Jeux-France recently interviewed Hiromichi Tanaka, the producer of Chrono Cross, concerning several projects at Square Enix. To summarize, the news is that it’s currently too difficult to reunite key personnel involved with the Chrono series to try and develop a new game. Here’s hoping to Masato Kato and buddies getting back together (and getting the hell away from Mana) to make something new. Please click read more for Tanaka’s comments on the Chrono series.

Q: I know you’ve worked on Chrono Cross. There are a lot of fans of
this game even here in France where it wasn’t released, so could we
expect to see a sequel, one day?

(Tanaka takes a huge breath when he hears the translation, then he
laughs a little bit, as if he had been expecting the question or
something…)

A: Well, the problem with Chrono Cross and Chrono Trigger is that, the
Chrono series is what it is because we always had a very particular
team to develop it. Chrono Trigger is kind of the “game of the miracle”
because it was a period when great creators like Akira Toriyama and
others were available at that moment, and that’s how the game could be
made. And for Chrono Cross it’s the same thing. The producer for Chrono
Cross who is now the scenario writer for Secret of Mana 4[see note 1],
the producer for Chrono Cross who was Mr Kitase[see note 2] who is now
very busy on the Final Fantasy games since the VII or VIII… And so
this means that it’s very difficult to be able to reunite the original
team, to be able to make a sequel to the Chrono series… Simply
because if we don’t try to reunite these people but take other people
instead, we will find ourselves at that point with a game which will
feel different, since there would be different persons in charge and we
would possibly lose the Chrono spirit, if we make a sequel that way.

Q: So for the moment it’s a no?

A: As of now, there is no sequel planned.

[Note 1] Unless Tanaka slipped and accidentally revealed the name of a
new, still top-secret project or something, the interpreter is probably
referring to Seiken Densetsu 4 alias Dawn of Mana, which has just been
released in Japan. And of course, the scenario writer referred to is
Masato Kato, who was not producer for Chrono Cross (that’s Tanaka right
here!) but director.
[Note 2] Yes, the interpreter says “producer for Chrono Cross” twice,
he made a little mix-up. Kitase was co-producer for Chrono Trigger, not
Cross. I think Tanaka also mentioned in Japanese the name of one of the
other co-producers for Trigger, Tokita, but the translator just said
Kitase. Don’t criticize him, it’s hard to translate Japanese to French
orally with all those names and functions!

~

Well, if you have ideas for supporting the development of a new Chrono game without resorting to
the “WTF SE SUX, WARE IS CRONO I MAEK PETITION” attitude, give the Compendium a ring.

Thanks to MasamuneCyrus for bringing this to attention and Chrono’99 for translating.