Unless you’ve been living under a rock or hate RPGs, you already know that 2025 marks the 30th anniversary of Chrono Trigger, dearly beloved and widely considered by many (including this author) to be one of the greatest video games in history. Below are some snippets of a translation of the Chrono Trigger 30th anniversary live stream featuring composer Yasunori Mitsuda. There are some truly fascinating anecdotes and insights into the timeless soundtrack here! Additionally, much of it is music theory and composition, understandably, which you may appreciate even more with some musical education. I picked out some of my favorites. Lots of this info are things I’d heard before but lots of it was new to me, and I realized that meant it would be new to a lot of you reading this, too!
A huge thank you to the fan who translated the entire talk. Thank you also to Mat Bradley-Tschirgi for sending me the deets. You can check the full transcript out here.
Mitsuda:
Time flies. This year marks the 30th anniversary of Chrono Trigger, but I hope that this work will remain an important piece to everyone even as it celebrates its 40th and 50th anniversaries.
The theme song for Chrono Trigger was created at the first general meeting attended by Yuji Horii, Akira Toriyama, and Hironobu Sakaguchi. I recorded it on tape and showed it to everyone, but there was no reaction at all, which was quite a shock. After the meeting, the producer called me and said, “Mitsuda, more than 2 million people will listen to the theme song for this game. You have to surpass Yumi Matsutoya.” And then he told me it was scrapped. However, I was convinced that this theme song had never been used in any other game before and was definitely something new, so I decided to let it sit for a while and then play it again about six months later. Then, I got the OK right away (laughs).
[About “Memories of Green”] Shunan City, Yamaguchi Prefecture (formerly Kumage County before the merger) where I was born and raised is a place rich in nature, with streams and hills, and the scenery that can be seen is truly beautiful and remains vivid in my memory. This is a song I wrote while remembering such scenery.
[About “Secret of the Forest”] Although the song only plays for a split second in the game, it’s actually quite long for a game. At the time, ideas for the development were popping up one after the other and I couldn’t stop writing. I just thought, “Oh well, let’s just keep going,” and one loop ended up being this long.
[About “Frog’s Theme”] Frog has a sad past and has become desperate, but he regains his pride by meeting Chrono and his friends. In order to express the sadness and the pride of a hero, I used G#-minor as the base for the sadness… This song is written with all major chords except for the root chord (except for the root chord of the original key: G# minor). This makes it a positive, heroic, and powerful song, rather than a sad one. Sorry for the technical details.
I think it was when the development was halfway through, but all the data for over 200 songs I had sketched was lost, and I was heartbroken. I was so shocked that I got a stomach ulcer. I developed a stomach ulcer, went to the hospital in the morning, worked late into the night, and then went back to the hospital the next morning… My boss couldn’t stand to see me like that, so he asked Nobuo Uematsu to help me out with a few songs. Mr. Uematsu, thank you so much for all your help at that time. I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to you after 30 years. I still vividly remember how encouraged I felt at that time.
Has anyone noticed that the songs “Magus’ Castle”, “Confusing Melody” and “Battle with Magus” sound similar to other songs? That’s right, since SPOILER Janus is the prince of the Kingdom of Zeal, I wrote the songs to match the atmosphere of “Zeal Palace.” Also, the sound effect of a baby laughing was included to imply that if his mother had been a decent person, he might have been able to go through life with a smile. I think this is also what he wishes for.
The most distinctive sound of “Schala’s Theme” is the bell sequence pattern. This sequence pattern not only expresses the mysticism of the magical kingdom, but also expresses Schala’s feelings. The song is in the key of B♭-minor, but the sequence pattern does not contain any D♭ notes, which gives it a minor feel. This makes the intro feel neither bright nor dark. Then, in the A-melody, the melody of “Schala’s Theme” comes in, and for the first time we realize that it is a minor key song. We are confronted with the problems that Schala is facing.
In addition, to emphasize that this song is related to the field song “Corridors of Time” from the Magic Kingdom Zeal series, a similar sequence pattern is used to create a sense of unity. The key of “Corridors of Time” is F#-minor, but the song progresses mainly in D Major, so it expresses an indescribable sense of floating and sadness. The melodies of my songs are often created using a technique called modes.
[About “CHRONO TRIGGER Orchestral Arrangement”] The music of Chrono Trigger has blank spaces to allow for various interpretations. If there were 100 arrangers, there would be 100 different interpretations, but I think that they would all be correct at this point.
I was invited to perform on stage as a guest at “CHRONO ORCHESTRA Wings of Time,” and seeing all the fans listening to the music and reminiscing about their past moments made me feel the passage of time and gave me an indescribable feeling of joy.
[About “Corridors of Time/Schala’s Theme” in the album “CHRONO TRIGGER Orchestral Arrangement”] This arrangement makes it clear that “Corridors of Time” and “Schala’s Theme” are one and the same.
When I was asked to do an arrangement version of Chrono, I wanted to make it jazz, so I created The Brink of Time. It was too ahead of its time, so no one understood it…lol.
[During “Guardia Millennial Fair”] For this “Ha!”, we gathered all the Square staff together and had them say “Ha!” together. One graphic designer who I was close to had the loudest voice, so I can’t help but think of him.
[Referring to the idea to include field ambient sounds on “Memories of Green”] When approaching the sea, the sound of the sea would play, and when approaching the forest, the sound of birds would play. Although we added a volume ID to the map, the character’s movements were too fast, so the sound did not play as expected. Moreover, since the character would quickly enter a town or a forest, there was no time to listen to the environmental sounds, so this feature was removed at the end.
[During “Silent Light”] I believe this was the first song that Uematsu wrote. I remember thinking how amazing the sound on the Super Nintendo was, as expected. Listening to it now, the key changes are amazing (laughs). It’s one of my favorite songs.
[About “Ruined World”] I wanted to emphasize the floating feeling of the future as much as possible, so I expressed it through chords rather than melody. I thought that this would make a stronger impact when the robots and Lavos appeared.
[About the loss of song data halfway during development] I only restored in my head the songs that remained in my memory from the lost data. Zeal Palace was one of them. I think the Zeal Palace that you’re listening to is probably cooler than the lost data. Yes, everyone, make sure to back up your data frequently!
[About “To Far Away Times”] At first it was just the music box, but when we realized the performance was going to be long, we decided to add strings from the music box and create another development. I still can’t get through this song. It brings tears to my eyes. I wrote this song with this thought in mind: to always be positive even when things are tough.
I was able to talk about things that I don’t usually talk about (even in interviews). As with Chrono Trigger, I try to make music with meaning so that I can properly tell the backstory of all my works. There are many hidden messages in my other works as well, so please listen to them if you are interested. Maybe Xenogears next? If I get the chance, I’ll tell you some behind-the-scenes stories about Xenogears.
Chrono Trigger has now left my hands, but I believe it resides deep in the hearts of all of its fans. I believe that it will become a memory that will never fade and will continue to be a great source of strength and support for you in every aspect of your life for the foreseeable future. When you get stuck on something, remember Chrono Trigger. Chrono is definitely moving forward into the future.
Red formerly ran The Well-Red Mage and now serves The Pixels as founder, writer, editor, and podcaster. He has undertaken a seemingly endless crusade to talk about the games themselves amid a gaming culture that’d rather talk about anything but. Pick out his feathered cap @thewellredmage or @thewellredmage.bsky.social.
