Chrono Trigger (1995) — acclaimed in North America, 290,000 copies sold

August 22, 1995: Chrono Trigger reached North American shelves

Hello, this is Toki. Episode 35 of “Today Is Release Day”. The reviews were close to perfect, and yet it sold one eighth of what it sold at home. This is the story of August 22, 1995, the day Chrono Trigger went on sale in North America.Chrono Trigger (from the official Steam screenshots)

In Japan it had arrived on March 11 of the same year, on the Super Famicom, published by Square. In North America it came out as a Super NES cartridge from Square Soft. Almost half a year later.

And eighteen days after that, on September 9, 1995, the PlayStation launched in North America. This was one of the last big games to be placed on a 16-bit shelf.

What you do in the past changes the landscape of the future

It was made by the group the press called the Dream Team: Hironobu Sakaguchi of Final Fantasy, Yuji Horii of Dragon Quest, and Akira Toriyama, the artist behind the Dragon Ball manga. The biggest names in Japanese games and comics of the day, gathered on one cartridge.

The party moves between worlds set in different eras. Plant a seedling in the Middle Ages and a forest stands in the same spot in the future. Reaching into the past to change what comes later is the spine of the story.Chrono Trigger (from the official Steam screenshots)

The combat was unusual for its time as well. Enemies are visible on the map, and the fight begins without cutting to a separate battle screen. Party members can also combine their techniques into joint attacks.

There are twelve endings. Which one you reach depends on when you choose to face the final enemy. You can also start over while keeping the strength you earned, and the English-language term “New Game Plus” is generally said to have spread from this game.

High scores, modest sales

The contemporary reviews were strong. Electronic Gaming Monthly gave it an A, GamePro a 5 out of 5, and Next Generation a 4 out of 5. In Japan, the four Famitsu reviewers gave 8, 9, 8 and 9, for 34 out of 40.From the thumbnail of “Chrono Trigger (Super Nintendo / SNES) - Retro Video Game Commercial / Ad” (YouTube)

Nintendo Power, Nintendo’s own magazine, called the multiple endings, the character side-quests and the battle design “revolutionary”. Ted Woolsey, who translated the game into English, was given roughly thirty days. He still looks back on it as one of the most satisfying jobs he ever had.

The sales tell the opposite story. In an August 2003 Square Enix document, the game had sold 2.36 million copies in Japan against 290,000 abroad — of 2.65 million in total, about one tenth came from outside Japan. In Japan it had reached two million within two months of release.

Europe did not get the Super Nintendo version at all. The first official European release was the Nintendo DS version in 2009.

Thirty-one years later, the same game runs on a PC

Counting from August 22, 1995, the game turns exactly thirty-one today. It has been reissued without a real break ever since.

The PC version arrived on Steam on February 27, 2018. It added extra dungeons, and the music was re-recorded under the supervision of Yasunori Mitsuda. Right after launch, though, complaints piled up about blurry visuals and control settings, and patches kept arriving through that year.

The video below is the official trailer for that PC version. What was inside a cartridge thirty-one years ago is still on sale under the same name — which is a strange thing to watch.

Is there a game whose reputation grew only later?

March 11, 1995 in Japan; August 22, 1995 in North America. Having written the year twice, the article finally feels finished.

Praised by critics, yet slow to sell at launch — games like that usually see their reputation grow long afterwards. Is there one you only heard people call great years after it came out?