Chrono Trigger Soundtrack

Chrono Trigger Soundtrack, Noriko Matsueda / Yasunori Mitsuda / Nobuo Uematsu, 1995

Yes, they do not make them like they used to. Consider how Chrono Trigger, one of the greatest RPGs of all time, came about more or less by chance – hardly the sort of origin story one expects in today’s world of multi-million-dollar productions designed to satisfy stakeholders. Hironobu Sakaguchi, creator of Final Fantasy, Yuji Horii, creator of Dragon Quest, and Akira Toriyama, creator of Dragon Ball and character designer for Dragon Quest, attended a computer graphics convention in the United States. There, they began discussing their work in console RPGs, started exchanging ideas – and the result was the aptly named “Project Dream”, spearheaded by a genuine all-star team. Equally important, however, was the contribution of relative industry newcomer Masato Kato, who would go on to write one of the strangest and most mind-bending narratives of the SNES era.

Still, the fact that Chrono Trigger became one of the most fondly remembered SNES games of all time also owes much to the work of Yasunori Mitsuda, making his scoring debut with this title. Mitsuda had previously designed sound effects for Square games such as Final Fantasy V, Secret of Mana and Romancing SaGa 2. Frustrated by the lack of opportunities to compose, he threatened Hironobu Sakaguchi with leaving Square. Remarkably, Sakaguchi responded by rather casually offering him the music duties on the company’s new major title – another circumstance difficult to imagine today. Mitsuda spent a year on the soundtrack, threw himself into the work, lost around forty in-progress tracks to a hard-drive crash, and ultimately worked himself into hospital with stomach ulcers, leading to additional contributions from Nobuo Uematsu and Noriko Matsueda.

That ambition was equally evident in the stylistic direction Mitsuda pursued for the Chrono Trigger soundtrack: “I wanted to create music that wouldn’t fit into any established genre… music of an imaginary world.” One of his particular interests was the use of leitmotifs: “As a game player, I always felt there was no consistency in the music [of Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest], and I wanted to use the Chrono Trigger main theme as much as possible, like they do in film.” Although Mitsuda later described his own work on Chrono Trigger as “rough around the edges”, the score quickly established itself as a game-music classic. One need only consider the soundtrack’s numerous re-releases, its acid-jazz arrangement album, the many orchestral renditions of its most popular cues and the hundreds of fan remixes it has inspired.

Indeed, the Chrono Trigger soundtrack has topped more than one list of the greatest game scores of all time. However, that is probably too enthusiastic a view of its artistic consistency. Mitsuda’s inexperience as a composer shows repeatedly across the album. Many of his cues are repetitive, underdeveloped or simply feel like filler – and the same is true of most of Uematsu’s contributions. Even initially promising pieces such as “Zeal Palace” and “Black Omen” fail to sustain their atmosphere across their full duration. “World Battle” establishes a striking mood through eerie, aggressive sound design, but its melodies are perfunctory, while “Epoch ~ Wings that Cross Time” comes perilously close to elevator jazz. It is worth remembering, though, that this would have been a demanding assignment even for a seasoned composer, given the need to underscore a multitude of time periods through a broad range of musical idioms.

All things considered, out of roughly 150 minutes of music, a little under an hour is truly outstanding. Yet that is still more than enough to secure the Chrono Trigger soundtrack a place in the annals of game music, such is the quality of Mitsuda’s strongest writing.

One of the score’s greatest strengths is its ability to evoke scenes of mystery and otherworldly intrigue in a subtler and more imaginative way than almost any other SNES soundtrack. Take “Wind Scene”, which relies on the long-spun interplay of high-pitched, divided violins – a rare orchestrational touch in 16-bit game music. Mitsuda develops the resulting ethereal, unsettled mood with enormous patience over the course of a full minute, allowing the cue’s fascinating melodic content to unfold gradually. “Secret of the Forest” is more expansive still, revealing Mitsuda’s gifted use of non-functional harmony to conjure a hazy, dreamlike atmosphere with remarkable ease while striking the perfect balance between melodic writing and atmospheric suggestion.

