respectively, the three best-selling games for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Levi Buchanan of IGN considered Super Mario Bros. 3's appearance in the film The Wizard as a show-stealing element, and referred to the movie as a '90-minute commercial' for the game.[84]Super Mario World was the best-selling game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.[85][86]Super Mario 64 was the best-selling Nintendo 64 game,[87] and as of May 21, 2003, the game had sold eleven million copies.[88] At the end of 2007, Guinness World Records reported sales of 11.8 million copies. As of September 25, 2007, it was the seventh best-selling video game in the United States with six million copies sold.[89] By June 2007, Super Mario 64 had become the second most popular title on Wii's Virtual Console, behind Super Mario Bros.[90]Super Mario Sunshine was the third best-selling video game for the GameCube.
The original game in The Legend of Zelda series was the fifth best-selling game for the Nintendo Entertainment System. The Wind Waker was the fourth best-selling game for the GameCube. Twilight Princess experienced commercial success. In the PAL region, which covers most of Asia, Africa, South America, Australia, New Zealand, and most of Western Europe, Twilight Princess is the best-selling Zelda game ever. During its first week, the game was sold with three out of every four Wii purchases.[91] The game had sold 4.52 million copies on the Wii as of March 1, 2008,[92] and 1.32 million on the GameCube as of March 31, 2007.[93]
The Mario Kart series has sold well. Super Mario Kart is the third best-selling video game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Mario Kart 64 is the second best-selling Nintendo 64 game. Mario Kart: Double Dash is the second best selling game for the GameCube, and Mario Kart Wii, which is the second best selling game for the Wii.
Miyamoto produced Wii Sports, another of the best-selling games of all time and part of the Wii series.
Awards and recognition
The name of the main character of the PC game Daikatana, Hiro Miyamoto, is a homage to Miyamoto.[94] The character Gary Oak from the Pokémon anime series is named Shigeru in Japan and is the rival of Ash Ketchum (called Satoshi in Japan). Pokémon creator Satoshi Tajiri was mentored by Miyamoto.
In 1998, Miyamoto was honored as the first person inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences' Hall of Fame.[95] In 2006, Miyamoto was made a Chevalier (knight) of the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres.[96]
On November 28, 2006, Miyamoto was featured in TIME Asia's '60 Years of Asian Heroes'.[97] He was later chosen as one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People of the Year in both 2007[98] and also in 2008, in which he topped the list with a total vote of 1,766,424.[99] At the Game Developers Choice Awards, on March 7, 2007, Miyamoto received the Lifetime Achievement Award 'for a career that spans the creation of Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda, and Donkey Kong to the company's recent revolutionary systems, Nintendo DS and Wii.'[100]GameTrailers and IGN placed Miyamoto first on their lists for the 'Top Ten Game Creators' and the 'Top 100 Game Creators of All Time' respectively.[101][102]
In a survey of game developers by industry publication Develop, 30% of the developers, by far the largest portion,[6] chose Miyamoto as their 'Ultimate Development Hero'.[103] Miyamoto has been interviewed by companies and organizations such as CNN's Talk Asia.[104] He was made a Fellow of BAFTA at the British Academy Video Games Awards on March 19, 2010.[105] In 2012, Miyamoto was also the first interactive creator to be awarded the highest recognition in Spain, the Prince of Asturias Award, in the category of Communications and Humanities.[106][107]
Personal lifeNintendo Content Creator Program
Miyamoto has a wife, Yasuko, and two children. In 2010, his son was 25 and working at an advertising agency, while his daughter was 23 and studying zoology at the time. His children played video games in their youth, but he also made them go outside. Although he knows some English, he is not fluent and prefers to speak in Japanese for interviews.[6]
Miyamoto does not generally sign autographs, out of concern that he would be inundated. He also does not appear on Japanese television, so as to remain anonymous. More foreign tourists than Japanese people approach him.[6]
Nintendo Creators Program List
Miyamoto spends little time playing video games in his personal time, preferring to play the guitar, mandolin, and banjo.[108] He avidly enjoys bluegrass music.[6] He has a Shetland Sheepdog named Pikku that provided the inspiration for Nintendogs.[109] He is also a semi-professional dog breeder.[110] He has been quoted as stating, 'Video games are bad for you? That's what they said about rock and roll.'[111]
Free Map Creator Program
Miyamoto enjoys rearranging furniture in his house, even late at night.[6] He also stated that he has a hobby of guessing the dimensions of objects, then checking to see if he was correct, and reportedly carries a measuring tape with him everywhere.[112] In December 2016, Miyamoto showcased his hobby on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, while also performing the Super Mario Bros. theme on guitar with The Roots during the same show.[113][114]
GameographySee also
Shigeru Miyamoto â Wikipedia book
References
External links
Nintendo Creators Program
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