Meanwhile, “Corridors of Time” and “Schala’s Theme” weave non-Western instruments into their textures, lending the music an aura of mysticism and awe that perfectly suits the entrancing atmosphere radiating from many of Chrono Trigger’s highlights. This heady quality alone distinguishes the score from many of its contemporaries. In this sense, Mitsuda does realise his ambition: this is indeed music that resists easy genre classification and vividly brings an imaginary world to life.

Not all of these compositions aim for immediately accessible melody, but there are still many moments when the Chrono Trigger soundtrack tugs very effectively at the heartstrings. Often it does so with striking restraint, especially in the score’s more sombre passages. Mitsuda is one of the few JRPG composers capable of writing a truly affecting music-box melody rather than merely a prettily tinkling one. That gift serves “At the Bottom of Night”, another cue whose narrative arc is carefully shaped, this time moving from near-desolation towards resilience and hope. “Singing Mountain” similarly centres on a simple but memorable piano-choral melody, one that recalls Joe Hisaishi’s main theme from Laputa: Castle in the Sky. Its warmth turns the tune into the flickering light of a lone candle, constantly threatened by the icy textures and wind effects surrounding it.

Elsewhere, Mitsuda’s melodies flow more freely. “Peaceful Days” opens the Chrono Trigger soundtrack on a warm, inviting note. Throughout the score, Mitsuda moves through an impressive range of styles, not always successfully, but “Peaceful Days” shows that he can also write superbly in a more traditional idiom. Here, he fully masters the sort of late-Romantic orchestral language so closely associated with fantasy games and films. “Guardia’s Millennial Fair” and “First Festival of Stars” are equally delightful, their jovial, carefree melodies clothed in detailed orchestration and tinged with a hint of melancholy, as though the celebrations were already beginning to fade. The heroic bombast of “Frog’s Theme” never feels hollow because its proud trumpet melody has real substance, while “Robo’s Theme” provides the score’s catchiest tunes, by turns soaring, stomping and yearning. And with “World Revolution”, Mitsuda even delivers a rousing, multi-tiered battle cue.

However, the Chrono Trigger soundtrack’s most under-appreciated quality may be the subtlety of its thematic construction. True to his stated intentions, Mitsuda makes extensive use of the main theme first heard in various forms on “Chrono Trigger”. Yet he does so far more imaginatively than most 16-bit composers, who tended simply to restate a theme whole while changing the tempo or instrumentation. Mitsuda again opts for a more inventive, detail-oriented approach. On several occasions he substantially reshapes the melody, quotes only fragments of it, or introduces new material around it. Thus we hear the theme fleetingly alluded to in the floating textures of “Morning Glow”; almost unrecognisable as it struggles against domineering organ chords in “Lavos Theme”; subtly closing the choral line in “Zeal Palace”; and finally emerging on strident violins in “World Revolution” to make a defiant statement in the face of evil.

Most importantly, this thematic work culminates in one of the most emotionally charged finales in all of game music. After reprising the sweet music-box melody from “Chrono and Marle ~ Far Off Promise”, “Epilogue ~ To Good Friends ~” suddenly blooms into a gushing violin line. It perfectly captures the bittersweet realisation that the adventure of a lifetime is over, and that this group of friends must now separate again, each returning to a different era. “To Far Away Times” takes that same sentiment and renders it on an almost cosmic scale. Its unforgettable lead melody – another brilliantly reworked version of the main theme – contains all the longing and fulfilment one could feel at the end of an epic journey. Mitsuda reportedly cried when he first watched the game’s ending, and it is not difficult to understand why.

So no, Chrono Trigger is not the greatest game soundtrack of all time. Its highlights, however, are among the finest music the medium has produced, taking the listener through lush meadows, into unknown realms, through the depths of night and ultimately out among the stars – reconciling the personal and the universal in a manner that is both elegant and heart-wrenchingly moving.